Wed. Jan. 22, 2025: Another Step Along the Path

image courtesy of Albrecht Fietz via pixabay.com

Wednesday, January 22, 2025

Waning Moon

Uranus, Jupiter, Mars Retrograde

Sunny and cold

And here we are, at midweek. Hope you’re having a creative one.

-15F at 8 AM this morning. Yikes.

I was saddened to hear about the death of Cecile Richards, the former President of Planned Parenthood. And also sad to hear about Jules Feiffer. And then guitarist John Sykes.

Something to remember about the current chaos is that it is intentionally generated to siphon your energy. The people behind it are energy vampires. They have nothing within themselves, so they feed off others, especially if they can cause harm and fear through deliberate cruelty. Be aware of what’s going on, but don’t feed them.

I managed to get out a play submission. I contacted my editor about the book I can’t download, and sent some information off to the cohort manager.

I rewrote some of what I had on the anthology story, and continued on. I had to plant something, because I changed my mind about the identity of the murderer, so I had to strip out the irrelevant herrings and put in some new ones.

I got out a couple of LOIs. I worked on the materials for one of the two big grants. I batted around some ideas for the commissioned script application, and ordered some research materials from the library. I caught up with some emails that needed attention.

The workshop itself was, again, terrific. It was a continuation of what we began last week; we will conclude next week. We dug into some individualized specifics, and worked together in small breakout groups. The other two artists in my group are both based in Maine. I’m so excited about their projects, and we exchanged information so we can keep in touch and cheerlead each other.

As I cooked a late lunch, after the workshop, I got an email that the company for whom I did the ghostwriting project wants me to do a deeper, more intricate (and paid, again) test. I’m delighted. I like working with them; I’m looking forward to a more in-depth experience. If we like each other in this round, too, it would be fairly steady work. We will go to contract by Thursday, and I figure we’ll start next week.

Got everything sorted out with the next book for review, the one I had a hard time downloading. It’s all downloaded, so I can get going on that.

I turned around 3 small coverages.

Dressed warmly over my yoga clothes and headed down to the studio. It was a little brisk, but not too bad. Yoga was great. Several of us were getting misty during class, knowing that next Tuesday is the final one in this space. The space and the people have been an important part of building my life here. It seems like a version of this class will continue on Tuesday nights at a different studio, but taught by the same teacher, at least for a while. That studio is right by the library, a couple of blocks closer.

A friend from class drove me home, which was kind of her.

Cooked dinner. Read in the evening, while various projects percolated. We closed the door to Tessa’s room to try and keep the rest of the apartment warmer. It worked. Tessa’s Sherlock Holmes pub towel with her food and water bowls are now in the hallway. She does not approve, but it helps keep the temperature at 68F in the entire apartment. With that room open, even with the porch closed off, it was dipping to 66. I worried if I pushed the furnace too hard, it would break down.

Slept in this morning, until 7. The cats were not amused. Even Bea complained (she’s learning from her big sisters). Bea’s newest trick is to pull things out of bowls and off the edges of tables and chairs. It’s pretty funny, as long as it’s not a breakable. First you see the ears. Then the nose. Then she grabs something and runs.

But boy is she glad not to be outside in this weather!

When I opened the curtains this morning, 13 crows sat on top of my car. (Yes, I counted them).  “Are you going to sing to me?” I asked. They marched around on the car for a bit, then hopped off and ate something that was in the parking lot (someone’s garbage bag must have broken on the way to the dumpster), and then took off. It was pretty funny.

Willa kept interrupting the morning meditation.

On today’s agenda: work on the anthology story, going over the next set of notes from the ghostwriting revision (they don’t need another revision; they just answered some questions I had about their house style). Work on the grants. I have to gear up and run an errand on foot later this morning, when it gets up to a balmy 11 degrees. I have another 3 small coverages to turn around this afternoon, and one tomorrow. Hopefully, some more will come in over the course of the next week, before the end of the pay period. I also want to start the next book for review.

I’d like to get in some work on ANGEL HUNT and VICIOUS CRITIC, too, but with such a late start (I’m at my desk about 2 hours later than usual this morning), I don’t know if that will happen.

Have a good one.