So as some of you know, writing SSHG helped remind me how much I loved to write at all, and, with the unconditional support of many of you, but most especially annietalbot and miamadwyn, I have been hard at work on an ofic, a murder mystery novel that takes place on a movie set.  Thanks also to the 5_for_five challenge, I was able to complete it and am now working on the third draft, with considerable help from Annie and a few offline friends.  With Annie's encouragement, I have been preparing to enter it in two rather important contests for unpublished mystery writers, and I've started to shop it around to literary agents.  

The second query I sent out came back because, dopey me, I put a stamp on the SASE but forgot to put one on the outside envelope!  So I just remailed it a couple of days ago. AND I JUST GOT AN EMAIL HALF AN HOUR AGO SAYING THEY'D LIKE TO SEE MY SUBMISSION PACKAGE!!  Thanks to all of your encouragement, I actually know what that means, have the material already prepared in the right format (having spent some time researching in my local bookstores), and just shipped it off!  How exciting is that!!!

I am dancing around like a thrilled little writer--with the SSHG Awards, this is a good day to be a scribblin' fool!!!

And now back to the editing....

*HUGS YOU ALL TIGHTLY!*

When I wrote my very first SSHG story and needed a beta, I found sshg316 on the list and, with great trepidation (not knowing how my request would be received), asked her to beta it.  Not only did she (brilliantly), but she also said, "You must come and join LJ, I'll introduce you to some lovely people."  And I found a marvelous home.

Then when the SSHG Exchange time came around again, she said, "You must enter this," and I replied, "Only if you'll be my beta once again," and she generously agreed.  And when I saw the amazing prompt from lady_rhian that I had been given, I squeed to Shug and said, "This is what I want to do with it," and she encouraged me once again (enabled me, really), and thus was born Everybody Comes to Snape's. (Posted at http://owl.tauri.org/stories.php?psid=8971, thanks to my ever-encouraging Ebil Twin, annietalbot .)  The woman was born with pompoms in her hands!

And now, thanks to all three, but first among them the blessed Shug, I haz:




Thanks to all who nominated and all who wrote so much wonderful stuff.  For me, nominating for the
sshg_awards was tough this year, in a very good way!  I am in extremely distinguished company!


Lovely banner by the equally lovely pearle9240

If it isn't too late, may I make things easier by presenting my pieces that I believe are eligible for nomination in the SSHG Awards in a more nominator-friendly format?


Title: Everybody Comes to Snape’s
Author: elisewanderer
Category or Categories: Strengthening Solution, Mrs. Scower's Magical Mess Remover, Amortentia
Story Link: http://owl.tauri.org/stories.php?psid=8971
Author’s Email or LJ, if available: elisewanderer


Title: The Spirit That Remembers
Author: elisewanderer
Category or Categories: Calming Draught, Mrs. Scower's Magical Mess Remover, Scintillating Solution (or maybe Hair-Raising Potion)
Story Link:  http://owl.tauri.org/stories.php?psid=7699
Author’s Email or LJ, if available: elisewanderer


Title: Forever
Author: elisewanderer
Category or Categories: Invigoration Draught, Draught of Peace
Story Link: http://owl.tauri.org/stories.php?psid=9251
Author’s Email or LJ, if available: elisewanderer


Title: The Dear John Letters
Author: EliseWanderer
Category or Categories: Invigoration Draught, Euphoria Elixir
Story Link:  http://owl.tauri.org/stories.php?psid=9799
Author’s Email or LJ if available: elisewanderer


I'm also quite sure I've missed nominating some dynamite stuff this year--there's been some really good writing going on!

So I had already decided that my next mystery novel will take place on the set of a situation comedy (I'm still editing the first one, haven't even started to submit it, and am already thinking about #2, how's that for hubris?).  I know these sets, I've been on a lot of the big ones, they are interesting places for mayhem.  So when I got cast in another one, this time working on the first episode after the pilot, I thought, "Hey, great opportunity to gather more material."

This particular show had shot a pilot episode (with a legendary director in charge), then had recast half of the series regulars, presumably done a major rewrite, and reshot the pilot (with a different director).  It is (was?) I think aiming to be a mid-season replacement, so it wouldn't start in the air until early next year. 

I was hired for three days.  They were planning to preshoot my scene the day before they would shoot the majority of the episode in front of a "live studio audience."  We did two days of rehearsals, ending the first day with a runthru for the show's producers and the second day with a runthru for the network executives.  At the end of the second day, they told me what time to come back on the third day, and everything seemed hunky dory.

That night (Tuesday), one of the producers called me at home.  He explained that the network was reevaluating things, they all wanted to make sure this was the direction they wanted the series to go, and they weren't going to be shooting the next day after all.  He'd call me once they knew what was happening.  Yesterday, he called back.  They're pulling the plug at least on this episode.  Sounds like the whole thing is dead, despite whatever huge amounts of money have been spent so far.

And all I could think was (a) "I do get paid, right?" and (b) "ooh, material for the book!"

Does that make me a bad person?

So the gig came through--I start shooting on Monday.  It's on a new NBC sitcom called "100 Questions.  I play a Homeless Woman (or Homeless Lady, depending on which version you read--I did ask in the audition, since it makes a HUGE difference!--*laughs maniacally*).  And it's three days of work, so I'm doing a happy dance.  Yee-ha!!

I read posts from ihkelele and lariope saying they've been remiss in posting regularly, and I feel just as derelict in my duty, but I figure we all post as we can, as we have something to report, as we need to, as we get around to it....

* Did my jury duty on Monday, am done for another year.

* Got my director friend driven around to all his appointed tasks, even if I didn't do some of the driving myself (see previous bullet point).

* Still waiting to find out whether or not I will be employed again as soon as tomorrow (or as late as next Thursday).  No news is still, I suppose, good news.

* Making great progress on serious editing of my ofic; have ripped apart the first seven chapters and rebuilt them again.  May lose a chapter in the reorganization, which is perfectly fine.  Am planning to submit the first three for a writing contest soon (lots of pieces to assemble for the application, including gathering contributions from others).  Will then tackle the pitch letter and begin a search for a literary agent in earnest.

* Still sticking to my 500-a-day minimum (thank you 5_for_five!).  Wrote an essay yesterday on my theory about Pickle People versus Kidney People.

* My famous friend came through the surgery for her latest battle with lung cancer with flying colors.  Surgery was Monday, she came home yesterday, they believe they got it all, have fingers firmly crossed.  She threatened to throw a nurse out a window, so she's recovering well.  (That's how she copes with many things.)

* Still perfectly lousy at birthday wishes, but need at the very least to acknowledge (very belatedly) two of those I got to meet in SF--the stunning pythia_delphi and my lovely somigliana

These are my pieces that are eligible for the sshg_awards this time around.  They're all on OWL, TPP, and Ashwinder.  Since I've been focusing on my ofic, I haven't been able to do much of anything new and probably won't for awhile, so the list is finite (but not finite incantatem). 

Both are DH compliant (though the second doesn't even try to pretend that Epilogue exists).  These are my own attempts to make things right again.


The Spirit That Remembers
Summary: The war is over, and Severus Snape is dead—or is he? Hermione Granger, with the help of Harry Potter, begins to work on redeeming his memory. In the process, she uncovers the power of memory itself. Canon-compliant—despite JKR’s best efforts. Complete in 19 chapters plus Prologue and Epilogue (what Epilogue?).

Everybody Comes to Snape's
Summary: It's still the same old story when Lucius Malfoy, fresh out of Azkaban, arrives looking for an old friend. Written as a gift for Lady Rhian for the 2008 SSHG Gift Exchange, using a prompt in which all the fundamental things apply.

As we wind down the ninth month of the year, I have another pin in me, a few words left to dredge from my brain, and a vague threat hanging over it all.

Auditions have been so rare this year that each becomes a bigger deal than it should.  The best are those where I can toss them out, have fun, and then forget they happened.  Those are usually the ones that end in work.  In years where, by the end of September, I've already had 80 or so, it becomes second nature.  In years like the last one, where I'm down to maybe 26 by now, it's a bit harder.

When I am just reaching Number 19 for the year, it's tough.

But if I happen to get two in one week (the norm in fertile years), I at least get in some practice.  And if the casting director follows me out of the first one to tell me, "Drew recommended you for this," I can at least get distracted enough in thinking ("Does she mean Drew Carey?") to toss the second away.

And so they "put a pin in you," a hideous expression that means you might get the job.  If the network approves you and it doesn't get written out, you might get a day's worth of work.  At the end of next week.  The week you're scheduled for jury duty.  And no, that is not an acceptable excuse as far as the Los Angeles court system is concerned.

Jury duty may also interfere with another chance to drive that marvelous director around town, the one I played chauffeur for a few weeks ago.  Pocket money and good conversation.

Fingers are crossed that I will simply call in and never be needed, that John will arrive and depart unmolested by the vagaries of the courts, and that the pin will stay in and I'll have a job for a day sometime between the 9th and 15th of October, playing a homeless woman on a new series called "100 Questions."  Not the job that Drew recommended me for, but a job nonetheless.  Maybe.

And meanwhile, I think I may have just a few pages left on the first draft of my ofic.  I thought there might be a final chapter after the one I'm working on, but it seems now that it's wrapping itself up neatly at a bit over 80,000 words.

The final ones are coming slowly.  They are sitting somewhere in my brain, just out of reach right now, which is why I'm posting and petting the cat.

Almost.  Almost.  Convict the bastard, whoever he is, and let me get on with the good stuff.

...as a bit of a fraud.  I am very bad about acknowledging birthdays, even with the help on the online networks, and now it becomes clear that I've not wished so many wonderful people a Happy Birthday all through the year.

So I am going to make just one special person stand in for you all, one lady who is my psychic twin in so many ways, whose generous spirit and good heart and talent and wicked sense of humor are examples of why my entire flist has become so near and dear to my heart.  Please forgive me for not quite getting around to it for each of you.  But

HAPPIEST OF BIRTHDAYS TO 
THE GRAND AND GLORIOUS
 annietalbot, my personal LJ Poster Girl. 



You rock, my dear, and I wish you the happiest of happy birthdays!

So I've gotten through two of the three big projects with the theatre company I run, and the third is looming. In all three cases, having kick-ass producres on board has helped enormously.  And in all three cases, getting paid for this amount of work would be nice, but we're innit fer the art....

Last weekend we did our first Scene Night in a very long time and got more than two dozen industry folks out to watch (casting directors, mostly, but also some directors and producers).  The whole evening was very polished and professional--wish my piece of it had been better, but it's a long story why it wasn't, and I can live with it.

Yesterday, we finished three grueling days filming our first-ever web series. We did what will probably be about a 17-minute pilot episode about a (fictional) struggling company in LA trying to produce good theatre against long odds.  (Yes, it's a comedy.)  I'm in it and also was working hard (in the heat) to take care of the endless details that filming on a budget of Nearly Nothing requires ($4,000, actually).  We had an incredible producer (the aptly named Jen Prince) who pulled together an amazing crew, almost all of them willing to work for free lunch and the gratitude of an overstressed artistic director.  Hey, we even had a volunteer stunt coordinator who kept our actor from getting hurt.



We were lucky enough to get Lee Meriwether to agree to take on a featured role, and she was simply wonderful--funny, professional, and gorgeous--and her presence in it will help a lot in getting it distributed (and in trying to get more episodes made).  What a class act.



And meanwhile I'm directing two of the nine one-acts in our next theatre production (opening the end of the month) and continuing to write my mystery novel (which takes place on a movie set--write what you know!), keeping up my 500 words a day minimum.  If I ain't gonna make money, I can at least keep those creative juices flowing.  Or die tryin'.

Iz pooped.

sshg316 created the 5_for_five community this summer as a way of encouraging anyone who wanted to join to produce at least 500 words a day, five days a week.  After a bit of hemming and good deal of hawing, I signed up on June 2.  I didn't realize what I had done.

That first week, I was starting on a Tuesday, so I was already one day short of the full possibility of writing for up to seven days.  I did do my minimum but only the minimum.  I bagged out on Sunday, with a total of 2.785 words for the week.

I had started work before that on my first-ever murder mystery novel (in the mold of Dick Francis--a first-person narrative set in a world I know very well: show business).   I decided that I would only count the words I actually wrote on the novel, no fanfics, no long thoughtful posts, no idle typing about other stuff.  Having completed a 40,000 word fanfic, I had realized that I could write something original, and I was determined to give it a try.

Some weeks it was damned hard to do the minimum.  Some weeks it flowed like water.  Some weeks it flowed easily some days then was pulling teeth to get through the next day.  But I had also decided that each day started a new count, so a very productive day didn't get to make up for a day of hard slogging.

As the summer went on, the sheer fact of having continued to meet the challenge--even while going to Azkatraz, even while stopping to write three short stories as an entry in a writing contest--made it just that much more compelling to keep going.  I'd made it this far.  How could I stop now?

By the middle of nine weeks, I paused to organize what I had written so far (though I still did my 500 words every day).    I knew I was going to be seeing the marvelous annietalbot  again, who had agreed at Azkatraz to take a look at what I had up to that point and give me a detailed, thoughtful analysis of it, an editor's opinion of whether I really was on track.  I started late on a Saturday afternoon, and by 1am, I had nine completed chapters I was rather happy with as a first draft.  I handed Annie those nine when I saw her the next week.

By the end of the summer challenge, yesterday, 13 weeks later, I had written 58,780 words of what I am planning to be about an 80,000 word novel.  And  I realized as I was looking back at that accomplishment, it doesn't include what I started with.  I don't know how much I had already written.

At this rate, I could have a rough first draft completed by the middle of October.  My original goal was Thanksgiving.  And before the 5_for_five, it was "eventually." 

So I'm the 5_for_five poster child.  I encourage you to take up the gauntlet.  It's daunting some days to try to crank it out.  Some days you won't make it.  And some days you'll sit back and realize you're just getting started.  But the simple act of trying to do it every day will help you make the attempt.  I'm certainly proof of that!

Alive. 

Writing like a fiend. 

Very busy with three major projects with theatre company, happening all at once (whose bright idea was that?  Oh, yeah, mine...). 

Lurking (barely). 

Love you all!

   ...Ebil kittehs.  It wasn't even my birthday....

Sirius Black and his sister Rumor came to live with me in April.  They are confined to the house and seem pretty content to stay indoors.  It is a very small house.  I keep a few windows open a tiny bit, and breezes (and spiders) make their way in.  The ants would get in no matter what.

The cats have many toys.  They bring them to me often.  I wake up most days with a toy beside me in bed, and one of them (we don't know which) actually tossed a stuffed mouse at my housesitter's forehead while she was asleep and I was away at Azkatraz.  It was 3am.  She was supposed to be ready to play.

Last night, I went in to get ready for bed.  I had made my bed that morning, and I saw what I assumed was a cat toy lying in the middle of the bed.  I scooped it up, preparing to pitch to toward the toy box in the livingroom.  It wasn't a cat toy.  At least, it wasn't a cat toy any longer. 

It was a dead gecko.

I shrieked and dropped it back on the bed.  I ran into the bathroom and grabbed a dustpan and brush.  Uttering the requisite, "Ew! Ew! Ew!" that one must scream while scooping up dead animals, I managed to get it into the pan and dispose of it.

Still yelling, I washed my hands a couple of times.

Then I reflected on the fact that the gecko had been intact.  Except for its tail. 

I immediately examined every square inch of floor around my bare feet.  Continuing the search, I returned to the bed.  And found the tail. And disposed of it, too.

At least, all of the tail that I could find.....

Am taking the red-eye (yech!) tonight back to Philly for a glorious week(end) of fabulous people and yummy food.  (What does it say about me that the next four major events I am really looking forward to all involve friends and food!)  Will try to keep in touch, but will be at the mercy of whatever online connections I can beg, borrow, or steal.  Will keep writing, however, even though my ability to type seems to be deteriorating rapidly.



Keeping My Nose to the Grindstone


*hugs you all*

If so, I invite you to join me, annietalbot and drinkingcocoa and some others at the marvelous Victor Cafe in South Philly for an early (but possibly long) evening of merriment,  I'm going back to the old hometown for an awesome gathering (The 17th Annual Symposium to Study the Physiochemical Reaction of the Female Human Physiognomy Under Intensive Amounts of Chocolate, Cholesterol, and Champagne), and we decided that the trip could handle more than one awesome gathering.  Let me know by Tuesday if you think you might be able to come.

tonksinger asked to see the place where the magic happens....



Yes, I'm afraid it's always this messy.  I try cleaning it up periodically, but it returns to this state of its own accord.  *sigh*  Multi-tasking is my middle name.  Or perhaps it's an inability to concentrate on one thing at a time.   "Look!  Bright shiny objects!"  Many things to look at, TV to distract (though just as often only the sound of fans). 

It is a separate room, just for this purpose, so that does help.  And since I have a laptop, it sometime gets taken to an entirely different location.  Change of pace helps.

Sometimes, anyway.

Thanks to the fabulous pyjamapants  
I am finally online from Az for the first time since my arrival Thursday afternoon---but on her computer,
as mine is not cooperating with the online world (what a surprise), so this shall be brief but ecstatic.  Am having a blast. 
Am still sleep-deprived, despite getting some last night. Am disoriented and overwhelmed and happy.  The LJ reality is
proving every bit as satisfying as its virtual counterpart.  These are lovely, lovely people.</div>

Forgive the technical glitches.  All else is wonderful.

Am trying to get everything done in preparation for leaving first thing in the morning--look out, Azkatraz!  I had been planning to come up Friday, but will be there a day early, having been lucky enough to find a passenger, foxestacado , so I'll be starting everything early.  We should arrive by the end of the day tomorrow--hope to connect with as many of you as possible!

And part of my preparation for arrival was seeing the film.  I went to the 9:30am show this morning; I couldn't get into a midnight screening, but ended up getting almost no sleep last night anyway because the electricity in the house kept going on and off, and I spent too much time channeling my mother and worrying about things I couldn't fix until it got light again.  Ah, well.  Electricity seems okay for now, but who knows?

And like so many of you, I LOVED THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE.  I loved the film, too.  (!!)   No spoilers--I hope to have spirited discussions in person starting this time tomorrow and spirited written discussions with any of you who care to chat on LJ.  (Just realize that while I'm driving up, I will be offline, so hold that thought!)

  I saw "Farragut North" at the Geffen Playhouse on Sunday, and it was great to see further proof that Chris Pine was cast in "Star Trek" because he's also a damn fine actor.  Interesting play, superbly produced (the rest of the cast was solid, too, including Chris Noth, who was nicely rumpled and quite powerful), though the audience as a whole was a little annoying (including the man next to me, who at intermission asked his wife, "What's this called?  Is it a comedy?").  *sigh*