Changes Ahead

So, alert readers may have noticed that it’s been a minute since I’ve posted a blog here. These days of quarantine have been affecting all of us in different ways and for me it was becoming a daily struggle to think of new things to write each day, so I gave myself permission to step back from it for a while. My mood has been quite good: this wasn’t a decision made out of depression. Instead, it was more of a question of bandwidth: I’ve been grinding away on rewrites on the manuscript for my novel as well as polishing up a screenplay and that has occupied most of my writerly focus each day.

What does that mean for moving forward?

At present, all my energy is being directed towards preparations to self publish my novel. My goal is to release by the end of June and the good news is that it will be FREEEEE! As a matter of fact, I’m going to be repurposing this wordpress site as a platform on which to release chapters on a bi-weekly basis.

If you’re already a subscriber, consider yourself on The A List: you will be among the first to receive notice when the chapters are released. I’m excited to share my first “official” work of long-form fiction with you and I hope you will enjoy it, but I do realize that it’s not for everybody. Maybe you followed me because I wrote about running. Or maybe you followed me because I wrote about keto baking. Maybe you’re just not that keen on fiction, or you find sex, drugs, rock n’ roll, colorful language and poor taste to be off-putting. It seems only fair to give you a heads up about the changes ahead.

Thanks for reading! I hope you’ll stay tuned!

Fonts

This isn’t one of the fonts I liked for shape, but I like what is being done with the color

I just learned the difference between a font and a typeface. Like most people, I’ve always used the terms somewhat interchangeably, but it turns out that typeface is a specific family of lettering, whereas fonts are individual styles within that family. Arial is a typeface. Ariel Black or Ariel Light are fonts within the Arial family.

I was surfing the internet looking for interesting fonts to use to mock up a cover design for my manuscript. I’m still rather on the fence about whether or not I have the design skills to design my own cover (conventional wisdom would suggest that “if you don’t know, then the answer is no”, but I might be too foolish to follow my own advice on this) so I thought I’d at least try doing a mockup on my own and see if I liked the results. I can always change my mind later.

I found a few options that I like, but I haven’t really played around with them yet. Funny thing about working full time: I suddenly have a lot less free time to be artsy fartsy.

Charmed/Strange

 Credit: PETER FOLEY/EPA-EFE/ShutterstockMandatory Credit: Photo by PETER FOLEY/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock (10777967f)

The weather has finally turned cool, and earlier in the week we were abraded with high winds that managed to bring down some trees in the neighborhood. We finally turned off the air conditioning and turned on the heat and immediately the dust settled in my sinuses to give me a headache that has somewhat muted my enjoyment of the cooler weather. Everything is a trade off.

Being back at work has added some structure back to the middle of my day, which actually feels like a nice change of pace so far. But it’s only day two.

Yesterday, I had to forgo my evening run while I got used to the new schedule, but I’m optimistic that I should be able to get out for one today. It looks nice outside.

I did manage to finish reading “Rage” by Bob Woodward, as recommended to me by a previous boss. It was very well done and an interesting read: I was glad to get some context around some of the upheavals from the past four years that only made it into my awareness by way of internet outrage, which is not the most reliable of resources.

I feel like I have very little sense of where the country is heading in the coming days as the election results come in. Four years ago I felt great optimism in spite of finding myself in a world that seemed to be defined by absurdity. This time, I feel like I’m grinding forward with my head down; trying stay focused on the present. After all, there’s only a week left to go before we find out whether we have split off into the Charmed or the Strange splinter universe.

Muscle Memory

So, the good news is: I’m back to work. It’s not a “new” job, per se, since it is back with my old payroll company where I am helping out temporarily while I search for the next full production gig. It’s not exciting work, but it’s better than unemployment.

Today, I finally got my remote access set up to be able to cut checks again. I haven’t touched this payroll system in over a year, but here I am being plunged in head first! I’m discovering (luckily) how much of the process has been committed to muscle memory: which is good, because my brain memory has been TERRIBLE. All the commands that I knew by touch are still stored deep in my mental databanks. All the commands that require me to remember, say, a password or batch name, are GONE.

It’s really interesting to see the process at work. I’ve been able to do 90% of the cutting so far without getting *too* stumped, but luckily there haven’t been any major hiccups to throw me off. Yet.

The day is still young.

The Green Room

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  When you want a little Rock n Roll with your liquor

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  Detail of the waiting area

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  Kinda cozy, don’t you think?

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  When your dressing room is en suite

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  Great shot from just the right height

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  Black and white actually showcases some of the design better

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  You give a girl a guitar case shaped lunchbox and now THIS happens.

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  Teeeeny bar of soap. Made from real soap. Also, all those tiles behind the sink were individually cut and installed because I HAVE TOO MUCH TIME.

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  Yes, I made the box. Yes, I made the toilet roll.

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  More tiny props

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  Pretty proud of my little notebook and the magazine. I’ll also have you know that rumple was very carefully designed into the rug

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  I like to think of this as one of those old 1920s Deco theatres that have become music venues: once glorious, now hard worn.

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  Not gonna admit how much time I spent cutting out and gluing band stickers.

At the Christmas white elephant gift exchange I won a guitar case shaped lunch box and, for reasons that remain unclear, became preoccupied with the idea of turning it into a diorama. In January, I took a field trip to a miniatures store where I picked up the chair, the guitar, the rug, and some of the parquet flooring.

Then the project sat untouched for months.

When I finally got back to work I built out the walls- this was furthers delayed while I tried to sort out lighting- I was very convinced that lighting would be a key element in “selling” the world, but I didn’t have the foggiest idea how to go about it. But once I figured out the wiring and the battery packs and so on I could install the walls and begin to decorate them.

So. Many. Stickers.

So. Much. Distressing.

My idea was that I was creating a little green room for a musician. The venue had once been a glorious 1920’s deco theatre but had since been keelhauled along the bottom side of rock n roll history in dozens of chaotic layers. A place both cozy and homey and also a place that had been completely rockstar-ed many times over.

Anyway, I’m delights with how it turned out and now it’s installed in my liquor cabinet, which feels appropriate.