Finishing the Hat

Oy vey! It has been a full two weeks since I've posted.  And I've stored up so many various things to talk about, it started to overwhelm me and actually keep me from posting more.

Ridiculous.  So I'm going to do a series of shorter posts, just so I can get some things out!

We went on our annual Columbus Day creative retreat to Palm Springs two weekends ago.  It was a tremendous long weekend, full of hard creative work, lots of swimming, delicious food, and wonderful company. More on the food and its effects, in another entry.

Tom and I were able to complete episode 3 of Bubble Gumshoe while we were there, and on the spur of the moment, we decided to have a reading of the first 3 episodes with our fellow retreat-goers.  It was the first time we shared the bulk of it with a group. My family read the first episode together earlier this summer, but we hadn't had a real group reaction until our reading in Palm Springs.

The thing in the reading that stood out most to me was that immediately upon finishing the read, most of our audience/readers lurched into a discussion about who they thought was the culprit of the mystery. Someone would mention one character, and then someone else would say something about that character (accusing or in defense) that showed us that our characterization was clear enough to the audience that they would be able to dispute possible actions and motives.  The bottom line from the reading seemed to be one thing: "write more!"  It's definitely a response we were happy to hear.  That characters and a plot are compelling enough for people to want more of them... I'll take that as a good sign.

We were inspired by this reading to do a workshop reading of all of the 5 Bubble Gumshoe episodes... and we've taken off running with it.  We have our date (the afternoon of Saturday November 13.)  We have a number of theater spaces were considering.  We even have some of the readers and audience members lined up. 

I'm kind of bursting about the whole thing. It felt so great to share Bubble Gumshoe, after all of these months spent writing it quietly with Tom.  We share it every day, together, but it was still kind of a vacuum. To be able to share it with others, to get honest criticism and feedback - to help us shape the final product - is very, very exciting. Probably the most excited I've been about my personal creative work in years.  I may not be getting this across elsewhere, but... this reading is extremely important to me.  To both of us.

Anyway, my goal is to write here daily, to keep up my self-awareness (and keep sharing with all of you.)  So I'll write more tomorrow.  But in the meanwhile... if you're nearby, take a look at your calendar.  If you have some spare time on 11/13, we would love to have you come and listen. We want Bubble Gumshoe to be as solid, as funny, and as entertaining as possible, and your feedback will help that happen.