Tues. Sept. 8, 2026: Surgery Day
image courtesy of Pixabay.com
Tuesday, September 8, 2026
Waning Moon
Pluto, Neptune, Saturn, Chiron
Foggy and cool
I hope you had a good holiday weekend (if you celebrated) or a good weekend in general.
Good thoughts, please, my elderly mother has her surgery this afternoon.
The Community Tarot Reading for the Week is up here. We are using the Bonestone and Earthflesh Tarot, which is a very powerful deck. I got it in spring and have worked with it most days between now and then. I’m excited for it to be the September deck. My friend Jamieson Wolf recommended this deck to me, and I’m so glad I paid attention!
Friday morning, I was out of the house by 7:30 and trotted down to Eagle Street. I meant to mail the rest of the month’s bills on the way and left them sitting on the table. Sigh. Well, it’s not like they would open them on the weekend anyway.
The community coffee was hosted by Wild Oats, the food co-op where I am a member, featuring Fogbuster Coffee. It was nice to catch up with some Wild Oats people, try the coffee, and have a chocolate croissant. They also gave away really nice logo mugs from the coffee company. I didn’t stay long, about 45 minutes, but I enjoyed myself, and it was a beautiful morning to be out.
Home, cooked myself some scrambled eggs (my mom ate while I was out), did the morning chores, got the garbage out, and settled down to work.
The juror in the Lindsay Clancy trial who refused to follow the judge’s instructions is revolting. It’s not a surprise that it ended up as a mistrial, but it’s just an extension of all the corruption in this case since the police first came to the scene and didn’t follow investigative protocols.
I did another editing pass and then a polish on the Llewellyn article, and got it out the door. By deadline, although I usually try to get it in a little ahead. But it’s there! I took out a lot of passive phrasing in the final polish, and had 5 words to spare on the wordcount!
I let myself take a quick break, the turned my attention to the ghostwriting.
I was sorry to hear about Gloria Steinam’s death. Her presence was huge during my growing-up years.
I’m frustrated that we’re losing the good ones and the evil ones are still around.
Spent a few hours on the ghostwriting. Didn’t get as far as I hoped, and felt behind, since I spent the bulk of Thursday on the Llewellyn article.
In the evening, I made paella, with cod and chorizo. It was really good. It was a simplified paella, but it was still delicious.
After that, I got changed and headed down to Future Labs Gallery for the show’s opening. It was lovely. I was so happy to support my colleagues, and catch up with some other friends there. I talked with a cohort pal about a project he’s been encouraging me to do. I’m a few steps closer to actually doing it, but I can’t take on anything until at least November. And then I have to worry about the holidays coming up, so I have to see how things are shaking out after the Boiler House Poets Residency, and then I’ll have a better idea of when I can start. I’m thinking after the first of the year makes more sense than going into the holiday season, since it will be a multi-month project.
I’m trying to break the habit of overscheduling myself and replace it with saner scheduling.
Saturday morning, I slept in a bit, then did housework. I ran an errand to get more ink for the printer, and pick up some tailor’s chalk. I created a sell sheet for the books. I decided to focus on the Nina Bell series, the anthologies, and have the Coventina series on the sell sheets, but not Gwen Finnegan or Nautical Namaste. I then didn’t like the look of the sheet, and pared it down to just Nina and the anthologies, which looks much better. I printed out the price list. I don’t have a lot of stock available, but I have some. If people don’t want to buy a book, they can take a sell sheet – and a flyer for the Boiler House reading. If I run out of stock (doubtful), I can still give out sell sheets. I wasn’t paid early enough to be able to order any swag, but maybe that’s a good thing. I have one sell sheet for the Nina books/anthologies, and another sell sheet for the Topic Workbooks. Plus some copies of actual books. That should be enough.
It’s probably best to save promoting Coventina until I’ve done an overhaul on that series, and scheduled the forthcoming books. Six books and six topic workbooks are enough to keep people busy for the moment.
I finally got rid of one of the non-working vacuum cleaners. It’s not like I have the knowledge to fix it, and it doesn’t make sense to keep it around. If someone else rescues and rehabs it, good for them.
Did some reading for the panel in the afternoon. Cooked a dinner inspired by chicken enchiladas, but not wrapped in a tortilla for dinner. I like the green enchilada sauce because it’s got a subtler flavor. Sat on the porch and enjoyed the evening.
Started reading Kristen Miller’s thriller THE CHANGE which is absolutely fantastic. It is the perfect female rage novel, and perfect for those frustrated by the Epstein cover-up and connected atrocities. I may have to get a copy of this book for myself (I got it out of the library).
I stopped doing Legs Up the Wall pose by Saturday night, even though I only had two more nights for the 30 days. While I like the pose, and I will do it as I wish, doing it every night did not change/improve my sleep patterns as promised (and certainly not by Day 7). I’m sure it works for plenty of people, but the formula did not work for me. At least I tried.
Slept until about 3:30, moved to the sofa, dozed off until nearly 6. Started my Sunday prodded by cats. It rained on and off all day, getting bright and sunny between bands of rain. I spent the early part of the morning finishing THE CHANGE. It took a lot of willpower not to go back and re-read it immediately.
Did the community tarot reading for the week here, with the Bonestone deck. It was a really interesting reading.
Tweaked the flyers for tomorrow’s festival and printed them. Put together the various flyers and other paperwork. Printed off the panel bios, and wrote the questions on index cards in large letters, so I won’t fumble them because I have trouble reading them. Most of the day was spent working on the panel, reading more of the panelists’ books, and pulling relevant quotes.
I also filled out the check-in form for Johns Hopskins study that I’ve been part of for the past few years, post-pandemic. I would think the study is close to done by this year? I think we’ll have done our three years?
Future Labs wanted to have a ZOOM call about the December show (which is all-members), but it’s today, and I can’t. I’ll catch up with them tomorrow or Thursday, and see what needs to be done, so I can do my bit.
Slept reasonably, well, although I woke up a few times from weird dreams. Got up on Monday around 5:30, which is the “usual time” in this house, and got the day started. It was cold enough overnight to reach for extra blankets, which I loved.
I am not a weighted blanket person – those make me claustrophobic – but I do like regular blankets.
I did a bunch of admin, and slogged through some email. I got out an LOI to an interesting company with whom I think I would work well.
Then I sat down and did an entire first draft of the anthology story for the December deadline. It’s for the publisher who did CELLULOID CRIMES for next year’s anthology on a totally different theme. It still needs work, but the bones of plot, character, and story are down. It’s just under 4K, so I have about 1K of wiggle room.
I really, really love it. Even though it needs work, I really, really love it. It has some of my typical bits – quick dialogue, smart people, twisty plot – while also being a bit of a stretch, more heisty than murdery. Yes, it’s for a mystery anthology. I left the end a little ambiguous. I need a good title, but that will come with rewrites. I hope to get it out by the end of the month. And then hope they don’t forget about it, if it’s submitted this early!
Unfortunately, all that good stuff was negated when I got into the ghostwriting. I am just gritting my teeth and trying to get through it to successfully fulfill these contracts. And then I feel guilty, because even with the frustrations, I know they are a better company than many of the similar ones out there. And I’m still in despair and frustrated more often than not. It’s not sustainable, which is a shame, because there are good aspects to it, and, let’s face it, there aren’t a lot of writing jobs out there. But I do think I’ve gone as far as I can with them. It’s not like I’d ever get a promotion or anything. That’s not how this kind of company works. If I could count on being paid X amount every month, I could continue for a bit longer (I had hoped one more contract cycle, about another year), but when there are delays in the turnaround, it means delays in the payments, and I’m constantly worried on how I can shuffle around expenses. There’s no set schedule, so it’s difficult to book enough other work far enough in advance. And, by the end of the contract cycle, I will have lost nearly $1K in payment “processing fees.” I shouldn’t have to eat those.
At least all the bills are paid for September.
Got a notification that I have to have an in-person appointment in Pittsfield on 9/11 as part of this whole fight to keep my insurance under an administration that wants to kill me. Which means I have to miss the live stream of this year’s Table of Silence Project. Treating the 25th anniversary of 9/11 as just another workday is just plain rude and disrespectful.
And no, I can’t change the appointment. I have to show up when they tell me, or else. They are LOOKING for a reason to deny me.
I lose the bulk of today’s workday for my mom’s surgery. I lose at least half of Friday as a workday for this other appointment. How am I supposed to earn a living, if I have to keep taking off time that should be spent working? It’s a ridiculous system.
Cooked turkey burgers for dinner per my mom’s request. I knew I should have done more ghostwriting in the evening, and I just could not.
Woke up at 2:30 worrying about just about everything, after a series of weird dreams. Not bad dreams, just weird. Moved to the sofa, fell asleep again until about six, with better dreams.
Morning routine was fine. It was clear when I first got up, and then fog rolled in. Hopefully, it will burn off soon.
I will work on the ghostwriting this morning. I have to run up to the library to grab a book by one panelist that just came in, and I will familiarize myself with it before tomorrow’s event. I have just a few more book quotes to pull, and everything is done for the panel. I will go over all my bits and bobs for the event this evening. Tomorrow morning, I will go down to the bank and get some small bills for the cash box.
We will head down to Lenox just after noon, and be there as long as it takes. It’s outpatient surgery, in spite of the image above.
Hold good thoughts for us! I’ll let you know how everything goes tomorrow.
#books #freelance #paperwork #surgery #systems #writing