Well, dear readers, 2022 is flying by, like a gazelle involved in a high-speed police chase. Being that yesterday was the first day of 2022, i.e January 1, I do believe that I began writing a new book. I believe this because I typed many words on pages. As I always do, I’d written a few pages a couple of weeks ago, so that when I opened the Word doc yesterday morning, I could just jump in. But not quite jump in because I had to first futz and finesse what I’d written and that always takes quite a bit of time, because those pages are written quickly and are usually rough. So, I had to smooth out stuff, had to rewrite a lot of it, especially the dialogue bits, as I get the characters to behave as they should. I added a lot of stuff, cut a few things, and then I finally moved on to new pages. I wrote for quite a while, took a few breaks, which I’ll talk about in a moment, and by the time I was finished for the evening, I’d done twenty-three pages, which is the most I’ve ever written on a first day. So, that was good and, more importantly, I enjoyed writing them. I had to stop a few times to do research, but that was pretty easy. Otherwise, I’ve just been sitting here like so much bloated fish, listening to Andre Previn conduct the wonderful William Walton second symphony. His performance of the Walton first is definitive, at least for me, and I also think his second is really fine. This is from the other Previn box of his EMI recordings. Great sound on this one. And prior to that, I finished watching Freud, a film of John Huston starring Montgomery Clift, Larry Parks (his first film post-blacklisting, for which we can thank Mr. Huston – he hadn’t done a film in almost a decade), and Miss Susannah York. She’s wonderful in it, Clift is fascinating, and it’s great seeing Parks again, who I always loved thanks to The Jolson Story.
Yesterday was a very nice January 1 and start to 2022. I didn’t get that much sleep, even though I was in bed by one-thirty. I think I fell asleep pretty quickly at two, but was up at four, the brain in hyperdrive with ABS (Active Brain Syndrome) – basically, a bunch of dialogue for the new book came to me fully formed and I knew if I didn’t get up, I’d forget it all. So, up I got and wrote it on a piece of paper. I went back to bed, thought of more, and this time got up and typed it all up on the book notes Word document. Then it was back to bed, but I just couldn’t fall asleep, although I obviously did at some point. I got up at eleven – I think I probably got six hours of sleep and that was fine.
I answered a few e-mails and once I was coherent, I opened the new book document and began the futzing and finessing. I wrote for about two-and-a-half hours, then shaved and showered. Then I began the cooking of the faux stroganoff. Knowing Robert Yacko does no sugar at all, I prepared some of the chicken and pasta without sauce, even though the sauce doesn’t really have any sugar in it – I just knew he’d be more comfortable. I think he was actually planning on foregoing any eating. Then he and Marshall Harvey arrived. And I was right – I could see Robert get ready to say he didn’t want to eat until I told him I just had chicken, onion, in a little butter to put over the pasta – and that he was happy about and he ate a nice big plate of the pasta and chicken. Marshall and I had nice helpings of the faux stroganoff and he liked it very much. We had fun yakking it up and they were here for about two hours.
After they left, I had some more of the faux stroganoff (there wasn’t much left) and also some of the leftover pasta with a little butter and cheese – that was good, too, but boy I have to knock it off with all this eating and that must start this very damn day. Then I wrote a few more pages, watched the rest of Freud, finished the first chapter and got three pages into the second, and then I did the dishes and began music listening.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll futz and finesse yesterday’s pages, then write more pages – I’ll try for ten to fifteen and see how that goes – I’ll mosey on over to the mail place and pick up whatever’s there and hopefully that will include the second important envelope. Then I’ll eat something, probably a salad of some sort, but definitely something around 1000 calories – no bread, no dessert. Must be very good for the next month. I’ll write, take a few breaks, write more, and then watch, listen, and relax.
This coming week is all writing, every day, lighter eating, banking on Monday (hopefully not too crazy in terms of crowds), and we’ll be setting dates for two musical workshops at the Group Rep so that I can then begin casting at the end of the month. We also have to get the set details worked out, same with the projections – none of that can wait until the last minute. So, a busy week, and I’ll also finish the sequence I’m in the middle of on the project with David Wechter. I know he’s just started on his sequence. Once we’re done with these two sequences, then we’re going to go over our little outline and begin consolidating everything to be the least amount of scenes necessary because we’re way too long already.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up when I’m up, futz and finesse, write new pages, pick up whatever there is to pick up at the mail place, eat, write, take breaks, write, and then watch, listen, and 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, happy to have started a new book.