I Used To Have ...

I spent the day going over responses to a list of questions I sent to a few acquaintances who sent them to a few other acquaintances. I sat by the computer the better part of the morning opening each email as it appeared in my inbox with new answers. For some reason I'm getting very excited about this query and the project associated with it.


What I am finding most intriguing is how similar our nostalgia is, regardless of the generation or culture we are from. We all long for the same types of comforts that have faded into something else that becomes the comfort someone else will soon long for too.

---

These are the questions:

What are the names of discontinued or hard-to-find products, foods, toys, clothing or other things from your childhood or young adulthood that you'd most like to find and would probably buy if you could find them? Please send your responses to research.peggy@yahoo.com .

Think hard and have fun!


Hair Products:_________________________________
e.g., Dixie Peach Pomade
Toys:_________________________________________
Clothes:______________________________________
Candy:________________________________________
Foods:________________________________________
Beauty Products:______________________________
Books:________________________________________
Medications:__________________________________
School Supplies:______________________________
Sports:______________________________________
Recreational Products:_______________________
Music/Musical:_______________________________
Transportation:_______________________________
Others:______________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________

THANKS!
research.peggy@yahoo.com

Getting Closer

Okay! We're one step closer. I got some very positive news on a script over the weekend. That "recommend" status became a reality and bought with it new momentum. There are some important talks scheduled for the week ahead. Wish me well! Please!

Author in the House

Sunday was interesting. Had it been a usual Sunday I would have looked better because I would have gone to church earlier in the day, but no one was feeling that well in my household and we'd skipped church. Late in the afternoon though, I realized that I needed to make a quick run to the bookstore to pick up a copy of a book I contributed to because I'd promised to give away a copy for another writer's project. I was dressed in old sweats, a baseball cap, and no make-up as I hurried out my door.

After spending twice as much time as I intended in the store I headed for the checkout counter. The bookseller at the checkout stand was pleasant. She'd tried to help me find another book I was searching for that wasn't in the store when I first arrived and she asked as she started to ring me up if I'd found everything else okay. I laughed casually and told her I had no problem finding the book I was purchasing because I had contributed to it. The next thing I knew she was loudly telling her co-workers that they had 'an author in the house', then asked if there were other copies of the book on the shelf and if I'd be willing to sign the ones they had, if there were.

I was taken aback. I was a contributor, not the author, and I made that clear. She reassured me that she had fully understood that and asked again if I'd be willing to sign the books they had in stock on the page where my contribution began. It is a major chain store, so it was crowded on a Sunday afternoon and the exchange was drawing attention. I agreed, and then she made a call that everyone could hear to the clerk on the fiction floor announcing that I'd be coming up to sign the books. Even more attention was clearly focusing in our direction. Ugh! Here was an impromtu signing unfolding and I looked awful!

I learned my lesson. I'll keep my mouth shut in the future or the next time I walk into a bookstore I'll be dressed to the nines!

Final Score

Where are all the sharks coming from? Was I bleeding in the water and didn't know it? I know one thing. I apparently am one heck of a swimmer, because I out swam them all and it's from the shore of peace and security that I'm looking back at where I just came from and seeing the carnivorous infestation.

A couple of doors up from where I currently live is the old home of one of baseball's legendary greats who cautioned us 'not to look behind you' because of what might be gaining on you. I am better able to appreciate his sage advice as I now ponder direction. No doubt, had I realized how treacherous the waters were I thought I was just casually bathing in, the scent of my fear would have made me a far more vulnerable target.

Okay, enough with the metaphors! It's one for me, none for defeat! That's all that matters! Next!

Thespian Monte

Thespian Monte
----------------------------------
'Beware my pretty' the aging parrot
shrills.
Not just rhetoric but
genuine fears
of this interloper
who has come
with his game of Thespian Monte;
clever mind, brilliant sleight of hand
and Satan himself
as his right hand man.

'Beware my pretty'
lest you fall asleep.
He's not friend, but foe,
trust the hairs that creep
up and down your
spine. Listen to them well.
He's the lost
and found
come up from hell.

©Peggy Eldridge-Love 2002 - All Rights Reserved
------------
This is one from the Cafe Cafe incubator from a few years ago. Ever now and again I have to revisit where my head was when. It's probably in the same place now.

Compromising

What a thrill! I've been getting things done. I'm not normally a list maker, I keep things in my head that need to be taken care of, but as the obligations increase I've become embarrassingly aware that my capacity to stay on top of it all hasn't always kept up. So, I've begun to compromise. I now make a partial written list. The great thing about my quasi-list of things to do is that it triggers the other mental list. Between the two I'm dusting off my hands, folding my arms, and looking like Mr. Clean. The jobs are getting done.

This morning, with a newly clear head, nothing pressing glaring at me, I reached a decision about the direction of a story. It hasn't been lending itself well to becoming a novel, it's much too visual, but the seed of the idea is too strong to abandon. I decided I'm going to approach it as a screenplay. Fortunately, making the switch isn't difficult. Little of it has made its way to paper yet, so I don't have to lament 'all that work' that now needs to be redone. Instead, this switch is potentially exciting. Screenplays unfold themselves much more quickly for me - at least their bare bones do - and I soon have something complete to go back and rework. So, there it is! One more 'to do' for my mental list or ... did I just write it down? Now which list does it belong to? Is it quasi or ...

Professional Readers

feeding frenzy By Michael Studard - Morguefile.com

One of my script rewrites is done and I'm shooting it out to the awaiting party. The reader's recommendation notes that prompted the rewrite for this script were:

"Strong Consider" - this screenplay has the potential to be elevated to "Recommend" status contingent on the author making the suggested changes that follow in the "Author's Notes" section.


Have I hit the mark? I'll soon find out, but I know, because of the evaluation that has already taken place by a professional reader, that the script's original premise and setting were excellent, and the story line, character, and dialogue were deemed good. (This reader's possible ratings were excellent, good, average, fair and poor.) I've had an opportunity to revamp this script (using the "author's notes") in such a way it now stands a very good change of surfacing to the top of someone's 'let's do it' pile.

Wish me well!