writing and rewriting and then some

surprise! i'm writing erotica -- under an assumed name, of course. i don't know what that name is yet but i've found a pseudonym generator, so i'm well on my way to something interesting. perferrably a guy's name.

someone dared me to do it and i figured, why not.  it's a pretty popular genre -- and when i say popular, i mean pert near everyone is doing it. i've heard from way too many writers who reignited their careers by taking up a pseudonym and writing erotica.  i haven't seen very much that explores any of it from a black female perspective, though. maybe i can change that.

strangely, it's the kind of thing that feels easy to churn out of me, now that there's relative calm in my life.

i'm working on rewrites on this libretto and i'm working on lyrics for a new song cycle and i'm working on submissions for the bmi musical theater workshop and i'm working on a dance performance idea. somewhere in there when my brain starts to glaze over, i'll pull out this erotica and reread it and think, hey this is interesting and then i write a page or two and put it aside. and then i'll go back to what i was doing. if i keep this up, i should have something interesting by the end of the summer. not a short story. probably a novella. a novel seems too cumbersome, too heavy, too much.
 
aside from all this writing, there's that soulful country/rock album i'd like to finish as a birthday present to myself.

apparently, this is a real incubatory moment for me.  this fall should be explosive.

when it's time to get out of the house and spend the day someplace else, the balcony lounge at the metropolitan museum of art is idyllic.  they have wifi, they serve high tea (amongst other things) and they have books and periodicals to get lost in. here's the kicker: not anyone can get into this lounge and it's usually empty on weekends, so i'm left alone.

as if all of that weren't enough, it's adjacent to the asian wing, so when my mind goes completely blank, i can walk to the next room and sit in front of a bodhisattva and be completely and utterly overwhelmed. what more could a nerdy blackgrrl ask for, really.


(i instagrammed this one a few weeks ago. it's ginormous.)

 i can't really think about budhisattva and not have this steely dan song swing through my head. (great album...)

GREAT news!

i just booked a performance workshop series at dixon place on thursday september 29 for a “musical” i’m assembling called the billie holiday project. this is an idea that i performed at the historic lenox lounge at the first annual harlem jazz shrines in may of this year. i wanted to grow it and i wasn’t sure how or if i could even pull it off in new york city because i hadn’t developed anything here through conventional means in awhile and i didn’t know the lay of the land. i still don’t, but i’m feeling my way along and i’m enjoying the process.

this is the way you do something new. i’ve originated work before. i know the trajectory very well. one step at a time, one moment at a time, one idea at a time – getting all of it up on its legs every season, getting a run where you can and shaping it as it goes along.

but that’s not the kicker.

the kicker is that i just confirmed with the apollo theater’s sound stage for their monthly music cafe series for may 11 and 12, 2012. i’ll also be performing there for harlem jazz shrines for those dates.

yeah, i’m over the moon. once i land, mpb and i will celebrate.

still submitting this idea for workshop opportunities all over the place. and yeah, i’m still waiting to find out if i’ve been chosen as a librettist for the bmi musical theater workshop. let’s see what develops. when anything gets confirmed, you will be the first one i tell.

happy summer!