Finished stuff . . .

Finished Keith Richards' autobiography. A fun read. You feel like you know the guy after a while. One thing that struck me: I have read a lot of biographies and autobiographies, and usually they are really interesting while the person is struggling away trying to make it against long odds (most of the bios I've read have been actors or writers) but sort of run out of juice after the person gets known. There are exceptions, Life With Monte Cristo, about the early years of Eugene O'Neill is one, of course, it is the first volume (when's the rest coming out!) and ends with him getting famous; another is Chekhov, by Henry Troyat. Now I can add Keith to the list. I found it captivating right up to the last sentence.

I also worked to the end of the current draft of the new two hander. I just have a couple of things to decide as to where one or two passages belong, but then I can let it simmer for a while and see what I think of it then. I hope it works, it is close to my heart, but I guess you could say that for all of my plays . . . cliche alert: they are all my children and I love them equally . . . well . . . maybe some more than others. Next up I get to spend some time taking a hard look at Old Hickory to see if it needs anything, or if it can be bulked up just a tiny bit. Don't want to do anything that screws it up though!

Oh, and not that it matters, but both things I have submitted for for this year ended up with rejection. I was kind of surprised by the Dramatists Guild self production seminar, thought I'd make that one. The guy who emailed me said, 'don't let this discourage you'. My reaction to that was, and I wrote this to him in an email: if I let rejection discourage me, I have no business in this business. He shouldn't need me to tell him that.