Wed. March 1, 2023: Sun After Snow

image courtesy of Kanenorivia pixabay.com

Wednesday, March 1, 2023

Waxing Moon

Sunny and wet

Yesterday morning was quite productive, with the snow falling outside. I wrote an episode of Legerdemain. I created loglines and graphics for the 4-Batch of Legerdemain episodes going live in the next couple of weeks. I uploaded the promotions for this week’s Angel Hunt episodes. I read over the edits on the article that the editor sent; I didn’t have to do anything. It was just a courtesy on her part, so I wouldn’t be surprised when the piece went live, which is much appreciated. I polished, uploaded and scheduled today’s Ink-Dipped Advice post, which is live here.

Today’s Process Muse is about Setting, and is live here.

I did the social media rounds for yesterday’s episode of Legerdemain and for the final #28Prompts post. I turned around coverage on two pitches, a scoresheet, and two full scripts. I made less than half of what I wanted to this pay period. But the coverages for the next three days will get me back on track, provided enough scripts come in next week.

I pre-ordered The Midnight City Oracle deck, because I like the tarot deck so much. That should ship in June.

In the evening, I read Amor Towles’s A GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW.  Anthony Lemke recommended it. I’d heard of the book, but hadn’t read it yet. His recommendation moved it farther up my reading list (because I trust him). I really enjoyed it. It was a nice change to read something not genre-focused and see how genre elements are used in something with a larger scope. The character and setting work are as enchanting as the plot is riveting.

I was delighted to see that one of my favorite scripts of the last couple of years made The Grey List. I love to see scripts that enchanted me during the analysis process succeed.

The Dramatists Guild sent me log-in information; I assume it’s because I’m part of End of Play, and a lot of that will be done via their site? I mean, I’d love to be a DG member, and I could be – if all my programs weren’t in storage. (I have to provide proof of a paid production via a program from it). Maybe a photo of a poster would do it. It’s not something I have to worry about right now. I’ll make a decision after the End of Play project.

Tessa slept on the bed all night. Charlotte didn’t even come in this morning. The minute the coffee started, Tessa went to the kitchen to check, then came back to roust me out of bed, because the smell of coffee now means it’s time for breakfast. While Tessa was off doing her morning rounds, Charlotte grabbed the bed back, and now Tessa sits on the floor in my office, glaring into my room. Charlotte has turned her back and gone to sleep. Willa is staying out of it.

It will be an interesting day on the feline front.

I have to dig out the car later on. We didn’t get as much snow as predicted, only 4 or 5 inches instead of 10.  But most of the day is about drafting another episode of Legerdemain, promoting Angel Hunt, uploading a few more Process Muse pieces, working on another idea, and possibly uploading and scheduling the next 8 Angel Hunt episodes. It’s definitely a challenge to keep clear between the two serials, but hopefully one that I’m meeting.

I’m edgy and full of doubts today, so I need to get over myself and focus on the work. I can always find solace in the work, even on the more difficult days.

Episode 11 of Angel Hunt drops today. I hope you enjoy it.

Tues. Jan. 31, 2023: Starting With More Snow

image courtesy of StockSnap via pixabay.com

Tuesday, January 31, 2023

Waxing Moon

Snowy and cold

This won’t be as long as our usual Tuesday morning chat, because I just don’t have that much to say.

The month wrap up is over on the GDR site.

I wrote two book reviews on Friday morning, sent them in, invoiced, was paid, did a library run, came home. The weather was yucky. I had some scoring sheets and some pitches for coverage, that was it.

I have to say, these scoring sheets where the instructions are only to read the first page of the screenplay and score on that are teaching me a lot about how to open my own scripts.

I was done by mid-afternoon. My back hurt a lot, so I moved to the couch with the heating pad, and stayed there, reading for pleasure, pretty much all weekend. The weather was gray and icky.

Saturday’s reading was re-reading the 4^th book of my own GAMBIT COLONY project and what I have of the 5th, on which I wanted to figure out and rework a few bits. I made some notes and did an insert scene. It’s not traditionally viable, so I’ll have to pitch it to a small publisher, and I have to make sure I have all the ducks in the row for the series. There’s a lot that works in it, and there’s also a lot that pushes boundaries. And there are cuts that need to be made, or information integrated differently, in order to let the focus remain on the large and ever-growing ensemble.

But in the late afternoon/evening, I switched over to reading for pleasure, and basically read all day Sunday.

There were some books that I started and went back in the return stack for the library after a few chapters because they just didn’t do it for me. But I read LAST TRAIN TO MEMPHIS by Elizabeth Peters (another Vicky Bliss), Lana Harper’s BACK IN A SPELL (which is really good), and AN UNKINDNESS OF RAVENS by M.E. Hilliard, which I think I’ve read before, but it was a pleasure to re-read (and order the next books in the series), and an early book by an author whose work I’ve read a lot of under various names; this one was a little on the cutesy side for me.

I should have dived into the books on Malta’s history for the Heist Romance screenplay. I did look through the travel guides and watched some local videos, and decide where I’m putting some of the key scenes, though. I should have worked on contest entries.

But I was in pain and feeling grumpy and unsettled, so I didn’t. I did, early on Saturday morning, dash out to get more ink. Getting in and out of the car was hard. But it had to be done.

Monday I had to get up and actually function, so I did some prep for Imbolcc, blogged, worked on Process Muse posts, and took the car in for inspection in the morning – new-to-me place, in and out in 12 minutes, which is less time than it took to drive there. But I’m all set until next year.

I only had a stack of scoring sheets to do in the script coverage, so I did that, and started working ahead on the Process Muse posts.

I have an idea tickling at the back of my brain. I thought it was going to be historical alt-fantasy or epic fantasy, but the characters have decided it is urban fantasy romance, so that’s what it will be. If I ever figure it out. Because some key scenes basically dropped into my head, and I have the story with the emotional arcs for the two protagonists, but not the plot. So I’ll make notes on the scenes (or maybe write them, there are not many of them), and let it percolate on the back burner of my brain to see if a plot evolves. All of last night’s dreams were in the world of that story, and through those characters’ experiences (rather than me being myself in one of my Dreamscapes), so there’s obviously something in there my subconscious believes is viable.

I ordered the Midnight City Pocket Tarot and am very excited to get it. The artwork is based on NYC locations, so it will have a resonance for me.

Soup class was fun – we did mulligatawny soup, and it was great. I missed the last couple of weeks of class, and missed the camaraderie, as well as the skills I’m learning. Once the food is created, everyone just hangs out and chats, and it’s fun. The best of Zoom (and makes Charlotte so happy).

I did a reading with the Spirit Allies Oracle deck, which came in the Goddess Provisions box a couple of months back. I don’t know why I’m surprised when it’s so accurate. It’s a terrific deck, by the way.

Anthony Lemke talked about a book he read that he really loved. It’s been on my TBR list for awhile, but I’m moving it up, because he’s never steered me wrong when it comes to books or good work!

We had a little snow overnight, maybe just over an inch. We have an ice warning out, and it’s kind of flurrying. I’ll wait until mid-day to do my library-grocery-liquor store run. I need more coffee. And I have to put in a Chewy order for cat litter.

The cats have adjusted to the whole not-being-fed-until-coffee. But the second the coffeemaker starts (it’s set for a specific time the night before) and the smell wafts through the house, all of them are making demands that I Get Up and Feed Them. It’s kind of hilarious.

I need to get my act together and focus today. There’s writing to do, interview questions to create and send off, contest entries to read, a book to start reading for review. No scripts in the queue, at least so far. I’m not in terrible shape this pay period, but I’m under what I hoped, and I’m very, very frustrated at the pressure to “double volume” when there aren’t enough scripts at a decent rate in the queue. So I need to add in other options.

#28Prompts starts tomorrow. I hope you have fun with it. I had fun coming up with the prompts. It will drop on Twitter at noon EST every day, and on the other social media channels (where I can’t schedule ahead of time) whenever I can get on them.

The next episode of Legerdemain drops today. I hope you enjoy it. Be well, my friends.

Wed. June 17, 2015: Dance and Mystery!

Wednesday, June 17, 2015
Waxing Moon
Saturn Retrograde
Pluto Retrograde
Neptune Retrograde
Sunny and pleasant

Busy few days, but good ones.

So, DARK MATTER started on SYFY. Anthony Lemke’s in it, and I like his work, so that was my draw. He plays a character very different from the other work of his I’ve seen (which is always fun). It would have been easy to make the character a real unlikeable jerk. The fun part, when you follow a particular actor’s work, like I do with Lemke, is that I trust him, as an actor, to take me on an interesting journey and show me layers, and it doesn’t have to all happen in the first hour. So, I’m completely confident there’s more going on with the character than I’m seeing, and I look forward to the journey. I did get ahead of the plot a few times, but that’s okay. It will be interesting to see where it goes.

Saturday was very busy at the library, but we got out on time. Headed home for a quick snack, changed, and headed to Wellfleet for Tango.

It was so much fun! We had a great group, and learned a lot. Drive home was smooth, and I was on the deck, with my feet soaking in Epsom salts, and a cocktail within 45 minutes of leaving.

Sunday, I was only a little sore. Went to a garden wholesaler and got some cool stuff, including sea holly. Headed back to Wellfleet for another great tango session, and drove the instructor back to Barnstable to catch the bus to Boston.

Yeah, by Sunday night, I was sore.

Monday was a rainy, icky day full of errands – had to take my mom to the doctor, get cat food, go grocery shopping, pay bills. Wiped out by the end of it.

Watched DANIEL DERONDA (homework for Masterpiece). It was well done, but I found all the leads annoying (not the actors, the characters). I didn’t believe for a minute that Daniel was actually in love with Mira – to me, it seemed he was in love with the IDEA of her, with what she represented. She was still a better choice than Gwendolyn.

Also, Monday, prepared the food for Tuesday.

Tuesday, I baked the cupcakes for today, and packed the food for the strategic planning session for NMLC, which happened in Wareham. We had a good session, and then some of us went out for Mexican food.

Didn’t have the weird progressive dream that I had Sunday and Monday.

Busy at work today, and then the wonderful Archer Mayor does a program for us tonight! Can’t wait!

I took a few days off from the book to research – got some interesting stuff to weave in.

This is probably one of the busier weeks of the summer, but it seems every week gets busier than the previous one.

Devon

Fri. Oct. 10, 2014: Character Juggles

Friday, October 10, 2014
Waning Moon
Mercury Retrograde
Cold

Yesterday was busy. Got in early, processed all the check-ins that couldn’t be handled the previous day due to the computer being down; got the holds and other books processed; hand-entered the manual checkouts into the system. Thank goodness we had volunteers at the desk to handle the patrons coming in and out that day needing check-ins and check-outs, so that I could catch up on the previous afternoon’s system work.

It all got done, and that’s what counts.

Home, tired. Dinner, some reading, worked on a student manuscript.

Watched STILL LIFE, the film version of Louise Penny’s book. Nathaniel Parker played Gamache; Kate Hewlett (whose work I really enjoy) was Clara. One of the biggest delights was Anthony Lemke as Jean-Guy. I knew his work from LOST GIRL – he was terrific in this. I like the character of Jean-Guy in the books, but this was definitely a case of the actor raising it to an even better, deeper level. I hope they film more of the books in the series. I can’t wait to see what he does with Jean-Guy’s journey. I was disappointed that they pushed the character of Myrna aside, and they didn’t start the development of the wonderful relationship between Jean-Guy and Ruth. To me, the odd affection between those two is one of the best cornerstones in the series, and I hope it develops in future films.

Bad dreams last night. Truly disturbing, and when I woke from them, I remembered that they’ve been progressive. I have to stop them before they progress any farther, or I will be in trouble, so that’s on my agenda for tonight.

I have two books and a novella screaming for writing time. I managed to untangle a problem in INITIATE that prevented me from moving forward in the fight sequence. Something that happens post-sequence needs to be set up properly here, and because I’d tried to force one of the characters in a wrong direction, it wasn’t working. But we’re back on track, so that sequence should start flowing. I have to do the opening of RED WIDOW (the novella), because the characters are getting very impatient, and BALTHAZAAR is starting to percolate properly again.

I was going to submit a couple of pieces, and then realized it’s Mercury Retrograde, so there’s no damned point. I will prep them, and then send them when everything goes direct.

Tomorrow is my Saturday “on”, and then I can write all day on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. Wednesday, we have a staff day out in P-town, so, after tomorrow, I won’t be back on line until Thursday, which is great. I LOVE being offline at least half the week. The improvement to my work is tremendous.

I also have to do some yard work any time it’s not raining. Time to put the garden to bed for the winter.

Have a great weekend!

Devon