The Pitch
"Life is a casting off Ð "Linda Loman, Death of a Salesman
Who knew that Linda was a knitter?
I've worked on a few productions of DOAS, and none of them have had her pulling a ball and some needles out of her housecoat pocket. Some have her mending, but so far I haven't seen her knitting. I'd love to see that.
I'm not doing as much knitting as I'd like these days - more selling than knitting, I'm afraid... In the week between returning home from TNNA and my Chicago gig, I need to get serious about putting the flip books up on Amazon and sending out a mass mailing to my email list about the availability of the books.
But mostly I'm casting off. Throwing out. Pitching. Deciding what we need, what we don't, and the best way to dispose of what we can no longer use. I've been dividing up the clothing goodies between Goodwill and a local Dress for Success charity (I have a lot of plus-sized business suits, etc., that I'll never wear again - SOMEONE should get some use out of them! And the woman at the DFS group said they NEVER have enough size 16 and above suits!)
FLIP KNITS
The books will be shipping out to shops and folks who buy them online in mid-April. I'm working on a few new books which I hope to have released in June, which will give me a good sense of which to include in a 4 or 6 book gift set later in the year. $4.99 - makes a great gift!
I also have another book proposal to send to my editor, but I'm in the midsts of finding a mutually respectful way to end my relationship with my agent (it's not you, it's me...)
He's a very good guy, and I like him quite a bit, but it's a bad fit. I need to do most of my work via email, he (like most folks in the world - in the business world at least...) likes to communicate via cell phone. That means, with my erratic and faulty memory, that there have been misunderstandings and misses.
I am MORE than willing to accept that any confusion has been my own, but that's exactly why I need to communicate in a way that makes it easy for me to look up and see exactly what I've been asked - or have promised - to do.
MOVING ON
Yesterday while the kids were at school I went through their closets and tossed EVERYTHING that doesn't fit anymore or that I know they hate and won't wear. I packaged up their summer clothes in a big suitcase for each kid, and sorted their winter clothes. FOUR bags of goodwill-destined garments and a few bags of garbage later, I felt that I'd done a good days work.
Today Gerry's teaching TelePrompTer classes and the kids have playdates later, so I'm putting them to work now. Hannah's charged with separating the books she wants to keep from the books we'll give away, and Max is rolling balls of yarn for me to send out to a knitter. I can hear them fighting upstairs, so obviously a lot of work is getting done...
I'm answering emails, filling book orders, arranging travel for my spring gigs and doing general computer housecleaning. Necessary, but not very exciting. After I finish that, I have the VERY exciting job of packing our fine china. As I finish packing books & other stuff, I intend to take apart the bookshelves (I love Ikea!) and tape them together with a baggie of the screws so that we'll be good to go when we arrive in St. Paul.
I've worked on a few productions of DOAS, and none of them have had her pulling a ball and some needles out of her housecoat pocket. Some have her mending, but so far I haven't seen her knitting. I'd love to see that.
I'm not doing as much knitting as I'd like these days - more selling than knitting, I'm afraid... In the week between returning home from TNNA and my Chicago gig, I need to get serious about putting the flip books up on Amazon and sending out a mass mailing to my email list about the availability of the books.
But mostly I'm casting off. Throwing out. Pitching. Deciding what we need, what we don't, and the best way to dispose of what we can no longer use. I've been dividing up the clothing goodies between Goodwill and a local Dress for Success charity (I have a lot of plus-sized business suits, etc., that I'll never wear again - SOMEONE should get some use out of them! And the woman at the DFS group said they NEVER have enough size 16 and above suits!)
FLIP KNITS
The books will be shipping out to shops and folks who buy them online in mid-April. I'm working on a few new books which I hope to have released in June, which will give me a good sense of which to include in a 4 or 6 book gift set later in the year. $4.99 - makes a great gift!
I also have another book proposal to send to my editor, but I'm in the midsts of finding a mutually respectful way to end my relationship with my agent (it's not you, it's me...)
He's a very good guy, and I like him quite a bit, but it's a bad fit. I need to do most of my work via email, he (like most folks in the world - in the business world at least...) likes to communicate via cell phone. That means, with my erratic and faulty memory, that there have been misunderstandings and misses.
I am MORE than willing to accept that any confusion has been my own, but that's exactly why I need to communicate in a way that makes it easy for me to look up and see exactly what I've been asked - or have promised - to do.
MOVING ON
Yesterday while the kids were at school I went through their closets and tossed EVERYTHING that doesn't fit anymore or that I know they hate and won't wear. I packaged up their summer clothes in a big suitcase for each kid, and sorted their winter clothes. FOUR bags of goodwill-destined garments and a few bags of garbage later, I felt that I'd done a good days work.
Today Gerry's teaching TelePrompTer classes and the kids have playdates later, so I'm putting them to work now. Hannah's charged with separating the books she wants to keep from the books we'll give away, and Max is rolling balls of yarn for me to send out to a knitter. I can hear them fighting upstairs, so obviously a lot of work is getting done...
I'm answering emails, filling book orders, arranging travel for my spring gigs and doing general computer housecleaning. Necessary, but not very exciting. After I finish that, I have the VERY exciting job of packing our fine china. As I finish packing books & other stuff, I intend to take apart the bookshelves (I love Ikea!) and tape them together with a baggie of the screws so that we'll be good to go when we arrive in St. Paul.
9 Comments:
You're an inspiration to get me to declutter my house -- it's pretty serious. I also feel for you -- at the hard end of moving. But that beautiful Craftsman (yes?) house is waiting for you to add to its warmth. An exciting carrot! I'm eager to follow your moving adventures. Good luck. Be strong.
Annie -- On your china -- Please use towels, linens, out of season clothing, yarn to pack them! Have learned that to do packing of delicates this way saves boxes and is so very much kinder to the china/pottery/ceramics. And mark every box in at least 2 places in bold dark highlighter what all's in the box.
I agree, email makes it much easier to be clear on what is said. Speaking as a hearing impaired person, email is a godsend! Bad cellphone connections are (I'm told) irritating when your ears work normally. My ears aren't "normal" so cellphone communications are even worse!
Use lots of labels in the packing, written very large. Colour coding helps too. Movers want to see quickly where to put things, and you don't want to have to move them after, if you can avoid it. We moved about 8 times in my husband's career, and that's not actually a lot.
Gillian
I was just going to say that you sound incredibly well-organised, and then my eye jumped to the beginning of the post below and I saw that your were a Virgo - obvious really! (I speak as one, too).
Casting off is also used in boating - you cast off the rope when you leave the dock.
Don't forget Freecycle! I use it to get rid of tons of stuff. You can even arrange to have people pick up things off your front porch. Good luck with the move - don't forget to try Cafe Con Amore in the Milton Mall when in Saint Paul. They do a great latte!
There is nothing like an impending move to get the deaccessioning process going. I wish I had stuck to the Chinese New Year tradition of doing it before the beginning of EACH new year.
well, if your current agent reads his clients' blogs (which I'm guessing not, fortunately), then you've done it!
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