Tues. Oct. 24, 2023: Watch Your Brains, I’m Still Feeling Like a Zombie
image courtesy of Open Clip Art Vectors via pixabay.comTuesday, October 24, 2023
Waxing Moon
Saturn, Neptune, Chiron, Uranus, Jupiter Retrograde
Cloudy and cool
Well, THAT was quite the few days. Ready for our Tuesday catch up? It’ll be shorter than usual.
Today’s serial episode is from Legerdemain:
Episode 131: Pravin Helps Plan
Pravin helps create the sting to catch his contact, partnering with a surprising volunteer.
Basically, I slept most of the day on Friday. I would sleep for two hours or so at a time, be up for about ten minutes, and go back to sleep. Had an English muffin for breakfast and an apple for dinner. Sore arm, but much less pain than Thursday night. My mom was pretty much the same.
Saturday, I felt a little better. We had a decent breakfast. I still couldn’t do much, or concentrate much. I lounged on the couch, with Charlotte, reading books that didn’t tax me much. We made ourselves eat lunch. I cooked dinner, which was a lot.
What’s weird/interesting with this shot is that sensory detail is heightened. It’s usually flattened – taste, smell, etc. But this go-round, everything is heightened. Tastes are stronger, smells are stronger. Bizarre. Although I’d rather have senses heightened than flattened.
Of course, when I went to bed Saturday night, I couldn’t sleep, because I’d slept so much the previous two days. I got up and read some more, then managed to get to sleep.
I felt a little better on Sunday. Still sore arm. We both have huge bruises at the injection site, which is new. But I could think and speak in fairly complete sentences. Still a lot of fatigue, though.
I’d had hopes, the previous night, of being able to draft an episode of Legerdemain and maybe get the graphics and episodes videos done. Ha! Ha, I say! Big dreams.
I managed to polish/upload/schedule tomorrow’s Process Muse post. I created the episode graphics for this week’s episodes of Legerdemain, and got all six episode videos done for the three serials. It was also time to do another catch-up video for Legerdemain. But I got all of those done, uploaded, and scheduled on TikTok.
While I’m far from a TikTok darling, my views are climbing steadily, and I see the positive effect on the serial numbers.
I read an eBook, the first of a series that came highly recommended, and I was “meh” about it. I sort of wanted to see what happened next, although a good developmental edit would have helped this book. I didn’t want to know enough to pay the price of the second book. I would have been angry if I was disappointed.
I started reading an acquaintance’s fantasy/adventure trilogy and liked that much better. Read the first book and part of the second.
I was confused by an email from a radio producer with not just a rejection but a scolding that I didn’t do something requested. I remembered a lot of conversation back and forth. I checked the email exchange – yup, it was all there. I checked the final draft I submitted (to make sure I hadn’t attached the wrong one). Yup, it’s the right one. Big warning bells, acting like the whole conversation never happened. It’s not worth pointing this out – he’ll just get defensive. Cross him off my list and move on.
Could not sleep.
Got an idea for a new ad for PLAYING THE ANGLES. It’s October, a great time to promote paranormal romantic suspense. And there’s no reason not to promote my backlist.
I got up and headed for the computer. Of course, once I started with one of the books, I ended up doing ads for all four, and then a group ad. I’m happy with the way they came out. I used deck.blue to get the promotions up and out on Bluesky. If I use the regular app, I can’t post photos.
Then I started thinking it might be fun to do a video for the series. I started playing with that. I did the TikTok version of it, but without sound. It was way too late to disturb the neighbors. I saved it, and by then it was 1:30.
I tried to go to bed again, and had an idea for a tagline for the Delacourte spinoff books. I didn’t want to get up again, so I put it in the Keep Notes on my phone.
I was wrecked Monday morning, when I finally got up around 7. The cats were beside themselves, even though my mom had fed them.
I finished the Coventina Circle video and added music. I uploaded the TikTok version, and then did a web version. Canva doesn’t let me convert, so I had to go from scratch, but I’m learning to keep a good log as I make the videos, so I could recreate it quickly. Well, I’m implementing what I learned BACK IN COLLEGE about film logbooks while editing. That film degree oughta be useful for something, right?
The video is on the landing page of the Coventina Circle website. Again, there’s no reason I shouldn’t promote my backlist. The backlist is the backbone of a career. I’ve ignored mine for too long.
I did a post office and library run and was wrecked by the time I got back.
Got a lovely email from a theatre in Philadelphia where I’d applied for a specific commission. They’re not giving me the commission, sadly, but they like my writing. They said now that they “know me” would I please consider submitting any play I think might work for them for full production? Yes, thank you, I will.
I drank some of the oat straw/nettle tea from Wild Soul River, and that helped.
I re-read what I have of THE BARD’S LAMENT (Coventina Circle Book #5) and it’s not as bad as I remember. One of the reasons I abandoned it when I got sick was because I felt it was a hopeless mess, and not even the wonderful series editor could salvage it. In addition to the whole being sick part.
In fact, pace, character, and plot is pretty decent, although I’m about to face huge plot holes of the various threads I’ve begun in the book. I thought I had a bunch of notes for the rest of it. I’m sure I do –somewhere. But I’m not sure where the planning folder is for the Coventina Circle series. It’s all in longhand, not on computer. When I got sick, I didn’t think I’d have the chance to go back to the series. But maybe it’s worth at least having some conversations about it. If I can, I’d like to finish the series, and also do some of the tie-in novellas, and then the spin-off with the Delacourtes. They really jump off the page whenever they appear.
It’s a lot to think about.
Readers have been in contact over the last few months, asking if there would be more Coventina Circle books, and hoping that will happen. Now is the right time to spend some time thinking about it, and then having the necessary conversations with the necessary parties.
If you’re curious about the premise of THE BARD’S LAMENT, you can read the blurb here.
All of this happened in and around getting out a couple of play submissions, and too many ZOOM meetings. I’m usually good about restricting those, but this week, I’m over-Zoom booked. I’m trying to land some steady projects to get me through the winter, while juggling possibilities for spring and summer. Plus, all the Samhain-oriented stuff that always comes up this week.
All when I’m not at my best, from the booster.
A couple of really cool submission calls landed on my desk. One wants 5-page plays that are well in my wheelhouse. I got an idea and wrote two pages of one. I need to figure out the punch line, and then I can write the final three. We’re allowed to submit two plays, so I might also write another idea that came up while I read the call. Five pages are easily drafted (again, once I know the punchline). Then I have to go back and work them beat-to-beat, so that they build properly in both character and plot.
I paid some bills, ordered my journal books for 2024 from Peter Pauper Press, and ordered a book from a colleague. She’s having a sale of her signed books; I thought I had that particular book, but it turns out that I don’t, so I ordered it. I was invited to a couple of interesting events at the Clark – a rare book talk, and a members-only tour of the decorative arts with the curator, both of which I will do. I had some final stuff to do regarding Nightwood.
In other words, I had a productive day, although it didn’t feel like it.
There’s an extraordinary exhibit in Amherst, Shakespeare Unbound, that I MUST book at least a day to get over there and see. 156-mile round trip for a Shakespeare Folio? HELL YEAH. Especially since it’s in the hands of a private collector most of the time. The “when” is still up in the air, but it’s a MUST for someone as Shakespeare-obsessed as I am.
Leftovers for dinner, went to bed early. Slept for 11 hours, which is something I rarely do. Woke up feeling logy and disoriented.
I have a lot on my plate today, including drafting an episode of Legerdemain, doing the social media rounds to promote Legerdemain and PLAYING THE ANGLES, getting some LOIs out, working on the long radio play that needs a new title, getting up the next four episodes of ANGEL HUNT, doing at least one score sheet coverage, and too many ZOOM calls. I’m hoping more coverage comes in, but we’ll see.
I have a Wild Oats Annual Meeting tonight to which I am committed. I hoped to swing by the artist meet-up over at Eclipse Mill first, but I don’t have the stamina for both yet, so I will keep my commitment and let the other go.
Back to the page.
