Well, dear readers, this week is flying by, like a gazelle with an inferiority complex. Not only is this week flying by but the month of January is half over. How did that happen? And how did this happen: Word, that awfully peculiar program for writing, which I happen to be using at this very moment, is trying to tell me that the line above “Not only is this week flying by” should, in fact, read “Not only are this week flying by.” Who are you trying to kid, Word? It does this all time. Sometimes it offers suggestions that are correct, but more often than not Word underlines things it questions but when you click to see what the correction is, it’s completely wrong and makes no sense. May I also just say what is with this LA weather – it’s colder than a witch’s dirty pillow. Last time I mentioned this someone questioned my use of the word “cold.” Well, when temperatures in LA are in the 40s (even the 30s a couple of times), then I hate to tell you, but it’s COLD. Except during sleep time, I have literally not had the heater off since December began. May I also just say that yesterday was a day in which I was occasionally irked? Has anyone noticed these here notes are all over the map? Some of them are in Italy, some are in New Jersey, and some are even in South America. What the HELL am I talking about?
In any case, yesterday was a day in which I was occasionally irked. First of all, I slept until almost noon. That is not good when I’m writing. But it’s been taking me a long time to fall asleep at night, because like Adriana Hofstetter, my head is filled with many details and I’m thinking about many things. In fact, it took me until two-thirty to finally fall asleep and then I was up a few times during the evening. One of those times was around seven in the morning, so I did turn on the heat and that may have helped me stay asleep so long. So, I needed it, but it flummoxed the whole day in terms of being on top of the writing. I got up at 11:45, answered e-mails, then did my finessing, futzing and fixing of the previous day’s writing. Most of that went quickly until I got to the end of the chapter, where I’d stopped. I had to finish writing it and then I revamped it several times. And then, since I like to leave Muse Margaret with the opening line of a new chapter in the pages I give her, I wrote the first line. Only it took about an hour to come up with it. Once I did, I was very happy with it because it gave me the way into the chapter and what would be happening for its first four or five pages. Then I printed out eighty-seven new pages, took them to Staples for Xeroxing, then delivered them – Muse Margaret was out, so I just left them on her doorstep (in a bag, of course). I then went to the mail place where I picked up no packages. That irked me right there. That was probably the first real irk of the day. Then I went and had a sandwich and no fries, plus a cup of chicken noodle soup because once again I feel I am fighting something. This has already been a horrid cold and flu season for just about everyone I know, so I am determined to fight this thing tooth and nail and even nose and ear. I began sucking down Coldeez, chewed Airborne tablets and drank lots o’ water.
Then I came home and began the new writing, but I could never get more than a page because various and sundried interruptions kept happening, one after another. I somehow managed to ultimately get four pages done in between the interruptions, which included yet another problem with the Kritzerland site (related but not the same as last week’s problem) and I have asked the web guy to begin the process of leaving our current host because I have had it with them. For a company that prides themselves and even advertises about their amazing customer service, I have seen little evidence of it. The new host we’re talking to really wants our business and at first glance they even appear to be less expensive. Unless our current host feels like apologizing and perhaps giving us a credit for all their horse manure, then I see no reason to stay. It literally broke my concentration for at least three hours, which I resent in the extreme.
I then took a writing break for a couple of hours. Then the irked part of the day was completely over and I had the delight of seeing the full first cut of the season finale of Outside the Box. It’s already a good length, and there are places to tighten if we feel we need to. For a first cut, I felt it was 98% there, with only a handful of things to adjust. The editor did a great job. Even more fun is that he’s IN the episode. Adrian Zmed is great, as are Lisa Livesay, Clent Bowers, Sarah Staitman and Addison Chandler. No ensemble in this episode, and we even have one more song than usual for a total of four. So, that made me very happy. And then Muse Margaret called – she hadn’t read all eighty-seven pages but she had read about forty and said she absolutely loved them. She’s really enjoying the characters and the dialogue. So, hopefully she’ll finish the rest this morning and call me by ten with the rest of her report, which I’m hoping will be okay. She did ask me if I was having a great time writing this one because she says it’s really coming across that way. I told her I absolutely was.
Then I watched another forty minutes of Lilith, which is a very strange but oddly likeable film. I do enjoy Warren Beatty in just about anything, and Jean Seberg has never been more beautiful. I’ll have more to say when I finish. Then I wrote another seven pages, taking me up to the end of a chapter, the final paragraph of which I’ll write this morning and then I’ll move directly on to the new chapter. Happily, I know exactly how the ending of the chapter goes, so I should be able to write it very quickly. After that, I did begin the liner notes for what will be one of our two new announcements next week. Hopefully I can finish that by tonight. I’ll just work on it when I’m taking a writing break from the book.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I must get a good night’s beauty sleep.
Today, I shall be up by nine (I’m setting the alarm), I shall finesse, futz and fix yesterday’s writing, then I shall immediately move on to new pages. I really would like to get four or five done before I lunch. Then I’ll hopefully have a telephonic conversation with Muse Margaret at ten. After I eat, I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, and then I’ll try to complete another five or six pages before a late afternoon rehearsal with Juliana Hansen. That will last an hour, then I can finish the liner notes and maybe even Lilith.
Tomorrow is more of the same. I may have a work session at some point, although I’m hoping that can happen of Friday instead. I may visit the editing room to make the teeny-tiny changes in the season finale so we can lock that one up. The weekend is writing, of course, but I deserve a really nice dinner out and I will damn well have one. And hopefully we’ll be fully cast no later than tonight. I’ve already assigned the songs to the cast I know about, and we may have a second guest star, which will really be fun if it works out.
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 a telephonic conversation with Muse Margaret, write, lunch, hopefully pick up packages, write, rehearse, perhaps finish liner notes, and then relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Ask BK Day, the day in which you get to ask me or any dear reader any old question you like and we get to give any old answer we like. So, let’s have loads of lovely questions and loads of lovely answers and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, where perhaps my dreams, like these here notes, will be all over the map, especially Sweden, Denmark, and Finland.