Fri. May 19, 2023: New Moon = New Focus (I Hope)

Clark Art Institute Reflecting Pool. Photo by Devon Ellington

Friday, May 19, 2023

New Moon

Partly cloudy and cold

Still in the 30s when I wake up. I prefer cool to hot, but I’m worried about the plants.

Last year, when I turned in my section of the collaborative poem, I was terrified. This year I’m giddy. Growth, I guess?

Today’s serial episode is from Angel Hunt:

Angel Hunt Serial link

Episode 34: A Castle That is Home

An oddly-built castle with a wall and a drawbridge out of amethyst and ghosts dancing in the moat. What’s inside? Lianna is determined to find out.

Angel Hunt Serial Link

I’m pleased that SAG-AFTRA authorized a strike, and stands so strongly with WGA. The writer-actor partnership can be wonderful. Let’s hope the DGA doesn’t throw us under the bus in their current negotiations. The SAG-AFTRA position might put more pressure on them to work with us, but I’ve worked with too many directors who have contempt for both writers and actors and believe they (the directors) are the only ones with vision. A good director with both a strong vision and strong collaborative ability is wonderful; the ego-centric ones are a nightmare. It takes everyone to put on a good show. The DGA is fussing about the rules that hyphenated members (belonging to both guilds) can’t make “minor” script changes during the strike. Um, when it comes to directors, there’s no such thing as a “minor” change and even non-hyphenated directors do way more script changes than is in their purview far too often. The WGA should stand firm, and the fucking DGA members should not have given up their strike clause and should not be crossing picket lines no matter what.

Neil Gaiman showed up on the picket line, which is a big deal.

I think I fixed the dishwasher. I ran some tests, and it’s the outlet, not the dishwasher itself. I got it back into the outlet so it gets power – but I knocked something that dripped. We ran sink tests and it’s not one of the pipes for the sink, which means it’s probably one. . .connected to the dishwasher. So I’ll have the maintenance guy check it when he’s here to check the smoke detectors and the fire extinguisher. I don’t want to start the dishwasher and find I’ve disrupted a pipe and cause damage. Although I checked the lines with a flashlight, and everything looks like it’s connected tightly.

Or maybe the dishwasher is just going to conk out every Mercury Retrograde, and come back to life when Merc goes direct.

Worked my July poem and worked it and worked it. Did several drafts. Read it with the stopwatch. Adjusted for time. Read it until it came in consistently at 30 seconds (our time limit). Sent it off, so today’s collaborator begins with my last word.

Still have not found the final two lines for Sunday’s poem, which needs to happen today, so I can work it some more tomorrow, time it (I have a 3-minute limit), make necessary cuts, and get comfortable with it. Because Sunday is. . .soon. It sounds like I’m hunting through the sock drawer and closets for those lines, but it’s a little more complicated than that.

The good thing about writing for radio is that I can work the material so it fits within the time limit.

Had some email discussion about the September reading and promoting it. Did the social media rounds for Legerdemain. Worked on a future post for the Process Muse.

Worked on an intro video about my work. I’d already created/updated the logo for the Coventina Circle Mysteries. Created one for the Gwen Finnegan mysteries. Eventually, I will do one for the Nautical Namaste Mysteries, but right now, it’s just listed. I may change that, and do a collage of covers instead. I’m using the Ava Dunne avatar for the pieces under that name. I should come up with a logo for the Delectable Digital Delights shorts, and I need to have an alternate Topic Workbook logo. I have to do an avatar for the Cerridwen iris Shea name, and add that in, and then do a slide of the other names that I don’t use as often.

Because I don’t go on camera, I have to come up with interesting visuals that aren’t about ME. Because none of this is about me, anyway; it’s about the work.

Did some client work in the afternoon. Finished the book for review later in the afternoon/evening, and will write up the review today and hopefully get my next assignment.

Got my paperwork for the autumn residency at MASSMoCA; will fill it out and get it back to them next week. I have to scan some materials for them.

Started reading THE SECRET SERVICE OF TEA AND TREASON by India Holton which is absolutely hilarious. Loving it, and I want to read her other books now.

Someone on Spoutible posted something about the Forty Elephants Gang and I want to write about them, especially when Alice Hill was in charge. No, I’m not worried someone will “steal” the idea; we’d do it very differently.

Dreamed about looking for parking so I could attend a loft party. Huh?

On today’s agenda: Get the last two lines of Sunday’s poem settled, finish the Legerdemain episode, do the social media rounds to promote today’s episode of ANGEL HUNT, do a drop-off/pickup at the library, do a minor grocery shop.

I don’t have any client work (although that may change). I’m not sure if I’ll stay home to work on Legerdemain/Angel Hunt/Rep (once the poem is sorted out), or if I’ll head over to the Clark, for that project. I’ll play it by ear.

Will probably do a bit of writing tomorrow morning (Legerdemain and Angel Hunt, most likely), and then household stuff in the afternoon. Sunday will be about the reading over at the Mount.

Next week, along with juggling serials and client work, I have to get back on track with “Labor Intensive”, the current revision of FALL FOREVER (so it can rest, before the next round of revisions), and work on the material for Llewellyn. I also want to rough out some promos for the reading in September. The sooner we get these materials done, the better lead time we have for promotion. Next weekend, I get to read an ARC of my friend’s new book and blurb it.

Have a good one!

Tues. April 25, 2023: First Draft Done!

image courtesy of OpenClipart-Vectors via pixabay.com

Tuesday, April 25, 2023

Waxing Moon

Mercury Retrograde

Foggy and chilly

It’s already Tuesday again, and time for a catch-up. I hope you had a good weekend.

Today’s serial episode is from Legerdemain.

Episode 79: Too Many Dead Priests

Shelley wonders if the Cathedral’s priests are being targeted.

Legerdemain Serial Link.

Legerdemain website link.

 I had trouble settling in to write on Friday morning, although I got a stage play script out on a submission call. I always have second thoughts about sending out material during Mercury Retrograde, but I won’t hear anything until December, so I might as well.

I did 3 ½ pages on FALL FOREVER. I hit the pivot point in the scene.

Library, grocery store, forgot the post office.

Sat down to work on Legerdemain, but received a DG survey, and that took up more time than I expected.

Noticed the 4^th episode of Legerdemain I uploaded Thursday hadn’t scheduled properly, so I took care of that.

I’m tired of people on Twitter whining about their blue checks gone,  upset about people not wanting to deal with them if they pay the muskrat to keep it (hint: your audience isn’t there anymore, boo), no time to learn other platforms. Yes, it’s heartbreaking that the muskrat destroys a decade or more of daily work in a few keystrokes, especially since he’s doing it deliberately. Yes, we’ve been in mourning since he took over and began his destruction last autumn. But this is the reality. Grow the fuck up. Tech platforms age out. Am I looking forward to investing several YEARS on various social media platforms that do different things, no one central location that can replace Twitter? And take the hit in my income while I do? No. Do I need to do so as a professional? Yes. Put your big girl panties on, people. There’s no magic solution. You don’t “have” the time? Hire someone. If you don’t make the time yourself or hire someone to do it, you won’t build the following. NONE of us built our Twitter following in a minute. Okay, maybe Stephen King did, but he’s Stephen King and we’re not.

I’m equally sick of the glee other platforms take in Twitter’s death throes, but at least I’m finding people to avoid on those platforms. I mde up a little blocking song I sing as I hit the “block” button on the various platforms.

We all just need to do the work, rebuild from nearly scratch, reconnect on various platforms, and skew different things we do to different platforms. If you can afford it, hire someone, and good for you. If you can’t, you have to do it your damn self, or deal with the consequences.

That is the current reality.

Part of that reality, for me, is spending less time on Twitter, which is sometimes difficult. It was a life raft during much of the pandemic, but again, reality has shifted, and I need to deal with what’s real now, not what it used to be or what I wish it was. I wanted to lock my account, but it’s not working. It used to be a quick keystroke.

And Mercury Retrograde’s not making it any easier.

There are a lot of advertorial-type articles going around about how great Bluesky is. It’s still invitation only. I signed up the first week it was announced, and still haven’t been invited. Guess they’re inviting the big names first. If I had the energy, I’d be offended, but I have better things to do than worry about it. It’s not like I’m lacking for social media channel options!

Did the library and grocery runs. Forgot to go to the post office.

Did the social media rounds for Legerdemain and Angel Hunt.

Read the third of the books for coverage.

Found out that my friend’s dear, sweet cat is in palliative care. He is a dear soul, a gentleman, and loves and is loved by the other cats and humans around him. I am honored I got to know him and sad his time is coming.

Read the NEW YORKER on the porch and teak oiled another chair.

Finally received the payment I’ve been chasing down, so that’s all settled. It wasn’t a large payment, but it was important to me that the publication honor the contract.

Up early Saturday morning to write a few pages on FALL FOREVER. I could see the end on the horizon, coming closer.

Out the door early to get a gift for a friend’s child. Since I was out anyway, did a Target run and bought other stuff we needed.

Home, unpacked. Rearranged the laundry/storage room so it’s tidy and I can get at things. Took down the Christmas lights in the kitchen and put up the summer lanterns. Cleaned out/tidied up the sewing room so that it’s a pleasant, welcoming guest room. Cleaned/tidied Tessa’s room, so that’s also a pleasant welcoming guest room (since we have guests coming this weekend).

Cleaned the carpet in the sewing room. It looks and smells nice again.

Started reading the next book for review.

Slept decently into Sunday. Up early.  Wrote pages on FALL FOREVER. I could taste the end, so I kept pushing, wrote 15 pages, and finished a little after 10 AM. This draft is done! It needs a lot of work – I mean, A LOT of work – but the draft is done, I finished within the 30-day window, and that’s a sigh of relief. It will need cuts. It’s a little on the long side for the sweet spot for this type of play. I wrote 115 script pages in 23 days, and, except for the last day, it was at a steady, manageable pace. 3-4 pages/day is absolutely manageable, even with other stuff to do.

I had that exhausted, hollowed out feeling at the end of a big project that I always get, once the relief and elation fade away.

Had to set up the ironing board and again and ironed the summer fabric for the living room. Since it’s supposed to be rainy and cold all week, I’m not doing the full turnover until the guests leave. I won’t switch the curtains over to the summer lace panels until next week. I hung a metal and stained-glass big butterfly on the front door to cheer it up. You know me and my monthly changeover of door décor. I did this a little early. But I covered the side tables and the coffee table with a yellow and blue floral that looks like stained glass. I’d hoped the new slip covers for the chairs and the couch would be here before the guests arrive, but that’s looking less likely.

Tidied up all the nesting spots in the living room. Put away a lot of the books that stacked up around various spots. Don’t get me wrong, there are still a lot of books in the living room, especially library books, but at least it’s tidy. I still have some more tidying up to do, and a box of cookbooks that came up from storage need to be unpacked and stashed.

Finished reading the book for review.

Yoga was wonderful. A ton of props and lots of rest. That meant I slept well, only to be jolted out of bed at 6 AM not by cats, but by the heavy machinery over at the college grinding and beeping. I mean, not only does it make life/work next to impossible during the day for the residents, but how can students study? The librarians work? Plus, they’re blocking off much needed parking space for the commuting students. All to make the building look ugly? Why?

Tessa did not speak to me when I came home from yoga Sunday night, because she had not given permission for me to leave. Charlotte waited in the window until I returned.

Still carrying that hollow, exhausted feeling at the end of a big project. If I feel this at the end of a play, imagine what I’ll feel when I finally finish Legerdemain?

Monday was about writing episode loglines for the next 4 Legerdemain episodes, creating graphics, then uploading/scheduling the Legerdemain and Angel Hunt promos for the next two weeks. That takes pressure off me, with guests coming in AND having to finish a big client project in the next couple of weeks.

Then, it was time to draft the next Legerdemain episode. I didn’t draft over the weekend, and I need more episodes in the bank.

Wrote the book review and submitted it, along with the invoice for this last batch. Was paid by the end of the day.

Caught up on some correspondence. Played with a new-to-me program that has potential, but I need to spend some serious time with it, which won’t happen until the third week of May. I like the simply toying with it I’ve done so far, and can see where it could be a useful tool. When I’ve dug in enough to make an actual decision, I’ll share more information.

I’m starting to plan/put together summer’s promotional campaign for the serials, the shorts, and the Topic Workbooks. My content calendar planning sheets are vital. And yes, they are hard copy, not digital.

Wrote up the three coverages for the books I’d read last week, but hadn’t typed up yet. It took much longer than I hoped; I even had to do some after soup class. It also meant that the two coverages I hoped to turn around after writing up the trio were pushed to today, and I have three coverages today and three tomorrow, and then two on Thursday. I’m taking Friday off from coverage because our friends are arriving.

Soup class was fun: asparagus and ramps.

Started reading the next book for review after I finished the coverages, but was too tired to get far.

Slept pretty well. I hope the damn painters over at the college are rained out the rest of the week. I’m sick of the machines constantly grinding and beeping. All to make the building uglier instead of beautiful. They’re in the middle of a vibrant arts community and are supposedly training the next generation of artists. They could have supported the creation of something beautiful instead of this.

I feel a little lost without FALL FOREVER. Part of that is because I don’t have the opportunity to rest after finishing. Three days of rest after a big project is the ideal, but right now, I don’t have the option.

On today’s agenda: Draft another episode of Legerdemain. Do the social media rounds to promote today’s episode of Legerdemain. Polish next week’s Process Muse post and get it up and scheduled. I might do a run to Wild Oats, or I might leave it until tomorrow, when I do my big round of errands. Turn around three coverages. Yoga in the evening. When I come back, work on contest entries. And more cleaning.

Hope your week’s off to a great start!

Thurs. April 13, 2023: I Guess We Leapt into Summer?

image courtesy of Larisa Koshkina via pixabay.com

Thursday, April 13, 2023

Waning Moon

Hazy and mild

I finished the first act of FALL FOREVER!

My brain absolutely wanted to check out after that. It did not want to focus on the other writing that needed to be done. Getting back into creative head space was hard. Especially since it was sunny, and I wanted to play hooky!

It’s supposed to be 80 degrees today and then snow on Tuesday. Go figure.

Hop on over to see the latest on the garden at Gratitude and Growth. Also, a post on landing pages is up over on Ink-Dipped Advice.

Had trouble settling in to work after finishing Act 1 on FALL FOREVER. After all, I’d written the five pages, finished the act, plus revised four episodes of Legerdemain, plus written nearly four pages of notes on REP. As far as my brain was concerned, I’d put in a full day’s work.

But I dug in, wrote, revised, polished, and posted the Ink-Dipped Advice article. I did some more choreography on the Legerdemain chase scene. It’s better, but not quite right, and I hope to crack it today. I turned around a script coverage and a scoring sheet on another piece. I should have done more, but I was tired. I have three coverages for today and two for tomorrow, and although I’ll be under the preferred amount for this pay period. I don’t really want to take on any more this week. They’re forcing us to increase volume by lowering pay per script, and that irks me (to say the least).

A friend of mine was on a Zoom panel last night for one of her projects, so I attended the webinar to show support. The panel was fine; typical questions for that type of thing, not really new information. The two old white dudes, though, kept mixing up the two younger women on the panel. Because, you know, Heaven forbid an old white dude bother to address younger women appropriately. Once is, hey everyone makes a mistake. But when it keeps happening, it’s a choice. I am so tired of mediocre white men.

Finished reading the book for review. Will write that up, send it off, and let the editor know I’m ready for the next assignment.

This morning I have meditation, then I’ll start Act II of FALL FOREVER, then I’ll switch back to Legerdemain. At some point, I have to do a run to the grocery store for a few things. I wrote up about another page of notes on REP this morning. I need to get those typed. The outline so far covers a good bit of the first section. Now I have to do some serious worldbuilding. This is going to be one of those pieces where I figure out a section, write it, figure out the next section, and so forth, building it like that, and then go back and do a major rewrite on the whole thing. I figure it’ll take me most of this year, working in and around other projects. But it’s hella fun, and I think readers will get a kick out of it when it’s done.

I also have to upload and schedule the next two Process Muse posts, and upload and schedule the four Legerdemain episodes I revised yesterday.Substack now has something called “notes” which kind of looks like a social media channel? I have to figure out how it works, and how best to utilize it to grow my audience.

I also need to start reading the serial Ann Aguirre’s started over on Kindle Vella.

And work on contest entries.

I have a busy Thursday. I better get going, huh?

Episode 76 of Legerdemain drops today. I hope you enjoy it!

Have a good one!

Tues. April 4, 2023: Ups, Downs, and “Plot Bunnies” Re-Release

image courtesy of Connor Johnson via pixabay.com

Tuesday, April 4, 2023

Waxing Moon

Rainy and chilly

Lots to catch up on, so curl up with a beverage and we’ll get to it.

Friday morning was all about getting ready for the grant reception. I did a home test – I felt fine, but I wanted to be sure. All good. Made an executive decision to use a more forgiving shapewear, because the really good one didn’t let me sit down, and that would not work for me. I know we were in an art museum and all, but being a living sculpture is not my jam.

I forgot to mention in Friday morning’s post how happy I am that the Narcissistic Sociopath has finally been indicted. About damn time. Having served on a Grand Jury, I have some idea of how the evidence was presented, and what kinds of conversations the jury might have had, and the instructions. Personally, I won’t be satisfied until he’s up on accounts of treason and sedition, but at least SOMEBODY is trying to do SOMETHING about all that public criming in real time.

As far as school shootings, nothing will get better until the NRA loses their nonprofit status, is declared a terrorist organization, and any politician bought by them removed from office. Any politician wearing an NRA pin should be banned from office for life. At minimum.

Anyway, back to the goings on.

The grant reception was amazing. I met so many people (and I have so much follow up to do). The new executive director, Michael Bobbitt, for the Council is a theatre person, filled with exuberance and passion to support working artists. He believes in us collectively, and also takes the time to meet and know us as individuals. I was surprised that the state level senators and reps were there, not just talking passionately about how deeply they believe in us. Instead of the usual appearance, where they nod, smile, say a few words and are whisked off to the next event, they were there early, they stayed through all the speeches and performances, and they stayed after to talk to the individual recipients. Since the auditorium was packed with several hundred of us (yes, I stayed masked the whole time), that was both unusual and appreciated. Several Council board members were there, and again, the passion and belief in us is astounding.

Because there were so many of us in attendance, I didn’t have to worry about being put on the spot for anything (a nice change). There was a planned, scheduled performance by one of the artists, poet Lyrical Faith, which was terrific. And organized, and took the pressure off of us. The whole event was beautifully organized.

The director of the museum was even there to kick this off, welcome us, and encourage us to stay and enjoy the museum.

I also met Emily Ruddock, of Mass Creative, who I’ve known and worked with for the past couple of years via email, and it was such fun to finally meet in person. Her husband is a theatrical lighting designer. And Brian Boyles, the head of Mass Humanities, and I also had an excellent conversation.

The auditorium is in the same building as the library, so now I know where I’ll go for my research project on the Bibiena family of stage designers (this family and the Canalettos were the big opera designers in Italy, and the painter Canaletto started painting scenery for his father).

The ceremony was filled with passion and emotion and enthusiasm and belief. Even better, the state’s Committee on Tourism and Culture is co-chaired by Berkshire politicians – both of whom were at the event.

It was a wonderful event, but also a little overwhelming, especially after being in various stages of pandemic isolation for three years. Like I said, I need to be re-socialized slowly, like a feral cat.

Thank goodness I’d made business cards.

As I said, I have a LOT of follow-up to do this week.

After the reception (which, of course, ran late, but no one cared because we were having fun, and after, because all the people who were on the podium were actually interested in staying and talking one-on-one), I got my little museum admission sticker and wandered the museum.

I’d decided to dovetail being at the Clark with Essay Camp’s Day 5 assignments, and the start of the big nonfiction project. I spent a big chunk of time with Renoir’s “A Box At The Theatre (at a Concert).” Of course I was drawn to a theatre painting. I also spent some time with some Sargent paintings in Venice. “A Venetian Interior” has this hint of light through a door at the back that just fascinated me.

My feet hurt by then. Even though I’d worn flat boots, because I knew I wasn’t up for heels, I’m not used to wearing shoes for more than quick errands, and my feet damn hurt.

Limped back to the car and headed for Chapter Two Books on Spring Street in Williamstown. What a great bookstore! And the people running it are so nice. I wound up buying eight books, a mix of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, etc.

Wanted to stop at another store on the way, but couldn’t figure out where I was allowed to park, so skipped it and went to Wild Oats to pick up a few things.

Headed home, limped up the stairs, took off the boots, and stripped off the clothes (especially the shapewear). Phew!

It was after 3 by the time I got home (and I’d left the house at 10 AM), so it was a long day. A good one, but long.

At 7 was the Dramatists Guild End of Play virtual kickoff, which was a lot of fun. In addition to the great DG staff members, playwrights Dominic D’Andrea, Kevin Free, Caridad Svich, Deborah Zoe Laufer, Bernardo Cubria, Christine Toy Johnson, Jacqueline E. Lawton, Migdalia Cruz, and Eric Pfeffinger were there to offer prompts and conversation.

Several of the prompts were relevant to my play; others started seeds of new plays.

It was a lot of fun, but I was thoroughly wiped out by the end of it. I read one of the books I bought at Chapter Two, a book called AIRMAIL, which is a collection of letters between Pam Houston and Amy Irving early in the pandemic, until I staggered off to bed.

Slept pretty well, although I woke up at 2:30 fretting, and managed to get back to sleep eventually. Then Charlotte woke me around 4, and I told her I wasn’t getting up until the coffee started.

After breakfast, I sat down to start FALL FOREVER for End of Play, and wrote eight pages, the whole first scene. My outline is much looser than usual, and I’m trusting the characters. Even though I know there will be a lot of revision involved, I like what’s happening for this draft.

Took a break, and switched over to draft Legerdemain. Had trouble getting into the headspace.

Had to dash out for a few errands in the rain, got those done, came back. Settled in to work on contest entries, which I did for the rest of the day and into the evening. I’m almost done with two out of three genres, and should have both finished this week, which means I can then concentrate on the final genre (I’ve done a little over a third of the entries in that one). I need to catch up on entering the scores online, or it will be too much to do all at once.

Actually slept well Saturday into Sunday, slept all the way through the night. What a big difference. We originally were supposed to go on a storage run, but because of the wonky weather and the fact I have only one working windshield wiper, we didn’t. Neither of us felt up to it mentally or physically.

I was at the desk fairly early, and wrote the next scene of FALL FOREVER (3 ½ pages). I’d been thinking of it since I woke up, and also figured out how to utilize the few scene shifts I have in the piece to drive the plot.

Although it was a struggle to settle into Legerdemain, I managed to do it, and draft a new episode. I also created the episode graphics for this week’s episodes.

I worked on contest entries. I’m having trouble with the Kindle. Send -to-Kindle material shows up, but doesn’t open, even when it’s downloaded.

Amazon’s been trying to force me to buy a new kindle for the past few years, so they’re just turning off more and more features, thinking that’ll make me do it.

What it’s making me is angry, and I’m more likely to invest in a tablet on which I can do more with more flexibility and just use the Kindle reader app.

We also did our taxes. They should be simpler this year, but changes in the forms meant they were more difficult. But if we made a mistake, they will let us know. I mean, I’m not MAILING them until next week, but at least they’re done. And then, of course, I also have to do/mail my quarterly taxes next weekend, but that’s not as much of a big deal.

I had a very intense yoga class in the evening. As my teacher pointed out “restorative doesn’t mean EASY.” Yup. And Saturn in Pisces means when you do deep work, there’s an additional level of intensity.

My mom was coughing a lot this weekend. It didn’t sound good. We tried over the counter cough syrup and liquid Tylenol, which works for a little while, but it’s solving the problem. We both took home Covid tests (since I was going to yoga, and I’d been to the grant reception, I planned to test anyway). Both negative. I planned to call the doctor on Monday morning and get her in.

But my mom woke me up at 4:30 on Monday, because she couldn’t stop coughing and couldn’t get the childproof cap off the cough syrup. I gave her some syrup and she went back to sleep for a couple of hours, but felt dizzy when she woke up, so I packed her into the car and drove her over to Urgent Care. They were very nice and ran a bunch of tests to eliminate things. Since her only symptoms were a racking cough and dizziness, and the COVID test was negative, the heart rate good and the lungs clear, it removed a bunch of the worst options. They decided to do a flu swab, and that came back positive. She was skeptical, since she has no fever or body aches or nausea or any of the usual symptoms, but this year’s flu is weird, so, and it was a positive result, so that’s the first line of treatment.

I loaded her back in the car. Conveniently, Urgent Care is next to Stop & Shop, so I picked up the recommended bone broth and chicken soup (and I have homemade chicken soup) and a baguette to make it all more palatable. Got her settled at home, then set back out to mail bills (yay boxes that let you toss in the mail), and pick up her prescription at CVS. While I was there, I got the additional home COVID tests her insurance covers. I dashed next door to Big Y to get lemons, crackers, and iced fruit bars, which I thought she might enjoy.

We finally got home to eat breakfast around 11 AM. And I had to cancel the appointment to get the windshield wipers replaced. Got her settled in bed. We are trying to figure out how she could have caught flu germs. The only place she’s been out of the house was, the day before my birthday, when she went to the Clark with me, and we were masked the whole time. Unless the germs came in on a library book, or on me. I’m usually the one who always goes down with the first flu germ.

I’d written my three and a half pages for End of Play very early this morning, while my mom was asleep, so at least I didn’t feel like I’d lost the whole day.

I’d run out of time to work on Legerdemain, and to get the promos up  for “Plot Bunnies” which re-releases with some upgrades (especially to technology) today. This is a fun little story, set in the town of Twinkle, Vermont, and I hope you enjoy it. I need to dig in the rest of this week on promotion, especially since, toward the end of next week, I will most likely lock my Twitter account.

I was exhausted and felt like I’d been run over by a truck, but I managed to turn around both script coverages due in between making sure my mom had hot tea with honey and lemon, bone broth, water, and her medication on time. The medication’s definitely helping (although heaven forbid either her insurance or her supplemental insurance pay for it – what’s the point of forcing us to have supplemental insurance when it doesn’t actually cover what it’s supposed to)?

She had appetite for dinner (and she can smell and taste, which was another reason to be confident in the negative COVID test). Willa wouldn’t let my mom out of her sight, following her everywhere and staying with her on the bed. She takes her job as feline nurse very seriously.

Friends of ours are coming to visit for the last weekend of April into the beginning of May. We haven’t seen them since before the pandemic started, and they’ve never visited us in the Berkshires, so it will be fun. It means I have to kick into high gear with the spring cleaning!

I finished the book for review and got confirmation that the contest entries which didn’t fit my genre were moved to the appropriate one.

Fell into bed early and slept fairly well, dreaming that one of my plays was in rehearsal. Woke up around 2 to find Charlotte had snuck onto the bed with Tessa and me. Fell asleep again until about 6.

My mom seems better today. I have to catch up on everything I didn’t get done yesterday, write my 3-4 pages on the play, get the windshield wiper replaced, write and send off the review, get all the promos up and out, and turn around two script coverages.

I’m going to cancel out of yoga tonight (much as I want/need it) because I don’t want to risk getting anyone in the studio sick.

Let’s hope this is a productive week. I have to get started on the follow-up from Friday’s events, too. Focus on one thing at a time, and it’ll all get done, right?

Thurs. March 23, 2023: Rainy Turn Into Spring

image courtesy of 경복 김 via pixabay.com

Thursday, March 23, 2023

Waxing Moon

Cloudy and chilly, rain

Read about the latest on the garden over on Gratitude and Growth.

Yesterday went a little catawampus. I hoped the maintenance guy would show up sort of on time, and did all kinds of tasks, like folding the laundry and putting it away. And do the social media rounds to promote The Process Muse and Angel Hunt.

When he still wasn’t here, I sat down and got back to work on Legerdemain.

Which meant, of course, that he showed up, after I’d written about a half a page and was just getting into it.

But he’s very nice and knows what he’s doing and the dishwasher is fixed. Thank goodness. I didn’t want it to get swapped out for something not as nice.

It was hard to settle back to the page, and I didn’t get much else done.

It was nice enough to work on the porch in the afternoon, so I did the script coverage out there, and then I finished re-reading THE TREES WHISPERED DEATH and made some notes. I have to do some research on the Korean War. I gave one poor character three different first names over the course of the book, and have to fix that. I put the library in a separate building when I needed it in a different one, for plot reasons, and have to fix that. I gave one character a wife early on, and then had him in a relationship with someone in the park (for both plot and character arcs). Since he’s not the type of guy who’d cheat (and I don’t want to turn him into one), I’m going to make him a widower at the start of the book already. Both his marriage and his current relationship (that he’s trying to keep quiet) will escalate the conflict with his sister-in-law. I want to re-choreograph the climactic sequence; it reads a little rushed without having enough tension, and there are a variety of characters who must be effectively juggled in it. And there are plenty of basic revision/edit bits to clarify, tighten, clean up sloppy language, add in some more textural detail, etc.

These are all typical mistakes during the course of writing quickly during National Novel Writing Month, and not keeping tracking sheets at the end of each day’s work.

I’ve got my work cut out for me, but I’m definitely happier with it than I was when I finished the draft.

And it has to wait its turn until CAST IRON MURDER’s edits are done. Which aren’t going back into the schedule until May, unless I work on it at the laundromat in the interim.

We were notified that the grant payments will be delayed by 2-4 weeks, because the state is taking longer to process the paperwork than hoped. I’m disappointed; it means pushing back a writing research trip I’d hoped to make in April. But I appreciate that they let us know, so we can plan accordingly.

Finished reading the book for review last night. Will write up the review, send it off, and let them know I’m ready for the next assignment this morning.

I was going to run some errands today, but it’s raining, so I think I’ll wait until tomorrow. It’s nothing that can’t wait another day. I’d rather stay in and write, without breaking  the flow for errands. I have two scripts in my queue for the afternoon. I want to work on Legerdemain and “Plot Bunnies” this morning.

Meditation this morning, and then back to the page. Episode 70 of Legerdemain drops today. 70 episodes! Feels like a milestone, somehow, although I’m sure 100 will feel even more so.

Have a good one!

Thurs. Feb. 9, 2023: Cracked Patience

image courtesy of OpenClipart-Vectors via pixabay.com

Thursday, February 9, 2023

Waning Moon

Cloudy and cold

There’s a garden post over on Gratitude and Growth.

Two things I didn’t talk about yesterday, which I will talk about here: The first is the horrible earthquake in Turkey and Syria. 11,000 dead last I heard, and growing fatalities. The scope of the devastation is horrifying. I hope the world steps up and helps.

The second is the State of the Union address that happened on Tuesday. Biden handled himself well, although I didn’t agree with everything he had to say. But that’s okay, I don’t have to. Other than handling the pandemic, he’s doing a good job, in my opinion. It sent quite the message that only Bernie Sanders cared enough to mask, and made it clear that both parties don’t give a flying fuck how many citizens are killed by COVID. That is not acceptable.

The Republicans behaved badly, because that’s all that’s in their wheelhouse. Sinema (who is a Repub embedded as a Dem) craves attention and dressed like an extra from a Chiquita Banana parody. Her pathetic bids for attention are so inappropriate for her job. MTG behaved like the trailer trash she is, and SHS had a “rebuttal” that continues to show what a lying grifter she, her family, and the whole party are.

Yesterday morning was frustrating, doing all kinds of paperwork and contracts. I lost nearly an hour putting the new ink in the inkjet printer, because the color printhead wouldn’t align properly. I want my laser printer fixed!

Went down to the post office, got everything mailed, including the contract for the big project. Sent everything certified, so I can be sure it gets there. As I’ve mentioned before, the post office around here is the happening place, where everyone exchanges information, suggests people for projects, etc. There was a man at the post office mailing two large boxes to Florida. His son died a few months ago, and was a huge Miami Dolphins fan. He had season tickets, and went down to see them play home games several times a year. He became close friends with someone who had tickets near him. The Miami friend flew up for the man’s funeral, which was the first time the family met him. He said he’d love something to remember his friend by. His parents couldn’t deal with it at the moment, but have since cleaned out their son’s belongings. They boxed up all the Miami Dolphin paraphernalia and shipped it to his son’s friend. It’s a story both sad and lovely.

Did the social media rounds for Process Muse, Angel Hunt, and 28 Prompts. Submitted four plays and two radio plays. The radio plays were immediately rejected, because the submission “closed early.” Well, boo, THEN PULL DOWN THE NOTICE. Don’t waste people’s time. Treat people well.

Turned around two coverages. Finished the second book for review. I’ll write up both reviews and send them in today, and, hopefully, get assigned my next books.

Made a green bean and fennel ragout for dinner, from Moosewood’s recipe, and it was very good. Leftovers, too, which are yummy. I’m trying to figure out if I want to join a CSA next year, or just keep going to the market every Saturday. Because my schedule is kind of up in the air, market is a safer choice, because I may be out of town here and there on pickup days.

Two of the big boxes from the Target order arrived (although one of the boxes was so flimsy, it fell apart as I was taking it into the house. So no giant box for the cats to play in). But we are stocked up on basics and cleaning supplies, and toilet paper, and the like. I got new file folders, pattern coded for this year, so I can finish filing 2022 and set up the 2023 files. I have to rework where I keep the files I use most often. The space that worked best for me, to the right of my desk, now has the second printer on it, and the file rack is on the floor, which isn’t really working.

Jumping onto Twitter to check it in the evening was a huge mistake. People whining about not seeing posts from their “friends.” People whining about other stuff. Faux engagements questions. People demanding others do free administrative labor on their accounts. Right wing crap. Bullying. The block button is my best tool lately. I may lock my account as of March. I don’t want to do so while 28 Prompts is running, but, if I can hold out until March, that’s probably a good time to lock down.

On a happier note, I re-read SAD CYPRESS by Agatha Christie. It was the January read for the Read Christie! challenge, but my copy is in storage, so I had to get it from the library, and it just arrived. I’d forgotten how interesting it was.

Weird dreams about buying long strands of large Christmas lights at a garden center. Only I wasn’t me in the dream. I was embodying a person, but it was a different woman than the one I am. Which is a weird sensation, all the way around. It wasn’t a bad dream, it was ordinary. It was just strange to be someone else.

Today’s agenda: meditation. Drafting more Legerdemain. Uploading/scheduling more Angel Hunt. Doing the graphics for the upcoming Legerdemain scheduled episodes. Working on a residency proposal. Checking the guidelines for something I wanted to do, figured I couldn’t, but maybe I can (if I can use a particular piece). Writing two book reviews and submitting them. Filing. Two script coverages. Contest entries. Social media rounds for the next Legerdemain episode and 28 Prompts.

To my pleasure and surprise, Post drives traffic to my sites. At first it was as much traffic as Twitter. As Twitter’s fallen off, now it’s more. And I do truly enjoy my time on Spoutible.

Off to meditation. I need to start sitting again in the mornings, as well as at night before I go to bed. Then, it’s back to the page.

Fri. Nov. 25, 2022: Leftovers and Decorating Begins

image courtesy of Monika via pixabay.com

Friday, November 25, 2022

Waxing Moon

Neptune, Chiron, Uranus, Mars Retrograde

Rainy and mild

I hope you had a lovely day yesterday, whether you celebrated American Thanksgiving or not.

I slept in, until nearly 7. Tessa was beside herself. I fed everybody, made the stuffing, and wrestled the bird into the oven a little after 8:30.

I put good wishes on the various social media platforms, rather than do any serious interaction.

Then, I did my day’s work on THE TREES WHISPERED DEATH, which wound up being 1929 words that, overall, I’m happy with (at least for this draft).

Wednesday, I got the book review out, the invoice in, was paid, and did a script coverage.

I’d finished my work by 2 PM on Wednesday, and lounged around reading, and feeling strange in the afternoon. I realized that was because I no longer know how to relax. I know how to work, and how to collapse onto the couch or the bed to recover from work, but I’ve forgotten how to relax.

That goes on the schedule for next year, weird as it sounds.

Follow-up questions came in for a script I covered a couple of days ago, and I was irritated that the answers are due on Monday morning. But I’ll probably turn them around today, and get it over with.

I could not face any more Cleaning Out the Fridge leftovers, so I made scrambled eggs for dinner instead.

Hopping back to yesterday:

For once I timed the turkey and all the sides to be done on time, and I’d set out all the necessary platters and dishes, etc. It was your typical turkey with gravy and stuffing and cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes (mashed with melted butter, orange juice, and brown sugar), peas, corn, and rolls. With apple pie for dessert.

We like our holiday meals around mid-day, so we can clean up and spend the rest of the day half asleep.

We cleaned up. Because I have a lot of vintage china that can’t go in the dishwasher, there are always plenty of dishes that have to be done by hand. But we also had a full dishwasher, and put that on.

I made stock from the carcass, and it’s so glorious I think I will use some of the leftovers to make a turkey soup.

Spent the rest of the afternoon and evening lounging on the couch, reading and playing with the cats.

Checked in on Twitter a few times, but it was mostly people screaming about this and that and saying that anyone who enjoys the holiday isn’t accommodating those with toxic families. Yeah, when you’re wearing a mask when you’re out and about and actually taking care of others, you get to say something about accommodations.

And if I have a family I appreciate and we enjoy each other, we’re going to have a good holiday without guilt.

Up around 6:30 this morning. Tessa is annoyed that not only was her breakfast late, but it’s not sunny. She’s somehow decided that I am in charge of making sure the sun shines, so she has multiple sun spots in which to nap during the day, and she is not pleased that I am slacking off.

I did the next chapter of THE TREES WHISPERED DEATH, which came in at 1941 words, so I’ve broken 56K. Without the pressure to hit a certain wordcount by a certain day, it’s flowing better. Or maybe I’m just in the book’s natural rhythm now.

Most of the weekend is about decorating  for Yule. I stopped Black Friday shopping about 20 years ago, so I don’t have to worry about anything, although I do have to pick up a few things at the grocery store and Wild Oats. Tomorrow, I may do some Small Business Saturday shopping, and I’ll head to Whitney’s Farm to get the wreath. Sunday is the First of Advent, so even if I don’t have everything done, I’ll have the Advent Table up.

So why am I online today? Because, my friends, I am being mercenary.  Writing is how I keep a roof over my head, so I must promote my work. The next episode of Legerdemain dropped yesterday. Some scheduled promotions went live, but for the rest, I have to make the rounds today.

Have a good weekend, and I’ll catch you next week.

Wed. Nov. 16, 2022: Snow to Icy Rain

image courtesy of Andreas via pixabay.com

Wednesday, November 16, 2022

Waning Moon

Neptune, Chiron, Jupiter, Uranus, Mars Retrograde

Icy rain and cold

I talk in detail about my process for the Writer’s Rough Outline over on The Process Muse. I hope you enjoy it.

I’m always grateful having control of my schedule, and yesterday was another day for it.

I got my Nano words in first thing. I started to do the social media rounds, promoting Legerdemain and doing all the rest. The snowstorm wasn’t set to hit until late at night. But the pre-storm headache got more intense, and the clouds got thicker.

So I stopped what I was doing, and made the store run to get a tarp and some bungie cords a few hours early.  On a whim, I stopped at the thrift store and found three more cute Santas and some more adorable Christmas mice for my collections. Because I love them.

When I came back, we brought in the rest of the plants and decorations and shelves and stuff from the back balcony. I’ll go into that in more detail in tomorrow’s garden post over on Gratitude and Growth. We tarped down the big bench and the bistro chairs folded on it which will stay out all winter. And rearranged what we had to in here.

I got out all the garbage before the snow started. And then started the social media rounds. Mastodon was down most of the day, which is no big deal. They’re doing the best they can. CounterSocial has a lot of Twitgees coming over, trying to cause drama, and nobody’s giving it to them.  Some are flouncing back off to Twitter; others are getting blocked or banned. I’m pretty sure I’m going to dump Cohost before the end of the year. I’m not enjoying it, and the focus/interests of most of those I’ve encountered are very different from what I want and need from a platform.

Turned around two scripts. I’d almost finished with the book for review, and got an extension. I will get that out today. I also have three script to turn around today, so it’s a good thing I’m home all day. I did well for the pay period that ended yesterday, a little higher than my goal. Hopefully, there will be enough in the queue over the coming weeks to make my nut AND take the week between Christmas and New Year’s off.

Angry that the Narcissistic Sociopath gets to make another run for President. Merrick Garland has failed the country. He had the chance to defend it, and he chose not to. I’m disappointed in him as a professional, and as a human, and enraged that these traitors keep getting away with it.

This whole “oopsie, Russia hit Poland by mistake” is ridiculous. Russia is testing NATO. And these new reports it was a Ukrainian missile gone astray? I don’t buy it.

The snow was lovely. I spent a chunk of time sitting at the window, watching it. But during the night, it turned to an icy rain. Tessa woke me up around 4 so I could put a bucket under the leak on the front porch. Then, Charlotte didn’t want me to go back to sleep. We battled until I finally got up a little after 6. Miss Thing is, of course, fast asleep on the bed again.

I’ve been playing with the idea I had in a dream a few nights ago that would make a good novel or novella. The premise is strong, the characters work, but I’m not sure how to make the plot work. Something to play with, probably in longhand, after Nano.

This morning’s Nano went well. Chapter 17 of THE TREES WHISPERED DEATH, coming in at 2461 words. I was worried the chapter was a tangent, but I found a way to make the subplot echo certain elements of the plot and tie together. That was a relief.

If the temperatures hadn’t risen and it changed over to rain, we’d be in a serious snow day by now. But it’s hovering around freezing, so it’s yucky, but not snowdrifts.

Back to the page.

Thurs. Oct. 27, 2022: A Cat With A Plan

(Charlotte, photo by the author)

Thursday, October 27, 2022

Waxing Moon

Neptune, Chiron, Jupiter, Uranus Retrograde

Warm and wet

I hope you’re enjoying The Process Muse. If you haven’t had the chance, you can sign up for it here. (It’s free).

Latest on the garden and our weird weather up on Gratitude and Growth.

Worked on the outline for THE TREES WHISPERED DEATH and I’m still not happy with it, although it’s grown and is richer than it was. A major arc for a couple of supporting characters is gaining traction, and, if I handle it will be both beautiful and sad throughout the book.

Picked up the rest of the books at the library, and put in for some books with 1950s details that I will need for Nano. The book on fashion is a lot of fun. After all, I have to clothe my characters (and most of my costume books are still in storage).

Went to the DMV (RMV here in MA) to renew the car registration. In and out in under 10 minutes, and they were very nice, just the way I like it. Paid the insurance for the next 6 months, so that is all set.

Ordered in Chinese food for lunch, because I was too lazy to cook.

In the afternoon, I turned around two scripts, and in the evening, I read the next book for review. I will write it up and send it off this morning, after meditation and breakfast.

Charlotte kept bothering me in the night. Around 2 AM, I set up her playpen in the sewing room and put her in it (Tessa came by the snicker at her). I was just falling asleep again when I heard a series of thumps. I got up. Charlotte had rolled the playpen out of the sewing room and down the hall into my office, headed for my bedroom. Gotta give the cat points for ingenuity.

I took her out of the playpen and back in bed. She snuggled down, purring, and was good until Tessa woke us at 6:30 with her howling.

I had a breakthrough on the outline for THE TREES WHISPERED DEATH – I think I’ve finally figured out the climax and refigured the resolution, so it works better. It means setting up a couple of other characters earlier and planting more clues, and shifting a relationship, but it will make the book stronger, and fix what I was worried isn’t working. As soon as this is posted, I’m going back to work on it, taking a break for meditation, and then finishing it.

I’ll have to decide if I want to work on ANGEL HUNT this morning and LEGERDEMAIN tomorrow, or the other way around. I think I’ll work on ANGEL HUNT, and then work on LEGERDEMAIN all weekend.

The next episode of Legerdemain drops today, and I hope you enjoy it!

Tues. Oct. 18, 2022: Riding a Creative Wave

image courtesy of Kaneori via pixabay.com

Tuesday, October 18, 2022

Waning Moon

Saturn, Neptune, Chiron, Jupiter, Uranus Retrograde

Rainy and cold

Ready for our long, Tuesday natter? I also have the Mid-Month check-in up on the GDR site.

Decent weekend. Friday was a little all over the place. It wasn’t focused writing time, which was frustrating. Lots of admin work. Wrote and submitted a book review, and received the next two books to review. Wrote 2 ½ blog posts for Ink-Dipped Advice, working ahead. Poked around on Substack, honing my plan. Covered a script. Started another coverage.

The inspiring thing I did on Friday afternoon was to put on real people clothes and makeup and go to MASSMoCA for the Boiler House Poets reading. I met Joanne, the poet who invited me to the reading, and several of the others. Eight poets were on this year’s retreat, working together. The voices and experiences were all very different, but there was still a flow to the overall reading. It was exciting, and I’m so honored I was invited to it. I’m looking forward to next year’s reading already!

Home, made dinner, read in the evening, for fun. Read a new book in a series where I’ve read most of the series. This one was just too formulaic and similar to the others to be satisfying. I mean, I enjoyed it, it worked as relaxing brain candy for the night, but I didn’t love it, and some of the other books in the series I really loved.

Slept well Friday into Saturday, mostly because Charlotte stayed on the couch until nearly 5 AM. It was Tessa who jumped on the bed in the morning to wake me up – the first time she’s been on the bed since we moved here. Charlotte came in a little later and was horrified.

I drafted a short play in the morning, “My Side of the Bed” which was fun. I unpacked more boxes from the storage run, washed some pieces, and finished the last script coverage of the pay period. I made some notes on a couple of projects, where the ideas are flowing.

The tulip, daffodil, and hyacinth bulbs arrived. We’ll plant them in a week or two, and hope for the best in spring. So I guess the tussling with John Scheeper’s worked. Still not sure I’d deal with them again.

Forced myself to read the book I’d put aside from the author whose series I’d previously liked until she used “witch” as a slur in this one. I didn’t like it for more reasons than the slur. Overall, it was bland. On top of that, the protagonist, in the last few books, is regressing. I was drawn to the series because the protagonist was smart, resourceful, strong, and fun. She paired up with a romance-worthy guy, and the first few books post-marriage were fun. But in the last few, she gets weaker and weaker and more and more dependent on him and frantic/anxious, in a way that doesn’t make sense the way her character was established in the previous books. It’s like the editor encouraged the writer to make the character more “relatable” by giving her more anxiety when there’s nothing to worry about.  I’ve lost respect for the character, and not just because of the witch slur. Instead of growing, she’s regressing, into a state of helplessness beyond where she was in the first book. So, I’m done with the series and the author. It’s not like losing me as a reader is going to make a dent in her sales. I am no longer her target audience.

Tried to start another book that came highly recommended, but it’s in present tense, and I’m not being paid to read it, so it’s going back to the library unread. I loathe novels written in present tense. I want to hurl them against the wall. It’s the author standing between me and the text screaming, “Look at me! I’m such a brilliant stylist!” when they’re not, instead of letting me experience the story. Again, I’m not the target audience. If a writer believes that’s the best voice in which to tell the story, they should absolutely do it. But I am not the audience for it.

I’m reading a few nonfiction books right now, which I enjoy. One I did not, too much religion and not enough about what it claimed the book was about, so that’s going back.

Started the next book in the Elantra series, and I’m enjoying that.

Alternated reading and unpacking in the afternoon.

Charlotte woke me up too early on Sunday morning. But I got up, fed everybody, and wrote two episodes of LEGERDEMAIN, about 3K all told. Updated the Style Sheet and the Series Bible. I bitch and moan to myself (and the cats) about updating the sheets after drafting every episode (for a novel, I’d wait until galleys to update the Series Bible). But it sure as heck saves me a lot of time and frustration as I move forward.

I did some puttering and reading, and planning for a project I realized has to go live next week (just after the new moon). I meant to just create the opening for it and jot more notes, but I wrote the first four pieces. This will all make sense later this week, when I formally announce the project. Until I upload it and schedule it to post, I don’t know if I can promote it before it goes live, or if I have to wait. I hate vague-posting, and apologize. I’m also not talking about it on social media, because I hate it when people say they have good news, but can’t share it yet. STFU until you can.

Crankypants much? I better sing myself the Crankypants song until I laugh and get over it.

All told, I wrote a little over 5K on the new project and 3K on LEGERDEMAIN, so I wrote nearly 8K on Sunday. I haven’t done that in a long time, and I was tired and achy by the end of the day.

To my horror, when I was looking at the content calendar of scheduled upcoming posts, I realized that I have not uploaded/scheduled the episode ads for the final 11 episodes of LEGERDEMAIN’s first big arc. So that’s on the list for this week. I’m behind in the overall series marketing, and I have to update the Topic Workbook links before the new project drops next week, because I link back to the Topic Workbooks. I also have to create a newsletter blast so it’s ready to go when the new project goes live.

And I’m way, way behind on LOIs. As in, hadn’t sent any this month. Which I didn’t realize until I compiled the information for the Mid-Month post over on the GDR site on Monday.

But the writing itself felt good, and that’s what’s important.

I joined #scriptchat on Sunday night, and it was fun. Sunday nights are usually bad for me to do stuff online, but I’d already blown the attempt at a day of disconnect, so why not do something fun?

Monday morning, I was irritated by the amount of email that piled up. I have a lot of admin to catch up on this week.

I wrote another episode of LEGERDEMAIN, which is a good thing. But I’m pretty sure this arc will run closet to 40 episodes than 30, as originally planned. But the structure of the arc has embedded in me as I write, which will make the revisions and edits easier.

I got an email for my editor with the suggestions for the article that will be in the 2024 Llewellyn almanac. She loves the piece, which makes me so happy, because it’s one of the riskiest and most personal pieces I’ve ever written, and I worried I screwed it up. Her suggestions, as always, are right on the mark. I’m so grateful to have her as my editor.

Payment came through from the last two weeks’ of script coverage, and I transferred that over to the bank.

I think I figured out a solution for the LEGERDEMAIN ads which won’t be too much of a PITA. On some platforms, it’s just about adjusting dates. On channels that don’t allow edits, it’s about adding in the correct episodes on the correct dates, and having more overlap between episodes. It will be a slog, but it’s fixable.

The hardest thing was to take a breath and not berate myself for the mistake. I’m human, I made a mistake. It wasn’t huge, it’s fixable, it didn’t hurt anyone. It was on my own work, not client work. Mistakes happen.

I updated the links on the Topic Workbooks on the Devon Ellington site, so those are all current. Since the workbooks are steady sellers, I need to stay on top of that. I still have to create, upload, and schedule the marketing campaign for that through December. And upload/schedule the ads for 30 TIPS FOR 30 DAYS during November and into the first week of December (October is done and dropping on time).

I did another piece for the project launching next week, because I was in its groove. I can start uploading/scheduling on Thursday, I think. I also created the announcement in MailerLite, which will either go out this week (preferable) or on the day of the launch, depending on when I can get a legitimate link.

I turned around one script coverage, and started a second. I realized I was behind where I hoped/needed to be, so I withdrew from an online event I was scheduled to attend.

However, while I was cooking dinner, I got an idea. The title came first (which is unusual for me). Originally, it was going to be a piece of flash fiction, a ghost story with humor and maybe a touch of horror. But as I percolated, I realized it make more sense as a play.

After dinner, instead of returning to script coverage, I sat down and wrote the first draft of “Paranormal Paraphrasing” which turned out to be a 10-minute play.

As I finished the draft, an email came in from my friend Paula, who’d come across some more play submission calls, and one of them looks like it will be a good fit.

I was so tired by the time I was finished that I was shaking. But I’m glad I rode that creative wave.

I didn’t sleep well; too many different ideas mashing, but not meshing, in my dreams.

Up early. One of the cats was hurling, but I haven’t stepped in it yet, which means I haven’t yet found it.

Got into a lively Twitter discussion about being baffled when people refuse to wear clothes more than once. For me, it’s not only a sustainability and an economic issue, but also, when I love a piece of clothing, I take good care of it and keep wearing it. I mend it. I clean it the way it needs to be cleaned. I honor it. Most of us on the thread felt the same way, thank goodness.

I also sew, and can build my own clothes. I realize not everyone can or wants to do that, but basic mending is a necessary life skill. It’s worth MAKING the time to learn.

Anyway, I actually have to leave the house today. I should have gone to the laundromat, but the weather is too yucky. I’ll go tomorrow. I do, however, have to return a stack of books, hit the grocery store, pick up my mother’s prescription, mail some bills, hit the liquor store.

I need to get some writing in before I leave, help a friend with her website, and then, later on, finish the coverage I started yesterday and turn around another one. There hasn’t been much in the queue this week, which concerns me.

Time to get out some more LOIs. I’ve been lax on it for the past few weeks.

Have a good one! The next episode of LEGERDEMAIN drops today.

Thurs. Oct. 13, 2022: Working Through the Back Pain

image courtesy of Wolfgang Claussen via pixabay.com

Thursday, October 13, 2022

Saturn, Neptune, Chiron, Jupiter, Uranus Retrograde

Cloudy and cold (rain coming in)

Read up on what’s going on, garden-wise, over on Gratitude and Growth.

I had a pretty good day workwise, yesterday, and my back didn’t give out until the evening.

In the morning, I wrote another episode of LEGERDEMAIN, updated the style sheet and series bible. That usually takes longer than writing the episode (okay, it doesn’t. It just feels like it). I’m having a lot of fun, and working hard to keep the rhythm of the chapters more consistent, and closer to the 1200-word mark.

Then, I switched over and wrote the next episode of VIXEN’S HOLLOW/THE CUNNING ONE. It’s a lot of fun. I think people will enjoy it. I updated the series bible for that (I won’t have a style sheet until I revise/edit, as I prep it for release). But I am creating a “Work Diary” that gets into the details of each episode, the inspirations, the changes as the writing flows, etc. That will be part of the subscription element when the series goes live.  For my personal definition, the central protagonist, Esmeralda Santini, is a cross between Marion Ravenwood and Morticia Adams. The series itself is somewhat like WAREHOUSE 13 meets LEGENDS AND LATTE. Yeah. That far out there.

It’s a helluva lot of fun to write, and I think readers will enjoy it. Again, it’s specifically written as a serial, as is LEGERDEMAIN, not releasing chapters of a book one at a time. Which means if I ever do decide to take them down and turn them into a book, it will be a bit of a PITA to adapt it back.

I poked around some more on Substack. There are so many different ways to do this. It looks like the most sensible way is to start building an audience before launching the serial and the “extras” that would be part of a subscription. Another thing to keep up. But I have some ideas, and if I can batch write posts and schedule them, It should work. It definitely feels better than Medium, which had so many obstacles to get over that it became a chore, rather than something joyful. There’s also more of a sense of writers supporting each other’s work over on Substack, which I like. So we’ll see. It means at least a year’s commitment, before I’d know whether or not to keep going. And before I have enough metrics to compare to Vella.

While juggling the shorter-term work that pays the bills every month. I’m playing with several different approaches, and I will see what works best. I look at the way Lilith St. Crow runs her career, and she’s doing pretty well running her serials on Patreon and Gumroad, but those are written with the intent to put them out later as books.

It’s a lot to think about and plan. Especially with the pressure from Nano coming up, and the need to keep up with immediate-paying work. I don’t want to drop the ball on radio plays or stage plays. I have plans for those for next year.

I looked at Linktree, which seemed like a good idea, but it drives traffic to Linktree instead of my website, so I think I’ll keep it to the website, which then has links to everything else on its landing page. It keeps my metrics higher.

Turned around two scripts in the afternoon. I liked both of them a lot, which is always a nice way to end the day.

There were computer issues on and off. By next spring, no doubt, I’ll need a new laptop. This one will be 3 years old, and I never had a PC make it more than a week past its warranty.

After dinner, I was on the couch with a heating pad on my back, reading the next book for review. I like the writing style – until it hit a trope that just sets my teeth on edge.

Didn’t sleep well. Woke up several times because of back pain, and used the yoga blocks and the foam roller. Had weird, bad dreams. Their messages are very clear, but it makes me weary.

Meditation this morning, and then it’s back to the page. I also have to do a library/grocery/post office run. This afternoon, more coverage. I’m hoping to have a light coverage day tomorrow, because I want to spend some time updating my websites.

Episode 24 of Legerdemain drops today. It’s not all-free anymore, but if you haven’t yet started to read, the first 3 are still free. The link is here.

Have a good one!

Tues. Oct. 4, 2022: Determined Writing Time

image courtesy of Nicole via pixabay.com

Tuesday, October 4, 2022

Waxing Moon

Pluto, Saturn, Neptune, Chiron, Jupiter, Uranus Retrograde

Mercury DIRECT as of Sunday the 2^nd (phew)

Mars still in Gemini (until March)

Cloudy and cool

Doesn’t it feel ever so much better to have Mercury direct? I was feeling crushed by it on top of the other retrogrades and Mars in Gemini.

Friday seems so far away, somehow.

I didn’t get as much done creatively as I’d hoped, although I wrote and submitted the book review, slogged through some email, worked on some marketing, and wrote ahead on a couple of blogs, scheduling them to post this week.

Most of the day was spent on script coverage, since it was the end of the pay period. I finished the huge coverage and got that out, and then did two smaller ones, which took me until well into the evening, and then it felt like my brain was broken.

I’d hoped to re-read AS YOU LIKE IT on Friday night, but no such luck.

I slept pretty well, and was up on Saturday, doing the normal routine (early morning writing, yoga, meditation, after feeding the cats) in spite of a bad headache.

The morning was spent switching out fabrics to Halloween/Samhain fabrics, and starting the decorating. I took a break in the late morning to run some bills and cards to the post office. I swung by the dollar store, hoping to find black garland and bones, but they didn’t have the bones I want, and the garland was too flimsy. I might have to redesign. If I can find a sturdier garland out of black leaves, I might buy some of the skeletal hands and have them climbing up the garland. We’ll see.

Charlotte and Tessa actually shared the couch for most of Saturday, without fighting. It was adorable.

I alternated decorating with re-reading AS YOU LIKE IT and Asimov’s commentary on AS YOU LIKE IT (ASIMOV’S GUIDE TO SHAKESPEARE is one of my favorite and most-used books).

I wrote the first 4 pages of a new one-act (that’s only going to be 10 pages). I’m happy with the tone and the bones of it.

Slept in a bit on Sunday. Tessa was not amused. Sunday, was, all around, a pretty rough day for no good reason. I was jumpy and out of sorts.

I managed to finish the draft of the short play, at least.

Some of the Fall Foliage parade went by the house,  a handful of floats and some marchers. Fewer than last year, so I don’t know if they directed them down several different streets, or if this year’s parade was smaller. Charlotte sat on her perch, and was thrilled when people spotted her and waved. She believed the parade was in her honor, and was in a good mood for the rest of the day.

I was excited to read the next book in a series in which I’ve read all the books. But there, on p. 12 – the protagonist used “witch” as a slur against women. This author and this protagonist have never done that, in the entire series, and it doesn’t fit with the character as established over the years. In addition to the whole it crosses the personal line, so that series and that author is now off my list permanently, and I’m unsubscribing from the mailing list, and all the rest.

It also brings up how both Berkeley and Kensington are encouraging the hard right turn that cozy mystery has been taking for the past few years, and I don’t like it. Series that never used the slur are now doing so, authors who KNOW BETTER are letting it in their books.

I’m not having it. Bye-uh.

I started reading the essays in LIGHT THE DARK, which is a series of essays on the creative process, and it is wonderful and nourishing.

Participated in Script Chat Sunday night, which I don’t usually do, but I’d blown the whole day-of-disconnect for Sunday, so why not. It was fun.

Noodled with two ideas that might work well on Ko-fi.

Tessa let me sleep on Monday until 6 AM, a big win. A colleague wanted to meet; I’d suggested meeting last week today, but never heard back, so I went and booked other work for this afternoon. I’m not available at the last minute. Book ahead.

Again, it’s that whole “you don’t have a real job” mentality that irks me.

I adapted the next chapter of ANGEL HUNT (3600-ish words) into four serial episodes. That gives me 30 episodes so far, or the first 15 weeks of that serial. I will launch it at the new moon in January following Mercury going direct, but I want to make sure I have the entire serial done by the time it starts. It will be a finite serial, and, if it gains traction, I might do a “Season 2” when they’ve left New York, and a “Season 3” years after. But we’ll see how the original one does, first.

I took a look at EARTH BRIDE, which is likely to go up on Substack at some point. I have over 125K words, and I’m only about halfway through the original outline. When I’d worked on it as a novel, I figured it would turn into a trilogy, so as a serial, it could go on for a good, long time. Re-reading the material, it needs a lot of work, though. But I think it’s more suited for Substack than for Vella. ANGEL HUNT will work better on Vella.

I revised “After Arden” and then let it sit. I’m hoping one more revision (today) and then it can go out. The deadline looms.

Wrote an episode and a half of LEGERDEMAIN, which was good. I need to find my notes for the next section, so I’m not going too far off track.

Played the marketing game, checked in with the Women Write Change group (I usually check in on that site at least once a day, or once every couple of days).

A friend sent me the draft of his new novel for feedback. He’s a wonderful writer, so I’m looking forward to it. He’s off on a travel writing gig for the next three weeks, so I have some time.

I was invited to a reading at the end of next week by the leader of a group of poets I’m excited to hear. I didn’t think she’d remember to let me know when it was, but she did, and I’m looking forward to it.

Turned around three script coverages yesterday, and have the same amount to do today, tomorrow, and Thursday to stay on track. Don’t have scripts yet for Friday, but hopefully, I can  get some.

Did not sleep well. Charlotte fussed at me all night. So I’m starting the day a little tired. I might hop out for some errands later today, or I might wait and do everything tomorrow. I have a long list of things that need to get done today on the writing front.

Episode 21 of Legerdemain drops today (and there’s even a poll)! I need to spend some time on the Vella FB groups today, and see if they actually are helpful.

Have a good one, friends.

Fri. Sept. 30, 2022: Inner and Outer Fog

Image by Joe via pixabay.com

Friday, September 30, 2022

Waxing Moon

Pluto, Saturn, Neptune, Chiron, Jupiter, Uranus, Mercury Retrograde

Cold with dense fog

I could not shake the sadness triggered by the dream yesterday, to the point where getting through the day was a struggle. It was a case of actual reality not aligning with my emotional reality.

Meditation was lovely (Charlotte participated). I then had time to bolt breakfast and head for MassMOCA for the Working Artists Group, which was also good. They’re talking about moving sessions to after traditional work hours, which does not work for me. I can go to the next meeting – I think –even though it’s at 5, but if it moves to evenings, I will have to give it up. These meetings are part of my job, not a hobby; and if people are going the “day job comes first” route, then it’s not the right group for me.

Got the newsletter out. I like using MailerLite. The newsletter has a good feel to it. Of course, since that newsletter is out the door, it’s time to start the document for December’s newsletter!

The missing piece for one of the script coverages arrived, so I read that, updated the notes and sent it off. Started to turn around another coverage; it was missing a piece. Sent off the note. Received an “updated draft” that was still missing a piece, so I asked the support team for guidance. I have a feeling this particular author does not know the difference between a “preface” and a “synopsis.” Did half of the big coverage that’s due today, and will finish the rest this afternoon. That piece is pretty good.

Got 3 writer satisfaction bonuses, so at least the feedback’s been helpful.

Finished the book for the review that’s due today. I’ll write it up and get it out this morning.

I’m woefully behind in what I needed to get done this week, especially when it comes to Legerdemain and the next radio play. However, I have a lot of bills that have hit and need to be paid, so the script coverage has to take priority. But I’m discouraged with myself. I just don’t have the stamina and the mental capacity for long days that I used to.

So I have to adjust.

I’ve been invited to three events next week. I’ve already bowed out of one, because it will be inside, a large group, and unmasked. Nope. Not with the way the numbers are going up. I’m not yet sure about the other two.

I’ve also made peace with the fact that it might be years before I go to another in-person conference, if at all. If they’re not going to have safety policies and enforce them, I won’t be there.

On this morning’s agenda are the book review, Legerdemain, some blog posts, hopefully some work on “Owe Me.” The afternoon is about finishing the large script coverage and doing a shorter one. And that’s the pay period.

I’m trying to get in touch with various friends and colleagues in Florida, to make sure they are okay.

This weekend, I hope to get some more work done on Legerdemain and on the outline for the Retro Mystery. We’re also turning over the curtains/fabrics to October and getting out the decorations.

I am so ready for Mercury Retrograde to be damn over.

Have a good weekend, my friends.