The final revisions were made yesterday to my TV movie script, The Tea Cozy Murder Club: A Murder At Parsons Ridge, AND I did the highly implausible: I wrote a logline that the producer said was “excellent”.
That’s a first.
Normally, my loglines suck. I usually marvel in awe at writers who can come up with a decent logline right off the top of their heads — or even right after they tinker with it for several days, laboring slavishly. I thought the one I came up with for Tea Cozy Murder Club was serviceable, at best. I imagined the producer would tinker with it until it was better than serviceable.
When he emailed me back and said it was excellent, I was dumbfounded. (“How can that be?” I wondered. “If I was the one who wrote it?”)
This is the logline (drum roll, please): The members of a small town book club that delights in solving cozy old whodunits suddenly find themselves with a very real not-so-cozy murder to solve.
Yes, you guessed it! The Tea Cozy Murder Club: A Murder At Parsons Ridge is a cozy mystery. (So is The Miracle Cats and the Case of the Purloined Passport — see numerous posts below.) Even though everyone the world over knows me for my super-duper killer award-winning literary erotica, I haven’t written in that genre for nearly 10 years, and I only read it now when I’m hired to edit it. Nowadays, I only read religious tomes (this one is jaw-droppingly awesome and needs to be read by everybody you’ve ever known), or cozy mysteries. (I’m currently reading this one, by Louise Penny.)
So, the great news is that the producer will be taking The Tea Cozy Murder Club to a meeting with a production company in L.A. next week! I will keep you posted on how much they love it.
Yippee-ki-yi-yay!
On the Fluffy front (see post below about how my beloved Fluffy has advanced cancer): she is still with us and that makes it a great day! She is quite frail, though. This morning, at dawn, I scooped her up really gently in my arms and took her over to the screen door so that she could see the beautiful world that was awakening outside. It really was lovely out — and cool! 57 degrees! Fluffy was so alert and entranced by the outside world. The greenery everywhere, the flowers blooming and, most importantly, the happy birds chirping like mad.
I just love Fluffy. I will deal with my grief when I have to. For now, it’s just a perfect day.
Well, okay. On that note…Thanks for visiting, gang! Have a perfect day, too, wherever you are and whatever it finds you doing! See ya!
Life does indeed go on, even though it doesn’t look like it from the truly sporadic nature of my blog posts. (I like this definition of sporadic: “Appearing in scattered or isolated instances, as a disease.”)
Anyway, I hope my blog doesn’t strike you as a disease… ha ha
In an unfortunate segue, Fluffy is still hanging in there (see post below). She is actually doing better (which is a surprisingly subjective term when used to describe advanced cancer). She is thin as a rail and sleeps most of the time, but while awake, she is in happy spirits and even still a little feisty when encountering any of the other cats. I don’t think they have any conception that she’s dying. and in true “wild life” fashion, if they do know, I don’t think they care. That said, though, we are still a happy household, and I am always incredibly grateful each morning when I awaken and find her still alive beside me in the bed. Right off the bat, that makes it a good day. (Also a surprisingly subjective term. My use of the term “a good day” has truly narrow requirements these days.)
My stepmom, whom I adore, is also dying. It is getting near the end. She has struggled with MS for many years; the last 6 of which she’s been in a nursing home. She has always been an incredible optimist, always had the most inspiring outlook on life, always so uplifting to be around, even all these years that she’s been confined to a wheelchair in a nursing home. But now her pain levels are off the charts and she’s on morphine, which signals the beginning of the end, however, “the end” is a surprisingly subjective term when it is forecasting what morphine will trigger in terminal illness…
I will miss her so much. Not only is she a wonderful, charming, warm, and generous Italian woman, but she has also made my Dad really happy while they’ve been together. And for whatever reasons, the words “happy” and my “Dad” were not usually words that appeared close together in a sentence for most of the decades I’ve known him.
On the writing front… I got word from the producer in LA last night, that he is sending the final edits (for The Tea Cozy Murder Club: A Murder at Parsons Ridge) to me in the mail TODAY. I should have them early next week. Today, I’m working on the outline for the first book in the series (the book has the same name). I decided last night that if I can write at least 3 pages a day, I could complete the book by the end of the summer. (Not always an easy task, since I write, re-write, revise, and edit pretty much every sentence as it comes out of my brain — which is why voice-activated software is useless for me, but also why I usually only need a first draft of any manuscript I write.)
Even though Valerie and I are still working on The Miracle Cats and the Case of the Purloined Passport, we are both dealing right now with cats who have terminal cancer. It has stymied the flow of inspiration for the time being. So we’ll get back to it probably later this summer. Meanwhile, I need something to keep my spirits up, so I decided to work on the first book of The Tea Cozy Murder Club series.
Re: the car accident (see some sort of post below, where a cable TV repair guy totaled my beloved, albeit exceedingly OLD Camry)…his insurance company is being what my lawyer describes as “stingy.” So I am biding my time, it’s been 2 months already. As I wait for an acceptable settlement, I am driving a really lovely, albeit exceedingly OLD, Mercury Sable Premium LS. Wow, do I love it. However, it needs a lot of work. It looks great on the outside, but under the hood, it simply is nowhere near as awesome as my Camry was. But I have to say, every morning when I open my garage and see that sparkling silver luxury sedan from days of yore, I get super excited and say, “I love you!!” And I totally mean it.
So. A holiday weekend is practically upon us. I am busy through the weekend, but on Monday, my cousin and I are going to see Alice Through the Looking Glass !! I cannot wait. We loved the first one so much.
You know…I was saddened to read that Johnny Depp’s mother had died recently. It always seemed like they were very close. But regarding Amber Heard filing for divorce from Johnny Depp (I guess, now that his mom’s dead)… Well, long-time readers of this lofty blog have probably noticed that I stopped writing about Johnny Depp after his engagement to AH. I did that because my grandmother always told me that if I can’t say something nice about someone then don’t say anything at all. Well, now I feel like I can say something sort of positive about AH. And that is, the fact that she’s seeking spousal support after 15 months of “marriage” doesn’t surprise me at all. (MEOOOWWWW!! ha ha ha)
Anyway, I sure hope this means that one day in the foreseeable future, Johnny Depp can go back to being “sort of” happy (and go back to being the incredible actor he was before the nuptials set in). We shall see, gang!
Have a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend, if you live state-side. If you don’t, just have a great weekend. Thanks for visiting. See ya.
My precious rag doll cat, Fluffy, who was 10 years old in March, has cancer and does not have too much longer to live.
I am spending every available moment with her. I am going to miss her so much.
Here are some views of her over the last couple years. Two different illustrations by my friend, Val, in Brooklyn (the woman who’s working on the mystery book series The Miracle Cats with me). And three photos. Gosh, do I love this cat.
Fluffy by Val — from our book, The Miracle Cats and the Case of the Purloined PassportA sketch of Fluffy by Val.Fluffy on my bed.Apparently, Fluffy has spent a good deal of her life on my bed…How I will remember her best!
People wonder how I manage to have such a great life.
It’s simple. I wake-up at dawn and my first thought is to not panic. I tell myself that somehow, someway, life is gonna work out all right.
Then I try to remember if anything good happened the day before. Usually tons of good stuff happened the day before, but I have to make an effort to remember. Once I’m convinced that good stuff actually does happen, I get out of bed. I go feed all the cats, clean the litter boxes, then make my own breakfast and bring it back to bed. Fluffy is always waiting to have breakfast with me in bed.
Here she is last night, with her summer lion’s shave. She looks goofy, rather than fluffy. I love her! She is in no way feral. She is the most loving cat imaginable, but the drawback is that she hates other cats. This gives her 9 other cats to terrorize daily and it gives her deep pleasure but makes the rest of us a little nuts. She was also a rescued kitten but she is 8 years old now. We rescued her in Easton, PA. She appeared on our front porch, starving, pregnant, and dying from pneumonia… Many hundreds-of-dollars-and-years later, she is the terrorizing cat we know and love today.
Fluffy! Looking not so Fluffy!
Meanwhile, back to having breakfast in bed with Fluffy… I think it’s important to start mornings off peacefully, gently, quietly. Otherwise, my days just turn to nothing but stress really quickly. I usually listen to some sort of Law of Attraction audio thing on YouTube while having breakfast. This is the one I listened to this morning. It was really good. Really uplifting. Then, I listen to my daily lesson for A Course in Miracles and give that some thought, then I go put all the breakfast dishes in the kitchen , go back to bed and meditate for 15 minutes. (I am currently doing Deepak Chopra’s 21 Day Meditation Challenge-thingy with Oprah. Well, Deepak is presenting it with Oprah; I’m not meditating with Oprah. We are currently “Expanding Our Happiness.”)
Then, when all that’s done, I lie in bed for a little bit and usually feel good about life. This morning was no exception, although I found this (below) to be particularly helpful in feeling good about life! You might want to skip all the other stuff I mentioned above and go straight to this one every morning:
Marilyn's Room 