Tues. June 28, 2023: Social In Spite of Myself
image courtesy of bridgesward via pixabay.comTuesday, June 27, 2023
Waxing Moon
Pluto & Saturn Retrograde
Rainy and humid
Did you have a good weekend? It was stormy, rainy, and humid here, and supposed to stay that way all week.
Are you signed up for my author newsletter? It’s usually quarterly (with a few blasts in between for special projects), and the next one goes out later this week. You can sign up here.
Ready for our regular Tuesday natter?
Today’s serial episode is from Legerdemain:
Episode 97: Encounters in The Night Garden of Silence
Shelley & Daedalus comfort a woman with a broken engagement.
On Friday, I created the graphics for this week’s episodes of Legerdemain. I created the TikTok videos for both Legerdemain and Angel Hunt for the week, and two more “catch-up” videos of Legerdemain (with the episode graphics from the episodes). As usual, nothing wanted to upload, so I had to uninstall and reinstall the app. Getting sick of it.
But I uploaded videos to drop from this past Saturday to the upcoming Friday. Having templates helps a lot.
I did the social media rounds for Friday’s episode of ANGEL HUNT, and spent some extra time on Post and Spoutible for interactions.
Getting annoyed at all the people boasting about how great BlueSky is and how we should all migrate. Then send out invitations. FFS, I signed up to beta it the first week it was announced, and crickets. They want big names and their fans, not regular working artists.
When Mastodon users migrated, they actually gave out invitations so others could join. Big difference.
I did a quick grocery shop, but spent more than I intended, because I bought a hanging basket of the candy floss petunias. I hung that and the geraniums up (finally could, because the weather cooperated).
My brain was just mush the rest of the day. My body remembered the exhaustion of the move, and my brain was overwhelmed from the last few weeks’ work on the serials.
I read Agatha Christie’s THEY DO IT WITH MIRRORS, this month’s book club pick. It’s a Miss Marple, and I didn’t figure it out (which is unusual). I started a couple of other books, but none of them did it for me, so I gave up.
Saturday morning was pouring down rain. I’d gone to bed early, then woke up a little after 3. I’d just started to drop off when Charlotte started being a pain in the butt, and we fought until I got up at 5:30.
I spent time on my home yoga and meditation practices. They’ve gone off track the past couple of months, and I want to get them back.
I did some edits on DEADLY DRAMATICS. I don’t think I need that extra transition episode, so I’m going to leave it at 125 episodes (unless I come up with something, in the second half of the edits, that needs breaking down), and then just start season 2, BUT IS SHE A BETTING MAN? at the end of that final week. That will throw me off; I usually know where I am because the end of the week means even numbered episodes, but that’s why I have tracking sheets.
I got the next Process Muse episode done.
I put a chicken in the slow cooker. I wanted to see how a whole chicken in the cooker came out. (Answer: really well).
I uploaded episodes 49-56 of ANGEL HUNT. That gets me into early August, giving me the breathing room to finish the DEADLY DRAMATICS edits, get some of those episodes up, and then finish the rest of the ANGEL HUNT edits and get them uploaded and scheduled, then go back and finish uploading the DEADLY DRAMATCS episodes.
While keeping up with Legerdemain.
Did the episode log lines for the new ANGEL HUNT episodes. Finished reading the book for review; although I was skeptical at the start, it turned out to be pretty good.
Sunday was mostly about reading and thinking. I read a book by an author whose work I’ve read for years; this was from the early 90’s and okay, but it’s interesting to see how genre expectations move from the 80’s through the 90’s to now.
Read two of Natasha Pulley’s books: THE BEDLAM STACKS and THE WATCHMAKER OF FILIGREE STREET. The amount of research and integrated detail with characters and imagination work really well. There were a few things in each book I didn’t think were followed through all the way, but not enough to be big deals for me.
I’d been going down a story road for the DEADLY DRAMATICS series, wondering if I needed to seed something into the first season. The more I worked out how to weave it into various seasons, the more convinced I was that it would take the series in a direction I don’t want to go. Although I’m interested in exploring those ideas, this particular series is not the right place to do so.
I also want to redo a character’s backstory in ANGEL HUNT (fortunately, it’s in the episodes that are yet to go up). It’s too much of a cliché, instead of turning the cliché inside out and being interesting. Because I turn so many clichés inside out over the course of the serial, keeping this one is both out of tone and gives it too much emphasis in the overall story arc, because it stands out. So, back to the drawing board on that.
I have absolutely no idea what to do next in “Summon Thee.” In a very real sense, I’ve lost the plot. There are some fun beats, but it’s not adding up to anything, which is frustrating. I’m glad I got “The Dressing Room” written and submitted instead.
Social media just annoyed me all weekend. I need to use my time better on it for the next few weeks. I need to block off time slots to do mutual reads on serials, so I can actively participate in the Vella groups; if I can’t make the time to do mutual reads, I have no business posting there.
I’m not going to comment on the situation in Russa because, frankly, I don’t understand it. Let people who actually know what they’re talking about (again, not those “experts” on social media who pivoted from being oceanographers last week to foreign policy experts this week) talk about it, and maybe I’ll learn something. Because it all just baffles me. And I don’t trust a lot of the “information” coming out of the region.
Monday, up early. The humidity made it hard to sleep well, so I had a grumpy start to the week. Got the week’s serial promotions uploaded to Tweetdeck. Wrote and submitted the book review, along with the invoice for the last batch. Was paid in under an hour, which is terrific. AND got my next assignment. Since this week is light on other client work, I can attack that sooner rather than later.
Did a library run. Was absolutely cooked when I came back. My brain just would not cooperate. It’s not all that hot, but the humidity takes me down. The fucking heavy machinery beeping again over at the college library – for no good reason, because it’s not like they’re working, they’re just driving the machinery around and making noise – didn’t help. Managed to get out a stage play submission. Looked at a few other submission calls for plays, but the submission guidelines were so convoluted, they made my eyes cross, so I skipped them.
Paid my phone bill and noticed that my 8GB of data promised in my plan has been cut to 3GB. No warning, no explanation. I’d already put the payment through before it showed up. So I’m stuck with this carrier for another month, but then I will go down the street where several other carriers have stores and see about switching. One of them is offering 15 GB for $15/less month than I currently pay. And it’s a carrier with stronger coverage in this area. I’ll have a chat. I should be able to bring my phone and keep my number.
Since my brain refused to work on creative issues, I decided to be practical and do things like get through emails and file things, etc. Then, the jackhammers started going up the street. But I got a little bit done, until my brain just quit. Then, I caught up on NEW YORKER magazines.
I had to chase down yet another postman who put a shipment of books (books!) jammed into the mail slot instead of at the door. I flagged him down (okay, I stood in the middle of the street so he either had to stop or run me over). I showed him the problem. He opened his side of the mailbox bank and pulled it out for me, and understood. At least he was nice about it, unlike the jerk last summer.
One of the books was Pema Chödrön’s TAKING THE LEAP, which I’d gotten out of the library and liked so much I decided I needed my own copy. The other was BOHEMIAN MAGICK by Veronica Varlow. I really like it. It speaks to me with much more depth than the watered-down corporate-approved, toxic positivity “magical” practices that are popular right now. I’m reading it through once, and then going back and actually working through it.
But mostly, it was a lost day. Not even a restful one. I just felt like I was in a humid fog and couldn’t think or get anything done. My body felt like it did during the move, and my mind couldn’t convince it otherwise.
This morning, up early. In real people pants and makeup and everything. Couldn’t get much done before the fucking beeping heavy machinery started again.
I am also out the door early; I have an entrepreneur meetup (in person) over at Williamstown this morning, and then there’s a big regional artist meetup late afternoon/early evening here in town. Astrologically, this is one of THE worst weeks for me to be out and about, so I have to remember to nod and smile a lot, and listen more than I talk. Which is what I usually do in new-to-me social situations anyway, but this time, it’s intentional. I found the new business cards I made up and everything.
I also have to remember to put gas in the car, and get money out of the bank for laundry tomorrow.
In the break between events today, I will make the social media rounds to promote Legerdemain, and, hopefully, get either some writing or some editing done. I’m behind where I want/need to be on Legerdemain, and I have to catch up this coming weekend. Later this week, there are a few more LOIs I want to get out. I want to do more client work in a particular direction, and cut back in another. I also have to build 1-2 hours per day into the weekday workdays to read other people’s serials as part of the mutual read promotions that go on in the groups. I can’t post/expect reads if I’m not willing to make the time to do them in return. But that’s another task that has to be built into the workday that’s not about immediately billable hours. Still, it will be worth it in the long run.
I also have to come up with a better way to track what I’ve read. I will make handwritten notes at first, and then do some sort of spread sheet (although probably not in Excel – I already get hives when I have to open the stage play and radio play trackers in Excel). I’ll probably do it in Word, and make it easily searchable.
So, in spite of the fact that I didn’t do much work on Friday and I lost most of yesterday, I need to focus and get back on track.
Hope your week is off to a good start!
