Goals for the Week

My goals were:

-Edit NewsMag submissions. Done
-Read AL submissions and decide which to use. Will be done today.
-Decide which new TNN to start. I'm 90% sure.

For this week:

-Get rest of NewsMag submissions and edit.
-Finish the AL submissions for real.
-Do some preliminary research for TNN that I'm 90% sure I'm going to start.

The Wrong Key

I used to take banjo lessons with a very talented woman named Beezy. About the third lesson, she asked me if I sang. "Not in front of people." She asked why that was. "Because I've been asked not to." She sat down at the piano and told me to sing (la la la style) what she played. I did. She played a little more. I sang it. She got her guitar and played "Go Tell Aunt Rhody" and I sang with it. When the song was done, Beezy folded her arms on the guitar and said, "You've got a perfectly good singing voice. People have just been asking you to sing in the wrong key."

The wrong key, eh? What a shock to my system that was. Now, I'll never be able to command a paying audience, but I don't feel quite so nervous about joining in a group singalong.

Does this apply to writing? I have trouble with short fiction. Not reading it. Love reading good short fiction. But I struggle with writing it myself. I tend to generate ideas with lots of characters that involve more than a snapshot in time. So are short stories the wrong key for me? Could be.

So should I work hard at improving my short fiction to the point where I'll do okay in a singalong? Or should I put my effort into singing in the right key? To maybe getting that novel to the point where I can play Carnegie Hall? Is it an either/or proposition?

What's your key?

Oops.

I seem to have forgotten that I was supposed to be working on weekly goals in September. Guess that means that weekly goals don't work so well for me. So for October:

--Let MMG simmer a while longer. If I really feel like picking it up, fine. Otherwise...
--Work on TNN, which may not be the same TNN I was thinking of working on. We'll see
--Stay current on submissions to AL and NewsMag

Okay, I feel better already, having put down the goals for the month.

Sorry, Ali.

My Pirate Name

Is Dirty Bess Cash

It goes on to say: You're the pirate everyone else wants to throw in the ocean -- not to get rid of you, you understand; just to get rid of the smell. You're musical, and you've got a certain style if not flair. You'll do just fine. Arr!

Go to www.piratequiz.com for your pirate name.

Spamalot!

I know I haven't been updating a lot the past few weeks. I'm still processing having to put MMG away--again!--and doing the crockpot thing with TNN. Not really riveting stuff to blog about.

Yesterday, however, I went with Jonnie & Steve to see Spamalot in Denver. What a great time! I think even those people who hate musicals would have fun at this one because they riff on all the standard musical fare. And for the guys (or gals) there's The Lady of the Lake and her Laker Girls. If you've seen Monty Python and the Holy Grail, you know the plot and have seen many of the bits, but they put a Broadway twist on them. Good fun.

The show is in Denver pretty much through October. The tickets are pricey. But if you can swing it, it is worth the price. In my opinion.

Or, closer to home, check out Theaterworks at UCCS. They have a great slate of shows coming up this season and tickets are around $18.00. I highly recommend The Santaland Diaries, which they are bringing back as their December show. It's by David Sedaris (Me Talk Pretty One Day, This American Life) about when he was an elf at Macy's one Christmas season.

And there's always The Pikes Peak Center for good shows at fairly reasonable prices. I sound like an ad for The Arts In Colorado Springs. So I'll go get ready to report for jury duty. That should give me something to blog about.

Arrrr!

Well, shiver me timbers, it's International Talk Like A Pirate Day! And it's been a while since my timbers were shivered, let me tell ya.

So avast, ye scurvy dogs and hoist some grog. This one goes out to me fine mateys of the Rogue Pirates.

Yo ho!

Saturation Point

I am officially sick of MMG. Okay, that's a little strong, but only a little. I read about a third of the way in and just can't read any more. I've read it so many times that it's almost as if the words make no sense. And I have to read it at least two more times: once to rewrite and once about a week after the rewrite. Then it may need more work.

So I am skipping ahead a little bit. The pages are rearranged in my nifty purple notebook with notebook sheets marking places where I need new scenes. I am going to start the retype this week, I hope. I have been too successful in my new position at work and have a couple testimonials to get ready to go out, which can pretty much fry me as far as writing goes for the day, except for blog posts it seems. But we'll see.

Has anyone else reached the point of being sick of their own writing?