Tuesday, December 28, 2010

writing the play

I've been working on this play one way or another since the beginning of April this year.  Thought I'd finished in August when it was given a dramatic reading at the Franciscan convocation, and then produced and performed at the Vacation Bible School at St. James Anglican Church at the end of August.  But, to get it ready to go to a publisher, the pages have to be just so--and that's different from an ordinary manuscript.  The headings have to be just so.  And that means I've had to learn how to divide my ms into sections.  Okay.  Did that. But microsoft promises that it is possible to have different headers for each section.  And I need to do that so that the whole play isn't labelled "ACT I scene 1" and paginated from page one all the way to page 79.  I need to have some pages labelled ACT II, and III, and IV, and have scenes labelled appropriately within each act.  One publisher likes to have all the pages 1 through 79; another publisher wants each act to be paginated individually.  If I ever learn how to change the acts/scenes, that will be good, but I'll never be able to paginate 1 to 79 if I do that.  grrrr.  Writing the play was the easy part!

Friday, December 24, 2010

Silent Night

Here's a rendition of this carol that you've never heard or seen before.  It takes about 10 minutes, but is worth every second. Silent Night
Relax and think about what Christmas is really all about.  Peace and Joy to you and your loved ones, wherever you and they are.

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Santa rant

Last year, I think I wrote something here about how I feel about the evil old elf who usurps the place of Jesus at Christmas time.  Well, in case you missed it, here it is again in another form:
http://www.squidoo.com/christmas-meanings

Friday, December 17, 2010

Category #1 Faith & Franciscans

The third part of my Rule of Life is "Penitence".  Anglicans generally say about "Confession" that all may, some should but none must.  It has been said in the Third Order of the Society of St. Francis in the Province of the Americas, that all must, at least once a year.  More recent examination of the Rule is that once a year is recommended.  A bit different from MUST.  Anyway, I equate Confession (or Reconciliation, as some prefer to call it these days) with peace.  This is a time when a penitent (someone who recognizes the "if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves") can go to see a priest, or other trustworthy person, and tell all. With a Rule of Life, it's not such a general topic as "all" because the Franciscan life is in the 9 categories of one's Rule.  So, with my little iPhone in hand, with my Rule headings on the "Messages" page, with notations beside the ones needing attention, I went to confession at Christ Church Cathedral on Wednesday afternoon.  I missed having the beautiful little confessionals of St. James, but the priest (just ordained last Sunday) and I sat opposite each other in the children's room.  We said the opening prayers of the short reconciliation service in the Book of Alternative Services, and I went through my list, complete with rants where they cropped up.  The priest listened and nodded, and finally made his observations.  Then he pronounced absolution and we said the closing prayers.  And I erased the page of messages from my iPhone.  Whew!  It feels so good!  If you have never tried it, I recommend it.  You don't have to (none must) but maybe you'll find it comforting if you have grudges or pebbles in your shoes regarding your religious life or other issues.  Peace!

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

updating my writing life

I'm procrastinating again.  I should be working on that play, The Wolf and the Saint, so that I can send it to the people who asked for it MONTHS ago!  The problem is that when I wrote it, and with each rewrite, etc., I kept each scene in a separate file.  Then, I think I probably moved each of the three scenes per act into one file per act.  Now, I want to put the whole thing into one file, so that when I email it to people they don't have to download twelve files--or even just four files.  It could all be in one click.  But, of course, everytime I see one of the scenes, I tweak it a bit.  And as I move each newly tweaked scene into the correct act file, and then move the completed act file into the whole play file, I'm thoroughly spent!  So, I do a little at a time, otherwise I'd make humungous errors that would likely go uncorrected.  That could really mess up the works.  Also, once I've got it all in one file, then I have to go through it and put it in sections so that the headings will correctly identify the acts, scenes and pages.  This is not easy, folks!
Meanwhile, I'm still trying to keep up with publishing something in Suite 101 at least once a week.  And I've started with Squidoo.com.  Still learning what this web presence is all about.

Monday, December 6, 2010

Category II tag a: Travel

Today is the second Sunday in Advent: lighting the candle for John the Baptist.  This makes me think of our visit to Israel, and to our brief stop at the River Jordan.  It was in some ways, nothing like what I expected, yet in other ways what I hoped it might look like.  I rather expected a huge church over the spot where Jesus was baptized, and the river mostly obscured by religious stuff.  I had hoped it might not be like that.  And I was not disappointed.  There is a song that says "The River Jordan is chilly and wide" or words to that effect.  Well, it might be chilly.  It was February, and I saw a shell in the water and reached in and took it as a souvenir.  The water was a bit chilly.  I wouldn't have wanted to swim in it, or be baptized in it, for that matter.  But it was, after all, February.  Wide, though, it is not.  Not where we were, anyway.  As for big churches, there may be one a few yards down river from where we were, on the Jordan side.  We were on the Israeli side (or maybe it was Palestinian, I don't remember), but we were on the west bank of the Jordan.  This site didn't claim to be the exact spot of Christ's baptism, but for us it was close enough.