Wintering the daylilies, and revising Mrs. Hawking

I'm worried about my daylilies. Some of the sources I've been checking out on their care say you should bring them inside for the winter, but I don't have any good place for them where they would neither be in the way nor fail to get enough sunlight. Of course, other sources say since they're wildflowers, practically weeds, they will get through the cold and bad weather okay and spring up good as new next year. I guess I'm going to leave it to fate, and even if they wither this season, hopefully the bulbs will be okay and they'll come back in the spring. Still, they're not looking so healthy right now.

My last major writing job for this semester is finishing the revision of Mrs. Hawking, which is due tomorrow. I've already gotten a decent start, but I mean to finish this afternoon. I got some good, solid, concrete feedback from my teacher and I have a good idea of where the work needs to happen, so I think it will go smoothly. Other than taking the pictures and then assembling them for my comic book, this is my last assignment for school. Also, after this revision, I am going to start sending this play out to places for consideration for readings and performance. So this will be a very useful step to accomplish.

Biweekly Theater Writing Challenge: Dolls That Say "I Love You" on Command

I just wrote a scene and I freaking love it.

Dolls That Say "I Love You" on Command

(SAM, a troubled former FBI agent, walks down the street. She grips her purse uncomfortably and hurries along. Soon she comes across a park bench where a little girl in a frilly dress sits, holding a baby doll and smiling at her. She recognizes this as a form of SARIEL, her guardian angel.)

SAM: Oh, Jesus.

LITTLE GIRL SARIEL: Hi, Sam. I’m surprised to see you out and about. Since you think so little of these imperfect creatures God made.

SAM: Oh, save it.

LITTLE GIRL SARIEL: No, our conversation really got me thinking. It’s a good question, why God would make you all so full of sin and so prone to rejecting Him and all his love.

SAM: I’m not up for a deep theological discussion right now, okay?

LITTLE GIRL SARIEL: Okay, okay. But don’t go. Since we ran into each other, you might as well come hang out a while.

(Sam looks around nervously to see who might be watching.)

SAM: Why do you show up like this? Why a little girl?

LITTLE GIRL SARIEL: Because it means people are a lot nicer to me when I want to sit around and play with dolls.

SAM: People see me talking to you, they’re going to think I’m a kidnapper or something.

LITTLE GIRL SARIEL: Oh, don’t worry what other people think for five minutes, okay? Just sit down.

(She sits on the bench beside him.)

LITTLE GIRL SARIEL: Check this out.

(He tips the doll forward and back. Its recorded voice box says, “I love you!”)

LITTLE GIRL SARIEL: Nice, huh?

SAM: So?

LITTLE GIRL SARIEL: So, they make these baby dolls who say “I love you.” Whenever you want, they just say it to you. It’s a present for you.

SAM: For me? Why?

LITTLE GIRL SARIEL: You know, since Chris and all.

SAM: Is this a joke?

LITTLE GIRL SARIEL: Well, you were really broken up about having been left by the person who loved you.

SAM: What? Oh, Jesus!

LITTLE GIRL SARIEL: I thought this might fill the void.

(He proffers the doll, making it say "I love you" again. She shoves it back at him.)

LITTLE GIRL SARIEL: What? It doesn’t?

SAM: You’re an asshole.

LITTLE GIRL SARIEL: Oh, I’m sorry. You mean to say, a doll that’s built to say “I love you” on command isn’t worth the same as a creature of free will who loves you of his own accord?

(Sam turns to stare at him, disturbed. Little Girl Sariel makes a snotty face and spreads his hands.)

Suddenly OVERRUN with MORE IDEAS

OF COURSE I would be overrun with ideas for other projects right when I'm just on the heels of being free of the obligation to write for a while. I should be getting my focus on editing Mrs. Hawking, I only have to do it for one more day, but OF COURSE my brain would become suffused with notions for unrelated projects exactly at this crucial moment.

Being at SLAW whetted my hunger for larp yet again. And now all my ideas for future larps are rising up again, begging for attention. I am currently listed as author for seven larps, which are chronologically Alice, Oz, Paranoia, The Labor Wars, Resonance, The Stand, and Break a Leg, but I have nearly as many again brewing in my head. And I've just been struck by ideas for several more.

I've been watching the second season of American Horror Story, which is set in a Catholic mental institution in sixties New England. It is the larpiest show I have seen in a long time. It has a large cast of main characters, each with their own individual but interlocking goals and journeys, all locked within the setting of the asylum-- a perfect premise for a larp. I would love to write such a game, though I would have to take care not to draw too much from the TV show, or from Jesriah, the excellent mental institution game from Happier Far that debuted earlier this year.

I also want to write a larp set in a circus. Just thinking of the figures one could expect in a setting like that seems fascinating to write about-- the ringmaster, the lion tamer, the acrobats, the clowns, the freaks. A perfect milieu for things not being quite what they seem. I've never played Colonel Sebastian T. Rawhide, which is the only other circus game I know, so I wouldn't have to worry about emulating that too closely. I've heard it's a good game, though.

And I've gotten one more idea that I don't want to talk about yet. But it's been punching through my brain with great insistence recently, so you may hear more of this once I have real time to devote to it.