Tues. Oct. 22, 2024: Weekend Catch Up and Anthology Release!

Body Be Gone Anthology Cover

Tuesday, October 22, 2024

Waning Moon

Saturn, Neptune, Chiron, Uranus, Jupiter Retrograde

Sunny and pleasant

And here we are, into another week!

I hope you had a great weekend.

If you missed the Weekly Community Tarot reading over on the Cerridwen Iris Shea website yesterday, you can read it here.

Friday wasn’t a particularly creative day for me. I was mulling over the funeral scene for I WILL BE DIFFERENT. I was mulling over how to fix the ending of “Effie.” But I didn’t actually write any of it.

I put together the meeting notes for my client consult, and I consolidated notes from the BHPC planning meeting, per the comments received.

I got my next two books assigned for review.

I mailed a few things at the post office, picked up a few groceries, and did a drop-off/pick-up at the library.

And that was the morning.

The client meeting went well. The client was pleased with the consult. I updated the notes after we met, and sent the updated notes/resource list along with the invoice, which the client paid within the hour. So that all worked out well, and we both enjoyed the meeting, and it was helpful to give the client direction for his marketing campaign, and how to integrate different elements into it.

I got my act together and got out the door on time. I stopped and put gas into the car (and picked up a tiny lottery ticket win). Arrived at Wild Soul River in plenty of time for the workshop. There was a good mix of people there, from tarot, from circles, from other events. The speaker was Rebecca G’s mentor in herbalism, and it was about salt, how it’s used and misused, and how necessary it is for the human body to function. It was interesting, and I was relieved to discover that some of the things I’ve started doing instinctively when it comes to use of salt and types of salt, are within best practices.

One of the participants gave us gifts of chunks of Himalayan salt – they look like rose quartz!

It was a lovely event, as events tend to be in that space.

Got back in the car and headed for Installation Space here in North Adams, where a member of my cohort had an art opening. Several other local artists showed up, that I knew from various venues, and we had a nice catchup. He’d mulled some wine, which was delicious. A woman came in with her six-week-old rescue puppy, who was very excited and friendly – and then had an accident on the floor. But no one was upset, we just all cleaned it up. The dog was mortified. Everyone there is an animal lover, and understands that this happens with puppies.

Came home, cooked dinner, read on the sofa. Bea hangs out in the living room most of the time now, which is nice for everybody. Charlotte is learning how to be and have a friend, and learning how to interact with Bea has also mellowed her interactions with Tessa. Bea joining the family has been very good for Charlotte. Willa is the only one still fussing, and Bea can quell her with a look. Willa will come around.

Slept well, up at the normal time with the coffee, fed everyone, sat for meditation. When it was done, I looked over and Bea was in the rocking chair in the living room, which was adorable. She’s decided it is “her” chair and now spends time sitting in it, near us all, when she’s in the living room. She still likes being under the coffee table, and sitting on the bed in her room looking out of the window, but she’s also comfortable enough to be on the furniture in the living room with us when we are all hanging out reading, which is good.

I made breakfast burritos, which turned out well, and introduced my mom to the joy of the breakfast burrito.

I just wasn’t in the mood to do much, or do it at high speed. The sun came out, and it was warmer. We had an advisory out for fire danger (no burning of leaves, etc., because it’s been too dry) on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.

I did a few hours’ of revisions on STRANGERS IN THE SNOW. I need to layer in another character to ramp up the stakes, and develop some of the narrative paragraphs into more active scenes. But without changing the tone. That’s been a challenge. I want to keep this new character somewhat ambiguous, but want to give the reader a good sense of the truth.

I worked through a stack of research books, so they could go back to the library. I ran a couple of errands. I read the next book for review.

I grabbed a rush coverage script for Sunday, a medium-sized coverage that was underpaid, but that’s all that’s come in, so too bad for me.

I woke up around 1:30 on Sunday morning, but managed to get back to sleep. I had a good meditation session, turned around the rush coverage, read a friend’s script and commented on it, sent some suggestions to a friend trying to schedule some time to get together, and fielded various questions about my mom’s birthday next week. There were a couple of times I felt overwhelmed, and then I thought, “Why? Everything is organized. Nothing is late or out of control. Everything’s in a good place for where it needs to be. It’s just busy, a good busy.”

I figured out one or two stress points, and how to make them less stressful. Even when things go well, having a show in production puts a certain blanket of stress across everything, because of all the variables. That’s just the way it is for the next four weeks. There’s nothing bad or negative about it. It just exists.

Part of it is that I can’t have my digital detox day of the week until after the middle of November. Again, that’s not a big deal. It is a fact. I need to be flexible about just about everything over the next four weeks, because the show is the priority, and it has moving pieces whose needs have to be met, with everything else worked around them. It’s about reaching back into the days when my life was all about that, and remembering the tools that made it work. Then using those tools with the maturity I (hope) I’ve achieved since.

The reality is that I have the ability to be “whelmed” rather than “overwhelmed” if I keep my head in the game, and my boundaries strong. This is my profession, not my hobby. What anyone else outside of the show demands just has to wait their turn until the show is recorded. And if I miss opportunities, that’s part of making choices.

Read another book for review. At one point, I was on the sofa reading, with Charlotte asleep on my lap. I heard a rumbling noise and thought it was a truck idling. But when I looked out the window, no truck. So what was it? It took me a few minutes to realize that Bea was in the rocking chair, purring! Her purr is louder than Tessa’s. It was lovely. I’m so happy she feels content enough to purr now.

Woke up around 3 AM on Monday, during feline shift change, when Tessa left and Charlotte took over. I must have dozed off again, because I dreamed I helped a writer friend write a cover letter.

Good meditation session, in spite of feeling scattered. After breakfast, I wrote and submitted the two book reviews, then invoiced for the last batch of reviews.

I rewrote the last page of “Effie” and I think I fixed a tone issue. Still not sure about the final beat. Sent it to the director. He promised to forward it to the actors. Got the link for tonight’s rehearsal.

Did a drop-off/pick-up at the library, picked up more wet food for Bea, dropped off our ballots at City Hall. There were so many people there for early voting or dropping off ballots that I had to park 3 aisles away from the building. Excellent! Swung by a couple of other stores to pick up some little bits we needed that had fallen between the cracks of bigger errands.

Got the log-in credentials so I can review the applications for the next cohort. Will read the guidebook first – I bet that answers my questions. I want to make sure I give each application the care it deserves. We have nearly 4 weeks to read them, so if I read a handful every day, it will be done in plenty of time.

A bunch of scripts showed up in the queue. I tried to grab the higher-paid ones first, but only managed one. I have a lot of lower-paid ones to get through between now and Wednesday. But it’s a start. Let’s hope more come in this week and next week up to the end of the pay period.

Received my next two book review assignments, and was paid for the last batch. Oiled the bistro set and the bench on the back balcony. I wanted to do it when it wouldn’t get too cold at night, otherwise the wood would crack.

Struggled to work on a coverage, even though the script itself was good. Finally gave up; it puts more pressure on today, but at least I’ll be able to give it the attention it deserves.

Three poetry books arrived! I loved SWEEPING BEAUTY and the conversations with poets in Pearl London’s class that I ordered my own copies. And I ordered a copy of Jane Shore’s MUSIC MINUS ONE. I really like her poems. Turns out they all came from the same shop in Illinois, and therefore in the same package. Which the postman forced into the mailbox and I could not get it out on my side, so I had to flag him down as he tried to drive away and ask him to open his side of the box and retrieve it. This was a large enough package that common sense dictated it could be left on the porch – which is FIVE STEPS away from the mailbox that serves the six houses on both sides of the street. It’s not like he had to walk across the street or around a building. I’m really tired of this happening, and I’ve spoken to the supervisor at the post office multiple times. This isn’t brain surgery. It’s common sense.

Did some prep work for tonight’s rehearsal. Did some prep work for the application review.

Bea has started venturing onto the kitty condo, and she loves it. I’m so happy she’s feeling more comfortable and confident, even if she still doesn’t want to be handled by humans. She will get there.

Slept well, and didn’t get up until 6:30. Tessa Was Not Amused. Fed everyone. Sat in meditation. Something went wrong with the timer, so I sat and sat and sat until my knees hurt, and I wondered when the session would be up. And then discovered 45 minutes had passed, not 20, and the timer malfunctioned. This is why I hate technology. Had I set an egg timer, it would have worked. Bea is having the BEST time playing on the kitty condo, though, which is adorable.

Discovered that an anthology to which I contributed several years ago releases TODAY, and all the information had gone to my spam folder. Retrieved it, apologized, answered questions in the email. They still had my old address (that’s how long ago this was), so I updated it. My friend Paula has a story in the anthology, too. It’s fun to be included in the same collection as a friend, and I’m really happy we’re both in this. I love this particular story, it’s a weird little comic noir that my friend thinks would make a good pilot script. It was originally an anthology around a new game called BODY BE GONE, and now it’s an anthology standing on its own, in both print and Kindle versions.

They gave us a great suite of promo materials, and I will update the Devon Ellington website and social media with it soon. I’ll have to include it in December’s newsletter, too.

Buy the paperback for $13.95 here.

Buy the Kindle edition for $3.99 here.

That’s a nice note on which to start the day, even if I had to scramble a bit, because it originally came in last week, but went into spam!

I want to get some writing done this morning, and some revisions on STRANGER. This afternoon, I have to turn around the script I didn’t finish yesterday, and three or four more of the shorter coverages. Tonight is rehearsal.

Let’s hope I’ve gotten enough rest so being up until 2 AM doesn’t make me slow and grumpy the rest of the week!

Have a good one!