Devon Ellington's Blog, page 14

Wed. April 9, 2025: Steadily Productive

image courtesy of congerdesign via pixabay.com

Wednesday, April 9, 2025

Waxing Moon

Venus Retrograde

Partly sunny and cold

And here we are, at mid-week again!

I realized, after posting yesterday’s somewhat grumbly blog, that part of my frustration/discomfort is the work that Venus retrograde forces us to do – reevaluate relationships. One of my commitments to myself is to no longer stay in non-reciprocal environments. Venus makes you really look at these relationships. Who is making the effort? Who is meeting you at least partway? Who is taking advantage? With whom do you have mutual care and respect, so that you can switch off responsibilities and hold each other’s emotions? Who is blowing a lot of hot air with nothing to back it up?

There’s a lot of talk about community building, but when it comes down to the nuts and bolts, that’s all some are doing – talking. They’re not backing it up with action, or even intent to take action when they are in a position so to do. I’m not talking about people who are ill or struggling. I’m talking about people who think it’s everyone else’s job to build community so that they – who have stood idly by and let terrible things happen to others – can benefit.

Time to leave them behind as we rebuild.

Which is all good, necessary information, because that’s how one grows and builds the relationships that actually can sustain the rollercoaster we all live on.

It’s just not always comfortable or pleasant. But we need to learn to deal with the uncomfortable. This refusal to deal with anything that makes one remotely uncomfortable is part of why we’re in this mess.

Hey, I asked for clarity this week in my intention for the week. That’s what I get. What I wished for! 

Got the agenda for tomorrow night’s meeting. This board is organized, which is nice.

I sat down and wrote nearly four pages on the CORNWALL CHICANERY radio drama. It’s BBC radio formatting, which is less intuitive for me than in the US, because I work more often in US. So that slowed me down a bit, but it’s a good start. It was a little over the day’s goal, which made me feel better. And set me up mentally for a better day.

I worked up the conference proposal for mid-October and sent it off. Either it’s what they want, or it is not. At least I tried.

I had a bunch of admin work to do. There’s always a bunch of admin work to do. I did some marketing on the Topic Workbooks. I got the sales reports from Smashwords, which were low, but not unexpectedly so since I dropped the ball on marketing. So, no matter what else is going on, I can no longer drop marketing balls.

It snowed on and off all day. The computer was slow. I’m pretty sure HP inserts code to make computers crash past their warranty date when you don’t purchase their extended coverage. I bought a repair package when I bought the computer, although Staples has yet to give me any information on it. But since HP captures and uses what you send to your printer wirelessly to train AI, why wouldn’t they also infect the machines themselves? (I do not have an HP printer, nor do I send print materials wirelessly).

I tried to get into the office hours for the library cohort, but the meeting never opened. After a quarter of an hour, I gave up. I will find the answers on my own. It happens. Stuff comes up. Or maybe it was a different ZOOM link than I had. The fringes of Mercury Retrograde still abound. Turned out it was a Spectrum issue on my end. Oh, well.

I turned around three small coverages (although one was marked “error” in that it wasn’t mine, which is weird since it was in my queue). I spent the bulk of the afternoon on two categories of contest entries. I think I can put in the final scores, write the winner reviews, and close out two categories this morning. That means I can focus on the final category for the next few weeks and get everything in on time by the end of the month. I got my reportage sheets for the plays I’m reading for WAM. I hope to read those this weekend.

I’d given up on hearing back about the play, especially as five o’clock rolled around, but just before six, I got an email that my 10-minute play “The Voices” will be part of the On the Board Festival at the Lava Center in Greenfield in June. It will be part of an afternoon/evening of table reads (which means no rehearsals) on Sunday, June 29. I will send my formal acceptance this morning, and put it in the calendar.

One play reading in May in Ohio, and one in June not too far from home (it’s a little over an hour away). I’ve wanted to work with this company for a few years, so I’m looking forward to seeing what they are about. Once they make the formal announcement, I will put the information up on the Pages on Stages website.

This morning’s poem was “Shopping List” from Joanne Corey’s lovely collection HEARTS. It deals with elder care, something that resonates right now. Joanne is a friend and founding member of the Boiler House Poets Collective, of which I am honored to be a member. If you’re interested in her work, her website is here and the direct link to purchase HEARTS is here.

On today’s agenda: the computer is about to force an update, so I hope that doesn’t throw everything off. I will work on CORNWALL CHICANERY, then finish scoring the two categories, write the winner reviews, and close out the scoring for them. I have a bunch of admin and some marketing to do, and a small coverage to turn around. I hope to get to tarot this afternoon.

The fact that the doctor’s office has shown zero interest in rescheduling my mom’s appointment makes me angry. THEY cancelled. I shouldn’t have to chase them down. They should have fixed the problem while I was standing right in front of them, instead of pushing it off. Really not happy with them.

And the Dems better get their act together, pull Congress together, and solve some of these problems.

It looks like the payment is about to come through (tomorrow) for the workshop. Good. And a little more than I expected, which is even better.

Have a good one.

Tuesday, April 8, 2025: Trying to Arrange the Creative Flowers

image courtesy of Pexels via pixabay.com

Tuesday, April 8, 2025

Waxing Moon

Venus Retrograde

Mercury direct as of yesterday

Snowy and mucky

I hope you had a good weekend, and I hope you did something to support the nationwide protests, even if you couldn’t be out there yourself. 

The Community Tarot Reading for the week is up on the Cerridwen’s Cottage site.

Friday, I did a final polish on the ghostwriting assignment and sent it off in the morning. No sense waiting around and getting even more insecure about it. I honestly have no idea if it’s closer to what they want. I integrated the notes as best I could interpret them. We’ll see. I’ll either have to do a rewrite, or just invoice and we part ways.

Once the assignment was out the door, I did a library run and did some errands.

Felt rather like I’d been kicked by a mule in the head. Which seems to be how I feel every time I turn in a project to the ghostwriting client, which is a little disturbing. Did some housework and some resting/reading over the afternoon. Was too wiped out to go down to First Friday.

Saturday morning, I went to Big Y and did a big grocery shop to set us up for the month, so we only need to replenish some perishables. I also stopped by a store I’d visited the day before and forgotten a few things, and picked up some other essentials at another store.

Home, unloaded everything, put it away. Pulled myself together and headed out in the freezing rain to one of the rallies. For safety reasons, I am not going to announce ahead of time to when and where I will be at rallies, nor will I take and post photographs. I will also not go into details after.

There were quite a few in our region. I attended one of them. I was cold and wet by the end of it, but I’m still glad I went. It matters.

Came home dried off, put on warm clothes, had some hot cocoa, and rested up. Watched the social media coverage from around the country. The latest numbers are 1400 events with over 5 million people. 2% of the population. It should be far more.

But it’s still hopeful.

Weird dreams Saturday into Sunday. Sunday was a rest day, and a homework day for the library cohort. And a housework day. I hadn’t changed the beds on Saturday, so I did that, and switched out the tablecloth in the kitchen for April, and switched from the white lights to the summer lights. I usually switch those in May, but since I was up on the stool anyway, why not. I did some other chores and housecleaning, and this week, have to get into the deep clean.

Read the next book for review. Worked on contest entries. Pulled all the international grant/residency proposals I’d either submitted or worked on. I don’t feel comfortable traveling.  I do, however, hope to submit to the BBC radio international call in June, if I can whip my idea into good enough shape by then. Made turkey meatloaf for dinner.

Had weird dreams Sunday into Monday.

We were up at You’re Kidding Me Early to do all the things necessary to get out the door by 7:30 to be at the doctor by 7:45 for my mom’s appointment. In the snow. Because yes, it was snowing.

We got there, and the receptionist told us the appointment was cancelled, and they just found out. And they haven’t been able to find another appointment to reschedule. Gee, thanks, Mercury Retrograde (and the non-health care system in this country). She’s over 100. She should be treated like a treasure, not an inconvenience. It’s absolutely about economics. We’re not rich enough for them to make an effort.

We returned through the intensifying snow, but got home before it was too bad. We cooked a big breakfast instead. It was amazing how much she perked up once the appointment was cancelled!

I had a bunch of admin to do in the morning. I read and rested in the afternoon. I’m reading a biography of Lillian Hellman. She was Dorothy Parker’s good friend and literary executor, which may tie in to the expanded version of DAWN AND DOROTHY IN THE AFTERLIFE.

Two small coverages turned up in my queue, which I will turn around today, at pathetic pay. I received the three scripts I have to read for the next literary committee meeting at the end of the month. I am supposed to hear back, one way or another, on another script of mine today. Well after hours (after 8 PM) last night, I got conflicting messages about the ghostwriting. Either I do or I don’t have to do a revision, but in any case, whatever it is, it’s not right now. Okaaaaay?

I will respond DURING the agreed-upon EST business hours this morning.

In a holding pattern on several pieces: the revisions for the anthology story; the final decision on the other anthology story; the contract for the Spell-a-Day 2027; the next library board meeting; start date for the audiobook adaptation; a couple of other scripts that I’m supposed to get decisions on in the next couple of weeks; the next meeting about the group show. I haven’t heard anything from them about my workshop proposal, either. I’m not chasing; if they won’t communicate in a way that’s accessible for me or if everything is a last minute scramble, I’m just going to move on. I’m done with cleaning up the messes of the disorganized, especially when I’m not paid.

I’m hopping in during office hours for the library cohort to ask some questions about my board plan. I’ll check the meetings calendar to get the details for Thursday evening’s meeting. I plan to start the BBC radio project this morning. I have the opening/hook/catalyst figured out and the climactic sequence/resolution/ending figured out. It’s how to get from one to the other that needs to percolate some more, and I hope that writing my way in will help. It’s only a one-hour piece. If I hit a couple of pages per day, I can get a draft done reasonably quickly and then have a couple of weeks to polish before deadline.

I think part of my frustration these past few weeks is not managing my time well enough to put my own work first. When I start the day on my own work, everything else falls into place and I’m far more creative and productive. When I feel the pressure of deadlines imposed by others and start with that, I create creative obstacles for myself.

I HAVE systems that work. I need to get back to them, and adjust the timing on them a bit better, that’s all.

It’s supposed to snow most of the day. Fortunately, everything I’m doing today is virtual.

I decided to up my morning meditation from 20 to 30 minutes, which was both interesting and helpful. You know the old saying: sit for 20 minutes every day. When you’re busy, sit for an hour.

Fortunately, I’m in the right kind of busy, if I can just get out of my own way.

I figured out the hook and the flow of the conference presentation, so once I’ve written my radio pages for the day, I will write that up and send it off.

Before I forget: every day’s poetry over the past 4 mornings has been a Jane Shore poem, from her MUSIC MINUS ONE volume. Her work resonates with me.

The Supreme Court, as usual, has betrayed the people. Hard not to lose hope.

Have a good one!

Mon. April 7, 2025: Intent for the Week — Clarity

image courtesy of Lars Nissen via pixabay.com

Monday, April 7, 2025

Waxing Moon

Venus Retrograde

Mercury goes direct today

Snowy and mucky

And it’s snowing again. We had to be up at You’re Kidding O’Clock to make an early doctor appointment for my mom, only to drive through snow and get there and be told it was cancelled and they “just found out” and have no idea when to reschedule it.

Nothing like Mercury giving us another kick on his way out the door, right?

The Community Tarot Reading for the Week is up on the Cerridwen’s Cottage site, using the Mystic Mondays deck, a lovely, colorful modern deck.

Lots to do today and all week, so I better get going. I’d rather lie on the sofa watching the snow, with a cat on my lap.

Have a good one!

Fri. April 4, 2025: Beyond Ridiculous

image courtesy of Terri Stalons via pixabay.com

Friday, April 4, 2025

Waxing Moon

Venus & Mercury Retrograde

Gray & cooler

Once the storms passed, by late morning, it was sunny and warm. Go figure.

I forgot to mention that, yesterday, before the power went off, I had a dish soap spill in the kitchen. Tessa likes her bowl washed in hot water with one drop of Palmolive in the morning. When I picked up the dish soap to squeeze out the drop, the cap came off and a whole lot more than a single drop came out. Fortunately, it was a bowl, so it caught most of it, and I did it over the sink, so I just used the extra soap to give the sink a special scrub down. I mean, we clean it every time we use it, but it can always be shinier.

Tessa gave me a glare that clearly said, “too much.”

Mercury Retrograde. Sigh. At least it was dish soap and not something terrible.

I did the rounds of my elected officials. The tariff thing is ridiculous. Tariffs on an island with penguins? Really? Congress can stop this any time they want, and 4 Republicans already joined with Democrats to roll the Canada tariffs back. Chuck Schumer, get going. EVERY one of these can and should be rolled back. AND legislation needs to be put in place (although I thought it was already there, so maybe enforced?) to remind That Thing it can’t do whatever it wants. This is not the time to sit back, smirk, and try to fundraise off it.

We really need a new Senate minority leader.

Every legal firm that’s capitulating to the regime needs to lose all their clients. As several people pointed out, if they won’t stand up for themselves, they won’t stand up for those they defend.

Every university that’s capitulating, not protecting students, eliminating DEI needs to lose all their enrollments. They’ve forgotten that they have no reason to exist without students.

Had to deal with some admin stuff, but the bulk of the day was spent working on the ghostwriting project. I added the extra information it needed, and I polished it. I will give it another polish and send it off. I’m not sure if they will want revisions (if they want to keep working with me, probably), or if I will invoice and we both move on. I have no idea. It’s kind of like being in a television writing room, with so many voices having a say in the final product (and it very much is a product). I know I’ve put in some solid work. Whether it’s what they want, who knows, since those parameters keep changing. All I can do is the best I can do, and then let it go. It either lands or it does not.

I’m hoping to get it out the door by late morning. Then, I need to go to the library for a drop-off/pick up, and maybe run a couple of other errands. Tonight is First Friday. I have a lot to do this weekend, so I don’t know if I’ll be up to going out. I’m grateful for the lack of script coverages in the queue this week (although there was a deadline on March 31), but I hope some come through for the next couple of weeks. Next week, I will also check in with the audiobook producer, to see if we’re closer to a start date.

I heard from an organization in Boston. I’d forgotten I’d pitched to be part of a public art project there this summer. They are holding off on making decisions on the word part until later in the process.

I finished reading a diary of the process creating and putting up the musical BIG on Broadway. The writing was awfully dry and didn’t really dig into things, but it was written by an observer to the process, not a theatre person. The musical ran just as I was making the transition from working off-Broadway was a wardrobe supervisor/dresser to Broadway as a dresser, which is a huge transition and requires a lot of focus and energy. I was on MISS SAIGON in ’96, along with having one of my own shows in the Adelaide Fringe in Australia in February and a different show in the Edinburgh Fringe in August, all in the same year. So I kind of missed BIG entirely. I remember hearing about it, and how theatre people who saw it felt that it wasn’t enough of a straight up adaptation to please movie audiences, and, at the same time, didn’t differentiate enough from the movie for theatre audiences, and was overproduced. There was a sense, from those I talked with, that it didn’t really know what it wanted to be, and by trying to please too many, it struggled with its own identity. Whatever the reason, it didn’t run very long, and that’s always sad for people who put years of heart, soul, and creativity into a new project. Nobody goes into something like creating a new musical lightly. It takes EVERYTHING that everyone involved has on physical, emotional, and creative levels. There’s never a good reason to celebrate a project that doesn’t make it. Keep an eye on those who do – you want to avoid working with them in the future.

Draft2Digital is now charging processing fees on royalties through PayPal, which is annoying. And with That Thing defunding and firing everyone at IMLS, many libraries will lose access to Hoopla, which is where I made a good chunk of royalties in the last few months. Again, That Thing doesn’t have the authority to do so, and Congress needs to give it a good bitch slap as a reminder.

Yes, I’m deliberating using “it” because That Thing left humanity behind a long time ago.

I heard about a bill being introduced to defund DOGE, which needs to happen. Support for that will be part of today’s legislative rounds. I mean, they were never funded in the first place; they’ve just been looting. They need to put all that money back AND be refused any future funds. AND anyone who works for them needs to go through the stringent vetting that all government employees do.

I forgot to reprogram the automatic timer on the coffeemaker yesterday when the power came back on. I’d only reset the clock. I woke up just after midnight wondering why I smelled coffee. Because the coffeemaker decided it was the perfect time to make the coffee. Sigh.

Mercury retrograde. I’ll be glad when it’s done on Monday.

Can you tell I’m grumpy this morning? Part of it is that I’m overtired. I want to get this project out the door. Either it lands or it doesn’t, but I need to get some rest and move on to other stuff. And get paid for this one! Hopefully the payment for teaching will show up in my account either today or Monday. I was told we’d be paid the first week of April, and that’s nearly over.

This morning’s poem was “Harvest Journey” by Michèle Roberts, which took an interesting turn.

There are many things going on all over the country this weekend that matter. Plus, I need to work on books for review, contest entries (I want to complete the first category by Monday), and some proposals. I also have to catch up on my library cohort homework. I want to talk about the board plan in office hours on Tuesday. I would like to get some of my own writing done. I feel so disconnected from my own work. I need to restore that balance.

Somewhere in there, though, I need to rest.

Have a good weekend, and we’ll catch up on Tuesday!

Thurs. April 3, 2025: Stormy Weather

image courtesy of Захари Минчев from Pixabay

Thursday, April 3, 2025

Waxing Moon

Venus & Mercury Retrograde

Stormy and raw

If you’re old enough, you sang that!

Sorry this is late. We had a big storm and a power outage this morning. The power is back, but now it’s flickering again, so who knows.

You can read the latest over on Gratitude & Growth here.

Yesterday was tough. I struggled with the work early in the day.

I managed to run my errands in good time, though, and got that done. I got to work, and pushed through the ghostwriting project, finishing the draft by about 6 PM. (Yes, I missed tarot). Today, I need to add in some charts and other information and polish. Then I will do another polish tomorrow morning and send it out on deadline.

I was absolutely exhausted by the end of it. My bad hip hurt from all the sitting, and I had a blistering headache.

I cooked dinner and was cat furniture for a few hours, but went to bed early.

The thunder and lightning woke me up around 2 AM. Bea and I sat on the sofa and watched the storm for a bit, while Charlotte hid under the covers. I managed to go back to bed and doze off again, oversleeping until nearly 7.

A little after 7, there was a huge crack of thunder/flash of lightning and the power went out. So we put the battery-operated candle on in the bathroom (it has no natural light), looked at our old-fashioned clocks, and ate breakfast by genuine candlelight. It was kind of fun, and I enjoyed the quiet. The constant electrical hums get on my nerves sometimes.

I missed meditation group, since it was online, but had done my own meditation first thing in the morning, so it was all good.

The power came back on just before 9. So I guess I better get to work. If it goes out again before I get the day’s work done, I might pack up and go across the street to the college library, which has generators.

This morning’s poem was another Jane Shore, called “Learning to Read” about how she, Jane, learned to read from the Dick & Jane books, and the contrasts to fictional Jane and her own experience. It’s both hilarious and poignant.

Put in a Chewy order. Trying to stockpile a bit.

Fingers crossed the power stays on. I want to get this project done and out the door on time tomorrow!

Wed. April 2, 2025: My Brain is Tired

image courtesy of Engin Akyurt via pixabay.com

Wednesday, April 2, 2025

Waxing Moon

Venus & Mars Retrograde

Happy Wednesday! The days just fly by.

Today’s poem is another Jane Shore poem, “Monday” about her father shaving in the morning. As someone who lost my father at a young age, it hit home.

Yesterday morning, I ran some errands on foot. It was colder than I expected, and I wasn’t dressed warmly enough. Brrr. But they got done.

It was hard to get settled back into the ghostwriting assignment. I plodded through, reworking a good deal of what I’d done, per the notes I got, taking it in a slightly different direction. I didn’t get anywhere near enough done, which puts a lot of pressure on me today, and means I probably won’t get to go to tarot.

I also had a bunch of admin to do, and emailing back and forth about hosting the cohort. I think I will do it on April 26. I’m hoping it will be warm enough to have the back balcony and the front porch set up. I can’t worry about the details until the ghostwriting project is off my desk. I was paid the pittance I earned from the problematic client.

A friend might come up to visit at the end of the month, too, which would be wonderful.

On the wider world/country stage, with all the chaos going on, there were some bright spots.  Judge Susan Crawford won in Wisconsin, despite the other side trying to bribe voters. Why the briber isn’t sitting in a jail cell right now is annoying, but at least the people of the state weren’t having it.

Senator Cory Booker broke the record for longest speech on the Senate floor. He spoke for over 25 hours. While not a traditional filibuster, since it wasn’t against a specific bill, it mattered because of the content. Often, a person filibustering will read from children’s books or talk nonsense, just to fill time. Not Senator Booker. His staff had put together a binder of real information, including letters from constituents hurt by the current administration’s policies. Unsurprisingly, there was enough information to fill 25+ hours.

It was also important because the record he broke was made by Senator Strom Thurmond, who spoke for 24 hours 18 minutes filibustering AGAINST the Civil Rights Act. It mattered that a black man filibustered FOR the American people now.

It was also great to see how many other Democratic Senators came in to tag team and help him through. I know one of my Senators was there, Elizabeth Warren, and I’d bet Ed Markey was there, too.

It was, however, annoying that Chuck Schumer, at the end, tried to make it about him. Step aside, Chuck. Your time has passed. Filibustering should have happened for every cabinet appointment and every bill That Thing’s minions have pushed through, and Schumer should have been organizing it, and using the other tools available since Day One. The other side rams through whatever they want no matter what, but the Dems just shrug and use outrage to fundraise too often, instead of taking the action necessary to do their jobs.

It also mattered that Senator Booker admitted he’d made mistakes, that he hadn’t met the moment before (he voted yes on some of the cabinet appointments), and how he was trying to do better. This is the kind of leadership we need from the Democratic Party right now. Not Schumer’s smirking “sit back and let it all happen so we can fundraise.”

When I lived in NY, I often crossed paths with Booker when he was mayor of Newark, NJ, and I was pleased when he was elected Senator. While I don’t always agree with him, I do like and respect him both as a person and a senator. What he did these past few days matters, and the fact that it was planned, and he had the materials prepared, so that the content of his speech also mattered, raises it to an even higher level.

I admit, I cried tears of gratitude when he broke the record.

I collapsed into bed early, exhausted. I had weird dreams all night. I woke up around 1:30 after dreaming that I’d switched out storm windows in a large house (huh?). It was my house in the dream, but I’ve never seen it before on this side of reality. I then dreamed I was writing a musical. Which makes sense, because I’m reading a book about how the musical BIG was put together. Woke up from that, fell back asleep, and had another weird dream that Charlotte woke me up from when she wanted breakfast.

I have to run a couple of errands this morning, but the bulk of the day and possibly well into the night, I will be working on the ghostwriting. It’s very hard not to beat myself up about feeling behind, but 20K in 10 days is a lot, especially with the amount of research involved. I have to compress my process in ways to fit the parameters of the project in both content and timeframe. I’m still figuring out how best to do that.

Better get to it. Lots to do today, and my brain is tired.

Have a good one!

Tuesday, April 1, 2025: Focus

image courtesy of  PublicDomainPictures via pixabay.com

Tuesday, April 1, 2025

Waxing Moon

Venus & Mercury Retrograde

Dreary gray & chilly

Having an April Fool’s Day this year seems somehow redundant, doesn’t it?

The Community Tarot Reading for the Week is available on the Cerridwen’s Cottage site. All Major Arcana cards. Buckle up!

Bea had such a case of the zoomies on Friday. She raced from the top of the cat tree through the living room, down the hall, down the stairs to the front door, back up the stairs, through the hallway, through the living room, back up the cat tree. Repeat. Often. It was hilarious.

She also finally stood up to Willa’s bullying. Willa quite literally turned tail and ran, and has been better behaved. No blood was shed, and it was good to see Bea stand her ground.

I dealt with some detailed, PITA admin in the morning, then packed up and did errands: library, grocery store, post office, and a couple of other stops. Had to send something out certified mail. Hauled everything back up the stairs and put it away.

The last of my 1099s arrived, which means I can finish my taxes and get them out the door. Pioneer Valley is happy with the way my class went and student response, and they would like me back to teach again. Always great when that happens. We will see what we can work out.

Turned around a small coverage. Decided I was tired of sitting at my desk and took the laptop with me out on the front porch to do some work on the ghostwriting. Although what I really wanted was to take a nap.

I got some good, solid work done on the ghostwriting assignment, although still not as much as I hoped. It means really digding deep this week to get it done by deadline.

My Llewellyn editor asked me if I wanted to write for the Spell-A-Day for 2027, and I said absolutely! Love writing for that. I’m in the 2025, and often it’s 3 or 4 years before it’s my turn again. The deadline will be September, right between two sets of commitments. If I get my assigned 25 days in May, I can do about 3 per week and be in good shape by deadline. Always nice to land an assignment I love.

Cooked dinner, read a bit at night, didn’t sleep particularly well. Woke up at 3:30 thinking about the ghostwriting project. Was just dozing off again when the cats stomped in, demanding breakfast.

Saturday was rainy and raw. I woke up with my head full of the ghostwriting project, some other characters who were part of a project and then cut, and now want their own, the end of VICIOUS CRITIC, and the beginning of the 4th Nina Bell, BUT IS SHE A BETTING MAN? That was a lot rolling around in the brain.

Not to mention the solar eclipse kicking my ass.

Since Saturday was a new moon, and right before the start of Poetry Month, I decided that I would start each workday from now until April 30th with a poem.

Saturday’s poem was “Bangkok Breakfast” by Michèle Roberts, from her collection ALL THE SELVES I WAS, which a friend gave me as a gift a year or so ago. It’s a very strong and unflinching poem. I had it with me at BHPC this past October, and I like the collection a lot. The poem itself felt relevant, with all the post-earthquake chaos going on in Thailand and Myanmar right now.

I spent the day working on the ghostwriting project, and got a little farther than I hoped, which is a nice change. I think I will have to go in and make some tweaks, but for now, I’m moving forward.

We had an early dinner, and then I put on Real People Clothes and headed over to Theatre 62 in Williamstown to see a performance piece involving 4 cohort members. It was well done, and I’m glad I could support them. It was also good to get out of the tunnel vision of what I was working on, and experience someone else’s creativity.

Came home, read the next book for review, which was disturbing for all the right reasons.

Slept reasonably well. Woke up Sunday to a dreary, rainy day.

The day’s poem was “Death at a Great Distance” from Mary Oliver’s HOUSE OF LIGHT. In addition to being beautiful and disturbing, it was interesting to see how the arrangement of the words on the page supported the theme of the poem.

Did the Community Tarot Reading for the week and scheduled it to post.

Had trouble getting started. My brain was tired. But the slow start earlier in the week on the ghostwriting assignment meant I had to make up for it over the weekend.

Worked all day on the ghostwriting. It was slow going, because I had to work out timeline logistics and do a lot of research. But I hit my goal for the day anyway, which made me feel a little better, since I knew it would be difficult to do as much as I hoped on Monday.

Cooked dinner, read the next book for review, and also read Eric Idle’s GREEDY BASTARD DIARY for pleasure (it’s a fast read).

He has a comment about writing that resonated with me: “Writing is like fishing: You have to go to the river every morning, or you don’t catch anything. You can’t predict what sort of fish you’ll get, but if you’re not there, you’ll catch nothing.” (p. 36).

It’s like any job – you have to show up and do the work. I also feel the THINKING is of equal importance. The percolation time, which often happens as I’m running errands or doing chores, is vital and allows me to put the words on the page when I sit down. And it’s also important to have breaks, which is something I haven’t had enough of in the past months, and I have to re-jiggy my schedule to make that a reality.

And if it’s not your job, but something you do on the side or for fun, then you have a different process, and you do what works for your situation.

Slept well, and slept in a bit (well, until just before 7, which is major “sleeping in” for me). Fed the cats, did the morning routine. Bea is so funny – if she wants something and it’s put up on a shelf or a chair, she stretches like Gumby until she can reach it. If I want to keep something completely out of her reach, it has to go in a drawer.

Monday’s poem was also from Mary Oliver’s HOUSE OF LIGHT, her poem “Terns.” Again, lovely, and the way it was spaced on the page added another level to its power.

Had to dash out to the post office to get something mailed before first collection. That was my exercise for the day!

Came back, handled some admin, had some questions for the ghostwriting client, got answers, wrote and submitted the two book reviews, submitted the invoice.

Glad to see France barred a convicted embezzler for running for office. We should have done the same. Looking at you, Merrick Garland and Chuck Schumer. And don’t say Schumer “didn’t have the votes.” As Majority Leader at the time, it was his job to GET the votes.

A call for play submissions hit my desk on Monday – due that day! Fortunately, I had all the pieces (because I live by my topic workbook on Submission Systems), and it took me 15 minutes to put the submission package together. It’s for a reading series about an hour and a half east of here, with a group I’ve wanted to work with, so, fingers crossed.

The library cohort training session was excellent. I’m behind on some homework, and will have to catch up this weekend.

Had some more admin to do in the afternoon. Was paid for the book reviewing gig (pays the car insurance), received the Llewellyn check (the amount is the exact amount I need to pay a bill I was worried about). Big sigh of relief. Submitted two more plays to submission calls in the afternoon.

Didn’t make much progress on the ghostwriting assignment, which puts much more pressure on me today and tomorrow, but I got about three solid hours of work in during the afternoon. I took the laptop out on the porch. It was nice enough to sit out there, albeit a bit humid.

Read in the evening, Eric Idle’s autobiography. It had many of the same stories that were in the Greedy Bastard Tour diary.

Slept reasonably well. The idiots with leaf blowers have started up. Boo, there AREN’T ANY LEAVES YET. All they’re doing is blowing dirt around, which destroys the air quality.

Good for Cory Booker, taking the Senate floor for as long as possible. All Democrats should have been  doing this with the cabinet appointments, instead of passing them. And why are Hegseth & crew still employed?

There are rumors floating around that the Nanowrimo organization is shutting down. People claim to have gotten emails. I wouldn’t have, since I deleted my account once they started supporting the use of AI. The website doesn’t yet mention it, but then, the website hasn’t been updated in a long time. Not particularly surprising, with the issues they’ve had with predatory behavior towards underage participants, and then supporting AI. They were a great idea and helped a lot of people, and then grew arrogant and self-important.

END OF PLAY still only has the 2024 information up, so I’m assuming it’s not on for 2025, and planning with that in mind. Hopefully, I’ll get some playwrighting done this month, once the ghostwriting project is off my desk, but a lot of my focus needs to be on building the textile piece for the group show.

This morning’s poem was Jane Shore’s “Washing the Streets of Holland” which was a wonderful ode to remembering strange ideas we grasped as children.

I have a lot of work to do still on the ghostwriting project. I hope I can at least meet my goal, and maybe even go a little farther. That will be the main focus today, with a quick dart out to deposit the Llewellyn check and mail the rent.

I loathe April Fool’s Day, with cruelty parading as humor, so I will stay offline as much as possible.

Better get going, hadn’t I? Have a good one!

Mon. March 31, 2025: Intent for the Week — Stay the Course

image courtesy of  Mircea Iancu via pixabay.com

Monday, March 31, 2025

Waxing Moon

Venus & Mercury Retrograde

Rainy and a little warmer

Last day of March! About to roll into April!

It was a busy work weekend, and I’m tired, but I need to stay the course until I meet my deadline at the end of this week.

The Community Tarot Reading for the Week is up on the Cerridwen’s Cottage site. All Major Arcana cards this week, so we are in for some intensity.

Catch up tomorrow!

Fri. March 28, 2025: Steady Busy

image couortesy of Free Photos via pixabay.com

Friday, March 28, 2025

Dark Moon

Venus & Mercury Retrograde

Sunny and chilly

It’s Friday! We had a dusting of snow overnight.

I received a completely unexpected and deeply appreciated gift from the Boiler House Poets Collective, and I am so grateful.

Yesterday was a good, steady busy. Meditation in the morning, which delighted Charlotte. I finished the final round of handouts, saved the slides as PDFs, and sent them off to the students. I signed out of the hosting account for the writers’ organization for the last time, to make room for the next instructor. I sent an email to the administrator to see if they need anything else from me.

I did the blog rounds and the rounds of elected officials and a whole bunch of admin. I got the March newsletter finished, proofed, and out the door, and started the document for the June newsletter.

My noon meeting was with #FreelanceFriends on Bluesky, which used to be #FreelanceChat. I keep typing #Freelance FIENDS instead, but hey. It was a good conversation built around the subject of AI.

After the meeting, I turned my attention to the ghostwriting. It’s going much more slowly than it should. I have to pick up the pace over the weekend, or I will be in trouble next week. However, if I don’t build a solid foundation in the early portion, the rest will tumble like a house of cards. I got some good work done; just not enough and not fast enough.

In the evening, I had a training session adjacent to the library cohort work. It was very good, and there’s information I can take and use beyond the library environment, which is important in this day and age with all the intentional chaos generated.

I’m proud of my city’s city council, who passed a resolution making North Adams a sanctuary city for the LGBTQIA+ community. The vote was 6-3. I made note of the three councilors who voted against it. They weren’t individuals for whom I voted in the last election, and I certainly won’t support them in the next. Pittsfield City Council passes a similar resolution unanimously. Last weekend, ICE was lurking and intimidating people in Pittsfield, and some unidentified secret police abducted a Tufts University student on the other side of the state for writing an op-ed and took her down to Louisiana, against judge’s order. This must stop. There is so much in this administration that must be stopped. Schumer needs to stop sitting back, smirking and trying to fundraise and actually lead, or he needs to step aside.

I was also happy to hear that the Council approved a plan for MASS MoCA to purchase the former Sullivan Street School and turn it into a housing, arts, and community space.

In the evening I read for pleasure, although I went to bed fairly early, because my brain was tired. Had a series of disturbing dreams, which is not at all surprising, considering what’s going on.

Up close to the regular time. Feed the cats, morning meditation, first writing session, etc. I have some admin to deal with this morning, and the rounds of library-grocery store-errands. In the afternoon, I have to turn around a small script coverage and dig into the ghostwriting. I will be working on that most of the weekend. I also need to work on contest entries. I’d like to wind up the first category early next week.

I will take a break from the ghostwriting tomorrow evening, to see the performance piece in which 4 of my cohort members are involved. I was invited to something Sunday afternoon, but I can’t find enough information on it, and I’m not sure I’ll have enough done on the ghostwriting in order to take off a bunch of hours in the afternoon.

I also have housework to do this weekend, two books to read and review, and I’d like to get some rest in there somewhere. But it’s the good kind of busy, and I’m grateful.

Tomorrow is both a new moon and a partial solar eclipse. Talk about exhausting!

I’m hoping that NEXT weekend, once I turn in the ghostwriting assignment, I can get some genuine rest.

Have a great weekend, and we’ll catch up in a few days.

Thurs. March 27, 2025: Focused Attention Necessary

image courtesy of Pexels via pixabay.com

Thursday, March 27, 2025

Day Before Dark Moon

Venus & Mercury Retrograde

Partly Sunny and Chilly

You can read the latest on the garden over on Gratitude and Growth. There’s finally some growth happening in those pots!

Yesterday seems like a really long time ago, for some reason. I got my review out; I got my next assignments. I will turn some of them around quickly, so that I can invoice on Monday. I did a proofread/polish on my slides for the class. I did a chunk of work on the ghostwriting project, but I’m nowhere near where I hoped to be by now. I will have to dig in today, around the ZOOM meetings, and tomorrow, and probably work through the weekend.

Taught the class, our final class together. I’m glad I got to work with such engaged, talented people, and I wish them well. I will send out the final set of handouts today.

The newsletter will go out later today; it’s almost finished. The text is done. I need to put it into MailerLite and add images, then proof a few times and send. I wonder how much MailerLite has changed the template so it’s even a harder slog, instead of easy and fun? I know, I know, don’t moan if you’re not going to change, and I don’t have the bandwidth to move everything at the moment, especially during a Mercury Retrograde.

I have two ZOOM calls today and an online chat – one in a few minutes, that’s the online meditation group (my Freudian slip showed – I first wrote “medication group”). At noon, I have a freelance chat on Bluesky. At 6:30, I have a ZOOM training session tied to the library cohort. I thought all my commitments were ZOOM today, but only 2 out of 3 are. Phew!

I have to send out the last handouts, wrap up the final admin for the Screenwriting class, get the newsletter out, and make serious progress on the ghostwriting assignment. Not that many tasks, but they are all time consuming.

Have a good one!