I was super happy to wake-up at 4am this morning, check my email and discover that my new erotic short story, “Score,” was one of the winners of the Volonte short story contest!
So I am going to be one of the new writers writing for their monthly eNewsletter. (And I believe there will also be audio stories, too.) I will keep you posted, gang. They are out of Sweden, but all of this will be in English. I’m super excited.
Also, in my email this morning, was a new song from the upcoming album Litanies, by Nick Cave and Nicholas Lens. This new piece is titled “Litany of Godly Love” and it is really beautiful. I just love it.
The album seems to be a sort of opera-type thing, or something like that. So I don’t really know yet what these litanies mean or how they are connected, but so far they have dropped two, and both are beautiful but this new one today kind of took my breath away.
And I saw that Nick Cave sent out a new Red Hand File today, too, but I haven’t had a chance to read it yet. However, you can read it here if you so choose!!
Well, the big election news yesterday was from intelligence expert, Steve Pieczenik, and the “ballot watermarks.” But it wasn’t so much what he had to say, but how quickly his interviews were getting blocked by Google and YouTube.
Again — If you don’t use duckduckgo, or a similar private search tool to search for your news, you are missing a lot of what is actually going on in America.
Okay, well I have been learning a lot about human nature the last several days, and also about me and who I really am and how I want to live my life and who I still want to be in the world. I can’t go into details because it involves people who prefer not to be discussed on my blog. But my life is changing. And I’m okay with it.
Sort of a new era for me, finally. More and more, it’s as if the person I’ve been for the last 50 years is dissolving to the background, and the person I was in my childhood — that sort of pure essence of my consciousness — is in tight focus and is who I relate to now as “myself.” Sort of my true Self, before all the garbage set in.
It’s not that I’m going to forget all that I accomplished as an adult, but I find I am connecting emotionally and spiritually now with who I was when I was born and was coming into my own thoughts, my own perspective of life and the outside world.
I feel like I am in a really, really good place now. It only took 60 years.
Okay!
As hard as it is to believe, we have yet another stunning day ahead of us today! Three days running now, of sun and warm weather in November. However, the one downside is that it’s Saturday so all those road-construction workers have the day off and will not be hanging out outside my house today…
With that, I am gonna scoot and get the day underway here! I hope you have a good Saturday, wherever you are in the world, with or without the lockdown. I leave you with my celebratory breakfast-listening music from this morning: “It’s Only Rock & Roll” (1974) by the Rolling Stones, from their mega-hit album of the same name. Listen, enjoy, celebrate!! And thanks for visiting. I love you guys. See ya.
Yesterday (and this morning) I have simply steered clear of the news. I know darn well that if there is something I really, really need to know about, it will get my attention.
Otherwise, I decided to just enjoy my really lovely day yesterday.
The weather was simply awesome. And promises to be the same today. I took a really beautiful walk to the post office — and mailed out my many promotional postcards for the online reading of Tell My Bones, coming up in 17 days. Something that has been in the works for nearly 14 months, is now only 17 days away. I honestly can’t believe it.
However, it is true. And I got a copy of the rehearsal schedules for the actors yesterday. A thing like that makes it feel more and more real, gang.
And I truly hope you are planning to watch it – whether on the night of the premiere (RSVP here), or during the days following. I really want you to see it!! Plus, I promised I would love you forever if you watched it, so you might want to weigh that very carefully… (Because on the day when I accept my Pulitzer Prize for Tell My Bones, you can say to your friends: “That girl there, getting that Pulitzer — she promised to love me forever.” It will feel really nice.)
Okay, this morning, on Instagram, there was a really cute video by Cave Things of the tee shirts you can buy that are designed by Nick Cave. If you are a member of Instagram, you can watch the video here. It’s about 15 seconds long.
Other than that, right now on Instagram, I try really, really hard to only look at photos and videos of alpacas, birds, intensely unusual insects, goats, baby sheep, baby cows, and panoramic nature shots. Otherwise, there is just too much intensity out there right now, and I need to hugely filter all of it. I can handle reality in very, very small doses only. And those small doses of reality are accompanied by an intake of CBD oil — my new best friend. So, all is well.
My friend Kevin is indeed back from Montana. However, the Village of Crazeysburg has decided to tear up the road and do construction at the corner of Basin Street and Frazier Alley, which is the exact corner where my barn is located. So Kevin cannot get his vintage 1965 VW camper van out of my barn yet. But I have been able to talk to him on the phone, and he might even stop over just to say hello. Which would be so nice. (He lives 20 miles away, so it’s not like he can just stroll over.)
And in the meantime, my whole street is blocked off and I get to look at quite a number of very attractive young road-construction workers! So it could be worse.
Well, I did not get anything new done on “Novitiate” yesterday, however I did read over that erotic short story, “Score,” that is a finalist in the Volonte short story contest. I had not read it since I’d written it, back in August. So it was that feeling, like — who wrote this? I don’t remember this.
My usual intense, crazy erotic story. However, this one is actually short — under 2000 words. It will eventually be published (in English) by Volonte, so I will keep you posted. (They are out of Sweden, but this is all part of the English-language website.)
So I am managing to stay really happy, gang. Just focusing on the personal things, trying to keep the larger scope of the world out of my field of vision for right now. Because I know that, at any moment, everything could explode. Including the virus, which is starting to reach Code Red again in nearby counties.
So just taking it one moment at a time here. I know that a lot of my readers are in lockdown again. I hope that you are finding ways to pass the time and that you aren’t struggling in some sort of awful way.
Here, over the last couple of months, things have skirted the edge of being really dire, but then eased up again. But I do know how it feels to run out of food, run out of money, worry about keeping my house and my car. However, through the grace of others, everything improved at the final moment here, but I do know how it feels. Even in a county that has been blessed by very low numbers of the virus, we have also dealt with the financial blows of the pandemic.
However, today is shaping up to be another really good day. I hope it is feeling likewise for you, wherever you are in the world. Thanks for visiting. Take care of yourselves!! I leave you with the song that was singing in my head the moment my eyes sprang open this morning at 4:17am — “Good Good Day,” (2001) by Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds. I’ve posted it here before, but here it is again! From off of their 2005 collection, B-Sides & Rarities. Enjoy, gang. I love you guys. Have a nice Friday. See ya.
“Good Good Day”
See the little cloud up in the sky
It’s a good good day today
See the little cloud pass on by
It’s a good good day today
Mary comes now, let Mary be
Can you see her down on the street?
Mary’s laughing ’cause Mary sees
That she’s a-wearin’ that dress for me
There can be times
Yeah… When all things come together
Yeah… Under a clear sky and you can believe
Yeah… You hold your breath for this moment
Yeah… But do not breathe for this day I know
Is a good day, yes I know
It’s a good day, yeah I know
Today…
Hear her feet skipping up the stairs
It’s a good good day today
She is the answer to all of my prayers
It’s a good good day today
Mary comes now, she don’t knock
‘Cause she’s runnin’ on her own little clock
Mary’s laughing ’cause Mary knows
That this day was made for us
And any fool knows… yeah
And any fool sees
That the future… yeah
Is a-down on its knees
But let ’em all cry, let ’em weep
Let those tears roll down their cheeks
‘Cause I can believe in the one
That is standing in front of me
Oh this day, don’t you know
Is a good day, yes I know
It’s a good day, I told you so
Today…
See her breasts how they rise and fall
It’s a good good day today
And she knows I’ve used that line before
It’s a good good day today
Mary’s laughing, she don’t mind
‘Cause she knows she’s one of a kind
Mary’s happy just to be
Standing next to me
And any fool knows
Yeah…
That the wind always blows
Something to someone
Yeah…
Once in a while, so let it rain, let it fall
Let the wind howl through your door
‘Cause right now for this moment
I’ll forever be
Standing next to her
On this day, which I know
Is a good day, yeah I know
Oh, it’s a good day, I told you so
Today…
Even while the last several days have been really harrowing in my personal life — not even counting the Internet going out! — I am super happy to announce that my erotic short story, “Score,” that I wrote back in August, was announced as a finalist this morning in the Volonte erotic short story contest.
It was just the little boost of joy I needed to hear.
“Score” is a gay male erotic short story, which is not my usual genre, so it made me doubly-happy.
And the gay male characters in the story are video gamers in their early twenties, which is not part of my general stomping ground anymore, so that made me triply-happy.
So. That news made it a lot easier to leap out of bed with a little bounce today.
I will steer clear of the unsettled election stuff on this blog if at all possible, but rest assured it has almost my complete attention. Although today, I am going to try to redirect my concentration back to working on “Novitiate,” ( the new erotic short story in progress).
(However, I will direct you to Balladeer’s Blog post from post-election morning, for some very interesting facts & comments. You will find the numbers illuminating. Truly. You will. And if you get actual news coverage (meaning if you don’t live in the United States of America) and you see all the stories about voter fraud, and mysterious weirdness with thousands of absentee mail-in ballots appearing and/or disappearing, and places like Wisconsin having 110,000 more votes cast than actual registered voters… And you see that record numbers of Latinos, African-Americans, Jews, and white women abandoned the Democratic Party and voted Republican. And also that Republicans swept the House of Representatives and the Senate and State Governorships, you will likely think: Hmmm. I wonder why a Republican didn’t sweep the Presidency, as well?)
Indeed.
So. [No! That was not me posting about politics on my own blog; I was posting about the politics on Balladeer’s blog…]
ALL RIGHTY!!
Today is shaping up to be a very good day. At least weather-wise. I’m going to make a trip to the post office to mail out my promotional postcards announcing the staged reading of Tell My Bones.
Please don’t forget to RSVP for the premiere of the reading. It is FREE!
Again, this is a staged reading, not an actual performance of the play, but the talent on board is incredible, gang. please don’t miss it!
Okay, I’m gonna scoot. Got laundry going on here right now and I also want more coffee. What could be better on this sunny Thursday morning? I hope all is well in your part of the world today.
I leave you with nothing today, because I haven’t really been listening to very much — my personal life really had my complete attention and it completely exhausted me. (This had nothing to do with politics, btw.) So I’ll just say thanks for visiting! And I love you guys. See ya!
Marilyn's Room 