EXCITING!

FUCK YEAH!  BAM!  and WHAM-BAM!

I am so FUCKING EXCITED right now I can't even capitalize my text enough to properly express it!  No interrabang does it enough justice!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

So I started blogging, as you may have read, to help cultivate a voice and then actively encouraged others to do the same.  My friend D, for instance, has one of the most unique voices and perspectives that I know!  It tickles me pink everytime she posts another entry!  be it lengthy or succinct (my favorite shorty was probably the one entitled 'Wetty') it is always, always, pure Danielle and for that it is brilliance!

Anywhooooo.  I started this Cedar Falls bullshit and the idea was sort of a sand-box!  The only rule to come play is:  Everybody has a Secret (inspired by Frank Warren's Post Secrets, and also, I'm not gunna lie, a little by the House tagline: Everybody Lies... lol.  Oh, speaking of, is anyone going to watch that new show that looks awful\delicious, Pretty Little Liars?  I think I'mma give it a try this week!)

So I start with trash in a hot tub and high dudgeon and shit, and then one morning I visit Danielle at the Palace and she's all like:  "Hey, I had the craziest dream and now I have the best idea for a story for Cedar Falls..."  YUP!  How phenomenal is that?  She tells me her idea and I almost come in my pants I'm so excited!  She is a natural storyteller-- her story lines and plans for her characters are delicious and murky and full of intrigue and complexities that I never, never, never could have dreamed up and I am so fucking excited!

Right off the bat she was super encouraging about this endeavor, about my writing fiction or just blogging, and for that I can't thank her enough!  Then she starts talking about how some professional authors sort of do this thing where they'll write books in other authors' series.  I'm not familiar but Danielle reads all the time so I take her word for it.  Like, especially in mystery or murder series' I guess?

So together we birthed the notion that other people should try writing vignettes and stories for CF.  AWESOME SAUCE RIGHT?!?!?!

So she did and they rocked my fucking socks off!  Visit them here, here, and here!  BAM!

So then HER ENTHUSIASM and provocativeness encouraged others!!  What?!  Woot Woot!

And today I am super pleased as punch to have you peep Guest Author 'Papi's awesomely gritty, visceral crime fest, and another installment from D which literally had me squeeling with excitement!! 

PLUS  reading those two made Aaron want to write another vignette for the story line he started about the disturbingly wholesome father-daughter murderer duo Walt&Clancy!  So he started that last night and it is already delicious!  

AND Andrea and I have decided to do a writing activity which may or may not be Cedar Falls related, where we send each other a first-line story starter and then run with it.  I started mine last night and am excited to finish it because it takes me out of the Delaney web of intrigue and, well, when you see the first line I think you'll know why I was so excited to write it! LOL.  Mine will still take place in Cedar Falls because, well, why the fuck not?  I'll post it as soon as it is done!  And Andrea?  Well, that's up to her, though I must say her near-daily blog is wicked fun, so can she be persuaded to share her fiction??  We won't force her, it's great enough that she's trying this experiment, but let's all cross our fingers that she'll surrender the mpiece up into the blogosphere for our greedy eyes!! :)

So the other person who shuld be contributing is EMMY, because, I know she's busy, but that girl has got a fertile and fantastic imagination and what a story teller!  So let's all get on her case to get writing.  I liked the story about the creep who hangs out outside the movie theatre Emmy.  You know what I mean. LOL.

And JULIA!!  Who has enough hilarious and entertaining real-life stories to write her fucking memoirs NOW-- YOU should do this!  You are wildly creative, inventive, and your voice, be it in acting, choreographing, directing, song-writing, or through your passion\art of PHOTOGRAPHY, your voice is soulful, penetrating, wise and whimsical.  Know what?  If I had to tell you to start somehwere I'd tell you to go out and take photos of random people, go home, look through them, let your imagination run wild and then start writing for someone you've captured in a picture.  That's a drama activity I'd do with students.  Give it a try!  Hell, I want to write for that gorgeous couple at the airport.  damn- they are right out of a movie, especially the way you shot them!!

And KIM?  Are you out there?  Write, Woman. We both know you have stories BUSTIN to get out!!

And Kerry?  Part of your new life really must include blogging\live journalling again, and maybe for fun you could write some intrigue for CF?  Maybe a piano teacher who has a dark secret... lol  or a Massage Therapist with a romance plotline?  Who knows?

So, YAY to taking the time to be creative, have fun and tell stories.  I feel like flying or jumping or skipping or orgasming!  LOL.  Sorry, how'd that last one slip in there?  whooopsie...

But really.  This is awesome and though I know Yelling and Papi will likely soon have to curtail their creative writing due to Baby's impending arrival, ( I lost my bet-- I was SURE she'd be born of Father's Day!) I hope they can still find some time to sneak off and get-out all their creative, disturbing, exciting, intruiging thoughts for all of us to read!

So to the writers out there and to those of you who think you aren't writers:  Get to writing bitches!  This shit is wicked fun and it's summer, for god's sake!  Get an idea and just START!  Remember, it isn't about perfection, DON'T get hung up on where the story will end up, just start TELLING IT!!

I still have no clue how my Jonah\Viola\Vaughan story is going to end, but that doesn't stop me from having a fucking blast with it!

Oh, and thanks again for being awesome!

The Inspirational Voice!

I recently caught-up with a very dear friend of mine on the phone. We hadn't spoken, quite literally, in years, save for facebook messages and the occasional text or voice mail (she tends to leave me happy birthday songs on my voicemail every year, which I save and re-listen to on occasion:))


We attended AMDA together and she is one of the most remarkable women I've ever known, and a dear, dear friend. We'd spend hours and hours working on scenes, songs, projects and just sitting on the back deck of The Strat in spring & summer chatting and philosophizing and sharing and indulging in Indian take-out.


I looked up to her, and am happy to say that I still do! She inspires me to be better; her perseverance and persistence encourage me to make more of myself, but not in a competitive way, more in a celebratory way.


I guess lately I've been really into this idea of blogging, because the motivation behind this exploration involves finding and strengthening my 'voice', and encouraging others to do the same! To tell our stories or to create stories, but to tell stories, weave tales and express ourselves. Talking to Kim only fueled this passion further. Her voice is a strong, clear, rich, and singular one and I told her to Get back to Blogging Woman!


When she can find a minute between being amazing, happy, innovative, pro-active and incredible, she assures me that she will, indeed, resume blogging.


Meanwhile she's strengthened my resolve to strive for excellence rather than perfection, because as she puts it, something that is 'perfect' is something that has no room to grow; if it is perfect then it is frozen, stuck. Whereas the pursuit of excellence is something organic and changing and infinitely more human and compelling.


So bring on the typos and the blunders because they are part of my story and most definitely part of my voice. I'm going to try alot harder to love myself for all my flaws and accept and celebrate the light I have to give.


Don't panic though, readers. This does not mean I intend to become lofty or preachy! It may mean I occasionally become more engaged in subjects that hold my passion-- such as the arts or education or women's issues, but it will not stop me from writing trashy beach fiction! My voice is an irreverent one, a comedic one, a naughty one, a provocative one, a bawdy one, an Irish one!!. So there will still be erotica and disturbing fiction and playful journalling and lots and lots of foul language and sex talk.


Because that's part of my story. My voice. And I love it!


So thanks Kim! I hope you've begun to read, and I look forward to any and all comments you have... I know I was nervous when I spilled the beans, but after some thought I am very, very glad you have the url to this little corner of the blogosphere now.


What was that phrase you used to repeat at AMDA? Either Rock Out With Your Cock Out or Exit? Something like that. That was the spirit of it.


So let's hope my proverbial cock stays out and rockin'!!


PS: I think I'm going to make it my goal to re-connect with several more dear friends with whom I've fallen out-of-touch. This action takes alot of courage and guts and puts me in a less-than-comfortable zone. It isn't my norm to try to stay in touch, despite how much I love and adore my long-lost friends. It might be painful, it will likely be awkward, all the phone calls will not go as smoothly and as beautifully as the one with Kim (thank you Kim for being so fucking fantastic and easy to talk with! Damn girl, you killed my cell battery!)  

And every coffee date will not go as pleasantly as the one at the Bean with Andrea (thanks for indulging me in graphic sex discussions at full volume in a local cafe-- Sometimes I feel guilty about being a theatre person because I don't seem to possess a 'quiet' volume and I say whatever the fuck I want to say despite being surrounded by strangers with eyebrows raised.  Thanks, Andrea for laughing instead of cringing!!)

And every old friend may not end up remaing my friend... we may discover we've nothing left in common and have to confine our relatuonship to pleasant memories and be done with it.

But there are many wonderful people that I've known and loved too much to simply surrender it to the fates.  I'm taking my cock in hand and going after them... wait... that makes me sound like a sex offender... ah well, so be it!  Look out for my figurative cock people!!


Julia talked alot to me about Choice, and it is empowering to make the Choice to pursue this endeavor. No matter how uncomfortable or scary or nerve-wracking. It's better, I think, to take the initiative and fall flat on my face than to sigh and shrug and wonder 'what if...'


I think I'll start with my best friend from High School and see where that takes me. Now that I've reconnected with my best friend from AMDA, I feel like the sky's the limit!


Oh, and I also have to work on calling Kim more often... more often than once in three years...yeah :)