Updates!

Yes, finally an update!

I’ve had lots going on in my life during the past couple of months, and have been challenged getting used to my new schedule. Things are working out wonderfully, however, so I’m making a determined effort to get better with blogging.

As I noted awhile back, in March I left the weekly newspaper I had been with for about 10 years. I wasn’t enjoying my job as much as I used to, so it was time to try something new. That something is freelance writing and editing. I’m really enjoying it, so far!

I still write a couple stories a week for The Journal and have recently become a writer for a regional magazine called The Corridor (www.corridor-magazine.com), which focuses on an area of north central Oklahoma kind of south of Stillwater down to Stroud and Chandler, along old Route 66. The area includes a bunch of little towns and a large rural area.

My work for The Corridor will be producing feature stories, which I love. I got off to a fun start for the June issue writing about a local horse rescue organization called Johnson Equine Rescue. Check out their website at:  www.johnsonequinerescue.com.

I had a great time interviewing Dixie Johnson and visiting with the horses. I really fell in love with an appaloosa named Chance. What a sweety! Dixie invited me and Maddie to come out sometime, which Maddie is all for. Hope to do that sometime soon.

On the acting front, I recently completed my first film role. The indie film, titled “Dog Named Clara,” was written and directed by Scott Bryant. I was fascinated by how the scenes were shot. It’s SO different from theatre! Very little rehearsal, which kind of rattled me, as those of you who know me well will understand. We had our script for a couple of months, and my part was small, so I didn’t have much to memorize. However, it’s always different recalling your lines during private rehearsal and recalling them when you are interacting with other actors. People speak lines differently than you had imagined, your blocking (stage movement) is thrown into the mix, plus you may be handling props or whatever. It takes a few runs to get used to it all enough that it’s second nature. We only ran through lines and blocking a few times before Scott said, “Ok, we’ll film this take.” And then, we were on.

And then, we did the same bit again, but the camera shot it from behind me. And then, we did the same bit again, but the camera shot it from behind another actor. And so on…

It was really very fascinating. I would love to be involved with another film and see how all of those parts are put together into one cohesive story.

I don’t really know how it all works, but I believe after Scott finishes the film, he’ll attempt to find a studio to either sell it to or obtain help in producing it. Will keep you posted.

Speaking of film, I also have another project going on. I am the new “Author of the Month” coordinator for TV31 in Stillwater. (http://www.tv31.net/sportsmanch.html)

The segment appears on The Morning Edition show the third Wednesday of each month. I appeared as featured writer last year and had a lot of fun, so I was very interested in this new role when it was suggested to me. I don’t appear on camera; I just find interesting writers and authors in our area who agree to hold still long enough to be interviewed.

Eric Reitan, agreed to be my first “guinea pig” (his words, or was that “lab rat?”) He was on the May 20 show with his new book “Is God a Delusion?” Eric is a friend and is coincidentally, an associate professor of philosophy at Oklahoma State University. He did a great job on the show, and I appreciate his willingness to be my ‘first.’ Check out Eric’s blog:  www.thepietythatliesbetween.blogspot.com for some spirited discussion.

I have a few other authors already penciled in for the next few months, so stay tuned and I’ll let you know who they’ll be.

Well, that’s most of it in a nutshell. I’ll keep ya posted on what’s happening in our corner of Oklahoma. Please feel free to leave a comment below!

The Cover of Life

If you ever get the chance to see The Cover of Life, make sure you take it. It’s an excellent script by R.T. Robinson, and I believe it’s somewhat autobiographical about his family.

The story is set in Louisiana during World War II. It’s about three young brides whose husbands are serving as soldiers. The girls all move in with their mother-in-law for the duration of the war.

Well, the final performance of the play was this afternoon. It really went well, and though I’m ready for some free time, I’m already missing being at the theatre and working with the great cast and crew.

It’s kind of strange during the last performance. As we change costumes during the play, we take them back to the costume room. Same with props. As the play progresses, the dressing room gets to looking pretty bare; prop tables, too. In fact, as I was waiting to go on in the second act, I was thinking the prop table looked kind of like a Christmas tree with no presents under it. Sort of sad.

Keith (my husband) was just cast in Town & Gown’s next play, Everybody Loves Opal. I believe it opens at the end of January.

Changing the subject entirely, below is a portion of the Nov. 20 column I wrote for our weekly newspaper, The Perkins Journal:

Manette Mansell wrote a funny column about the time she was cornered in her chicken house by a mean rooster for the Nov. 6 issue of the Countywide & Sun (the Tecumseh and Shawnee paper).
Anyone who’s raised any kind of livestock probably has at least one of these types of stories. Hers reminded me of the time I got treed by a hog.
We were raising this hog, and it was getting close to time to take it in to be made into pork chops.
This hog was pretty big and it had gotten pretty wise about figuring out how to escape its pen.
I went out one cool morning to feed the livestock and discovered the hog had shoved a panel of its pen down and was wandering around nearby.
Hogs are pretty smart, so as soon as it saw me, it knew it was breakfast time, and it came running.
I can sometimes be pretty smart, too, so I wasn’t about to feed it unless it was in its pen.
That’s when the battle started.
I put feed in the pen, then tried to trap the hog with the panel, but every time I did that, it would shove the panel aside and dash out.
This continued on for awhile – long enough to get us both pretty frustrated.
You know, hogs can be pretty mean.
Every time I approached it, it would try to bite me. This stalemate went on for about 15 minutes. Me, trying to get that hog rounded up and that hog charging me. I finally had to take refuge on top of a panel and just sat there, wondering how I was going to get out of that mess.
I was resting, perched up there when my friends Nancy and Louie Zirkel drove up.
Let me just back up a bit for those of you who don’t live in the country.
When you don’t have to worry about the neighbors taking note of what outfit you have on, you don’t think a whole lot about what you wear out to the barn. This day I happened to have on some red sweat pants and I had just pulled on a plaid jacket and my roper boots. I was stylin.
I wasn’t real amused when Louie sat in the car, rolling with laughter at the sight of me perched on top of a hog panel in my finery.
Nancy did giggle a little bit, but she got out of the car and helped me round the hog back up. Girlfriends always come through for ya.
(After Louie got his jollies, he got out and helped, too.)