The extent of my summer travels will be two days in New Canaan, CT with future in-laws and a wedding in Rhinebeck, with no in-laws whatsoever, but I tried to schedule an August rehearsal, and GUESS WHAT! MY ACTORS DO TAKE VACATIONS! Who knew?

At least, I think so. If this one doesn’t get a response I’m going to wait until I talk to agents at conferences, and if that doesn’t work, I’ll go straight to publishers, and if that doesn’t work, I’m going to put the novel in a bottle, throw it in the ocean, and hope an agent ‘picks it up.’

Scanning my published short stories; I’m six for six, not bad if you ignore the near total lack of financial gain, I realize that they all share the same style, ‘Flippant with a dash of meaning.’ Thus I have concluded that my novels must have at least one character who speaks with that voice. I shall call this archetype, ‘Wise Ass.’ I’m currently working him/her into all my “I was so sure this was finished, and yet to my horror it’s not’ novels.

Raise your hand if you have ever used the word ‘archetype’ in a sentence outside of a classroom. Now try using it in a pickup line, and let me know how it goes.

After a smashing show for a very nice group of Masons, Patti and Lisa revealed that their fathers were also Masons. Mine wasn’t…not a joiner…except in his wild and carefree youth, but we’re not going to talk about that, except to say that the Wild West had nothing on the Wild Westside of Chicago in those days. 

     So, if you happened to have read my post about the ten, count ’em, ten actor event I presided over last night you will understand why I didn’t have enough time (or brain cells) left to post at all yesterday, or until 10 tonight (ok, 9:47. Close enough). 

   I would like to say that my actors were outstanding, and as I doubt any of them follow my blog, you can be certain I am not saying that just to insure they do an equally fine job next time.

My short story, You Can Paint Anywhere, will appear in the Fall 2014 issue of After Happy Hour Review http://afterhappyhourreview.com/the-after-happy-hour-review/ It’s a Pittsburgh-based journal, and since I was Pittsburgh-based for four years, that makes me especially happy. I am not going to say which four years they were, and I urge my classmates to do likewise, or I will give up their poker secrets.

    Raise your hand if you remember when poker was played with people, not machines. No…not your POKER hand. The machines will see it.

Had a dinner with an old friend last night. He has a beautifully written blog, and would like to venture into fiction, but didn’t know where to begin. So I said ‘write.’ Not an original thought on my part, but still the truest thing I could say to him.

Just started Dave Barry’s You Can Date Boys When You’re Forty. Only up to page 31 and I’ve laughed out loud at least 150 times, though the first laugh happened when I realized it was not a book about cougars.

I have ten, ten count ’em, living, breathing actors, working the same event next week, plus one on standby. No, really. It’s one of those not uncommon domino situations in theatre where everybody has to learn at least two other roles. Luckily for me, I have one smart group of dominos!  

How is it possible to read a query letter dozens of times, have two other people check it, but nobody realizes that you have written ‘caries’ instead of ‘carries.’ Now it sounds like my main character has bad teeth.