September 1

I don't know why I didn't much want to write anything last week.  I was sort of down.  I don't know why.  I felt creatively at an ebb; I wasn't inspired, I felt very blah.  Maybe it was to do with what I've been reading?  I always assume that it's garbage in, garbage out, and of late I've been reading a lot of blogs and newspapers but nothing really nutritive.  I read the first Flashman novel, which was fun but not inspiring.

Now, for no reason I really know about, I've started reading Gogol's Dead Souls.  So far it's pretty excellent.  The wife and I are planning a trip to New York City in November and that has got me excited.  Also, I've got a new deadline for the play.  On September 15th, I'm sending into at least one contest.  I also intend to send it some friends for feedback.  The goal is to get it so that every page is a 'seven'--meaning on a scale of one to ten, that no page is worse than a seven.  Hopefully many pages will be better.  But they may not.  The ultimate goal is to have it all to be an 'eight' with moments of nine and ten.  But it's been harder than I anticipated to go from fives and sixes to seven.  After this draft, I'll take comments, and do one more rewrite.  And then, I'm done.