#playwrighting — Public Fediverse posts

Tues. Aug. 18, 2026: Internal and External Fog

Tuesday, August 18, 2026

Waxing Moon

Pluto, Neptune, Saturn, Chiron Retrograde

Foggy, warm, humid

I hope your week started well!

You can read the Community Tarot Reading for the Week here.

Friday, I walked down to City Hall to put our primary ballots in the ballot box. On impulse, on the way back, I stopped at the patio of Door Prize to have an iced coffee and muffin from the Rainy Day Coffee pop-up and chat with the owner, which was tons of fun. I highly recommend both voting and treats!

Came home to work on the collage. The washi tape was a disaster (putting it mildly), because it doesn’t actually stick to anything. What is the use of decorative tape if it doesn’t stick?

I decided to use novelty pushpins, but couldn’t get the ones I wanted in time, so I sent off the submission with the photograph of the piece (sans pushpins, but telling them about the upcoming embellishment), dimensions, and statement. We will see. If it fits her vision for the show, great. If not, that’s fine, too. I won’t be offended. I’m pleased I was invited to submit! I got to work on something fun, and if it’s not part of the show, I will keep working on it until it’s right for something else.

A friend’s play was chosen for a short play festival in Vermont later this fall – during the time I’m in studio, so I won’t be able to trot up to see it, unfortunately. But I’m excited for her.

I customized this week’s CSA box, which I will pick up tomorrow. Many yummy things. I look forward to it.

I re-read Joan Anderson’s A YEAR BY THE SEA. My copy is in storage, so I got it out of the library again. I re-read it because I’d picked up a copy of A WEEKEND TO CHANGE YOUR LIFE on the free cart, and have been reading it, and wanted to start at the beginning again. I first read it either just before I moved to the Cape, or when I’d just arrived. I know the places she mentions now much better than I did when I first read it, and see her experiences through the way my own filters have changed, which is interesting.

I had to put a pain patch on the bad hip, because it was grumbling so badly I had trouble concentrating on anything.

I did a solid work session on the ghostwriting and got close to where I hoped to be by end of day. I considered working after dinner, but I was out of steam, and the pain patch was starting to fade.

Did not sleep well into Saturday, in spite of Legs Up the Wall every night. It’s not smoothing out my sleep cycles the way promised.

I was up early, did the housework, and lost most of the morning to paperwork I need to prepare to fight to keep my health insurance, thanks to this despicable administration. I have documentation up the ying yang, so that will help. It’s more of finessing the gap until I’m fully in the Medicare group by March (although, with the dirty shenanigans the administration is doing with that, too, who knows what things will be like come March).

In the afternoon, I read the next book for review, and did some reading for pleasure. I was tired, mentally as much as physically.

Leftovers for dinner, and made it an early night, yes, kept up Legs Up the Wall.

Too early a night, because I woke up at 1:30 AM on Sunday, and struggled to get back to sleep. The pose is getting me to sleep faster, and the sleep is deeper, but I’m still waking up in the middle of the night. I’ll still do it for the full 30 days and see what happens, but I’m a little frustrated.

Did the Community Tarot Reading for the Week, which you can read here. Some lovely cards came up.

My brain is whirring with the planning for this, that, other, and working backwards from dates to make sure everything gets done. I’m behind on a few things I hoped to get done last week, mostly because of the ghostwriting, but I will steady on this week. I don’t have all that much outing-and-abouting to do, which helps. I can do long days at the desk, into the night if I need to.

My mother’s primary care physician is leaving the practice in October, and she is being handed off to someone else. That’s the third doctor in five years, which is frustrating.

I got dressed and put together to leave the house, and left right after lunch to drive down to Ventfort Hall in Lenox. It was a lovely drive, although there was quite a bit of weekender traffic trying to get out. I went a slightly different way than I usually do, so I could avoid the chaos that is central Lenox on a summer weekend. I tried to backtrack the way I come out, which is different than the way I come in, and I found it. It’s actually much easier.

I parked, checked in, and had some time to chat with people and sit out back on the veranda. It was a lovely summer day.

The reading was the play GORGEOUS by Keiko Green. The literary committee read it last year and liked it, and it was great to see it on its feet for a reading. It was directed by Cat Ramirez, a director out of Philadelphia, and performed by Brenny Campbell and Annie Fang, stage managed by Sarah Keyes (who is the chair of the literary committee and just finished performing in IBOSS down at Great Barrington Public Theatre, the show I tried to see last weekend, but was sold out).

I sat with another member of the literary committee and his wife – it was the first time we’d met in person, since the meetings are on Google Meet. It was fun to chat in person.

The reading went very well – the actors and direction brought it to life in beautiful ways. Again, the trajectory from reading it in committee to seeing it on its feet is very satisfying. It’s a comedy with some very dark issues wrapped up in the humor.

There was a talkback afterwards, and Sabine Denise Jacques (part of WAM’s staff) talked about the safe container to hold different experiences and biases, and how a particular stylistic choice in this play did so when dealing with a difficult issue in it (I don’t want to give away spoilers for the play). That struck home, and made me realize, especially early in my career, how many spaces were deliberately made unsafe for both performers and audience, usually by the director, because they claimed it made the work more raw and honest. I’ve always disagreed with that, and now I wonder how different my own work and my career would have rolled out had I been enveloped in safe spaces (like my collaborator and I worked to create in MOON TRIBE TALES), rather than the unsafe spaces so often deliberately created. There’s no way to answer that, of course. There’s just a way to move forward, glad that the arena is changing, and that we all can work to make it better for the generation(s) coming up behind us instead of going, “well I had to deal with it, and turned out just fine!”

No, boo, you survived, which is to be honored, but you are not fine. There’s damage and scars, and why inflict that on others because it was inflicted on us? Make things better.

Anyway, I had a good cry about that in the car on the drive home, and then picked up my favorite Chinese comfort food at Golden Bamboo because I didn’t feel like cooking.

In the evening, I read the next book for review.

It was the 7th night of Legs Up the Wall pose, when everything was supposed to change.

Sigh.

It did not.

I woke up around midnight, and then Charlotte started fussing around 2. I managed to fall asleep after a bit, and dreamed I was visiting a long-time friend in London (we’ve been friends since we were about 13 or 14). I woke up at 5:30, to Tessa’s yelling, and started Monday. I am going to keep doing the full 30 days of L-u-the-W, but I am discouraged. I like doing it, but it’s not smoothing out the sleep issues as promised.

Monday quickly started Monday-ing, and can it just not once in a while? Sent off an email to the libraries, promising I would have some information to them by end of day (I’d hoped to get it to them early). Sent off some information answering questions someone sent a few weeks ago, which had fallen by the wayside, and I managed to get back on track.

Wrote and submitted 2 book reviews, got another book. If I can read and write the next two reviews in the next couple of days, I can batch invoice by the end of the week. The workflow has been very erratic from this job in the past few months.

Looked at a job listing that sounded good at first. Copywriter. Only under skills it listed “good at studio lighting” and “crowd interaction.” W-the-everlovin’-F? No. Your PRODUCTION TEAM is “good at studio lighting” and it’s a different job to be with crowds. Your COPYWRITER writes the damn words. Get a clue, people.

There have been multiple shootings in Pittsfield over the past few weeks, which is concerning.

I was sent an event invitation, only when I try to open it, it asks for inappropriate information. If you send me an e-vite, it’s already in my email, which is open. I should be able to click it, not have to re-sign into the email and then enter a lot of information that has nothing to do with the invitation. No. Just no. If you want to invite me to something, don’t set up barriers to the invitation and do it through a third-party platform. Give me the information I need to make a decision.

The Honor Roll playwrighting session was terrific. I got three scenes done on the play, and am galloping toward the climactic sequence. I’m fine on page count, too.

Got the promised work done on the panel for the librarians and sent it off for their review and suggestions.

Switched over to the ghostwriting, and had a solid session. I still have some character profiles to finish and a final polish, but there’s a chance I will get it out the door today, a day early. I also got some positive notes overall of the work I’ve done, which was a nice boost, given how glum I’ve felt about it lately.

Cooked catfish for dinner. Baked it in seasoned breadcrumbs. It was okay, but not something I would seek out in the future. It has been years since I ate catfish, and I guess this is why.

Read the next book for review in the evening, and will write and submit the review today. I hope to turn around one more book tonight, although it’s a big one.

I’ve noticed, since doing Legs up the Wall pose every night, that I fall asleep faster, and more deeply. Yay. But I wake up exactly 2 hours after I go to bed, thinking I’ve had a full night’s sleep. Not so yay. I mean, great I feel well-rested, but 2 hours ain’t gonna cut it, you know? I can usually fall back to sleep fairly quickly, but then the cats start fussing around 3 or 4, and it’s chaos.

It happened again last night – 2 hours good sleep, awake, went back to sleep, Charlotte started fussing around 3. I moved to the sofa, but gave up about 4:40 and just started the day.

Thanks to shrinkflation, our bread and coffee didn’t last the week, so I’m out this morning to restock, and to pick up a prescription for my mom. I will write and submit the review, then spend the rest of the day on the ghostwriting. I’d like to get that out the door today instead of tomorrow, and spend some time tomorrow on the Llewellyn article and the play.

No yoga tonight, so I can work as long as needed, provided I can keep up my energy levels.

Hope you’re having a good week! I hope the humidity breaks soon. It hasn’t been that hot, but the humidity makes everything feel heavy.

Tues. Aug. 11, 2026: A Colorful, Creative Weekend

Tuesday, August 11, 2026

Dark Moon

Pluto, Neptune, Saturn, Chiron Retrograde

Cloudy, warm, humid

I hope you had a lovely weekend. You can read the Community Tarot Reading for the Week here.

It was hot and humid on Friday. I kept waiting for the promised storms. I got the ghostwriting assignment off my desk and onto theirs. I wrote and submitted a book review (there’s been hardly any work from that client lately). I approved the final proofs for “Gorgeous Mess” in the MIDNIGHT MOUSERS anthology, and finished the rest of the admin paperwork they needed.

I doubt I can get copies in time for the author fest in September, but I can probably have copies for the Boiler House reading in October.

It was hot and humid, and I was grateful for fans and coolers.

I cooked tuna steaks for dinner, and made basil cream to go with it (a recipe from Anna Pump’s cookbook SUMMER ON A PLATE). It was so good, and I can use the rest of the basil cream on sandwiches, in salads, and on other things. I used more basil than the recipe called for, but it was great. I used the whole bunch of regular basil from the CSA in the recipe.

I got my act after dinner, got dressed, slapped on some makeup, and trotted down to FutureLabs Gallery for the opening. Of course, it started raining as soon as I left the house, but I’d brought an umbrella for insurance. It was only sprinkling.

I ran into Andrew Fitch on the corner of Main & Eagle, where he was meeting potential voters. We had a good catch-up, and I assured him both my mom and I planned to vote for him. Because I do think he is the best person for this particular job at this particular moment.

The opening at FutureLabs was a lot of fun. I had some good conversations with people, and conversations for future shows. The co-founder is excited by two pieces we discussed, so I am shuffling what I place where, and work on when. The co-founder wants a controversial piece I want to create for the January show, so that will be my focus for that show.

Came home to discover our mail-in ballots. Yay!

I used the coolers overnight in my room on timers, and kept waking up to turn them back on when they timed out. At 3:30 on Saturday morning, I moved to the couch and turned on the ceiling fan and the fan my friend sent me, and Tessa rolled over like, “oh, thank goodness!”

I got up around 5 and started the morning routine. Friday was Day 350 of the morning free-write. This past week, ideas have come in batches like cookies, and it’s good to have one place to put them, so I don’t misplace my notes.

I did some housework, tended the plants, and took out the garbage. I emailed the curator and the gallery founder with vision for the piece I’m working on, and they wrote back a lovely response, and look forward to the finished piece. I worked on the photos for the piece. I had to pull some of them off my old Macbook. Other then not being able to connect to the internet, the old Macbook is better than the newer PCs. By old, I mean I got in in 2010.

I’ve narrowed it down to about 2 dozen photos, and will narrow it down further to about 7 or 8, once I figure out the background fabric. All of the photos I’m using are ones I’ve taken myself over the years. The one photo of a photo of my Playland Painters has no attribution, but the original has disappeared. I have a photo of the two photos of these women, and now Westchester Archives has copies of my photos of the photos, and I will attribute it as best I can in the label. I realized that, since the original prop pieces have also vanished, I probably have the only remaining photos of those, and I should get copies of them to the Archives in the coming weeks. Once I have the background, I will print out and arrange the photos, fasten them down, and embellish.

It has to be done and photographed by Aug. 15 for consideration in the show.

Am I feeling pressured and insecure? Why yes, I am.

I put together a pasta sauce and set it in the slow cooker to do its thing while I was out in the afternoon. That’s what I love about slow cookers. You set things up, and they safely do their thing while you are busy, and there’s good food when you return.

I showered, changed, slapped on some makeup. Of course, as soon as I headed out the door, we were under thunderstorm watch again.

I went to Theatre 62 at Williams College. We were in a different part of the dance studio this time, with a different project. This was also part of the Fertile Ground New Works Residency, but this was a workshop of Jessica Bauman’s Anyone There? Featured six performers, including one of my colleagues, Louise Heller, from WAM’s literary committee. You can learn more about it here.

The space was set up in a circle, and the actors welcomed and chatted with us as we entered and got settled. There was a really joyful energy about the space and the piece. The piece itself ran for a little over an hour, and was a mix of scripted (from interviews the creator held on the topic) and interaction with the audience. As an extreme introvert, I usually shy away from that kind of interaction, but it was set up so skillfully, it was inCLUsive rather than InTRUsive. As a member of WAM, I would have gritted my teeth and played along no matter what, but there was no need to grit my teeth, I actually enjoyed myself. The themes were about isolation and connection, and depicted beautifully. There was movement and music along with the script, along with a section embodying specific Edward Hopper paintings. I told Jess after how my eyes kept getting wider and wider, because I’ve done ekphrastic work with every single piece she chose, especially “New York Movie.” She said every time she uses Hopper’s work, that one is relevant.

We had a talkback after, which was terrific, and then a chance to chat over coffee and muffins. One of the actors from NY and I exchanged information to keep in touch (and hope to work together someday), and one of the local actors may well be my Timothy in THE WOMEN ON THE BRIDGE if/when I get the grant for the reading, and if he’s available.

It was a truly wonderful experience. Both Fertile Ground pieces have supported dynamic artists, and I can’t wait to see where their work goes next.

It was raining fairly hard when I left, but the drive home was easy. My parking space was open, so that’s all I really cared about.

The Chewy cat litter order had arrived while I was gone, so I hauled that up the stairs and started the pasta. The sauce was perfection. It was a hot, sticky night, but cooled down a bit.

Up early on Sunday, usual routine, worked out a couple of scenes on the play in the morning free write. I did the Community Tarot Reading for the week, which you can read here.

We headed up to Bennington, VT in the late morning. It was a lovely drive, even in the heat. We hadn’t been up there in far too long. My mom needs an oversized shoe/croc for after her surgery, so we decided to look in thrift stores first. We found a pair that should work (don’t worry, I disinfected them when we got them home).

We were early getting back to Williamstown, too early for our next stop, so we stopped at the Clark for a little while and enjoyed the peaceful, lovely grounds. Perk of being a member – one can stop in there while out and about doing other things.

We then headed to Karen’s Quilting Corner (once it opened). I needed the background fabric for the collage. I’d hoped to find something with a Ferris wheel or carousel horse pattern, which I knew was a long shot. I’d sourced some of that print online from another store, but there was no way I could get it shipped in time to build the piece by the Aug. 15 deadline. So I went to Karen’s to see what I could find.

I found oh so many things I will use for various projects. But I didn’t need all of it right this second. I found an art deco small fan print in the colors that the buildings in the park are painted and trimmed, which will work. It will pick up some of the colors in the photographs.

They are so delightful at Karen’s that I should always just go there first.

We had what we needed, so we didn’t go to Old Stone Mill (I plan to go there in autumn and see what’s what)

Next stop was Ocean State, looking for kiddie pools. I hoped to find a 36”, but they only had the 42” and they only had three left, at an excellent price, so I grabbed one. I figured I could always return it if I found the smaller one, but looking at it, I think I might actually need this size. And it’s the exact shade of blue I wanted (for thematic meaning).

This is for the piece in January’s show, the controversial piece. I wouldn’t be able to find the kiddie pool in late fall/early winter, so I grabbed it now. I’ll paint/distress it in late October/early November out back when it’s cool enough to dry quickly, but not cold enough to crack.

However, that means storing it. So what did I do? Right now, it’s living on the bed in the sewing room, with a fleece blanket in it, because you KNOW the cats will want to explore. They’ve sniffed the perimeter, but haven’t hopped in yet. My bet is on Willa being the first to try it.

On a whim, we stopped at another thrift store, where I grabbed a small globe. I’ve always wanted a globe. This was inexpensive, and makes my map-loving heart happy.

The clerk at the store showed me on the globe where he grew up in Russia, and all the places he’s visited in the world over the years, including 49 states (he’s never been to Hawaii). He used to be a hockey player – started as D, then moved up to L wing, and travelled a lot. So we got to talking about hockey, since I used to cover it. So that was an interesting side aspect to the day.

It reminded me of the connection themes in Saturday’s workshop.

Home, hauled everything up the stairs. My neighbors are very curious as to the wide variety of objects that go in and out of this house. Nothing wrong with being an enigma, right?  😉

It was hot and sticky in the apartment, so we got the fans and the coolers going again and had some white cranberry-peach juice. Cleaned and/or disinfected things as appropriate and put them away.

Heated up leftovers for dinner and had a quiet evening, pondering various projects.

It cooled down enough to be decent sleeping weather. I was up at the usual time on Monday. Morning routine was fine. I did some planning on a project I’d talked about with a cohort friend a few weeks back. I need to do a little more research before I can put together a viable proposal, and I have to figure out when I can fit it into the schedule, because it would be a long-term project. I also got an email from another friend about our collaboration (on a different project).

I like having different facets in my working life. They feed each other, when I balance them properly, rather than draining each other.

I had a lot of admin to take care of when I hit the desk on Monday morning. It always stacks up over the weekend. I worked on some scenes for the play, but I have to rearrange a few things, so I didn’t get as far as I hoped. I dashed up to the library when it opened because I had to send a fax. I picked up some books while I was there. I finally got the new vacuum put together and used it. It’s fantastic! And I realized that part of the problem with the last one may have been there were bits missing (and no instruction manual). The replacement has all the bits, and, so far, it works really well. Maybe it will last for more than six months?

After lunch, I switched over to the ghostwriting, and had a solid session on it. I went a little farther than the minimum I wanted to hit today.

I was very tired, but I did a few end-of-day relaxing yoga poses before I started dinner, and that helped. I read a bit at night.

For the next 30 days, I’m trying to do 10 minutes/night of Legs-Up-the-Wall pose. On the back of my bedroom door, because we don’t have free wall space here, just lots of bookcases. I read an article describing the positive aspects of doing it nightly before bed. According to that study, after Day 7, one stops waking up at 3 AM, which is something that appeals to me. So I began last night (Charlotte supervised), and we will see what happens.

I woke up at 2:30, rather than 3, which was not in the plan!

Morning routine was fine. The air is very heavy and humid today. I’m out the door shortly to attend a performance at a farm (I’ll fill you in tomorrow). When I return, it’s the play, the collage, the ghostwriting for the rest of the day. I hope to make it to yoga tonight, but we will see how the day goes. I have a feeling the LOIs won’t go out until tomorrow.

Hope you had a great weekend, and are having a good start to your week!

Thurs. Aug. 6, 2026: Trying to Navigate the Maze

Thursday, August 6, 2026

Waning Moon

Pluto, Neptune, Saturn, Chiron Retrograde

Cloudy and humid, incoming storms

You can read the latest on the garden over at Gratitude and Growth.

I had a hard time getting going yesterday. I was exhausted, probably from the stress surrounding my mom’s doctor’s appointment and that upcoming surgery. Even though it’s not a big deal, it still needs planning and coordination. The relief at having a plan left me wanting to take a very long nap, though. But since I was already behind, that was not an option.

I am sorry to hear of the death of former jockey Robby Albarado. I was acquainted with him in the years I covered thoroughbred racing, although I didn’t know him as well as I knew some of the others. He was a talented jockey who loved his horses.

I sat down and wrote the next four pages of the play. I’m getting into the climactic sequence now, a little earlier, page-count wise than I hoped. I may have to go back and layer some more if it comes in too short for the parameters. But it felt good. I feel good about this piece, even for an early draft.

I headed out to the library to drop off and pick up books. I saw the flyer for the author event in September, which looks good. There are a lot of us! It will be very exciting.

I got out a submission of a different play.

I trotted down to pick up my CSA box in the late afternoon, and it was wonderful. I used some of the Bok choy, some beans, carrots, onion, and garlic in last night’s dinner, with chicken and Asian spices.

I got the final proofs back for the cat anthology story, and I will turn them around in a day or two, once I get this ghostwriting assignment off my desk. I had to ask for clarification on a couple of notes, because I have the feeling I’m going in the wrong direction. The clarifications made sense, and I have to buckle down and write like gangbusters on it today to get it out the door.

The literary committee meeting was good, and I’m invited to another of their open residency events this weekend, so I had to jiggle around what I was going to do in order to fit everything in.

I cooked dinner (I was a little heavy-handed on the spices, but boy our sinuses are clear). I tried to read in the evening, but was tired and having a hard time with it.

Woke up at 3:30 again, although it wasn’t Charlotte’s fault. Gave up and got up a little before 5, starting the morning routine.

No online meditation group this morning, since we’re on summer break. Charlotte will be sad, although she got to be part of last night’s ZOOM call. Admin work, then errands this morning, #FreelanceFriends at noon, and mostly, buckling down and getting the ghostwriting done.

The stress around the parking lot issues are adding unnecessary tension to my day, my week, my life. I need to start keeping diligent records of this, for my own protection.

Always something, right? Have a good one.

Trying to Figure Things Out: https://devonellington.wordpress.com/2026/08/04/tues-aug-4-2026-trying-to-figure-things-out/

#Writing #WritingCommunity #Freelance #Playwrighting #Art

Tues. Aug. 4, 2026: Trying to Figure Things Out

Tuesday, August 4, 2026

Waning Moon

Pluto, Neptune, Saturn, Chiron Retrograde

Partly sunny, hot, and humid

Here we are, in the first week of August.

The Community Tarot Reading for the Week is here. We’ve switched to a new deck, which uses national parks for Major Arcana cards. It’s a really lovely, unique deck, and I enjoy working with it. I won it a few years ago in a contest.

After breakfast on Friday, we headed off to Whitney’s. I hadn’t realized how early we left –we got there a few minutes before they opened. I apologized profusely, and just looked around at what was set outside. They have enough to get setup without people prowling around early!

I bought a beautiful, big pot of Black-eyed Susans. Really lovely. On the way home, we stopped in Adams, and I picked up a blueberry pie.

My parking spot was even open when we got back, so it all worked out.

Two interesting job opportunities showed up. Very different than what I’d been thinking about, although one of them is with a company to whom I’m already preparing an LOI. So that was good timing. I accepted an invitation to an event at the Clark in mid-September, and I customized my CSA share. I did some work on the play, but I’m not particularly happy with the slow progress on that front.

I struggled with the ghostwriting, and was behind where I wanted/needed to be by the end of the day. I need to approach it from a different angle.

I cooked dinner, and then got changed and put some makeup on before trundling down to FutureLabs gallery to see the closing of my colleagues’ show. It was a lot of fun, and I’m glad I saw it. I like both of their work very much. I got to chat with a bunch of people, and my friend Gloria and I both wore the same color shirt, in different styles (fuchsia). I so rarely wear that color, but with black pants, I wanted to the color pop. We were laughing about alignment. I was also encouraged to submit at least one piece by mid-month for a curated show in October. I really like the topic, and I even have some ideas. I’m just not sure I can get it done in time. But I will try, with at least one of the ideas. It may be a good break from the stress of other projects.

Sat on the porch and read until it was too dark to read, then played with the cats.

Slept reasonably well, although Charlotte woke me around 3:30 on Saturday. I fell deeply asleep again on the sofa (confusing Bea) with strange dreams, and it took the whole gang to wake me up just before 6.

It was Lammas (“loaf mass”), so the second thing I did (after feeding the cats), was to bake cornbread, which came out very well. For breakfast, we had blackberries (also traditional for the day), and scrambled eggs, along with the cornbread.

The morning routine was fine, and I had a really good free-write session, after a rough couple of days.

After breakfast, I trotted down to the post office and back to mail the rent and some bills. It was a lovely morning, although starting to get warm.

I staged a photo of the playing card shirt I bought a few weeks ago from Savvy Hive, along with the playing card serving dishes, the playing card mug I use on Monday mornings, all on a playing card cloth. It was pretty funny. I tagged Jess from Savvy Hive in the photo, since I promised it to her when I bought the shirt.

I have two puncture marks in my abdomen. It looks like I was bitten by a snake, but it’s from Charlotte kneading me, trying to wake me up. I treated it with antibiotic cream and slapped a bandage over it so that I wouldn’t bleed all over my shirt. Guess it’s time to clip some princess claws.

I gussied up the kitchen table for August and did a bunch of housework. The rest of the day was mostly about celebrating Lammas. I did some reading, I did some resting. Lion’s Gate Portal, blah, blah, blah – just let me take a nap, okay? Go have fun with it. It’s interesting information, but this frenetic yelling on social media about it gets real old real fast. Things are always moving across the sky. Pick what you want to work with, learn about it, do it. You don’t need to download a workbook for every transit or pay someone for every shift. My block button is very busy.

Tessa got angry when we moved her off the porch when it got too hot. She refused to speak to us for the rest of the day. She is officially in her Grumpy Old Lady Era.

I did my ritual work and slept well. The cats even let me sleep in until 5 AM on Sunday. Morning routine was good. I was doing the floorwork portion of the yoga practice with Tessa supervising from the top of the mat when I looked over to see Bea next to me, also on her back, waving her paws in the air. It was hilarious. My mom slept in until 8 AM, which was good for her.

Did the morning chores, watered all the plants, did the Community Tarot Reading for the Week, which you can read here. I’m using the Tarot for the Great Outdoors, which uses National Parks for the Major Arcana.

Why is Indeed sending me listings for jobs as a line cook and a dishwasher at a local restaurant saying I would be “a great fit” when I’m signed up with them for copywriting jobs? No sense to it at all.

It was a day for puttering and getting things set up in the house so the week will run more smoothly (I hope). Tidying things up. Rearranging some things in the bathroom that were sprawling. Doing hand laundry that’s too delicate for machines. Planning my table for the author event in September – that’s coming up fast. Trying to figure out when I can start updating/freshening up my various websites. Even keeping up with new information on them isn’t enough. At least once a year, preferably twice, I have to go through each page of each website and make tweaks. That takes time, and has to be put into the work schedule. It’s not happening this week, that’s for sure! Pretty soon, it will be time to begin the fall deep clean, so that it’s done by the Equinox. I feel like I just finished the spring clean!

I played with ideas for the art piece. What story do I want to tell? What images do I want to use? How will the images and the text play off each other?

Leftovers for dinner. Tried to get my head into the game for the upcoming week. I was definitely in a better mental frame of mind than end of day Friday by the time Sunday night rolled around.

I read Charlotte MacLeod’s THE GLADSTONE BAG. I forgot how funny she is, and the way she turns standard tropes inside out, while still doing justice to the plot and the characters. I am more familiar with her work under the Alisa Craig name, but now I want to go back and re-read everything under both names. Oh, for the days when cozy mysteries were actually fun and energetic, before the hard right destroyed them, like they destroy everything they touch.

Slept reasonably well with weird dreams. I must have slept strangely, because I woke up with neck pain, and spent a portion of my meditation session on the acupressure mat, which helped.

Hitting the desk on Monday morning is intimidating only because of all the email that piles up. That’s the extent of Sunday scaries for me (which hit Monday), and for that, I am grateful.

Morning routine was fine; morning chores were morning chores.

Sat down and wrote five pages on the play. I have to rethink how to escalate the current scene. That will then give the big push to the scenes leading to the climactic sequence. But it felt good. I have a little over 30 pages to do on this draft. Keeping a steady pace this week will get it done.

I did a little over 900 words on the Llewellyn article, which went well. It needs to be 3K, and I have to research a few things after I have it drafted out, and then decide what to cut.

I switched over to the ghostwriting for the rest of the day. It was a struggle. I think I’ve figured out how to fix it, which is about damn time, since I need to get it back to them.

It was humid, warm, and rained on and off all day. The fans my friend sent did more than the small coolers.

The Republicans are just going to get away with the whole keeping McConnell on a slab so there couldn’t be a special election, aren’t they? And now Beshear pretends like his response was part of a plan to keep Republicans down a vote. Nope. Not voting for him if he runs for president. Not doing it. Not for him, not for Newsom. Most of the Democrats are so useless. On top of that, they’re letting the confirmation of the corrupt AG go through. Don’t say they “can’t” do anything. There is always something that can be done. The Republicans do whatever they want, and the Dems just sit there with their thumbs up the collective ass and shrug. Because they are complicit. Get rid of all of them and start over, with people who give a damn about their constituents.

The whole McConnell situation is grotesque on a human level, aside from the grubby politics.

The replacement vacuum was delayed and did not show up yesterday. It will probably show up today, while we are out. Let’s hope it’s still there when we get back.

Got some dates sorted out with a friend for late September. Did some noodling with the idea for the art piece, but haven’t done anything with it yet. I will start working out the story elements in the morning free-writes later this week.

Slept reasonably well, albeit with weird dreams. Up at the usual time this morning, morning routine fine. I have to do some admin this morning and will try to write a few pages of the play. Then, I take my mom down to Lenox for her appointment with the specialist. At least it should be a pretty day for a drive. And it’s in the complex with the chocolatier, so we will have a treat on our way out. I want to get an LOI out today, too, although it may be closer to the end of the day than the beginning. And maybe even go to yoga tonight!

Woke up to notes on the other ghostwriting project. We are moving forward, so I should be able to invoice the first section later today. Phew. But I have to wrestle the other assignment into shape in the next couple of days.

Somehow, it will all get done.

Hope your week is starting well!

Intent for the Week -- Focus: https://devonellington.wordpress.com/2026/08/03/mon-aug-3-2026-intent-for-the-week-focus/

#Writing #WritingCommunity #Freelance #Playwrighting #Art

Thurs. July 30, 2026: Keyboard Time

Thursday, July 30, 2026

Last Day of Full Moon

Pluto, Neptune, Saturn Retrograde

Rainy and mild

You can read the latest on the garden over at Gratitude and Growth.

Yesterday, I suited up in what I call my “Cornwall coat” and my Wellington boots and headed out the door shortly after breakfast. It was bucketing down. Good thing I wore the boots. Because of the non-design elements in the sidewalk replacement last year, the water just pools on the sidewalks, and it was up to my ankles. I call it my “Cornwall coat” (a hooded bright yellow coat with blue trim) because I bought in the town of Falmouth when we were over in Cornwell back in 1999 (but it doesn’t seem like that long). I bought it after I was stuck in a thunderstorm on top of Tintagel and got soaked, and decided I needed raingear. It has served me well. (There’s a whole story about local rescue coming up to get me and me taking them to the pub in thanks because I figured I’d just have to huddle next to the chimney ruins until I could get down on my own, but that’s a story for another day).

Anyway, I got my errands done in about 20 minutes. The coat kept me dry except for a bit exposed between the bottom of the coat and the top of the boots around my knees. I took things off in the bathroom to let them drip in the tub.

I sat down and wrote 7 pages on the play. I’m at the halfway point of this draft, which is a good thing, since it has to be finished within the first week of August. My original plan for the day was to work on the ghostwriting first and then the play when the ghostwriting was out the door. But I wanted to be in the midst of my own work when the full moon peaked at 10:36 in the morning, so I focused on my own work first. Which is what I need to do EVERY day. My own work first, client work fit around it. I don’t resent the client work when I prioritize my own. I do better work in both realms.

Once I was finished with my own pages, I had an exchange with the library about the author fest in September. I switched over to the ghostwriting just before lunchtime. I finished it and got it out the door before I made lunch.

Then, I kind of felt like I’d been kicked in the head by a mule, so I wasn’t going to be particularly creative in the afternoon. We were still under a flood warning (5 inches of rain fell yesterday). I wrestled the vacuum into the box and slapped on the return label.

I managed to get some admin done and get out an LOI, so it wasn’t a total loss. I prepped the materials and graphics for today’s #FreelanceFriends chat. The rain just kept bucketing down.

Heated up leftovers for dinner, read a bit in the evening, honored the full moon, although I couldn’t see it. Slept reasonably well until about 4, when Charlotte started fussing, and moved to the sofa until nearly 5:30.

It was pouring again with rain when I woke up. I hope it will pause while I run my errands later this morning.

We have our final online meditation session before summer break, so Charlotte will be happy. After breakfast, I will drop off the vacuum at the Fed Ex dropoff, then do the grocery shopping, library, and other usual Thursday errands.

I am hosting the #FreelanceFriends chat at noon EST today over on Bluesky, where we’re talking about unusual skills feeding into our work.

In the afternoon, I have to start the rewrite from the notes they sent me last Friday. I’m dreading it. But that’s the way it goes. I also want to do some work on the play and write/submit the book review.

Lots to do, let’s hope I can get it done. Have a good one!

Wed. July 29, 2026: Brick by Brick

Wednesday, July 29, 2026

Full Moon

Pluto, Neptune, Saturn Retrograde

Rainy and mild

Wednesday and a full moon. Of course, with all the rain, I doubt I’ll get to see it. . .

Today is the 54th anniversary of my father’s death. He’s been out of my life longer than he was in it, but I still honor him every year.

I had a hard time getting started yesterday morning. I slogged through a lot of email and did a bunch of chores.

I sat down and wrote four pages of the play, which made me feel better. It’s different than my regular wheelhouse, in both content and tone, but I like what’s happening with it.

The rest of the day, I worked on the ghostwriting. I have a little bit more to do this morning and the final polish, and then off it goes. I feel good about it, but then I felt good about the last thing I sent and that was a huge mistake. But, get it done and out the door. That’s all I can do, is my part of being a cog in the wheel. I’m frustrated at not having enough thinking time for any of this. Having to create this amount of material and do what would normally be 4-6 months of research for books like this in 4-6 days AND figure out the rest of what needs to be figured out in the 6K/20K configurations every 10 days (with revisions taking only 4) is taking a toll. And they’d really like me to work faster.

It started raining hard around midday, and went through bands of monsooning and then just sitting with heavy air.

The news that AI companies are buying up pallets of out of print/rate books, tearing them apart to feed them into AI and then destroying all the physical copies makes me sick. Remember, these are individuals hiding behind company policy. There are individuals doing this. May each one experience the same fate as the books they are destroying. No ethical human being does this, and it’s time for there to be consequences for ALL of it.

I’m not even going to get going on all the other awful crap going on. It’s time to get rid of the establishment Democrats enabling all of this and put people in who will remove the corrupt in both parties and the administration, so we can finally get something done.

I am also angry at the ATLANTIC magazine for the hit piece they did on a Black romance author the day before her traditional release. It should be a day of celebration and joy for her. Written by a white dude, of course, who fed hers and other authors’ work into AI WITHOUT THEIR CONSENT (gee, white dude not honoring consent, imagine that) to write lies about an author in a genre in which he doesn’t have knowledge. The ATLANTIC should know better. And that “journalist” should be sued until he’s living under a bridge somewhere like the troll he is.

On a happier note, the other reader of the rough assemblage of I WILL BE DIFFERENT sent back wonderfully thoughtful and detailed notes. Between the two sets of notes (which are very different from each other, both from people I respect), I have a lot to figure out. I need to accept that this is a play that will take as long as it takes to shape. Every project has its own innate rhythm, and I have to work with that as much as with the consistency it needs to get done between the rest periods needed to figure out the best way forward. I need to build it stone by stone, brick by brick, not put up something prefab.

It’s still bucketing down rain this morning, and supposed to rain all day. I have two small errands to run on foot after breakfast. Then, I will finish the ghostwriting, do a final polish, and send it off, hopefully this morning. In the afternoon, I want to work on the play that needs to be done in the next few weeks, and on BETTING MAN, which keeps getting pushed aside, and really needs more attention than it’s getting. My meeting this evening was postponed to next Wednesday, so that takes a little pressure off.

Tomorrow, I’m hosting the #FreelanceFriends chat at noon EST on Blueskey. I have to make sure all my bits are in a single folder and easily accessible for that.

The package that the post office claims they delivered still hasn’t shown up, so I have to file a claim this morning. Yet more wasted time and undue burden of administrative work shoved off onto customers instead of the people paid to do it. And pixabay wouldn’t let me download this image (it just kept saying “downloading” so I had to put it into Canva and download from there. More wasted time.

I’d like to just go back to bed, but too bad for me! Have a good one.

Time to Hit the Road: https://devonellington.wordpress.com/2026/06/04/thurs-june-4-2026-time-to-hit-the-road/

#Writing #WritingCommunity #Freelance #Playwrighting #Radio

Thurs. June 4, 2026: Time to Hit the Road

Thursday, June 4, 2026

Waning Moon

Pluto Retrograde

Sunny and pleasant

You can read about the latest on the garden on Gratitude and Growth.

I got two of the three requested play submissions out to the producer yesterday morning. It took longer than I hoped, because I was reading through various scripts and making tweaks. The third I have to write, for the anniversary special, because I don’t have anything on hand that will fit. 10-15 pages, shouldn’t be bad, if I can come up with some fun characters and a good premise, and get it written and polished by the end of the month. Earlier, actually, I want to get it out before Mercury goes retrograde. I sent a thriller and a comic noir piece. I got an idea for a radio piece that would be dark and fun, but it needs more pages and more characters than the parameters requested here, so I will save it for something else. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that idea works better onstage than on radio.

I noodled on the series pitch, did some admin, did a bunch of housework so everything will be fine while I’m gone, make sure there were plenty of meal choices for my mom, and did not get as much done on either the play or BETTING MAN. I decided not to beat myself up about it. Mentally, I’m all about “Dawn and Dorothy in the Afterlife” until after tonight’s reading at the very least, but probably a few days out, depending on the feedback.

Checked over everything I needed to bring with me today (for the 84th time). I have my overnight bag, the script bag, the snack bag. I’m all set. It’s not like I’m travelling into the wilderness. If I forget something, I can pick it up locally or do without.

Received the ETA for my words for the exquisite corpse poem. This year, it looks like they will work out perfectly, on days when nothing else is booked, and I can devote plenty of time to working on my sections of the poem.

In an email this morning from BookRiot, they had a list of book recommendations from Barnes & Noble. I immediately shot off an email telling them that a list of book “recommendations” from a place stocking/selling AI slop has no value to me, and frankly, makes me reconsider BookRiot. I hope I’m not the only one calling them out on this crap.

In this morning’s free-write session, I got an idea for the final play for the producer who requested 3. I think I can pull it off in 10-15 pages, it has 3 characters, and is both fun and a little dark. I will try to do a few pages this morning, before I leave. And maybe I’ll get a little bit done on the radio series pitch, too.

On today’s agenda:  my script pages for End of Play, and head out the door for the reading of my play tonight. Madame Download is running the online meditation group this morning, so I’m skipping it, but did my own regular daily 30-minute practice (along with the yoga and free-write sessions). I have my travel yoga mat packed, too, so I can do my morning routine in the hotel tomorrow. I’m not sure if I will post later in the day tomorrow about the trip and the reading, or wait until next week. It depends on when I get back home. I have no intention of rushing back! I intend to meander and enjoy myself, in both directions!

I’m not leaving the house empty, people are in it while I’m gone, so I’m not worried about posting that I’m leaving.

Have a lovely day.

Steady On:
https://devonellington.wordpress.com/2026/06/03/wed-june-3-2026-steady-on/

#Writing #WritingCommunity #Freelance #Radio #Playwrighting #EndOfPlay

Wed. June 3, 2026: Steady On

Wednesday, June 3, 2026

Waning Moon

Sunny and pleasant

Here we are at Wednesday.

Yesterday was just beautiful out, not too hot or humid, bright, sunny, and clear. After breakfast, I wrote out the bills and a couple of thank you cards for the people who opened their spaces to the crib crawl last week, got stamps on everything and walked down to the post office to mail them. It was just lovely to be out and about on foot.

Good thing I decided to go on foot, because Ashland, the most direct way between the post office and me, was down to one lane due to construction. Much quicker on foot.

Home, took a break to catch my breath and play with cats. I had a bunch of admin to do, including answering a survey about the Small Business Expo. Instead of complaining about the food, I said it wasn’t as “effervescent” as the choices when there were food sponsors, and I wondered if the Stationery Factory was making the expo use their in-house catering.

Mentally, I already left on the trip I won’t be taking until tomorrow, so it was difficult to settle down and get work done.

But I did. I wrote my three script pages for End of Play. I got out a radio play (to a different producer than the one who wants the three radio plays). I got a very nice acknowledgement within a couple of hours, and a request for an additional piece by mid-July. I went through my radio scripts. I have some partials in there that might work, if I can finish in time. They also mentioned that they are looking for series pitches (8-10 episodes). So I will put something together for that, too. And yes, those are all paid (or I wouldn’t be doing them). I figured out one of the three plays to send to the producer who requested plays earlier this week, and will send it either later today or when I get back after the reading, then figure out the other two.

Switched over to BETTING MAN, and got a little over 1K done on it. Not as much as I hoped, but progress.

Heard there was a major drug raid up on Church Street a few blocks away – a house I pass walking to and from yoga.

Got ready for yoga. Walked up to yoga and was glad I was there. We had a really good class. One of my colleagues from the gallery is in the class. He handed out postcards for Friday’s opening. I feel bad that I will miss it, but I have no idea when I will be back or how tired I will be. I’ll go to the closing reception instead.

After yoga, I trotted down the hill all the way to Hotel Downstreet on the other end of Main Street to show my face at the town councilor’s campaign launch kick-off as state rep. I was glad it was a journey down the hill – not so sure I would have attended if I had to walk UP the hill! It was held in Door Prize NAMA, which took over the old 413 restaurant space in the hotel. Jenny of Door Prize was one of the first people I met when I moved here. She worked for Berkshire Cider at the time. She and her husband spent a couple of years doing the Farmers’ Market, pop-ups, and individual catering, and then opened in their own space. There was an article in the local paper a few weeks ago about how four brick-and-mortar businesses have launched in the past few years from starts at the Farmers’ Market.

Anyway, the place was packed, I saw a lot of familiar faces. I didn’t stay long, just long enough to show my support.

Picked up takeout on the way home. We ate, then hung out on the front porch for a bit, watching the light change.

Slept reasonably well, although Tessa and Charlotte were impossible, starting far too early. Morning routine was fine, and I started figuring out the radio series pitch in the free write.

On today’s agenda: script pages for End of Play, work on BETTING MAN, work on the radio series pitch. I want to get that out next week. Checking the bags to make sure I have everything I need to head out the door tomorrow, and that I’m not scrambling.

I’ll have time to settle into the hotel and get dinner before going to the theatre. My play is up first, so then I can sit back and enjoy everyone else’s pieces without waiting for mine!

Off to the page!

Thurs. May 28, 2026: Putting One Word After Another

Thursday, May 28, 2026

Waxing Moon

Pluto Retrograde

Sunny and pleasant

You can read the latest on the garden over on Gratitude and Growth. There’s actually something to write this week.

After breakfast, I did a bunch of admin, then got the laundry folded and put away, and put aside the pieces that need ironing and those that need mending. I slogged through a bunch of email. A few days ago, I got a request for a script submission, and I’ve been rolling around what to submit. I picked the play (THE WOMEN ON THE BRIDGE) and sent it off. If I WILL BE DIFFERENT is ready by August, I can submit that, too (I can submit two scripts this year, per their request/instructions).

I pondered what to work on for END OF PLAY starting June 1. Some characters are starting to talk, but I’m not sure in which world they fit.

Part of me wants to finally work on the play inspired by the time Kit Cornell’s company took the train from Buffalo to Seattle on tour, got stuck in a snow storm, were late, the audience waited, so actors took turns on stage telling stories while the crew built the set around them, and they did the play, ending around 3 AM. But I don’t feel settled enough in the research, and I can’t re-read the books between now and the 1st. I should put those research books in a project bin so they are handy. I tracked down several memoirs by members of the company. It’s not ready to write yet, though, and I don’t want to push it when it’s not the right time.

Some projects one can leap into and sort it out on the way. Others, like this one and the May Morris play, require lots of specific research so the world of the play is reflexive and one doesn’t have to look up the details as one goes, because those details affect everything in the scene. I have to be comfortable in the world while writing the scene, not layer the details in later on.

Managed to get some work done on BETTING MAN. Not enough, but some. Decided to make another change in the overall arc, which will affect this book and future books. I’m hoping that will lift the obstacles I’ve been feeling as I work on it these past weeks, that I was on the wrong track with it, and now I’ve course corrected.

Switched over to the ghostwriting. Didn’t get as much done on a word count level as I hoped, but I’m happy with the quality. I will have to make up for it today and tomorrow, which will be a challenge, because today is packed.

The literary committee meeting went well. It’s always such a pleasure to have these monthly meetings and get into deep topics around the plays involved.

Word X Word confirmed I’m one of the poets in the exquisite corpse poem. We’re performing it July 26 at the Mount. It’s one of my favorite participations of the year. This will be my 5th year with them.

Cooked dinner, read a bit at night. I’ve read Elizabeth McCracken’s BOWLAWAY these past few days, which is a unique book stylistically and story-wise. It’s literary fiction that mixes whimsy, pathos, and history in it.

Slept well, which surprised me as much as anyone, up a little early this morning because Tessa and Charlotte were fussing. Morning routine was good, and I figured out a bunch of stuff in the new BETTING MAN direction in the morning free write.

As far as I know, the online meditation group meets this morning, then I head out on errands, try to get some work done on BETTING MAN, join the Freelance Friends chat, work on the ghostwriting. I’ve been invited to two different things tonight. Whether I can go to either of them largely depends on how much work I can get done around all the meetings.

I’m going to try to get a little bit done now, before meditation group.

Have a good one!

Wed. May 27, 2026: Laundry & Other Dilemmas

Wednesday, May 27, 2026

Waxing Moon

Pluto Retrograde

Cloudy and warm

Mid-week, here we are.

After yesterday’s morning chores, I settled into work. I wanted to go back to I WILL BE DIFFERENT, but it needs to sit for a bit, so I can look at it with fresh eyes.

Checked with the problematic client. No work right now (it’s been nearly two months, and even when we had breaks in previous years, it was never more than two weeks), but they have a listing up to hire more freelancers. Right. I used to be able to count on that gig in that I could ease up a bit when I had other deadlines, and ramp up when I wanted to make a little extra. Now, I just can’t count on it at all. I do need to get a few other things into position before I make a final decision, but I see the writing on my wall, at least.

I printed out directions and maps on the route I want to the hotel in S. Deerfield, then from the hotel to the theatre in Greenfield, and also to the diner where I want to eat breakfast the next morning (the hotel is very no frills, which means no breakfast). My car is too old for GPS, and if I put Murder Maps into my phone, it often sniffily states that GPS “dropped out” if I don’t do exactly what they say when they say it, even if so doing would kill me. (Hence, Murder Maps).

So I print maps and directions instead.

Bea still hasn’t forgiven me for trying to get her to read a map. When I first brought her home from Beacon, Murder Maps tried to send us into a lake and then dropped out. I pulled over near said lake and pulled out a paper map and showed it to her, telling her we had to figure out the rest of the way home. She looked at me with, “I’m a feral cat from another state. I got nothing.”

I’ll put the directions together in the folder with my hotel confirmation, and then print out the script and put it in a small binder next week (it’s only a 15-minute play), and I’ll be all set. Toss in a notebook and whatever book I choose to take with me, and the script bag is packed. Okay, two books, because I can never take just one book.

Fingers crossed that’s not the day my “word” shows up for the exquisite corpse poem. A couple of years ago, I got the word to start my poem as I drove to the Small Business Expo in Dalton, so I sat at a picnic table and worked on the poem before the event began. I worked it some more when I got home, and sent it off by deadline. I know I can do it; I would just prefer it was more spread out. And no, I can’t request another day. You do the poem the day you’re up. That’s part of the deal.

Had troubling getting back into the rhythm of BETTING MAN, and didn’t get much done.

Dashed out to the library, where I dropped off a big stack of books and picked up a slightly smaller stack of books. Lunch was created from lettuce we’ve grown and things from our CSA box. It was very good.

I did some repotting, and put some of the plants that need to be out on the back balcony out there. I still have to get the shelf unit out there, probably tomorrow.

Turned my attention to the ghostwriting. I had a good session and am almost where I hoped to be by the end of the day, even with the research forays.

Changed, and headed to yoga. Yoga was good, but for some reason, my hip felt worse after class than going in. Don’t know what’s going on with that.

Heated up leftovers for dinner, read a bit.

Slept reasonably well. Up early to get most of the morning routine done before hauling the laundry out. I will fold it and put it away after breakfast.

On today’s agenda: writing, ghostwriting, picking up the CSA box this afternoon, a literary committee meeting tonight. So I better get going!

The Week's Foggy Start: https://devonellington.wordpress.com/2026/05/26/tues-may-26-2026-the-weeks-foggy-start/

#Writing #WritingCommunity #Playwrighting #Freelance

Tues. May 26, 2026: The Week’s Foggy Start

Tuesday, May 26, 2026

Waxing Moon

Pluto Retrograde

Foggy and a little warmer

I hope you had a good weekend, and, if it was a holiday weekend for you, enjoyed the holiday. Restful or playful, depending on what you wanted and needed.

You can read the Community Tarot Reading for the Week here.

Friday warmed up a bit and got brighter, which was nice. After breakfast, I made the devilled eggs. I got some admin done, then packed up the dishes of eggs and the fruit into insulated bags and headed out.

Traffic was heavier than usual to Lenox, but not yet awful. I was early enough to miss the deluge. Parking in Lenox, however, was the usual nightmare. I finally found a spot on the correct side of a No Parking sign (the arrow went the other way to the other part of the curb), and maneuvered that. It was only a couple of blocks from the WAM office. But I was glad I’d given myself some extra time.

I helped set up as more people arrived, and we had a lovely time. I think there were 15-20 people who came through, some staying for the whole thing, others for  just a bit. There were people from Shakespeare & Co. and Great Barrington Public Theatre and the WAM board and other colleagues, and it was a lovely way to send Molly off to her new adventure. WAM and Shakespeare & Co. have been the two main pillars of her career. There was lots of laughter, great conversation, and good food. And plenty of people to help with dishes and cleanup! It’s great that the regional theatres have such a warm relationship with each other, and so important for the health of all the theatres.

I left around 3:30 to head back home. Traffic was heavy, because Friday of the holiday weekend starting the season. Plenty of terrible drivers, so I had to be on alert.

But I got home, got things unpacked (I had a few eggs left and most of the dishes washed already). I had about an hour to just read (a book by a colleague at the ghostwriting client’s, which was very good), and then I started dinner. Who would think I could eat any more after that huge, Italian lunch, but we had fish tacos, and they were good.

Quiet evening, to bed early. A tiring few days toward the end of last week, but the good kind of tired.

Up at the usual time on Saturday. So much for sleeping in, but Charlotte and Tessa were impossible. It was cloudy and cool, and I was glad I had some of my warmer clothes still handy.

If you’re not familiar with Persephone Books in the UK, I suggest you check them out here. The books they republish are fascinating, and their monthly newsletter is filled with wonderful atmosphere, ideas, and other interesting tidbits. They love both the content of books and the making of books, and it’s a delight.

Saturday I did housework, read scripts for the literary committee meeting, and did elder care. I got a little reading in, too. It started raining in the afternoon, and I felt bad for the people coming in hoping for a lovely long weekend. It was also pretty cold. So I couldn’t finish setting up the back balcony, either.

I had an idea for a new opening scene for I WILL BE DIFFERENT. I wanted to set it in January of 1900, but I’m not sure I can – I might have to push it back into the previous century. I wouldn’t know whether the time of the scene worked until I put the whole play together.

Slept reasonably well, although Tessa and Charlotte were impossible on Sunday morning.

Morning routine was fine. It was raining heavily. I did the Community Tarot Reading for the Week, which you can read here.

I also made vegetable stock – two small jars in the freezer (in former gelato containers) and one glass jar in the fridge. With the CSA box, I’ll need to make lots of vegetable stock this summer, and I have to make sure I actually use it.

Then, I sat down and wrote the new opening of I WILL BE DIFFERENT, which I really like. I did a rough assembly of the scenes. It was 152 pages, far too long to be a produce-able play. I went through and did another draft, getting it down to 142 pages. I cut one scene entirely, and also tightened some internal beats.

These are just script pages, not counting the cover page, character/scene breakdowns, author’s note, etc.

I either have to cut at least 22 pages (probably closer to 25 or 30) to keep it as a single play, or split it and make it 2 smaller plays, each that run without intermission. I may need to add a WWII scene into the Alice section, and it probably means I can’t end the first play where I now have the first act, after the Milly/Ron party scene. Or maybe, with that scene, I can. I still feel that’s the right place to add either the act or the play. If it’s two separate plays, each one will need some restructuring, since it’s not just about breaking them up and that’s that. If I go that route, I also need to weave in some more events on the larger scale. In the current script, I have both World Wars, the depression, Roe v. Wade, and the ability for women to finally have their own bank accounts, credit cards, etc. I may also need to layer in other events that had a ripple effect.

There’s room for double/triple/more casting, but it still needs a big cast.

But at least I’ve completed several drafts. Nothing is submissible yet (I remember rolling my eyes whenever I was a script reader and someone dumped 150-page script on me, especially if I wasn’t paid extra – no, just no. Make the cuts before submission). I might send the Great Big Bundle of Script Pages to a couple of Trusted Readers who know my work well enough to focus more on character arc and overall flow rather than in how produce-able it is at the moment. Because in its current form, it is not produce-able. The questions I have aren’t about making it fit into schematics, yet, but other specifics that I will list for them. It is kind of cool to see the 20th century unroll through this lineage of mothers and daughters.

That took all day, with interruptions for elder care issues. I cooked dinner (drunken noodles, which turned out really well again) cleaned up, and went to bed early.

I woke up just after midnight from terrible nightmares, and had a bad time getting back to sleep. I was just dozing off again when Charlotte and Tessa started fussing.

Up at the usual time on Monday, morning routine. It was bucketing down rain and quite cold.

Slogged through way too much email. I’m very unhappy with one of my smaller clients, and need to consider options in the coming months. We’re being pushed in a direction I feel is unethical, and they’re allowing some freelancers to hoard work instead of spreading it out, the way it used to be under the previous owner.

Oh, and by the way, no one buys yet another fake assassination attempt in DC. Especially when they practically announce them ahead of time now.

Sent off an LOI for a position slightly out of my wheelhouse, but that I think I would love (and also be really good at).

Finished the reading and the notes for the literary committee meeting, and sent my notes.

In the afternoon, it brightened up a bit and warmed up a bit, but it was too late for me to start sewing.

After a mostly rough weekend on the elder care front, things were a little better on Monday.

Made us turkey burgers for dinner, read in the evening while functioning as cat furniture.

Slept well into this morning (for a change), although Charlotte started fussing at me around 3 AM. I refused to get out of bed until 5:30, and start the morning routine. It was very foggy in the morning, and it’s supposed to get up into the low 80’s.

Charlotte hurled a fur ball onto the pile of clean sheets, because of course she did. So at least the top one will go back into the laundry this week.

If I split I WILL BE DIFFERENT into a duology of plays, I may play with ending the first play with the Amanda scene where she learns about Milly’s (her mother) attempted suicide, and then start the second play with that same scene, using it as a bridge. Right now, the scene is the top of Act II. It’s not a good idea to end a play on a cliffhanger, though, especially since they will often have to be submitted separately. Ending it where I end Act I now, after Milly and Ron’s dinner party, is a better ending perhaps. It’s somewhat ambiguous, but not a cliffhanger.

I mean, if I just cut a whole lot and it’s one play, it won’t be an issue.

Bookending everything with the start being in January of 1900 and the end on New Year’s Eve 1999 works, though, and I like it. I may combine what I have as the second-to-last scene with the final scene, because there’s some repetition in there that I can cut if I integrate the scenes.

Also, if it’s a duology, I have to come up with catchy titles for each one!

If I was good at titles, I’d be earning money as a caption writer.

On today’s agenda: work on BETTING MAN, work on I WILL BE DIFFERENT, a quick run to the library to drop-off/pick-up books, ghostwriting, yoga. A day that needs focus, even though it will hopefully have fewer moving parts than some other days. I also have some more follow-up to do from last week’s Small Business Resource Expo.

I’m thinking about what I will pack for next week, when I stay over after the staged reading. It’s one night, so I don’t need much. I just like things packed ahead of time, so I’m not running around like a chicken with my head cut off the night before. Once I decide what to wear for the reading, and comfortable clothes in which to drive home in the next day, I’ll be all set. I’m keeping an eye on the weather predictions so I can make those decisions.

I hope you’ve had a good start to your week!

Tues. May 19, 2026: Summer Prep & Solid Writing

Tuesday, May 19, 2026

Waxing Moon

Pluto Retrograde

Cloudy and hot

Hello, and welcome to another week!

You can read the Community Tarot Reading for the Week here.

Friday, I did some admin, then headed out to the pharmacy for my mom. It was quick trip, but all I wanted to do when I got home was laze on the sofa with the cats. Not an option, though.

I hauled myself to my desk and got some work done. I have a new debit card from the credit union, and had to update information on various channels, and EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM made it a nightmare. I am so sick of this. This is why I still use paper checks whenever possible. All of this should have taken minutes for each update. I shouldn’t have lost a morning.

In the afternoon, I took care of some more admin, and had discussions with my ghostwriting client about both series on which I’m working. I got the notes back on the one project, and started those revisions yesterday.

I cooked dinner (the salmon had been in the teriyaki marinade all day and was good), and read the book for this month’s Agatha Christie book club, THE LABORS OF HERCULES. It’s a collection of connected short stories featuring Hercule Poirot. I don’t think I ever read it before.

It was bucketing down with rain in the evening, and then quite cold.

Slept reasonably well. The way the cats carried on Saturday morning, I thought I’d overslept, but it was the usual 5:30 time. I’d hoped to sleep in a bit!

Morning routine was fine, and I added in a blessing for the graduating students across the street.

The day began as foggy and cool, but the sun came out, which was nice.

I did the usual Saturday chores, including (finally) switching out the flannel sheets. I didn’t go straight to bamboo. I’m using cotton right now. I also switched to the summer, lighter quilt.

I spent most of the morning turning my closet over for the summer. I packed away everything wintery that lives in the closet and went through everything else for fit, repairs, etc. Pulled a few things. Unpacked the summer clothes I’d packed away, and went through them for fit, repair, etc.

I’m low on summer pants and I could use another pair or two of ballet flats, but I’ve got plenty of everything else. Most of what I have goes with a whole bunch of other stuff, so that’s always a good thing. The summer pants will be boosted a bit with the navy pants I’m making that I can wear three-season, and a pair in black jacquard fabric that are a little dressier. Another pair or two of cotton palazzo pants would be a good idea. I might make them. It depends on whether I can find fabric I like at a price I like. I have not been impressed with what’s in the stores lately. I also need another pair or two of yoga pants. The last time I bought yoga pants was about 2012, and I’m wearing them out. They’ve worn well. It’s not an emergency yet, just something to think about if I come across something I like at the right price.

There was a fabric sale at Old Stone Mill the past two weekends in Adams, but I didn’t make it over there. I want to sew up what I bought from Swenson’s Fabrics the last few months, and some other material that’s in my stash from years back. Old Stone is known for quilting fabrics, so I probably could have found everything I needed for “Elemental Nine Patch” but I wasn’t in that mindset yet. They have sales several times a year, so I’m not going to stress over it.

The afternoon was spent reading and hanging out on the couch with the cats. Cooked dinner in the evening, and relaxed some more. It was a good, quiet Saturday.

Sunday morning, Tessa got me out of bed at the usual time. It was supposed to get up into the 80’s, so I baked the biscuits (American kind) my mom wanted for breakfast first, then cooked the potatoes for the potato salad that we can have for lunch over the days when it’s supposed to get really hot.

I did the Community Tarot Reading for the week, which you can read here. A few too many fives for my liking, but since I’m warned, maybe I can make smarter choices. What the cards predict can change with every action you make from the moment of the reading.

I went through and sorted winter sweaters, etc. I packed away what was clean, and put in the laundry bin what needs to be washed before I can put it away. I sorted through shirts and light sweaters for summer and got those organized. That took longer than I expected, especially since both Charlotte and Willa “helped.”

It was warm and sunny. I didn’t feel like doing much of anything. I read a bit, played with cats, just rested. Cooked dinner at night and read some more.

Worked a bit on an LOI. Figured out options to make for a potluck lunch to which I was invited at the end of the week.

I didn’t sleep particularly well Sunday into Monday. I woke up in the middle of the night in pain, and by the time I got back to sleep, the cats got me up.

Morning routine was fine and helped a bit. I had a lot of admin to do that stacked up. I read the plays for Monday night’s Athena project and sent out some emails. I wasn’t feeling great, and would have liked to take the day off, but too bad for me. I can do a whole lot of nothing over the holiday weekend, but this week, I need to get things done.

I got my marketing for the day done, and joined the Honor Roll Playwrighting session for two hours. I worked on I WILL BE DIFFERENT. I got three scenes done, near the beginning of the play(s). I think I have one more Alice scene to write, and I will be done with this draft (which has taken two years).

I’m going to do a rough assembly and read it, then figure out if it’s one play or two plays, and start rearranging material, adding scene numbers, years, etc.

Emma (who runs these sessions) let us know that Dramatists Guild is doing End of Play again this year, but in June, so I went ahead and signed up. I don’t think it’s the best structure for the revision of I WILL BE DIFFERENT, and I think the May Morris piece isn’t ready to write yet. So I may try to finish CONSEQUENCES or finish LAUGHTER AND TURPENTINE or  try something new. What, I have no idea. Hey, I have two weeks, I’ll come up with something.

I felt much better by the end of the writing session.

I looked over the notes for the ghostwriting client. They love what I sketched out for this, and just, basically want more, and a little bit of rearrangement. So I feel pretty good about digging back into that. I got my deadline for this draft, which is June 1, although I will try to get it done a little earlier than that. I had a really good session on it this afternoon, with things flowing well.

The weather wasn’t too bad. It was warm, hitting 90F, but not too humid, so I could concentrate.

I put together and easy and tasty dinner using ingredients from the CSA, served with rice, which was good.

I finished the book I read over the past few days, a biography of Lorne Michaels, who has produced SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE for fifty years. SNL was always part of my landscape. I never worked on it, although I was encouraged to do so around the time MISS SAIGON was winding up. I never even submitted a resume or tried to get an interview, mostly because I didn’t want to be around the frenetic schedule and the drugs. There was a dive bar in the subway station of the 50th St. No.1 train called Siberia where various show crews, including some of the SNL crew, hung out in the late 90’s/early 2000’s (it’s now a much more upscale place called Nothing Really Matters), so I heard a lot of the backstage stories. (The performers attended the upscale parties Michaels threw every Saturday night, and then the after parties that sprang up around town). As much as I admire the work they do, especially in such a tight time frame, and going live, my sense was that it wasn’t the right place for me. It was a better choice for me to be a repository of anecdotes. The brutality of working on that show wasn’t something that appealed to me.

I also learned a lot about comedy. Too many people don’t understand the difference between humor and comedy. Any genre can have humor layered over it/woven through it, and can work. Comedy is very tightly structured. The more effortless it comes across, the tighter the structure. Even the best of the zaniest comedians understand the structure and it’s a part of their personal rhythms as much as their heartbeat.

Even if an audience doesn’t intellectually understand the difference, they will feel it, and if something supposedly funny doesn’t work, it’s usually because the structure doesn’t support it. They might not know why, but they can feel it, because even intellectual comedy speaks to rhythms and how it feels in the body.

When I watch clips of the show, it’s still useful to break down the beats and dissect the sketch. If I’m struggling to build a comic scene in my own work (as opposed to a humorous scene), watching a few different clips and dissecting them (sort of like diagramming sentences in elementary school, but for the whole sketch) gets me back on track.

The book is well done, and was very interesting.

At 8:30, I set up the laptop in the living room and spent the next two hours with the Athena Project, for the month’s plays. We had lovely, lively discussions, which were helpful to both playwrights. I think it’s very important to show up for other playwrights, and not just swan in and out when my own work is featured.

They ask that we wait six months after they’ve featured one of our plays before submitting again. I was featured in March, which means I can submit again starting for October’s session. Although I will probably wait to submit for January’s session.

It took me a bit of time to settle after the session, but I eventually did. I slept reasonably well, in spite of the warm weather. It’s not too humid yet, so I was fine.

Up early today. The morning routine was fine. Consistency makes a positive difference. I watered the plants that needed a drink, before it got too hot, so they wouldn’t stand in wet feet all day. I think I will take a shot at the first draft of the final Alice scene I want to write for I WILL BE DIFFERENT (it’s early in the play, but the last one written) set in the Barbizon Hotel.

Maybe this weekend, I will start the rough assemblage of the second draft.

Also on today’s agenda: BETTING MAN, ghostwriting, and, hopefully, yoga. I have some handwashing to do, too, from the closet turnover, and some stain removal to work on. How a yellow shirt hanging in the closet can get a stain that looks like coffee dripped down the back is beyond me, but there we are. I was worried there was a ceiling leak, but there’s not. It’s supposed to be 90F again today, and then the weather breaks tomorrow. It feels like we will have a thunderstorm. Once it gets hot, I may adjust my schedule and start work earlier, take a break when it’s hot, and then work again in the evening. Or, I might pack up and work at a library or at the Clark.

Have a good one!

Wed. April 1, 2026: Literal and Metaphorical Stormy Weather

Wednesday, April 1, 2026

Full Moon

April Fool’s Day

Rainy and warm

New month midweek. That always feels weird to me.

I would prefer our April Fools to be like the Tarot Fool, not the ones currently in power.

Yesterday did not begin the way I hoped. My mom felt terrible. I managed to get her an appointment in the health practice, but with a different doctor, and right up the street at the hospital, so off we went right away. The doctor was so kind, and did the most thorough exam my mom has had since we moved here. He really spent time with her. We ruled out lots of bad things, but aren’t sure what’s left, so we’re monitoring. She felt much better by the time we left. But most of the day was elder care, although she improved steadily all day, thank goodness.

On the way back, I picked up her prescription at the pharmacy and then nipped into Big Y to pick up a few things.

By the time we got home and up the stairs, it was time for brunch (since we left before breakfast). I scrambled some eggs and made toast, and that was that.

A submission call landed on my desk for a short story due that day. I looked through what I had to see if anything fit the guidelines, and I had something. Yay, me. All I had to do was write the cover letter and pop it out. Because I was in no shape to start work on something new after the stressful morning.

I also closed out one of the contest categories, submitting my winner/finalist list and the winner’s review. I’m close to closing out the second category. I should be able to do it this weekend. The third category is much bigger, and will take me longer to finish, but I have until early May, so I’m okay.

I plowed through a couple of hundred emails, and set up April’s content calendar.

I was delighted to learn that my short comedy, “Dawn and Dorothy in the Afterlife” about Dawn Powell and Dorothy Parker stuck together for eternity in drunken luncheons, will get a staged reading at the LAVA Center in Greenfield in June. This is my second play with them, and I had such a wonderful experience last year. It will be such fun!

That was a nice uplift to the day.

I cooked a nice chicken and vegetable stew. I tossed a handful of currants in near the end, and that was an excellent choice. After the meal, I sat out on the porch reading WRITERS ON WRITING VOL. II, essays that originally appeared in the New York Times. My copies of both volumes are in storage, and I wanted to re-read them, so I ordered them from the library.

Diane Ackerman’s essay particularly delighted me, the way she uses language so beautifully. I ordered both of her books mentioned in the essay, one prose, one poetry.

I enjoyed the other essays I’ve read (re-read) so far, too, but that, in particular, stayed with me the most.

Synchronicity –there’s an essay from Michael Holyrod in there, and his huge Shaw biography is on my reading list (re-read, I’ve read it before) as background for the May Morris play.

We had a cracking good thunderstorm at night, with lightning. We turned out the lamps and watched it roll past through the windows. The lightning looked like serpents snaking across the sky.

The cats weren’t bothered at all, although Tessa was fascinated.

Slept okay. My mom seems a little better this morning. I have to get back on track with the work today, since yesterday was somewhat derailed. Tessa and Bea are scampering around, playing and having fun, which is great.

Have a good one!

Wednesday, March 11, 2026: Birthday Girl!

Wednesday, March 11, 2026

Waning Moon

Mercury Retrograde

Rainy and cool

We’ve hit another midweek! Gosh, this year is going fast.

It was difficult to concentrate, because yesterday was such a piece of lovely weather, I just wanted to go out and play in it. It got up into the 70’s F. We opened up the front porch and Tessa was thrilled. I got to do some work out there, too, prepping for planting season.

I mean, I know it’s False Spring and it’s supposed to snow again on Friday for Third Winter, but enjoy what’s in the moment, right?

But needs must with deadlines and things. Plus, I knew I had today off, so no matter what today’s weather is, I get to play.

I had to fill out the quarterly form from Johns Hopkins as part of their Long COVID study (I am still part of the control group).

I took out the garbage and ran my errand.

I spent most of the day finishing the outline for the ghostwriting, and got it off around 4 PM, which meant I started my “day off” a little early. It always feels good to get a big project off on time.

Thursday, I go back to the other ghostwriting assignment which is due on the Equinox!

I finished reading a book that’s been getting a lot of buzz (I’ve actually met the author a few times, in the UK on trips). I liked it, but the twist near the end felt forced to me. I did, however, figure out the killer early, early on, and it was a case of waiting to see if I was right and when everyone else caught on. I enjoyed the book, the writing is terrific, but, to me, the twist wasn’t organic to the rest of it. Also, I was annoyed at the end where there were several pages pointing out the planted clues and explaining them. Yes, I got them, I pay attention!

I also did some reading on the May Morris book that has to go back on Friday. I’m getting a sense of the people, some of whom will become characters in the play.

My hip and back were cranky. I have a feeling, as we move into mud season and it’s cold and damp, there will be some issues. We will deal with them as they come up.

Slept reasonably well, up at the usual time. The morning routine was good, and did my yoga and meditation by moonlight again. The time change means longer light in the evening, but darker when I get up, at least for the moment.

Today is my birthday, so I arranged to be off from work (out of office) for the day.  I woke up to some lovely messages, thank you so much. I’m making up the day as I go along, doing what I please. The weather will negate some of the options. Honestly, at this point, not having a plan feels like the best plan!

There’s good food and cake and prosecco, and certainly plenty of books and cats, so it’s all good!

A day of peace is much needed.

Have a good one!

Calling all #climate conscious #playwrights!

The Climate Playwriting Prize 2026 | Discover | Shakespeare's Globe

We believe that playwrights have a vital role to play in the conversation around the climate. Theatre is a space for animating audiences, forming communities, and experimenting with form; a space for processing the past, articulating the present, and imagining the future. Beyond the West End, regional and touring theatre is playing a vital role in engaging audiences.

This moment is marked by rising temperatures, escalating impacts of change on communities and ecosystems, but also by the unprecedented call to arms to storytellers at COP30 in 2025. The need for new stories that help audiences grapple with the realities and possibilities of this crisis has never been clearer. 

In order to surface the breadth and diversity of new stories about this planetary moment, the Climate Playwriting Prize is an open invitation to playwrights to respond creatively to this subject matter. We are partnering with organisations all around the country to deliver workshops to writers, unlocking how they might want to tell their climate story.

#Playwright #playwrighting #playwriting #climatestorytelling #climatestories #climateaction #shakespearesglobe #GlobeTheatre

https://www.shakespearesglobe.com/jobs-and-opportunities/climate-playwriting-prize-2026/

Wed. Feb. 18, 2026: Finding the Right Fit

Wednesday, February 18, 2026

Waxing Moon

Jupiter Retrograde

Snowy and cold

Midweek, although it feels like yesterday was a whole week on its own. We’re supposed to get 6 more inches of snow today. It was supposed to start at 7 AM, but hasn’t yet, although my pre-storm headache tells me it should start soon (and then the headache will go away).

This blog’s dashboard is glitching in Google, and I had to do a workaround. It seems to be coming up okay in other browsers.

Urgh.

Before anyone has a fit that a white girl enjoys Chinese Lunar New Year, my mom’s best friend is Chinese, and always included us in the celebrations. Plus, I worked on a bunch of shows with large Asian casts, and I was honored to be included in their celebrations. I celebrate in honor of them, their families, their ancestors. It’s not about me; it’s about honoring people who welcomed me into their celebrations for years.

RIP Jesse Jackson. I learned a lot from that man’s work.

I packed up the boxes I need to mail and then decided I should go down and mail them, instead of waiting until this morning. Which was a good idea, because with  6 more inches of snow incoming, I won’t be tromping out in that or going to the laundromat or going to the library like I planned.

So much for it being in the forties all week, as promised!

Anyway, I mailed everything, and picked up a couple of things at Cumberland Farms on the way back. My hip was very unhappy because of all the refrozen snowpacks I had to climb. They partially melt, then refreeze in lumps on the sidewalk, and are a mess. In order to get around them and walk on the street, I have to climb the snowbanks between the sidewalk and street. So it’s all just a big mess. It was raining by the time I got home. Not hard, just enough to be annoying.

I got some reading done, and around lunchtime the notes from the ghostwriting came back. They will be the priority today. I need to get them turned around by end of day tomorrow, because I have plans with a friend on Friday.

I managed to get my hip feeling better through a bunch of stretches, etc., without using the pain patch. I try to use it as little as possible, because it nauseates me for whatever reason.

The seeds arrived from Johnny’s, and I already resent them (yes, there’s a story there). I also ordered some seeds from Baker’s Creek Heirloom. More on all of that in tomorrow’s Gratitude & Growth post.

I managed to fix the glitch in the Google version of this blog. I fell down some research rabbit holes on WorldCat for several different projects. I can order several books/manuscripts/ephemera I need (over several different projects) through the Clark library, but I have to talk to them to see if I can just order/have them order, or if I need the special scholar card. I also want to see if any of the material is available through the college library across the street, which is easier to access.

I made chicken Lo Mein for dinner, which turned out well. A quiet evening, which I needed.

I realized I hadn’t written and submitted the book review, so I will do that today. I still have plenty of time before deadline.

I had a weird dream that didn’t make sense literally, but made sense symbolically, so I guess that’s good?

I did not get the grant for the May Morris project, but the funding organization likes the premise and has offered me some resources that are not the grant. The grant would have solidified the project’s position in the queue, but we will see. At least I’m not under any deadline pressure, can research pleasurably at my own place, and then contact the organization when one of the resources they offered me would be helpful. They have also offered support around I WILL BE DIFFERENT. I’m trying to remember how they know about that, although I probably referenced it in the May Morris proposal. They’re in Brooklyn and I’m not, so we will see how that shakes out. But at least they’re interested. And I have a specific individual in the organization as my primary contact for my work. On the one hand, I’m disappointed; on the other hand, it takes a lot of pressure off me in the immediate months, and usually, things fall into place in the right way. A couple of years ago, I was disappointed at not getting a particular residency in the midwest, but if I had landed it, I wouldn’t have been able to accept a reading slot for one of my plays with another company, and the reading had more immediate weight in the career path than the residency would have offered.

While I work well within deadlines, there’s a certain point where too many deadlines becomes counterproductive. Having the research for this project be unpressured pleasure will, I think, serve it in the long run. And let me finish the plays ahead of it that are still in progress.

In other words, I’m disappointed, but not devastated. I didn’t get the grant, but I’m now a known quantity to the organization and they are interested in my work, so I have to make sure to follow through on that and build that relationship. If I drop the ball and let things slide, that loss is firmly on me.

Morning routine was good. I will wash some hand laundry in the morning (since my plans to go to the laundromat were jettisoned), write and submit the review, and figure out how to get the next book for review into my Kindle. It still hasn’t shown up, and I sent did the whole “send to kindle” and then “send to device” about a week ago. The bulk of the day will be spent on the ghostwriting. I also have a couple of hours to spend on a DNA Forensics workshop I’m auditing out of the University of Cambridge in the UK. That will be useful not just for the ghostwriting, but for a lot of projects. It’s a 5-week course with 2-5 hours/week commitment, which is reasonable. I didn’t realize it started today until I signed up early this morning.

Anyway, I better get going. I need to turn around a 20K revision before end of day tomorrow.

Have a good one!

Tues. Feb. 17, 2026: Welcoming the Fire Horse

Tuesday, February 17, 2026

New Moon

Jupiter Retrograde

Fat Tuesday/Mardi Gras

Chinese Lunar New Year

Solar Eclipse

Cloudy and cold

All the things going on in the heavens today! Whew!

Happy Mardi Gras, and Year of the Fire Horse! Let’s hope we’re racing to some positive, collective change.

You can read the Community Tarot Reading for the Week here. Still on the Enchanted Tarot.

I put in the Instacart order first thing on Friday morning. It shouldn’t be as stressful as I find it. I’m making a list and trusting someone else to go down the list and get the stuff. There’s no reason for me to worry so much. It was fine last week.

The cats are starting to shed their winter coats. That means the worst of the cold is over, and that I need to vacuum multiple times a week.

I’ve been frustrated with the 45-day art journaling workshop for awhile now. The prompts have been too much psychobabble and not enough creative expansion. They also seem somewhat familiar in the wrong way, but I can’t put my finger on why. Plus, one never knows when they will show up, so it’s been difficult to plan time to do it. Nothing came through at all on Thursday, and then, on Friday, there was suddenly an email that the workshop leader decided to take a vacation for her son’s school break and “pause.” No idea if/when it starts up again. Maybe Monday, but who knows? So, you ask people to commit for 45 days, and then you haven’t planned everything out ahead of time? Why would you start it if you knew you were going on vacation? It’s not like one doesn’t know about school breaks ahead of time. Why not either schedule posts or wait to start the 45-day stretch until you get back? If it was impromptu, as she claimed, she could still schedule things to post. This is not someone who can be trusted. I planned to grit my teeth and stick it out, because I believe in honoring my commitments, but no. I am done. That’s not creating a safe and creative space for people. Safe space means one can count on it and trust it. This behavior does not do it. It wasn’t an unexpected emergency. It’s being untrustworthy and not being honest with people who committed time and energy toward your event when you asked them to do so, after weeks of intense promotion.

A new prompt came through on Monday morning, and I considered starting up again, but my instinct was not to. It’s not the right atmosphere for me. So I unsubscribed, and it was like a weight off.

Buh-bye.

And I will avoid this person and her work in the future.

There are still plenty of pages in that journal that can be dedicated to other things. I will find a different way to work on the art/text stuff.

I bundled up, packed up the books, and headed out mid-morning. The temperature was higher than it’s been and the sun was out, but the wind made it feel colder. I trudged up to the library, dropped off books and picked up the 12 that waited for me. Good thing I had the rolly cart! I rolled down the hill and mailed the cards and bills that needed to go out. The post office is only about a block from the library, and downhill. I ran another errand. I got everything home and up the stairs.

I managed it all in 45 minutes, which was pretty darn good.

I basked in the sun with the cats for a bit, and finished reading a literary novel that wanted to be AS Byatt’s POSSESSION, but was not. There were some good portions of it, but it added an additional POV in the last quarter of the book in a way that didn’t work for me, structurally.

I had to be available during the shopping, and had to change a couple of things, but it was no big deal. The order was there by 1:30 again, although it was a different shopper who was more interested in being on her phone than paying attention to the two minutes for customer drop-off, which annoyed me.

If the weather is at all amenable at the end of this week, I’m taking the cart and going my damn self. While I’m grateful the service exists, I’d rather be in the store myself seeing what looks good and adjusting as needed. I like to have a basic idea of what I want/need (and my list), but then see what looks good and is on sale and adjust. That means moving a bunch of ingredients around in a way that doesn’t really work if someone else uses a pre-written list. It’s totally a me problem, not at all anything wrong with the service itself.

I did some community-based work in the afternoon, and also read the February pick for the Agatha Christie book club, MRS. MCGINTY’S DEAD. It took me a bit to get into it, but once I was intrigued, it carried me along. I paged through the research books for the two different projects that came in, trying to decide which one to spend time with first.

I re-read what I have of the play LAUGHTER AND TURPENTINE (the Playland Painters one) so I can figure out what needs to happen next. I sorted through some possibilities in Saturday morning’s free write.

We had a late lunch of pizza, and then I didn’t feel like dinner. I made sure my mom ate something, but I wound up having a sandwich around 9:30 at night. I read the first book of a new-to-me series (it came out in 2011), that I liked on character and setting arcs. The plot was a little shaky, but interesting enough so I’ll read the second book in the series, at the very least, and see.

Slept well. It was supposed to snow overnight and be done by 7, but didn’t start until nearly 8 on Saturday morning. I had a good morning routine. I forgot to mention that Thursday was Day 175 of the free write sessions.

I tried making omlettes again for breakfast. I’m not good at them, but I keep trying. My favorite Elizabeth David book is AN OMLETTE AND A GLASS OF WINE. I went back and re-read her instructions on making an omlette and tried again. I still don’t have the foldy thing down, and the bottom is too brown, but the inside was fluffy with just a little runny for the cheese and herbs. It tasted good, even if the look of it wouldn’t win any awards. I keep trying. The pan I used was too small, probably, too.

After breakfast, I got the crockpot meal going. Instead of the usual Tuesday crockpot, we decided to do it on Saturday. Since Tuesday (today) is Chinese Lunar New Year, I’m making a special meal for the holiday, and moved the crockpot meal to the weekend.

Then some housework, because there is always housework.

I love following decorating and thrifting and cooking and sewing and gardening accounts on IG. (I mean, cats, too, but that’s something different). Even when something isn’t my style (like neutrals) or something that I would do, I enjoy seeing what other people are up to, and how happy it makes them. And I do learn stuff. But, I mean, sourcing at thrift stores has always been my first choice. It started way back when I was a teenager prop shopping for shows. Things with stories and histories have always been my preference. I love that more people are discovering the fun of it, although when I see a 20-something act like they are the first person to ever figure it out, I do roll my eyes. But that’s also part of being 20-something. I have no doubt I was just as annoying.

It snowed all morning, and I didn’t feel like trotting around in it, so I stayed home. I went through an exhibition catalogue built around May Morris’s work as background research for the play I want to write inspired by Mary Annie Sloane’s sketch of the women working in May’s embroidery workshop. I found names, so I can actually research them. One of the women who worked with May for years was Lily Yeats, the poet’s sister, although to hear tell, there was tension between Lily and May. Another embroidery worker was the actress Florence Farr. It took me a bit to figure out why the name was familiar. She was friendly with Annie Besant (who is mentioned in my play FALL FOREVER) and with Pamela Coleman Smith (who illustrated the Rider Waite tarot), and they were all involved in the occult society The Golden Dawn together. I hadn’t put together the concurrent timelines in my brain. The more I dig, the more interesting connections I find with other interests and projects. Quite the web!

So glad that May kept detailed records of the workroom. I’m hoping I can find a digitized version online, a little later in the research, and flip through it.

There isn’t a lot of material easily available on Mary Annie Sloane and her work, but I will keep digging. As much as May’s designs and exquisite work captured me, it was Mary Annie’s sketch that lit the fire under the idea.

I have at least six months’ to a year’s worth of research to do before I even start writing, but having names and women to research is a terrific starting point, much like with my Playland Painters. The grant proposal for this project is out. If I get the grant, the project moves into a priority position in the queue. If not, I can leisurely research until the project’s turn. Knowing something about the women who worked in the embroidery workshop and what a range of interests they all had changes the original character arcs I played with quite a bit. These are far richer and more interesting. May was known for paying her workers well, and encouraging financial literacy and independence.

Gabriel Dante Rosetti was William Morris’s business partner (he was May’s father, yes, that William Morris), and Rosetti had an affair with her mother, Jane. May and Jane often sat for Rosetti. The big Rosetti volume I have from my time working at Abbeville Press is in storage, but I’m eager to get my hands on it again.

May and George Bernard Shaw were in love, although they each married others, and remained good friends all their lives. So now I have to re-read that massive, multi-volume Shaw biography by Michael Holyrod. My copy of that is also in storage, but I will get them from the library at some point. I have other books coming in on that circle already ordered from the library that I will read first. I will head over to the college library in the next few days and see what they have, too. Once the car is fixed, I’ll do some digging in the Clark’s library, too.

It was a lovely way to spend a dreary, snowy morning, inspired by the beauty of the work these women created.

I started to do some research for the article, re-reading material I originally read in my twenties, but the contrast between May and her socialist, progressive circle and the self-involved material for the article was in too much conflict for me to deal with one right after the other.

I read the next book in the mystery series by the acquaintances from way back. The setting and background were great, but the character relationships were left so undeveloped, and the love interest didn’t even show up in the book until 7/8th of the way through it, so when they declared their love for each other at the end, it felt false. Over the three books in the series I’ve read, the relationship has been underwritten and underdeveloped (and they certainly haven’t spent much time with each other), so the declaration doesn’t land properly. I can’t source the final book in the series through the library even as an e-book, so I don’t know how it all played out. (The series has been out of print for a good long time). If the relationship had been more in balance with the plot (and it could have, without taking away from the plot), I think the series would have worked better (and probably lasted more than four books).

It didn’t live up to the promise of the premise, which is something I find a lot in script analysis work, but here it came up in a series of novels.

The crockpot dinner was good – potato, ham, cheese casserole-type thing. Sort of like a croque monsieur, but with potato rather than bread, and done in a crockpot.

Slept well, up at the normal time on Sunday, good morning routine. Switched out a bunch of winter/Valentine’s stuff with springier, Ostara/Easter stuff. And switched out the heart on the front door with shamrocks.

The neighbors have started decorating their doors, too, and using fun mats. Now that the building is painted, everyone is inspired.

Did the Community Tarot Reading for the Week, which you can read here. I wasn’t happy to see the Tower as central, but the other cards are very positive, so I’m intrigued by the week’s potential.

Sunday was day before the dark moon, always my least energetic day of the month.

Around noon, I wrapped up and went down to Brewster’s Thrift, the new thrift store that opened across from MASSMoCA a few months back. I’ve been hearing good things about it. The assortment is very eclectic and interesting. I found a lovely, silver-plated candleholder with intricate grapes and other summery/harvest raised detail. I posted a photo on Instagram.

Ran another errand on the way home. It was sunny and much warmer than I expected. I had too many layers on, which I guess is a good thing.

I had a quiet afternoon, and cooked a tuna/vegetable/pasta/pesto dish in the evening.

Read a charming and fun first book in a series that understood typical conventions and chose to break them in interesting ways that served the story, characters, and genre. I’m looking forward to reading the second book in the series.

Up at the normal time, the morning routine was fine. Did the rounds with the week’s intent and the tarot post. Got through some email. No matter how much email I slog through, there’s always more. I’m unsubscribing from a bunch of lists, including authors who do not support my work as a colleague, but are always marketing at me. Read the two scripts for the evening’s Read ‘n Rant and made notes for the evening’s discussion.

We had our monthly Honor Roll! Session from noon to two. It was a nice turnout, and we all got a lot done on our various projects. We felt so good by the end of the two hours!

I got the opening of I WILL BE DIFFERENT, and the next scene. I’ve been playing with ideas in the morning free write, and decided to start with Josephine in the midst of handling five children and her husband and everything, and Alice at age 10. The same actor can play Amanda as a child a few sections later. I’ve been debating whether the first mother should be named Josephine or Margaret. In the free write, I’ve been calling her Margaret, but in these pages, she came out as Josephine, with “Maggie” being Alice’s older sister. I’m pretty sure I will double cast Josephine and Milly. It’s pretty clear in the later sections that Josephine died before Milly was born.

I had planned to finish the Alice section first, but because I’m struggling to get the timeline right with years/historical events, I was stuck. I did set the Josephine section/Alice’s childhood in my hometown of Rye, before Playland was built. I have to figure out one or two more Josephine/Alice scenes, and that will give me a better idea of the when with Alice/Archie, and then I’ll know how to complete the Alice section. If I just cut where Alice and Archie talk about him going to war, I can fix a lot. Yes, that scene is good, but it doesn’t fit the timeline, unless it’s Word War I, and then it sets everything else out of whack. So I basically have somewhere between three and five more scenes to write, and then I’ll have a rough assembly of way too much material that I can then hone down.

Stage plays often have a much longer development process than other types of work, but this one is even longer. I’d hoped to have it ready for a particular submission call to which I’ve been invited at the end of this August, but I can’t see how it will be done, and through enough drafts to make it viable. I may have to finish a different full-length between now and then that’s less complicated to submit this year, and then submit I WILL BE DIFFERENT next year.

I also have to fact check some of my hometown’s history pre-Playland. I sort of remember it, from some research years ago, but I have to recheck it. And it’s not like anything worthwhile comes up in Google anymore, so I’ll dig into the Westchester Archives online information, or into the Rye Historical Society’s information.

I also got the list of dates to paint the gallery for the upcoming GLOW show in March, so I have to figure out which times and dates I can help out.

I did some housework in the afternoon, in preparation for today’s Lunar New Year, and took out the garbage, etc. The dumpster is emptied Tuesday and Friday mornings, so I had to squish the bags into a very full dumpster, but I got them in.

I did some work relevant to the dark moon.

Assets for Artists sent a two -year follow-up from my time in the cohort, so I filled that out for them.

Leftovers for dinner. In the evening, I joined the Athena Project’s Read ‘n Rant discussion. I had been sent one of the wrong plays, so I kept quiet in the discussion for one of them. There’s no reason for me to make things about me instead of the play. I mean, in every group, there’s always someone who hasn’t read the play, or hasn’t finished the play (or book or whatever in the relevant group), but has to take up time and space in the discussion anyway, making it about them. There was that last night, too, but I was not that person! I was able to join the discussion for the other play, which I’d read, so that was fun. Charlotte slept through the whole thing. Bea and Tessa were there at the beginning, and then settled down.

I’m looking forward to my play, THE WOMEN ON THE BRIDGE, being part of next month’s discussion!

It was 10:30 by the time the discussion was over (Athena is based in Colorado, on mountain time). Then, of course, I needed transition time before bed, so I read for a bit.

Dreamed about working shows all night, so woke up feeling like I’d already put in a full week.

The morning routine was fine, the free write was sorting out stuff for I WILL BE DIFFERENT.

We are having pancakes for breakfast, because it’s Fat Tuesday.

On today’s agenda: writing, ghostwriting, an errand, packing up some things that need to be mailed tomorrow, celebrating Lunar New Year. We are wearing lots of red today in honor of it, but no black or white.

Have a good one!

Greetings my name is House! :heart_fire: New to Mastodon and looking for folks who vibe with the art & sounds that I make in the worlds of

#modularsynths
#synthesizers
#fieldrecording
#5stringbass
#comics
#zines
#puppetry
#fabrication
#mechs
#stopmotion
#animation
#linocut
#shortfilms
#watercolor
#needlefelting
#writing
#photography
#lomography
#poetry
#playwrighting

Found of #thankyoutinesday - celebrate today! www.thankyoutinesday.com

Into any of these trips? Let's connect!

Headache Inducing: https://devonellington.wordpress.com/2025/09/16/tues-sept-16-2025-headache-inducing/

#Writing #WritingCommunity #Freelance #Playwrighting #Noise

When You Have to Plan Relaxation: https://devonellington.wordpress.com/2025/08/29/fri-aug-29-2025-when-you-have-to-plan-relaxation/

#Writing #WritingCommunity #Theatre #Playwrighting

All The World’s His Stage. Happy Birthday (We Think) to William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare is the playwright and poet that described us all. He did so with intelligence and wit. Today, April 23, is the day most mark as his birthday. The record of his baptism is April 26th, so it’s a decent bet the date is close enough.

There really is nothing new in human behavior under the sun. In his plays and poems I don’t think he missed much in describing every thing good, bad, noble, and foolish about how we operate with each other and within the world. In my view, it’s a shame more of us don’t pay enough attention to his cataloging of humanity. But then he predicted that as well.

Here’s an intriguing side note on this very intelligent man’s celebrated birth date. I asked several AI engines on what day was he born. Gemini, ChatGPT, Perplexity, and DeepSeek returned April 23rd as the likely date with the typical (and mostly accepted) disclaimers that we celebrate that day, but there’s no definitive proof it was the actual date. I asked Siri and Alexa, both returned April 23 as the definitive date. Intriguing that Siri didn’t try to pass that off to ChatGPT. I’m sure Amazon will now offer me all kind of suggestions to purchase anything Shakespeare.

So, I’ll amend slightly my statement about the Bard describing us all and there being nothing new under the sun. He’s correct in that we’re both smart and too often not smart enough to understand what we do and do not know, but he might have missed the mark when it comes to artificial intelligence. Or did he did he?

I’m reasonably certain his works have been fed into AI engines and Chatbot training given that they are long in the public domain. I’m also reasonably certain they ignore his nothing new under the sun descriptions of human interactions in the same way those of us still walking around do.

“Lord, what fools we mortals be!”

You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above. 

#ai #books #Culture #History #literature #playwrighting #Shakespeare #Theatre #WilliamShakespeare #williamShakespeare

Steadily Productive: https://devonellington.wordpress.com/2025/04/09/wed-april-9-2025-steadily-productive/

#Writing #WritingCommunity #Freelance #Playwrighting #RadioDrama

Let the Decorating Commence! https://devonellington.wordpress.com/2024/11/29/fri-nov-29-2024-let-the-decorating-commence/
#Writing #WritingCommunity #Playwrighting #Decorating

Delighted that my play "A Rare Medium" will be part of a reading series in May 2025. Details to follow.

#Writing #WritingCommunity #Playwrighting #Theatre

Of (Metaphorical) Tracks and Trains: https://devonellington.wordpress.com/2024/11/01/fri-nov-1-2024-of-metaphorical-tracks-and-trains/
#Writing #WritingCommunity #Freelance #Playwrighting #Tarot