Yikes! We’re almost to the middle of the year!!
After a live theater drought, we had two Sundays in a row at local live theatres.
I mentioned seeing The Book of Will at the Curtis on our anniversary. It’s about Shakespeare’s friends attempting to publish a folio of his plays.
I bought my complete Shakespeare, including the sonnets, on a teenage trip to Stratford-upon-Avon but I never stopped to think how the plays had been compiled. Turns out there wasn’t an equivalent to Samuel French, the company that publishes plays currently, in the 1600’s, so the scripts had to be gathered from actors and producers, and a search launched for a publisher willing to take a gamble on a fancy book of plays. Filled with love and loss, the most excellent cast gave us a lovely afternoon of theatre.
I’d seen ads for Anastasia at the La Mirada Civic Theatre ~ I’m a sucker for beautiful costumes, which the Romanov segments had in abundance ~ but the ticket prices were a bit prohibitive. Then I happened to see an Instagram announcement for 40% off the Father’s Day performance. Woo hoo! I’m so glad we were able to take advantage of the discount.
The Cathy Rigby production, filled with fine acting, singing, and dancing, did not disappoint. The costumes were gorgeous, especially Anastasia’s last gown ~ it sparkled in the stage lights (this pic doesn’t do it justice) ~ and the white gowns of the Romanov girls. A sequence of Swan Lake transcended the production and one dancer, I think his name is Anton Harrison LaMon, reminded me of Baryshnikov.
And the train number ~ choreographed on a moving stage with choreography of its own with a man posted on each corner “dancing” the train around, while the actors sang and danced between the seats. The projection behind the scene moved in sync to the position of the train. It was so fun to watch! And speaking of the projections at the back of the stage, I thought they were used seamlessly to show location and create mood. The Husband, a lifelong stage actor, grumbled a bit about new-fangled technology he and his cohorts never needed ~ LOL.
On the hunt now for more live theatre! Looking forward to the Curtis Theatre production of Assassins this fall.
The Husband and I attended our first Sisters in Crime Orange County Chapter meeting on Saturday. It was the inaugural meeting at their new venue, the Orange CA Public Library. Other than missing both raffle baskets by one number on each side of the eight tickets I bought *head explodes – LOL* we had a great time. The speaker, Charles Jensen, talked about revenge and editing his online revenge-centric magazine, Villain Era Literary Magazine. I think we’re going to enjoy this interesting group of writers and readers.
Spent a little time at a protest yesterday morning. We live a few miles away from The Richard Nixon Library. Last week, I saw an announcement that Vice President JD Vance would be holding a book signing on Thursday. I wanted him to know that writing a book about religion and then hawking it is not in his job description. ‘Nuff said.
Quick and dirty sign 🙂
The red hat I wore was knitted and given to me by my Pennysaver buddy, Gayle Griffith. A sign of protest in WWII Norway, the hat has been resurrected for these disturbing times. Click here to read about its history and current symbolism and fundraising story.
Writing
Some exciting publishing news for me! My 75 word story about Maggie, one of the characters in my debut mystery, The Bonus Grave, won the honor to be published in The Smalls Too, a book issued by The California Writers Club. I’ve been a member of the Orange County branch for a year and a half. “Saved by the Heart” started out life as a 100-word story I wrote for myself, along with several others, to help me deepen some of my characters so I could write more comprehensively about them. 75 or 100 words only makes you focus on what’s really important in a scene! It’s available on Amazon.
Getting ready to start the line edits on The Bonus Grave! I think the story is just about as good as I can get it… It will never be perfect and I will forever find things to fix (for anything really egregious, I could re-publish but since my beta readers didn’t pick up on any structural disasters, I hope that won’t be necessary) but I think the story itself is done. As I do the last edit to tweak the words and sentences, I’ll be keeping an eye out for places where I could still deepen the characters here and there.
Reading
I mentioned meeting author Elle Jauffret at the March meeting of our writers club (see that post here). I read both of her Suddenly French mysteries recently, Threads of Deception and Cosplayed to Death, and I’m looking forward to her third one, hopefully coming out this fall.
Why I read it: I’d never heard of Foreign Accent Syndrome, which Claire, former attorney and current chef, developed as a result of a bombing at her old law firm. Picking up the pieces of her life, she moves back to the Southern California town where she grew up, living above her retired cop dad’s restaurant and sharing the apartment with a grumpy police detective.
Plot: In Threads of Deception, a friend who asked Claire to cater a Project Runway-style show is found dead. Lots of suspects with various overlapping reasons for wanting her gone. Claire really doesn’t want to investigate but, as a former attorney, she doesn’t like the way the case is being dealt with, so she steps in with interesting and sometimes scary results. Cosplayed to Death deals with surfers and a group of actors cosplaying their oceanic characters. An arrogant rich kid is the first murder and he’s got plenty of viable haters for suspects. Then one of the cosplayers, who is going to unhealthy lengths to “become” her character, is killed. Claire delves into the circumstances of both deaths.
What I liked: I’m a stickler for good peripheral characters and I love her best friend, Suggie, her dad, Frank, and even Torres, the cop, is growing on me. Subplots of immigration issues (her newly acquired French accent put her at a serious disadvantage in several situations), Suggie’s determination to become a respected journalist, an ongoing mystery about the disappearance of Claire’s sister years ago, and the tough decision of where Claire wants her life to go from here keep me invested.
Streaming/Watching
At the moment, we’re rewatching Numb3rs, the series about Don Eppes, an FBI agent, his brilliant mathematician professor brother, Charlie, and retired architect father, Alan. I’ve always loved this series because there are three separate engaging aspects to the show ~ the crime/FBI stories, the academic setting, and the Eppes family dynamic. Watching how the three main elements weave together made this more than just a cop show. Rob Morrow, David Krumholtz, and Judd Hirsch starred.
Be kind to yourselves and each other. Till next Thursday!
La Mirada Theatre photography: Jason Niedle
I'm Writing As Fast As I Can 