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January 20, 2013:

A MAN POSSESSED

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, the day I finish the new book is the day I begin losing twenty pounds or more. I have had it with being a blimp. I’d already gained fifteen pounds over the last year, most of it during the writing of Album Produced By, and then the Christmas pig-out in concert with writing the new book has caused another ten pounds or so to be added to my belly and butt cheeks. This I do not like. The real problem with this book is that there is a lot of food talked about and I get really hungry when I’m doing that stuff and want to eat everything the characters are eating. And then I do. Usually I’ll either eat one meal a day, or a really light meal and then another slightly heavier meal, but never more than that. But the last couple of weeks I’ve eaten lunch, I’ve eaten dinner, I’ve snacked, I’ve eaten cookies and candies and ice cream and pie and it will STOP in about a week and then I will be a man possessed to lose at least twenty pounds. I will start jogging again for sure, because that makes it all easier. I’m going to try and lose at least three or four pounds before the February Kritzerland show. Speaking of the February Kritzerland show, we are now fully cast at long last, and it’s a pretty terrific group: Dan Callaway, Kim Huber, Dennis Kyle, Lexi Lawson (new to us – she was in In the Heights and on season 8 of American Idol), Lisa Livesay, along with Jenna Rosen, Sarah Staitman and Sami Staitman, and our two incredible guest stars, Karen Morrow and Adrian Zmed – the show, of course, is The Stephen Schwartz Album. I made the decision to ONLY do songs with music AND lyrics by Schwartz, so no Menken and Schwartz in evidence. I think the song list will work really well and we’re doing a couple of unconventional things, too. We’ll also premiere the season finale of Outside the Box that night, starring our guest star Adrian Zmed and Lisa Livesay, so that will be fun.

My Saturday began at nine, when I got up after a somewhat better night’s sleep than the last few days. As soon as I was alert, I began finessing, futzing and fixing the previous day’s writing. That took a while because I made some additions and had to really smooth out a few things, which is what happens when I type really quickly. Then I sat there like so much fish and finally got in the shower, which helped and when I got out I wrote three pages immediately, getting me into the new chapter in a way I was pleased with. Then we had a slightly over two-hour work session with a singer and that was very productive. This singer came to me just a few weeks ago about putting together an act for her. I told her yes but that it takes the time it takes. But she’d already booked a date at the Catalina Bar and Grill for the end of January. So, I said we could throw something together for that night but that she’d have to trust me and let me barrel along. This she’s done. Over the last week, we made the song choices, which are all good, and during the last couple of work sessions, Shelly Markham and I have figured out the arrangements. I’m especially pleased that she wanted to sing Where or When, a song I’ve always loved and which I’ve been trying to record for years. The problem is I have wanted a completely unique arrangement of it and last year I finally came up with one. I played that for Shelly, he and the singer loved it, and so we’re debuting that arrangement for her show.

After the work session, I had to run to the mail place to pick up a couple of packages, then go and fill in for Guy Haines at a rehearsal for a little cabaret event in February. That was fine. Then I moseyed on over to sup with dear reader KevinH. We went to the California Pizza Kitchen (AKA CPK) and had a delightfully delightful meal together. I had the calorie-friendly salmon (only 600 calories for the whole deal), we split some spinach artichoke dip (which seems to get smaller and smaller every time I order it), and I had a caramel pudding for dessert that was out of this world. KevinH had a pasta dish and cake for dessert.

Then I came back home and immediately sat down to write again, but I wasn’t quite back in the swing of things and I wasn’t quite sure how I wanted to get to the end of the chapter. I’ve been waffling back and forth about one particular plot thing and it was going to end this chapter, but I decided not to do it (I still may do it later, but I’m not liking it quite as much as I did when I thought it up). So, needing to clear my head a bit, I watched an episode (five, I think) of Downton Abbey, which, I have to say with no spoilers whatsoever, packed quite a wallop. I do think that Downton Abbey is one of the most perfectly cast shows in TV history.

Then I buckled down, Winsocki and wrote over eight more pages and figured out a new way of ending the chapter that I was really happy with – it has one little chilling moment about three pages before the end of it, and then the rest is the aftermath of that. I felt okay about ending it and not doing the beginning of the next chapter, as I normally would, because the next chapter literally picks up where the previous one left off. After that, I wrote the blurbs for our two new releases, and I got the web guy all the sound samples and now the only thing I have to do is prepare the eBlast, which is pretty simple.

Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I really must get a good night’s beauty sleep.

Today, I shall get up around nine-thirty and I will then finesse, futz and fix yesterday’s writing, and then I’ll try to write at least three to five new pages. At noon I have a lunch with the singer, at which time I’ll determine the song order for the show, so that she can then do rough versions of the patter, which I’ll then finesse. After that, it’s back home and during the day and evening I’ll write another six or seven pages and hopefully finish or nearly finish the chapter. I’m sure I’ll watch another episode of Downton Abbey, and maybe even a motion picture. And, for those who need reminding, like me, the new Outside the Box episode, the fifth of season two, goes up at seven o’clock EST and four o’clock PST.

Tomorrow is mostly writing, but I may have one or two other things to do. Tuesday I have teeth cleaning with Dr. Chew, then writing, and then the rest of the week is writing until I’m finished with the book, plus work sessions with the singer, a visit to the editing room, and at least one day where I have nothing but a ME day, since I have been working and/or writing non-stop, seven days a week, since the first of January.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, finesse, futz and fix, write new pages, have lunch with the singer, write more new pages, watch an episode and perhaps a motion picture, prep an eBlast and then relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day, the day in which you dear readers get to make with the topics and we all get to post about them. So, let’s have loads of lovely topics and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, knowing that I will soon be a man possessed about losing at least twenty pounds.

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