Tues. April 18, 2023: A Productive Weekend of Scribbling

image courtesy of Queena Deng via pixabay.com

Tuesday, April 18, 2023

Day Before Dark Moon

Rainy and cold

The temperature’s already fallen 45 degrees since late last week, and they predicted snow tonight.

Did you have a good weekend? Are you ready for our usual Tuesday morning natter?

I fixed a big plot hole in Thursday’s pages on FALL FOREVER, and that allowed the scene to move forward. I wound up writing about 6 pages on Friday.

Worked on material for June’s newsletter because there’s actually material for it already.

I wrote, revised, polished, and sent off the materials for the August residency. Either they feel I’m a good fit or they don’t. And if I get something definite on one of the other applications, before I hear one way or another from this one, I’ll have to make a decision. Chances are, I’ll take the definite. If I’m offered the August slot and know early enough, then I can build other plans around it.

Did a library run to drop off/pick up books. It was pretty damn hot out there.

Turned around two script coverages.

Read PAT IN THE CITY, Patricia Fields’s memoir about her life in fashion which then turned into a career in costume design (most famously for SEX IN THE CITY). It was very interesting. Although we overlapped a good deal in NYC, especially in the late 80s/early 90s, I was far too shy to be part of that crowd, and drugs were a big part of their scene, which was not mine at all. I mean, I was aware of her store and what was going on in the area (after all, I was at NYU, and then, once I came back from the three years on the west coast, I worked off-Broadway, climbing my way up to Broadway). I was just busy elsewhere.

Fortunately, Saturday wasn’t quite as hot. It’s pleasant enough to have my first cup(s) of coffee on the front porch, to write in my journal, and, Saturday morning, to write a few more pages of notes on REP. The big challenge with REP is going to be building the comedy properly, so it’s funny, but doesn’t overwhelm the rest of the story. And, since the ambition for it is to eventually adapt it back into either novels, or a series of novellas (the latter is more likely), I have to build the humor in a way that it doesn’t read as frantic in a flow.

I created a Serial Writers Questionnaire that I’m going to post around the various channels, to get an idea of what other serial writers are doing. It might grow into a blog post or an article at some point.

I winnowed down the inbox for my main email account to something I can deal with. I have to get on top of one more email inbox, and I’ll be on track.

I’ve been chasing down payment from a prestigious publication that pays a pittance, but claims that paying writers is important. I was supposed to be paid at the end of March. When I hadn’t received payment by the beginning of last week, I contacted the editor. The interactions have been pleasant, but so far, I’ve had excuses, trying to shift responsibility to me, and still no payment. I mean, I’d already decided I wouldn’t work for them ever again, since the payment is about 1/10^th of what I’d get at the other publications I usually write this type of material for. But no. Don’t say you care about paying writers and then not pay them.

FALL FOREVER was a bit of a slog on Saturday, and I only wrote 3 pages. But I showed up and did it, and that’s what matters. In the first 15 days of the program, I wrote 71 pages, so I’m on track. I expected to be somewhere between pages 45-60 at this point, so a rough day here and there is not going to make me whine. Pushing through to the end of this draft, rather than skipping days and catching up because I’m ahead at the moment is a better choice for me, I think.

Drafted two episodes of Legerdemain. Did the log lines for this week’s episodes and the episode graphics. Did some more work on the 2000-year history of Legerdemain that will go up on the website. I need to get more original content up on the website to enhance the serial for readers, and to intrigue new readers. But it takes time, brain energy, and tech maneuvering.

Revised, polished, uploaded, and scheduled the next two Process Muse posts.

Rubbed one of the Adirondack chairs on the front porch with teak oil, prepping it for summer. Re-painted a copper and crystal whirligig so it’s all shiny and pretty. Cleaned the crystals and put them back in on Sunday, when the paint was dry. That will look pretty once we can get the back door open and out onto the back balcony.

Finished reading a book I thought was great for the first few chapters. Then, the author, via her trio of female protagonists started slagging off other women with the term “witch” as a derogatory. Nope, nope, nope. I’ve been a supporter of this author’s work for several years, but no more. Referring to women who are mean and bullying as “witches” is inappropriate in a contemporary novel for 2023. Don’t pretend you give a flying fuck about equity and inclusion if your protagonists (who supposedly do care) use the term, you hypocrite.

Ordered Chinese food because I didn’t feel like cooking.

Finally got to watch THE LOST CITY. It was a lot of fun, for the most part, but the logistical lapses bugged me. I mean, there was a lot that was wacky, because it parodied this type of film, but the internal logic of this wacky created world needed to be stronger. A couple of the jokes were milked too long and the air went out of the scenes. One scene, for a supporting character, that was supposed to plant information for a final scene visual needed a rewrite. The actress did what she could with the material, but the words weren’t enough. It could have been an hilarious scene and wasn’t, because it was a badly written monologue that didn’t build properly.  A supporting character had an arc with potential set up, and then it was dropped as the film continued with a really weak exit for him, which was a shame, because it would have added texture. Sandra Bullock was a lot of fun. Her timing was impeccable. Channing Tatum was fine, doing his thing. Daniel Radcliffe had a good time chewing scenery (his role reminded me a lot of his role in NOW YOU SEE ME 2). Brad Pitt’s cameo was hilarious. And his schtick of eating in a scene (this time off camera, in the first phone call) was one of those things that the OCEANS movie viewers will get and love. The plot twist at the end of his cameo was unexpected, and I’m glad I hadn’t seen any spoilers. The way the movie sends up conferences was hilarious.

So, overall, I had fun. It also taught me a few structural things I want to stay away from in the Heist Romance script.

Had trouble getting to sleep on Saturday; Charlotte got me up Sunday. Morning coffee on the porch with the journal, then a few more pages of outline notes for REP.

Wrote 3 ½ pages on FALL FOREVER.

Sunday was the day I put aside to devote mostly to ANGEL HUNT. However, I still had to draft an episode of Legerdemain first. I drafted the episode, and then switched headspaces to ANGEL HUNT’s world.

I adapted two chapters into serial episodes, for a total of 8 episodes. I uploaded the next eight episodes to Vella, which gets me through the second week of June, and I have episodes drafted well into the summer. I need to work on ANGEL HUNT one day per week, in and around other stuff, until all the episodes are polished, uploaded, and scheduled. Somehow, I hadn’t written the episode loglines for the upcoming 8 episodes, so I wrote episode loglines for 16 episodes, which gets me through everything that’s scheduled. I updated the Style Sheet and Series Bible. I’m up-to-date with characters on that, but behind on plot points, and was too tired to backtrack, so I’ll have to catch up with that, too. Some of the stuff I adapted today needs better follow-through with the arcs down the line; I may have to insert some material into the chapters I’m adapting. I’ve got just over 60 episodes drafted, and I think I’m at the halfway point, maybe just a tad beyond it. I’ve uploaded episodes through Episode 40. The sooner I can get the serial finished, edited, uploaded, and polished, the sooner I can work on the plan for it.

Read the latest NEW YORKER. Felt tired and burned out. Got some of the painting done on the wind chimes. I need to do the small bits later this week, when it’s dry.

Worked on contest entries.

Yoga was terrific. The conversation is as worthwhile as the practice itself.

Home, finished the leftover Chinese food, read for a bit.

Slept pretty well. Woke up in the middle of the night, worried I had a fever. But I was sandwiched in between Charlotte and Tessa, both of whom are very warm.

I forgot to set the coffeemaker Sunday night. We were all very confused Monday morning.

Felt burned out on Monday morning. It was hard to get going. Which frustrated me, because I’d been looking forward to this holiday Monday all last week.

I snuck in a little work on GAMBIT COLONY.

Showed up to the page at FALL FOREVER, even though I wasn’t feeling it. Once I got into it, though I wrote 4 pages. Finished the scene.

I’m moving into the last few scenes. Maybe three or four more. I’d like to finish the draft before our company arrives at the end of next week.

Drafted another episode of Legerdemain, which makes me feel, finally, like I’m pulling a little ahead. I need to keep it up all week, and then I’ll make some real progress. I will be able, when I upload more episodes this week, to get a few weeks’ worth scheduled, instead of just next week’s. Got up this week’s promos.

Drafted the first three episodes of REP. I want to write about 10 episodes to see if this is actually a viable project, or if it’s just something silly to work on as a stress reliever. These episodes are more dramedy with slight satiric elements than straight-up comedy. I may layer some jokes into it, but I might let the voice that’s coming through prevail, since it’s working. And I’m trying to keep the episodes close to 1K/each (a little over/under is fine). So, in terms of episode length, it’s between the very short bites of ANGEL HUNT and the longer LEGERDEMAIN. Although I’m trying to keep the Legerdemain episodes a little shorter, too. Metrics show readers prefer to spend 10-15 tokens per episode, but not more than 20. (Which means 1-2K words for episode length, with 1-1.5K being the sweet spot).

It’s very much a valentine to theatre.

But it also means I wrote 5-damn-K words yesterday, and by 2 PM, I was TIRED.

I couldn’t paint because it was raining, and it wouldn’t dry properly.

I took up residence on the couch, and Charlotte took up residence on me (I’m one click away from adding “cat furniture” to my resume). I read SPARKLING CYANIDE, the Agatha Christie read for this month. Some of it was clever. But the young heroine fell firmly in the “too stupid to live” category and I was almost sorry when the hero managed to rescue her at the end.

Soup class was a lot of fun. It will end in mid-May, and then start up again, with a slightly different format, in November.

I jolted awake in the middle of the night with sense memory stress, but Tessa purred me down. When I finally got up this morning, I felt tired and burned out. I mean, I worked all weekend, even if it wasn’t client work.

I feel good about my work (although I wish I’d gotten more done on Legerdemain’s website), but I’m tired.

This morning, first priority is the next pages on FALL FOREVER, then another episode of Legerdemain. Then, I’ll see where I am timewise, and what I can get in before I head off to the library and the pharmacy. This afternoon, I have two scripts to turn around. I don’t have any other scripts in my queue for the week yet, and I’m trying not to let that worry me.

I also need to backup my drives before Mercury goes retrograde, put up this week’s Angel Hunt promos, put together a list of collaborative tools for a friend, and send out some pitches. A friend asked me to blurb her upcoming release, and I’m excited about that. I won’t get to read the book until sometime in May (my schedule, not hers), but I’m looking forward to it. I also want to work on contest entries.

I’m looking forward to yoga tonight, even if it kicks my ass.

Episode 77 of Legerdemain goes live today!

Have a good one, my friends! I hope your week starts well.

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!

Thurs. March 16, 2023: Digging Out

image courtesy of Jill Wellington via pixabay.com

Thursday, March 16, 2023

Waning Moon

Partly sunny and milder

Catch up on all things planty over on Gratitude and Growth.

There’s a post over on Ink-Dipped Advice with suggestions for an Electronic Spring Cleaning.

It kept snowing yesterday.

Power was on, and internet worked. I blogged. I did the social media rounds to promote Legerdemain, Angel Hunt, Process Muse, and the Topic Workbooks. With Twitter in its death throes, the Topic Workbook sales have gone down, and since they pay a decent amount of bills, I better come up with a good marketing plan for them.

I tried to figure out Scrivener’s Corkboard, so that I could do Character and Plot notes. I have a system of Tracking Sheets, but I wanted to see if anything in Scrivener could do it more efficiently. It’s most vital for GAMBIT COLONY, but if it works, I can do it with other projects, too.

But of course, it’s Fucking Scrivener, so the way the tutorial says it works and the way it actually works are two different things. I looked at four different tutorials raving about how “easy” it is. None of the screenshots and directions were relevant to what was on my screen, and this was AFTER I downloaded the update.

I could only use the “Character Sketch” template once, which annoyed me. The ways it claimed to create a new one did not work the way shown. I tried a workaround in the Character file because I can corkboard there, and create blanks for the other characters and do them how I would in a series bible instead of using the Scrivener template which has too much that isn’t relevant. But having to do a workaround annoys me, because I should be able to use the function in the software.

For the plot arcs, I will use the “Places” file and name the plot arcs and do it that way.

I looked at DramaQueen, but it only has list features, not index card/corkboard features, even at the Pro level. Final Draft has pretty good story boarding and index card features, so it’s more and more likely I will use some of my grant money for that. I can export from DramaQueen to Final Draft, so I won’t lose anything I’ve done so far in DramaQueen.

By the time one figures out how to workaround Scrivener’s regimented crap, there’s no creative energy left to actually DO anything.

I might just buy a few more corkboards and do it old-school, with pushpins and index cards.

And then Windows11 decided it “had” to update, so there was that. And DramaQueen “had” to update (which was painless, as pretty much everything is with DramaQueen. Which is why I love DramaQueen so much).

But man, there went my creative time. I got a little bit of work done on Legerdemain, but nowhere near what I hoped.

I went outside to dig out the car from 3 feet of snow. Only it was more than three feet, because the cars on either side of me had left, and the plow plowed the snow up against my car on both sides, all the way up to the windows.

Fortunately, a kind neighbor walked by, saw I struggled, grabbed a shovel, and helped. I am so grateful. I will have to discuss this with the landlord. There’s got to be a better way. I am the oldest person with a car in the parking lot. I shouldn’t be the one shoveling the most snow.

I came back in, and my friend Diane, over in the UK, who is a Scrivener whiz, helped me figure out how to do what I need to do to create the character board for GAMBIT. I trashed the first hot mess project file, ahem “binder”, because it was beyond salvation, and created a new one,  but now I have a rhythm. It has nothing to do with the way any of the tutorials I found explained it. I need write up notes to myself, so I don’t forget the steps. To get it in my physicality, instead of just thinking it, I set up the sketch names for everyone in the first chapter (a whole lot more people than should be in any first chapter, but necessary for a chapter auditioning actors in London). Anyway, those sketch templates are set up, so when I go back for the next revision, I can fill in details and start the plot arc board, so I can track where I’m ending arcs, and which arcs are series-long.

I mean, I oughtta be able to use Scrivener for SOMETHING, since I bought it and all, and if it works for this, great. Once I started working with the board, I enjoyed it. Whew! A tool that actually works, imagine that.

A fellow freelancer shared an article by a whiny bitch of an NYU student who hated her semester studying in Florence. FLORENCE! She whined that her SEVEN roommates travelled on weekends and she was “left alone” in the apartment to cook and walk around and go to museums (which sounds like heaven to me). She found people “hostile” toward her. Considering I wanted to bitch slap her just from reading the article, I’m not surprised. What a whiny, entitled waste of space who squandered a semester in FLORENCE. One is never alone when one is among art.

And that whole damn city is art.

She decided to be miserable, for a whole semester, and instead of making an attempt to turn the things that she found difficult into positives, she dug down deeper to be as much of an awful American as she could. She even boasted about how she embodied the Ugly American. The entitlement and cultural ignorance and lack of self-awareness in the piece, so she could justify being miserable, was appalling.

But then, most of us, especially in the arts, have a rich inner life which is further enriched by new experiences, and this individual does not.

I’ve traveled all over the world on my own, and been met almost always with kindness. Where there times when I was sad and lonely? Of course. I’m human. But then I made a choice to DO SOMETHING to make it better. In many cases, it was as simple as going to a bookstore or a museum or an historic site or a theatre production, and that cheered me right up. It allowed me to see and experience the place in new ways. And doing those things, I met with terrific people from all over the place that I might never have crossed paths with otherwise. I’ve made friends decades ago that are still my friends. I learned wonderful things and had amazing experiences. The whole point was that it was different from my life at home. Jeez, if you want it to be just like home, then STAY HOME. Don’t take a slot that someone who could have benefitted from it should have had, because you’re spoiled and entitled. What a shame this individual is an NYU alum.

Unclogged the bathroom sink because, you know, life as a writer is SO glamorous! 😉

Polished the next Process Muse post, so I can upload it today, and started the one after that.

Turned around a script, my first coverage since the end of last week. Started the novel they want me to cover.

Attended a virtual session with a chef Surbhi Sahni via NYU Alumni last night. It was a lot of fun, and the chef has a Michelin star for her restaurant down at South Street Seaport, Tagmo. It was a really interesting class, and she’s a lot of fun. Her former roommate, who’s now based in Paris, attended the virtual session to surprise her. What fun! I want to order some of their mithai.

My back hurt a bit from the shoveling, but it wasn’t too bad. I overslept, because I’m still on Standard time, not DST. Tessa Was Not Amused.

Meditation was good, as always.

I’m going to do some admin, and then head off to the library and grocery store. I’m out of coffee again, and that has to be remedied. Wild Oats was open during much of the storm, and offered themselves as a rest stop for the plow drivers. As an owner/member, I’m so glad we’re doing that.

Then, it’s back to the page. The only coverage I have for the rest of this week is finishing and writing up the analysis for the novel. Even if I finish that today, I will let that be my all for the week, and concentrate on getting ahead on Legerdemain and Angel Hunt, finishing the revisions on “Plot Bunnies”, and working on contest entries.

There’s sun, so maybe I can do some of my reading on the porch!

Episode 68 of Legerdemain drops today. I hope you enjoy it.

Have a good one, my friends.

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. Jan. 31, 2023: Starting With More Snow

image courtesy of StockSnap via pixabay.com

Tuesday, January 31, 2023

Waxing Moon

Snowy and cold

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

The month wrap up is over on the GDR site.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tues. July 5, 2022: New Week, New Play

image courtesy of Kohji Asakawa

Tuesday, July 5, 2022

Waxing Moon

Pluto. Saturn, Neptune Retrograde

Cloudy and pleasant

Why, yes, I started the week by writing a full draft of a new one-act play this morning.

Friday morning, I got the review and invoice out. I was paid my month-end fee by the biggest client. I got some information on something for which I want to apply in autumn. Sent a marketing idea to my shared world anthology editor.

I set up all #31Prompts to release via Tweetdeck at 11 AM each day. They will be consistent on Tweetdeck, and hit all the other social media channels whenever I can get them up. But at least, if you follow along on Twitter, it will be consistent.

Made a logo for #31Prompts, and also for the Friday Journal Prompts which are exclusive to my Ello page.

Turned around a script coverage in the afternoon, and received two scripts I will turn around today.

Got the information for The World’s (Possibly) Largest Poem event on the 23^rd – when to get there, how we’ll be set up, etc. They’re giving us a travel stipend for gas, which will help. Thankfully, gas prices have gone down 34 cents in the last week or so. Which is good, since I need to top up this week (I always refill the tank when I hit half).

Spent the late afternoon on the front porch with an ice-cold martini, reading THE NEW YORKER and VANITY FAIR. It was hot, but not unbearable.

An article I read in VANITY FAIR gave me an idea to layer into GAMBIT COLONY, so I started doing that. Yeah, I’ve been working on that series for years. Eventually, I will finish it! But it’s always a comfort for me to work on it, even though it’s large and unwieldy. It has a very specific target audience. Anyway, I wrote about six pages of new material, to layer in another character’s story. At some point (probably over the autumn and winter), I will go back to finish Book 5 and write Book 6, then do another pass, because those first 6 books encompass the major story arcs and hopefully will release fairly close together.

But GAMBIT COLONY can’t be the main focus right now, just a stress release valve. The Big Project needs my primary focus.

A thunderstorm with lightning woke me a little after midnight, going into Saturday. Tessa and Charlotte were scared, so I stayed up with them for a bit. Willa yawned and went back to sleep. Not a lot bothers her.

It was still drizzling when I went to the Farmers’ Market, but I made my rounds, and then went to the grocery store to fill in.

Saturday was a bit of A Day: woke with a migraine, stepped on glass later in the afternoon and cut my foot, choked on a vegetable at night. Survived, but let’s hope that’s my quota for the month!

Dived into the world of GAMBIT COLONY and stayed there most of the weekend, tweaking, making notes on additional scenes, making cuts. The years of work put into it need to eventually add up to something. I wrote about 20 pages of new material.

A friend is working a show at an historical playhouse on Cape where I worked  a few years back. I had a very mixed experience (slanting to the negative) when I worked there. I’m glad I got to be a part of its history, but it’s highly unlikely I’d work there again. I hope she has a better experience.

Salmon with fresh dill and lemon basil on Saturday night, which was good. Coq Au Vin in the crockpot Sunday, which was okay, but now that I have the base recipe, I need to work on it to deepen the flavors.

We were so lucky for most of the weekend. There were some controlled fireworks for about an hour or so every night, but not the constant shelling, danger, and noise that we had on Cape. So much healthier for us and for the cats. I heard from colleagues still living on Cape that it was absolutely packed and awful all weekend. Hard to get into the grocery store; lines to get to the beaches; and so forth.

I wonder how high the Covid numbers coming out of there will be in two weeks?

The weather’s been warm, but not unbearably hot, which has been nice. I haven’t taken advantage of Windsor Lake yet, but that’s on this week’s schedule! Spending regular time at the lake.

Monday, I was paid by a client and received my next assignment.

I intentionally stayed fairly quiet this weekend, in spite of the nice weather. My body demanded it, with all the sense memory stress. Here’s hoping that I pull out to the other side in the next few days.

I took Willa out on the back balcony on Monday afternoon. Tessa and Charlotte set up a Big Fuss. So everyone got a turn, each in her own playpen, for about a half hour each. That allowed for harmony in the afternoon.

There were some fireworks, but not dickheads setting them off in the streets. Around 10 PM, down past the end of our street, there was a professional fireworks display that ran 20-30 minutes, setting the starbursts over our street. It was beautiful, well-choreographed, and not very loud. Very pretty. We sat on the front porch and watched it. Well, Tessa didn’t like it and hid in the bathroom, but the rest of us watched it from the front porch, and some of the neighbors came out into the street to watch. It was fun.

Unlike feeling like one was being bombed 24/7 for days and having to worry about the roof catching fire, like on Cape Cod.

The shooting in Highland, IL was atrocious, especially since the cops were right there, “couldn’t” catch the shooter, but later took him “without incident.” This, after a black man in Akron was shot 60 times for a traffic stop and his dead body handcuffed. This is not acceptable.

And the Dems just shrug, tell us to “vote harder” and try to fundraise off it.

No. Just no. Do your fucking jobs.

When I finally did get to bed, I had a huge sense memory flashback to this time last year, when I was in the almost empty house, with the last few loads of boxes going to storage, hoping the roof wouldn’t catch fire from the illegal fireworks, because I’d given the hose away. On the 5^th last year, was the day of my final storage runs, cleaning the house, and finally getting the hell out, so maybe, just maybe by 9 PM tonight, when I’d hit my favorite hotel in Sturbridge last year, exhausted and in tears, and they upgraded me to a fancy room, I will finally be done with the sense memory stress. I just have to ride out today.

It already started better than this day last year. I woke up with an idea for a short play, sat down before breakfast, took a quick breakfast break, and had the first draft written by 8:30 AM. It’s short, a one-act, but it was a place to put my rage, with a character who comes up with a solution. I mean, it needs work, it’s a first draft, but I said what I wanted to say. Once it’s polished, it’ll go out on submission. It’s called “The Little Woman” so you can guess the context and content.

A colleague on the Monthology anthology, who is helping the editor decide the order of the stories, said she read mine last night and it was so beautiful it made her cry. I’m delighted! I hoped it would have that power.

Today, I catch up on a lot of admin, and start writing my Llewellyn article, which is due by the end of the month. I’ll go back and wrestle with the formatting on the SUBMISSIONS Topic Workbook, and start putting in the edits to the first big arc of The Big Project, so that I can have clean copy to submit by early next week. I have some scripts in my queue, including one for which I was specifically requested. This week, I’ll also do some work on a couple of the other Topic Workbooks, and work on the slides for my class. If you haven’t yet signed up for it at the CCWC, the class is about “Developing the Series” and you can sign up here. It’s in the late afternoon of Aug. 6.

I hope your long weekend wasn’t too chaotic, and you were able to have both rest and pleasure.

Peace, my friends. We have to go to war for it (again), but we can get there.

Tues. March 15, 2022: Don’t Get All Stabby On Me

Image courtesy of Thomas B via pixabay.com

Tuesday, March 15, 2022

Waxing Moon

Cloudy and cold

If you’re familiar with Julius Caesar and The Ides of March, you’ll get the reference.

The March mid-month check-in post is over on the GDR site.

Anyway, on Thursday, I got some work done in the morning. I then did the rounds of the library, picking up my birthday cake, post office, liquor store. I participated in Freelance Chat. As I did, I realized that everything I HAD to do before Monday was. . .done.

I’d expected to be working until well into the evening to “justify” taking a three-day weekend. But there wasn’t anything in my script reading queue, I was waiting to hear back on a few things, I’d written my reviews. I could have started the next book for review, or worked on contest entries.

But I didn’t want to.

So I started my weekend on Thursday afternoon. I read books I wanted to read, including THE LOFT GENERATION by Edith Schloss, about abstract and modern artists who started living and working in lofts in NYC in the 1940’s. Excellent book.

Friday morning, we had smoked salmon Benedict as my birthday breakfast, which was excellent. We got into the car to head out for the birthday adventures. One of the windshield wiper blades snapped off, and the check engine light came back on. Really? The car only worked for four days?

I was not a happy camper.

We decided to truncate the day’s plans. We only went to Pittsfield, to the big book sale at the Atheneum. People were still masked, thank goodness, but it was very crowded, and I was uncomfortable. We didn’t stay very long. I bought some jazz and world music CDs, and a couple of books. My mom bought a few books. I couldn’t get near the older, interesting books, because a triad of dealers were there, scooping them up and blocking regular buyers from them.

On the way back, we stopped to get some cleaning supplies, more pots, potting soil, and some groceries to get us through the stormy weekend. People were talking about this storm with more concern than any of the storms so far this winter.

Home and settled in with the new books. I started reading a mystery, didn’t like it after 50 pages, read the ending; liked it less. It was everything that doesn’t work for me in a mystery: a dumb, nasty protagonist; smarmy, vicious ensemble of characters who don’t support the protagonist nor deserve the protagonist’s help; used “witch” as a slur against women; and an undercurrent of racism that I found sickening, like how dare the few black characters encroach on this safe white world. The book goes into a bag of donations I’m putting together for another book sale, and someone else can have it. It is not staying in this house, and I will not read something by this author again.

I had to wash my hands after putting it in the box, to get the stench off me.

I read the other book I’d bought, a paranormal urban fantasy with romantic elements. It worked better. It was a several books into a series I haven’t read, but it was clear about the story (without info dumping on the past). I read the blurbs for the next several in the series; not sure I’ll read them, because I don’t really like the overall series arc. But at least this was a few hours of reading pleasure.

Then, I started THE DAUGHTER OF THE MOON GODDESS by Sue Lynn Tan. Wow. Just wow. I read it Friday and finished it Saturday, even though it’s a pretty big book. But the writing is gorgeous. So beautiful. The worldbuilding, the characters, the storytelling. All wonderful. It’s a completely unique fantasy novel. The copy I read is from the library, but I think I will buy my own copy, because this is a book I will re-read.

I’d been stressing out about what to order for dinner on Friday night, worried I’d be disappointed in it. The restaurant I’d planned to order didn’t have anything on its changing menu that I really craved. So, instead, we ordered from the Freight Yard Pub, which isn’t far from us at all, and a couple of people have recommended it to me. My mom ordered her favorite fish & chips. I had stuffed chicken breast, mashed potatoes w/gravy, and roasted vegetables. The portions were huge, and it was quite good. Not a brilliant, life-changing meal, but good. I had prosecco with it, because it’s my birthday and I will damn well drink prosecco.

Although I’m seriously considering making like a Venetian and drinking prosecco regularly when the lunch is fancy enough.

I got so many lovely and loving birthday wishes via social media and email. It really made the day special.

Tessa got me up around 6 on Saturday. It was raining, but quickly changed over to snow. I thanked people for their good wishes, and answered birthday emails.

I spent the day going through books. Reading or rereading some, when I’d finished DAUGHTER OF THE MOON GODDESS. Going through some research books I’d gotten out of the library; I extracted what I needed, and they’re in the pile to go back.

I went through some of the art books that are here (I will have to retrieve others from storage, if and when the car is fixed so we can do a storage run). I’m looking for pieces that will inspire the short pieces under the three categories I’ve set aside for them. I looked at some terrific work – I’d forgotten how much impact Judy Chicago’s work has – but nothing that was a catalyst for any of those pieces. I’ll get some books from the college library this week, and see.

The snow kept pounding down, a heavy, wet snow. One of the books I’m assigned for review arrived, and it looks wonderful. I’m eager to dig into it this week.

I rested a lot. It’s a combination of birthday blues, stress about the car, worry about work, and general burnout.

I got a rejection on a short story, which was not unexpected, because it was a stretch market for me, and they were very nice in the letter. I’m going to take a look at it, see what needs to be tweaked, and find another market for it. Because I like it (or I wouldn’t have submitted it anywhere in the first place). It’s a combination of speculative fiction & mystery, with a dose of humor. But not a flash piece, it’s too long for that. And most of the paying markets now seem to want flash.

Had to change all the clocks before bedtime on Saturday, which made me grumble. I hate springing forward. When we fall back, I have extra energy for weeks. When we spring forward, I drag for days.

Up around 6 on Sunday, regular morning routine. Traditional eggs Benedict for breakfast, since it was still birthday weekend.

I rewrote a short story which had been rejected a few weeks back for being “too genre.” Hmm, when the submission call says they read regardless of genre as long as it fits the theme, then say something is too genre, gives me important information.

Anyway, I like the story, it’s a ghost story set in a theatre. I rewrote it a bit, to move it away from the submission call’s theme, and changed the protagonist’s name (which was part of the guidelines, and it didn’t suit her). I was looking for another market for it, but it seems ghost stories are now considered horror. This is more of a traditional ghost story, more paranormal with touches of mystery, than horror. I don’t think it’s dark enough for the horror markets I researched. I could go a little darker, but going too much darker would go in a direction I don’t really want.

However, there’s a middle section that’s set outside of the theatre (the beginning and end happen in the theatre). It underlines a theme and places a red herring. But maybe if I change that and keep all of it in the theatre, it might work better, and skew dark enough to fit some of the horror submission calls without going darker than I want for this particular piece.

I have to percolate on that a bit.

A friend sent me a list of markets, and, researching through those, that might be the way to go, so that it’s still within my vision, but still suited to one of these paying markets.

There’s no deadline on this, so I can let it simmer for a bit.

Did a little bit of work on Gambit Colony. If I get pulled down into that rabbit hole again, it will throw too much other work off track, but, as is typical, when I’m under stress, that’s the piece that soothes me best to work on. I’m writing a section set in Venice right now, which makes me happy.

Started work on a short piece that’s been rolling around my brain for a bit, inspired by a submission call. Not sure where it’s going yet. I want it to be short, no more than 1500 words, but it’s hitting the right 1500 words that’s the trick. 1000 words would be even better. The deadline’s not for a couple of months, so we’ll see.

I put together chicken and vegetables in the crockpot. I’d forgotten to start it right after breakfast; it was late morning before I remembered, but that’s what the “high” cooking speed is for, right?

I planted the cherry tomatoes and the mini cucumbers directly into their final pots. No need to transplant. I’m going to have to get more potting soil, because I still have hollyhocks, four o’clocks, nasturtiums, tansy, sweet peas, and mallow to plant. And the night-blooming jasmine coming in at the end of the month or early April, which will need repotting. I also planted more cat grass, since Charlotte and Willa only have a few stalks left. I put them in a different pot; I will alternate between the two pots, but I need to order more seeds for that. I’ll order the bigger batch this time.

There’s a new combination of plant center/art gallery opening up next month on Main Street, in walking distance. I am very excited.

The afternoon and evening were spent reading contest entries, with Norah Jones on the CD player. Finished the bottle of birthday prosecco, too, that I opened on Friday.

Charlotte started poking at me around 5, but Tessa was quiet until 6. Because it’s darker now in the morning, she’s staying quiet. Although that doesn’t explain why, so often, she woke me at 4 over the winter, because it was darned dark then.

Good yoga session. I’ve been hit and miss on the morning yoga the past few weeks, and need to get back into that routine. I feel better when I stick to it.

The side table to the left of my desk, in front of the large windows, has always been one of Charlotte’s favorite’s hangouts, but Tessa has discovered it. She can see more birds from it, and she is very excited.

I sent out some LOIs; got back some auto-responses for tests, which meant I shrugged off those companies and put them on The List. If they’re not going to read my cover letter, where I clearly state I don’t do unpaid labor as part of an interview or pre-interview process, and that I have a specific contract for it, then it’s not a company with whom I want to work.

Did some work on The Big Project, but not enough. I feel I’ve lost the tone of the piece, and I need to get that back.

It was warm enough on the front porch to move out the seedlings, to encourage them.

Took a big load of books back to the library; they only had one for me to pick up. It was bright out, and things are melting. We’re supposed to actually move into warmer weather this week, in the 50’s and 60’s, which would be nice.

Made my favorite comfort Chinese peanut butter noodles for lunch. I’m so grateful not to have nut allergies.

In the afternoon, I did some brainstorming on the Monthology piece, caught up on some emails, did some client work. Stepping back from interacting with someone online, because she continues to make harmful decisions, then whines about them, in spite of having a network of professionals around her giving advice on better decisions. I can’t participate anymore. She’s made her decisions; they are hers to make; I’m not spending time putting together ideas and resources that she won’t bother to use, but will whine about being exploited, because she went against advice and made those choices. It’s a never-ending circle of frustration, and I don’t need to participate. I no longer respect her, and I’m beginning to actively dislike her, which is not a relationship worth maintaining. “Oh, she’s young” is not an excuse, because one of my editors is several years younger than this individual, but several decades smarter.

 I re-subscribed to THE NEW YORKER, which I’ve missed since my subscription lapsed last July. They offered me a great rate, so I was delighted to accept it. Which means I need to get some more magazine holders.

Turned around a script coverage. I should have started the spring cleaning, but I did not. I’d hoped to put in about two or three hours each weekday, and then three or four on the weekends, but I don’t know how that will shake out. The Chewy food order arrived early, and the cats were happy to play in the box. A pair of Nine West flats I’d bought on sale also arrived, earlier than expected. They look much better in person than they did in the picture, thank goodness, and fit. I still need a good pair of cross trainers in which to run errands on foot, and walk in the various parks, but the flats will be good for going to museums, networking events, etc.

Read contest entries in the evening. It will take me several hours today to enter the scores.

Tessa woke me at 4:30 this morning. I moved to the couch, dreamed about some sort of undercover operation where I had to be a flower arranger (if you know how bad I am at that, you’ll see why there’s no way I could pull it off). I overslept until seven, which put back my day.

I might rearrange my day anyway today, to go off and do some research later this morning. I want to work on The Big Project first. Then, I ‘ll go do my research. I have another script to turn around this afternoon, and more contest entries. And I need to get in touch with the mechanic about the next appointment for the car. I’m dreading that, but it needs to be done.

Almost all the snow has melted, so let’s hope this is it for the winter. Yeah, we’ll move into mud season next, but that’s still better than snow.

Lots to do today, so I better get to it. Have a good one!

Tues. Sept. 21, 2021: Finding Rhythms

image courtesy of Petra Boekhoff via pixabay.com

Tuesday, September 21, 2021

Last Day of the Full Moon

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

Sunny and cool

I am happy to say that the weekend was less stressful than I expected. Which is a good thing.

I was in touch with my friend on Friday to find out if he was coming by to drop off the carload of Christmas decorations, or if he needed to move it to a different weekend. First he said he wasn’t; a few minutes later, he was back in touch to ask if he could. So we were back on.

I baked his favorite from my baking repertoire, lemon cupcakes with lemon frosting. I thought the frosting was a little too sweet; I need to work on my buttercream frosting skills. But, overall, they turned out well.

I also baked brownies, because I craved brownies, and, since I had the oven on anyway, why not?  They turned out really well, too.

Saturday, I vacuumed and mopped and did general housework in preparation for my friend’s arrival. He and his family had decided to make it a day trip, but had gotten a later start than expected. No worries. I was caught up with everything and ready.

I worked on GAMBIT COLONY while I was waiting, re-reading the rest of Book 4 and what I’ve written so far into Book 5, making some edits here and there. But, overall, I’m pretty happy with it. It’s not the kind of series targeted to a general audience; it’s definitely for people interested in the arts, who can deal with large ensembles. And I want to have the first six books of the series submission-ready before I start pitching them. Those first six books encompass auditions, rehearsals, shooting the mini-series, and then the first season when it’s picked up. At some point in the game, I’ll get back to working on the series website. I don’t know if my publisher would even consider it, or if I should go pure indie.

Anyway, in the early afternoon, I heard from my friend; he had taken a wrong turn, and was about an hour behind where he expected.  Again, no worries. I felt worse for him than for me.

He finally got here, and it only took 15 minutes to unload the car (under Charlotte’s supervision). He’d dropped off his family to do a short hike while he unloaded, and I gave him the cupcakes, which delighted him. They planned to go apple picking, and then stop at their favorite barbecue place on the way home. So they had a nice family day out, off Cape. Sometimes, it’s hard to get over the bridge, even when the traffic’s not a nightmare.

The day had started kind of rumbly and drizzly, but by the time they got out here, it had turned into a gorgeous autumn day. I was delighted for them, and so grateful for the carload of stuff!

My Kindle Fire is acting up; books I buy aren’t necessarily downloading. I believe this is Amazon trying to force me to buy a new Kindle (which they keep sending me emails about), which I don’t want to do, because I like this one. And hate Amazon. Customer Service wasn’t much help. No surprise there.

On Sunday morning, we were on the road by 6:30, headed back to Cape. It was a reasonably smooth ride down, and the weather was gorgeous. We arrived a little after 10, and I rearranged things in the main storage unit so that whatever we couldn’t get into the car would fit, and moved out of the second storage unit. The car was packed, but it was mostly light stuff (and yeah, more Christmas decorations). I also got the trunk full of yarn up, and the giant bin with all our winter coats. Once I empty that bin, I will fill it with the small boxes of holiday decorations, so that they are all safe and protected and in one spot, instead of in dozens of tiny boxes that have to be stacked like a weird Rubik’s cube.

I did the move-out paperwork for that unit, and we were back on the road by 11:28. Over an hour earlier than I’d expected. Unfortunately, the traffic over the Bourne Bridge was a nightmare, but we were still over before noon (the storage facility is just over the bridge on the Cape side).

The traffic was heavy all the way back to the Berkshires, but it moved, except for a messy patch around Worcester.  We made it back by 4, and my leg only hurt a little. The relief at getting it all done is immense.

Unpacked, hauled everything up, and rested. Since the book I bought still wouldn’t download to Kindle, I started reading the next book for review.

Up way too early on Monday, thanks to the cats. But got in a good meditation session, and good first writing session.  The cats were running and playing like loony tunes. But then, full moon, what do you expect? It was pretty funny.

There’s a bunch of new paperwork involved in getting the car registration and our licenses switched over to the new address, and I am frustrated with it. Also frustrated because Spectrum went down again in the afternoon. I fixed the problem myself from this end while I was waiting for the tech.

Got some work done early. Headed over to the college library to drop off books and check out some other books. Headed to the grocery store to get what I still needed for the Equinox dinner tomorrow. Unpacked the oversized bin with all the winter coats, and got those hung up. Refilled the bin with small boxes of fragile winter holiday decorations. I have to rearrange the big closet in the sewing room; I think most of that closet will house decorations.

Unpacked a couple of boxes of general decorations we’d never used in the Cape house. They fit better here. They are from our travels. Some of them definitely have the Deco/Nouveau vibe that works so well here. Stuff that we decide not to use is getting repacked, and will go back down when we do our storage run in spring.

Wrote up script coverage on two pieces, and read three others.

Trying to get into a more regular work rhythm for the fall and winter.

Found my favorite comfy pants pattern, and will make some fleece pants for both of us to wear around the house this winter. I’m looking forward to getting the sewing room set up and getting back to making clothes.

Have a bunch of coverages to write up today, more scripts to read, articles to write. An ex-client wants to talk to me, and I’m not looking forward to it. There are very good reasons this client is a former client rather than a current one.

My keyboard is now all wonky, too. I’m having trouble with all my devices. My Mercury has gone retrograde early. I better back everything up today.

Sigh. It’s going to be one of THOSE days, isn’t it? Hope you, at least, have a good one.

Fri. Sept. 17, 2021: Research Time

image courtesy Stocksnap via pixabay.com

Friday, September 17, 2021

Waxing Moon

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

Cloudy and humid

Meditation was good yesterday, as always. I recently doubt I should attend, sometimes, because we talk a great deal about compassion, for ourselves and others. However, my well of compassion has run dry when it comes to anti-vaxxers and right-wing extremists. I’m saving it for the people they hurt and murder.

Slow, fractured day, and not as productive as I would have liked. Got a little bit done on several different fronts, but not big chunks which I’d hoped.

Managed to do some unpacking, though, and some work on GAMBIT COLONY.

Knowledge Unicorns was fine. It has been fine ever since we started back. Because several states have removed the remote learning option from their schools, in order to force children into situations that could kill them, quite a few of the kids have been pulled out of school completely and are now being homeschooled. Regulations differ from state to state, but we’d all discussed and decided not to send the kids back this year, so, when necessary, parents had time to get the necessary requirements.

The homeschooled kids are feeling a lot less stress and anxiety than the kids doing remote learning, mostly because of the pressure on the remote-learning kids to go back in person. Considering how often classes/schools have to revert to remote learning due to COVID outbreaks in those situations for weeks at a time, the homeschooling makes more sense. Some of the parents are working remotely; others have made arrangements to switch off their work situations to a hybrid situation.

It’s not easy, but it’s better than sending the kids to die.

The kids decided they are creating a pageant this year, for the holidays. They’re going to write it (working virtually), rehearse it virtually, and perform via Zoom. Should be a ton of fun.

I uploaded a photo of the signature on the sketch to both Facebook and Twitter. A friend in Germany said that it’s written in the Sutterlin Script, and the name is “Konrad Poritz.” I’m not having luck in direct Googling, so I will get in touch with some museum contacts in the US and Germany, and see if they can point me in the right direction. The college library across the street has books in French, German, etc., so maybe I’ll find something there, too.

Lots of script coverage to work on today, and some errands. I have a stressful weekend ahead of me, and I’m trying to mentally prepare.

Have a good one!

Tues. Sept. 7, 2021: Back At It

image courtesy of chezbeate via pixabay.com

Tuesday, September 7, 2021

Waxing Moon

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

Sunny and pleasant

Hope you had a good weekend.

Thursday’s meditation group didn’t happen, because there was a miscommunication between the organizers and the teacher. No big deal. I sat on my own.

Most of Thursday was about baking and cleaning for me: baking banana-oatmeal-walnut-chocolate chip cookies, regular chocolate chip cookies, orange rye bread, Portuguese sweet bread, Swedish visiting cake, and an apple galette. Making up the guest bed. Vacuuming, mopping, dusting.

Friday morning, I had to go in person to Greylock Federal Credit Union. Our checks aren’t here (they were ordered August 13). I tried to pay the rent online & couldn’t. It would take TEN DAYS to transfer the money from my account to an account at the same bank. Unacceptable. There’s no real office where I could drop cash. So I went to the bank and had them transfer from my account to the landlord’s account, and asked them why the checks weren’t here.

Turns out the check order never went through. The bank apologized and promised to put in a rush order, paying for everything.

I’ll believe it when the checks arrived.

Meanwhile, I was getting texts from my friend, who was supposed to come up for the weekend. Amtrak cancelled all trains, because Hurricane Ida dumped ten feet of mud onto the tracks. Metro North is out. It’s a disaster area.

Of course, they didn’t tell her until she was at the station.

She tried to switch over to a bus, but so was everyone else. She tried to get a bus to Springfield, but that wasn’t working, either.

So the trip was cancelled. We’ll reschedule for October.

Meanwhile, I had all this organic food I’d bought, to show off our local produce, etc. It still had to be eaten this weekend, so that it wouldn’t spoil, so I cooked all the recipes I had planned: chicken in tarragon white wine vinegar and potatoes au gratin (Patricia Wells recipes); Indian stuffed eggplant (Moosewood recipe); Hunter’s pasta with four kinds of mushrooms & prosciutto (from a cookbook specializing in regional Italian sauces). We ate the devilled eggs (not hard).

I spent most of the weekend reading. I read a book from the library that’s gotten a lot of buzz. The writing was strong, the setting was fantastic. But I hated the characters, and by the time they started to grow and change, I didn’t care. I read a book by a new-to-me author, the first in her series, sort of chick lit. I liked the characters, but there’s too much religion (they go to church and pray too much, no thanks, not for me) and disparage black cats. So that author’s off my list. I read a book by another new-to-me author who jumped on the cozy Witch mystery bandwagon, only couldn’t be bothered to do any research into what modern witchcraft actually is all about, had no internal logic to her created world, had no pacing, and a boring plot. Another author crossed off my list.

Read the next two Wonky Inn books, which I enjoyed.

Started re-reading some GAMBIT COLONY, but it felt too much like work, and I promised not to work this weekend, so I stopped. Of course, I went back to it, eventually, but by then, it wasn’t feeling like work anymore. I could just enjoy it.

On Saturday, we drove down to Pittsfield to find the Re-store. I made a wrong turn on the way and found a bunch of box stores, like Barnes & Noble and Michael’s and Price Chopper, so that’s good to know where they are. We went into Michael’s. it’s a good one, very clean, better merchandise than the one on Cape. Didn’t buy anything, though. All the autumn stuff is already on sale.

The Re-store is just up the street from the complex with the box stores, and it is huge. So much stuff that it’s overwhelming. We found a replacement glass bell for the small red lamp. It was a great price to start, and then 50% off, so, even better.

Got home, washed it, set up the lamp. It fits perfectly. The lamp is now all set up in the living room and looks great.

I finished unpacking and reorganizing all my CDs. I have a wide range of music. I need to start playing them again, because there’s good stuff on that rack.

Spent a lot of time sitting on the porch, enjoying watching the world go by. Ate too much, but that was the plan for the weekend, anyway.

I expected to feel much more rested and restored, but oh, well.

This is a busy week. Since I took four days off (of which two would have normally been workdays), I have to make up for it this week. I still have to make my nut by the 15^th, in order to pay this month’s bills.

So, then, I better get to it, hadn’t it?

I wrote my first 1K of the day every morning, throughout. It wasn’t always 1K, it waved between about 750 and 1200. But I kept up the steadiness.

I’m trying to work on an outline for a piece. I have a strong catalyst, setting, characters, but I haven’t nailed down the plot yet. Without a good plotline, there’s no purpose to the piece. I have to ponder it.

Hope your weekend was terrific, and that it sets you up for a great week. I love September!

Fri. Aug. 27, 2021: Weekend Work

image courtesy of sujo-foto via pixabay.com

Friday, August 27, 2021

Waning Moon

Pluto, Saturn, Jupiter, Neptune Chiron, Uranus Retrograde

Sunny, hot, humid

Yesterday was kind of a mixed day. I managed to write up three script coverages, so I’m on track where I want to be with that. I have two more to write up today; for the weekend, I’ll only do one per day.

I forgot to mention yesterday that, the day before, my book arrived from the UK, the one on Squire and Marie Bancroft. It’s a 1909 copy published by John Murray, and not in the best shape, but definitely usable and readable. I’m excited. And delighted it was published by John Murray. I am friendly with the current John Murray (yes, an actual man and descendant of the founder), and fond of that house’s long legacy.

Drove to the TD Bank ATM in a Williamstown parking lot to deposit a check, only to arrive and discover I’d left my wallet at home. Drove back, retrieved the wallet, drove to the ATM – only to discover it didn’t accept checks. TD is the worst. I will be so happy when I am permanently done with them.

I will take the check and deposit it at Greylock this morning, instead.

We did a Target run. Got most of what we needed. I was so excited by some of their hardcover Mead notebooks that I forgot to get the yellow pads I use for my script coverage notes, and I forgot to look for the extension cords I need. The old extension cords don’t work in these sockets, or with the newer lamps. And I don’t want to use the thick outdoor cords inside for a basic lamp.

It was terribly humid, which made everything yesterday a chore. It’s still humid today, but not quite as hot, and the humidity is supposed to break by tomorrow. I have to go to the bank and the library this morning, and then I’ll do a run to Job Lot to see if they have the yellow pads and the extension cords.

Didn’t get in much writing this morning, although I worked on the novel, and I did some re-reading/edits on GAMBIT COLONY, whose siren song has been calling. I hope to get some work done on A RARE MEDIUM later this morning.

I’ll be working through the weekend, along with unpacking and preparing for my friend’s visit next week. I want to get ahead on a few things, so I can thoroughly enjoy taking next weekend off.

Have a good one, and I’ll catch you on the other side.

Thurs. March 25, 2021: Die For Your Employer Day 307 — Breathe the Scent of Rain

image courtesy of Krzysztof Pluta via pixabay.com

Thursday, March 25, 2021

Waxing Moon

Foggy and cool

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

Yesterday was busy, but, for the most part, it was a good busy, at the client’s office. Did my time, got a lot done, we talked about what needs to be done in the coming weeks, on several fronts. The owner is making noise about not wanting to wear a mask at the office anymore since she’s been fully vaccinated, and we said no. She’s going to keep pushing, and this will cause a problem a few weeks down the road.

Swung by the library to do a curbside drop-off/pickup and then home for decontamination.

Remote Chat was a lot of fun.

Rested on the acupressure mat, looked at house listings (depressing), got out some LOIs, worked on contest entries. There were a couple of truly delightful ones. I have three more to read in this category, and then I can make the decision. I’m working on the other two categories, too.

Researching interview options, since two of my requests were a no.

Got a little bit of work done on GAMBIT COLONY. Played with some other ideas. Read Nick Hytner’s book more. I have an idea percolating (it’s been doing so on and off for years) about Laertes, Hotspur, and Tybalt, but I’m not sure if it’s a piece of its own, or if I can fold it into another piece on which I’m working. It might not be more than a scene – I can’t tell, it’s still too vague in my brain. Also, in the play I’d be folding it into – even though it’s not a realistic play (it IS set in the Afterlife, after all), I’m using real people; mixing fictional ones in with them would muddy the play. So, I guess, in this public brainstorming session, I’ve figured out that they either get their own piece or they will be part of some other piece, but not the one of which I was thinking. Thank you for listening to my ramble.

I have to make sure I do at least one session of creative work for myself in a day, because it helps keep me centered. Otherwise, I turn into a hot mess. Keeping up regular writing/reading on my own projects takes off some of the pressure, instead of adding more.

I’m looking forward to the online meditation group this morning. Then, it’s back to LOIs, client work, house hunting, and packing. We’re supposed to get some much-needed rain today. If it’s nice over the weekend, I might put out the Adirondack chairs and the wind chimes on the deck over the weekend. We aren’t setting up the usual Enchanted Garden with the upcoming move, but at least we can sit there and enjoy it a little bit before we go.

Have a good one.

Wed. March 24, 2021: Die For Your Employer Day 306 — Trudging Onward

image courtesy of Free Photos via pixabay.com

Wednesday, March 24, 2021

Waxing Moon

Cloudy and cooler

Yesterday was warm and pretty enough so we could have the windows and the door to the deck open for a bit. Only about a half hour, but it was nice to get in a spring breeze. It still goes down into the 30’s at night, so we wake up to frost, but there are a few hours during the day when it’s lovely.

I was up early. Got ahead on some client work. I’m trying to work ahead, at least roughing out a few projects, so that we get closer to deadline, I can refine them.

I’m spending hours every day house hunting. I’m not going to go into the details here, but it’s discouraging. The number of scams is appalling.

Got out some LOIs. Worked on contest entries. I’m almost done with one category. One of the digital files was blank, so I asked for a replacement. I’m hoping to get the finalists sent off by the end of this week. Working on the other two categories, too.

Reviewed the assigned book. I have another from the same company to review, which I will start reading today. Hope to get the review out by Friday or the weekend.

Did an early morning grocery run. Decontaminated.

Did some sorting, but not much packing. I will do a big push tomorrow through Sunday.

Did some work on GAMBIT COLONY. I’m not writing enough every day, and that’s making me more stressed. So I have to go back to the early morning writing to get my centering for the day.

Heard about a call for horror audio scripts. Paid. Thought it would be kind of fun, but their formatting is so out of any audio formatting I’ve ever done that it’s too much to take on right now. If it was one of the standard formats, no problem. But to have to learn a new format and create a 30-minute piece in a few days? While I’m under all this stress? Too much, and, while it’s great that it’s paid, it would be on spec rather than contract, so I’ll have to pass.

Knowledge Unicorns was fine. Everyone’s working hard, Stressed about schools reopening too soon and without everyone being vaccinated, even though my kids will not go back to in-person learning this school year. It’s too dangerous. Plus, ALL their grades have gone up this year. There are all these “studies” about how not being in school is hurting kids. It might be true in certain cases, but WE are making it work for them. The fact that they like learning helps. And resources from museums and other cultural institutions adds so much.

I’m reading Nicholas Hytner’s book BALANCING ACTS about his years at the National Theatre. He was the director on MISS SAIGON. Although the show was five years into the run when I joined it (for its last five years), he stopped by to check on the show every now and again. I didn’t know him well by any means, but we had some good conversations. I liked and respected him a lot.

It’s fun to read about his work with people I worked with, and also people I didn’t work with, but admired.

Reading it makes me miss theatre even more.  I wish the US funded theatre (and all the arts) the way the UK does. The way Europe does. Although, re-reading Peter Hall’s diaries about his years at the National, the amount of time spent appeasing various Councils definitely interferes with creation.

I need to get back to reading more Dorothy Parker and Dawn Powell material to do the play about them, and I need to do more research on Marie Collier for that play.

A couple of interview sources turned down the request for interview for the article, so I’m looking for other sources. I will get out some requests today.

I have to be onsite at a client’s for a few hours this morning, then do a curbside pickup/drop-off at the library. After decontamination, it’s Remote Chat, and then some other work.

Onward.