10-minute play

September hath not as much time as I wish…

Question: If one writes a 10-minute play, and then precedes to want to change every line, does it make one a playwright?

What if one wants to change the sex of one of the characters to deepen it? At what point should one be comfortable enough to share it? For me, the willingness was there pretty early, like finished the night before an early morning writing club meeting and I was going to have it read there. I was hoping to be able to listen to it, not read a “part” and it could have worked, but, eh, I had another short piece and I also preferred to listen to another writer’s longer story, so it remains an unread play.

I know…I thought I was done writing, too.

It’s been an ongoing small task sort of month. Plants are being repotted, furniture is being moved to accommodate the fire in the woodstove, books are migrating between shelves. The Colden Festival was well-attended and it appeared as though most of the vendors had successful days. The temperature was pleasant and no rain fell – which for that Festival is a rarity.

I’m sitting in a place of disbelief for something that is believable, but the rapidity stuns. Yesterday I found out someone went to see a doctor on the first of this month. By the 8th, there was a cancer diagnosis. Last night, (after a three-meeting day with follow-up work to do after getting home) they were in hospice and had not wanted anyone to know they were sick. Today, they are gone. I had to hold it by myself for a sleepless night and whack-a-mole day until Husband came home and then I broke the news to him about his sister-in-law after he’d had a chance to sit down. Our niece had to hold in the whole thing for a month.

And of course, such things make you think and in some of my racing thoughts in the suddenly uncomfortable bed last night, I thought about how I was expecting to see her again and now I wont and how she didn’t get to retire. She was one of the most tireless workers I ever met and now she’s gone still.

Anyway, this is the short piece I read at Writing Club which seems fitting to add here, so I’ll share it below. Thank you for stopping by and for the read. I appreciate you!

  Relishing In My Nature and Yours

Why yes, I will use words in weird orders to halt you into reading that again to see if I made a mistake, but generally, you’ll find you’d been reading comfortably along when an original-ish thought jumped up like a robber baron to siphon away your life’s blood in exchange for some pieces of paper  and a “good chap” clap on the back and maybe you’ll own a house and a yard and maybe you’ll be driving a 1948 Alvis Duncan like a class A Anglophile, but will you have seen enough trees or tasted enough flowers or petted enough prickly lizards or licked enough dragonfly heads or enjoyed something like sex so much that you thought you’d explode in joy and if not, why on earth are we here for, but that?

Sentences like that are enough to try any reader. 

I didn’t unfriend you; Facebook kicked me out

Hello. I have a long version of the FB saga at the end – if you want to scroll for the details as to why I am not on Facebook. I’d rather speak of better things in this world like how I never knew these plants I call snake plants bloomed, but mine did.

Early this month, my 10-minute play, “Dust Up on the Skyway” was produced by Matt Boyle as part of “Get in the Car.” Kudos to the director, Andrea Simmons and to the real-life mother-daughter actresses – Hayley Wilkins and Lisa Sommers – who brought an incredible spark to the story. It felt invigorating to see other people’s work – so much so that I’ve been working on a one-act…

Theresa and Robert were fab for traveling in from Chicago and including us in their visit to western New York and the fancy named towns like Greece. As part of a choir, Jim and Mike serenaded all of us before a delightful meal at Steel Bound with their wives, as well at Denise and Eric.

The last scheduled meeting of the writing group that met at West Falls was cancelled. I ran into a participant at Wegman’s recently, she thought about offering to host that one, but didn’t. I thought about it, too. It was an interesting experience and prompted me to start one at a different library (Thank you Lydia!) That group is still going on and still offering hope that my writing isn’t horrid while allowing me the privilege of reading other people’s work. (Thank you Susan, Deb, and Hannah!)

Rina Fosati’s ventured out to Hamburg where we met at Comfort Zone for coffee. We often zoom on Tuesdays, but in person is better and it had been a while. Thursday, Husband agreed to go with me to a lit gig. Michael Parzymieso launched his first book, “The Dale” and had a warm intro from Nicole Hebdon. Today is Saturday and twenty-five years ago it was a Wednesday when Husband and I got married. (That’s a long time, isn’t it?) Anyway, so, there it is, a recap of this….

OH! I nearly forgot! Mucho mega thank yous to Kim Chinquee for including my story “Just One More Thing” in the Endurance Issue of Elm Leaves Journal. My beautiful contributor copy arrived! I truly am honored to have my work included among so many talented writers. The amount of care Kim puts into each issue as well as her classes and training is awe-inspiring. Seriously – thank you, Kim.     

On to the Facebook Saga:

Half paying attention, I opened Facebook one night and scrolled to find a pop up saying I couldn’t “like” a post, but I could leave a comment. Weird, right? So, I went through the settings and signed out of devices and created a new password. They sent a code to do this, and I then got an email saying it was all set, and I was good to go. A minute later, I got a nasty message saying I’d violated a community standard and I have 180 days to appeal. No warning sent that I’d posted a bad thing, no mention of what the violation was, no option to remove it.

In order to appeal whatever this charge is against me; I’d need to verify my humanhood on camera. While the one page says they keep the video for 30 days, further reading shows it is a year and really, I’m supposed to believe they’d erase it in 365 days? Right. This abusive treatment came about while I’m reading “Careless People” by Sarah Wynn-Williams in which she gives examples of what a $hit person Mark Zuckerberg is to others. (I’m just past where he abandoned a member of his team in Jakarta.) Anyway, I have 169 days left to appeal, but I feel no need to give the weirdo programmers my current image to warp into fake videos, so I guess we’ll have to find another way to stay in touch if our main contact is that advertising site. (Seriously, that’s another reason not to return – So. Many. Ads.)

 End of the boring origin story of my being basically silenced on a platform for…some reason.

Thank you for stopping by and for the read! I am reading Marie Kondo’s book but haven’t committed to it yet. The whole title is intimidating, “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese art of Decluttering and Organizing” but hey, it might make next month’s post succinct. Everything is possible. Have a great June and thank you again!