Joyeux Nouvelle Annee!

Or howsomever one says that in French. Yes, folks, it's time for Emily's Year End review (aka the Look At Your Good Year, you Dumkoff! Laundry List). And everything is made even more beautiful by two instances:

The other day, I was at Borders (natch) and since I was having difficulty writing a play longhand, I bought Writer's Digest magazine's year end tips to publication, agents and promotion instead. About once a year I think again about my literary stuff and What I'm Not Doing About It, feel guilty, feel lost, feel lethargic, rouse myself to Do Something, and buy a copy of Writer's Digest, which usually reminds me why I don't subscribe to it anymore. It's a thing.

Anywho, so I bought my copy (actually, pretty good articles so far, and some good tips, too, that I hadn't thought of) and at the register the cashier struck up a conversation with me that went something like this:

Cashier: Oh! Writer's Digest! I was going to buy that, but I ended up buying Poetry magazine instead.

Me: Cool! You're a poet?

Cashier: Yup.

Me: That's awesome! Where've you submitted to?

Cashier: Oh, well I haven't yet.

Me: Oh, you totally should. What type of poetry do you write?

Cashier: Dark. Moody.

Me: Totally salable. So why don't you send your stuff out?

Cashier: I don't know. I've finished a book [of poems], but I haven't really thought about breaking them up and selling them separately.

Me: Oh, you totally should. Just bombard the market. Send out your poems, get fifty rejection slips, then an acceptance. Put it on the bottom of your query letter, and each new credit helps you sell the next poem, since someone else already took a chance on you.

I then proceeded to tell her about the best/worst rejection letter I'd gotten of all time. I'd sent in some of my poems (back in high school) to some magazine or another, and they'd come back not even with a FORM rejection letter, but with a post-it note...a SMALL post-it note...that had crammed writing on it that said, "Your poems are not of high enough quality for our magazine." To which I say, "Your rejection letter is not of high enough quality for our magazine."

Cashier: It isn't the fifty rejection slips I'm worried about. It's the first one.

Me: Oh, that's easy. Have someone else open it for you. You can do it!

The awesome thing about it was that I got an opportunity to encourage a fellow writer, that I got to give a mini-beginning-publication lesson...and that I suddenly became aware, excited and grateful for my own publications (over which I've become distressingly blaze). And -

I'm going to a party tonight with FCT folks. Huzzah! I've missed New Years Eve parties. Since we moved from Jersey, we haven't had any. But there's one tonight and that's a GREAT delight!

So, let's take a look at 2010.

PUBLICATIONS:

Math for Actors (Play)

The French Butler (Play)

Charming Princes (Play)

Nachtsturm Castle (Book in paperback)

PLAYS WRITTEN:

Charming Princes (Grimms Aghast)

Cry for the Wolf (Grimms Aghast)

No Boys Allowed (Grimms Aghast)

Curses! (Grimms Aghast)

Feign and Fortune (Mystery Dinner Theatre)

PLAYS DIRECTED AND/OR PRODUCED:

I Never Saw Another Butterfly (Drama II)

Charming Princes (Drama II)

Mini-Musicals (Symphonic Choir Class)

The Romancers (Sophomore Class - Best Ensemble - Competitive Plays)

The Taming of the Shrew (Gaudete Academy)

And Then There Were None (Framingham Community Theater)

Skool (Advanced Musical Theatre Class Informance at PAC)

Tartuffe (2010-2011 HHS Competition Piece)

OTHER THEATRICAL THINGS:

The Importance of Being Earnest (Actor - Lady Bracknell)

Scrooge (Actor - Christmas Past)

Guys and Dolls (Music Director/Sound Designer)

South Pacific (Music Director/Sound Designer - ends 2011)

Little Shop of Horrors (Sound Designer)

Little Women (Edited it finally!)

The Romancers (Ditto the previous)

Gaudete Academy...began after a year's hiatus, wherein sisters married and nephews were born. Y'know, kind of important stuff!

LIFE THINGS:

Had to get a new car. Goodbye to my 94 Toyota Corolla (Belle), hello to Theophilus Snow, aka a 2002 Hyundai Sonata LX, which I should be able to pick up Monday or Tuesday or Wednesday. (Grrrr...stupid dealers!)

Fell more in love with Jamie. Met Camilla. Am waiting impatiently for Nicholas to make his appearance in the daylight!

Somehow became a working artist who's paying her bills.

Taught (for a few months) drama at HHS - and it was very, very good.

Had Krissytina come up to see Shrew!

Joined FCT/PAC which made the working artist thing possible, who's hosting the party, and who are full of loverly adult friends.

Got myself Netflix...and it is dangereuse!

Mostly because I need to finish working on scripts that are auditioning in the next few days/weeks, I'll leave it at that. But 2010 was a much better year than 2009, and here's to hoping that 2011 is full of great surprises as well!

Mood: Good. Optimistic.
Music: "The Only Exception" by Paramore
Thought: So looking forward to the party. I have new shoes and a dress I've never taken out. I've also got gold hair tinsel in my hair and it is pretty-ful!