Time to Begin

This post will also be found in Tehachapi's The Loop Newspaper.

Summer has finally started for me. One very time consuming project is finished, so it is time to start finding new projects to work on. Or get back to some that have sort of fallen by the wayside.

I've got a book I'm in the process of editing. A mystery novel set in the 30s out in Death Valley. I'm about halfway through the second draft and need to finish that up and get further along the path towards trying to get it published. Then I can consider writing more books with the characters I've begun to develop. As far as I can tell mysteries tend to build collections of books using the same detectives.

Then I've got plays to write. A couple that are already started and just need more work. And some that I've just started having ideas for. And I've got several out being considered for various theatres around the country. Plus it's about time to start working on one for Tehachapi Community Theatre's Playwrights Festival. The festival has been moved to the Spring (so 2014) and the call for submissions is about to be made. Anybody living in Kern County can submit a script, and a 10-minute play is only about 10 pages long. (For proper formatting I recommend the free software Celtx.) So it's something that many of you could try to do. We had some good scripts last season, but I think that we can do even better.

Then one short play I wrote earlier this year seems to be coming back and it is trying to talk me into making it a movie. And it will likely be different that some of the other things I've written that Gary Mazzola has turned into movies. Previously he's taken monologues or short plays and “filmed” them and released them on YouTube. But this will be different, assuming it ever gets made.

Then there's getting ready for the Kern County Fair. Yep, I'm going to try to get another ribbon or two. So that means trying new recipes. Maybe even something with Spam again this year. Yum. And there will certainly be some pies. I've got a really good lemon pie this year, so I'll probably take that one down. And of course keep trying with apple pie. I've got some new ideas there too.

And then there are always new things to learn. I need to try to track down a book on spiders. None of my insect books has more than a page or two on arachnids. And with all the spiders around right now, I'm feeling ignorant. Then I want to find some time to try to learn some painting. Probably watercolors. But I need to set up my computer room with space for projects like that. Why the computer room? Well YouTube has free lessons on so many different things. (Of course some like flintknapping shouldn't be done inside.)

 So summer has barely started and I've got a full agenda already. Hopefully you'll be using yours well too. But you know... Right now I think I'll take a break.