Blatherings

My composer friend AB just sent the mostly-finished Credo and IT IS SO FREAKING GOOD!

Like I had goosebumps and teared up just listening to a midi file and following along in the score.

And I'm not just saying that because all there is of the Credo text is an "I believe" ostinato in the lower voices and the rest is ALL MY WORDS AND THEY WORK REALLY WELL BECAUSE HE SET THEM SO SENSITVELY AND BEAUTIFULLY!

It's gorgeous, y'all. I

f JCA doesn't  want to program the piece on the strength of the Credo alone, I'm calling shenanigans.

AB also sent the first bit of the Gloria, and I think that's gonna be super fun, too. I skewed a bit Whitmanesque on the text, but I still like it quite a bit.

And now I'm wondering if I shouldn't rewrite the Kyrie, though it does make sense for it to be a bit different from the others, seeing as it's the oldest text in Ordinary and the only one in Greek. Ah well. I'm DEFINITELY writing texts for the Sanctus/Benedictus and the Agnus Dei that are AT LAEST as long as the Latin texts, because the Sanctus is a bit short and the Agnus is a bit repetitive. Plus, it's much nicer to have to cut down than it is to add things. It also tends to result in stronger texts, too!

Right! Back to work and all that rot, but YAY YAY YAY I am so excited!!

Smooches to All,

Lib
Mun42

PS Had a bit of excitement earlier. A guy with a knife was spotted on campus. Nobody was injured and he didn't threaten anyone with it, but it was still a relief to be in a locked corridor until campus police gave the all-clear.

PPS Oooo stuff from the [university] era is coming out in the comments section of the Huberman NY Magazine piece. Popping some popcorn because DAMN I swear I know at least one of the people talking about it...

PPPS I totally forgot I had a New York Magazine subscription so I went through and upvoted the good comments and made a couple of small comment (one corrected the breed of the dog in question, the other was a reply saying that I checked in with one of his [university] lab members and said that they'd all been reaching out to one another, so hopefully folks were feeling validated in the wake of this coming out.

So.

Being a straight white cis fan based in the USA, it took me an embarrassingly long time to have a clue about how much racism there is in fandom, from reliance on stereotypes in fic to people literally writing anti-Semitic conspiracy theories into their stories or harassing, dogpiling, and/or doxxing BIPOC and AAPI fans who speak up about about racism. I'm not proud of how many years I lived in ignorance, and as everyone trying to implement antiracist practices does, I constantly have to push back against my own instincts to extend the benefit of doubt to those with large platforms who benefit from the status quo when they push back again accusations of racism and/or suggestions of how they might make fandom spaces more inclusive.

That said.

I have zero patience for the purity police who conflate characters' behavior, regardless of context, with the beliefs of the author. I myself have been called racist for having Lucius Malfoy exhibit racist behavior in a fic.

Lucius. Malfoy.

Which he later atones for. In a fic that I had sensitivity-read because it contains an OC whose race is different from mine. Which taught me that there is no pleasing the purity police once they've decided you're guilty, but also that no one person's experience or opinion is universal, including that of sensitivity readers. All I can do is try to ramp down my instinctual defensiveness, consider what's at the root of the accusation, and try to determine to what degree my writing is to blame and to what degree the expectations of the reviewer are out of line.

And y'know what? I've made tweaks to long-completed stories, even in situations where I felt that the reviewer was wrong, to make things harder to misinterpret. And if I'm being completely transparent, there are some things I've written in the past that now make me cringe, even if nobody's called me out on them, often because they're in drafts never saw the light of day or published to less accessible venues. Those past mistakes, more than any entitled twit trying to gotcha me in a review, are what keep making me want to do better.

Also? This is not to say that the fleeting and petty annoyance of being called names by a handful of reviewers over literal decades of writing hundreds of thousands of words of fanfic is in any way comparable to the organized campaigns of harassment that target the folks who write regularly about fandom (and canon) bigotry. Such harassment includes getting dogpiled in comments, being booted from discussion spaces, receiving barrages of copypasta flames on their work that have nothing to do with the work itself, DM and public threats, bigoted insults, race-and sexual-identity-based harassment across platforms. And that's just the stuff that's happened to folks I know!

So all of this brings me to #EndOTWRacism. As the current owner of Twitter has shown us repeatedly, free speech absolutism is a scam concept intended to protect oppressive voices and silence their critics. Whether or not they originally meant to, OTW/AO3's large umbrella currently shelters and platforms oppressive voices and those operating in bad faith. OTW/AO3 absolutely needs policies on harassment and abusive content. They absolutely need a diversity consultant to get strong policies in place, and they absolutely need to be transparent about the process. OTW could be a force for positive change and inclusivity and has paid lip service to those things. Now they need to carry through on their promises. 

My own experiences in fandom do make me sympathetic to those on the receiving end of puerile criticism and unfounded accusations, but it would be false equivalence and utterly inane to claim that those things are in any way comparable to the widespread, longstanding, vile, bigoted harassment and abuse visited on vulnerable fans (*cough*The Author*cough*). 

With respect, OTW, it's well past time to step back, stop pointing fingers, and get the fucking work done.

Lib
Mun42

So a few years ago, Clara had an earplug-eating thing. Before Mr. 42 got his sleep apnea diagnosis in 2016,he snored to wake the dead, so I got used to sleeping in earplugs, and I still sleep better wearing them.

For no reason I could discern, Clara started stealing them off my nightstand and eating them, and I wouldn't discover the theft until the next morning, when I would be faced with irrefutable evidence on walkies. I had to start putting my used earplugs in the drawer so she couldn't get them. Mr. 42 suggested that she liked them because they'd been in my ears, which was gross but also kind of complimentary, y'know? And then just as suddenly as it started, it stopped. I reckoned she'd lost her taste for my earwax.

Fast forward to yesterday morning. I usually keep a weather eye on the dogs' deposits on walkies, since they are decent indicators of their overall state. Both dogs' digestion has been a little weird of late because walkies times and durations have been erratic due to wave after wave of atmospheric river rains, and the girls are not fans of wet weather. I was mostly concerned about Hildy, since she was off her feed s bit yesterday and ate grass until she puked not once but twice.

So I was downright shocked when on morning walkies, Clara squatted and instead of a normal poo, she produced what looked like pellets. "WTF?" I thought and examined her deposit when I bagged it.

Her poop was almost entirely earplugs. At least ten of them! I confess, I wasn't too thorough in counting, so there may have been more. But then I recalled that I've been somewhat lackadaisical about picking up earplugs that I accidentally knocked off the nightstand in clumsy sleepiness, since it had been so long since she'd eaten any. But also that I'd had to replace them twice recently. And now I know why!

The earplug thief herself has thankfully suffered no ill effects, and her midday deposit was earplug-free. However, I did discover that another pair of earplugs disappeared from my night stand, so we may have another pellet incident, albeit a less dramatic one with one pair of earplugs instead of, y'know FIVE.

My dog is an earplug-eating weirdo and she is ridiculous and I love her.

I was also reminded that I have been remiss about sharing my poo-themed walkies songs here, since I usually just put them on the Book of Faces. So please enjoy (?) this scatalogical song that I wrote in September of 2021 to the tune of "Pure Imagination" from the 1971 film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory:

Come away, greet the day
With a walk of doggy defecation!
You can hunt cats and play,
But please also defecation.

Sniff the grounds, lovely hounds,
Such olfactory anticipation!
When you poo I’ll give you adulation!

Your digestive health’s paramount,
Which is why we walk each morning,
Grassy lawns with poo adorning,
Thankfully you squat
To give me warning!

Neighbors stare, some will glare
At the sight of doggy defecation.
Please don’t nag, I’ve a bag,
And the girls are both a-wag.

In non-poo-related news, a German wizard rock band I particularly like, POTTÖRHEAD, released a rather brilliant little album of 23 songs of 23 seconds apiece for 2023 and I attended a virtual release party yesterday that was delightful. They seem like the sweetest guys, and their stuff rocks ridiculously hard. I'm antsy for my band to get our album out, but it's not up to me at this point, so it's nice to be able to direct my enthusiasm somewhere fun.

Also and alas, RV has contracted COVID (mild symptoms, thankfully and already on the upswing), so last night's Heavenly Choir was a bit bonkers, though we did manage to run everything for the morning service and Evensong. We've got a pinch-hitter ready to step in for Evensong, and my fellow sop section leader AW stepped up for arm-waving on the offertory anthem, and that was fun because I've never seen her conductor face before (it is formidable and excellent), despite knowing she's been a high school choir teacher for decades. RV hopes he will be well enough to lead us on Sunday, but it's good to know we'll be in good hands regardless.

Fri: work on campus, freee night, tidying/cleaning
Sat: virtual friend meetup, tidying/cleaning, work on music for Heavenly Choir, Master Chorlae, and ProChoir, Master Chorale social media?
Sun: morning service, Evensong, tidying/cleaning, social media?
Mon: work on campus, Master Chorale rehearsal
Tue: work from home, finish tidying/cleaning, host Bach Collegium homestay (assuming RV is well again?)
Wed: work on campus, either Wizarding Wednesday or see a show at the Casbah with Mr. 42 possibly
Thu: work from home, Zoom with Master Chorale Exec Director, Heavenly Choir rehearsal

I've got loads to do at work today, so I'd better hop to it. I've got a busy week coming up (and Pro Choir starts up again the week after that!), so I should try to do what I can. Y'know, around Drag Race, because somethings are important.

Love to All!

Lib
Mun42

So despite fiddling with it for an embarassingly long time, my Potterwatch bandmates and I finally got our sea shanty to where we wanted it and submitted it for a compliation album, masterminded by wizard rocker Totally Knuts.

The album dropped today, and IT IS SO GOOD!!!! I was blown away by the variety and quality of the songs submitted, and they range from filks of existing shanties to completely original works, and there are some brilliant examinations of unexpected characters (Hagrid, Uncle Vernon, Regulus Black), many of which are just out-and-out wonderful songs.

We only had to follow Sonorus's AMAZING track, so no big deal, right?? But unsurprisingly for a bunch of music nerds, so many of them got what we were going for, from the euphemistic love scene with the Giant Squid to the Potterwatch radio-static outro, and I'm so happy that folks seemed to like it! My favorite comment: "This song has a lot of songs in it."

So without further ado, here's the link to the album at BandCamp, and if you prefer to follow along with lyrics (though with lower quality sound), TK released the watch party video on their YouTube channel here. I'm a tiny bit sad that my working title, "A Krum-my Shanty" didn't make it into the final version, but "Durmstrang" will most certainly do! I got to keep the Charybdis reference, so I have no complaints :D

And for posterity, here are the lyrics, which will hopefully make you want to listen!

DURMSTRANG - by Potterwatch

Watch the weather now, cast together now, see the lubber-lads quail!
Shrouds a-shivering, timbers quivering, through Charybdis we sail!

Our fine ship is the Circe. She’s sailed the wide world round,
Her home port is at Durmstrang, for Hogwarts we were bound!
Bearing , Krum o-our champion, revered in every land!
Karkaroff in his cabin/, and Viktor was in command!

CHORUS

Viktor summoned the maelstrom, and down its depths we steered.
Though the waters engulfed us, in Hogwarts’ lake we appeared!
There victorious Viktor received his due acclaim,
When the Goblet of Fire produced his prominent name!

CHORUS

Autumn soon turned to winter, a lass turned Viktor’s head.
Over our ship the Circe, a flow of romance spread,
When a dueling disaster leaked potion in the lake,
Giant Squid surmounted our galleon by mistake.

CHORUS

Viktor was framed as the villain who wrecked the final task,
Murder, mayhem, and magic, but Moody soon was unmasked.
Though they soon would be parted, Krum’s sweetheart vowed to write.
Karkaroff like a coward, slipped softly into the night!

CHORUS

Though Dark Arts we have studied, our hearts are ever true!
Speaking truth is our power, the Dark Lord soon will be through.
Our home port’s still at Durmstrang we sail the Circe on,
Seeking out ev’ry Dark Mark ‘til all his minions are gone.

CHORUS

OUTRO CHORUS

Swish and flick, and watch your wrist, your incantations clear!
From the gunnel, watery funnel suddenly appear!

Winds blow! Heave ho! We go below!
Through the maelstrom now we go!

Hey all!

It's been a bit of a wild week, and almost entirely good, but I wanted to make a rare public post to let you all know that I and some friends from ProChoir have formed Potterwatch, a Wizarding Rock band, and our first single is available for listening!

The song is called "Dolores Umbridge" and, as our fearless leader says, any similarities between Umbridge and our departing Secretary of Education are *purely* coincidental.  I myself contributed backup vocals and lyrics. Regular readers of this space may recognize the subtle touch of my pen in such pointed portmanteaus as "High Inquisiturd." *giggles*

Listen on Soundcloud!
Like us on Facebook!
Follow us on Instagram!

We've got some fun tunes in the hopper at preasent, plus some plans for larger projects, and we'll have more music for you soon!

Smooches,

Mun42

So my grand, ambitious plans for Saturday evaporated as dew from grass. Largely because, as when dew quickly evaporates from grass, it was hot as blazes on Saturday, and Chez 42 is not air conditioned. The smallish heat wave that was predicted for the weekend has turned out to be a larger and probably more protracted heat wave than expected, and much of the state is affected by soaring temperatures, miserable humidity, and rolling blackouts. Fortunately, we're in that blessed <10 miles from the coast zone that means our heat index was in the upper 90Fs on Saturday and not in triple digits like much of the county and state.

So I observed the heat wave by doing very little (dishes... laundry... ). I didn't attempt to record, which involves shutting off all the fans and closing all the windows, because that would have been miserable. But I did sit down at the piano to figure out how to play "Too Darn Hot," which is much easier than I thought it would be, after which dug out my Beethoven sontata book and played through the first movement of Pathétique. I have lost much of the muscle memory (I had the movement nearly memorized at one point), but a lot of it is still there, and it was fun to revisit!

The weather was so gross the dogs didn't even complain too much about getting short walks. Although there was a mishap on a bonus walk that Hildy punked me into giving them, which was at least partially my fault, that led to two of my fingers on my dominant hand getting a bit shredded by Hildy's extendable leash (I was untangling said leashes when Hildy lunged at Friendly Neighborhood Cat, I grabbed the leash, and she kept trying to give chase, and she is STRONG), so that sucked and will take some time to heal. In retrospect, I'm quite glad I decided to practice Beethoven just before the accident, since it may be a couple of weeks before the fingers are up to attempting it again.

Thankfully, Sunday was nearly ten degrees cooler and pleasantly breezy. Our friend ML came by to drop off some beer I'd asked her to order from The Bruery for me, which led to us hanging out inside (masked and distanced), taking a walk, and hanging out under the trees out front, which was wonderful. After that, I put on my big girl pants and got the audio for Master Chorale's virtual choir project recorded. Woo hoo! The best part? The main section of the tune ends on a big ol' sustained fortissimo Bb5, and while I had to record it like six times before I got one I was happy with, not only did all the takes feel and sound decent (one had the best Ab, one had the best Bb, and I spliced them together), I felt great afterwards and not at all vocally tired. So double woo hoo for healthy vocal production!

Mr. 42 and I celebrated by taking the dogs to Fiesta Island, and while the dog park was weekend-normal-busy, the rest of the island was SLAMMED. It was cars and RVs and trailers parked practically bumper to bumper nearly the whole perimeter of the island. There were so many boats and personal watercraft buzzing about that we saw something like four different harbor police craft assisting or pulling over other boats and towing jetskis whose engines had flooded. And even worse, when the sun went down, everybody who'd been hanging out all day decided to leave, and the one-way road around the island was so backed up that it took us 20 minutes to get back to the mainland. Fortunately, the dogs had a lovely time running around and making doggy friends (C was quite taken with a Neopolitan Mastiff, which is unusual; her usual M.O. is barking off larger dogs) and were content to snooze on our laps on the longer-than-usual trip home.

When we got home, I had a shower, Mr. 42 made fajitas for dinner and squeezed me a lime and a half for a large and delicious margarita (shredded fingers = no citrus squeezing for me until the wounds scab over), and after dinner, we watched a couple of episodes of Legend of Korra, and I enjoyed one of the lovely beers ML procured for me. I had a vague notion that I might record the video portion of the virtual choir piece last night, but the humidity meant that my wet hair didn't dry in time, so it was nice of the universe to give me permission to relax.

Today is suppose to be quite hot, but thankfully, we've got some cloud cover keeping things cool for the nonce. I've put on makeup in anticipation of recording the video today and starting on my video editing journey (heaven help me...) to replace the video's audio with my prerecorded track. However, I can't do anything just yet because I'm supposed to wear my choir uniform top, and it's in a bedroom closet that's currently blocked by the old mattress, so I need to wait until Mr. 42 is up and about to get his help moving things. Fortunately, I have until 11pm on Tuesday to submit my video for the virtual choir.

In other happy singing news, I'm "on" this week for church, which means I get to record two of the hymns in person with RV on organ and me standing 20 feet away at the choir desk. So that'll be happening tomorrow or Wednesday, and I need to practice the hymns (and, okay, learn one of them...) so we can try to get the hymns in as few takes as possible. It's going to be AMAZING to sing in an acoustically live place again, and with actual live organ accompaniment? Joy!!

ETA1: Mattress moved and choir uniform top achieved! And we were finally able to put away our luggage after our vacation! (Yeah, the mattress has been there for a while...)

ETA2: I have just done something very smart: I loaded the reliable tenor + accompaniment track into Audacity and lined up my recorded audio to match up EXACTLY with it. I had some concerns about the soprano + accompaniment track, especially in the break-it-down section at the end, so I matched my track to JR instead, which is never a bad idea. Plus, it also gave me something good to record the video with. Time to fire up OpenShot and see if I can get the audio lined up and see how good/bad I am at lip synching!

ETA3: I have learned that OpenShot gets grumpy when you fiddle excessively trying to line up video/audio tracks that start at different times, but I made it work, successfully synched my prerecorded track to the video I shot, and have submitted it. It's not perfect, but it'll certainly do! Wooo!!! And I got an instant reward, too: the new blackout office curtains have arrived! Aaaaand they fit the windows and actaully close all the way (YAY!), and they're already doing an awesome job of blocking both light and heat. Okay, walkies calls. But I'm so pleased!

ETA4: All this industry has inspired Mr. 42 to hit up Home Despot for window screen to replace one of the dog-shredded ones in the bedroom, so we now can have BOTH sliding glass doors open without getting invaded by mosquitos. Wooooo!!! BRING ON THE CROSS BREEZE!

Smooches to All!

Mun42

So last night, I did indeed submit the final bit of the musical script to all and sundry, which marks THE END of my contribution for theatre camp, though I will still of course be answering the emails of any students with questions about shooting their solo bits or who need cheerleading....

THOUGH FROM THE GLORIOUS SIERRA NEVADAS, PEOPLE! WOOOOO!

Work was slightly annoying because I had to send a third email asking Person to do Thing, because if Person doesn't do Thing, What He Wants to Happen can't actually happen.

BUT! When I took the dogs on midday walkies and got the mail, I noticed there was a manila envelope from theatre camp, which made me say "Huh." It wasn't a check envelope, so I was pretty sure it wasn't the generous check I had been promised. So after walkies and lunch, I opened it. And what should be inside but a gift card that comrpised 20% of the promsed pay with a really sweet note from the theatre camp administrator, thanking me for going above and beyond with my contribution, as an unofficial bonus. I strongly suspect composer and director also got these bonuses, too.

So because I am me, I spent the equivalent of the bonus on a REI on stuff for vacation. And also because I am me, I totally forgot to use the gift card when I checked out. But there will be plenty of opportunities to spend it, and spend it I shall. And I am not regretting the REI purchase in the least because I'd been putting off buying a number of things, and I finally had an excuse to do so. I shall enjoy my purchases the whole summer, I suspect.

Right. Happy weekend. I hafta record church tomorrow morning annoyingly early. But then there is Sunday and then Monday and then vacation. Yaaay.

Sweet dreams, y'all.

Hugs,

Mun42

I am so glad that I decided to have the brilliant idea to offer to compose one of the remaining songs for our theatre camp musical this morning, when Mr. 42 was home. Because as nifty as my ideas seem in my head, and as willing as I am to steal from existing songs, I am absolute crap at transcribing. Fortunately, with only a bit of GAAAH from me and WTAF from him, he was able to figure out what key and time signature I was actually in and take my feeble efforts out of the music notation software I barely remember using two years ago into the music notation software he uses all the time and as a result, before noon, I was able to email a lead sheet with a serviceable melody and chords to the show's composer, who was very kind.

So yeah. With a great deal of support from the resident music theorist, I have written a song for the show. That blows my mind a bit. Have I mentioned I'm SO GLAD Mr. 42 was on hand to help me? Because I couldn't have done it otherwise. THAT MAN. <3

I also managed to spill iced tea all over the keyboard when my guitar nearly fell over, so as the day went on, the keyboard got weirder and weirded. Shutting down the computer seems to have fixed the problem, hopefully permanently, but I do have a replacement keyboard arriving on Wednesday, just in case. So out of 16 (!!) songs (two are reprises, but still!), all 16 exist in some form or another, though 6 are awaiting student approval. HALLELUJAH. Once we get student approval, I get to send out the scenes, and I'm super excited to be TOTALLY DONE with the book of this musical.

AND we recorded the final scene this evening! WOOO!

It's about freaking time!

But I gotta say, the composer sent the closing number tonight and it is freaking amazing. It's even better than I'd imagined it would be! I'm so glad I jumped at the chance to make this show, but yeah, I'm looking forward to getting back to writing fiction. And possibly hitting the composer up to help me with my blasphemous oratorio. It's been a while since we had a blasphemous mainstream musical, after all.

OK. Tomorrow is for sending scenes, a meeting, and actually getting some day job work done. *nods firmly* Super glad I took care of my church singing for the week over the long weekend. It was a very fun hymn to sing, too, AND I think I figured out how to prevent the audio clipping that plagued my last hymn recording. No idea why the default settings suddenly started sucking on my webcam mic, but at least I know how to test and adjust levels prior to recording, and that did the trick. Woo!

OK. Freak-out emails are written. Pizza's in the oven. And I have a Mr. 42 to appreciate.

Smooches to All!

Mun42

Bon soir, mes amis.

*hic*

Why yes, I have been enjoying fermented beverages. And I have not yet eaten dinner at after 9 pm. This is not an excuse for typos but rather an invitation to raise a glass with me and join me in silliness.

I just left a church Zoom in which I wore, in order, a Thor helmet, a scimitar balanced on my head, and my Princess Peach crown. I did warn them it was my fourth hour of Zooming today, and I did ask RV's permissinon to put the sword on my head before doing so. Still giggling over the fact that it was seven or eight minutes before anyone (RV) commented on it.

Whence, you ask, this jollity? This giddness? This unembarrassed silliness?

I freaking DID IT, y'all.

I submitted ALL THE FILES for ProChoir, church choir, AND the first (lengthy and establishing) scene for the musical I'm writing for the church theatre camp. Our meeting, at which a cold read of the first scene was to happen, was scheduled for 3pm. I finished the first scene script at 1pm. I knew it was a tight timeline. As of yesterday, I was missing two camper character analysis sheets and didn't get one until this morning. And let's be honest, Monday and Tuesday were spent finalizing ProChoir and church choir stuff. But I freaking integrated everything, including the this-morning character analysis sheet. It wasn't as brilliant as I can be, but it was NOT FREAKING BAD under the circumstances.

And the best part? After the cold read, I invited the kids to submit comments for revisions, and they ACTUALLY DID! One said, "I didn't feel like this important aspect of my character was part of what you wrote." I said YAAAAS I WILL REVISE! One said, "I kinda wanted this funny thing to be part of it, and it wasn't." YESSSS FUNNY PERSON, THAT WILL MAKE IT BETTER! One said, "I need you to delve deeper into how this character presents versus who he really is," and I said OMG I want you to go into that in your individual scene, but you can be damn sure I'm going to foreshadow the fuck out of it in the first scene. Then I got an email from the girl whose character storms out at one point, asking to storm out later because she feels shortchanged and I'm all YES THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT I NEED TO HEAR AND YOU SHALL BE THERE FOR AS MUCH OF THE SCENE AS POSSIBLE!

It's really like writing to prompts for a fest.. You just open the lines of communication and hope you get something back. I'm so happy these kids are invested in their characters enough to push me.

It would be a very different thing if I'd been working on this script for months and had things in EXACTLY the order they need to happen. But this thing has existed, even in embryonic form, for less than a month. A few days, if I'm being honest, because I had NO IDEA of the sample script I wrote would be usable at all (it was). The least I can do for these kids we've asked to do a lot of character development is to use what they're coming up with. And loads of it is stuff I NEVER would have imagined. At this point, they know their characters better than I do, even though they're working from my scripted skeletons. I don't have much hope that this thing will have "legs" after we post the final version, but it's going to be the best I can make it, and that ain't nothin', in the divine words of Jayne Cobb.

So yeah. Tomorrow I actually have to do work for work and send a copy of the revised script to my co-script person who I feel bad about leaving out of the first scene draft because of the shor timeline. And then send the script to the kids. I have until noon, because I said "tomorrow morning."

This means I should probably eat something. *sighs* Right. Back to the work of unwinding after a pretty intense day of making stuff.

Love to All!

Mun42

A couple of years ago, in response to one of my Comic-Con reports about an amazing YA fantasy writer's panel, gelsey mentioned that she particularly loved one of the panelists, Maggie Stiefvater, and recommended her novel "The Scorpio Races" as a good place to start. I added it to my wish list and received it for my birthday. It took me a little bit to get around to reading it but OMG it was National Velvet meets Riders to the Sea only with monstrous, carnivorous horses. It was AMAZING and totally up my alley. So then I started reading her other books: The Raven Cycle (OMGGGG SO GOOOD) The Wolves of Mercy Falls (I DON'T EVEN LIKE WEREWOLF BOOKS AND I LOVED THESE), and Mr. 42 got me her All the Crooked Saints for my birthday and I wept and it was amazing.

So yeah, I really dig Maggie's writing. And she's into all sorts of interesting things (songwriting, portraiture, cars, competitive bagpiping) so she's fun to follow on Twitter. And then in April, she mentioned on Twitter that since she'd had to cancel the in-person novel writing workshop she was planning to do, she was going to try to convert it to a virtual event on June 4th with a $99 registration fee. Given my dismay over my lack of progress on my stated goal of finishin my novel draft in 2020, I jumped on that faster than an exceedingly fast jumping thing. I took the day off work, pawned off morning walkies on Mr. 42, made myself comfy, and at a few minutes before 9am Pacific opened the Dropbox Folder of videos. At initial login, there were nineteen videos of varying length, so I started watching them in order.

She started out with the right kind of caveat, namely that she can't teach us how to write because everybody's brains are different, and our goals for writing are different. So her stated goal was to teach us how she writes novels and to share the methods that allow her to write commercial fiction and actually finish projects, because that's a thing she struggled with. If some of her strategies work for us, great. But if not all of them do, then keep the ones that work and ignore the rest.

So I was pretty much mesmerized from the start and started cackling and yelling things like "I LOVE THIS WOMAN" down the stairs at Mr. 42. I think it was on video two or three that I understood one fundamental conceptual thing that was holding my novel back. I popped over to my writer's group Whatsapp and started squeeing. I think it was on video five or six that I realized another thing I was missing and freaking NAMED it. However, there were also some emails from Maggie through the Eventbrite about technical difficulties and that she was still uploading still more videos plus supplemental content, but students were getting booted from the Dropbox folder, but that we'd still have access to all the course materials after the day-of launch. I could tell she was stressed because she kept mentioning things like "I know some of you took off work for this" and "I want to respect your time" and the like. I was still treading merrily through the videos, though slowly because I was taking tons of notes and having more epiphanies about how I needed to fix my draft. By the time lunch and mid-day walkies rolled around, I managed to get through eight of those mangificent, brain-tickling, inspiration-fizzing videos before Dropbox became unresponsive, and I wasn't able to log in for the rest of the day. Eight videos, from which I got SEVEN SINGLE-SPACED PAGES of notes.

Later, she let us know that Dropbox had locked the account, so she had started migrating everyting to Vimeo, all the while lamenting her rural internet and slow upload speed and my heart just broke for her. I know she was stressed, I'm sure people were badgering her about the technical problems, and she wanted to provide the best online workshop ever. And from what I'd seen, she did exactly that.

However, I didn't have time to access the Vimeo videos until after work today BUT YOU GUYS. Those of you who teach or have ever had to make a video of yourself doing anything know how much freaking time goes into making even a short video. She made twenty-six videos for this workshop, totaling eight hours. EIGHT FREAKING HOURS OF VIDEOS THAT ARE CHOCK-FULL OF WRITING WISDOMOSITY (if the three hours I have already watched are indicative of all the others, and I suspect they are). My jaw is on the freaking floor. This weekend, I'm going to try to get through all the other videos, and I hope my brain is ready for it. Because holy wow, you guys.

They say when the student is ready, the teacher will appear. It never felt quite so literal to me until now.

So gelsey, thank you. <3

...BUT THAT'S NOT ALL!

Partway through the morning of mesmerized video-watching, the dogs started barking up a storm, so I went downstairs to check the mail, which is usually a thing that makes the dogs go bananas mid-morning. In the mailbox was a small padeded envelope from the very person I had been thinking of in gratitude for encouraging me to read Maggie's books in the first place! In the envelope were three absolutely beautiful metal bookmarks with dangles of beautiful beads and charms: music notes, a G clef, a heart, a doggy bone, and two dachshunds! The enclosed note read that gelsey had made them for me in response to a gift/craft meme, and I was bowled over with their beauty, the thought and skill that went into making them, and the absolutely glorious kismet of receiving a book-related gift from someone whose gift of book recommendations turned out to be of immeasurable value to me IN THAT VERY MOMENT.

So again, dear friend: THANK YOU!

*dances you around the room*

All my smooches and love,

Mun42

PS I Tweeted my gratitude at Maggie today and she responded so kindly. *heart eyes*