Well, here we go again. Day after tomorrow I will be on Rogers. Hopefully nothing will happen to move it to another day this time. I thoughtfully went over my talking points and sent them off to the producer. Now I just have to cross my fingers and hope they stick to them.

In other news, Husband Brian and I actually had a date night last night. We went to Bar Italia on College Street and had a lovely dinner and saw "Once More With Feeling: A Musical Tribute to Joss Whedon". I won't lie. I am an unabashed Joss Whedon fangirl. I love Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly, Dr. Horrible, and am ridiculously excited to see both The Cabin in the Woods and The Avengers. Husband Brian is getting a pass on The Cabin in the Woods, (I'm seeing that with one of my friends), but he is happily being dragged to The Avengers. I am going to also take this opportunity to make a rather embarrassing confession. I can not see a poster for The Cabin in the Woods, or a commercial without my brain singing that song from Evil Dead: the Musical. You know the one. "Cabin in the woods, oooo. Cabin in the woods, yeah. We're five college students on our way to an old abandoned cabin in the woods." Yeah, I'm a dork. Anyway, I loved it last night. Lots of fun. Lots of singing. I knew every word to every song. I think I may have annoyed Brian a bit. But at least my outfit rocked! Tall boots and a red leather jacket. I thought it was fitting.

In other clothing news. Still no clue for what I should wear on Wednesday for my interview. My goal: Look fun, friendly, approachable, but professional. Yeah right. I am open to suggestions. Now I shall distract you by putting a song in your heads!

I'm off trying to get this new book finished. I know that after every draft I say I like it and I'm happy, but then I'll read it again and start to nitpick at it. I don't think anything can ever really be complete. But I have to finish it. Right? Anyway, I'm also off starting Book Three as well. I have a tentative outline done, and the opening couple of pages of it. When I get ideas, I just write them down. I think this all goes into Book Two in some way as well. If I know exactly where I want things to go, I can use Book Two to more directly lead into it. But I have to be careful that it can still be viewed as a self contained story. What happens in Book Two must have some sort of resolution. I don't want it to feel like a complete cliffhanger, yet I want people to need to know what will happen next. I hope I've achieved the balance I desire in this matter. If not, I still have time for rewrites! Right?

As for Book Two, I am having difficulties with the title. I am down to two options, both I like for different reasons. Both I dislike for different reasons. All I know is I've got to stop calling it "Book Two". When it came to The Strings of the Violin, I had the title before I even had the story. I knew I wanted to write a book with that title. I knew I wanted it to revolve around Eastern European folklore. I went from that jumping off point and I was very happy with the results. Here, I have a story. I have characters. I have a plot. I just don't know what to call it. I want a title that's catchy. I want a title that will make readers go "Oh, that sounds interesting. What's it about?" I have two options that I think work for that, however, one of them, I feel, gives away too much about parts of the plot that I would like to remain a surprise until the readers get further into the story. The other, I think is a little too on the nose with regard to what the book is about. Yet, I've got nothing better right now. Oh well, I can revisit it later. I'm sure I have more dialogue to tweak. Now, pretty pictures!

Well, the show's over. I Love You Because had an amazingly successful run, and the past few days have consisted of my least favourite part of a show: The Strike. Basically, you take all your hard work on the production team and dismantle it. The sad thing about theatre, is that every show must come to an end. The final performance, the final look at the set, the theatre, the props all neatly laid out on their tables, and it all comes down, either to be taken apart or stored away. All my props were neatly packed up into boxes and packed away or given back to the many people they were borrowed from. Our basement gained a couch, and our futon is on its way back home. It almost feels like moving, but with nowhere to go to. Sigh.

In other news, our cast party was this Sunday as well, cake was eaten, ceremonial boxed wine was drunk, laughs were had by all. Now I just get to sit back, let my writer's brain take over once more and wait for the next show, which may be Fiddler on the Roof if my audition goes well (fingers crossed), and I will not tell you what part I want- don't want to jinx anything! This will be my first musical as a performer since before the babies were born. So excited!

On the writing front, I was supposed to be on Rogers Daytime talk show this Thursday, however I was told that some scheduling had to be reworked and I have since been moved to May 2nd. This is both disappointing and a small bit of a relief. I was nervous about it, and now have a bit more time to prepare. It's funny, people I've spoken to don't get why I would be nervous about this sort of thing. They tell me things like "Ali, you've sang and danced on stage, and interview should be so easy!" or "Ali, you've been in so many shows. You've been possessed, you've died and played piano. Why does this scare you? You're being so silly!" While all this is true, what they don't understand is one simple thing: The musicals I've been in all have one thing this does not. A SCRIPT! When I was Beth in Little Women, and Jack in Into the Woods I had a big book that told me exactly what to say. I had all these notes I took of my blocking telling me where to go and when. Here, I'm all on my own. True I'm giving them a small list of talking points, but I've no guarantee they'll follow them. It's up to me to present myself and The Strings of the Violin in the best possible light, and not look like a yammering fool. Yikes!

My brother told me that when Steppin' Out was on a similar show trying to drum up publicity for their production of Man of La Mancha, they were told by the interviewer that he had called the theatre to do research and when he had been told the show was about Don Quixote, he heard "Donkey Hotel" and couldn't figure out why anyone would do a show about a hotel for donkeys. Oy. Here's hoping my interview goes well, and is not at all like that.