Today was the day from hell. It started with us walking to breakfast. (Good food at the Pepper Mill) It was slow and when we came out, after wolfing the food down. It was raining.

So– we drive to Washington Elementary. We’re there at 7:45. No lights. No people. At close to 8:00 J– remembers a small typed thing on the contract. “3 performances at Central Elementary” No address. So we’re driving down the street looking for a phone booth. I leap out and am frantically looking up Central, while J– accosts some children and asks them. We both arrive with same answer. 2 blocks down on the left.

So it’s close at least. I run in and find the auditorium and remember the school. Last year F– and I picked up Rush Limbaugh on our sound system. And there are stairs, it’s pouring rain. We can’t get the van backed up ’cause the driveway is mud and the tires just spin. AND the stage is carpeted. Deeply padded carpet, which means our rolling stools are out.

G–, the custodian, helps up load in.We’re scrambling trying to make 9:00. The principal agrees to shift the shows half an hour later.

We get set up, J– plugs in the sound system and radio comes out. Like we were tuned to the station.

So he gets a boom box and is thinking that we’ll manage to turn it on and off somehow. I remember someone saying something about unplugging cords. Which I try and the radio goes away. We’ve got tape and footswitch now, but no mikes. Fortuently there are mikes hanging above the stage. G– comes to the rescue and gets those working for us.

Finally we’re doing the show we get to the Piper luring the rats away and CLICK– blow a fuse. Lights and sound. So while we’re waiting for the circuit breakers to be reset J– talks about lights and sound to the audience.

Lights and sound are restored and we continue until the kids go into the mountain. CLICK. Fortunently G– was a speedy learner. House lights came up. He sprinted onstage and got the breaker reset and we made it to the end.

Then we did two more shows. We unplugged a light for the next show.

After all of that we loaded out in the pouring rain and looked like drowned rats.

I drove us home. J– read “Godson” by Roger Zelazny to me. Got back here to Boise had dinner. Rented “An American in Paris” and now it’s bedtime.

Today was our 1st 2 set-up day. As usual the morning show is a hazy fog by now. The long Piper cape came undone so there was a length of clothesline stretching across the stage. Lovely. J– turned and gracefully grabbed the cape and pulled it along with him. It actually worked beautifully in the 2nd show. Shadow light and all.

My finger is doing much better. Still splinted but I’m dressing it myself and washing it twice daily. I go in again on Tuesday. Hurray.

Heh² I heard a kid say “I don’t like Gretta” after she had run off with the bread.

J– is concerned about the restlessness that happens when the Piper leaves with the kids. Its pretty consistent. I think they’re talking about the show but I dunno.

We’re in Jerome, ID tonight for the show tomorrow. J–’s already asleep so I should turn off the light.

J– and I just got back from a trip to Kinko’s to print flyers. It was kinda fun. The shows today went pretty well.

We set up in an hour! Of course it was a jogging load-in but still! It’s possible. And that includes blowing a fuse and J– looking for a new outlet. So hey–

We did it ’cause we had gone to the doctor for my finger and it took longer than we thought. But they stuck a splint on, that lasted till I got to the parking lot.

I’ve got a new one on now. It’s very secure and I’m not on my way to a show. They took the scab off with a scapel and novacaine. My finger looks worse today (the nurse agreed). Tomorrow I go back so they can decide if I need a skin graft. Can you believe it? I can’t.

J– made a really good veggie pie for dinner. I’m not quarantined anymore so I got to eat out in the dining room. Hurray.

Oh– J– also added this thing were he toots one last note at the Rat King after he says “River Rats” and then I go down. Makes getting across stage a little tighter but… well worth it. Amazing as soon as we added that a laugh came. Small tweakings are sometimes all that’s needed. Like the ending, needed a faster fade rate to blackout to get applause. Weird, eh?

Ernie if I didn’t think it before, I do now. My body hates me. I’ve got strep throat, an infected glue gun burn, an infected spot on my leg, a place on my face that will leave a deep scar ¹ and to add insult to injury– I started my period tonight. Oh joy unbounded.

Our shows went well today. Considering. Couldn’t use the shadow light ’cause we were in a 15 foot space which is exactly how much room the set was designed to take up. If I’d know how big that light would be, I’d have planned for it. Ah well.

J– said he was glad I was feeling better (and I am, complaints aside) ’cause he was having flashbacks to S–’s dazed expression.

Have I mentioned how much I like his family? They saved a piece of delicious pie for me ’cause I couldn’t eat it yesterday. What wonderful people.

R– called today to see how I was doing. Wanted to make sure J2– hadn’t guilted me into doing the show today when he found out I had. I told him that I felt so  much better by comparison to yesterday that I figured, “I did the show yesterday feeling much worse; I can perform today.”  My throat is still sore but I can eat solid food again. Hurray!

Let’s see. I painted the shadow figures on the small Piper/kids flats. By the way kids (real ones) are trying to figure out how we make them smaller in the distance. ² I also fixed Agnes’s dress (a rip in the shoulder) and glued her hand to the crutch. Put legs on rats & tails on & a carrot.

Now I must sleep.

Oh– almost forgot. I had my 1st Piper performance injury today. Well… it’s a doozy of a bruise… anyway I tripped over the rats trigger cable on my 1st entry with the mayor and slammed against the ramp. Lovely bruise on my left thigh. Woohoo.

Peter Ahlstrom, assistant to Brandon Sanderson, and Valerie Dowbenko, assistant to Pat Rothfuss, join Brandon and Dan to talk about what they do for “their authors.”

While this may seem like an incredible luxury — most of you listeners aren’t going to rush out and hire an assistant — there are things that can be farmed out from the earliest stages of your career as a professional writer. The goal, of course, is for the writer to find more time to write.

It’s also a lot of fun to hear Peter and Valerie talk about how they keep Brandon and Pat writing, and to listen to them talk about some of the unusual things they do as part of this job.

via Writing Excuses.

Well Ernie, old friend of mine, I’ve got strep throat. I haven’t had that since high school. I’m miserable. I performed today, but I’m miserable. ¹ J–’s family is being very sweet although… I’m quarantined, eating off of paper products confined to the back room.

The doctor said I couldn’t do the shows. J2– said if I felt up to it to do [the shows but] just don’t breathe on anyone.

We seem to be getting our time down on set-up. We had pretty much everything up in an hour and goofed around for the next 1/2 hour.

I’ve also got an antibiotic salve on my burned finger. The doctor was impressed that I had done that on a glue gun. ² I’ve got a funky finger guard to keep from bumping it.

Funny, I pulled a hundred dollars out of per diem and spent all but 5 dollars of it on strep. Figures, eh?

I’m sick. It’s our 1st day on the road and I’ve got a sore throat and a fever.  We’re at the E–’s house. J–’s family is really nice. His sister K– has given up her bedroom for me. We left at 10:30 this morning and got here at about 7:00 pm. I have to sleep.

Today I woke up at 10:07 which was good ’cause I wanted to sleep in but bad ’cause M– had rehearsal at 10:00 and I was supposed to drive him. I went into TOJ at about 1:00 to paint the rock wall ¹  J– and his grandfather and uncle were there. He sent them off to the air museum while we worked. He replaced the rental lights with our new ones. Hurray. F– came in to fix Brer.

K– came by and we had a late lunch at El Presidente. I miss hanging out with her.

Then I came home and M– and I went to go see Falsettos. R– L– was “Marvin.” He was the musical director for Little Shop of Horrors.

I’m really tired but since I’m hitting the road tomorrow I have to wait for my laundry to dry. Hmm… 1:11 we may be at that point. ²

Technically yes, it’s Saturday but hey–. Today J– and I finished the 1st day of the Pied Piper tour. R– said it was so much better that it wasn’t even the same show. Our set up still takes 1hr 45min hopefully that’ll get faster.

F–, M–, and I went to see The Blues Brothers at the Bagdad. That was a lot of fun.

1st night on the road. We’re performing in Pullayup, WA tomorrow. Did 2 shows today at MLK. They were okay. Not good, but okay. The show is there. Our lights kept blowing in the 2nd show.

A reporter from the Oregonian came out to take pictures.

J– & I read to each other on the way up here.

Bad dress, good show, right? I hope so.¹

I just got home from TOJ. L–,  & K–, & J– stayed late & helped me. Got a lot of work done.

Keffy Kehrli joins Brandon, Mary, and Howard in front of a live audience at WorldCon 69 in Reno. He’s a Writers of the Future winner, a short story writer, and a female-to-male transsexual.

Mary leads us into this discussion, starting with how gender roles and gender identity lie along a continuum, defying the convenient descriptors that people typically employ, and how this can inform our writing. Keffy offers valuable tips, talking about what gets done wrong, and how to write it correctly.

We also talk about how this can apply to world-building, especially in fantasy where extended gender identities usually are not a consideration.

via Writing Excuses 6.16: Gender Roles–Black, White, and Gray » Writing Excuses.

J2– was not pleased about the Piper poster. We’ll see what happens. Left work at 11:00pm. Really tired. Ran Piper 3 times. The mikes are potentially problematic. Feedback from hell.

Yay! I got the children cut out & appliqued to the Piper’s cape today! It took me from 1 til 7:30 to do it what with picking the fabric & everything. Had dinner with F–. That was a good, good thing.