Gearing Up

Although I do think that most of my energy, creative and otherwise, is going towards healing my body from the fall, I can feel my brain trying to steer itself back toward writing creatively again. I have two big projects: a major rewrite of "Blue Roses" and a minor rewrite of "The Godmother." Blue Roses first I think, because I'm excited about it. Although the characters from The Godmother periodically harass me, even in my dreams, to DO SOMETHING, to get the play produced. That bunch, they want out of the box. Each character has a full life that wants to be lived onstage. I could do an entire series with these characters, if I had the chance. I could see them in a TV series, for sure.
I would love to see them in an onstage series, although that is so hard to do. Not that a TV series isn't hard to do! Right? Where would THAT money come from? I guess what I mean is, that because a local production seems more doable, it seems harder. The TV idea would be completely up to someone else who came along and bought the rights.
The point is, I have enough ideas, enough character background and story to write the material. These gangsters are kicking at the file cabinet all the time. Where they are it's 1928, Kansas City, Missouri, and Prohibition is in full swing. Not really enforced in KC because of politics, so the Irish Mob is doing great. The Godmother is a young butch dyke who has just taken over for her murdered brother. She is Tomboy McCorkle and she chooses for her second Mr. Uppity Jones. Half her crew is African-American, half her girls are too. She's got a thing for her widowed sister-in-law Corker, and she's got a younger brother to raise. She's also got some serious competition to watch out for with Chee Chee di Mayo and his boys. So, you can see I'm gonna have to get to them soon.
Blue Roses is getting a complete overhaul. The current protagonist will become a background player as one of the background players steps up to take over the story. I'm excited about it. It makes so much more sense in my mind already. I'll tell you more after I complete a draft.
How do you gear up to write new creative works? do you outline? mind map? talk about your work or keep it secret? I'm planning to use Blake Snyder's Save the Cat to outline Blue Roses this time, just as I did when I wrote The Godmother. It is a screenwriting book, but it works for the stage as well. Tell me your writing secrets! I'm spilling mine.

The Day the Cast Came Off

At last the cast is off my right arm. It was only two weeks. I don't know what I was thinking. I nearly passed out from the pain when my arm was freed. Seriously. They had to lay me down, get a pillow, a wet rag for my head, some orange juice ... and wait. I guess I thought that my arm would have magically healed while encased in fiberglass and I could do everything as before. Alas no. I also have a sprained wrist, so I have a brace as well as a sling now. If anything I'm even more encumbered. I can take those off, in fact I have to take them off and exercise my arm at times during the day. Also ice the elbow 20 minutes a day.
The arm doesn't have a huge range of motion yet. The fingers are good to go, not so the thumb (I think that's to do with the wrist). My elbow looks like a grapefruit, size and color. Very nice.
Doc gave me a large container of Vicodin to encourage my doing my daily exercises. As my brain has been mush anyway, I don't see how it can hurt. I think all my faculties have gone toward healing these past two weeks. I am curious to see how long it will take me to get back in writing shape. Physically and mentally. Stay tuned if you have the patience!
And, please ... do write and say what your own experience has been in similar circumstances. Has injury ever affected your creativity?

I Saw a Successful Writer Last Night

I went to Willamette Writers' monthly meeting here in Portland yesterday evening where we always have a speaker, and I ALWAYS learn something. Last night I mostly just had a great time watching a young fellow describe his experience of "winning the writer's equivalent of the lottery." (Quote by Cynthia Whitcomb who introduced him.) Daniel is the man who sold his first fiction novel -- when he had written 100 pages -- to Steven Spielberg. The finished book "Robopocalypse" opened in 13th place on the NY Times Best Seller list. He's been consulted all this past year by Dreamworks about the robots they're building, and rightfully so because he has a Ph.D in robotics.
See this isn't really a lottery. This is a smart guy writing about what he knows and what he has a great passion for. Everything he has written (non-fiction up to now) has been successful because he is a hard worker, clever, quick-witted, and passionate. And yes there was some luck involved, but not as much as you might think.
What did I learn this time? Don't hold back, use everything I have, this might be the only book I write so do my best, and follow every lead for a shot at publishing/agent/etc. Daniel has used everything he learned in academia to aid him in his writing career. Smart man.

I Am a New Yorker

Never mind that I do not now, nor have I ever -- in thisd lifetime -- been a resident of New York. Since the first time I read about NYC I wanted to move there, live there. The first time I flew into La Guardia I had this feeling in my stomach: I'm coming home. By the next afternoon, as I was walking the streets of Greenwich Village, people were asking me directions, and I was giving them -- correctly. I have a good sense of direction and I pay attention. I don't know why people ask me for directions, but it happens.
I saw many, many Off- and Off-Off-Broadway shows on that first trip, no Broadway shows. It was 1979. My collaborator and I were there to visit with American Place Theatre about the possibility of their producing our play, but they weren't comfortable with our requirement of an all-woman cast, so there went that dream, onto the next.
Over the years I have returned to NYC as many times as I could afford it. I have made many friends in NY, and friends have moved to NY. I've subscribed to The New Yorker since 1981 and read the blurbs about the current shows, arts, music as avidly as if I were planning my weekly outings. I read the New York Times for news and arts the same way.
So what keeps me from moving to Manhattan, Brooklyn, or Queens? Not money, though I have none to speak of. I live small and frugally, I could manage. No, I stay where I am because of family.
I was born with a huge case of wanderlust. I love to travel. I have, in fact, travelled. Now that my resources are so limited I just want to be near my family. And they don't want to live in NYC. Nor could we afford to, as a family. So I'm looking to my next visit to New York, my real home.

What have I learned so far from my big fall?

I've been trying to think about what it means to be injured -- not horribly injured, as in paralyzed or blinded, but definitely sidelined. If I were a sports player, I would be benched. I'm having to type with my left pointer finger. Not so great. I also find that my concentration is limited, and my memory is pitiful. I have left things behind, forgotten words and names, and I feel pretty cranky in general. So maybe I've learned nothing yet. I'm taking in the fact that I have a great many friends who are concerned. I appreciate so much the ones who have been able to bring me food when I couldn't get out, and run me on errands when I couldn't drive. I can only barely drive yet.
I have a feeling there is a lesson still to be revealed. If you have been injured I'd like to hear from you. What have you learned, if anything?

Old Enough?

During the Vietnam War the people of the US put enough pressure on Congress to lower the voting age to 18 because young men were being drafted at 18, fighting, dying for our country at 18. I know the drinking age was 18 in some states as well. I don't know if that was nationwide.
The voting age remained. The draft was abolished in favor of an all volunteer military. But during the Vietnam War, it was rare for people to do more than one tour. Now they do three or four. Our volunteer military goes way above and beyond the call of duty IMHO. But that is not my subject today.
Age is. We are an aging population in the US. I had many friends who went to the war I protested. I worked for the US Army Recruiting Main Station before I became a protester, so I witnessed literally hundreds of young men going off to war.
One thing that never occurred to me to protest was the age limits for holding office. This morning I read an article on this topic. John Seery is proposing an amendment to the US Constitution to lower the age requirements. I agree with him. Read his article and see what you think.
http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2011/06/26/john_seery_age/index.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

down ... temporarily out

like humpty i took a great fall. yesterday at weiden & kennedy, missed the last step, went down hard on left knee and right hand. hand so hard that i broke my elbow. now typing one-fingered with left hand. don't expect a lot of words for awhile! i'm in a cast.