gwynnega

I've finished chapter 21 of this draft of the Jo book, and am working on chapter 22 (though it's a tough one).

Word count: 65,553

Page count: 229

Four chapters to go?!

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Today is General Hospital's 49th anniversary. I do hope ABC lets it live until 50, at least. Someone posted a cool early GH promo on YouTube, and to my surprise, it also features a promo for the ABC daytime show my dad wrote, Day in Court. As far as I know, this is the only available footage of the show, as ABC wiped the tapes. I hadn't realized that the show my dad wrote was GH's lead-in! I did know that my dad knew Frank and Doris Hursley, GH's creators, but now I understand why--they were working for ABC Daytime at the same time!

I've finished chapters 19 and 20 of this draft of the Jo book, and am working on chapter 21.

Word count: 62,307

Page count: 217

Only five chapters to go, and I'm at the point where having the end in sight creates its own momentum. Some of what I have to write will be first-draft stuff, but quite a bit will be reworking/revising the previous draft, so I'm hoping it won't be Too Much Longer...

I've been trying to think of a name for a fictional mid-1970s women's bookstore (for the Jo book). Any suggestions?

The women's bookstore I worked at (in the mid-1980s, when I was an undergrad at UCLA) was called Bread & Roses. In many ways it was my favorite job I ever had, though I practically paid them to work there, what with all the books I bought. I really wish it (and Sisterhood Bookstore, my other local feminist bookstore) still existed.

I've finished the new chapter 17 of the Jo book, and am working on chapter 18.

Word count: 51,657

Page count: 180

It's coming right along (though never as quickly as I would like!).

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The OLTL finale was brilliant, especially the part where ( spoiler ). I think I'm currently in denial--I half-expect to have a new episode of OLTL to tune into on Monday. Instead I have until sometime in February to wait for Carlivati & Valentini's General Hospital to kick in (with OLTL characters showing up).

Here's a great article about former OLTL writer Michael Malone. It concludes: "as to whether One Life to Live will indeed live again, he remains optimistic: 'You never know, people might get tired of watching people diet.'"


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I've been dealing with some stubborn hip/leg pain that is making this holiday weekend a bit less relaxing than it otherwise might be. Ugh.

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I hear this week's Supernatural was a good one? I guess I'd better watch...

I have had pretty much the platonic ideal of a quiet, relaxing weekend, which is something I really needed. I worked on the Jo book, read, watched Kate Hepburn movies on TCM (Holiday and Little Women, two that I hadn't seen in years), did a little Christmas shopping, watched a little Dark Shadows, ate mini candy-cane cookies. Oh, and I watched the ( season finale of Dexter. )

I've just finished the new version of chapter 16 of the Jo book. I'm at 48K words, 168 pages. Feeling pretty good about the book at the moment, and happy that I'll have some extra time over the holidays to work on it.

Three more days at the office, and then I'm off until the new year.

[Well, I started writing a post about random stuff, but apparently I had another anti-GH rant in me, even though I already ranted about it recently!]

Weather: We're mostly been having Actual L.A. Autumn, and are supposed to have some rain tomorrow.

Writing: I'm in a good mind-set re: the Jo book, i.e., totally engrossed by it. (When I'm not in a good mind-set re: the Jo book, I think: OMG I am STILL writing That Damn Book?) Looking forward to working on it a lot this weekend.

One Life To Live: Awesome. With each passing day it becomes more clear how stupid ABC is for opting to let this show go, and how smart Prospect Park was to snap it up.

Days of Our Lives: Surprisingly awesome. Until recently it was the worst soap opera on TV, which just shows how quickly new head writers can turn a show around. Like OLTL, DAYS is doing what a good soap should--telling multi-generational stories with a nod to show history AND fresh twists. (And Matthew Ashford, newly returned to the show, is doing a tremendous job with a PTSD storyline.)

General Hospital: Sucks beyond the telling. What I said about new head writers? I didn't think it was possible for GH to be worse than it was during Bob Guza's final days with the show, but Garin Wolf has proven me wrong. For the first time, I am ready to say that GH, my GH, the show I started watching in 1980, is now the worst soap opera on TV. There are no stories on GH. There is just pointless angst, endless talking about nothing, and occasional bursts of violence, misogyny, and misogynistic violence. Jonathan Jackson is leaving the show, and I can't blame him. He deserves better. GH's viewers (those who haven't already jumped ship) deserve better. The show will probably be cancelled soon, but its soul is already gone. Still, better writing could resurrect it, but that seems unlikely at this point.

Writing: I'm mostly (as usual) working on the Jo book (which I'm feeling good about at the moment), with brief forays into poetry revision.

World Fantasy Convention: Is next week! How did that happen? I look forward to seeing those of you who will be there.

Reading: Among other things, I'm reading Like Sands Through the Hourglass, a dual memoir by Bill Hayes and Susan Seaforth Hayes, who met and fell in love on the set of Days of Our Lives in the early 1970s. It's a ridiculously charming book. (Earlier this year, when I visited my agent Diana Fox at the Romantic Times Convention in downtown LA, I was waiting for the valets to find my car in the garage afterwards--when I discovered that so were Bill and Susan Seaforth Hayes, to my surprised delight. I managed not to blurt out "You're Doug and Julie!")

Weather: We are currently having actual autumn in Los Angeles (though it's supposed to get warm again this weekend). Boot-and-scarf weather makes me very happy.

We're in the midst of June Gloom in L.A., and the wet, cold henna is on my head. This weekend I've been battling chapter 14 of the Jo book and reading Liar by Justine Larbalestier. (And, of course, continuing my Dark Shadows rewatch, currently still in the 1795 flashback storyline.) Chapter 14 is being recalcitrant. Maybe it will relent after I've washed the henna out of my hair...

Yesterday I went to the Bonaventure Hotel in downtown LA, I think for the first time since the late seventies. (I used to go there for Beatlefest back when John Lennon was alive.) I did a quick walk through the Romantic Times Book Fair, which was WAY too crowded. Then I had a great visit with my agent dianafox, in town for the RT Booklovers Convention. Then, when I was waiting for the valet to return my car, who should appear right in front of me but Bill Hayes and Susan Seaforth Hayes, i.e., Doug and Julie from Days of Our Lives (arguably the first soap supercouple of all time)!! I managed not to blurt out, "You're Doug and Julie!" I did think it a good omen for the Jo book. (The only soap actor sighting to beat this one was when Heather Webber and Rose Kelly [actors Robin Mattson and Loanne Bishop from General Hospital] sat in the row right in front of me during a two-act play of Plath's Letters Home, in 1983 or so. They only stayed for the first act.)

Speaking of the Jo book, this weekend I had a mini "What To Do When the Revolution Doesn't Pan Out" film festival: Sidney Lumet's beautiful Running on Empty (River Phoenix was still alive when I last saw it) and Tanya Hamilton's Night Catches Us (2010), set in 1976 Philadelphia, about former members of the Black Panther Party. I was particularly struck by how both movies show the children of former revolutionaries trying to come to grips with their parents' histories and how these histories have shaped and impinged upon their own lives.

Then tonight I watched episode one of the Upstairs, Downstairs reboot on PBS. It won me over, though now I want to play my DVDs of the classic series.

It is Henna Day, and the henna is on my head--which is a bit cold, considering we're in the midst of a massive rainstorm. Bleh.

This weekend I have been working on the Jo book and a couple of poems. I finished reading Shedding by Verena Stefan (mid-1970s German feminist manifesto/novel) and started a biography of Tillie Olsen, which is marvelously researched but marred by the author's apparent and bizarre contempt for her subject.