November is over. NaNoWriMo is done (I finished at 50,259 words). NaNoWriMo was awful. Those 50k words shall never see the light of day. December is here, and with December comes the holidays. My holidays are always a bit dicey particularly with family politics, in-laws (no, not mine, thankfully), kids needing to be watched, and other variables which I will not go into. However, my December has started off with an epic bang for a number of cool things which happened in succession. To keep The Epic ever-lasting with a few of the other things, I won't speak of them for fear that I'll jinx them. One of them though can be shared.
A birthday present happened to coincide with needing to reward myself for finishing NaNoWriMo, and I ended up going to the city to see a show. I'm a huge musical theatre junkie. For those of you who don't know, Phantom of the Opera is my weakness. As of this moment, I've seen it 11 times -- 3 Broadway, 6 US Tour, 2 Her Majesty's UK. While I will not ever pass up a chance to go see it again, I have seen other shows -- things like Beauty and the Beast (I knew the little boy who played Chip at the time and his mom), Wicked, Scarlet Pimpernel, Billy Elliott, Mama Mia!, and the list goes on. This time I saw The Addams Family Musical. I had not heard good things about it, but the man who starred in it as Gomez Addams happened to be my favourite actor ever. Mr. Roger Rees, Welsh native, Tony Award winner, man of film, stage, screen, and audiobook narrations, was there in NYC, and I had to go, to see him In The Flesh and admire his awesomeness from afar.
Only it didn't turn out to be as "afar" as I had thought....
I ended up meeting him, getting my picture taken with him, having him sign stuff for me. And he was delightful and charming and told me to "stay in touch." I consider this a successful and brilliant way to start the new month, a month which always proves stressful.
I am taking December off for writing unless I Simply Must. I've been digesting ideas mostly, following up on The Events of Awesome, and doing my darnedest to do as Roger Rees bid me and "stay in touch." My December is thus dedicated to other artistic pursuits.
The ideas have been flowing even if I am not writing right now. I've had a couple epiphanies regarding future projects or projects already in the works. Hopefully, come January, my ideas will be solid enough for me to write some good words. If not, well, I just spent November writing verbal diarrhea and I'm sure that I can do the same for January. It'll give me time to digest, to try to enjoy the holidays, and think about those all important things like queries and synopses. I don't think it's fair of me to expect agents to give me their time during the holidays when I don't want to give my time to anyone.
The Events of Awesome are still sort of vague and obscure. I wish I could be more specific, but I cannot be. And if anything comes of it, it'll take months.
My clothing line is still in limbo. I am waiting upon the receipt of a mannequin, Matilda, who has been a member of the family for longer than I've been alive. I'm also looking for a company to manufacture clothing labels. When these two things occur, I shall unleash my creations upon the world. Watch out.
In a creative/artistic attempt to "stay in touch" with Roger Rees, a thing I shall do with fervour, I have begun sculpting. It's not just any ordinary sculpture -- I'm making a picture frame for the photo of the two of us and then, along with a thank you note, I shall send it to the theatre. The show is running until the 31st of December, so I would like it to go out prior to Christmas, but that's going to be a nightmare. If I can finish the sculpture-frame in the next few days, fire it up, and then paint it before the 13th, I think I should be okay. If not, I won't be looking forward to the Post Office lines.
Not much else fit to type. Have awesome holidays, all, if I don't see you before then. I say "holidays" not because I'm anti-Christmas, but I don't celebrate Christmas myself -- well, my family does, but I don't. So have fun whatever you do. In the meantime, I shall have a spectacular Yule.
