Fri. May 12, 2023: When The Idea Bulb Lights Up

image courtesy of Colin Behrens via pixabay.com

Friday, May 12, 2023

Waning Moon

Mercury and Pluto Retrograde

Early showers, then sunny and pleasant

Somehow, yesterday seems like a very long time ago.

Today’s serial episode is from Angel Hunt:

Episode 32: Beliefs & Hypocrisy

Drogo confronts Lianna regarding her beliefs in being a witch.

Angel Hunt Serial Link.

Meditation was great, and I felt much better and more focused after (which is kind of the point).

I worked on July’s poem, and made some preliminary scribblings for the one I need next weekend. A little ass-backward, but that’s the way it worked out.

Sent off an email to one of the actors in Monday’s reading who had a reading of his own play  yesterday, wishing him well.

Wrote a Process Muse post, which wound up being longer than I expected, revised, edited, polished, uploaded, scheduled. It’s for a few weeks down the road, so I can take another look at in in a couple of days, just in case I want to make cuts.

Went to the post office to mail the insurance materials via Certified mail, bought stamps, caught up with what’s going on around in town (since the Post Office is the happening place here).

Swung by a store to pick up some of the WordSeek puzzle books my mother likes.

Grocery shop. Bought more than I planned (gee, what a surprise). But actually doing some meal planning again.

Uploaded and scheduled next Tuesday’s Legerdemain post. I’ll do the rest of next week’s and the following week’s today.

Did client work in the afternoon. Completed one project; answered follow-up questions on another. Did the social media rounds for Legerdemain, and the blogs.

Started reading MURDER IN POSTSCRIPT by Mary Winters, which I’m really enjoying.

Sat on the porch, reading, and noodling on the May poem. I know what I want to say, but I’m bloviating too much, and need to distill it down into specific, clear imagery.

Because I hope to get to the Clark today, working on the big project there even though I’m still waiting for the grant money to show up, my mind turned toward the Clark, and the exhibit I saw around my birthday (which has since closed). I’m still fascinated by the sketch of a private rail car that was turned into a theatre. I started playing with some characters and an idea that blossomed into a somewhat comic-horror-mystery idea that I hope will be novella length (maybe around 200 pages). I wrote up some notes. I have to do some worldbuilding. It’s going to have more psychological terror in it than physical, although that will also play a part. It melds that sketch with the reading I did about Katharine Cornell’s touring company and mind games played by toxic bosses. Horror is not my natural wheelhouse, but that’s what best serves this piece, so I’ll take on the challenge.

We’ll see where that goes. And when I have time to work on it, although I made some more notes for it this morning.

Today’s plan is to write an episode of Legerdemain, then polish, upload, and schedule the rest of next week’s and the following week’s episodes. Then, I’ll head to the Clark for a couple of hours, then to Wild Oats to pick up a few things. I hope, this afternoon, to get in some work on both REP and ANGEL HUNT.

I dread tomorrow because we’re supposed to do another storage run to the Cape. The traffic chaos will be awful, but if we don’t do it this weekend, it would have to be next Saturday (since my reading is on Sunday), and that’s too much. Anything beyond that, and we’ll be stuck on the bridge with seasonal traffic for several hours in each direction, instead of just one hour and change, which is what tomorrow is bound to be.

Sunday is Mother’s Day; we plan to have a quiet, pleasant one, and enjoy our porch and balcony. Maybe I’ll finally finish touching up the paint on the wind chimes and get that back up. And maybe it will be warm enough to put out some plants. And plant more seeds.

I will get some writing done in there, although I’m not yet sure which projects.

Have a good weekend, my friends, and I’ll catch you on the other side.

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

image courtesy of Jill Wellington via pixabay.com

Tuesday, April 11, 2023

Waning Moon

Sunny and pleasant

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Turned around two script coverages.

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

Worked on contest entries.

Soup class was fun. Last night was gumbo night.

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

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

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

So I better get going!

How’s your week starting?

Wed. March 29, 2023: A Little Bit of Many Things

image courtesy of Pexels viz pixabay.com

Wednesday, March 29, 2023

Waxing Moon

Partly sunny, chilly, and damp

Today’s Process Muse talks about sensory details. You can read it here.

Ello was glitching yesterday. I could get in, but not post. Urgh.

As I’m developing material for the Legerdemain website, I’m working on the history of the city (two thousand years’ worth, which, you know, takes a while). I’m also working on the origins of The Fathomless Library (hint: there’s a book loving hermit with a busy sex life, his bluestocking daughter, and pirates who steal/rescue books).

Yesterday, I wanted to dive into the next Process Muse post on the list, and the Ink-Dipped Advice post which appears today, but I knew I had to draft the next Legerdemain episode first. I need to stockpile episodes.

So I sat down and drafted the Legerdemain episode. I realized, later in the day, that I have to rename a character in the episode, because his name is too close to the name of another character, and, since it’s not a plot point or part of a theme, I need to change it.

I wrote, revised, polished, uploaded and scheduled today’s Ink-Dipped Advice episode, which is about the need to have your own website, not a social media page posing as a website. You can read it here.

Did the social media rounds. Not having an episode of Legerdemain to promote cut off a lot of time. I REALLY need a scheduling tool that crosses all platforms. The only platform on which I can schedule posts right now is Twitter, and by mid-month, that will be useless. I need to be able to upload the post once and schedule it across ALL my channels. One big block of time once a month, and I wouldn’t have to worry about it. Much more efficient that the couple of hours a day I now have to put aside for it. That will also enable me to use each platform for the best engagement with a piece’s audience. Then I can spend quality time on the different sites interacting.

I’m willing to pay for it, but it has to be ONE tool that connects to EVERY platform I want with UNLIMITED posts per month.

Anyway, in the afternoon, I turned around two coverages. And was done at a reasonable time. Went back to the Cornell biography. I may just need to purchase a copy. There’s too much information I need for too many projects. And it’s an old book, likely to get weeded.

Changed for yoga and walked to class. It’s just under a mile, and the weather was fine, so it wasn’t that big a deal, but it made me realize how out of shape I am, and how I sit too much. Yoga itself was great. The walk back was somewhat of a challenge, though. I’m hoping it will get better if I do it more often. I want to walk back and forth, at least in nice weather.

I came home to find the check from Llewellyn for the 2024 almanac, which puzzled me. Usually, we don’t get paid until October. I sent an email to my editor this morning, double-checking (yes, I checked my contract first). I want to make sure it wasn’t a mistake before I deposit it.

The toilet is giving us difficulties. The tank alternates between leaking and acting like a geyser. I have to clean the bathroom this morning and put in a call to the maintenance guy. Later, I have to do a library run. I have a big stack of books to return, and a big stack of books to pick up.

I have one coverage this afternoon, and I need to get next week’s Legerdemain episodes uploaded. I have to find a notebook for the big nonfiction project, since most of the early drafting will be done in longhand, and I realized I can start the project on Friday, when I’m on the location around which most of it centers. I need to do the social media rounds to promote Process Muse, Ink-Dipped Advice, and Episode 19 of Angel Hunt, which drops today.

I doubt I will get much writing done, thanks to the toilet tank issues, other than the Essay Camp assignments. Ordered a copy of the Cornell biography.

But that’s why I freelance; so I have flexibility for stuff, although I’d prefer it to be fun stuff and not plumbing. But that’s life.

I’m not as sore as I expected (I actually was in more pain last night), so that’s a good thing.

I had a weird dream about a creature who was a mix of lynx and jackal on tall, skinny four legs that brought him to face-to-face height, stalking me through the streets. He wanted the bag of fast food I had, but I was afraid if I gave it to him, I’d be next on the menu. Weird.

I may be done with script coverage for the week. Seriously considering not taking on any more until Monday, which will give me tomorrow to catch up on anything derailed by today’s plumbing issues, and prepare for Friday’s grant reception. I need to figure out what I’m wearing so I can figure out the makeup. I’ll print off one of the monologues from WOMEN WITH AN EDGE that I know works (because it’s been performed all over the world, and even I can pull it off). We were told all we needed to do is show up, but I’ve heard that before, and I want to be ready.

We need to buckle up, my buttercups. Retrograde season will start in a few weeks, with Mercury going retrograde on the 21^st. Could we just NOT, this year? It’s been so nice not having retrogrades.

Have a good one, my friends.

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!