Thurs. Feb. 16, 2023: It’s Official

image courtesy of Edwin Valencia via pixabay.com

Thursday, February 16, 2023

Waning Moon

Partly sunny and mild

Got the promos for this week’s Angel Hunt episodes uploaded into Tweetdeck, and did the graphics for the next two weeks’ worth of episodes of Legerdemain, although I didn’t get a chance to schedule them to post yet.

Did the social media rounds for Angel Hunt, The Process Muse, #28Prompts. Wrote and posed a piece on Ink-Dipped Advice about Evolving While Growing, and did the rounds for that, too. There’s a new post over on Gratitude and Growth this morning, too.

The headache medicine makes me nauseated, but so does the headache, so it’s a tossup as to which cause of feeling awful I choose.

I have catching up to do with fresh links on the Devon Ellington website, as there’s been increased distribution across several channels for pretty much all my work. Just when I think I’m caught up, there’s more. I have a feeling website updates will become a weekend project this weekend.

Did a library run, and brought back a huge stack of books, including books on the Ancient Celts and their travels, which I need for the Heist Romance script. You thought I forgot about that one, didn’t you? Nope. Waiting for some research books that I have to work through before I write the next section.

There are also the rest of the Con Lehane books in the mysteries he sets in and around the 42nd Street Library in NYC, so I’m looking forward to those.

The new regional artist resources list came out. I’d already heard about some of the opportunities (and even applied for some), but there are also others on it, and I need to spend some time with that and really go through it, line by line. It’s so useful, and I’m so grateful to the local Assets for Artists/Artist Impact Coalition for putting it together every month.

It’s official: I am one of the recipients of the Mass Cultural Council’s artist recovery grants. I’m absolutely thrilled that they believe in and support my work enough to include me in this grant cycle. There’s an official event at the end of March at the Clark Institute, in which I will participate, and I’ll see what else they ask me to do. The grant gives me some breathing room, and makes it possible to accept opportunities and upgrade tech that I might not otherwise be able to do because of the financial strain.

I was told about it a couple of weeks ago, and asked not to speak about it publicly until the official press release went live. Because I loathe vague social media posts about upcoming good news, I didn’t post any of those, other than to mention a contract for a big project here. It always amazes me when the paperwork to receive the grant is more than the paperwork to apply for it!  I probably won’t run around posting much about it anyway; I’d rather post about the projects/opportunities it supports and mention it via thanking the council for their support. And once they tell me the wording and which logo to use, I’ll put it on my websites, and any projects that are relevant to the grant.

I already heard from an ex-client of mine in my previous location. She ranted about how these grants are a “waste of taxpayer money” and, because HER money paid for MY grant (so she believes), I owe it to her to work for her for free for the amount of the grant because I’ve already been paid. (um, no, it’s going to be another couple of months before we get the money). I told her that’s not the way it works, and ended the conversation. The hubris involved is not unexpected, but it’s still irritating. Plus, the grant is for my creative work, not the grunt work she wants for her business. This is someone who took full advantage of PPP loans and huge recovery loans, all of which were forgiven, and to which she felt entitled.

Some people just can’t let anyone else be happy and receive something without trying to take a piece of it for themselves, can they?

So happy to be out of that whole situation!

I had plenty of leftovers in the fridge, so of course I ordered pizza from our favorite place down the street. It was yummy. We’ve had pizza from three local places so far, and there are still two more to try. This is very much a pizza town. And each place is very different from each other.

I actually slept all the way through the night. Although I was busy in the Dreamscape and put in a full day before I woke up, I do feel more rested than usual. And I also came up with something I might be able to use in Legerdemain.

On today’s agenda: meditation, then typing up the short plays from yesterday, doing some work on Legerdemain (the next episode drops today), doing the usual promotion rounds. But the bulk of today and tomorrow are blocked off to work on the article, which I want to get out either end of day tomorrow, or (more likely) first thing on Monday. Working in bits and pieces on it isn’t working for me, so I want to give it hours of full attention and work in full drafts. It’s a fairly long piece, and has a unique rhythm and flow because of the subject matter that I want to weave into it. That means big chunks of uninterrupted work time.

Have a good one!