Fri. Feb. 17, 2023: Books and Cats

image courtesy of Gerhard via pixabay.com

Friday, February 17, 2023

Waning Moon

Rainy and warm

It’s going to be 57F during the day, and go down to 18F tonight. Ick.

Meditation was good yesterday. Charlotte participated in almost the entire session, and was delighted.

Wrote the loglines for the next batch of Legerdemain episodes, and started uploading/scheduling next week’s promos. Didn’t get far, because I needed to point the time to other things, so I’ll catch up over the weekend.

Got everything all sorted out for the grant recipient celebration on March 31 at the Clark Institute. I just have to figure out what to wear, and I’m all set. Possibly my teal and black dress, or one of the Banana Republic knit dresses in red or gray (if it’s on the cooler side). I have six weeks to figure it out, so I’m not going to stress (too much). Hopefully, I’ll have had my hair cut by then.

They told me I don’t have to do anything but show up. Having done these before, and that not being the case, I’ll be ready with something to say if asked to speak, and a quick piece of my work. With any luck, I won’t have to use either, but at least I won’t be caught out.

The stitch markers finally arrived, so maybe I can get started on the piece in the thin alpaca yarn I bought when the local yarn shop closed a few months back.

Did the rounds to promote yesterday’s episode of Legerdemain and #28Prompts. Did some research on schedules for a couple of things, so I won’t get caught up closer to the time.

Worked on the article. Most of today will be spent on that, and on organizing the photos, so that the editor can choose which photos to use.

Typed up and revised, revised, revised the very short comic radio plays until the rhythms worked, the jokes landed, and the punch lines hit. Started prepping them to submit  — and saw, in the guidelines, that the plays can only have 2 characters, and I used 3. Ack. Re-assigning lines flattens the pieces out, losing the rhythms. I have to tear them apart and rebuild them completely. I’m so mad at myself. As 3-handers, they’d been worked to the point where they really worked. That’s what I get for not paying attention to the submission guidelines properly from the beginning. I have only myself to blame.

Read the second book in a series where I’d really liked the first book, and was frustrated by the second book. It took a hard turn to right ideology, while pretending to support the left. And the central female character behaved like an idiot throughout. I wanted to bitch slap her multiple times. So the book frustrated me, instead of delighting me, the way the first one had.

Went through the artist resource for the list and found a few things to send to a friend that are more suited to the work she does than to the work I do.

I had another working dream last night, in the same brick buildings I’d dreamed about the night before. Charlotte woke me around 3:30. When I finally got back to sleep, I was back in a cottage on a mansion’s lakeside property (I recognized it from a previous dream). Willa had gotten out (except I kept calling her ‘Irina’ for some reason). I went looking for her. The door to the big house was propped open, so I went in, and it was full of cats. So I hunted through the rooms, looking for Willa. I could hear Tessa, in real life, yelling that she wanted her breakfast, and I tried to tell her that I had to find Willa in the house first, but couldn’t. For some reason, author Elle Griffin was in the dream, too, making pancakes and folding laundry. Go figure.

Today is about the article, with breaks to run some errands. There are more books to pick up at the library. I need to go to the store to get coffee and oat milk. I need to swing by the liquor store. I might make another stop or two, if it’s not raining too hard. But most of the focus will be on the article.

A script and a treatment are in my cue, both at decent rates. They’re not due until Tuesday, so I don’t have to read this weekend, unless I want to. I might turn the treatment around, and leave the script for Monday, since it’s a long coverage.

Over the weekend, I need to do some work on both Legerdemain and Angel Hunt, and prep a couple of other things. I need to do some research for the next section of the Heist Romance Script, and a future section (because I need to return some books next week). I also want to do a lot of work on contest entries, and read at least one of the two books for review. If the weather is nice enough, maybe I’ll go up to the lake or out to the Spruces for a bit, just to get outside. I can take some reading or a notebook with me, and work outside, which is something I will try to do more of this coming season anyway.

In and around all of this, I’ve been doing some noodling on material I want to shape into a series of poems.

I got POEM CRAZY, a book I’ve had since my days living in NYC, out of the library, because my copy is in storage. When I do a storage run this spring, I want to bring my poetry books up.

Better get going. There’s a lot to get done this weekend. But the primary focus is the article, so I can give it a polish and get it out the door on Monday. It’s the first time I’ve worked with this editor, and I want to make sure we have time to do any revisions she needs.

The next episode of ANGEL HUNT drops today. Hope you enjoy it!

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