My “creative” energies have been predominately going into writing lately. I’ve been working on my book, “Queer as Mud,” and I’m about 35K words into it now. 

Maybe that sounds like a lot, but it’s still in the rough draft phase. I don’t exactly know the differences between first drafts, rough drafts, first passes, second passes, etc. All that crap is too technical for me. Instead, I’d call what I’m doing “organized typing.” 

I still need to figure out what I’m creating, but it sure looks like a memoir (again), which, specifically, was what I didn’t want it to be. Therefore, I may be rejiggering it after the fact, which will be a shitload of work. I still have a long way to go to make it halfway good in the first place.

On the art front, there’s been little movement. In some ways, it would just be easier for me to work on the Discarded Snapshots paintings, which I will. But I’m doing that experiment I mentioned—painting from a spontaneous place. So far, I’ve only been drawing. That’s something, but that’s not all that new for me. It’s the application of paint I need to get to. I feel like I’m close. 

I got the last of my artist residency rejections the other day. That one was from Millay Arts in New York. Oh well! That’s that. Now I’ll only apply for Yaddo in January 2024. I shouldn’t keep trying for these. I’m too old and rickety to endure them anyway. In other words, sour grapes. 

I’ve been on Jury Watch. So far, five days of deliberations have passed on the Masterson re-trial, and no verdict yet. They have today off and will resume tomorrow at 9:00 am. If there’s no verdict tomorrow, I might die. I don’t think there’s court on Friday either, and then it’s Memorial Day weekend. I must keep reminding myself how long the jury deliberated on the last Weinstein trial. I think it was nine days. 

But, of course, it only takes one misogynist to fuck up the jury. We’ll see what happens.

I am writing this at 3:00 am. Why? I couldn’t sleep. I usually wake up at about 4:30 am every day. Yes, I know. That’s early. But, at 2:00 am, I was hot and sweaty, in pain, grumpy, and plain ‘ol awake! Now, I’m pretty tired, so I’m gonna try to get a nap in. 

Bye.