Wed. Oct. 24, 2024: Rehearsals and Rewrites
image courtesy of Alejandro Torres Beristain via pixabay.comWednesday, October 23, 2024
Waning Moon
Saturn, Neptune, Chiron, Uranus, Jupiter Retrograde
Sunny and pleasant
And here we are, at midweek!
Yesterday was a head-down-working day. I put information on the Body Be Gone anthology over on the Anthology page of the Devon Ellington Work site, plus a post on the News page. I used the graphics to do a round of social media posts, which I will continue to do for the rest of the week. I put up the Instagram post and link for the week’s tarot reading on the Cerridwen Iris Insta. I did some Topic Workbook promotions.
Got a very nice note from an editor to whom I pitched late last week. There were 450 applicants for the writing job, and it’s taking her longer than she expected to sort through them. She wanted me to know she received the pitch materials, and would get back to me once she’d read through everything. Very nice of her, and shows she is someone I hope to get a chance to work with.
I dug in and did detailed revisions on STRANGERS IN THE SNOW. I have about another five pages to work on, and then the additional materials. I should probably name the diner, but I kind of like having the diner and the town both anonymous. (Heck, Anonymous might be a good name for the diner).
Made lunch, relaxed with a book for a little while, before returning to script coverage. Turned around four coverages (1 medium, 3 small), which means I have six small ones to do today (since they are due around 4 AM tomorrow morning).
Did not go to yoga. Would have liked to attend the food co-op’s annual meeting, but decided to stay home and work instead.
Once I was finished with work, I finished another Martha Grimes (I’d also read one over the weekend). Both were intricately and interestingly plotted. The one I read over the weekend had some geographic inconsistencies, which made me feel disoriented at times. The more I read, the more I think she is often doing a send-up on “types” in British crime fiction, and then deepening the core characters. It’s very interesting to read them, back-to-back, from a writing perspective.
Rehearsal began at 11 PM my time. It went well; the cast put in the work. I made notes on things that need work. When we got offline at 1, I sat and did another round of revisions, mostly cuts, tightening, and clarification. I gave the character of Don a different final line, which I think is more in tone with the piece. I’ll do a few more passes on it today before sending it to the director for his thoughts, before he forwards it to the actors (or I have to make yet more changes, per his request).
I finally fell asleep around 3 AM this morning. I was aware of the cats being fed around 6:30, and got up a little after 7, because Charlotte and Tessa were being obnoxious.
I have a feeling there will be a nap in my future today, although the sleep I got was good.
Right before rehearsal started, I got a disappointing email about a funded program to which I’d applied. Not getting it was, of course, a disappointment (especially the money). But the email puzzled me. I think it was supposed to be humorous? But it read as snarky and flippant and disrespectful to the applicants. It moaned about the high response to the program (huh? Aren’t they happy people were excited?) and how they had to pull in people to help go through the applications (who are qualified because . . .?) and made it all about them, instead of about the program and the applicants, which rubbed me the wrong way. Then, they tried to upsell us on another program. Red flags galore. Also, even though there were a lot of applicants, a general snarky email to their entire mailing list is, to me, inappropriate. The applicants who didn’t make the cut should have been told ahead of time, not had public jokes made at their/our expense.
I thought maybe I misread the email because I was tired and in rehearsal head space, so I re-read it this morning, after some sleep. If anything, it read worse in the light of day, and wildly unprofessional. So maybe I dodged a bullet? I’ll stay on the mailing list for a few more missives to see if this is unusual, or the way they operate. If it’s the latter, I’ll unsubscribe (since applying automatically subscribed me?), and cross the organization off my list. I suspect that I am not the right fit for them, and they are not the right fit for me. I will keep an eye on the work of those who did make the cut, and see if their work is in tone with the tone set for the program by this email (in which case I am not the audience for the work, in addition to not being a right fit for the program).
It’s a shame, in some ways (especially financially), because the application call made the program sound like a lot of fun. It was a short intensive via ZOOM across time zones, although it overlapped with the show for two of them. That might have created a problem, considering that being in production means that show is the center of my life until mid-November.
It also makes me appreciate the places to which I’ve applied who treated me with grace and kindness, whether or not I made the final cut.
Today’s agenda: I have a feeling the only writing I will get done are the “Effie” revisions. Maybe I’ll sneak in a nap. Then, I have six short coverages to turn around. Not going to tarot today. It’s a head-down working day.
Happy to see so many people early voting! Let’s get this done, because of the Narcissistic Sociopath gets back into office, anyone with a brain and a heart is doomed.
On that happy note, have a good one!
