Day Eighteen – Our Final Writer’s Circle

With just a few days to go, we are heading to our lasts. Today, was our final writer’s circle, which will be one of the many things I will miss. We had a lovely discussion about the wonderful story Sommer has been working on (she was the only one whose work he had yet to review) and then since we had Sommer, Tilly and Maddie together in one place, I gave them a copy of the play of mine they so graciously volunteered to read. We decided to do our very first read through right then and there. They seemed to enjoy reading the play and did a really good job. I am so grateful to have this level of support, and honored that these three excellent people are willing to do this for me. I am really looking forward to the reading on Sunday.

I started writing the unfinished prompt I had discovered in my Google archives. I thought it would make a good short film script, so I began the process of writing it. Essentially, I turned the prose prompt into a script, which means I have the setup written but I have no idea where it’s going to go. I remember Ray Bradbury talking about writing his great story, “The Veldt.” He describes running down the hallway with his characters, not knowing what they were going to find when they go there. That’s similar to how I feel. My protagonist is finding odd things left on his desk. First, it was cookies, now its cryptic notes hidden in destroyed office equipment. Who’s sending them and why? I don’t know yet. I’ll find out when I get there.

I have also been reading Denis Diderot’s “Philosophical Thoughts.” As I mentioned, Diderot’s family once owned this property, the chateau contains a portrait of him, and a gallery in the village is named in his honor. The book was in many ways his defense of deism, which seemed appropriate since I read a poem called “God Emeritus” as the open mic the other day. This poem is imagining what life would be like for the God of deism. So perhaps I am feeling Diderot’s spirit, which is why I chose that poem. As you can imagine, not all of catholic France appreciated Diderot’s religious musings. The book contains an afterword that is a transcript of the court decision to burn all copies of Diderot’s text. It’s the sort of thing I used to read and think to myself, “So glad I don’t live at a time when people would do that sort of thing…”

With that in mind, a quote from his book struck me as oddly prescient: “It is enough for truth to win if good people, few as they may be, receive it; but it is not in truth’s nature to please many.” Having no desire to leave you on such a solemn note, here is instead a photo of Dusty napping: