“The first chapter sells the book. The last chapter sells the next book.” — Mickey Spillane

“Writer’s block is a fancy term made up by whiners so they can have an excuse to drink alcohol.” — Steve Martin

I’ve just had a few pieces published in the latest issue of Career Insider Accounting.

My articles include a story about the new International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) that take effect in 2011, and an overview of the summer internship programs offered by accounting firms and large employers in Canada.

I also edited a series of first-person profiles that feature six young accountants who are rapidly moving up the corporate ladder.

The issue is currently available at schools (career centers) across Canada, but you can also find a PDF version of the magazine at the Career Insider website.

Fox continues its foray into the fall TV season at 8 p.m. tonight with Fringe.

The show was developed (in part) by J.J. Abrams of Alias and Lost fame, and deals with a group of scientists and an FBI agent who deal with the bizarre and the paranormal (or “fringe science” as they call it). It’s being described as a cross between The X-Files, Altered States and The Twilight Zone.

Mary McNamara had a somewhat positive review about it in today’s LA Times, while Misha Davenport had a less positive review in the Chicago Sun-Times. Either way, I am definitely curious about this show.

I’ve also heard that while it will have its own mythology and story and character arcs, it’s not serialized the way Lost is, so you don’t have to tune into every episode every week to keep up with the story.

One new TV show I’m looking forward to this fall season is Alan Ball’s True Blood. It’s based on a series of books (written by Charlene Harris) about Southern vampires who live off of synthetic blood and vie for acceptance among the living.

Ball’s last TV series was Six Feet Under where he dealt with death and the barely alive (in the emotional sense) family who ran a funeral home, so this transition to tales of the undead seems like a natural progression.

The series has already garnered a few good reviews in today’s Globe & Mail and the Boston Globe.

It makes its debut on HBO this Sunday at 9 p.m. (and on TMN in Canada on the same night).

Prison Break is the first show to make its fall season debut. Its fourth season kicks off on Fox tonight.

I have to admit that I don’t really remember what happened last year, which was a little lackluster and nothing like this show’s brilliant, jaw-dropping first season. I hope my TiVo still has last week’s rerun of the season three finale on its hard disk so that I can refresh myself on the storyline before the new season begins.

If you’re unsure about whether to invest in season four, drop on over to the Futon Critic where they have a wonderful sneak preview and review of what’s coming up this year, in what they are calling “a 21st century take on the Dirty Dozen” that seems “extremely convoluted”.

Yesterday’s story about the AP’s typographical goof reminded me of something a pretty geeky Washington Post copy editor once did on purpose in coming up for a headline for a pretty obscure story.

The article was about a South Korean high-wire championship that featured tightrope walkers performing their daring feats high above the Han River.

The headline: Skywalkers in Korea Cross Han Solo.

You can find the original story here.