Tuesday, March 12, 2024
Waxing Moon
Today’s serial episode is from LEGERDEMAIN:
Episode 171: The Life and Death of John Smoe
A dead soldier who switched allegiance might only be the tip of this iceberg.
Legerdemain Serial Link
Legerdemain Website
Yes, “John Smoe” is both a play on “John Doe” and, historically, something similar to giving an unidentified person a name, AND a play on several tropes that are being turned inside out within the serial. What can I say? Legerdemain has a lot going on among multiple levels. That’s what makes it fun.
Friday started as foggy and mild. My mom felt well enough to help with the breakfast and make her own bed. I’m glad she wants to do stuff, but don’t want her to overdo it.
I got out a play submission and another submission.
Headed to the grocery store to pick up a few things. Got some flowers. Picked up my birthday cake. Headed to Wild Oats for a few more things, including wine and prosecco.
Stopped by the picket line to say hello and offer support. If they are still on strike this week, I will rearrange my schedule and spend some time on the picket line with them. One of my cohort people is out there on the line, because his job is affected. So is the person who keeps the cohort organized. The least I can do is spend a few hours on the line with them, especially as a fellow union member.
It was sunny and lovely out. I spent some time at the Spruces just being.
Did a drop off/pickup at the library.
The final episode of DEADLY DRAMATICS passed through the review process and will go live on May 13.
Worked on some script coverages, although I didn’t get as much done as I’d hoped.
Got an email that I have my very own caseworker at the state’s department that regulates telecommunications, they received my complaint about Spectrum, and are investigating. They were quite surprised at the number of regulations I cited as broken.
There was no need for any of this if Spectrum simply gives me that for which I paid every month, and for which I have paid every single month since I started with them three years ago.
Managed to sleep until 4 AM on Saturday, when Charlotte started being difficult.
My mom was feeling a little worse on Saturday than the day before, but she seemed better as the day progressed.
I worked on one of the big grant proposals and have the materials drafted. I can hone them this week, and then send them off. It’s a big proposal, but still less involved than the other one, which I started. I feel pretty good about what I’ve written. It’s both practical and also expresses my passion for the project.
I tried to get in at the Milne Library, both for their 150th anniversary celebration, and to see my cohort’s exhibit. But it was packed, and there was nowhere within a reasonable distance to park.
I ended up at Wild Soul River early for the tarot popup. There was a “tea and talk” session which I joined, and met some great people, while waiting my turn for a reading from Jane (using the tarot deck she created). The reading both made sense and surprised me, especially in the final card of the reading, which means I don’t/shouldn’t make any hasty decisions out of panic. (Hanged Man card, in case you were wondering).
I took a photo of the spread, and I think I may work with it some more, building on it.
It was a nice break during a stressful few days.
Made it home before it started raining again. Heard disturbing stories from the picket line today, about the crap management is pulling.
Re-read A IS FOR ALIBI by Sue Grafton. My friend Diane in the UK is re-reading the whole series, too, and inspired me. When I re-read the first paragraph, I remember the impact it had on me when it first came out in April of 1982, and how much Kinsey Millhone meant to me. I was still in college (NYU). The 80s were bad when it came to misogyny. I mean, when is it not? But we were supposed to have the big hair, the padded shoulders, and out-tough the men. We were supposed to prove we could do it all (remember the commercials for Enjoli? “I can bring home the bacon; fry it up in the pan. And never, ever let him forget he’s a man.” Talk about toxic expectations. Again, the woman is responsible for how the man feels, instead of him taking responsibility for himself).
Sara Paretsky’s first VI Warshawski novel, INDEMNITY ONLY, came out in 1982 , too. To have both of these strong female protagonists, who were as tough as men, but also had compassion and a different kind of strength, as well as intelligence and resourcefulness, was so important to so many of us at that time. It was, in a literal sense, life-changing. These characters were loners, refusing the traditional marriage and children path by choice, but also knew how to navigate and build community, and found community in surprising places.
Anyway, I remembered why it was such an important novel for me (and made me believe that maybe yes, I could write mysteries that didn’t fit the typical formula of the day). I also had more compassion for characters and choices that I was far more judgmental of at the time. Because, you know, now I have more life experience and it makes more sense. Even though I could now be Kinsey’s mother, age-wise.
Stayed up way too late, reading the whole book in a single sitting.
Moved the clocks back (except for the pendulum clock in my office, who has a hissy fit with time changes).
Slept until 5:30 jump-ahead time (which is 4:30 real time, so, basically, up as usual).
After the morning chores, I did 4 small script coverages, and then I could call it time off until after my birthday.
I spent the afternoon starting the year’s worth of work through Nancy Hendrickson’s ANCESTRAL GRIMOIRE. I read it through once, and then started the work. We are in March; the work starts in January, so I spent the rest of the day and evening catching up on a lot of the work for the first two months, so I could start the March work on my birthday. I mean, there are still exercises from January and February I will finish during March, so the first three months’ work is being done in tandem.
It’s extremely intense work, both fascinating and surprising. It’s far too complex and personal for a blog post. We can discuss, at some point, if you wish, views about ancestral lineage of blood adjacent/versus/whatever emotional/inspirational/psychological lineage.
In any event, it’s deep dive, intricate work. It’s fascinating. It connected a good many creative dots, and me saying, “Oh, THAT’s why I’m drawn to creating projects around X, Y, Z.” I’m using it as a tool to dig around in the compost of my psyche and figure a few things out.
You need two tarot decks (at least) and one or two oracle decks. I chose THE TAROT OF THE MOON GARDEN as the primary deck. It really wanted to come out and play for this work, and once I dug in, the artwork tied into the questions and exercises with an eerie synchronicity. The Connolly deck really wanted to come out and play, too, so that’s another deck which will be involved, as with the Rackham deck for any dream work, since I’ve found the Rackham is the strongest when working with dreams.
For Oracle decks, I’m using both the Enchanted Map Oracle (because, mind mapping) and the Literary Witches Oracle (um, if you know me, that’s pretty self-explanatory).
I only used Moon Garden on Sunday, but I used both oracle decks.
There are also supplementary cards the user creates. I did those on index cards, but I think I will invest in a deck of blank tarot cards, so I can do something with more stability. And a lot of pendulum use (I’m using a tiger’s eye pendulum that was a gift from a friend), along with maps. My handy dandy Collier’s Atlas is happy to get the exercise.
If all this sounds confusing, all I can say is, read the book and it makes sense.
But doing about two months’ worth of work in about a half a day is, shall we say, a lot. I have a separate journal book for the work, and took very detailed notes, and also noted where I found dots connecting. We will see if/how they rearrange themselves over the course of the year.
It’s absolutely fascinating, and what a great creative tool. It also ties into the art project I plan to create based around the historical women I’ve written about and who inspired me. (The one with the wooden spoons). Since the framework for that art piece will be out of wood, albeit with kitchen implements, and one of the artist cohort’s advisors is an artist who works in wood, guess who’s going to be getting a whole big batch of questions? One of my cohort does visual industrial art, so I might ask them a few questions, too.
I spent most of the day being completely disoriented from the time change. My mom was doing a little better, but one of the medications increases confusion, and she hates that.
We got into the chocolate truffle bomb birthday cake right after dinner Sunday. I mean, why wait? It’s really good, and there are many ailments that can be solved with chocolate birthday cake.
Slept pretty well, up at the normal time on Monday – my birthday! 62, all y’all. My body’s like, “yeah, you’re 62.” My brain is often still in my late 20s/early 30s.
I felt very special, showered with many birthday wishes, both in real life and online. I am very grateful.
Eggs Benedict for breakfast, which was yummy. I did a few birthday-ish things, like unwrap the gifts sent by friends (they were wonderful), and do some more Ancestor work, starting the work for March. Which, so far, puzzles me, but that’s the way it goes sometimes.
I’d woken up feeling like I was getting sick, and determined not to get sick, but I rested a lot and felt better as the day went on. My mom was doing okay, too, so that took a lot of stress off.
I read a book that was mediocre, which was a shame. It had a lot of potential, but was too intent on fictionalizing the author’s lived experience to a point, rather than doing what was best for the story and characters. It Mary Sue’d instead of being more concerned with the story’s integrity.
I went to order my birthday dinner – from the restaurant I’d checked multiple times in the past weeks to make sure it was actually open today – and the online ordering was dismantled, and there was only a message on the phone that the voice mail box was full.
I wasn’t about to haul my ass to a different town and then find out it was closed. I looked at the other restaurants open on a Monday close enough to do a reasonable pick up. Only burgers, tacos, and pizza were available, and that’s not what I wanted.
So I cooked my own, it was good, I wasn’t disappointed because a restaurant meal didn’t meet expectations, and we had more of the wonderful chocolate cake (which we also had at lunch). I prefer not to cook my own dinner on my birthday, but at least I knew the food was good!
The first ten episodes free on Vella went into effect yesterday, and the “every episode is 10 tokens” is supposed to start today, but who the hell knows? I’m just sticking to my adjusted plan. ANGEL HUNT will run its course into June. DEADLY DRAMATICS starts burning off episodes daily this coming weekend. I’m working to end LEGERDEMAIN early. So many authors are justifying it so they can feel better about staying; hey, if it works, good for them. I need something else.
Sort of like with Substack – people are going quietly back to the platform, ignoring they monetize Nazis. Nope. Sorry. You’re on Substack? Not subscribing or following, even for free. They can continue their own hamster wheel of trying to make it work within a system that’s built to cause harm; that’s not for me. I didn’t even realize how much stress that platform put on me (not keeping up with the column, that was fine, but all the rest of the demands promoting the myth of “if you’re not wildly financially successful, you’re not working hard enough” instead of them doing their part in the deal) until I left.
On today’s agenda: working on Legerdemain; hopefully working on another project or two. I have to follow up on the estimate for the car repair; it’s been more than a week, and I haven’t heard anything. I have two medium script coverages to do in the afternoon. I’m baking brownies to take to the picket line tomorrow. Once this is posted, I’ll put some chicken in the crockpot. I have yoga tonight, although I think I’ll just do the one hour of gentle yoga. I also need to work on the grant proposals. I’d like to get both of them out the door by the end of the week. I should get this week’s videos up and posted; by the end of the week, I’ll have to create/schedule one per day for DEADLY DRAMATICS.
Somewhere in there this week, I need to get back to CAST IRON MURDER, and next weekend, I have my taxes to look forward (?) to. I’m also starting the deep spring clean this week, but I’m doing it slowly, so it will probably be May by the time it’s done. I usually start in the kitchen and work my way forward; this time I’m starting in Tessa’s room, right off the porch, and working my way back. I’ll do the front porch when it’s warmer, because those windows and blinds need a good wash.
So there’s a lot to get done, along with the regular stuff, and only a few spoons with which to do them.
I better get going then, hadn’t I?
Ink In My Coffee 
