Thurs. Nov. 9, 2023: This and That
image courtesy of pixabay via pexels.comThursday, November 9, 2023
Waning Moon
Neptune, Chiron, Uranus, Jupiter Retrograde
I can’t believe it’s Thursday again.
You can read about the latest on the garden at Gratitude and Growth. The look of the template has spontaneously changed; I have no idea why, and not the time to mess with it. It’s fine. A little less simple than I usually use, but I can live with it for the moment.
Over on Ink-Dipped Advice, I talk about the concept of building a life you don’t need a vacation from. You can read that here.
Today’s serial episode is from Legerdemain:
Episode 136: Sebastian Reveals Part of His Past
Sebastian denies being the elusive Scythe
I wrote the second chapter of the weird cross genre piece. This was more difficult, but it was still fun. I need to start a series bible and tracking sheets for it. It’s definitely a viable project, provided I can make the final third work.
I had a conversation with a fellow artist about creating a “secret page” on one (or more) of my websites for newsletter subscribers. It could hold material such as pre-release of short story or novella tie-ins, or any other material. It’s simple enough to do; the question is do I want to do it? It’s sort of like putting certain material behind a paywall on Substack, only it’s not a paywall. I’ve visited author sites that had a “secret room” and few of them really worked for me.
I really would want to work on the design elements and make it look and feel like a secret library room. I’d want space for special promotions, but also hide fun little things, almost like putting up a game. And the thought of all that work is a little much right now.
Wrote an article, and got that out the door.
Pulled stuff in from the balcony, to get everything wrapped up for winter. The details are over on the garden blog (link above). That didn’t take long, but more time than I expected, plus the cleaning that had to start right away, and the rearranging. But with a storm coming in, I wanted to make sure it was done. Our lives revolve a lot more on weather here than they did in New York, where people simply overcome the weather whenever possible.
Did a run to the library and the post office.
Home, and that was kind of it for me for the day. I had the pre-storm headache, and it pretty much derailed my day. I wrote about five drafts of the flash fiction in my head. Maybe today or tomorrow, something will get down on paper. Since I only have 250 words with which to work, I will probably overwrite, and then cut, and then switch out words for better words.
Read CYBILL DISOBEDIENCE, Cybill Shepherd’s memoir that was published in 2000. I never worked with her; I met her once, when she came to see John Heard in the Arthur Miller play I worked on at Manhattan Theatre Club. She and John had done a movie together shortly before. She stopped by wardrobe to chat (everyone chats with wardrobe, at least the good ones, because they know they can’t do their thing if we don’t do ours, and we take care of everyone, physically and psychologically). She was very kind to me; I had had rather a rough day. Even though I tried to hide it, she picked up on it. I’d heard all kinds of stories about her (as one does about women in the business who don’t allow people to walk all over them), but my experience with her was positive. So it was interesting to read the memoir, and see where we’d worked with some of the same people over the years.
Didn’t feel up to going to tarot. Stayed home and made henhouse pie instead (shepherd’s pie, but with chicken instead of beef). It turned out well.
Jeremy’s class was about the pantry. Mine is In good shape, and I keep it organized similarly to the way he suggests. The only thing I’ll change moving forward is keeping my rye flour in the fridge instead of in the pantry. If I can fit the jar in the fridge.
He brought up a really good point: Cupboards and pantries are for movement, not storage. If you “store” something, you’re not going to use it. You want to keep things moving, so there’s less waste, and what you eat is fresh. I love having a very full pantry and full cupboards, but I’m getting better at moving things through, while still keeping things stocked.
Next week is all about knives, which is a class I’m really looking forward to.
There were snow flurries when I went to bed. It changed over to heavy rain in the night. Now it’s a kind of a sleety mix. It’s supposed to switch back over to snow. I like to lie in bed and listen to the rain. The cats, however, wanted their breakfast.
I’m happy that our mayor was re-elected. Still waiting to hear who got the City Council seats. I’m pleased at the results in Ohio and Kentucky and Virginia and the court in Pennsylvania.
The SAG-AFTRA strike seems to be over; friends are preparing to go to work. Hopefully, that means more (and better-paying) coverage coming in.
I have meditation this morning, a health insurance webinar at noon, and then double yoga session tonight. After the webinar, I’m making a stripped-down version of cassoulet in the crockpot, which will be ready when I get back from yoga.
In between that, I need to revise, polish, upload, and schedule some more Legerdemain episodes, maybe do some more work on the weird cross-genre piece, maybe draft the flash fiction. I also need to turn around a script coverage and a couple of score sheets. I doubt I will get any edits on CAST IRON MURDER done (although I’ll edit Legerdemain).
Yesterday’s word count for new material was 3376.
Onward.
