Tues. May 23, 2023: Unpleasant Limbo

image courtesy of Melissa G via pixabay.com

Tuesday, May 23, 2023

Waxing Moon

Pluto Retrograde

Sunny and pleasant

Big announcement: You can find short videos about my work over on Tiktok. Trying it to see if that will expand the audience, especially for the serials and the Topic Workbooks.

Ready for our usual Tuesday morning catch-up? How was your weekend?

Today’s serial episode is Legerdemain:

Episode 87: Roommates

Shelley sets up a sting to catch a killer.

Legerdemain serial link

Legerdemain website link

Remember I mentioned interest in Alice Diamond’s Forty Elephants gang last Friday? Turns out there are already several novels out about it: Erin Bledsoe’s FORTY THIEVES and Beezy Marsh’s QUEEN OF THIEVES. So I don’t need to write a novel! I’m going to read their novels, though, and I’m going to read Brian McDonald’s nonfiction book on Alice. Disney’s doing a series, supposedly, which I’m likely to have mixed feelings about. (I’m glad Disney’s fighting DeSantis, but that doesn’t mean I suddenly love Disney). There might be another one of my historical women plays in there. Or I might read it just to read it.

It makes more sense to work on the script (or maybe it will be a novel) about Katharine Cornell’s tour. I have Gladys Malvern’s books (I ordered my own copies), and Gladys is quickly becoming one of my favorite people. In addition to being an actress touring with Cornell and others (also known as a “trouper”), she was an author, best known for the children’s books she wrote.

There are so many wonderful arts and culture events happening around here that it would be very easy to overload and not have any time for my own work. I need to make sure I keep a balance. I want to meet fellow artists and support their work, but I also have to keep putting my own work first. And I have to avoid unsafe situations where I might get infected.

On Friday, I finished the episode of Legerdemain I’d started writing a couple of days prior. This week, I have to upload and schedule the next batch of episodes.

I went to the library for what should have been a quick drop-off/pickup of a few books. However, I ran into a stranger and we started talking. Turns out we’re close to the same age and have both been in business all our lives. He works for MCU and was one of Stan Lee’s proteges. We’ve worked with about 30 or 40 of the same people throughout the years. Anyway, what started as a quick chat moved outside the building and wound up being a two-hour conversation. So that was fun, but I wasn’t wearing a jacket, and by the end of it, I was chilled to the bone.

Finally got the grocery shopping done, then came home and tried to warm up. Some client work came in for next week, so I didn’t worry about not having anything for Friday. And I’d missed my window to go to the Clark, plus it was clouding over, so I stayed home.

I experimented some more with FlexClip and Canva video tools. I like FlexClip much better, but there are instances where Canva does more of what I need.

I worked on the poem. I did the social media rounds ANGEL HUNT. I wrote up my review and sent it off. I continued reading THE SECRET SERVICE OF TEA AND TREASON, which is hilarious. So clever. I needed the rest.

Saturday, the cats tried to roust me out of bed and I refused to get up.

When I finally got up, I played with video again. I tried ClipChamp (urg) and Power Director (which just needed more time than I have to give it right now). Between FlexClip and Canva, I finished the Devon intro video, polished the Topic Workbooks videos, polished the ANGEL HUNT intro, and created a Legerdemain intro. I also set up video templates in Canva for AH and Legerdemain episodes, where I just have to pop out that week’s logline and/or graphic, save it, and the rest is set.

I also worked on the poem.

In the afternoon, I finished reading THE SECRET SERVICE OF TEA AND TREASON. What a delightful book.

Slept well Saturday into Sunday, although I had weird dreams, which fled as soon as I woke up.

I worked on the poem some more, adding in breath marks (I like to do that on pieces I read, so I don’t run out of air in the middle of a sentence).

I then worked on the Heist Romance Script, which has been begging for attention, doing the Corsica and Sardinia sections. They need work, but at least they’re there. About 20 script pages.  Got my characters back to Marseilles and separated them. Ben is back in London. Tara is wherever she is. I have to do some montage-y stuff and then do some research for the next bits, which are in Barcelona, and then York. I also have to write the dramaturgy on the treasure. I’ll only put bits and pieces of it in the script itself, but I need to know the whole story in order to do that well.

This draft, however, is to get characters and the main plot points in, and make sure I hit the action/team/romance bits. As I work on subsequent drafts, I will rip out what’s reading flat and build more dynamic beats that serve on multiple levels.

Which is ass-backwards, because most scriptwriters plot out the beats first and then write the script. But, since I’m not in a room with others, and it’s not on contract (nor would it be, with the strike going on), I’m doing it this way. Takes longer, but I’ll get there, even if it’s not the considered best practices.

I put on real people pants and makeup, and drove down to the Mount, in Lenox for the poetry reading. We had a stage out behind the stable, with a backdrop of trees. It was lovely. There were 11 poets, and it went well. I was second up. The piece got laughs where I hoped, and acknowledgement of the more serious beats where I hoped. I only blew one humorous line in delivery – the beds of kale line. Note to self – have full stanzas on the same page; end the page early if the stanza needs to spill over, because turning the page mid-stanza loses the rhythm.  I made a few adjustments as I read, when I realized the upcoming word wasn’t sustaining the rhythm created, but I could change those on the fly, without stumbling. Hopefully, I’ve remembered them all to fix them for the next draft. I’d printed it out in 16-point font, which made it much easier to read. I thoroughly enjoyed the other poets’ offerings. One of the things I love about the WxW events is that the audience are active listeners. They really pay attention and pick up on nuances and details.

On the way home, filled up the car with gas, and picked up a few things at Adams Fresh Market. Home, made dinner.

Read for a bit in the evening (not that thrilled with the current book, might just stop and take it back to the library).

Went back and did a few more pages on the Heist Romance Script – these scenes will need a lot of reworking in the next draft. Not happy with them.

Charlotte started bothering me at 2 AM, but I refused to get up until the coffee started at 5:30.

They’re still “painting” the library across the street, the machines making lots of beep-beep-beep all day from 6 AM onwards. It should have taken then a week to paint the building. We’re going into our third month. Ridiculous.

Instead of doing what I should have been doing all morning, I did a fix pass on the pages I wrote the previous night, so they’re better (but not where they need to be), and then wrote about 20 more pages. This will be a limited series (used to be called a mini-series), but this first draft is one big ole draft no one could ever use, and then I’ll cut and shape it. Again, not following best practices for the format, but, since I’m doing it for me at this point, not anyone else, I’ll do it my way. If I get a draft I feel is submission-worthy, I’ll make the necessary structural/format tweaks in that stronger draft.

Someday, it will actually get a title.

Also uploaded the first four videos to TikTok: the Devon Ellington intro, the Topic Workbooks, Legerdemain Intro, Angel Hunt intro. The only way I can edit sound attribution was to put the damn app on my phone, which I am not happy about. But, needs must.

I had four short client projects to turn around in the afternoon, which I did. I was assigned the next book for review. There’s not much from that editor now, and, with the strike, there’s not much coverage work. With the looming debt ceiling crisis (if my mother doesn’t get her social security check, I have to cover her expenses that it usually handles), AND the fact that I’m still waiting for the effing grant money (it’s going on three months late, which is just fucking with us at this point, just to fuck with us), it’s stressful, and I’m in a holding pattern. (Think Hanged Man Tarot card, hovering over The Tower). I can do it, even if (when) the Republicans catapult us over the debt cliff next week,  but it means reshuffling bills and other payments a bit. If I was in the usual work rhythm with the usual workload, it wouldn’t be a problem. I could take on a few days’ extra work, and it’s covered. But with the strike, a review pool slump, and Topic Workbook sales down because of the Muskrat’s algorithm changes, it all hits the squeeze point at once. Fortunately, the serials are still bringing in some cash (not a ton, but enough to make them worth continuing).

Such is the life of a full-time writer at this point in time. We’re all struggling. But we’re not giving up the fight.

Hence the expansion into TikTok, but again, none of this is instant. It all takes time, energy, focus, and work to build audience on any platform. I already have to reconfigure how I do it on the other platforms. Spending more quality time on specific platforms on specific days, while cycling through the others makes the most sense, at this point, but I have to be ready to adjust as needed.

There’s no point in building any of it if I let the actual creative work fall to the wayside. I can’t market what isn’t ready to market, or hasn’t yet been created. Well, I COULD, but it would come back to bite me in the butt.

And let’s face it, the GOP WANTS the country to default and everything to come crashing down. It’s all part of their plan. They haven’t even pretended to be anything but who they are since Reagan, but too many people are complacent. So, here we are.

Well, by the end of next week, I’ll know what needs to be shuffled where, and can actually DO something.

Anyway, once I finished the client work, I downloaded the Kindle App onto my creaky old tablet (and yet, it still works better than the Hive app ever did). I like using the tablet to read.

I also went in search of my SD card reader. Before my friends came, I put it in a Very Safe Place. You see where this is going, right? I can’t find it. Anywhere. I keep electronic stuff – extra cords, adapters, charging squares, et al – in a specific place in my office.

The SD card reader isn’t in there.

I checked ALL the bags and ALL the drawers.

Can’t find it anywhere.

I needed a specific photo, that I took way back around 2003 or 4 or something. I decided to go through the photo backups and the imports I tried to do from the Mac. It took a couple of hours, but I found the photos I needed.

I don’t have photo permissions to share them, or I would. The photos are of five women who did the specialized art painting at Playland Amusement Park from 1928-1940. I took the photos of these photos way back when, at the Playland Amusement Park’s small museum. Those five women have always fascinated me. They show so much individual personality in these photographs.

If you’re not familiar with Playland Amusement Park, it is in my hometown of Rye, New York (I grew up and went all the way through elementary and high school there). It’s an art deco amusement park with the infamous Dragon Coaster and one of the old Derby racer rides. I have a lot of pictures taken over the years (good thing, since the current owners are wrecking it). I set the novelette “That Man in Tights” there (and the big chase scene is based on The Flying Witch House Ride, which has been destroyed), and set a couple of the Christy Miller bylined short stories there.

Anyway, I’ve toyed with the idea of writing a piece in a fictional park of the era inspired by Playland for years. I want to know who these women were.

I finally found the photo and sent it to the office at Playland, asking for more information. I printed the photos out, and I also saved them in my picture file. I sent a similar email to the Westchester County Archives, asking if they had any information, or could point me in the right direction. I may have to go down and dig in there myself at some point.

On the Archive digital website, I found some cool photos of the park at that time, which I will also use as inspiration. But I didn’t find a match for these photos.

I want to know these women’s names. Their names shouldn’t be lost.

Possibly, the Archives will have employment records, and I can try to match them. Or maybe I can try looking in the census.

Anyway, that was the rabbit hole from yesterday afternoon through this morning.

On today’s agenda: draft an episode of Legerdemain. Work on the flash fiction. I’ve percolated the beginning and the end; I need to work the arc between them. Maybe work on REP or the Heist Romance script (although I have to do more research on the latter’s next section). Do the research for the first Llewellyn pieces.

I desperately need to do some filing.

Fill out the paperwork for the residency. Do the social media rounds for Legerdemain, including posting today’s episode video on TikTok. I have a client project in the afternoon. I don’t think I’ll make it to yoga this afternoon; I’ve had a fever on and off through the night and into this morning, so isolating seems like the smart choice.

I better get going, huh? The clock is running! Have a good one!

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!

Wed. April 19, 2023: Incoming Astrological Hijinks

image courtesy of Jae Rue via pixabay.com

Wednesday, April 19, 2023

Dark Moon

Rainy and chilly

Today’s Process Muse Post talks about how readers influence future work. You can read it here.

Today’s serial is Angel Hunt. Episode 25 drops today:

Episode 25: Vanka Yelena Ask the Questions

Vanka Yelena believes the vandalism has less to do with zealots and far more to do with a personal vendetta.

You can read Angel Hunt here.

(I just realized that I didn’t upload/schedule this week’s Angel Hunt promos – that will have to happen this morning).

Yesterday, I just sort of puttered along. I wrote 3 ½ pages on FALL FOREVER. I’m at the last couple of scenes leading up to the climax of the play. I know the climactic scene, and I know the scene after, which ends the play. It’s this scene and maybe the next one that I’m not sure about. But I will show up and do the work, and get there. It’s a first draft. It has to be on the page before I can fix it.

Did a library run. I only had to drop things off, not pick anything up. I’m catching up on the stacks of books I already have. Picked up my mom’s prescription (and some oat milk; I was out of oat milk for my coffee). Stopped by the liquor store. Had to head out again because I’d forgotten to mail my first quarter taxes, which blew the chunk of writing time I’d put aside for Legerdemain.

In the afternoon, I turned around two coverages. I got three big ones in my queue, one for each remaining reading day this week, so I’m all set.

Had a reaction to something that surprised me, and realized it was a defensive reflex echoing dealing with one of the toxic bosses from my time on the Cape. Realizing the root cause helped me deal with the reaction. That is no longer my reality, and I can leave it behind, while learning from it.

Yoga was good. No surprise there. I’m glad I found this studio. Several of us had a great conversation about cooking.

Came home, had dinner, read some in a book that’s serving as background research for multiple projects.

Pulled myself out of a disturbing dream in the middle of the night, but managed to get back to sleep. It’s a combination of sense memory stress and all this eclipse/dark moon to new moon/retrograde energy. But I managed to get back to sleep without too much time or angst. There were some snowflakes coming down, but nothing stuck.

Charlotte woke me up when the coffee started, pulling back the sheet. I rousted myself pretty quickly, because I had to head out to the laundromat.

I had two loads in the big machines. Took one of the plush spreads from the guest bed because Charlotte had thrown up on it. Because, you know, we have guests coming next week, so course she’d hurl on the guest bedspread. But it’s clean and fluffy again.

I revised and edited four episodes of Legerdemain (which will be uploaded and scheduled later this week, probably tomorrow). I started revising the first three episodes of REP, but didn’t get very far, because everything was finished.

On today’s agenda: the daily pages on FALL FOREVER, another episode drafted of Legerdemain. Social media rounds to promote today’s Process Muse post and today’s episode of Angel Hunt.  Entering scores onto the contest sheets (it’s all online this year). I’ve kept up with the physical scoring sheets as I’ve read, but now I have to enter scores. This afternoon, I’ll do the first of the three big coverages.  Maybe, if I stay on top of everything and don’t faff around, I can do some more work on REP.

I also have to run some tests on an electrical socket and get in touch with maintenance. Not looking forward to that.

A local call for artists hit my desk yesterday to write a short piece inspired by a piece of art. I will stare at the piece today, at some point, for a bit, and see what it evokes. I only have to write about 500 words or so (flash fiction). I have some ideas to play with, from my first glimpse of the piece, so we’ll see.

I also need to do some more backup work on my computer, to make sure I’m ready for the Mercury Retrograde. It’s already felt like Mercury’s been in retrograde for the past few weeks (a very strong shadow, maybe?), but I want to be as prepared as possible.

Solar eclipse tonight flowing into the new moon tomorrow. Mercury Retrograde ushers in retrograde season that will stretch the rest of the year. I’m tired just thinking about it. There are a lot of squares between planets in the next few months, putting additional stress and conflict on everything.

Deep breath. Stay focused. Use the information to create as much of a peaceful environment surrounding yourself as possible, and don’t get caught up in other people’s narcissistic drama.

Have a good one.

Wed. April 12, 2023: A Simple Spring Work Day

image courtesy of G.C. via pixabay.com

Wednesday, April 12, 2023

Waning Moon

Cloudy and mild

There’s stuff to read on other sites today! Over on The Process Muse, we talk about the meanings/values of the clothes our characters wear.  Ink-Dipped Advice’s newest post will go live later today.

I wrote 4 ½ pages on FALL FOREVER. The scene took a different turn than I expected, and this draft barely scratches the surface. I will have to dig deeper in the next draft. But that’s okay. It’s getting me where I need to go. I hope to hit the act break either today or tomorrow.

I saw a call for play submissions. I thought I had a play that would fit. I did a quick re-read, did a few tweaks, and submitted it. I saw a call for radio plays from Scotland; there were a few things I wasn’t sure about, so I shot off an email with the questions, so any submission I make fits what they need.

The longer I do this, the more I have a problem with using prompts during a piece I’m in the middle of writing. When I’m looking for new ideas, I LOVE prompts. They get me going in new directions, and make me see things differently. When I’m expected to do prompts within the framework of something I’m already writing, I find it harmful, especially in a first draft. Instead of enriching what I’m working on, it detracts.

Did the curbside pickup for the supplies I needed; I hope I can get going with some painting and other cleaning this week.

Started writing the next Legerdemain episode, which has a chase scene in it. It’s fun to write,  but needs very specific choreography to achieve both the action and the comedy.

Turned around a script coverage in the afternoon, and worked on contest entries.

Yoga was fun, although it’s called “gentle yoga” and still kicks my ass. But it’s a nice group of people, and we have fun conversations at the top and bottom of class.

Home, started reading the next book for review.

Slept reasonably well, although I dreamed I worked a show, which meant I put in a full day before I woke up.

Up early, over to the laundromat. I was the only one there, thank goodness, and got the wash and dry done. While that was going, I revised four episodes of Legerdemain and did outline notes for REP.

My neighbor in the house next door’s kitchen window faces my office window. He has a large, cream-colored cat who likes to sit in the kitchen window, and Charlotte sits on the small table she commandeered when we moved in, and they stare at each other. It gives them something to do.

Plenty of writing and script coverage to do today, so I better get to it.

Episode 23 of Angel Hunt drops today. I hope you enjoy it!

Thurs. March 30, 2023: Inner and Outer Storms

image courtesy of  David Mark via pixabay.com

Thursday, March 30, 2023

Waxing Moon

Cloudy and snowy

The latest on the garden is over on Gratitude and Growth. With some actual photos of what’s growing, not the usual stock photos.

Yesterday was a bit chaotic. The toilet tank went from leaking to acting  like a geyser, which meant the whole small bathroom was a mess. Everything had to be dropped to clean it up before it caused a problem for the downstairs neighbors. And, since it was all wet anyway, why not throw in some soap and start the Big Spring Clean with the bathroom?

It took awhile to do a good deep clean, and I still have to scrub the tub and wipe down the top of the heater, but the rest of the room sparkles.

I mean, I had to do something while I waited for maintenance, right?

Checked with my Llewellyn editor. Why yes, we are now being paid early. Awesome. Deposited the check.

Did a quick library run to drop off and pick up books. Found a large, hardcover, spiral bound sketchbook in which to start the large nonfiction project. Came home and realized that I forgot one of the books due Friday, so I’ll do another library run today and just put it in the drop box. There are several other books with which I’m finished, and can return, too, even though they’re not due.

Sent off an email to a reporter to whom I’d promised answers to her questions about Twitter’s latest bad choice.

The maintenance guy came. The toilet tank issue was the need for a new flush valve. The one in there was so old they don’t even make it anymore. Plus another part of it was frayed, and the whole thing would have become a major problem within the week. But it was a simple fix and everything works well now.

Showed him the growing wet stain in the ceiling of my mother’s bedroom. It concerned him, and up he went to the attic (to which tenants do not have access), and found a big leak. So it’s the entire house that needs a new roof this spring, not just the bit over the porch. Guys have been hired, but the weather needs to stabilize before they can do it. In the meantime, he did what he could up there to mitigate it so the ceiling doesn’t come down.

I was absolutely exhausted by the time he left. I did the social media rounds, promoting Angel Hunt, Process Muse, Ink-Dipped Advice. Worked on the newsletter, which should go out later today. I’ve been adding to the document throughout the quarter, so it’s about polishing, adding the graphics, adding/checking links and the like.

But I was tired and on edge and couldn’t settle. Managed to get some work done on the Essay Camp assignments, but couldn’t even settle down to read (for either work or pleasure).

Watched two dudes over at the college folding tarps. It was obvious they didn’t do their own laundry and had never folded a sheet!

Didn’t sleep well. Woke up when the storm started, and checked to make sure everything was storm-ready. Couldn’t get back to sleep for ages. When I finally went back to sleep, I had a series of weird dreams where I bounced from dream to dream.

Did not want to get up this morning. Felt like I couldn’t face the day. Then, I realized it was sense memory stress. I reminded myself where I am now. Followed my breath. Reminded myself I am about to send out a joyful newsletter full of all the good stuff that’s going on, and I have a day ahead of me of doing work I love. That I live in the right place for me now, and tomorrow is the grant reception.

Which I cannot walk into beaten down by sense memory stress. I need to walk in with confidence.

Woke up to more snow. Not much, just enough to be annoying.

My ticket arrived yesterday, and I have the choices down between two dresses. I will try them both on today and see which feels right. I have the jewelry picked out (it’ll go with either dress). Once I know which dress, I’ll figure out the makeup.

On today’s agenda: meditation, uploading/scheduling next week’s Legerdemain episodes, doing their graphics and loglines, designing/printing the business card for tomorrow, printing out the monologue, trying on dresses and deciding on dress/make-up, doing the social media rounds to promote the two episodes of Legerdemain that go live today (because of Tuesday’s glitch), and turning around a script coverage. I have to do another quick drop off at the library, and one other errand, too.

I also have today’s Essay Camp assignments, and that’s probably as much writing as I’ll get done today. I got a little bit of writing done this morning. This Essay Camp has helped me clarify the skills and tools I need to pull off the big nonfiction project. The timing was great, and I’m so grateful to Summer Brennan for doing it (guess who’ll be acknowledged in the project credits, along with the Cultural Council)?

Have a good one!

Tues. March 28, 2023: Time for the Tuesday Natter

image courtesy of Agata via pixabay.com

Tuesday, March 28, 2023

Waxing Moon

Rainy and chilly

Hope you had a grand weekend and are ready for our Tuesday natter.

A slew of submission calls hit my desk on Friday morning. I submitted two ten-minute plays to one of them. Another call was interested in radio scripts, but the guidelines made my eyes cross, so I skipped it. Maybe I’ll go back and re-read them some day when I’m not jugging sixteen kajillion things. I saw a call that a friend’s work would fit, so I sent that off to her.

I lost way too much time dealing with my mother’s health insurance. Again. Which meant I lost the writing time I’d put aside for Legerdemain, and that put me in an unsettled mood.

I picked up a big stack of books at the library, got in some groceries from Big Y (another snowstorm predicted for the weekend), mailed some stuff and bought stamps at the Post Office (and chatted, because, around here, the Post Office is the happening place), and swung by the liquor store to replenish.

I read some more in the Katharine Cornell biography – it’s good background on Jessie Bonstelle, Rachel Crothers, and, of course, inspiration for the serial in development, REP. It’s a little on the fawning side, but if one digs past that, there’s some good theatrical history in there.

In the afternoon, I turned around two script coverages, and then went back to the Cornell bio. In the evening (and late into the night), I read a book getting a lot of attention. It’s billed as a thriller, but it’s also a horror novel. It’s very well-written, a page turner. But, at the end, it didn’t give me a feeling of catharsis, just sadness, because of the unnecessary brutality. I mean, the brutality was necessary on the author’s part, but I felt sadness for the deaths of those brutally murdered in the book. It’s well done, and I’m glad I read it, but saying I “enjoyed” it would be a stretch.

Tessa and Charlotte are now BOTH sleeping on the bed with me. Tessa is on one side, down near my feet, and Charlotte is on the other side, curled up against my chest. Charlotte always considers being a pill to Tessa when she jumps up, and I tell her that if she’s not nice to Tessa, she will be kicked out; we’re here to sleep. She considers it, decides sleeping on the bed is more important than being a brat, curls up, and goes to sleep.

I figured out how much I need to write each day on FALL FOREVER for End Of Play in April. A full-length play is 90-120 pages (with the sweet spot being a little less). Over the course of 30 days, that’s 3-4 pages, and do-able. In fact, that’s a reasonable, stable pace, although there may be some days where I write more, in order to capture the entire scene.

I also came up with a large, nonfiction project made possible by the grant (once the money ever gets here). The initial phase of it would take an entire year of a block of time devoted to it each week, and polishing it after would take a few months. But it would be a good way to show gratitude for the grant, and have a tangible project by the end of it. Well, the first draft of a tangible project. I made some notes on it, and will set up the files for it once the grant money arrives, and I can actually take action on it. Because it’s non-fiction, I can write a proposal before the draft is finished, once I have a better idea of how the idea actually works as a real piece. It’s also something I could work on in residencies, if I didn’t want to apply to residencies next year with a fiction project.

The project has a nice resonance in the heart, which indicates it’s on the right track. The right thing at the right time is like a tuning fork. You can feel when it matches the tone.

Saturday morning, I woke with the pre-storm headache, which was just not fun. Once the storm started, it eased a bit, but the weather cycled from snow to sleet to rain and back again, and it was yucky.

I drafted another episode of Legerdemain. I uploaded the next couple of episodes. It wouldn’t let me schedule today’s episode, so both of this week’s episodes are dropping on Thursday, and I have an apology graphic making the rounds. I’ll get next week’s episodes uploaded and scheduled by tomorrow, to make sure there are no glitches. I did the log lines and the episode graphics.

A friend sent me a submission call, and I had a short play that might fit, so that went out the door.

I rewrote the opening of “Labor Intensive” and then did another pass on “Plot Bunnies.” I put the opening of “Labor Intensive” in as a teaser, and added in teasers for “Just Jump in and Fly” and SAVASANA AT SEA, along with information about the serials. I kept finding little copy edit glitches, so I proofed it a few more times – and KEPT finding little niggly things. But I think it’s finally clean, and that’s uploaded and scheduled for April 4 release. I’ll be doing graphics and pre-order information and updating websites and doing a big push for the next couple of weeks on that.

But it was a full day’s work.

I did a bunch of work on contest entries, too, along with a bunch of admin work that needed to be done on them.

I dug through some books I’d ordered from the library as background for the Heist Romance. I scanned some information, and I also ordered a copy of one of the books, because I can use it as research on more than one project, and it will be useful to have on hand.

I went back to the Katharine Cornell biography and learned about Minnie Madden Fiske and the company she ran with her second husband, Harrison Grey Fiske. She’s listed in the book of American Women Theatre Directors of the 20^th century, so I can do more digging on her, too.

I need to start putting together a timeline of some of these interesting women and see where they intersect. Because there’s a project in there, even if I don’t yet know what it is.

But I was tired by the end of Saturday. Really tired.

Tessa was the only one who slept on the bed on Saturday night, and I overslept on Sunday. But the cats got breakfast and I baked biscuits.

I drafted an episode of Legerdemain, and started the next episode. I finished, polished, uploaded and scheduled this week’s Process Muse, and then went ahead and wrote, polished, uploaded, and scheduled next week’s Process Muse. I’d like to get all of April’s posts written, polished, uploaded and scheduled this week to take the pressure off me in April.

I watched/listened to the prep video for the April yoga/eco challenge, and a lot of it resonated with me, which is a good thing.

Worked my way through a stack of contest entries in the afternoon. In the evening, I went back to the Cornell bio and made some notes for several different projects. I love it when one resource has multiple uses.

Had weird dreams Sunday into Monday. First, I was driving along a highway and had to keep stopping because people crossed in front of me. Pulled myself out of that dream, and was in the midst of fretting. Then, I realized I’m slipping back into the sense memory from before the move. I kept reminding myself that the feelings are real, but the reality has shifted to something more positive.

I hope, as I mentioned in yesterday’s “Intent” post, that I can use the pillars of End of Play and the yoga practice to ease that and prevent me from sliding back into that physical and mental state. It made April-May-June and even into July last year tough.

Finally fell asleep again and fell into more weird dreams, which fled as soon as I woke up.

Instagram no longer lets me cross post to Twitter and Tumblr. I can only post to IG & FB. Urgh.

I need ONE scheduling tool that lets me schedule unlimited posts to ALL my social media channels. But that doesn’t exist. Most tools only integrate with FB, IG, and Twitter. Some add Tumblr or Pinterest. That’s not good enough.

Did some admin, drafted an episode of Legerdemain, wrote a 3-page insert for GAMBIT COLONY. Scheduled the promos for this week’s episodes of Legerdemain and Angel Hunt.

Turned around three script coverages. I started them on the front porch, but it was too chilly. However, our yellow tulips are starting to bloom! So that’s lovely.

Completely forgot I’d signed up for Summer Brennan’s Essay Camp workshop, which started yesterday. Thank goodness for emails. I managed to get in both the writing assignment and the reading assignment.

Soup class was a lot of fun. Poor Jeremy. It’s gotten a little bit like herding cats for him.

After soup class, I had another idea for the Essay Camp assignment, so I did it. I think this one might be a stronger choice, but it’s always good to have options.

I went back to the Cornell bio. The chapter on the year-long rep tour by train (ROMEO & JULIET, THE BARRETTS OF WIMPOLE STREET, CANDIDA) was amazing and funny and difficult (among her co-stars were Basil Rathbone and a young Orson Welles). Maude Howell, the first female stage manager on Broadway, helped general manager Gert Macy set things up, before heading out to California to direct films. Minnie Fiske’s niece, Merle Maddern, was an actress in the company and a skilled tarot reader. They traveled with their own train cars with 50 actors, a crew, pets, spouses, scenery, props,  and costumes. The Christmas performance in Seattle, where the train was delayed by storms, but the audience waited, watched them set up, and then they performed until 4 AM is a wonderful story in itself.

There’s a project in there.

What and when, I don’t know, but I’m gathering information. The research will be tons of fun. I can also use some of this as inspiration for the REP serial, even though REP’s premise is very different. I’m not sure when it can fit into the schedule (probably next year), but it is very much my kind of project.

Dreamed I was part of a very busy writers’ group overnight, which was fun, but I felt like I’d put in a full day before I woke up.

FALL FOREVER is definitely ready to be written. I’m feeling that pull of “come on, now, tell my story” and I’m looking forward to April 1. I’m attending the virtual kick-off party on Friday night. I can’t attend Sunday’s virtual New England event because it conflicts with yoga AND with Sunday supposed to be my day of not going online, and, in this case, the yoga needs to come first.

Twitter’s only putting those who pay for blue checks in the “For You” feed (which is where the people I follow show up, rather than in the “Following” feed). That starts April 15. I think, that week before, I will lock my account. I need to shift my focus to building community on other platforms, and remind myself that it took years. But I need to put attention there, because, although Twitter used to fuel sales (especially for the Topic Workbooks) and reads and other things, it hasn’t the last few months. I need to figure out where my audience has shifted, and establish myself there.

The “Plot Bunnies” launch will end just as that’s happening, so I’ll be able to get some good metrics about the shift in a couple of months.

Speaking of “Plot Bunnies” it’s starting to go live for pre-order. I will post more info when I get relevant information up on the website, in the next few days. It re-releases on April 4, which is next Tuesday.

On today’s agenda: working on Legerdemain, working on tomorrow’s Ink-Dipped Advice post, prepping the launch info for the re-release of “Plot Bunnies,” turning around two scripts (one of for which I was requested), and then, tonight, yoga.

There’s no episode of Legerdemain going live today because of the glitch; again, my apologies. Have a good one!

Wed. March 22, 2023: Feeling Spring-y

image courtesy of Jill Wellington via pixabay.com

Wednesday, March 22, 2023

Waxing Moon

Cloudy and cold

The latest Process Muse, about physical space, dropped this morning. You can read it here.

I had trouble settling into the page yesterday morning. I thought doing the dishes would help focus me, but I sat down and there were a million little fidgety things demanding my attention. Since I was in that kind of headspace, I did the social media rounds for yesterday’s episode of Legerdemain. I answered emails. I’ve got all but one email account down to manageable levels, and I’m working on that last one, while doing upkeep on the others. That one’s a little rough because I got on an email list for a “media company” that bulk sends sales emails, and every time I “unsubscribe all” they just send it from a different “publication.” I think I’m going to start reporting them as spam. I’ve put in multiple requests to take me off everything, and they ignore it. And they’re mucking up the email.

It’s not where I get my main business/writing email, thank goodness.

Hoopla is finally distributing The Topic Workbooks et al; I have so many links to add to my various pages. I need to block in time to get on top of that.

I’m getting another bonus for the serials, which is nice. I’m working on some paid advertising for them this spring.

I have Process Muse topics planned into next January! I managed to do a little bit of work on an upcoming post, but I need to fact check a few things. I will finish it up tomorrow or Friday and schedule it.

Put in a request to have maintenance come and take a look at the dishwasher. I’m pretty sure it needs a new power board; hopefully they’re willing to do that, and not just switch it out with whatever subpar dishwasher they have on hand. The guy was going to stop by either yesterday afternoon or this morning; it wasn’t yesterday afternoon, so I hope it’s this morning.

Turned around a coverage in the afternoon. It was warm enough to work out on the porch, with hyacinths and cats.

I’m looking forward to April, with the DG’s End of Play providing the emotional space to write FALL FOREVER, and then I’m doing an eco/wellness challenge with the yoga studio. I mean, daily life and script coverage and the rest is in there as well, but I’m really looking forward to those two pillars of the month’s structure.

Yoga was great last night. The woman behind me grew up on the street where I currently live, so we had a lot to talk about. Her daughter is opening a vintage clothing shop within walking distance, so I look forward to checking it out when it opens. I had some good conversations with several people there. The studio draws a really interesting, eclectic group. I’m looking forward to spending more time there.

Picked up takeout on the way home (I need to stop doing that). And someone was in my parking spot. I moved over two slots, to a space that’s usually free, because I didn’t want to take anyone else’s.

Slept well, although I had busy dreams. I was in an office I remembered in the dream from another dream. It had to do with horse racing. It was something about jockeys being drugged without their knowledge/against their will. I need to make a few notes, because there’s the seed of something there (and I haven’t written about horse racing in a long time).

Up early. Off to the laundromat (believe me, it was necessary). I was the only one there, which was glorious.

While the laundry went through the machine, I started the first read-through of THE TREES WHISPERED DEATH since I finished the first draft in December. When I finished the draft, I was relieved that it was finished, but I was discouraged. However, starting the read, there’s a lot I really like, especially when it comes to voice, dialogue, and character. Don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty to do on it, PLENTY, before it’s submission-ready, but there’s a good foundation. Both this and CAST IRON MURDER, I think, are suitable for agent/traditional submissions rather than small publisher submissions, as long as I don’t get boxed in to “cozy.” TREES is definitely historical mystery (1957) with an older, amateur female sleuth AND deals with the issues of the day, so it would be difficult to try to push it into a cozy box. CAST IRON deals with contemporary social issues; it could be heavily revised to be a cozy, but that would destroy the book, in my opinion. Both have strong, older female protagonists at the center. Both have long-term series potential.

I will sit down and write a series overview for each as I work on revisions, and have that ready, in case it’s requested. I have thumbnails of the first three books in each series. I have publishers in mind that I think would work for each of them, but I will probably query agents first, although I don’t think that will happen until autumn for CAST IRON and probably not until next spring for TREES.

But both are stronger, overall, than I thought they were when I finished the original drafts. They definitely need both a developmental edit and a multi-colored draft edit to clean up sloppy writing, but they are nowhere near the hot messes I thought they were when I finished them, and that’s a good feeling.

I’m waiting for the maintenance guy to come and take a look at the dishwasher; I don’t want to get caught up in writing Legerdemain and then get interrupted; at the same time, if he doesn’t show up on time, or is hours late, I don’t want to lose that writing time.  I guess I could fold laundry first, right? And then, if he’s not here by the time it’s folded and put away, I’ll sit down to write and hope he doesn’t show up until afternoon!

I have one script in my queue today and two tomorrow, so I’m in decent shape.

Episode 17 of Angel Hunt drops today. I hope you enjoy it.

Have a good one!

Tues. March 21, 2023: Hints of Spring

image courtesy of Jill Wellington via pixabay.com

Tuesday, March 21, 2023

New Moon

Cloudy and chilly

My interview with the Boiler House Poets Collective went live on The Rumpus yesterday. You can read it here.

I hope you had a lovely day. It’s time to curl up for our regular Tuesday catch up.

I booked my hair appointment online on Friday for yesterday.

I also ordered my saucer chair online. At first, I got a confirmation that I could pick it up around noon. Then, I got a confirmation it was ready to pick up – about five minutes after I ordered it. The problem was that, in order to do the curbside pickup, I had to download the store’s app. Which made me furious. I do not want everything run by app. And that should have been clear when the selection for “curbside pickup” was made; then I would have just had it shipped.

Anyway, swearing the whole time, I downloaded the app, drove up the street to pick up the chair, brought it home, and deleted the app from my phone.

The chair is wonderful. It’s a lovely turquoise, and detailed to look like a shell. It’s comfortable, lightweight, and folds, which means it’s my official “residency chair” that I can take when I do residencies to which I drive.

I revised the two micro comic noir radio plays and submitted them, per the email exchange I had with the producers over the past couple of days. The third play, one of the Declan Shane plays (where the detective has his office in a Broadway musical rehearsal hall), doesn’t work as a two-hander. I will expand it back into a three-hander and send it when they open their ten minute call, which they told me opens in a couple of weeks.

I uploaded and scheduled next week’s promos for both Legerdemain and Angel Hunt. I thought I’d written the loglines for the set of Angel Hunt episodes I uploaded a couple of weeks back, but I guess I didn’t. So that’s on the agenda for the week.

I booked tonight’s yoga class.

I had to trudge back out to pick up some of my mother’s prescriptions. Even though Aetna Silver Script was paid through the end of March, it was cancelled once Compass was entered – but Compass hasn’t bothered to send the insurance cards with the information. So they tried to charge me the full, uninsured price for the drugs. I said no, there was a screw up. They did some magic on their own computers, and it wound up being a ZERO co-pay. So much better than on Cape Cod, where every month’s prescriptions were a fight, and they tried to sell you pills “by the pill” under the table for cash only while they “investigated.”

Insurance in the United States, especially Medicare “supplemental” insurance is a scam.

I finished the script coverage on the novel a production company wanted me to read, and sent that off.

The first box of office supplies arrived, with the stack of yellow pads. So I’m fine with writing in longhand on yellow pads for this next bit.

I was happy to hear that the ICC issued a warrant for Putin’s arrest. About damn time. This country needs to charge The Narcissistic Sociopath. It’s been promised for years, and the indictments never come.

I started reading a Major Book by a Major Author (that was written/published in the 70s). While it’s well written, I wasn’t in the mood for male 70’s whatever, so I put it aside. I started reading Mary Gordon’s SPENDING instead, which I’d come across when researching and writing The Process Muse post about muses a few weeks back. That’s definitely more what I’m looking for right now. It deals with the theme of the male muse, and, in this case, it’s a wealthy man who underwrites an older female artist’s career.

I actually slept well Friday going into Saturday. I was still a little disoriented by the time change – between that and losing a few days due to the storm, I was never really sure what day it was last week.

We  left the house on Saturday and headed down to Pittsfield. We stopped in a shop on a whim, and found a few fun things, including a cake pan that makes little cakes in the shape of trains. We checked Re-store, but what I hoped for wasn’t there. Checked another favorite store and found a trio of gorgeous valences. Not that I know what I’ll do with them, but they are so beautiful and well-made that I grabbed them.

All the mail that had stacked up during the storm arrived in a flood: magazines, cards, my mom’s new insurance cards (finally), and the tarot deck I ordered.

It’s a pair of tarot decks, interpretations by Barbara Moore, art done by several artists. One deck is “As Above” and the second is “So Below.” They are different from each other and different than I expected, and it will take time to work with them properly. They do make sense for the coming year’s year-long reading that I do on Samhain, which takes two decks out of regular usage for an entire year.

A pair of white dudes were roaming the neighborhood pounding on doors, like incoming SWAT team. They said they were “checking the equity of the electrical company” and wanted copies of our electric bills. No lanyards, no company information, nothing. Do they really think we’re that stupid? I shut the door in their faces and refused to answer again when they started pounding. A legitimate company/nonprofit would have contacted the residents in writing ahead of time and had employees or volunteers with clear identification and some sort of professional whatever, even if it was a clipboard. Not dudes in climbing jackets pounding on doors asking for copies of utility bills. Not acceptable. And even with a clipboard and a lanyard, I wouldn’t have turned over my utility bill. Identity theft much?

Finished up the ironing from the latest fabric seasonal refresh and put everything away.

Read a lot. Mary Gordon’s SPENDING is giving me a lot to think about. It’s an exceptionally well-written book, and, especially in terms of what we were talking about on THE PROCESS MUSE a few weeks back about Muses, makes me think I’ll revisit the topic. Because, of course, the female artist/male muse experience is very different than the traditional male artist/female muse, and the book isn’t just a flip of that trope.

Sunday was a lethargic day for me, even though it was sunny. I need to remember that the day before the dark moon I have zero energy. Zero. And plan accordingly.

I did go out to a store to see if they had something I wanted; they didn’t, but they had a sale, and I got some cute summer shirts I can use for yoga and errands. Some went into the laundry basket; others have to be handwashed, and I got started on that.

Tried re-reading a book that had been a Big Deal back when it came out. While there’s some good stylistic work, it’s too much self-involved white boy, on the part of the protagonist and the author, and I just don’t care. There’s a lot of pretentiousness that was touted as brilliance at the time.

Ordered a pizza, because I was too tired to cook. I need to stop ordering in food so often. I can cook, and there’s food in the house.

Slept well Sunday into Monday, in spite of a series of weird dreams that Charlotte pulled me out of several times in the night.

I’d made peace with the fact I wasn’t going to get much of anything done at my desk in the morning, and that the afternoon would be all about script coverage, which took some pressure off me.

Plus, packed up everything I needed for errands Sunday night, which made me feel like I was six years old starting school.

Out of the house early on Monday, arriving way to early at the hair salon in Williamstown, but that was fine. I’d brought a book with me (I almost always have a book with me), and they were all very friendly and laid back. And masked. No signs, no fussing, people just did it, and that, too, made me feel more confident about the choice of salon. And the conversations all centered around the arts, rather than what I’ve heard so often at other salons, where it’s petty, vicious gossip.

The appointment took the full hour. I’ve never had a hair appointment that long that wasn’t with one of the Broadway hair dressers who used to cut my hair in my Broadway days. The longest appointment I ever had on Cape was twenty minutes. But then, only two haircuts in ten years there didn’t make me cry, so. . .

Anyway, the stylist was very nice. We figured length first, then she cut off the ponytail. I mean, the last time I got my hair cut was May of 2021, two weeks after my second vaccine shot. It was a lot of hair. If you saw the photo I posted on Insta/FB/Twitter – it was a lot of hair. They asked if I wanted to donate it and I said sure; they’re taking care of it. Then, it was a wash and condition, and the stylist got to practice her art. And it really was art. We’d gone over some photographs for basic ideas, and then she wanted to try something a little different, and I said, go for it. So she did, and it looks really good.

I feel like myself for the first time in years. YEARS.

It’s flattering, will grow out well, and not need a lot of fuss/product/styling in the day to day.

And it’s done before next week’s grant reception.

I was ever so pleased and gave quite the big tip, because she was worth every penny.

From there, I headed to my mom’s doctor’s office to update her insurance information. I went to Wild Oats to pick up a few things and use my member/owner credit from last year’s profits. I went to the pharmacist to make sure the insurance info was all updated, but the computer magic they did the other day held, and it’s all good. 

I ran into Big Y to pick up small tomatoes, which I’d forgotten to get at the Wild Oats (although I managed to get curry paste at WO). Then it was a library run, to drop off/pick up books, mostly from Commonwealth Catalog. Love me some Commonwealth Catalog!

Stopped at the bank to deposit some unexpected checks (always love those). And home.

Found out that the article went live on The Rumpus, so I grabbed the link, created a PDF, and sent the link and the PDF to the poets interviewed, and over to MassMoca’s press office, and Assets for Artists. I also pulled an article off Clippings.me and added this one to the online portfolio, and put the link over on the Fearless Ink website. And, of course, saved it to my Clip files.

That took time, but it’s always better to do it right away. Putting it aside to get to “someday” means too much stacks up at once. Plus, I want to make sure that the interview subjects and sources get the link and their PDF copy for their own files before they come across the piece n the wild. It’s just basic courtesy.

Did the social media rounds to share the article link.

Turned around three coverages in the afternoon/evening. I was interrupted a few times to deal with some other stuff that came up, so it took longer than it would normally, and I wasn’t finished until 9 PM. I was able to spend some time working out on the front porch, because it was sunny and mild enough, and the hyacinths are starting to bloom. Willa and Charlotte were out there, too. Tessa had regained control of the sofa and was not about to give it up.

The dishwasher decided to stop working. I hope it’s just a fuse, because I LOVE this dishwasher, and if they have to replace it, it’s not going to be with one this good. But we’ll empty it this morning after breakfast, do the dishes by hand and put them away, and I’ll get in touch with the maintenance guy and see if he can swing by in the next few days.

Made a frittata in honor of the Equinox, and did a simple ritual at night, before I went to bed.

Up early. Weird dreams, including something about a teashop. As I was coming up out of the dream, I kept telling myself to remember the name of the teashop, but, of course, I lost it by the time I was fully awake.

Tessa has decided that she is sick and tired of Charlotte and Willa eating her food, so now she marches into the kitchen and eats their food, especially right in front of them. It’s all the same food, but it’s the principle of the plates and bowls that’s the issue.

After doing the dishes, I will get back to the page. I’m looking forward to the start of the Dramatists’ Guild End of Play, staring April 1. I realized, over the weekend, that the work I’ve done on FALL FOREVER is solid, and the play is ready to be written. It’s not screaming at me that if I don’t start RIGHT THIS SECOND I’ll lose it. But it’s ready to go on April 1. The percolating and note taking I’ve done has set the foundation. I haven’t made a detailed outline, but I know the shape and the emotions and the themes and the characters. It feels ready, in a calm, grounded way, and that feels good and right for this project.

I need to get ahead on Legerdemain; by the end of this week, I have to upload more episodes, and while I have those, I’m running a little too close to deadline on it right now. I also want to do some work on the “Plot Bunnies” revision and re-release. I want to make sure it’s uploaded and scheduled by the end of the week. Later in the day, it’s social media rounds to promote today’s episode of Legerdemain, and then a script coverage. I only have one so far; I hope some more come in for the rest of the week. If not, I’ll switch my focus to the contest entries.

I have yoga class tonight, and then I will work on the next book for review.

I should have planted yesterday, but didn’t. The next planting day is Friday. I’m getting a late start this year. Oh, well. There’s still snow on the ground, so I’m not going to worry about it too much.

Have a good one!

Wed. March 15, 2023: It’s STILL Snowing

image courtesy of janeb13 via pixabay.com

Wednesday, March 15, 2023

Waning Moon

Snowing

The Ides of March

It still snowing. Sorry I didn’t post yesterday, but the power fluctuated, and the internet was out most of the day.

I hope you had a great weekend. We get a Wednesday catchup. Curl up with a beverage. This is a long one, because it’s been six days since we were last in contact.

Friday was a lovely, sunny day. I went out early in the morning to pick up my cake.

Then, we headed over to The Clark Art Institute in Williamstown. They have free admission for the month of March, so it seemed like a good time to check them out.

What an amazing space. It’s huge, and a little overwhelming. In addition to the multiple museum buildings and the research library, they have 140 acres of trails with sculptures.

Definitely something that needs more than a day.

We spent most of the time at the Promenades on Paper exhibit, sketches on loan from the Bibliotèque Nationale de France. Wow. The curation was exquisite, including the color choices for the walls. I was especially fascinated by the Opera sketches and the sketch of a “private theatre” that looked like it was a railroad car. I need to learn more about it. I  wish I’d taken notes.

We wandered over to the permanent collection, but there was just too much to take in, all at once.

Definitely going back. Often.

The reception for regional grant awardees is there at the end of the month, so now I know where to go.

I bet the gardens and trails are gorgeous in spring, summer, and fall. Probably a good place to go and write.

We came home and I ordered A Whole Lot of Chinese food, just in case the weather was so bad on Saturday that I couldn’t get my birthday dinner.

I read in the afternoon, re-reading a book about the antiquarian book trade (my copy’s in storage). It was so nice that we could sit and read out on the front porch. All three cats joined us.

I did some research on the two antique books I picked up at Thursday’s book sale for a dollar each and it looks like they might have some value. Not the kind of value pristine first editions would have, but value, nonetheless. One is by James M. Barrie, who is most famous for PETER PAN, but wrote a bunch of other stuff, too. They are also earlier editions, probably closer to the turn of the twentieth century or late Victorian printings, rather than the twenties I’d figured. And one of the publishers had apprenticed with the other, so the two books are connected.

I will get some archival white cotton gloves to handle them when I read them, and then put them in a safe place while I do more research. Neither book fits the first edition descriptions, but they are nicely made pieces I will enjoy.

I had a leisurely reading evening, too. I want to know more about Anne Baldwin, who ran a print shop in the 17^th century.

Slept fairly well. Had weird dreams about clay figures that had been slathered with a particular type of red paint. A former toxic boss was in the dream, asking for forgiveness. That’s how I knew it was a dream; she’d never do that in real life!

I somehow hurt both wrists in the dream, and woke up with sore wrists.

Saturday was my birthday, and it was snowing when I woke up.

I made smoked salmon eggs Benedict, which we had with Prosecco.

I did a library run, dropping off and picking up books ahead of the storm.

I started working on the revision for the upcoming “Plot Bunnies” re-release, and then I thought, why am I working on my birthday?

So I stopped.

I read. I’m reading a biography of actress Katharine Cornell that’s very fawning, but it has necessary information on Marian de Forest and Jessie Bonstelle. I can’t believe how few people remember Jessie Bonstelle, when she was such a force in touring companies and creating regional theatre as we know it.

I made notes for a couple of upcoming projects.

I re-read THE MOVING FINGER by Agatha Christie, which is the March “Read Christie” choice. It’s been years since I read it (it’s the one about poison pen letters).  Christie is remembered for Poirot and Marple, and, although this is, technically, a Marple story, it’s told through the first person POV of another character, Jerry, and the structure is interesting.

I ordered and picked up dinner from a local restaurant I wanted to try, that touts itself as an upscale farm-to-table place. Um? When I went to pick up the food, the restaurant itself is small, dark, and dingy with cheap furniture, and the staff was more interested in talking about their dating lives than in their customers. The food was okay, but I wanted better than okay. I had a supposed “Bolognese” sauce that was more of a Roman-style meat sauce without the tomato sauce, but definitely not “Bolognese.” There wasn’t even a smidge of cream in it, and none of the seasoning that sets apart a Bolognese sauce. I mean, it was an okay meat sauce over a glop of overcooked spaghetti (not even fettucine). Not great (mine are better). But it wasn’t a layered Bolognese, and for that price, I expected layered taste.

My mom had what was supposed to be cordon bleu chicken in puff pastry, with sides of mashed potatoes and green beans, with a cheese sauce over it. There was chicken wrapped in pastry, with maybe a thin slice of ham and cheese around it, like deli-sliced. It was in some sort of dough sheet, but not the puff pastry stated in the description. The mashed potatoes were heaped over the pastry, and a basic alfredo sauce poured over it, with four undercooked green beans sticking out of the bottom. Huh?

The ”garlic bread” that came with  my pasta was a few tiny (I’m taking 1/8” wide, and maybe 2” long), limp slices of leftover narrow baguette which had been dumped in warmed garlic-infused olive oil and wrapped in aluminum foil. It was dissolving and nearly inedible when I unwrapped it. That is not how one makes garlic bread.

And there was zero presentation. I mean, yeah, it’s a pickup, it’s going to be in containers (I’d brought an insulated bag). But don’t just glop it in the dish. At least try to make it look nice? A spring of parsley isn’t going to break the bank.

It’s not like they were overrun with customers.

It’s not that the food was bad. It was serviceable diner food. If I’d ordered it from a diner, I would have been satisfied. But it wasn’t a diner, and I didn’t want diner food. I wanted something special. This wasn’t it.

I won’t be eating there again any time soon.

But the cake made up for it. I’d bought a chocolate truffle bomb cake from a different place, and we’ve been eating the cake all weekend. It’s very rich, so we only have a small slice at a time.

Overall, it was a lovely birthday, filled with good wishes from friends online and off (and a package, from one friend, with a cat toy the cats love). I have such a tumultuous relationship with my birthday, it was nice to genuinely enjoy it and not work to enjoy it for anyone else’s benefit.

We “sprung ahead” for Daylight Savings Time on Sunday, which always screws me up for weeks.

Sunday was bright and sunny. I did a run to the post office to mail some stuff that needed to get out. We sat on the porch and read. I did some re-reading of GAMBIT COLONY material. When I do the next (and hopefully final) editing pass on these first sections, I need to set up better tracking sheets and do a more detailed Series Bible. I’m losing important elements, especially as I layer in other important elements.

I always wind up blocking a lot of oafs on social media on Oscar, Emmy, and Tony Award nights because they start pontificating about the business when none of them could last an hour on an actual set or backstage. It’s WORK, that requires enormous physical and mental capacity, so others can play. If the result isn’t your bag, that’s one thing. You like what you like, you don’t like what you don’t like, and that’s part of the risk creatives take when putting work out there. Not everyone will like it.  But when they act like creatives don’t work for a living, and it’s not “real work” and they can pass judgement on what it’s like to DO the work when they’ve never spent a day on set, or done anything creative with high stakes to it, I’m done. They know nothing, NOTHING, about what it takes to get it done, so shut the fuck up you lazy, untalented, snarky coward.

Of course, when they show their asses like that and get blocked, my overall life is better without them, so better knowing sooner than later.

As a wardrobe person, I was a little unsettled with some of the red carpet choices. I’m all for wearable art, especially for something like the Met Gala. But award shows are about the creative artists who did the work, and too many of the choices on the “champagne carpet” (how pretentious was that?) were about the stylist’s ego and not about making the creative artist look good. There were some wonderful gowns and radiant individuals, but there were also choices that were not about making the wearer look their best, and often the hair and makeup didn’t work with the gown. And one could tell who used the same stylists, because the looks were too similar and about the stylist, not about the individual being styled, which I disagree with. On the positive side, I liked that there were many bold color choices. Too often, the palette is too similar, and people wear colors that don’t suit them because that’s the color trend for that year.

I read the book for review, and sent off the review on Monday morning, before the storm got too intense.  Emails came in steadily, with cancellations and closures in the area for most of the week.

The storm started just after 8 AM. It started as snow, got heavier, then switched over to rain for most of the rest of the day.

Tuesday’s yoga class was cancelled, and Monday night’s soup class was moved to Thursday, because Jeremy had to travel and decided to get out while the storm wasn’t so bad.

I could not get my act together on Monday. I got through a lot of email. I updated my Creative Ground profile. I did some social media networking. I wrote up some project notes. I managed to get the first 20 episodes’ worth of Legerdemain graphics up on Pinterest. It’s such a pain, because when I try to arrange them in the correct order, after about 5 minutes, I have to log out and log back in. Getting all 60+ episode graphics up will be a PITA.

A director who’s worked on a bunch of my radio plays emailed me to say they miss me and would like more, so I sent off two they haven’t yet done. I still owe them a dirigible play. I guess I should get back to that. I haven’t heard from the other producer in absolute ages, so I’m not sure what’s going on with the play he has, and the other ones he wants. I’m assuming there’s a delay.

I finally gave up on getting anything on the “should” list done. I’m fine on my deadlines, so I didn’t have to worry.

I buried myself in another re-read of the GAMBIT COLONY material. Which of course, means taking the red pen and cutting or adding or making adjustments. There’s a vital position in the production team that I’ve ignored in all these drafts, and I have a feeling I have to suck it up and layer in another character. I also worked a big chunk before I realized that I was working on THE WRONG DRAFT. I’d picked up the wrong binder. When I got back to the correct draft, I’d already put in most of those changes! At least I know I’m on the right track.

It hadn’t started snowing by the time I went to bed on Monday. I woke up around 3:30 (feline shift change), and it had just stared; there was about an inch on the ground, but it came down hard.

When I woke up again just before 6, the power was out. I figured, because there was no scent of coffee.

The cats, however, Weren’t Having it, so I hauled myself out of bed and fed them, then went back to bed for a bit, watching the snow. The lights were on at the college, because they have emergency power generators, so I use the sound of the heaters (or lack thereof) to know if the power is on or off. That, and the fact that I don’t hear the hum of the downstairs neighbor’s television, which is on 24/7.

I finally dressed in layers – fleece-lined leggings under velvet leggings, oversized handknit sweater over turtleneck, thick socks. The snow was intense!

The gas stove still worked, when I lit the individual burners, so I made coffee in the French press and made tea for my mom. We could have a cooked breakfast and all, so it wasn’t too bad.

I’d unplugged the laptop the night before, and I powered it down. There was no internet, but occasionally the phone signal was strong enough to post a picture. The power went off and on all day.

We bundled ourselves under layers of blankets and cats in the living room, so we could watch the snow come down. I had the binders with GAMBIT COLONY and just kept reading. I layered in the missing character (this is a cast of Many, dealing with life behind the scenes shooting a large television series), and, by the time I got to re-reading the latest draft of book 3 in the series, realized I had to change her name because it’s too similar to that of two other characters. While one often works productions where multiple people have the same name, I only do that in this series when there’s a plot-or-character related reason for it, and I try to keep the names of people who are often in the same scenes together different enough not to be confusing.

The original GAMBIT COLONY Series Bible is a hot mess with all the drafts over the years. I know I need to start a fresh one. I’m also considering doing a corkboard type of document to track characters and make sure I’m following through on arcs, much as I would if it was a scripted series. I did a little digging, and it looks like there’s a way to do that in Scrivener. Since I own Scrivener software, and it doesn’t work for me to draft (since it won’t let me draft in standard manuscript format, and that’s a deal breaker for me), maybe I can at least use the corkboard function. I found a tutorial on creating a binder and ditching the document file so it allows one to just use the corkboard, so when I get to that point, I will try.

I’d hoped Office had an index card format, but it only has one for Windows10. I’d have to buy the NoteDex app, and it doesn’t have the flexibility I need. No, thank you. I’ll figure out how to use the board in Scrivener. I’ll also look at DramaQueen, the script software I use, and see if my version has one. I’m still dithering whether I should just suck it up and use some of the grant money (when it arrives) for Final Draft. That would be the professional thing to do. I know Final Draft has the board option. Plus I’d use it for, you know, scripts.

It was great to submerge myself in that GAMBIT COLONY world for a couple of days, but now I need to finish books 5 & 6, and do a big overall revision/organization, because they are all of a piece, and all have to be done before any of them can release, much less get submitted. I have stacks of notes on what happens next; I just have to work it into the schedule.

I heard from a market I’d forgotten I’d contacted that yes, I could submit to them in radio format. Now, I have to go back through  my notes and figure out what it was I meant to send them.

The snow is still coming down hard, and will be all day. I expect the power and internet will continue to fluctuate. If it does, I’m still on top of deadlines. If I can get some work done – on Legerdemain, and making the rounds for yesterday’s episode of Legerdemain, and today’s episode of Angel Hunt and the latest Process Muse (which is about research), I will do so. I have one script in the queue due Friday, and a novel they asked me to read and comment on for adaptation due Saturday, which I hope to finish by Friday. So we’ll see.

I feel guilty that I was in GAMBIT COLONY world during time I could have been working on the Heist Romance, but since the power was out and the internet was out, I couldn’t have accessed the software anyway.

I HATE cloud-based everything. I want it in my damn computer, so I can work offline.

Anyway, breakfast, then back to the page. I need to get back to work drafting new episodes of Legerdemain. I have episodes for the next couple of weeks, which I’ll upload later this week, but I want to get farther ahead.

I am NOT looking forward to digging the car out from nearly three feet of snow. If it lets up mid-day, I’ll start. Otherwise, I’ll wait until tomorrow and take as much time as I need to do it, in sections. The car looks like a baby igloo, with al the snow piled over it.

Hope you are well, warm, and happy!

Back to the page.

Tues. March 7, 2023: Working on the Balance

image courtesy of Pexels via pixabay.com

Tuesday, March 7, 2023

Full Moon

Partly cloudy and cold

Time for our Tuesday catch up. Pull up a beverage and let’s get to it.

The bright sun on Friday meant everyone was cheerful as they ran around getting things done before the storm. I dashed down to Big Y to get coffee. Really, that was in the interest of public service, because being around me if I’m without coffee causes unnecessary pain to all. I grabbed a few other things, just in case they were right about 14 inches of snow and I couldn’t dig out by Sunday to do the early month Big Grocery Shop.

Did the social media rounds to promote the day’s episode of Angel Hunt, and to visit the blogs that are, once again, part of my regular rounds. Those of us who’ve never believed the blog is dead and steadily kept at it have built steady readership. I was amazed when a stat report came in, at how many people follow the various blogs, even if they don’t often comment. Thank you! I am grateful for the support, and I hope my mistakes save you pain, and that sharing my experiences make you feel less alone.

I struggled to settle into the page in the morning. The piece I was noodling with yesterday will work; I just have to figure out some of the points so that the structure fits its chosen genre. The piece (meaning my subconscious) chose the genre; I did not intentionally aim for it. But the structure is tight and unforgiving, and I want to make sure I hit the necessary points so I don’t just dive in and flail.

The Heist Romance script was calling me and demanding attention. I knew I had to re-read what I’ve done so far to get back into the voice, and I didn’t want to start that until I’d finished the deadlined work for the week.

I didn’t want to do script coverage in the morning, because then it would be too hard to switch my headspace back into the creative landscape, rather than the critical one. I managed to do a polish, upload, and schedule on the next couple of weeks’ worth of Process Muse posts.

I checked the plants out on the front porch, and it was so nice I sat out there reading the latest issue of THE NEW YORKER, joined by Tessa and Charlotte. There’s a great satiric piece on the pay-for-checkmarks at Twitter in the issue.

I did the necessary coverages and was done for the week, which was nice, I could relax in the evening.

Busy dreams, Friday into Saturday. Not bad, just busy.

It had started snowing late on Friday night. By Saturday morning, we had about a foot of snow, and it kept coming down until about noon. It was very pretty, and the power held, so I enjoyed watching the snow from the living room couch and reading.

I noodled with some ideas for poems. I have themes, ideas, image that I want to explore, although I’m not sure yet how. I have a notebook just for this type of noodling. Part of the notebook is similar to a commonplace book in that I write down quotes which resonate.

I finished reading POEM CRAZY, and started reading Mary Oliver’s book about the craft of poetry.

I was thrilled, on Saturday, to be offered a slot in this autumn’s Boiler House Poets Collective’s residency program at MASSMoCA. A weeklong intensive in the museum’s studios, with the other poets in the collective. It’s such an unexpected honor. I accepted, of course, and I am thrilled and slightly terrified. I will learn a lot and grow in new directions. It also gives me time to figure out what I want to work on. I think I want to write about shattered dreams around the Cape Cod experience (and Chiron will be in retrograde, so it makes sense); at the same time, it has to be more than catharsis, and stand on its own wordy feet. But I can play with themes and ideas and forms, and have something to actually bring in and work on with the Collective, while also creating new work while I’m there.

I started reading Tara Laskhowski’s ONE NIGHT GONE. Author Greg Herren had recommended it over on his blog, and it sounded interesting. It is. It’s very well done.

The Goddess Provisions box arrived, and it was lovely, as usual.

In the early afternoon, I went out to dig out the car. I was highly irritated because the guys who have the spots on either side of me – who are half my age – shoveled the snow behind their cars and dumped it behind my car instead of walking the five steps across the lot to put it where it was supposed to go. So instead of having a foot to shovel, I had three feet. Not a happy camper. They can bite me.

I don’t expect them to shovel my car clear. But it’s unacceptable to add more work to my slot because they’re lazy.

I used to always conscientiously shovel the space between the cars on both sides, but I don’t do it anymore, because I was the only one who ever did it and neither of these guys – young, strong, strapping guys – can ever be bothered.

I grabbed scripts for the week, and then was requested for a coverage, so now I have too many scripts for the beginning of the week (I’m only reading the first three days). But I’ll get it done.

Heard from the extended family up in Maine. They are all down with COVID (because they stopped being careful). They’re annoyed that we haven’t had it yet. Annoyed because we keep following protocols to remain as healthy as possible for as long as possible. No time for that. Makes me glad I started keeping a distance after the whole issue around the move, before we found this place, when they told us I’d have to put my mother in a nursing home, get rid of the cats, get rid of my books, and rent a room and work a minimum wage job. Nope. That’s not my life.

More busy dreams Saturday into Sunday. The good thing about having Tessa sleep on the bed is that she lets me sleep through the night, while Charlotte wakes me up every two hours.

I did a lot of ironing on Sunday, on various fabric that I’ve handwashed over the past few weeks and that has stacked up. It stores better when it’s ironed. I set out the board and plugged in the Rowenta and got to work. I enjoy ironing. It was part of the prep as a wardrobe person I found soothing.

Did some tidying up, broke down some boxes. Got some paperwork done.  The chop wood, carry water part of artistic life is just as important as the rest of it. It keeps one grounded.

Worked on contest entries. I’ll have to do that every day for the next two months, to make sure I give the entries their due.

I re-read what I have of the Heist Romance Script. It holds up, in spite of knowing it needs work. Back to the research on Corsica and Sardinia, so I can sneak work on the next sections in around other work.

Sunday night into Monday, I dreamed about creating art pieces out of layered tissue paper that resembled stained glass (my uncle used to work in actual stained glass). It made sense in the dream, and looked pretty darn good, but I have no idea how to pull it off on this side of the Dreamscape.

Monday was sunny. Yeah!

Did the social media rounds early, took care of administrative stuff, then it was off to the library and the grocery store. Of course, as soon as I got home, another slew of books showed up at the library; I’ll pick them up tomorrow or so.

Did the big early-in-the-month grocery shop, hauled everything home and put it away.

Turned around three coverages and started on a fourth before I ran out of steam. Got requested for another that has to be done this week, so now I’m really overscheduled. However, I’m also grateful that writers find the feedback helpful and get excited to create more, and that they want my take on it. So I will get it all done.

Soup class was fun.

Worked on contest entries after.

Cancelled my subscription to Tamed Wild. I’ve gotten some beautiful things from them the past few years. But last year, they upped the shipping cost, so it’s an extra 40% on top of the cost of the box. They claimed it was “temporary” but we all knew that was a crock. However, since then, the shipping has gotten completely erratic. They can blame the post office all they want, but the post office can’t forward what hasn’t been given to them. The box that arrived yesterday was paid for on 13 Feb and supposed to ship by the 18. It shipped last Friday, 3 March. So much for a ritual meant to be specific to February.  On top of that, the quality of the box contents has gone down and become repetitive. And, for instance, with the jewelry, now the pendants and chains aren’t put together, and when one tries to put the pendant on the chain – it doesn’t fit. Which means I have to go out and buy findings to adjust it and spend time trying to make it work. I’m not a jewelry artist. I don’t know how to do it and I shouldn’t have to for something I’ve purchased. Now they’re talking about going quarterly with a bigger box at more than double the cost with the shipping being an additional 25% on top of the cost of the box. No. Just no. So I cancelled.  I’m grateful for the good months, but the direction they’re taking isn’t working for me.

Goddess Provisions has much more consistent quality, pricing, and on-time delivery.

But a new moonstone was part of yesterday’s box. Tessa loves moonstones, and she’s kept it close.

Slept decently, although the feline shift change at 4 AM woke me. I had trouble getting back to sleep after, going down negative spirals. I kept reminding myself, that’s not reality. I can choose that not to be reality. On a couple of points I realized the irritant was either none of my business or a situation I could choose to remove myself from, so why fret?

Today I have at least three coverages to turn around, and I will try to at least get started on a fourth. I have yoga this evening, so that will help me reset.

I have some pain-in-the-ass-but-necessary admin work (again, cleaning up the mess of the inept), but I’ll get that done, and hopefully write a bit, too. I took the writing pressure off myself early in the week because I knew I was only doing client work M-T-W, so I’ll gear back up on writing Thursday and Friday, along with the other stuff planned, and get back to a more stable writing-in-the-morning-client-work-in-the-afternoon schedule next week. I’m still writing in longhand first thing in the morning, so I’m still writing every day, and that keeps me on an even keel.

I had an epiphany about another layer for the play FALL FOREVER that will be written in April, so I’ll jot those notes down in my outline. It gives deeper motivations to several of the characters, and makes it more nuanced.

I also realized I haven’t scheduled the promos for this week’s episodes of LEGERDEMAIN and ANGEL HUNT, so I’ll have to do that first thing. Hint: Episode 65 of Legerdemain drops today!

I better get going, huh? Have a good one!

Fri. Feb. 24, 2023: More Bad Weather

image courtesy of Nile via pixabay.com

Friday, February 24, 2023

Waxing Moon

Snowy and cold

I baked bread yesterday, and, to my delight, it turned out well. It’s one of my favorite recipes, but sometimes it doesn’t work. This time it did, and it was wonderful. The yeast bloomed well, the crumb is good, the taste is delightful.

Worked on Legerdemain. Revised the next set of episodes to be uploaded. They need some more work. Too much passive voice. Some of it is necessary; the rest is sloppy writing that needs fixing.

Wrote the two book reviews, submitted them, got my next two assignments. Did a stack of coverage scoring sheets, and turned around two scripts.

I have an opportunity to put PLAYING THE ANGLES, SAVASANA AT SEA, and TRACKING MEDUSA into a special promotion. Normally, I’d jump at it. But since those series are in limbo at this point, I’m wondering if I should. I have another day or two to think about it, although I’d like to get more attention on all three books.

Did the social media rounds to promote Legerdemain and #28Prompts. As far as writing conversations go, I’m having the best ones over on Mastodon at this point.

The weather was too awful to make it to Open Studios, so I didn’t go. Soup class was moved to last night, from its usual Monday slot, and that was fun.

Ice storm came through last night, and it’s snowing again this morning. I suppose, at some point, I have to go out and dig out the car. I’m not doing errands today; I’ll do them tomorrow morning.

Disturbing, sometimes violent dreams last night. Charlotte pulled me out of them several times, but we are both exhausted this morning.

One year anniversary of the start of the war in Ukraine. The West has not done enough.

Today’s agenda: Working on Legerdemain, working on the short radio plays, doing the social media rounds to promote today’s episode of Angel Hunt and #28Prompts, turning around a treatment coverage, starting the next book for review, working on contest entries.

This weekend, I’ll work on both Legerdemain and Angel Hunt, along with doing household chores. I’m hoping to put some time into “Plot Bunnies” to get that prepped for re-release the week or so before Easter. Which means I have to commit to finishing “Labor Intensive” and getting that out by the end of summer, and figuring out the third one (maybe something built around President’s Day) to release in early 2024. I need to do some more prep work on the outline of FALL FOREVER, the script I plan to write for the Dramatists’ Guild END OF PLAY in April. I have the basic idea of it, but I need more specifics, so that when I sit down to write on April 1, it’s there. I also need to work on another piece in March, that experiments a little in format, structure, and the way it’s released, that I hope to have ready for April, but I don’t want to overcommit myself.

Next week, I also need to go through the short stories that are ready to go out, and get them submitted. I want to get back to “13 in Play” where there are always at least 13 pieces out on submission. Because if they’re not out there, they can’t find their best match and earn their keep. I have 7 pieces out on submission now, all plays. I need to mix it up a bit.

Along with re-reading Anne Truitt’s DAYBOOK, I’m also dipping into Doris Grumbach’s FIFTY DAYS OF SOLITUDE (for the umpteenth time). I always learn something new from it.

The weekend is supposed to be pretty nasty, as far as weather goes. I have to dig out the car by tomorrow morning and do a grocery run (and maybe a library run) before the next storm comes in. And I have yoga on Sunday evening, something I am not willing to give up.

Have a good one.

Tues. Feb. 21, 2023: Incoming Storms, Literal and Figurative

image courtesy of Hans  via pixabay.com

Tuesday, February 21, 2023

Waxing Moon

Mardi Gras

Cloudy and cold, incoming storms

I hope you had a lovely weekend, and I’m looking forward to our usual Tuesday catch up.

Friday, I finished, polished, and uploaded tomorrow’s Process Muse post. The plan is to get all of the March posts written, polished, and uploaded this week, and hopefully get April’s done next week, because April will be a very busy month.

I did a library pickup/drop-off, a quick grocery shop, swung by the liquor store. Picked up a couple of African violets. Ours didn’t recover from the move – but then, they’d survived nearly a decade, and that’s unusual.

Most of the day was devoted to the article, building it like a symphony, stepping back to let the voices of those interviewed shine. I hate it when interviewers try to make it all about them. I have more material than I can use, so it was a case of building, then tightening for flow.

I stayed up far too late reading MADLY, DEEPLY: THE DIARIES OF ALAN RICKMAN. I never had the honor of working with him, unfortunately, but we’ve worked with some of the same people, and it was fascinating to get his take on some stories I’d heard via others. His commitment to the truth of the work and the complexity of the work is always something I admired. Some actors want a lot of room to do whatever they want; he wants to know the director has actually done his job and prepared, but at the same time doesn’t micromanage every emotion. Emma Thompson wrote the most beautiful foreword to the book, which is worth reading all on its own.

Had a few moments of fun on Twitter, and then someone who should know better started making misogynistic comments, and I am just done.

Set up a Lnk.bio that I can use on Instagram, et el. I like their setup better than Linktree’s. I have the serials, the websites, and some other stuff up there. That will help driving traffic from Instagram to the various projects. Pleased that the metrics on traffic are up from both Post and CounterSocial, at least when it comes to Process Muse.

Put in the Chewy order, because those little monsters like their meals on time.

I didn’t sleep well. The fluctuation temperatures and barometric shifts are doing a number on me. But the day was bright and sunny, always good to lift the spirits.

We headed for The Plant Connector on Main Street. No easy feat, since the street was closed down for a WinterFest. I hope all the stores did well. I found a philodendron and a spider plant to replace the ones that didn’t survive the move; I will transplant them this week to more permanent pots. I might put them in my bedroom, although I have to check the Feng Shui on that.

It was such a nice day, we didn’t want to go home right away, so we headed up to Bennington, VT. Nice, clear drive. It’s nice to be up in this corner, with easy access to our own MA, to NY, and VT. And no bridges to worry about. I feel bad for people near the Sagamore Bridge, who are losing their homes to eminent domain for the new bridge, and glad we are not there (and hadn’t moved closer to the Sagamore Bridge; we looked at a few places before we moved here).

Found a lovely, deep red satin runner in one of our favorite stores, and, on the way back found a dark-wood-finished compass rose folding table at another favorite store. Someone scrawled on it with a sharpie, so it needs a little TLC, but it’s a lovely piece. Add that to the chips-and-dip dishes in the form of oversized playing cards that I picked up on Friday, and I made a quirky set of purchases this weekend.

I decided that I needed to take Saturday off completely. Saturday was the day before the dark moon, which is always my lowest energy day of the month anyway, and I need to work with that, instead of planning to get things done and running out of energy. I read, some for pleasure, some for research. I’m re-reading POEM CRAZY, a book I bought a long time ago in the shop of the main NYPL. My copy is in storage down on the Cape, so I ordered it from the library, and am enjoying it. I got a chance to work a bit with my new Midnight City Tarot deck and love it.

I went through the research books for Malta that have to go back to the library, as background for the big section of the Heist Romance script that happens there. But first, we have sections in Corsica, Sardinia, and then back in the UK (London and York, specifically).

I hunted down some research books via Boston Public Library (I have an e-card) and WorldCat. Turns out one is right across the street in the college library, so I will trek over there this week to see if I can get it. The other, so far, is only available in the UK, but maybe I can get a digital copy.

The only thing I did online was the #28Prompt for the day, and read an email from my best friend from NYU days. We’ve stayed close through the years, and are navigating this stage of our lives, and helping each other figure out possibilities. He and I have been through a lot together over the decades.

I played with some ideas, without pressure. I have to see what form they choose to take, if any of them do.

Sunday had a nice, slow start, which is fine. When I was putting together information for a residency proposal I submitted a week or so ago, I came across information on Anna Katharine Green, who was the first woman in the US to publish detective fiction and set up the “serial detective.” Her work inspired writers like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, and Mary Roberts Rinehart, and we still use a lot of the tropes today. She was a prolific and successful writer in the novel and short story formats, and even wrote a few plays. She was married to an actor who was eight years younger than she was – unusual in the Victorian/Edwardian era. Her father didn’t approve of his career, so he gave it up (temporarily, because, you know, theatre) to design cast iron stoves and, later, furniture, before returning to the stage now and again. They sound like they had a lot of fun together over the years, with their various interests, and raising their children in Buffalo. She was a fellow introvert, which makes me feel even more connected.

She is peripheral to the project I proposed for the residency (although a part of it), but I’m interested in her and her work. I wound up ordering a copy of the book for myself, because I can think of at least three projects on which I can use it as background. I’d love to write one of my Historical Women plays about her at some point, so we’ll put that into the hopper and see when the opportunity comes up (or when I have to create that opportunity). It won’t be any time soon, although I did manage to snag a complete collection of her work for Kindle for 99 cents, and can read it in my travels this summer.

I turned around a coverage for a series treatment, did the rounds for #28Prompts, and received another bit of info I needed for the article.

I was saddened to hear about the death of Richard Belzer. I was acquainted with him, briefly, while working on a LAW & ORDER spinoff back in my NYC days, and being loaned over the other L&O shows on occasion, or doing drop-offs and pickups at that studio. I liked and respected him a lot. I was also saddened to hear about President Carter in hospice. Would we had more like him and fewer like Reagan/Bush/Trump.

Read the third book in a series where I loved the first book, was frustrated by the second book, and am even more frustrated by the third book. Complex motivations for some of the characters feel like they’re being twisted to actually support misogynistic, conservative points while masquerading as progressive, and that irks me. I also loathe the central female protagonist even more in this book than in the last book. Another issue I’m having is that these characters have been together over a period of years, in a series of life-and-death situations, always coming through for each other. But instead of those relationships building, they don’t talk to each other. The relationships are static, with the characters making same mistakes from book to book instead of learning from them and growing, and it annoys me.

I’ve shifted, a bit, how I start and end my days (I wrote about it over on the Goals, Dreams, and Resolutions site yesterday). The opening of the day isn’t that different, but adjusting how I end the day is helping, and helping with better sleep.

Monday dawned a bit Hitchcockian.

I was awakened by crows.

Charlotte and Tessa tried to roust me out of bed at 4:30 in the morning, but I wasn’t having it. However, around 6, I was awakened by the call of the crows. I went to the window. Thousands of migrating birds were passing through, from south to north. The crows herded them toward Windsor Lake (about ¾ of a mile up the nearby mountain) rather than letting them use our street as a rest stop.

It was fascinating, beautiful, and a little terrifying to watch.

Started reading the fourth book in the series I’ve talked about. The corporate publisher had dropped the series after book 3, and this is with a different publisher. Its energy and tone and much more like the first book in the series, but better, at least so far. The complexities aren’t diluted or shied away from here, and the central female character isn’t as much of an idiot (at least so far).

Which begs the question: did the corporate publisher water down and edit those two middle books to be more conservative, and, when wishy-washy didn’t hold the audience, then drop the series?

Something to think about.

The individual who made the insulting remark and whom I called out on Twitter last Friday apologized, I accepted, and we’re all good. That’s a relief, at least.

But cutting back social media time and getting it more balanced as part of my business that still builds individual connections is still a good choice.

Uploaded and scheduled next week and the following week’s episode graphics for Legerdemain, and this week’s for ANGEL HUNT. Set up the expense tracker file for what’s covered by the grant so I can just enter information as it happens and it’s all set for the reports and other paperwork that have to be filled out, both for the grant, and next year for taxes. Did the social media rounds for the blogs and #28Prompts. Had to fill out a report with Amazon, because I got a suspicious text message pretending to be from Amazon. I’m not dumb enough to believe it or click any links, but I sure as heck reported it.

Pleased by Biden’s trip to the Ukraine. Also pleased that he has a team around him that knows when to keep its individual and collective mouths shut.

CLARKESWORLD shut their submissions down because they’re being flooded with AI-generated short stories. As usual, the dilettantes ruin it for everyone. Professional writers do the actual writing and use their unique creative process to build their careers.  I can see this evolving into a situation where you’ll only be able to submit to a magazine if they know someone who can vouch for you, and, once again, too many good writers will be cut out of the process. I’m glad that magazines are taking a stand against AI, that’s for sure, but there will be a period in the course correction that hurts a lot of legitimate writers. As usual.

Zuckerberg is monetizing scammers now on FB and Facebook, huh. Not surprising, but disappointing. He lets scammers scam, and charges monthly protection fees to verify accounts. How Mafia-like. I was also disturbed with the lack of grace Spoutible had in handling questions about their TOS. The cultists immediately piled on harassment, screaming that those questioning wanted to allow porn on the site. No, they were asking what this site’s definition was for “adult content” because a lot of romance writers include various levels of sex scenes in their books, and they wanted to know the boundaries of promoting their work on the platform. My interpretation of the TOS fit what I’m looking for in the platform, but others asked for clarifications, and that needs to be valid. There was a lot of discussion, pre-launch, about supporting individual artists and creators, and encouraging debate. And yet, this is how the situation was handled. Big red flag. Several writers and artists for whom I have the greatest respect left the platform. I heard of others being banned, although I did not directly see that. Rumors now circulate that if one even criticizes them on another platform, one is banned for life. Spoutible claimed it banned only harassers; but I saw plenty of the cultists harassing yesterday without any consequences. If I’m banned, I’m banned. That’s the way it goes. It’s not like I’m important enough to impact their numbers, one way or another. It would just be about control. Every platform has its positives and negatives. I’m wondering if social media, in general, has shot its wad and is spent.

And those people panicking “how am I going to build community without social media?” Oh, come on. We built community for centuries without it. We went out there and DID THE WORK. The internet makes it both easier and harder, but, for fuck’s sake, use a little imagination and stop expecting other people to do your work for you. No wonder so many wanna-bes are using AI for stories and novels. They’re too damn lazy to create their own work.

Found out for certain that someone is muting me, except for the one hour each week she wants me to contribute to her numbers. All I can do is shake my head, laugh, and move on.

Worked on the article. It’s not quite where I want it yet. I think I need another day or two. You see why I don’t take on assignments where I’m supposed to generate a dozen or so articles a week. That doesn’t work for me. This is taking more time than usual, but that’s because I want to make sure the individual voices in the article sing, rather than just being support material. It’s more of an experiential piece than an instructional piece.

Did some small tweaks on a play I wrote a few years back, and that holds up well. Got it out the door. Got another play out the door to another market. I really need to build some more full-length plays into the roster. I have plenty of one acts of various lengths, but I need more full-lengths. WOMAN IN THE SHADOWS, FALL FOREVER, and FROZEN AT THE PALACE THEATRE should take care of that this year. I’m not sure where I’ll fit WOMAN in yet (that’s the full-length play about Kate Warne, the first female Pinkerton, about whom I’ve written several one acts), but FALL FOREVER is up in April with Dramatists’ Guild End of Play event, and FROZEN AT THE PALACE THEATRE is a piece I used for a residency application in winter, so we’ll see.

Dreamed I was researching in a big, beautiful library, which was a lovely dream. But I woke up with a post-research headache, made worse by the pre-storm headache. Another series of storms comes in, starting today, for the rest of the week. Hadley already has a couple of inches of snow.

This morning is work on the article. Around mid-day, I have to take my mom for her regular doctor’s appointment. Hopefully, the storm won’t be too bad by then. When we get back, it’s social media rounds for today’s episode of Legerdemain and #28Prompts, and then I hope to either do more work on the article, or work on those very short radio plays. I need to rebuild the beats from scratch, not try to re-assign lines from three characters to two.

There we go, lots going on. Hope you had a great weekend and are starting a great week!

Fri. Feb. 17, 2023: Books and Cats

image courtesy of Gerhard via pixabay.com

Friday, February 17, 2023

Waning Moon

Rainy and warm

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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