2T Repeat Performance

In December, the lovely Magical Musings crew decided it was time to close down their blogging shop. I had three wonderful years with them. I thought you might be interested in seeing those posts now.

photo credit: Identity Photogr@phy via photopin cc

Playing Music in the Dark--originally posted April 30, 2014



Getting to know you. To dream the impossible dream. Favorite things. What do all these have in common? (Answer at the end.)

Speaking of getting to know you--I'd love to get to know you better. What's one of your favorite things?

In return, I'll share too. One little bit each month.

My favorite things #10--playing pit orchestra for musicals.

Sitting in the dark, watching the drama and fun and color of a musical unfolding onstage as an audience member is great. As part of the pit, you get to see so much more. The musical (for free), sure, but you're also privy to rehearsal bloopers and horrors (ask any community theater group what the show looked like the week before opening and prepare to laugh and cry) and the sometimes hilarious antics of brushup night.

My husband and I played pit for The Pirates of Penzance one summer. During the Croquet scene, one of the young ladies hit the ball too hard and my husband the cellist was beaned by a pool ball. So the next rehearsal he wore a hardhat.

In the Pit

A friend relates that, during The Wizard of Oz, Toto kept coming over to the pit to sniff the players. In our production, the cute doggy got bored in performance and decided to investigate himself! (My fictional heroine, pit musician Junior Steig, plays through a similar laugh-out-loud incident in Biting Oz.)

Another friend told of an old fog machine that got stuck during a performance. It produced great billowing gouts of the stuff. Stage fog is heavier than air, so when it gets to the pit it just falls right in. The string players' bows--haired in horsehair--went completely limp. No sound at all! My friend and the rest plucked their instruments like guitars just to get some sound. Plunk plink plunk.

Fun times aside, musicals speak to my heart. Who can't relate to young novitiate Maria in Sound of Music as she goes to her first job outside the convent, seeking the courage she lacks in "I Have Confidence"? Who doesn't feel the anticipation that tonight won't be just any night, shared by West Side Story lovers Tony and Maria in the duet "Tonight, Tonight"?

Getting to know you. To dream the impossible dream. Favorite things. What do all these have in common? They're all lines from hit musicals (The King and I, Man of LaMancha, Sound of Music), and they all speak to the heart.

5T Tossup--Is your writing letting you down? A dozen quick fixes to manage the thinking life (in three easy steps)

As an author, I make my money by thinking. Luckily for me, I grew up in a family that valued thinking. Also I have the great good fortune to be married to a thinking man, although we sort of were the only ones to understand each other, lol.

The problem happened after college, when I we both were launching our careers and our family. The time to think shrank with each new obligation. Don't get me started on what happened with the kids entered school.

Now I've had experience both as a thinker and a doer. What have I learned?

There are three things you must do to maximize any job that requires thinking.

1) Minimize anxiety.*

The reason I started writing this today is because of a task I've given myself--sending an introductory newsletter to general signups from a party. Basically, I'm cold calling a preselected list. Some people relish a challenge like that, but I have a tendency to start a joke with the punch line ("Only one, but that light bulb really has to want it!"), laugh, and then wonder why nobody joins in. (Oh, yes, the set up: "How many psychiatrists does it take to change a light bulb?")


Four of my favorite quick-fixes to minimize anxiety are:

• Meditate.
• Exercise/confident body postures (the Wonder Woman pose).
• Limiting myself to the FIVE TOP JOBS that need to get done today.
• Tackling a job I know how to do. 

This post is an application of point four. I know how to write. This blog is easing my anxiety so I can think about how best to approach all those new readers.

*Something I didn't realized before, but anxiety in the thinking life includes too much NOISE and too much DISTRACTION. "Too much" is different for different people of course, and even different for the same person at different times or under different circumstances.

2) Minimize boredom.
We all write a scene that we can't stand. Or get sleepy because we're uninspired by our characters or plots. Bored by same-old, same-old, we can't even scare up the energy to try to think up something new to inject.

Favorite quick fixes:

• Cut off bad bored habits (mine is clicking through game after game of Spider Solitaire, until my eyes bleed)
• Ninjas!
• Reminding myself my husband is working, and by darn, I'd better be working too.
• Mixing in new projects on a regular basis

3) Maximize time in flow.
Starting quicker and easier gives us more actual productive thinking and writing time. If you've set the stage with #1 and #2, you should find your thinking time goes easier. But how do you get into and out of it best?

Favorite quick fixes:

• Mood-setting behaviors. For me, I try to chew on ideas in my morning shower. Another way I get into the swing faster is by re-reading and editing the scenes I wrote the day before.
• Mood-setting environment. For me, it's scent. Maybe yours is a character sound track.
• Know your rhythms and work with, not against them. I hate to admit it, but I work best from 7:30 am to 10:30 am.
• Leave yourself a hook. End your writing period before you're exhausted, and leave yourself some little cue about where you're going next. An exciting cue. HOOK YOURSELF like you'd hook your reader.

Does it work? Well, this is January 16 as I write this, and since January 1 I've finished a novella and am a third of the way through editing a novel. Plus I'm promoting a major box set release. And best of all, I've started my cold call newsletter intro.



**Thanks to my husband Gregg for constantly posting links to articles on consciousness

4T Olio

December is a month of holidays of all different sorts. As we wind down the month and the year (and wind up the sunshine in the north :) ), I hope everyone is finding peace and happiness in their lives.

My dear hubby just posted a meme saying "In 2017: My goal is not to be better than anyone else, but better than I used to be." Sounds like a good plan to me.

I was sorry to learn Carrie Fischer passed away today. I mourn her loss. Her Princess Leia was a big inspiration to me, not the prevailing damsel in distress of the 70s but a woman with spine. Each life lost is hard, and my heart is with those who mourn for her, and all those who mourn those lost to us.

The past is golden, because, like the golden sun disappearing at the end of the day, it's set. We know how the past's story ends. It's not scary anymore.

Twenty-seventeen begins a new story, and because we don't know how it ends, it may seem frightening. It may actually end up being frightening. But I hope and wish for the best, for all of you. I look for the best, in all of us. I know by focusing on the positive, by being the best I can, by digging in and doing the work, by celebrating the small things, whatever goes down in 2017 will be better than it could have been.

Just realized...there's a new series of Sherlock plus more episodes of Grand Tour. That's enough to give 2017 a thumbs-up from me, lol.

July 4T Olio

Here's a bit I did recently for Magical Musings. Really loved how it turned out (or maybe that's just the fever talking, lol).

photo credit: USPS Ford Cargo via photopin (license)

Working on an edit deadline, I decided to wait until I had the time to properly put together a post for today. I even had a topic, I just wanted to have a clear schedule to find the right words.

Then I got sick. Not bad, but my throat and stomach are not very happy with me right now and I’m soooo sleepy.

But as any entertainer knows, the Post Must Go On. Or, as is inscribed in the James Farley Post Office in New York City (and it turns out is a lot older than that):

Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.
(From Wikipedia)

It reminds me of the book I’m releasing in September. A complete re-edit of the first novel I completed, Hot Chips and Sand rose out of my struggle to be both mother and successful career woman. Its a romantic comedy, but in it, I explore what it means to be a professional.

Some things have changed in the years since I first wrote the book. We no longer have stewardesses and the pile of greenbar reports I had my heroine tumble off the desk to distract the hero are so last century. But one thing that hasn’t changed is the struggle to be professional in one’s career. Is it dress for success? Being hungry to reach the top? Working eighty hour weeks?

I don’t know. That’s the lovely thing about a novel: I get to explore many of these from different points of view. But as far as being sick and still having to work, my hero sums it up nicely. “The client says, ‘How are you today’? And you say, ‘Not so good. But what can I do for you anyway?'”

Neither rain nor snow nor throat of sore can keep me from my appointed posts

More on Hot Chips and Sand coming soon, but I’m thrilled to share this gorgeous cover by EJR Digital Art!

Stacking Hats--How to Survive Crunch Times

TODO:

• WisRWA conference June 1-3--Board Meeting and two pitch sessions. NOTE: Must finish second draft of Alphas Don't Wear Bows and write pitch before May 31.
• Black Diamond Jinn--get up on Barnes and Noble. Schedule ads. Pull excerpts. Send out review copies? Need to research that.
• Biting Oz--final ARC returned, have approved excerpt and final Word file but not final books. Need to schedule posting of approved blurb and excerpts, not too early. Pull secondary excerpts. Parties scheduled, but need to prepare. Oh well, that's August. Must remember to blog on compilation of awesome editor Christa's brilliant edits. Waiting for final cover--remember to post on blog when received! Contact ad sites to determine lead times. Thank goodness Samhain takes care of sending out to reviewers.
• Newsletter! Almost forgot that. Not until August though, so there's a little time yet.
• Publish short story Oz Bites on Amazon and B&N. Hope it's faster and easier with experience. That's not until July.
• Camp NaNo--June. What would I do without Mrs pushing me to get fresh stuff written? Get bogged down in promo, probably. Writing Rocky's story (already started, is that allowed?), Biting Love Book 7. Must do preplanning. What? When???
• WisRWA--new task! Asked to moderate one of the workshops. Can I do that??

If you're an introvert like me, the above might look overwhelming. That's okay, normal, natural and nothing to be afraid of. It's because of a couple things.

1) Your stimulus-to-reaction brain path goes through an extra loop. You do more work for each and every task than an extrovert does!

2) If you're highly sensitive, which a lot of introverts are, you simply notice more. You have more inputs to deal with! So you look at the task list above and you see all the people in the crowds for the workshop and will you have to moderate questions, and and AND.

What's the secret of getting through this without freaking? I used a technique at my concert Saturday which worked wonders. I gave myself an hour of me-time before getting dressed in my concert blacks. And then I limited my field of input and concentrated ONLY on the task at hand.

That's right. Give yourself permission for me-time before (and after). And give yourself permission to filter out the world while you're doing something hard.

So today, I'm focusing completely on a few tasks. I'm working on this blog and another due next week at The Book Binge as part of a June Read-a-Thon (is that on my website News page?). After that I'll finish responding to emails and pull a Jinn excerpt for Blackraven Erotic Cafe for an Author Spotlight.

But no matter what, after lunch I'm working on Alphas. Nothing centers me like writing a good book :)

Introvert Shocker

You and nine people are in an elevator. How many of them are introverts? One? Two...and a half?

Would you believe five or six? Apparently the statistics we've all been fed are shockingly out of date. The truth is, almost fifty-one percent of the US population is introverted.

Well, okay, but that fifty-one percent is hiding in corners, right?

Um, no. In this USA Today article from 2006, 4/10 top execs are introverts. Remember, introverts aren't antisocial but simply need thinking space.

Speaking of thinking space, check out this 2012 NY Times article on a new rapidly scarce-ifying resource--not oil, not water, but uninterrupted think time!

The Artist's Eye

Heroes, especially alpha males in genre romance, are gorgeous. Or compelling. Or something that sets them apart from the everyday.

Why?

I have a simple reason. Consider a desert. I'm picking Baja California because there's a good set of pictures halfway down the page that shows the dry desert and the same desert in full bloom. How can you see it?

I can think of three ways. You can travel to California and see it in person. It's WYSIWYG, wizzy-wig or What You See Is What You Get. Chances are pretty good you'll get sand, cactus and scrub, dry dry dry.

Or you can view a map of the area. This will give you roads and names of features. Nice, bite-sized, and has the advantage of being more portable. Also the map maker can choose what features to include.

The third way is with a picture or painting. This is the most flexible of all, especially the painting. You can choose what to include and what to exclude. You can paint the desert as is or in full bloom, even though that may only happen once a decade. You can show a deeper truth, the beauty that only exists for a moment.

If you brought one of those three into your home, which would it be? I'd pick the desert in bloom. Because frankly I've got enough dry grass of my own :)

So when I read a novel, I want something different than real, everyday life. If I wanted everyday life I could just live it. If I want to make sense of everyday life, I could read a non-fiction self-help book. But if I want to relive the moment I fell in love with my husband, that belly-punch of the first time I saw him, well then I read a romance novel. What about you?

Penultimate

Here we are, in the second-last month of the year, two days away from the last month of 2011. What are you doing? Starting your holiday preparations or already hip-deep in the flood? Still eating Thanksgiving leftovers or selecting your New Year's hot spot?

As I tie up loose ends from the TRS Thanksgiving party and pound out the last 3000 NaNoWriMo words, I'm given to reflecting what a strange time of year this is. It's a time to finish. But it's also the jumping-off point for new beginnings.

Penultimate means second-to-last. It's not the end, but it is the harbinger of it, the voice in the wilderness. Yet what is after the last? Maybe We're done with this. What's next?

What's next for you? Hopefully something fresh and fun.

Opening the Windows to Sweet Air

We've been alternating between rain and super hot temps lately, and the windows have been shut on the house. Today is the first time I've opened them in quite some time and I have mixed feelings about it.

On the one hand, the cooler weather means fall is coming, and with it shorter days and imperfect light. The short days don't bother me as much as the watery sunshine. Something about that half-light makes me sad and reminds me of bad dreams.

On the other hand, today's breeze feels great and smells even better, both soft and fragrant. Nice change from stale windows-shut air. We don't get these lovely days often.

If I were to focus on the meaning of the cooler day, I'd be missing the simple joy of the sweet air. I'm not saying ignore the future, but it's a nice reminder to open the window when I can.