Tues. Jan. 2, 2024: Tip Toe into the New Year
image courtesy of Jean Downs via pixabay.comTuesday, January 2, 2024
Waning Moon
Uranus Retrograde
Jupiter DIRECT as of December 30, 2023
Mercury DIRECT as of January 1, 2024
Cloudy and cold
Happy New Year! I wish you blessings and joy!
Let’s tiptoe into the new year so we don’t scare it.
Today’s serial episode is from Legerdemain:
Episode 151: Pravin in Surgery
While Pravin’s still in surgery, Risipi challenges Jae on the Solitary God’s commitment to His followers.
Friday was a mishmash of a day.
I started digging in the deed records of Mamaroneck. It seems that the house was in Helen Darling’s name – she’s in the registry as “Helen W. Darling, formerly MacDonald” (different spelling than the census, but whatever, gives me something else to plug into the search record engines) selling a property. I have to pay to access the actual record, although I have the file number, and I’m not sure whether it’s 1929 or 1939. It’s definitely Frank’s wife. Sold to someone named Jenkins.
But I can’t find records of anything else bought, or when the house was bought. Yet. I’m not done.
There’s also a Sarah Darling in town who bought and sold a good bit of property – wonder if she was related to Frank, or someone completely different?
I finally pulled myself away from all that research, got dressed, and did my errands. Library first, Big Y – which didn’t have some of the things I needed, so then I had to head out to Stop and Shop, which looked like it had been set upon by locusts. Lots of empty shelves. But I found what I needed, except for fresh dill. Everyone seems to be sold out of fresh dill. Note to self: grow lots of dill this year. Hit the liquor store on my way back to pick up the prosecco and wine for the weekend and next week. I was kind of grumpy being out and about in the weather, but so was everyone else, and the locals anyway, would look at each other and laugh and get over ourselves and it was all fine. Some of the tourists were jerks, but that seems to go with tourist territory. Heaven forbid a visitor act like a good guest. Still, it’s much better on this side of the state than it was on the other, most of the time.
Unloaded/unpacked everything and was wiped out. Did some admin work, and some puttering. Did a couple of quick coverages that came in.
Did the serial episode videos for next week and got them uploaded/scheduled on TikTok.
Sorted out a few ideas that need to be scheduled, so I can work on them. A friend is going through a tough time. I told her if she wanted/needed me to come down for a few days, I’m happy to do so, and then talked through a plan on the home front so everything can keep percolating along here. I can make it work, and I want to be there for my friend. She’s always there for everyone else. She can choose not to have me come down, if she prefers; but she knows she has that safety net.
Started reading a book by an author who I don’t like as a person, but I respect her writing. This one is nonfiction. I find myself disagreeing with about 60% and agreeing with 40%. And then annoyed with myself for agreeing with anything.
The first contest shipment came in. I sorted them. It was a small box, so I assume the bulk of entries are digital. It arrived in the evening, so this morning, I will let the coordinator know it arrived safely. Always exciting to get the entries, and hope I fall in love with them.
Ordered some seeds that need to be started any minute; hopefully, they will be here in a week or two, and I can get them in the fridge, and then in the pots on Imbolc.
Had weird dreams Friday into Saturday, so I guess May will be a weird month (each night’s dream is tied to one of the 12 Days of Christmas, tied to the month of that day. Fifth Day = fifth month = May.
Jupiter turned direct on Saturday, which is a weight off, although Mercury was still around to mess with us.
A small coverage came in, so I turned it around in the morning, while my mom got ready for the opera.
I also managed to do the revisions on the last six episodes of ANGEL HUNT, and get the first two of those uploaded and scheduled before we left.
THE MAGIC FLUTE at the Clark was interesting. We had good seats. I was surprised how many kids were there, but it’s marketed as family friendly. The kids behaved well. There was intermittent masking, but at least nobody was hacking up a lung during the performance. I loved the design and production values and the puppetry. The voices were good. Nathan Gunn was particularly strong at Papageno. He was definitely the strongest actor of the bunch. There were times when it was over the top, almost slapstick, but that had more to do with the direction, I felt, than anything else. The production careened from comedy to attempted satire to something more serious. It didn’t really flow or pivot on a beat – it sort of somersaulted amongst genres, which pointed out the lack of logic in the actual storyline quite a bit. But it was beautiful and my mom loved it, so that was worth it.
She really wants to go back to see CARMEN at the end of January, so I will make sure that happens.
Home, and got the final four episodes of ANGEL HUNT uploaded and scheduled. I still have to do a bunch of paperwork around the serial, but the final episode will drop on June 14, 2024.
That means THE LIGHTHOUSE LADY should go live on June 19, 2024, which means it has to be ready to start uploading in April. Good thing it’s on the schedule starting next week.
Updated the serial page on the website.
Three small coverages came in, and I turned them around.
Weird dreams Saturday into Sunday, so I hope that doesn’t mean June will be a mess.
Cooked most of the morning: did the devilled eggs, made an apricot mousse, made a smoked trout spread. Turned around some small coverages, because I needed the money. They kept coming in and I kept doing them because I needed the money. The pay was crap, but it was better than nothing. But I burned out doing so many back-to-back. Grabbed enough coverages that came through for a good week’s pay this coming week, although I have to do 3 medium coverages a day instead of the preferred two. I will adjust. January has to be about earning money.
Made vegetable stock, most of which went right back into a curried lentil soup (Moosewood Recipe).
Vacuumed, upsetting Tessa and Charlotte. Willa doesn’t mind. She sits on the bed and points out where I missed a spot. Mopped the floors. Scrubbed the tub. Scrubbed the stove, wiped down the counters and the stainless steel.
I started re-reading FEBRUARY HOUSE by Sherrill Teppin, about the house in Brooklyn where George Davis, Carson McCullers, Auden, Gypsy Rose Lee, et al, spent a year (or maybe a little more) all rooming together and encouraging each other’s work. I own a copy of this book, but it’s in storage, and the book about the Barbizon Hotel reminded me of this book, so I wanted to re-read it, and ordered it from the library.
Dinner was salmon with a brown sugar-cumin-lemon glaze, the rest of the sweet potatoes, and peas. The apricot mousse was for dessert. I have to say, I’m underwhelmed. If I decide to make it again, I’m going to tinker with the recipe.
Stayed awake. We had our devilled eggs and trout mousse and cheese and crackers around 10 PM. Willa and Charlotte were having a fit, so we gave them their bedtime snacks. Burned the other bayberry candle.
Let out the old year (with many thanks, because it was, at least creatively, overall a good one) out of the back door. We had a half split of prosecco and watched the ball drop in Times Square. It’s weird to think I lived there for years and could see the ball drop from my window. On the years I wasn’t working and couldn’t actually get home for midnight because Times Square and the area around it was blocked off, but was forced to go out for overpriced whatevers, and was miserable, even when I was with people I liked. Times Square was packed, as usual, and all I could think of was the next COVID surge coming.
Welcomed the New Year through the front door.
Gave the cats their real bedtime snacks this time, although I stayed up for about another hour.
It was pretty quiet here. Fireworks in the distance, but not in the street putting houses at risk, the way it always happened on Cape Cod. Around 2, some people staggered home drunk and loud, but they were inside in about five minutes, so no big deal.
The cats got me up around 6:30. They’d already been fed, so why they thought I needed to get up, who knows? It was like a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, but feline.
Did the Fire & Ice New Year’s Ritual. I thought I had a white candle for it, but the last white taper was broken, so I used green (prosperity) instead.
Eggs Benedict for breakfast, with mimosas, which is our traditional New Year’s Day breakfast.
Started reading Christine Coulson’s METROPOLITAN STORIES. It’s very different from ONE WOMAN SHOW, but it’s also interesting and unique. And her intimate knowledge of the museum’s nooks and crannies supports the story in a way that someone only doing a walk-through for research purposes could never achieve.
Had the start of a story idea sputter around, but I’m not sure what it is yet. The Caribbean? A bar? Who knows? Definitely an island, friends, found family, fresh start, but where will I place this island? Off the NE coast or in the Caribbean? There’s way too much on the schedule for it to do anything but percolate right now.
Too many demanding emails coming in – can you just give everyone a break? On the 31st, all the year-end nonprofit begging; on the 1st, all the author newsletters plugging their work and organizations with January events. Can you just give everyone a couple of days off, please? Save it for a day or two.
At least I found out that my annual web host bill is only going up by $15, not $50+. That’s a relief, and something I can handle.
Totaled December’s writing, which was still not a “typical” month:
Total New Words: 60,847
Total Edited: 21,803
Client Work/Coverage: 9,355
Video approx. 6 hours
I didn’t track my marketing hours, other than video creation, but it wasn’t enough. It was light on client work, but the payment was still far too low for that many words. Which is important information as I work on reshaping the client work – from this particular agency, I don’t get to set my rate. I have to take what they pay.
It was a decent number of words written, across projects. If it was on a single project, it would have been the equivalent of a category novel. Again, important information.
Light on the editing. That will change this month.
My reading log shows I read 181 books for pleasure and research last year. I think I missed logging a few of the digital books I read. This does not count books read for contests, the reviewing job, or as part of the coverage job. Only those books I read for pleasure or research on my own projects.
Discovered I was behind on the ANGEL HUNT log lines – had to write the log lines for the last 14 episodes. Those went better than expected. So that’s all done. I have a bunch of paperwork still to wrap up that serial, and then a bunch of printing I will do when I get ink later this month. I want to save the ink I have for what I’m drafting.
Drafted two Legerdemain episodes. This week, the primary focus is on Legerdemain, with a goal of drafting 10 new episodes. Hopefully, I can pull it off. I have 3 coverages every day this week instead of two, so I have to manage my time well.
I have other writing I hope to get done in and around the Legerdemain episodes, but I need to stockpile again and get farther ahead. I’m only scheduled through next week (although that will change on Thursday, when I have more episodes to upload).
Went to candlelight yoga, which was nice. It’s always a popular class. People are always happy to be there, and the regulars welcome and help newcomers get set up, which is nice. It’s also nice that I’m one of the regulars now, who can offer a smile and a bolster!
Home. The roast chicken was ready to come out of the oven. I couldn’t find a duck for New Year’s, so I made roast chicken, heavy on the basil and rosemary, with mashed potatoes and spinach (greens for prosperity). It was very good. Made stock with the bones after.
Finished reading a book assigned for review. I will write up the review and send it off later, along with the review of the cookbook I was sent for review.
I have to spend a little bit of time organizing the books for the contest reads. I can’t fully organize it until I pack the Holiday Village next weekend, because that’s the table where the contest reads live from the time they arrive until the contest ends in May.
Good session of morning yoga, meditation, and the Kripalu journal prompt for the day.
Headed back to the page. If the weather isn’t too bad, I may walk the rent check down to the post office later, just so I’m not sitting so much today.
Have a good one!
