Tues. May 16, 2023: Trying To Balance The Writing Needs

View across the Clark Art Institute Reflecting Pool. Photo by Devon Ellington

Tuesday, May 16, 2023

Waning Moon

Mercury Went Direct on Sunday

Pluto Retrograde

Cloudy and chilly

Busy weekend. Good busy, but still busy. So, I hope you have your favorite beverage handy for our Tuesday catch-up.

Today’s serial episode is Legerdemain.

Episode 85: Attack on Brone

Brone is attacked in the Infirmary. His rescuer is a surprise.

Legerdemain Serial Link

Legerdemain website

Friday, I wrote another episode of Legerdemain. I uploaded and scheduled this coming Thursday’s episode. I puttered on the poem.

Out the door late morning, headed for the Clark Art Institute. It was a gorgeous day, warm and sunny. On the way there, I stopped at the Milne Library in Williamstown, because the lilacs are just starting to bloom, and they have wonderful lilacs. Their lilacs were just beginning, but I got to see their reading garden (a lovely spot in which I hope to spend time this summer) and checked out their book cart, where I found a few things, including a couple of mysteries by Anna Clarke. I met a woman at the cart, an artist who uses discarded books to make collages. She’s currently working on one using prints of old circus posters. She grew up in Bridgeport, CT and used to watch the Ringling Brothers Circus train come in, when they wintered there (before they moved to Florida for winters; PT Barnum Museum is still in Bridgeport).

Anyway, after that, I headed up to the Clark, which was packed. I never even made it inside the museum; I sat in a chair under a linden tree out by the reflecting pool. I worked on the project for a bit, and just enjoyed myself. Okay, I also eavesdropped, rolling my eyes at a few things I overheard, and made notes that will be integrated into future characters.

On the way home, I stopped at Wild Oats and then Stop & Shop, to pick up a few things. In the afternoon, I read Anna Clarke’s LETTER FROM THE DEAD, which was very good, and one of the few mysteries where I didn’t get ahead of it and figure out the murderer.

In the evening, there was a special session at my yoga studio, where they hosted Lama Tashi Norbu, who is both a Tibetan monk and an acclaimed tattoo artist. He is the director of a museum of Tibetan Arts in the Netherlands. It was an interesting session and gave me a lot to ponder.

Home, dinner, and to bed early. Didn’t get much sleep, because it was the night before MCLA’s graduation ceremony, and everyone was doing one last blowout. Considering we live catty corner from the college, it’s amazing there isn’t a lot more loud partying all semester. I can deal with a day here and there. Charlotte sat in the window all night and watched them.

Just before bedtime, I got word that I did not get the August residency I hoped for in upstate New York. It was a very nice letter, but disappointing. I’d hoped to use that time to do the big revision on FALL FOREVER. However, now I can use all of August to do it instead. I still want to do another revision of it between now and then.

The alarm went off at 4:30 AM on Saturday, and we were out of the house a little after 5:30, headed to the Cape for a storage run. It was sunny, but cooler than the previous day.

The drive down wasn’t bad, and there wasn’t too much traffic over the Bourne Bridge. We got to storage, and loaded up a rather eclectic bunch of boxes. I didn’t find the family photos/scrapbooks yet (which should have been on the truck), and I forgot to bring up the blank canvases. This is the last run we can do before autumn, so what we have is what we have.

We headed along the canal to Sagamore to the big Christmas Tree Shop over by the bridge. The chain was sold to a hedge fund, who intentionally ran it into the ground (which is how they make their money; anything a hedge fund touches is destroyed for profit), and this store is closing. It’s been around a good long time; we shopped there well before we moved to the Cape. The vultures were already there, and many shelves empty. We didn’t buy much; it was too sad, and we weren’t going to buy just to buy. I took some pictures, because I bet they tear down the building, including the lovely large windmill.

Back along the canal and off Cape on the Bourne Bridge. The traffic was picking up, especially going on Cape; we missed the worst of it. It was a fairly smooth ride until Worcester, where we were caught up in 12 miles of stop & go traffic, losing the time we’d gained. But once past that, it was a decent ride home.

While driving, I pondered some of the things discussed in Friday’s session with the monk, and got an idea for a story. Not sure what I’ll do with it yet, but I made some notes, and will let it percolate.

Stopped at Adams Fresh Market for a few things, and then to get takeout. We were home just after 2:30, which was a pretty decent time frame for a roundtrip of a little over 400 miles, plus storage sorting, plus shopping. Ate first, then I unloaded the car.

Saturday was graduation day, but it had pretty much cleared out by the time we returned, and everyone was in that state of stunned exhaustion and adrenaline withdrawal.

We just rested in the afternoon and evening, and read. I read Lina Chern’s PLAY THE FOOL, which was a lot of fun, especially in the way it used tarot cards.

Slept well; up early on Sunday (because the cats figured 4:30 was better than 5:30 for breakfast, per the previous day). Baked biscuits for my mom for Mother’s Day.

We had a quiet Mother’s Day. I unpacked most of the boxes we brought up. I have to do some rearranging to integrate things. Stuff needed to be washed, so we did that. It was fun, finding things we hadn’t seen in a while. Finally found my poodle bookends. I’ve been looking for them since we moved to the Cape, much less than moved here.

Tried to make a pizza with all of my mom’s favorite toppings. Unfortunately, I used a commercial dough I hadn’t used before. I knew I wouldn’t be up to making dough from scratch after the storage run. The dough I like and usually use wasn’t available at Big Y, and I found this Birrittella’s dough in Stop & Shop. First of all, they don’t have directions on the package. They force you to their website. I shouldn’t have to watch a video; it should be printed ON THE PACKAGE. There are plenty of times I’m cooking at a residency or retreat or whatever, and there’s no internet. Second, it takes over 2 hours to prepare the dough. I mean, I might as well have made it from scratch. This was supposed to save me time. Third, once in the pan, it doesn’t bake properly. The toppings were starting to burn, but the crust wasn’t baked. It was a disaster. We ended up scraping off the topping and making impromptu garlic bread to eat with it instead. At least the topping was good: sauce, sauteed onions, mushrooms, green peppers, tomatoes, pancetta, pepperoni, and lots and lots of mozzarella. But at least I know what dough to avoid at all costs. Absolutely awful. Worst pizza dough experience I’ve ever had.

At least I’d gotten my mother a nice cheesecake, her favorite.

Read THE FOXGLOVE KING by Hannah Whitten, which was good.

Relieved that Mercury went direct, and completely exhausted by it at the same time. This Pluto Retrograde won’t be particularly pleasant (lots of squares with other planets, causing tension), but at least we don’t have to worry about Mercury again until August.

Noodled with next week’s poem. It’s not where I want it. I need physical and mental openness/space to make it work, and not sure how I’ll manage it this week.

I was worried I’d get my word for July’s poem while we were on the road, so I packed my poetry notebook as insurance I wouldn’t, and it worked.

Weird dreams overnight, which fled as soon as I woke up on Monday.

Drafted an episode of Legerdemain. Did this week’s episode graphics, uploaded, and scheduled. Polished, uploaded, and scheduled next week’s Legerdemain episodes. Once they were approved, I created the episode graphics and uploaded those promos. Did a temporary graphic for FALL FOREVER, mostly so I could add it to my Creative Ground profile.

Did a dropoff/pickup at the library (and scored three fantastic cookbooks from the discard cart). Picked up my mom’s prescription at the pharmacy. Swung by the bookstore to talk about autumn’s reading, but their hours have changed, and they were closed. I have to go back on Wednesday. Mailed some bills. Deposited some checks at the bank. Swung by another store to pick up a couple of things, which, of course, they did not have. I need to go over to Carr’s Hardware on the other side of town instead, probably at the end of the week.

The siren song of FlexClip was calling again, but I needed to do my work first. I really miss iMovie from my mac. And, much as I want/need to create more enticing visuals for Legerdemain and Angel Hunt, I might start with something simpler like the Topic Workbooks. We’ll see. I need uninterrupted work time for that.

Did the client work. Had time for dinner before soup class, which was fun. We’re almost at the end of our soup class journey. It’s been an amazing few months. I’ve learned a lot, and the sense of community built is fantastic.

Started working on the next draft of FALL FOREVER. Making a lot of internal cuts in the scenes, tightening beats, getting rid of repetitive information, etc. I’m reworking one of the arcs. I need to up a confrontation scene. There’s a bit near the end that I want to move earlier, and turn into a half page or so exchange, and I want the Solstice celebration scene to have more fun and energy, instead of being a little self-conscious and trite, the way it is now. I’m not combining two characters, as a Trusted Reader suggested; the two characters work better separately, because one of them is very much a fulcrum on what the two pairs of relationships balance. I tried writing a few scenes where the characters were merged, and it shifts the themes I want to explore too much. A dynamic like that would work better in a different play. When I read the play, there’s enough of one of the characters, but when I heard the play read, I felt his character should have a little more. That’s partly due to the actor, I’m sure. But I want to layer him a bit more, so his flashes of humor and insight come through the grief better.

My contract for the 2025 Llewellyn Almanac arrived. Woo-hoo! I will sign it and send it back today, and then get started on writing the 25 spells next week, doing 3 per week at minimum, to get them all done and give me time to revise them before the mid-September deadline. And, the rate went up! Very happy.

Weird dreams overnight, that fled when I woke up. I have a feeling they were tied to FALL FOREVER. I did some more work on the play first thing this morning. Worked on the poem for Sunday, too. I started wondering if maybe I was working on the wrong thing/theme. I may do some freewriting later this morning, and see where it leads.

On today’s agenda: Legerdemain, maybe some ANGEL HUNT, work on the poem, work on the flash fiction piece for the artist call. Some new grant opportunities landed on my desk yesterday, for next year. I have to look at the calendar and see what’s what, and then work on those applications. Client work in the afternoon, and then yoga. Maybe after yoga, I’ll feel like I can focus on the poem better. Social media rounds to promote today’s serial episode. One last look at tomorrow’s Process Muse post. I’d like to do some work on FALL FOREVER, REP, and the Heist Romance Script, but I don’t see that happening today.

Have a good one!

Tues. April 11, 2023: A Promised Stretch of Good Weather to Support The Writing

image courtesy of Jill Wellington via pixabay.com

Tuesday, April 11, 2023

Waning Moon

Sunny and pleasant

Ready to curl up and catch up? It looks like we’re plunging straight into summer, skipping spring this week.

Friday was frustrating. On the upside, I managed to write 9 ½ pages on FALL FOREVER. I caught up with Thursday’s missed pages, wrote Friday’s pages, and worked ahead through Saturday’s pages, since I knew I wouldn’t be able to work on it on Saturday.

The dishwasher stopped working again. I’m pretty sure it’s the outlet, not the dishwasher. So I took everything out and washed it all by hand again.

I was worried it would destroy my concentration on FALL FOREVER (since it happened while I was writing), but I managed to get back in and finish the scenes. By Day 7 I’d written 34 pages, which is a decent start.

The steady pages definitely don’t have the endorphin rush that writing for 10 or 12 hours do, but it’s more sustainable.

The DG is setting up virtual “rooms” to read scenes. I’ll skip those. “Sharing” first draft work on unfinished projects with strangers does more harm than good for me. There are people I trust and will sometimes share early drafts, but usually, until a draft is finished, it’s detrimental to share too early. It’s easier to share something like a short story or a monologue early because I’ve finished a couple of drafts and CAN share it. But sharing the opening when I’m only 30 pages in would derail the piece for me. I’m still figuring out what it is. Outside chatter is destructive. Even positive feedback would be harmful to the overall piece at this stage.

On top of that, damn Spectrum kept going down. If the stupid construction people up the street are working, they need to be careful of the internet.

Up a little after 4 AM on Saturday, before the alarm and before coffee, which confused the cats. Got everything done and we were on the road a little before 5:30 AM for the storage run. The lovely moon watched over our travels until the sun rose. It was a nice, sunny, mild day to drive. Traffic was light on the way down, even across the Bourne Bridge (the Sagamore is down to one lane in each direction, because they are always doing work on one or both of  the bridges to make sure people can’t effectively get across. They need to be stopped from doing work on both bridges at the same time, which is simply unviable. But I’m sure they’ll do it anyway, by May.

We made it to storage a little after 9 AM (usually the trip takes at least 4 hours, longer with bridge traffic. Couldn’t find everything I wanted, because it’s buried, and, even though I marked all the boxes, there’s stuff I can’t get at. But we found what was most important for this trip, loaded the car, and were done in about 40 minutes. We swung by one of our favorite stores, got some fun stuff (including some silicon whisks and some door decorations for the summer) and were back on the road and over by the bridge by 10:30. The traffic was just starting to back up as we went across; by the time we were a half hour clear, the backups on both bridges were getting bad. So at least our timing was good.

Traffic back was heavy between Worcester and Sturbridge on the pike, but other than that, it was moving well, and we were back by 2 PM (never goes that smoothly). We picked up takeout on the way home and ate, then I unloaded the car.

Two of the boxes of china I’m not going to unpack until after our company comes and goes at the end of the month, because I still need to get a china cabinet for it. The box with the vintage soup tureens also had the trifle dish and the large glass bowl and some other good stuff in it that we will use.

The Canaletto/Venice books made it back up for a summer project, and that box also has some other cookbooks in it. There were some other bits and bobs, some of which I have to go through. Slowly, slowly, unpack, rearrange, integrate into the house.

I started reading a biography of Laurette Taylor in the afternoon/evening (she crossed paths with Minnie Fiske). And the Katharine Cornell book with the information I need for about three projects showed up, so that’s all good.

I fell into bed early. Woke up to coffee on Sunday morning. Made eggs Benedict for breakfast. Unpacked some more (soup tureens, etc.) and washed them. Baked the lemon cake.

Wrote 5 ½ pages on FALL FOREVER. I see where I’m going heading to the end of Act 1. A character who was always going to be offstage will come on at the end of the act. That’s two characters who decided they needed to be front and center, rather than off to the side.

I should have written another Legerdemain episode, but I had nothing in the tank.

I put a raspberry jam filling between the layers of lemon cake, and made a chocolate glaze over the top of it. It’s good, but the raspberry overwhelms the lemon, and it might have made more sense to use plain yellow cake. Next time.

Took down the curtains in the kitchen, which lets in much more light. It’s warm enough so we don’t need them to block the leaks around the window edges.

Sat on the porch in the afternoon, reading and taking notes. The back door to the balcony hasn’t been fixed yet. I am going to be a nudge about it. We’ve waited two years to have the door fixed so we could close it for winter and it wasn’t; now it’s jammed shut and I won’t be denied access to having that garden space all summer. And I want it to be set up before the company comes at the end of the month.

I went to yoga in the evening. It was good. Intense, but good. Went to bed pretty soon after I came home.

Slept well until about 2, when I woke up with sense memory stress. Tessa wandered off, and, around 3, just as I was getting back to sleep, Charlotte came in and wanted attention. Dozed off until just before 6.

I downloaded the IceCream reading app on the laptop; we’ll see if that works. I still need to move what’s on Overdrive in the Kindle onto the hard drive.

Monday morning, I wrote 8 pages of FALL FOREVER first thing. I see the new end of Act 1, and I should hit it in about two more days/scenes. I can’t hide behind any of the genre tricks I use in the comic noir mysteries, because this is a naturalistic drama, and I have to build the beats differently. I hope I can pull it off.

It’s leaf blower season again. Fortunately, they don’t run the blowers all day every day, just for a few minutes once or twice a week. There will be more of it early on for the initial cleanup, and then it will settle down. I hope.

Drafted an episode of Legerdemain, updated the Style Sheet and Series Bible.

My friend Paula’s play is a semi-finalist with a company down in Florida, and I am so excited for her! I love the play, and am so happy it’s getting recognition.

Did a library run to drop off/pick up books.

Created the episode graphics for this week’s episodes of Legerdemain. Uploaded the promos for this week’s Legerdemain and Angel Hunt episodes.

Finished, polished, uploaded, and scheduled tomorrow’s Process Muse. Wrote the next two posts, which I will polish, upload, and schedule tomorrow.

Turned around two script coverages.

Blocked off some quality time later in the week for Legerdemain and for Angel Hunt, to get ahead on both of them. Script coverage may be light late in the week; if it picks up and it’s  necessary, I will work on one serial on Saturday and the other on Sunday (although I’ll upload next week’s Legerdemain episodes no later than Thursday).

Worked on contest entries.

Soup class was fun. Last night was gumbo night.

I re-read some of the flash fiction I wrote to February prompts. The first batch needs some revision tweaks and I think they can start heading out into the world soon. I’d like to get them out the door before Mercury goes retrograde. I’ll work on the next batch in and around everything else.

This morning, I will do more pages on FALL FOREVER, draft another episode of Legerdemain, do the social media rounds to promote Episode 75 of Legerdemain.75 Episodes! Phew! Kind of exciting. I have to do a curbside pickup on some stuff I ordered, too, to get going on the spring cleaning.

I have two script coverages to complete, and yoga this evening.

So I better get going!

How’s your week starting?

Wed. June 8, 2022: Sometimes Saturn (Retrograde) is Positive

image courtesy of Michael Heck via pixabay.com

Wednesday, June 8, 2022

Waxing Moon

Pluto & Mercury Retrograde

Rainy and cool

I dreaded yesterday for weeks, particularly since I’ve been suffering from sense memory stress from the move last year at this time. But we needed to make a run to the Cape, and yesterday was the right day to do it.

We were up at 4:30 and out of the house by 5:30. The cats Were Not Amused.

The drive went smoothly until we hit a pocket of traffic at Westboro. Once we got on 495 South, the traffic grew steadily heavier, but it was moving. It wasn’t even too much trouble to get over the Bourne Bridge.

We hit some stores where we hoped to find stuff we haven’t yet sourced up here. Weren’t very successful, although I grabbed a couple of jars of beach plum jam (which I love and one can’t get here, because, you know beach plums need the beach). I grabbed a few other things, too, because they were there and at a good price, including a small, tiled plant stand. Also found the perfect fabric in cotton canvas to recover the kitchen chairs, in a cheerful, vintage-y print. The store had VICTORIA magazine in stock, which I haven’t been able to find in print here, so that was a bonus.

We drove past the old house and it looks. . .the same? Sheer pink curtains, the lilac tree is still there, the lawn isn’t mowed and fake greened the way the other lawns on the street are. Hopefully, Che Guevara Chipmunk has been able to re-establish his home there. And I hope the people who bought it are happy there.

Tried to drive past the beach, but they were having an event and the roads were blocked off. So we headed to the storage unit, about an hour and a half later than I’d hoped. The unit was kind of overwhelming. We didn’t find everything we hoped to dig out, but I didn’t want to overstuff the car, either. We got what we could, and headed out, again, over the Bourne Bridge, into the heavy traffic.

But we made it past Worcester just before 2:30 (if you don’t get past Worcester by 2:30, in either direction, you get caught up in the Boston spillover traffic). A little beyond Worcester, we stopped at a rest area to eat the picnic lunch I’d packed, full of farmers’ market goodies, which was a much better choice than getting fast food.

Refreshed, we continued on, and were home a little after 5 PM. Unloaded. Stripped down and decontaminated. Only about 10% of people were masking on Cape, in comparison to 90% here. COVID cases in the state have gone down 20% over the past two weeks, but the tourists will bring more infections. We are still masking.

Had a light snack for dinner, and just crashed on the couch, enjoying VICTORIA magazine. Tessa wouldn’t speak to me. Charlotte complained from a distance, but wouldn’t let me pet her until we settled in to sleep; Willa slept through the whole day and was perfectly happy to join us for supper.

Things are in bloom out there; the lilacs are still out, and the PGM azaleas (those bright red/violet/purply ones) are in full bloom, too. So it was pretty. But the pollen was thick. My blue car was covered in yellow dust. When I showered, as part of the decontamination protocols, I touched my face and realized I had to scrub off a layer of pollen that stuck to the sunscreen.

Fortunately, it’s raining, and one can tell the car is blue again.

I didn’t feel torn apart going back, which is what I expected to feel – not only the sense memory stress, but the full weight of the dream of living on Cape for the rest of my life not being my reality. And I didn’t, which is a good thing. I still have affection for the good memories, and it’s not where I’m supposed to be anymore, at least right now.

And the move is OVER, and we are HERE, which is where we should be right now, in a lovely, light home in a vibrant, artistic community.

So, while the transition last year was tough, and I hope never to move during a Mercury Retrograde again, I am deeply grateful that we’ve landed here. And now I can enjoy the Cape again as a nice place to visit. And maybe build some fresh good memories.

An example of when Saturn Retrograde works positively: a life lesson that doesn’t feel like getting beaten down.

I went to bed ridiculously early and slept until Charlotte and Tessa conspired together to get me up. I’m a little sore from hauling stuff around and spending so much time in the car, but nowhere near how bad I felt last year at this time. Which is part of the healing.

Today, I have writing to do, and three scripts to turn around. I was going to haul over to Carr’s hardware store over by Norad Mill, but I think I’ll wait until tomorrow. I have a list of weird stuff to get there, and I’m sure the clerk will find it highly amusing to help me hunt it all down. They are very nice there.

I also have unpacking and lots of washing to do. Everything comes back sandy because, you know, beaches have sand. And there’s also an oily layer over it, from all the leaf blowers and other machines that vomit oily gases.

It will be a combination of nesting, writing, and script coverage, which is just fine with me.

And feeling better about things, in general.

Wed. Aug. 11, 2021: Another Heat Wave Begins

image courtesy of Free Photos via pixabay.com

Wednesday, August 11, 2021

Waxing Moon

Pluto, Saturn, Jupiter, Neptune, Chiron Retrograde

Heat wave & humid

We are in for a stretch of yucky weather. Since we don’t have A/C, it will make work a challenge.

No, I’m not hauling my laptop somewhere else to work. It’s a pandemic. I’m not going to be inside a sealed room with germy strangers. Even masked.

Up at 4:30 AM yesterday, had the car packed and on the road by 6:15. It wasn’t a bad ride down to the Cape. There were pockets of traffic at Worcester and Middleboro, and the Bourne Bridge was annoying, but it wasn’t bad.

We switched stuff out of both storage units and were done in about a half hour. We took the Canal Road on the Cape side from Bourne to Sandwich, because my mom wanted to hit up that Christmas Tree Shop (we don’t have that store here; nearest one is an hour and a half away). We were masked, the staff was masked, but the stupid fucking tourists weren’t. Of course. Because they don’t care if they kill people off, as long as they get their $1 beach swag.

We only found 2 things on our list, but found a few other bits and bobs it made sense to get there instead of elsewhere. I found oval wooden spoons, which are difficult to source now. Most of them are round. The oval ones fit inside jars, and are better for making sauces, whereas the round ones are good for baking. Our oval wooden spoons are well used, from back when we lived in Chicago in the early 1960’s. They are on their last twigs. I will still use them for crafts, but for cooking, I needed other wooden spoons, and I wanted oval. The store had them, they were inexpensive, so I grabbed two sets, and now have 6 new, oval wooden spoons. I doubt they will last the 60 years these other spoons have, but if they last 10, I’ll consider it money well spent. Found the clear shower curtain liners, and grabbed a couple. I love the shower curtain (from my NY life) that we’re using in this bathroom. It looks great. But it’s just a tad short, and the liner will protect the floor better.

Since we didn’t buy much, there was room to stuff It into the packed car. We were back on the road by 11:13 – after a serious bout with the hand sanitizer I keep in the car.

The Sagamore Bridge was backing up, so we crawled back along the Canal Road and took the Bourne Bridge off Cape. Wasn’t bad getting off Cape, but backed up getting on, so I’m glad we timed getting on the way we did.

Sigh of relief once we were back over the bridge and headed home.

To think that sign of relief used to happen in the other direction.

Things change.

I had severe pain in the tendons of my right leg, from hip to foot. It hurt coming on the way down, but going back was even worse. When we stopped at a rest area, I popped into the convenience store to buy Advil that had both ibuprofen and acetaminophen in it, and gulped down a couple with water. That took the pain from excruciating to extremely bad, so I could at least drive home.

A few minutes in Dancer’s Pose before I got back into the car helped, too, although I felt pretentious. But, needs must.

Stopped at Whitney’s Farm to pick up a few things, including one of their dinners (lasagna), because I was too tired to cook.

Got home, unloaded everything, got it up the stairs. We did decontamination showers, just in case, and we decontaminated everything we bought. Not taking any chances.

The lasagna was great. The sauce was more like a vodka sauce than the usual, heavier tomato sauce, which was interesting. However, it was meat lasagna, which isn’t the best choice for me. I didn’t get sick, but didn’t feel as good as I do when I stay away from red meat completely.

New issue of VOGUE arrived, with a great story on First Lady Dr. Jill Biden. She’s so talented and smart, and such a genuinely good human being (and yes, I have actually met and interacted with her, on numerous occasions, prior to her First Lady status). I’m glad other people are realizing just how terrific she is.

I went to bed ridiculously early. Up today, writing, yoga, meditation. It was hard to get started writing on the book again, but once I started, I got into the flow.

I’m doing a quick run to Wild Oats and to Stop and Shop for a few things before it gets too hot. I have script coverages to write, and more scripts to read. I have emails on which to catch up, and a client meeting for which to prep tomorrow. But I will take it easy, within the confines of the weather. The ceiling fans are on, the box fans will go on soon. I hope we do get the daily afternoon thunderstorms these next few days to break the humidity.

Hydration and rest.

The good part about reading being such a big part of my work is that I can lie down in the coolest place in the house near a fan and work.

Be careful out there, friends.

Wed. April 14, 2021: Die For Your Employer Day 326 — Exhaustion

Wednesday, April 14, 2021

Waxing Moon

Partly cloudy and cooler

Yesterday was not a particularly productive day. It was mostly built around rental listings and inquiries. Saw a house that fits our budget, location, and price parameters that didn’t seem like a scam, so sent an inquiry on that, too. We’ll see. It seems low-priced for the area, but then, so is where we are now.

Saw an overpriced, absolutely mediocre house in a mediocre neighborhood (that had a nice kitchen, though) – but their demand is that anyone who wants to rent it earns a “minimum” of $114K/year. Are they high?

The Sagamore Bridge is down to one lane in each direction for bridge work, which also puts more pressure on the Bourne Bridge. The traffic is already back to summer pre-pandemic levels, so getting on and off Cape is difficult. It’s very frustrating.

Got some client work done, caught up on some correspondence, worked on contest entries. This category I’m working on has fierce competition. What a pleasure to read strong book after strong book!

Mostly, I felt drained and exhausted.

Got a bit of packing done. Charlotte “helped”, Tessa kept wanting to unpack what was packed, Willa’s not sure about it all.

Stress baked chocolate chip cookies because I was stressed and wanted chocolate chip cookies. Might as well keep enjoying the kitchen while we’re here.

Arm feels better, still fatigued and have a headache.

Got a request for further information from a potential client, so we’ll see.

Was very disappointed by a company whose products I’d liked for years. We started discussions about the possibility of me doing some copywriting for them – but they want unpaid samples. Nope. So not only am I moving on, I will no longer be a customer. If that’s how they treat employees, while promoting themselves as a company out to do “good” in the world – hypocrites, and I won’t work for them.

Knowledge Unicorns was fine. The kids are digging in, just trying to make it through the end of the school year, although some of them don’t know when that will be. Dates keep getting changed. Schools that are back to in-person learning keep having to switch back to remote because of COVID outbreaks. I’m glad we’re all staying strong, and the kids won’t go back in person this year no matter WHAT the pressures are.

The parents are starting to get their vaccine appointments, and, hopefully, in a few months, vaccines for the kids will be approved, and they can, too.

Today will be stressful, having to be onsite at a client’s, but then I have Remote Chat to which to look forward, and I am.

Have a lovely day, and please spare a positive house-and-hearth thought for me, if you can.

Wed. March 25, 2015: Coming Off a Good Writing Weekend

Wednesday, March 25, 2015
Waxing Moon
Jupiter Retrograde
Saturn Retrograde
Sunny and a little warmer

Busy times. I went flat out on Friday, working on ComCat practice in the morning, and writing press releases and PSAs all afternoon. I had a raging migraine by the time I got home.

Saturday was my Saturday “off” from work. I tried to get the headache under control, and I worked on contest entries. There was some good stuff in there.

On Sunday, I finished the student manuscript that’s taken me so long. It’s a relief to get it off my desk, and now the student needs to understand and apply the edits.

I didn’t mean to, but got caught up in the serial novel, what used to be THE POWER OF WORDS. I wrote a new opening for the first book, INSPIRED INCUBATION (yeah, that title’s got to go, even though it’s better than the original title). I like it better.

The advice is to start as far in to the story as possible. I actually backed up a couple of scenes from where I started the book originally, BUT (and the “but” is important), even though it’s chronologically earlier, it’s a more active point in the story, on both physical and emotional levels. That lets me slide into the material that was the original opening (with some cuts) in a way that makes more sense.

I started working on the rewrites for what used to be the second section of the first book, but is now the second book, COLLABORATIVE BIRTH. I still kind of like that title — it fits what the book is about. There are some pretty extensive rewrites, as there were in the first book, but it pulls together much better.

All of Monday was about COLLABORATIVE BIRTH, except for a quick trip to send off the student’s manuscript, turn down a job that was flattering, but I knew in my gut was not the right choice for me, and take the recycling to the dump. Yes, I lead a glamorous life! 😉

I finished the section set on Cape Cod, which only needed some minor tweaking, and then started the section set in Prague — which needed to be ripped apart and rebuilt.

Yesterday, I did a little bit of work on COLLABORATIVE BIRTH, then turned on the Dukane (which is the microfilm machine), and started on the Pinkerton Detective reels borrowed from the University of Indiana for the historical play. Wow. Just wow.

It took me six hours to read one reel, and I got 16 pages’ worth of notes out of it. Some are relevant to the historical play. Some will go into the novel that will cover more than the play possibly could.

It’s also awesome to have the machine at home, and be able to take my time with it, instead of worrying that I’ll overrun whatever time I booked in someone else’s facility.

I also finished rewriting the Prague section of the book, which means I’ve done a serious 165 pages of revisions in the past few days.

I also baked for Thursday’s Pub Serve meeting. Feeding representatives from all the libraries, so it better be good! 😉

Watched NOW YOU SEE ME last night. I’ve watched it probably a dozen times before, and I always find something new to enjoy. It’s a clever, well-done, smart movie with a great cast. I don’t think people really knew what to do with it when it first came out, but I love it.

I’m in at work a little early today, because I have to leave at 5 instead of 6 to head to the National Marine Life Center for their annual meeting. A gasoline truck crashed at the Bourne Rotary this morning, dumping 12,000 gallons into the road, some of which got into the canal. Hopefully, the Bourne Bridge will be accessible by evening. Right now it’s closed for the clean-up. Hopefully, the ecological impact can be somewhat contained.

Tomorrow is PubServe in the morning, then I’m at work in the afternoon, and have Tango at night. Friday and Saturday are at work; probably busy.

The snow packs are shrinking. I’d like to start cleaning up the yard. Although there are big, melted patches out there, there are still snow banks that prevent me from getting from the house to the sections of the yard that need cleaning up.

But the four o’clocks are starting to come up inside. I have to do some more planting early next week, or nothing will come up until Christmas.

Have a great week!

Devon