Elaine Smith Writes

Anything She Wants

Everything is a learning experience…

Tuesday’s Travel Tips

I thought I was late with today’s post, but it turns out it’s only Monday as I’m writing this.  Not Tuesday, as I thought.  (Although it is Tuesday as you are reading it.  Or possibly Wednesday.  [Still having trouble with that email feed being a day late.  Going to fix it soon, though.  I hope.])

Chalk my confusion up to an entire Sunday spent zig-zagging up and down the east coast, trying to get back from Maine, eight solid hours of which were spent just sitting in airports.

(So the first of this Tuesday’s tips is “Don’t do that.”)

And then there was a tropical storm and a late night drive home through a deluge.

I slept in this morning.

Then I had to/wanted to email everybody involved in the Northern Writes New Works Festival to thank them for all their hard work and talent and for including me and my play.

But now I am able to turn my attention to other things, and–aha!–I remember I have a blog post to do!

It seems like the best thing I can do is tell you a little bit about what I learned on my recent travels.

  1. The Kia Soul is not a bad little car!  And that weird lime green means you won’t lose it in a parking lot.  (If you can find one in Maine.)  Thanks, Avis!
  2. It’s kind of a good idea to bring an empty plastic water bottle to the airport. It weighs nothing, you have no problem with security, because it’s empty–and then you can fill it with water at a water fountain inside.  You stay hydrated without spending a fortune on airport beverages.
  3. Speaking of airport food. . .if you happen to be at Reagan International and decide to buy a burger at Five Guys, be aware that a burger to them is actually two burgers on one bun.  If you want a normal burger, you have to order a Little Hamburger.  (Maybe it’s like that at all Five Guys.  I don’t know.  I don’t eat there much, but I ended up with more than I wanted to eat this time.)
  4. My best travel accessory is my jacket with all the pockets!  So easy to slip the mp3 player in one, the Kindle in another, the ID in a third and so on.  Plus, it keeps you warm.  (See tip # 5.)  I may even bring my fishing vest next time, although that wouldn’t help with the warmth issue.
  5. The row immediately behind the emergency exit row is kind of cold.  There’s a little gap and a big draft around that exit panel, and it’s freezing at 30,000 feet.
  6. Row 4 on the US Airways shuttle from DC to La Guardia has extra leg room–but you’ve got to stow all your carry-on stuff (including your laptop) in the overhead bin for take-off and landing.
  7. Hoot Suiteis great for keeping you connected to social media when you can’t find a free WiFi connection for your laptop.  It works well even on a tiny Blackberry!and, the most important travel tip of all…
  8. Try to hang on to your sense of humor.

Anybody else got any good travel tips?  Comments welcome!

Touchdown!

Today’s Monday Miracle is that I am back home in Florida.

(At least, I hope so.  This post was written ahead of time–so I wouldn’t forget.  But unless you’ve heard of something unmentionable involving airplanes yesterday, it’s a pretty safe bet.)

And thank goodness.

Because I have a hard time believing in air travel.

And it is disconcerting to participate in something that seems so unlikely.

I mean, have you ever seen an airplane?!

Usually, I don’t really look at the airplanes I’m boarding.  I walk down an enclosed jetway through a portal and sit down in a seat inside a tube (sort of).  But when you travel to and from Maine, you get to be bussed across the tarmac, hand your rollaboard over to a guy with a cart (because even the carry-on won’t fit on the plane), and climb a set of stairs with the airplane attached.

Large as life and twice as natural.

Now, a plane to Maine is small.  But it’s bigger than anything I know how to get up into the air.

So it seems unlikely that air travel is actually possible.

But it must be.  Because here I am.  Back home in Florida, when yesterday I was in Maine.

Whew!

Oops!

Sorry Sunday

Traveling today!

Not enough thinking ahead!

No substantive blog post.  Ooops.

Use this time to write something of your own!

Summer Days

Friday Finds

Here’s a little known secret!

(Actually, it is probably well known to everybody, but I now have first hand knowledge.)

Maine might be a great place to spend the summer.

Now, I admit my acquaintance with the great state of Maine is only 5 days old, but I left 90 degree weather and 90% humidity back in Florida, and it might get up to 87 today here in Maine.  I’m not sure they know what humidity is.

It’s absolutely beautiful, and it’s June.  (It is, in fact, the kind of day June brides dream about.)

I’m thinking I may have to come back here some time without the all-absorbing obligations of play festivals.

It could be good.

The stuff that’s going well!

Thankful Thursdays

On Thursdays, I think it might be good to talk about what’s going well.  Since it’s all too easy to focus on problems and challenges.

Today, I am thankful for all the people who have done so much to support and encourage my play.  Right now, I am grateful to the latest cast who are working so hard:  Julie Lisnet, Katie Toole, Randy Hunt and Arthur Morrison, directed by Marcia Douglas.  And Mary (whose last name I cannot remember — oh, no! — but I will find out).  Mary is doing a fine job with the stage directions.  [Update:  Mary’s last name is Clark.  Mary Clark!]

Don’t let anybody ever tell you that reading the stage directions is no big deal.

It’s a huge deal!

And, of course, I am grateful to the Penobscot Theatre Company.  Artistic Director Bari Newport, Managing Director Marcie Bramucci, and the indefatigable and unfailingly cheerful Jasmine Ireland who is the Director of Education and Outreach and the curator of this Northern Writes New Works Festival.

We’re having a blast here in Bangor!

Parking Puzzles

Wednesday’s Woes

So, I’m having a great time in Bangor, ME!  The weather is beautiful.  The people are friendly.  I’m getting some work done on my play.

Very excited to hear the little addition I made to scene 3 go in tomorrow.  Maybe I’ll never hear that question about why it takes so long for the leading lady to come back with the shotgun ever again in any future feedback session!

And it was a surprisingly easy fix.

Assuming, of course, that it is now actually fixed.

What has been challenging is parking.

It’s parallel parking.

So, okay.  I can do that.

But it’s parallel parking for only 90 minutes at a time!  (Sometimes only an hour.)

And there is a parking garage, but it closes at 9 pm–which kind of spans some of the events I’d like to attend.  So, you know, you have to go move the car during a break.

And a rental car–kind of makes it harder.  Not so sure of the exact size and shape while maneuvering unfamiliar streets and trying to squeeze into available spaces.  And, what happens if I pick the wrong spot?  And it gets towed!?  Heaven forfend!

It’s fine.  It’s all good.  I just never realized that perfect parallel parking was going to need to be in my playwright’s bag of tricks.

 

Are we in a time warp?

Tuesday Tips

Here’s a tip for you on this lovely Tuesday morning: You probably want to avoid launching a blog in the middle of a business trip. Especially if you are using all of the wonderful but somewhat wacky free software that is available to make your life a living hell easier.

Now, to be fair, I launched this website last week. But I didn’t try to incorporate an email feed until—oh, somewhere around Wednesday. And guess what? Everything worked fine.

Except the part where it’s supposed to email blog posts on the day they post.

Because the email part of the blog is a day late and a dollar short. (Well, no dollars are changing hands—so that part’s not true. But it is a day late.)

That means that if you are reading this blog via email, you are wondering why I haven’t realized that it’s actually Wednesday and not Tuesday. The thing is, I know that it’s probably Wednesday where you are. Over here in blog land, however, it’s been Tuesday since Monday.

See, I wrote the Monday post on Sunday. And I scheduled it to go out on Monday. And, if you are reading this on my website or via RSS feed, all is well. But if you subscribed to get the posts by email, you are getting things the day after they post.

I don’t know why.

I’m using free software. Free software has a hidden cost. No help. Anywhere. All kinds of forums where well-meaning and sometimes surprisingly knowledgeable users try to help you, yes, with extraordinary generosity. But no actual tech support. And, for me, that rarely works. Because I am an odd mixture. I have a great deal of knowledge about a wide range of software applications—and pockets of ignorance that would swallow Montana. So, when I run into a problem, it’s usually something totally bizarre. If it were not, I’d have solved it.

So, please bear with me while I try to solve this problem (which might be easier if I were not in airports and hotels and play readings). In the meantime, if you’re getting this by email, the space-time continuum has not slipped its leash.

It really is Wednesday where you are.

Probably.

We interrupt this broadcast…

Monday Miracles

I like that.  “Monday Miracles.”  That may become a regular feature of the blog.

But, I digress.

Which is kind of the point.

We were following a train of thought about writing, originality and finding your voice.  And, I do have more to say on that subject.

But we interrupt this broadcast to take a detour into the Monday Miracle.

Today, even as this posts, I am on my way to Bangor, Maine where my play, currently titled Angels and Ministers of Grace Defend Us (and not to be forever so titled at the insistent urging of various producer friends who surely know what they are talking about) is going to be read three times (THREE!!!) during the Penobscot Theatre’s Northern Writes New Works Festival.

How’s that for a Monday Miracle!?

I’ll try to post updates on the Festival and the play and how things are going.

Never been to Maine.
But I kinda like the music

No, wait!  That’s a different song.

The point is that I’ve never been to Maine.  I’ve never been to this hotel.  Internet access may be spotty.  If I don’t manage to post for a week, please rejoin me here on Monday, June 25th, when we return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

 

Finding your voice

The secret to originality

If there’s only one plot, as we discussed yesterday, where does originality come into play?

In your voice.

The way you string your words together.  The tone.  The vocabulary.  The choices.

This blog has—so far—a light and breezy tone.  I speak to you here in my playful voice—mostly because I can’t imagine posting day after day in total newscaster-reporting-a-disaster seriousness.  If we can’t have fun, what’s the point of being here?

But I have other voices.  I do have the newscaster-reporting-a-disaster voice.  I just don’t like it much.  I definitely have the Eeyore-voice wherein everything is gloomy, and I anticipate disaster at every turn.  I could give you melodrama or sweet sunshine or. . . .any one of thousands of voices.

We all could.

Some will come easier than others, but you’ve got to figure out what your writing project is about and what’s appropriate.

Some voices don’t work for some things.  Like when you were a kid and your mom would say, “Use your indoor voice.”

Next up:  How do you find your voice?  (Hint:  It’s probably not your ‘indoor voice.’)


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