Someone said "McBeth." I'm pretty sure of it.
Chance said it was because someone told him "Good Luck' instead of "break a leg" - but what happened tonight was beyond the "good luck" curse. It was undoubtedly a Hamlet night.
I should have seen it coming when my curlers came out - and my hair fell limply into stringy, weak spirals. By the time the show started, those were just about gone too. Auntie Em fell backstage when her knee gave out, banging her head on the way down. It was before the show, but it shook her up pretty badly and her knee was hurt.
One person was late because their driver didn't get them there, and tension rose between her and one in charge. I passed them, to find the witch rubbing her head, shaking out pills to fight a migraine. The audience (all thirty of them) were happily waiting in the rows for the show to start, oblivious to the chaos backstage.
But it didn't take long to creep onto the stage. The costume changes went much faster tonight on all sides. But the backdrop began to fall backstage. I caught it with James and Annette, only to find the curtain was falling as well. Even on the steps, I couldn't reach the curtain to put it back in place so I had to trade with James.
The show went on.
All went well until the Tinman scene where Dorothy dancing with a tree (don't ask) collided with another tree and the scarecrow. The basket caught between them, gave a great "crunch" and shattered. It practically exploded. The handle snapped. The sides gave way. Apples and my picture of Auntie Em - that's actually a house in the snow- scattered underfoot.
I got most of them snatched up though it messed up the choreography. Then I slipped the basket off-stage when I got near the curtain where it was retired - well, forever, I suppose.
Which meant I had no doggy treats.
Toto decided to jump off the stage in protest.
A singing line or two was forgotten or flubbed.
Costumes unraveled.
My ruby slippers caught the curtain three times, trying to trip me and tore a section of tooling off an unsuspecting munchkin's skirt.
Despite the choas and constant fear that someone was going to end up in the hospital before the end of the show, we got through it, all recovering quite nicely. The audience seemed to enjoy the show. Some children didn't want to leave.
One boy who read "The Secret of Sentarra" wanted to know when the sequel was coming out...
La la la.
November. November I'm editing "The Captive" while writing "The King" and probably formatting (again) "The Calling". That's a lot of Erilerre so I'm suplimenting by also tackling writing "Flames."
Anyone interested in helping me proofread "Swing" speak now!
*Cricket's chirp*
Well... it was worth a try. I'm nearly finished with yet another editing round. I think I'm going to have to let that one sit for November and do the proofing in December.
Who would believe it's November again?
In four days - I'll be going home.
To my real home.
Friday, October 28, 2011
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
A Year Ago
One year ago, I was getting ready for my sister's wedding. Valerie was down. We had just moved to Palacios. I didn't know how long I'd be living in Palacios. I was editing the final proof of "The Calling."
So much has happened in a year.
I still miss Palacios, but I love being here with my grandparents. I love working in the theater again. And my books.
A year ago I was writing Swing and editing "Across the Distance." Now "Across the Distance" is published on Kindle and Swing is in the final editing stages. A year ago, I didn't know much about professional editing. I had no idea what HTML meant. I was just learning to format books on Word.
Now. I can look and say, "It's been a year. "The Captive" is still not edited. "Swing" and "Across the Distance" should have been published long ago. I haven't made much money on the books - in fact, I've put in more money than I've made.
A lot more.
Or I can say. Look how far I've come.
A year ago, I was depending on a publishing company to do what I didn't know how. I had no way of telling if their work was good or correct. In one year, I've learned that if I don't know something, I can learn it. I've learned that it's not as hard to get into the film industry as I thought. I've learned that if I write down that painful experiance of my past, it suddenly stops pleaguing me. I've learned to give people a chance to be themselves without prejudging them.
I've performed in plays. I've taught acting classes. I've learned to set goals and work toward them. I've learned that I can be anything I want, so long as I have the courage and grit to keep after it.
Every step of publishing my own work has had a steep learning curve with it - and I'm by no means an expert in editing, formatting for kindle, or laying out a physical page with InDesign. I've held a few book signings and set up my first book tour.
I'm no longer just the author. I'm the editor, the typesetter, the producer, the sales managers, the accountant, the secretary, the proof-reader and the cover designer all rolled into one. Some of these steps, I've had outside help with and want to get more - especially in the editing department.
But I've learned so much since a year ago. I've even learned enough to realize there's more I don't know.
So I keep plugging away, knowing that after I learn this stuff, things will go faster, smoother and I won't have to redo things over and over again. If I can get these books out - I can get any books out. My goal is to make every book better than the last.
So much has happened in a year.
I still miss Palacios, but I love being here with my grandparents. I love working in the theater again. And my books.
A year ago I was writing Swing and editing "Across the Distance." Now "Across the Distance" is published on Kindle and Swing is in the final editing stages. A year ago, I didn't know much about professional editing. I had no idea what HTML meant. I was just learning to format books on Word.
Now. I can look and say, "It's been a year. "The Captive" is still not edited. "Swing" and "Across the Distance" should have been published long ago. I haven't made much money on the books - in fact, I've put in more money than I've made.
A lot more.
Or I can say. Look how far I've come.
A year ago, I was depending on a publishing company to do what I didn't know how. I had no way of telling if their work was good or correct. In one year, I've learned that if I don't know something, I can learn it. I've learned that it's not as hard to get into the film industry as I thought. I've learned that if I write down that painful experiance of my past, it suddenly stops pleaguing me. I've learned to give people a chance to be themselves without prejudging them.
I've performed in plays. I've taught acting classes. I've learned to set goals and work toward them. I've learned that I can be anything I want, so long as I have the courage and grit to keep after it.
Every step of publishing my own work has had a steep learning curve with it - and I'm by no means an expert in editing, formatting for kindle, or laying out a physical page with InDesign. I've held a few book signings and set up my first book tour.
I'm no longer just the author. I'm the editor, the typesetter, the producer, the sales managers, the accountant, the secretary, the proof-reader and the cover designer all rolled into one. Some of these steps, I've had outside help with and want to get more - especially in the editing department.
But I've learned so much since a year ago. I've even learned enough to realize there's more I don't know.
So I keep plugging away, knowing that after I learn this stuff, things will go faster, smoother and I won't have to redo things over and over again. If I can get these books out - I can get any books out. My goal is to make every book better than the last.
Monday, October 10, 2011
Oct. 10 - Persistance
This weekend I went to a ranch for our family reunion. It was so much fun and I felt content and relaxed in a way I haven't in a long time. Except for a headache and some dizzy spells, I had no complaints the entire weekend.
Today, however, I'm home and it was supposed to be a jump back into routine day. My routine's been faltering the last few days. I was struck by this excerpt from "Goals!" from Brian Tracy and remembered it last night and this morning:
"Your greatest successes almost invariably come one step beyond the point where everything inside of you says to quit. Men and women throughout history have been amazed to find that their great breakthroughs came about as a result of persisting in the face of all disappointment and all evidence to the contrary. This final act of persistence, which is often called the "persistence text," seems to preceded great achievements of all kinds."
I think I'm there. My computer screen is going out on my laptop - so even with the rebooting required to fix it, was hard. Ryan said last night it wouldn't work - so not only have I lost whatever I did not back up on the hard drive before it was wiped clean - but now there's no system at all on it, even if the screen does decide to stop flickering and shaking.
So we tried plan B: Downloading "InDesign" to Pop's computer which is the one I am using right now. I found it for &75.00's and was happy about that. But Ryan said last night, there wasn't enough space on the computer to run the program. So now I have a program waiting to be downloaded and no where to download it to. My bank is lower than it's been since I was a teenager and first beginning to teach lessons. My job at the theater school is going to be a lot of work for a little pay.
I don't know what to do now and everything hinges on getting those books done. I've been reading about sentence styling and editing and now I'm wondering when in the world you should let the manuscript go and declare it "good enough".
The dizziness has become a rather constant companion and I'm not sure what's going on with it. I want to get motivated and I want to start working but at this point, I'm not even sure where to start or what to do next. I suppose I could start editing "Swing" again but... quite honestly, I'm sick of rereading manuscripts.
Today, however, I'm home and it was supposed to be a jump back into routine day. My routine's been faltering the last few days. I was struck by this excerpt from "Goals!" from Brian Tracy and remembered it last night and this morning:
"Your greatest successes almost invariably come one step beyond the point where everything inside of you says to quit. Men and women throughout history have been amazed to find that their great breakthroughs came about as a result of persisting in the face of all disappointment and all evidence to the contrary. This final act of persistence, which is often called the "persistence text," seems to preceded great achievements of all kinds."
I think I'm there. My computer screen is going out on my laptop - so even with the rebooting required to fix it, was hard. Ryan said last night it wouldn't work - so not only have I lost whatever I did not back up on the hard drive before it was wiped clean - but now there's no system at all on it, even if the screen does decide to stop flickering and shaking.
So we tried plan B: Downloading "InDesign" to Pop's computer which is the one I am using right now. I found it for &75.00's and was happy about that. But Ryan said last night, there wasn't enough space on the computer to run the program. So now I have a program waiting to be downloaded and no where to download it to. My bank is lower than it's been since I was a teenager and first beginning to teach lessons. My job at the theater school is going to be a lot of work for a little pay.
I don't know what to do now and everything hinges on getting those books done. I've been reading about sentence styling and editing and now I'm wondering when in the world you should let the manuscript go and declare it "good enough".
The dizziness has become a rather constant companion and I'm not sure what's going on with it. I want to get motivated and I want to start working but at this point, I'm not even sure where to start or what to do next. I suppose I could start editing "Swing" again but... quite honestly, I'm sick of rereading manuscripts.
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Oct. 5, 2011
This morning came too quickly. I woke at 6:30 - unlike yesterday, I didn't allow myself to go back to sleep - though I wanted to. I got up and spent longer than usual on my Bible, reading verses on obedience. It struck me that in the Old Testament when God's telling the Isrealites to take over the countries, drive out the inhabitance and destroy all signs of their idol-worship, it might be serving as a picture for us internally. When we confess our sins, it's not enough just to point them out to God. We have to remain alert and actively tear down or stop doing all traces of them if we want to live with an undevided heart and serve God.
Yesterday I listened to several sermons, one of which was on breaking the family curse. Looking at the traites in my life and my family, I concluded that a good majority of my problems stem from a spirit of fear.
I'm afraid to obey God because I don't know what he'll make me give up or do.
I'm afraid of what other people will think or say about me.
I'm afraid to try new things or embark on my own.
I got no writing or editing done yesterday but I got the kitchen cleaned really well and I spent a lot of time listening to sermons and praying and generally doing some internal cleaning as well.
Today, I woke and decided I could act on what I did feel God had told me to do - even if I was unclear in other areas. So I pulled up "Flames" - finding that when I erased the index cards, I erased the script that went with them. A few minutes of searching and prayers later, I found it. So now I have the characters and plot in one program and the script in the other. Since I'm writing out of order, I decided to move to a word document and just format the completed script into the program later so I don't mess stuff up.
But by the time I got all that done, I kind of forgot what I'd been planning to write. I wrote a bit. Now I'm sleepy again. Really sleepy.
I'm not sure what today will hold. I need to go over the music for class tomorrow with the kiddos. I would like to edit more of "Swing"... I need to see about installing the formatting software.
I'll probably have to go on a walk next just to wake up.
Yesterday I listened to several sermons, one of which was on breaking the family curse. Looking at the traites in my life and my family, I concluded that a good majority of my problems stem from a spirit of fear.
I'm afraid to obey God because I don't know what he'll make me give up or do.
I'm afraid of what other people will think or say about me.
I'm afraid to try new things or embark on my own.
I got no writing or editing done yesterday but I got the kitchen cleaned really well and I spent a lot of time listening to sermons and praying and generally doing some internal cleaning as well.
Today, I woke and decided I could act on what I did feel God had told me to do - even if I was unclear in other areas. So I pulled up "Flames" - finding that when I erased the index cards, I erased the script that went with them. A few minutes of searching and prayers later, I found it. So now I have the characters and plot in one program and the script in the other. Since I'm writing out of order, I decided to move to a word document and just format the completed script into the program later so I don't mess stuff up.
But by the time I got all that done, I kind of forgot what I'd been planning to write. I wrote a bit. Now I'm sleepy again. Really sleepy.
I'm not sure what today will hold. I need to go over the music for class tomorrow with the kiddos. I would like to edit more of "Swing"... I need to see about installing the formatting software.
I'll probably have to go on a walk next just to wake up.
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