Tues. Feb. 25, 2025: Both Physical and Emotional Slush
image courtesy of Jan Mallander via pixabay.comTuesday, February 25, 2025
Day Before Dark Moon
Mars DIRECT as of Sunday
Raw and slushy
We have 5 days that are completely retrograde-free before Venus goes retrograde on March 1 until April 12. Use them well, my friends.
The Community Tarot Reading for the Week is up on the Cerridwen’s Cottage site here, using the Cozy Witch Tarot and the Shadows of Light Oracle.
I’m barely on Facebook anymore, certainly not posting. I use it to check birthdays/send greetings, and for the alerts from my city. I’m blocking a lot of trolls on there. I’m also doing a lot more blocking on Instagram, because the trolls and christofascists are out in force. Once my advisor gig is done in autumn, I will probably pull way back and/or delete those accounts, too. Instagram is one of my favorites for fun, but Zuck ruined it like he ruins everything he touches, which is familiar in the company he keeps. I’m slowly pulling back from Threads, too.
Bluesky is a constant right now, and I’m still on Tumblr, which works for promotion, and on Mastodon. I like my new instance more and more on the latter.
Did some solid work on the class prep. Bundled up, loaded 13 books in a waterproof bag into the rolly cart and trekked to the library, walking in the street. Unloaded, picked up the handful of books waiting for me, and returned.
Checked in with the ghostwriting client. Warning bells are going off, especially as far as direction and payment. That’s all I can say right now.
So that was discouraging.
A couple of hours later, I got the good news that a story I submitted to an anthology last June has been accepted. We go to contract this week, and then I will get edits in a few weeks.
This is a different piece and a different anthology than the story I submitted earlier in the week. Same genre, but different stories for different anthologies. I’ve wanted to break in with this publisher for a couple of years, so I’m glad this is the right fit.
I will give full details once the contract is signed.
All of that made Friday a mixed day of emotions and stress.
Saturday was much icier than expected, along with some snow flurries. I ran an errand in the morning. I tried to dig the car out in the afternoon, with help from the neighbors, but it was too frozen down, so we will wait for this week’s thaw and try again. Did some housework. Did some work on books to review.
Tried to download my Kindle books to the external hard drive. My Kindle is so old that all the instructions out there don’t work. Some of them work partially, but I have to move each book separately. I can’t batch. Since I have 995 books, it’s not happening.
I read Elinor Lipman’s MS. DEMEANOR, which was very funny, and very well done. I’ve been a big fan of her work for years. What a delight.
Felt completely drained and stressed. Sunday was stressful because there were more snow flurries, rather than the thaw we were told to expect. And then we did taxes, which is always awful.
I thoroughly resent that I make less than billionaires, but pay more in taxes.
Read SINGULAR SENSATION by Michael Riedel, about Broadway in the 90’s. Since that was when I made the move from off-Broadway to Broadway, it dealt with a lot of shows I either worked on or knew what was going on because friends worked on them. It was also interesting to see what was left out. And who was left out. Lots of name dropping. Ignoring the work of those who actually make shows run on a daily basis that aren’t in front of the public. Not surprising. Riedel was one of my least favorite reviewers during my time working on Broadway. I didn’t understand why he was a reviewer when he hated theatre so much and didn’t appreciate how much went into putting up a show. Yet he started as an intern in producer Elizabeth McCann’s office. Supposedly, he loves theatre. You’d never know it from his reviews.
However, the book is well-written (much as I hate to admit that), and it was interesting to see other viewpoints on situations I knew about during the time I was actively working in the arena.
I have his earlier book, RAZZLE DAZZLE, about Broadway making a comeback in the 70’s and 80’s, that I will read next.
Felt very discouraged all weekend. Elder care was somewhat challenging, too. A couple of weeks ago, we went through a rough patch, then things got better, but this weekend was rough again. That’s just the way of it is, but I’m exhausted. If I didn’t have to worry about losing all our elder services/safety nets, it wouldn’t be as exhausting. But at this point, I have nothing in the tank, and I can’t take time off with work and dealing with things right now.
And if anyone tells me to “take a walk” I will {redacted}. All that does is stress me out more. Taking a walk doesn’t fix fascism. Nor does it relieve any stress or give me any clarity. For me, it does the opposite. Walk around the globe if it helps you, I’m all for it. But it doesn’t work for me. So shut up about walking, please, when I talk about being stressed.
Monday I had trouble getting going. Had some back-and-forth with the ghostwriting client. We’ll see how this goes, and when they pay what they owe. I’m investing less creative emotion in this go-round, although just as much professionalism.
I had to run one small errand in the morning, down to Cumberland. I’d hoped to pick up another dozen eggs while I was there – with the full cohort attending Thursday’s session, I need to make more devilled eggs (which is kind of like supplying caviar in these days, but they are reimbursing me for ingredients, which is very kind and totally unexpected). However, the eggs, which used to be cheaper at Cumberland than at the grocery store, are now up to $10. So I’ll try them from the grocery store and hope I don’t break them humping them home later in the week. Unless they are more than $10, in which case I’ll get them at Cumberland. According to the website, they’re holding steadily at just over $8, so we’ll see what happens when I’m there tomorrow, or if there are any left. Usually when I go to the store, there are only a handful of cartons, most with broken eggs in them. The bulk of the case is empty.
I managed to put together a proposal for a stage play commission call. Not the one I was on the fence about; a different one. I already had all those samples. It was just a case of filling out information and uploading the script samples. I have to see how I feel about what I did on the other one, and if I have the creative energy to continue that sample and get it out by deadline.
My neighbor and I got part of the car shoveled out. We’ll keep working, a little bit at a time.
The library cohort meeting was good. We had some good conversations, I received some good resources, and started on the homework. We’re lucky here; things are way more transparent on the city hall website than in many other places. Our hour together flew past, which was nice.
You’ll notice I haven’t been talking about any coverage work lately. Because there hasn’t been anything. One script briefly showed up over the weekend for 1/3 the normal rate for a rush coverage. Before I could even snort with derision, it was snapped up.
I’m feeling stuck and discouraged on all fronts right now. Most of that is due to the political chaos, which directly affects my day-to-day life. Hopefully, I will be able to do some course correction this week. I don’t feel like I have the energy for it, but I also don’t have the option to take a break.
Read the next book for review last night, which was pretty good.
Woke up at 2:30 worrying. Had trouble getting back to sleep, but did, then overslept, causing kitty chaos. But everyone is fed and settled down now, so off to dig into the day.
We are getting rain/snow today off and on. I may try to dig some more of the car out later in the afternoon, or not. I mean, if it’s snowing, it’s silly. I may wait for the rain to wash things away later in the week, and then shovel the slush.
I’m going to work on the class slides and then get to work on the piece for the ghostwriting client. We’re still working out some contract stuff, and I’m not turning anything in until that’s settled. Maybe I’ll work on the sample for that other script commission (since it has to give them an idea of the piece, and isn’t just a sample from something already written). I may also work on some pitch materials for another company in my field of specialization that supposedly pays better than the problematic client. Since it looks like I’ll be getting zero dollars from that client this pay period, which is a problem. IF the ghostwriting payment comes through this week as it should, and IF there’s no issue with my mom’s Social Security at the top of the month, we are fine. Otherwise, we are not.
Yes, I will be doing my daily rounds of my elected officials. And I’ve been doing my marketing. I’m trying not to flood any single channel constantly, but rotate specific campaigns through them all. The Smashwords promotion happens next week, so let’s hope that has some impact.
Heard from another script submission that it made it past the first round readers and is moving to the next round. So that’s a glimmer of good news in the landscape. I’ll focus on that and the anthology story, rather than the rest of it, and hope it helps open a way forward.
Have a good one!
