It’s a Wrap for Now, and a Pause for the Future

OK, so today we say goodbye to my favorite play (from before this project, and through this project). Romeo and Juliet is my favorite play and tragedy thus far.

Thus far.

Tomorrow was to begin King John.

Was to.

Tomorrow, however, I will be beginning a month-long break, a sabbatical, if you will. I don’t want to take a break, and I don’t need to take a break (I’ll never need a break from the Bard). But I do need time.

As listeners to the podcasts know, I lost my paying day job at the end of January (no more dodging those bullets in the war against the economy). I still haven’t found gainful employment, but my wife Lisa has lit a fire under me. She said early on in this forced vacation, “Bill, you always complain that you never have time to write a novel or a screenplay… well, now you do.”

Of course, through February, March, and April, I was as devoid of good ideas as I was of work. That changed in the first half of May, when I finally was struck by an idea worth exploring. And I began to write a novel, a mystery (with the quasi-Shakespearean title of A Bloody Rose by Any Other). This Project has given me the stamina and discipline to write every day, and I’m making good progress.  So since mid-May, I’ve been kind of serving two masters.

Lately, though, I find myself feeling that Shakespeare is encroaching on my novel (thematically and topically, sure, that was intended; temporally, not so much).

So I’m taking a break in this upcoming month of June while I attempt to finish a rough first draft… I figure I can revise and edit and do the Project concurrently, I just can’t compose and do the Project at the same time.

Of course, the fear is that, like my teaching career, a short break will turn out to be a permanent one. The only thing I have to fear is THAT fear itself.

I’ll still update the Facebook page with Shakespeare news and notes, but the blog entries and podcasts will go into hibernation for a month.

Wish me luck… and see you all in July with King John!

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