Again with this! Way too long between posts… Sorry. Well, not that anyone’s been pestering me to update, so likely my absence went unnoticed.
Election’s over, Seussical’s over… it’s time to get my life back. I am exhausted, and I’m still not sleeping well at night, so it’s kind of hard to get back into the swing of things. Seussical went extremely well and I’m very proud of the kids and the product we created. I have, for those of you bugging me about it, already told the powers that be that I will not be directing the play next year: Two years in a row is enough when you’re a parent volunteer. I haven’t done ANYTHING new besides work on the show since January. A little bit of work training SP’s for Kwantlen, and a little bit of my own SP work, but virtually nothing in the way of writing.
Colleen is critiquing Dark Elf’s Warrior for me, so I have done a small amount of editing/rewriting here and there, but as for creating anything new.… I hardly know what that means anymore. I certainly don’t remember what it feels like. So now I have to retrain myself. My creative mind has worked overtime dealing with problems on stage, and now I must turn it inward again, dig up those characters who have been so badly neglected that they’ve stopped even tapping me on the shoulder and saying, “Hello? What about us?” They’ve been really quiet lately, and I need to wake them up.
I have started by arranging a Writing Retreat to Powell River. My writer friends Myst and Jonathan will put me up for a few days, feed me (I will help, of course), make sure I have coffee and they will make me write. I will critique for them and they will bug at me and even critique for me… Even if all I produce in those few days is utter shite at least it will be something new to flush those cobwebs out. Myst might even let me throw a few more knives to work out frustration! [see my photo].
Oh, and I’ve recently taken up the ukulele. That’s another good way to focus. My uke is bright purple with sparkles. It’s pretty Rock & Roll. I can play Five Year’s Time (Noah and the Whale), Always Look on the Bright Side of Life (Monty Python), and Five Dollar Bill (Corb Lund), among other things. My brother and I had a most excellent duet jamming session with him on mandolin and me on uke, playing Highway to Hell, and Day Tripper and other cool stuff. Can’t wait to see what my purple rock & roll ukulele looks like on stage. All I need is a wicked strap and some electric pickups.
I wish to not do that to myself again, this whole “put writing completely aside so I can do some other project that will not, ultimately, do much for me, at least, not my writing career.” Ok?
You heard it here.