Tuesday, June 28, 2022: Release Day for “Personal Revolution”

Tuesday, June 28, 2022

New Moon

Pluto, Saturn, Neptune Retrograde

Partly cloudy and pleasant

The re-release of the short mystery “Personal Revolution” is out today! I’m in the process of updating all the links. It’s a Delectable Digital Delight, a short story set in a fictional town tucked near Lexington and Concord, MA.  Since Independence Day weekend is coming up, it was a good chance to re-release it. Only 99 cents. Universal buy link is here.

When a man is hanged from the oak tree in a Redcoat uniform at an historic house just before the Independence Day program, Glenda vows to both solve the murder and protect the newly-opened museum. What she finds is much darker — and more personal — than she bargained.

There’s information on the other Delectable Digital Delights here.

Back to our regularly scheduled natter.

Neptune has joined Pluto and Saturn in the retrograde lineup. Neptune has strong influences over me, so it’s a reminder to be cautious until it goes direct in December. It’s good for revealing phonies, though.

Friday was a hellscape, wasn’t it, with the corrupt, extremist SCOTUS striking down Roe. I’m glad I got a good chunk of work done on The Big Project, because the rest of the day was lost. The Dems had the heads up on this months ago. What do they do? Stand on a few steps singing a song and send out fundraising emails. They are pathetic.

Don’t start with “they don’t have the votes” or “don’t criticize Dems.” We gave them enough votes to get it done and it is THEIR JOB to keep their people in line, the way the Republicans do. The Republicans get whatever they want no matter who is in office, because they fight, and they don’t stop. The Dems throw up their hands, say they “don’t have the votes’ and ask for more money. Pathetic. They just let the extremists roll right over top of them, no matter what.

I had to hop out to the grocery store shortly after the announcement came down. What was hopeful was that there were growing groups of women of all ages, at both the grocery store, and the post office, talking. Those of us who are old enough to remember life pre-Roe, and who’ve been activists since before the Internet know how to harness the power of memory and communication that’s not based on technology, so we can help set up less traceable networks (nothing is untraceable if more than one person knows about it). Use the best of modern advances with old school.

There is plenty I will not be discussing publicly.

I tried to write in the afternoon, but everything came out incoherent.

I gave up on the Balzac biography, and I’m trying to figure out why I liked his work so much, back in the year I lived in Seattle. But I was a walking disaster that year, so my judgment was undoubtedly questionable.

Read Donna Leon’s latest Brunetti mystery, GIVE UNTO OTHERS, which is quieter and sadder than many others in the series. At least she deals with the pandemic. I don’t trust authors setting their books as “contemporary” who act like the pandemic never existed. I’m giving some a pass, who had books that stalled in the pipeline during the pandemic, but going forward, it’s a big red flag for me.

Saturday morning, I was up early.  I took a home COVID test, because there’s the regular question of “Is it pollen or the plague?” and because of last week’s playwrighting workshop. Even though we were masked and vaccinated, there was still risk, and I felt questionable a few days after, so I wanted to make sure.

The negative test meant I could go to the Farmers’ Market (that and the fact that I felt fine, other than scraping pollen off my skin every few hours). I bought from my friend at Bohemian Nouveaux Bakery, I bought tomatoes and fennel and carrots and eggs from various other farmers, and told the maple syrup place how amazing their syrup is. I chatted with all kinds of people and dogs lined up to get attention (often thoroughly confusing their owners). I left before it got too crowded, but the market is as much about the social aspect as the culinary one.

Felt the need to rest, so I did, pushing away all the “should haves.”

Made a big salad for lunch, then put Willa in her playpen and took her out on the back balcony, so I could read and she could enjoy being outside. It’s nice and shady, and the humidity wasn’t too bad.

Finished the Donna Leon book and started FROM BAD TO CURSED by Lana Harper, which was a lot of fun.

Dinner was leftovers, and then I switched to a biography of Shirley Jackson. It didn’t get as hot as I feared, but I was too wiped out to move. My body remembers the exhaustion from last year, the move, going back and filling the two dumpsters, the difficulty getting things sorted to either the dumpster or into storage. So this week, I have to focus on building new, lighter, happier, more relaxed memories here over those other memories, even with all the crap going on, and even as I have to focus on deadlines and making a living.

So that will be. . .something or other.

Had weird dreams Saturday into Sunday, where I lived in a condominium. My next-door neighbors had theirs on the market. For some reason, the wall between our apartments served as a one-way mirror for me, so I could see everyone coming through to look at their apartment. I have no idea what the hell that could mean.

Sunday was even hotter than Saturday. It was also the day before the dark moon, my lowest energy day of the month, but all the stuff I’d put off for Friday and Saturday had to be dealt with.

I worked on the SETTING UP YOUR SUBMISSIONS SYSTEM Topic Workbook. That should be ready to go for final formatting and proofing this week, and maybe release next week. The workbook for class is nearly done. I took down two more workbooks that I want to re-release in July, so that they are down long enough for me to revise them and get them back up.

I worked on the anthology story and it wasn’t working. I’m percolating an idea for a different anthology that is genuinely creepy and twisted and, if I pull if off, will need trigger warnings.

The yoga studio here sent out a wonderful email blast about processing what’s going on, poses to help, and where they stand on the issues. Unlike the yoga studio on Cape Cod, who only allowed right-wingers to voice opinions and have safe space. If anyone spoke up to stand up to the right-wing crap spouted by class members, they were told to stop being political. Yet those right-wingers could say whatever they wanted and it was their right to express an opinion. Which meant it wasn’t safe space for anyone else. Huge difference, and the attitude here is much more what I want and need out of my yoga studio.

The meditation group also set up something virtual for Sunday night. I’d hoped to go, but Charlotte got her claw stuck on something in the kitty condo and panicked. By the time I got her safely extracted and calmed down, the mediation was nearly over. She wasn’t hurt, thank goodness, but was very vocal in her upset. Both Tessa and Willa were worried. Once Charlotte was free, and hiding, Tessa sat nearby, so that Charlotte wouldn’t be alone. I was worried Charlotte would get aggressive in her panic, but she didn’t. It was very sweet of Tessa, since they still don’t always get along.

Could not get going on Monday. Everything was a struggle. Managed to get the SUBMISSIONS Topic Workbook smoothed out and uploaded, but there is a lot of formatting wonk, so I will have to go back through and figure it out. I might have to push back the release date.

Lost way too much of the day trying to get my mother’s new doctor situation sorted out. It shouldn’t take us a damn year, pandemic or not, to find a doctor. I’m lucky she’s in reasonably good health for 97, and the paramedics aren’t here every couple of weeks, the way they are for several other residents on the block. I think we’ve found someone decent. We’ll see, after her appointment in mid-July.

Finally managed to shake loose what wasn’t working in the Monthology anthology story, and got it done. It wasn’t just that the originally planned A and B storylines flipped, causing restructuring – the heart of the piece was somewhere else. Once I found its heart, I could build the story properly. I did a few revision passes (some of them major), and wound up with a draft I felt good enough about to send to my editor. Hopefully, she likes it. I’m a little worried that the story is too quiet, without the harder urban fantasy edge. But I was careful about fact-checking the shared world details and the details of anyone else’s monsters, so I think we’re okay.

There’s a lot less about the workday of the protagonist, which I thought would ground the piece, and would have called for more inter-monster interaction. But there’s room to do more if there’s another volume, and if I’m invited to contribute again. This story stands on its own, but also leaves the door open for more stories with these characters.

Fingers crossed it fits the shared vision.

I let the horror story percolate. I actually have two ideas. The more gruesome one is the one I’m going to draft first.

While there weren’t scripts assigned in my cue, I got a stack of manuscripts to cover, where I have to read the first fifty pages and comment, so there’s the week’s work from that. I’ll still be under where I wanted to be this pay period, but not as badly. And, with the review invoice I’m sending, I should be okay. Bills are covered, and as long as I’m not extravagant, I don’t have to feel like a miser.

Started reading the new book for review. It’s pretty good.

Up early this morning to go to the laundromat. It’s usually kept up quite well, but it was filthy today. The machines were fine, but the rest of it was yucky. I brought the laundry back unfolded, because I didn’t want it on the folding table.

I managed to get a good bit of the multi-colored draft of first big section of The Big Project done. The good thing about the slow and careful attention it needs to catch passives, adverbs, and qualifiers is that a lot of other errors show up, too.

I’ll do some writing this morning, and promotion of “Personal Revolution”. Later, I have to pick up my mom’s prescription. This afternoon, I’ll take a home COVID test, not because I’m feeling terrible, but because tonight I’m going to my first in-person yoga class in nearly three years, and, even though they have strict protocols, I want to make sure once and for all I’m clear post-workshop and Farmers’ Market. I have my vaccination card tucked into my purse. I still have to clean my mat and fix my mat bag before tonight. The buckle on the strap broke during the move.

I’m hoping to get a tarot spread up on the Ko-fi page later today, too. I was going to head down to Pittsfield to try and get a new phone (my phone’s giving me trouble, but hey, it lasted four years, a record for me), but I think I’ll wait until later in the week.

Plenty to do, so better get to it, right? Overlay the NOW over the sense memory stress of the final clear-out last year.

Have a good one.

Wed. Feb. 9, 2022: Glum

image courtesy of wokandapix via pixabay.com

Wednesday, February 9, 2022

Waxing Moon

Sunny and cold (but milder than it’s been)

Well, yesterday turned out to suck.

I got out a script coverage on time, then went out to finish digging out the car. Only the plow had pushed slush up against the car in the parking lot, which then froze. Three of the four wheels are encased in ice. Ice melt didn’t work. Chipping at it didn’t work.

I’m stuck.

I had to cancel and reschedule the diagnosis. The earliest appointment is March 3 – after my sticker extension expires. Which means if it’s an expensive repair, they will refuse my request for a year-waiver. I requested a grace period online, and it was denied.

So I’m contacting the head of the agency and cc’ing my state senator. The car HAS to go to a registered emissions repair place. I can’t get it there within the deadline, because they book out so far in advance. The other registered emission repair places are too far, and don’t have openings, either. We are in a pandemic, and everyone is stretched beyond their limits. Stop with the arbitrary deadlines.

Stop punishing people for not being rich.

Struggled not to feel like this was a personal failure, like if I’d just done x, y, z – well, you know, I’ve kept the car dug out after each storm. I’ve never lived anywhere that the snow melted, was pushed up against the car by the plow, and then froze around the tires. I did the best I could.

Anyway, I was so upset about it all, and I’d already blocked off the afternoon away from client work, so I gave myself the rest of the day off and read. Finished THE RAVEN AND THE NIGHTINGALE. Read COLD AND PURE AND VERY DEAD. Started reading THE MALTESE MANUSCRIPT.

And was upset and depressed anyway.

I’ll be without a car for another month.

Ordered pizza delivered, because I just couldn’t face cooking. Plus, I had hoped I could DRIVE to the store and do a big grocery shop. But I guess I have to hump the cart there later this week and do a series of smaller shops.

Slept well, though, and the cats let me sleep until 6:30.

I will do some work on The Big Project. Then, I have a library trip to do, to drop off and pick up books. I might go to the college library, too, for some things I can only get there, and I might check out the college bookstore, too. I heard a rumor there might even be a place to get a decent cup of coffee around there.  I’ve missed being able to walk to a decent coffee shop since I left New York (because I had to drive ridiculous distances on Cape, too).

When the weather is better, I’ll be able to walk to the place across from MassMOCA for coffee, which is supposed to be great, but if the college actually has a place, that would be even better.

Although I still don’t feel comfortable to sit down in a coffee shop to drink it, and I miss that, too.

And the dumb government fucks are rolling back mask mandates, guaranteeing that we will get another variant, and another surge. And that more people will needlessly die.

My former doctor, on Cape, got in touch, worried about my booster, so I sent all that information over, about getting it and where, and all that, for their records. It was so nice of them to check in.

I still haven’t found a doctor here, and neither has my mom. We’re waiting until the virus numbers are down and the systems aren’t overwhelmed.

Knowledge Unicorns was fine last night. Those are darned good, smart, compassionate kids.

Anyway, I’m down today. But it’s sunny, and everything I have to do out of the house is do-able on foot.

If it warms up enough, I’ll try to chip away at more of the ice.

Onward (big sigh).

Thurs. July 2, 2020: Die For Tourist Dollars Day 45 — Optimistic With the Work

Thursday, July 2, 2020
Waxing Moon
Pluto Retrograde
Saturn Retrograde
Jupiter Retrograde
Neptune Retrograde
Hazy and humid

The latest on the garden is up at Gratitude and Growth (including some pictures). I am so grateful to have that space.

Yesterday was tough. I was up early. Didn’t feel great. Pushed myself to go onsite for a client, and burned out within two hours. I left before anyone else had arrived, leaving a note and what I’d done and was going to do from home. And being upfront with them about what the doctor said, because it could affect them. Not as much as the COVID test potentially could have affected them, but still.

Stopped at CVS on the way home to pick up one of my mother’s prescriptions. My primary care physician’s office called. We set up a Zoom call for next Tuesday afternoon (since I’m doing a podcast interview in the morning). That adds a huge level of stress, instead of removes one, because I’m worried she’s going to want to send me for more tests, and I’m out of emotional resources at this point. Plus, I can’t keep taking off work. I need to earn a living.

Home, disinfectant protocols, back to my desk, shaky as I was. But I’d rather be shaky at home, where I can lie down when I need to, then somewhere I can’t.

A couple more hours for the client. She approved the ads I did, so I’m going to start running them.

Remote Chat was fun, as it always is, but I was suffering from Anesthesia Brain, was fuzzy-headed, and misread some stuff badly.

Attending a virtual conference on freelance writing, The Freelance Writing Success Summit.The SEO training session was useful. It gave me some ideas how to up the game for this one particular client. Well, I can apply the concepts to all my clients, but I got some solid ideas to help one in particular.

I attended several sessions, and got a lot out of it. Will attend more today and tomorrow. Shoutout to Michelle Garrett, who hosts the Freelance Chat every Thursday, and told me about it.

Then, I switched over to Miracles of Human Language and finished watching the videos for the week. Absolutely fascinating. I printed out the reading, and will do that later this afternoon. This class helps me in the artificial languages or dialects that I create for built worlds, and will help me as I go back to study languages and get my French back up to speed, and, hopefully, add in a few more languages. I refuse the idea that I’m too old to learn new languages.

I just have to work harder.

The native speakers who are part of the teaching modules (called “informants”), showing us different uses of languages and dialect, all seem to speak at least four languages. I wish the US emphasized being multi-lingual, instead of having languages as electives. We should all speak, at minimum, English, French, and Spanish here. One of the informants is a Turkish woman who also speaks French, Dutch, English, and Japanese in addition to her native Turkish. I love the excitement about learning languages that all these informants demonstrate.

A couple of interesting playwriting opportunities crossed my desk, via Women in Media Arts. I wonder if I can spin anything out quickly enough and well enough for these companies? I will let ideas percolate.

Also got my 2022 contract fromLlewellyn. My piece is due in early September, so I will get to work on it next week. I’d like to get it to my editor sometime in August.

The contract cheered me up quite a bit. I was feeling rather in despair. The state of the country, in relation to the pandemic, the treason the highest elected officials are committing daily for personal profit, and the economy all weigh heavily on me.

I decided I’m not doing the Target run until next week. There’s too much traffic, too many germy Maskless Morons and Sliding Mask Skanks out there.

Bill paying today. Plus, I’m going to run in to the office for a client so that I can put out the first of the ads – the financial information is at the office, not with me.

I’ll do some more work for that client later today, then do my reading for the class and take my end-of-week quiz.

I intend to take tomorrow as the start of the holiday weekend. I need to work on the basement and in the yard, plus fix BARD’S LAMENT and read my book for review.

It’s the right kind of busy, and I hope that will improve my outlook. Because I’m struggling, and only part of it is because I’m taking longer than I’d like to come back physically from the surgery.

Have a great day, friends!

Fri. Sept. 8, 2017: Finalizing One Book, Moving on to the Next

Friday, September 8, 2017
Waning Moon
Neptune Retrograde
Uranus Retrograde
Sunny and cool

Got my review out yesterday. Was assigned my next two books, which I pick up today.

Put together some information for my friend, which he found helpful.

Worked on the literary fiction piece. It’s an interesting challenge. Today, I get back to the other work on the roster, but I’m finding a way to keep the momentum for this piece along with the work that has to be done on other pieces. Now I’m second-guessing (maybe it’s fourth-guessing, by this point), and thinking I SHOULD focus on each section in each voice at once to go deep enough, rather than alternating shorter sections. As I reader, I prefer chapters or sections that go long enough to get deeply into the character. I could always rearrange the sections once they’re written, but I’m not sure which way will serve best in the WRITING of it.

We found one small thing that had to be clarified in PLAYING THE ANGLES. I probably could have gotten away with it, but if anyone questioned it and it needed clarification — better to use the clear language from the outset. Hopefully, it’s off for the last time — which always makes me queasy. Even with the editor, the copy editor, and I going over it multiple times, I’m always afraid we missed something, simply because we’ve gone over it so many times.

My mom had a doctor’s appointment yesterday. October is filled with appointments before her surgery, poor thing.

I did some yard work. I started cutting back in two of the beds in the back, and I hard pruned the forsythia that grew so wild this year it completely blocked one of the paths on the side of the house. I hacked back most of the invasive autumn olive, and a lot of oak that’s acting like an invasive. When it gets colder, I’ll have to saw down some more oak that’s interfering with the roses. Doing a little bit every sunny day, and eventually, it will get done. Don’t know how I’m going to finish the mowing, though, with this damn mower being recalcitrant.

I had weird dreams, mashing three different times/experiences in my past. Probably because I’ve been talking with my college friend. Bizarre.

I want to get anything I need to do out and about done fast this morning, so I can get back into the writing for the rest of the weekend. I keep changing my mind about what to do with a particular section of THE FIX-IT GIRL, but I have to suck it up, make a decision and move on this weekend.

I’m worried about my friends in the path of Hurricane Irma, and I’m not looking forward to the anniversary of 9/11 on Monday. I think next week could be quite emotionally difficult, for a lot of people.

I also have some paperwork to file with the attorneys general of MA and NY on two different scam issues that they need to know about. Some other paperwork to get done, too, some for me, and more with my mom’s insurance.

Have a great weekend, everyone.

 

Thursday, April 22, 2010

City Hall Park, NYC

Thursday, April 22, 2010
Waxing Moon
Cloudy and warm
Earth Day

Yesterday, I was pretty much a waste of food. Sore from the walking the previous day, exhausted and overwhelmed by everything going on. Didn’t get much done, other than the grocery shopping, some business, and getting a few things packed up to go to storage.

A box of books arrived from Strand — the research books I needed to add to my library, after all that research in CT last week. Now I’ve got the books at my fingertips as I write — makes things so much easier. One of them — which I didn’t see at the library, but looks fascinating — is about the use of biological weapons such as poison arrows and scorpion poison, in ancient times. That opens all kinds of possibilities for fiction — maybe I can even weave some of it into the steampunk.

They also included a biography of Anne Sexton, by Diane Middlebrook. Fascinating. However, when one is exhausted and dealing with serious illness in the family, perhaps reading the life of a suicidal poet is not the best choice.

Elsa seems to improve with all these drugs, although she’s still sneezing a lot and has some bloody discharge. She’s lively and engaged, keeping to her schedule. Both vets said the medicine would cause lethargy, nausea, vomiting, and loss of appetite. Instead, she’s livelier than she’s been in weeks, and eating ravenously. Hopefully, tomorrow, we can get an accurate diagnosis and find a way to keep her steady WITHOUT so many prescription drugs. I am not a fan of the pharmaceutical industry — I want to find the cause of the problem and deal with it, not just mask symptoms. I think carefully managed medicines are fine to use as a means to an end — but there has to be an ending where the drugs are no longer used. Whether it’s a person or an animal.

I need to see if Strand has the book I didn’t buy at the museum the other day — if not, I’ll call the museum and have them ship it.

Hopefully, I can get some writing done and clear other business out of the way. I need to prepare for tomorrow — to get to the appointment on time, I have to have Elsa packed into the car before 9 AM.

The President is in NYC today, to talk about financial reform. Glad I’m not trying to get around downtown today — I couldn’t! i’ve only read the first 600 pages of the bill. First of all, I don’t think it goes anywhere near far enough. Second, as usual, the Republicans are misrepresenting the bill — or maybe they simply are incapable of cognitive reading, which means they shouldn’t be in office — there’s certainly nothing in the first 600 pages to indicate future bailouts — in fact, it seems to be trying to prevent that. I skimmed the rest of the bill and don’t see anything even remotely as a euphemism for “bailout”. There’s either deliberate misrepresentation going on (par for the course) or these politicians are too stupid to actually comprehend what they read, which opens up a whole other Pandora’s box. Or perhaps they’re having staff members read the bill and give a report — and the staff members can’t comprehend what they read. Is the bill badly written? They’re not going to make the bestseller lists anytime soon, let’s put it that way, but it’s certainly easy to understand if you have the most basic comprehension skills. It’s written in typical legislative-ese, which means I’m itching to take the red pen and rewrite whole chunks of it to be clearer. Honestly, I think it could say the same thing and say it better in half the words. But that’s not my job. It is my job, as a citizen, to know what the hell is in there — and know it firsthand, not second hand from pundits or press with other agendas, so I can tell my senators my position on it, where I think it needs to be strengthened, and how, ultimately, I’d like them to vote on it. But it’s not a good beach read, y’know?

My mom’s doctor’s office is all screwed up — they demand that she have a bloodtest before her next appointment on Tuesday, but they “can’t get around” to putting the order in for the bloodwork, and the lab won’t do a blood draw without the order. I used to temp in doctors’ offices, all over the country, dealing with front desk, appointments, and paperwork — you stay until whatever needs to get done for the day is done. This is people’s health at stake. There’s no such thing as “can’t get around to it” — especially at an establishment like that one, which has steadily lost patients over the last few years because they’re so disorganized. The doctor herself is great, and my mom, who is 86 and doesn’t like change, doesn’t want to change doctors, but the admin staff totally sucks. And today, they will have to deal with ME, and they will wish they’d gotten it right the first three times.

Trying to get stuff done,

Devon