In just Two Minutes

This adventure will begin. The house is filling - some people will packs stuffed to the brim, a blue Ikea bag with pillow and blanket and what-all, coolers, layers. Some you can tell are here for a peek but not the whole trip. Some of us going to be here until the end.
Soon. Seconds. The adventure of Mike Daisey's "all the hours in a day" is on the brink of starting.

#allthehours
#tba11
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Epic Weekend

I'm planning to keep this post short, since I have much to do before the big event.

Big Event? Mike Daisey's "All The Hours In The Day" at PICA's T:BA11 - the premiere of his 24-hour monologue. I banked in a little bit of sleep last night (I know, it doesn't really work that way - but one can hope - right?). I have some Starbucks VIA packets (just add water and shake that bottle). I'm going to Trader Joe's to pick up a few protein and nutrient snacks (buffalo jerky, marcona almonds with rosemary, crispy seaweed snacks, apples, blueberries) - T:BA will have some food there and I just saw an announcement today that Elephant Deli will be providing some grab-n-go food after the food carts have closed. I'll take a pillow (the seats are old and hard) and my NaNoWriMo hoodie and a lightweight small fleece blankey - er, blanket. Altoids. Whatever flavor Orbit gum we have left in the drawer from my last mondo Costco box I bought.

... hmmm ... that is sure a brand name laden paragraph ... maybe I should go for endorsements, make the event pay ...

Just kidding.

And I am very excited about this. Last year I went to Daisey's presentation which was notes about doing a 24-hour monologue and I knew at that time that I would be "in" - whenever it premiered. I wanted to be there. Then the announcement that he would be doing it this year at T:BA11 - and I knew I would be there. Be here. And so I shall.

For all 24 hours.

And the second big announcement for this week - which I maybe should have listed first - is that I completed this draft of the memoir manuscript. Yes. Done. All of the chapter edits. All of the "list" inserts. Updated the chapter list with page numbers. Then I printed it (in 50-page chunks, since Word refused to print all 314 pages in reverse order; so I had a chat with Word and we agreed on 50-page chunks; set up a chunk to print, eat a little bento, set up the next chunk, eat a little bento, load paper into the tray, set up ... like that.).

After going to T:BA performances last night, I came home and watched a couple episodes of LOST (stop laughing - I got hooked on it via streaming Netflix a while ago, the first few espisodes were entertaining, then it got silly and outrageous but I am intrigued what they will pull in next, what or who will drop out of the sky/ocean/trees, how are they going to get out of various situations -- it's a Gilligan's Island soap opera for adults)... Anyway, I watched a couple episodes of LOST and punched holes in the pages to put into the notebook. But my home hole punch is wimpy and says it'll do 8 pages at a time - but only if you want it to jam - so I do 6 pages.

But - yesterday afternoon, an hour before my chiropractor appointment (to clean up my shoulders and upper back from three days of Deaf-Blind interpreting), I had a minor incident getting into my car. My hand slipped as I was closing the door and I had a bag in that hand and I strained my - left, fortunately, since I'm right handed - wrist and ring finger. It's minor but a little stiff and sore and - yep - I couldn't do the hole punch the way I normally do it. I usually hold the paper in my right and squeeze the punch with my left. Oops.

I got the holes punched - it just took longer. The pages are in order in the book. I made a little cover insert for the binder. It's in a package and now all I have to do is get to the post office to mail it to Ariel for this round of editing.

I know there are some errors. Some inconsistencies. Some things which need tightening. And I'm sure there are some holes or places to clarify. But this round of the manuscript is completely done. It was beginning to feel like I would never get there. But I did.

So - a busy work week (but good work). And the memoir manuscript is done. And I'm going to see Mike Daisey's 24-hour monologue.

Awesome!

And I'm excited! Can you tell?

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Razor's Edge for 9/16/11

Today's prompt is a video of a performance by Carla Mann and Jim McGinn. The video is about 15 minutes in length.

Watch the performance. Then select one of the following and write for 10  minutes:

- who are these two characters and how did they meet?
- what was their conversation, if they had been talking? let it flow freely from your senses, don't go back and watch it scene by scene - capture the essence of their relationship, their movement, the discourse of the dance.
- start with "If you had told me ______" and write.




http://vimeo.com/12855950
from In The Can Productions on Vimeo.
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Monologue Notes from PICA

 In 72 hours I will be sitting in The Works space at Washington High School - halfway through the T:BA11 performance by Mike Daisey. Halfway through the 24-hour monologue. All the Hours of the Day.


from: Portland Institute for Contemporary Art

Dear Mike Daisey ticket holders,

We wanted to give you some tips about how to make the most of your audience experience at the upcoming 24-hour Mike Daisey performance, All the Hours in the Day.

You will be taken care of.

There will be interludes in the performance, during which you will be able to freely move around, exit the theater, and come back.

We will have food, coffee, and water available for purchase at all times. The TBA Closing Night Dinner will be served after the show at 6:30 pm Sunday. We will be sharing Neopolitan-style pizza, salad, and wine. Tickets are $15 for members and $20 general. You must purchase a ticket to the dinner in advance. Please join us!

We will have the bars open starting at 5pm on Saturday, so you can come early and have a drink with us in the beer garden and buy some food. Alcohol will not be allowed in the theater.

Audience members who are under the age of 21 must watch the performance from the balcony due to OLCC policy (until at least 2am). The balcony has some great views to the stage.

The theater is very old and the seats are made of wood. Don’t forget your pillow, cushion, neck pillow, and blankets.

Other necessities that you might want to bring: contact solution, toothbrush and toothpaste, a sweater…think of what you might take with you on an international flight. We’ll be crossing time zones!

This is going to be an adventure. We will be there with you through it all. See you at the theater!
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Another Reason to Follow Your Heart

I've been a little busy and realize I missed posting a Razor's Edge. And when I checked in here I see it has been a week tomorrow since I posted anything.

Too long.

And I have all the edits written for the memoir and am in the process of getting them into the electronic version because they're all written by hand. For a variety of reasons, that's how it's gone - and it's a good thing - but it's taking a little longer than I projected to get all of the edits in place. Coupled with computer issues, it's been really too long. But there it is. And I wrote an entirely new story, unrelated to the memoir for my Wayward Writers assignment last week. (Truthfully, it could go into the memoir with some additions and edits - but it won't. At least not for now. But it wasn't from the memoir.)

And PICA's TBA11 started and I've been hanging out at dance and music and theatrical performances whenever I can (which is one reason some edits are written by hand - when I was in line for a performance).

And work - busy and with many attached non-billable hours for many things I'm doing. Which is fine - those hours are for causes I believe in and worth it for the community and for my spirit.

So - too long since I've posted. Focusing inward on the memoir and all that it takes to get that written - emotionally and spiritually and even physically. And focusing on exciting new theatrical projects. Not excuses - but reasons and acknowledging that I have been absent from posts.

Today there was a quote that struck me in a post from Jessica Morrell's blog, which I wanted to share. And here I am, having written a post for today. Writing begets writing!

The quote - and thank you, Jessica!

Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart. — Steve Jobs

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Following The Energy

I have selected the poems for the additional surrealist sections in the memoir. I've identified where to put them in. And I have handwritten notes about what was a chapter but is not inserts between chapters, which need to be typed up and then figure out where they go.

So close to The End.

Again. Or is it "still" - no it's "again" because I thought I was there, but wasn't quite.

I've also identified a new situation I have to figure out what to do with. Because I've expanded the time period covered in the memoir, it changes perspectives a bit. Originally, I had two time periods - the past with its influencing incidents and the present about the journey with the wedding and the next morning. Then I started adding scenes from later - after the wedding, after the next morning, after moving. So now I have past and present and - future? No. Okay. Thinking about tenses.

Today - on my second work drive - I realized that I felt energetic. When I arrived at the second location there was that cliche "spring in my step" and I was happy and smiling.

That wouldn't be all that strange, except that I only had just over five hours of sleep last night. When I got home from work I set up my computer to do a little editing. With the inserts selected, I wanted to get started. Then, when I realized the tense issue and that there were some sections of the book that weren't in my notebook, and sections which were really outdated, I decided to print it all out. It's easier to make some notes - for me - on the paper and I have tons of one-sided printout sheets to recycle. So I started. One thing and then another and then it was 4:30 AM and I had a meeting at 11 AM and I was shutting down my computer to go to bed.

Going to bed with all 300 pages printed and in the working notebook, in order, with copies of the poems.

So I was surprised I wasn't at all tired at my second work situation today. Not one bit. And here I am hours later and still doing fine.

Curious, I thought.

Then considered. I have so much energy (and I may still crash, I realize; I'll take a nap before my VRS shift tonight). Where did it come from?

The energy came from progress on the book. From having it truly at the final stage before sending off to Ariel for editing, feedback. The energy came from being excited about some new developments at the theater where I coordinate interpreting teams and interpret plays - from meeting with my liason today and discussing new events.

I have energy and am smiling today because I've been focusing a lot on my writing. On completing the book and bringing it to a whole piece and I can see it with the 300 pages right here beside me. And I've been focusing on theatrical interpreting - the season ahead, how to develop audience and interpreters and sign coaches.

Creating and being involved in creative pursuits gives me energy.

Creativity. That's where my energy comes from. That and that I was able to go for a walk a couple of  days ago which was completely pain-free - I'd like more of those, too.

Just A Few More Keystrokes

I do believe I am finally bumping up against the final words of the memoir. Yes, I am.

All of the chapters are written. The order a little revised. Some shortened (or even cut in half). They are a little uneven in their states of revision at this point - I feel like some are polished and ready to go and some may need a little more attention.

Then, today, I had an insight. No, more than an insight - it was an illumination.

See, I've been feeling overall good about this project. And as the missing pieces were completed, I was happy but there was something missing. I thought that maybe I was nervous about completing it, or hesitant to fly it out there into the world any further than I have, or something along that line. But that didn't seem to quite answer what I was feeling.

And as I looked at the chapter outlines, made a few notes, looked at what was there - it came to me.

Problem #1 was that I had this surreal event which is written into one scene (chapter). The scene is totally real and I used it as a base for a Wayward Writers assignment. It turned out really well and, with incorporation of some of the feedback from my fellow Wayward Writers and Ariel, it became perfect. So I left the surreal touches.

One thing which wasn't sitting well with me, I realized today, is that the surreal episode only happened at that one place in the whole book. That wasn't going to work. I needed to either edit it out and take it back to "just the facts" and just the here-on-planet-earth details - or add more surreal episodes in other places.

I chose to add more episodes. I did a preliminary search for potential quotes, poems, and such from around those years and came up with some great people. Then I decided to go with the writer theme. The original surreal scene involved an appearance by Adrienne Rich. So the writer theme was easy to incorporate. I found some other places with a similar energy and tension to the Adrienne Rich scene and picked just a few more to insert some surrealism. So far, the two people I've explained this to liked my idea. One was my partner, who wasn't too thrilled about it at first. But, as I explained what and how I was doing it - and then the why - she likes it now and thinks it's a good idea.

The second thing is that I realized the memoir needed a boost of energy here and there. Not that it's all heavy stuff - but some is, and there needed to be some variety. Adding in the surrealism will add some levity and more sense-feelings to it.

And I also realized that the one remaining unwritten chapter would be better broken into bits of a list - with minimal or no explanation/expansion - inserted throughout the book. There is a reason for that and I think it will help carry the message and story through.

I have found the missing energy in the process of finding missing pieced.

And that's all that's left: typing and inserting the lists pieces, and weaving in the suddenly appearing authors.

Then print and off to for fresh eyes!
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Let The Countdown Begin

No, it's not too early to start talking about NaNoWriMo.

Two months from today, at this time, I will have already written at least 2,000 words of my 2011 NaNoWriMo novel.

Yes, I am that confident.

No, I don't have a plot. Nor a title. Nor even a setting or a character. Will I? I don't know.

What I do know is that I will have my laptop open and a new word document open, waiting for our lovely ML (Municipal Liason, in NaNoWriMo world) to count us down from Halloween to ...5, 4, 3, 2, 1 - GO! And my fingers will begin typing, whether or not I have even a glimmer of an idea. I will type and something will appear.

And for the next 30 days I will follow my characters where they lead me, to that magical 50,000 words in 30 days, signalling that I am, again, a Winner. See, I've learned to not force my characters to take me somewhere in particular during NaNoWriMo. That is the duty of my inner editor, of revision. But NaNoWriMo is to get it out and see what they have to say. I can't control them - really I can't. It failed dismally the one year I tried. Yes, I still passed the finish line with about 51k words. But I never did finish that novel and I didn't like it.

So. Why now?

Because I have been officially accepted as one of the 250 writers who will be participating in the 2011 Night of Writing Dangerously in San Francisco on November 20th. I will be heading down with my writing buddy to be there in time for the Saturday night special activity, too - the founder, Chris Baty, announced that he will be leaving after this NaNoWriMo to become a full-time writer, so there is something special planned for the night before NOWD, as we in the know call it.

NOWD is fun and crazy and a seven-hour writing marathon. It is also a significant fundrasier for the Office of Letters and Light (OLL), the organization which runs NaNoWriMo, Script Frenzy, and the Young Writers Program. Second only to Write Around Portland, OLL is one of my favorite non-profits to support.

So - I'm asking you to help me meet my fundraising goal of $350 for NOWD - OLL. Again, I am already a confirmed participant. And I want to raise more funds for OLL. This year I have a trusty Toyota, which I will adorn with inclement weather apparel just in case, which will carry me and my friend to San Francisco.

Consider donating even just $5. Every bit counts and every bit helps them provides lessons and incentives and programs for writers of all ages.

"Ghost Island" by Bonnie Hearn Hill

Bonnie Hearn Hill's newest YA novel, "Ghost Island," debuts today. Below is a trailer for Bonnie's newest publication.

Congratulations, Bonnie!




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