Thurs. July 20, 2022: Milestone for Legerdemain and Adventures with Murder Maps
Thursday, July 20, 2023
Waxing Moon
Pluto, Saturn, Neptune Retrograde
Cooler, with wildfire haze
Latest on the garden over at Gratitude and Growth.
Busy day yesterday.
Today’s episode is from Legerdemain and marks the ONE YEAR anniversary of this serial’s launch! I love the serial, the characters, the kind of whacky humor mixed with action and adventure, with moments that are more serious. It’s a joy to write.
Episode 104: Aboard The Nervy Molls
Shelley follows the assassin aboard a female captained and crewed dirigible, which is more than for what the assassin bargained.
Because if I’m writing a fantasy, I want dirigibles. I’m glad this episode landed on the anniversary. It’s a lot of fun.
The serial’s been running for a whole year, and there’s plenty more to come. If you haven’t tried it yet, I hope you will. The first three episodes are always free. Likes, crowns, and reviews make a big difference in the algorithm.
Got some outlining work done yesterday morning before we headed out the door.
We went to Amherst, to the Center for Renaissance Studies, to see the work by Suzette Marie Martin’s exhibit. There’s a video about the exhibit here.
I printed out directions from the website, which took us down to the Pike, over to Springfield, and then up 91 to Amherst. The traffic was awful, and we were caught in a bad patch right before the exit. Then, the website hadn’t updated the exit numbers, so it was confusing once we were on 91. It got even more confusing from there. We finally pulled into one of the massive UMass lots. I managed to get Murder Maps (aka Google Maps) up on my phone, and it talked us through the last few miles. Murder Maps only tried to kill me once, telling me to turn into a place where there was no road, just a high stone wall. But we found it. Eventually. Every trip to that area is fraught because of bad directions.
The Center is lovely, the staff is friendly, and the artwork powerful.
Went through Amherst afterwards, which is lovely. I haven’t spent much time there, but I should go back and do a pilgrimage to the Emily Dickinson house. Although I’m not spending $300 to sit in her bedroom for an hour, not allowed pen or paper or anything else. That is not something I find inspiring. Arrowhead, Melville’s place in Pittsfield, is doing that now, too, instead of having artists in residence working in the space, like they used to. No, thank you.
On the way back, we stopped at Trader Joe’s in Hadley, because, I mean, we drove past it, it was RIGHT THERE, it would have been silly not to stop. Grabbed a few things we wanted. Like several bags of the Dark Chocolate Orange Sticks. Okay, two big bags of things, but you know how it goes.
I didn’t want to go all the way back down to the Pike, over and up again. So I pulled up Murder Maps and got an alternate route. Definitely alternate. We went through a lovely residential neighborhood that had no relevance to anything but the gardens were pretty, and eventually found our way back to Rt. 112. Murder Maps mumbled something about turning towards Ashfield in 11 miles, and then. . .silence. Murder Maps stopped communicating. I could either drive or restart my phone. I drove.
I was pretty sure I knew where the road we were on would spit us out, so I stayed on the road I knew, we came back through Dalton and Pittsfield, past where I’d gone to the Small Business Expo a few weeks back. It’s a much smoother, prettier, and faster road than Murder Map’s decision. So that is the way we will take to come and go to Amherst/Holyoke/Hadley from now on.
I do want to go back and spend some quality time in Williamsburg, which is a really cute little town (and a different town from Williamstown, where the college is).
Got home, had a late lunch, worked on the program for the reading, got up four more episodes of DEADLY DRAMATICS (I’m up to mid-March now). I found a place to plant a seed that will fully form in Season 2, so I did. Did the social media rounds for both Process Muse and Angel Hunt.
It was a pretty day to drive, in spite of the wildfire haze. And I’m glad I saw Suzette’s work. I really like and admire what she’s doing.
It was cool enough to sleep well. Jolted out of bed around midnight when the fire alarms went off for no discernible reason. Must have been the wildfire haze again. I find if I stand below the alarm in the hall and talk back to it (it’s a talking alarm), it shuts the hell up.
Up early this morning, to get in some writing. Online meditation group, then yoga at the library. Hopefully, I can pick up my mother’s pills then. And pick up some wine for the weekend, since I’m out in that direction. In the afternoon is the seminar with Doug Preston, courtesy of my university book club. And I’ll get in some more writing in and around there.
I was pondering a way-down-the-line arc for DD, with a charismatic character who is a threat to Nina and Zack. It was taking the piece in a direction I wasn’t sure would work. This morning I woke up and thought, what if I make this character still a threat, but not an asshole? And it fell into place. Much more interesting. I mean, other than a few quick notes, that arc doesn’t come up for a good long bit, but because of the various relationship arcs, I’m mulling back and forth through the long vision.
Have a good one!
