…and I’m just beginning to emerge from the chaos. Fun chaos, but still.
This weekend was made doubly weird by the Shakespeare Festival. Two shows Saturday, one Sunday. But less than three hours before the Sunday matinee, John (the artistic director) called to say Pamela (his wife, also Lady Macbeth in this summer’s production) was suffering from food poisoning. Then he made a request. I told him I’d call him back with an answer.
I made my way to the bedroom, where Jan was putting Dash down for a nap. "Pamela’s got food poisoning," I said.
"Oh, that’s too bad," she said. Then her face brightened. "Does that mean you have the day off?"
"Actually, no," I said. "John wants you to play it."
A beat. Then, "This is a joke, isn’t it."
"Nope."
Another moment. Then: "Alright, then." She jumped up and began to get ready.
Now, it’s not like this is unthinkable. Jan and I played Mr. & Mrs. Mac for four years, with two different companies under four different directors. But it’s been nineteen months since we did it, so she was worried.
She shouldn’t have been. She was great. So great, in fact, that John felt free to go back to take care of his wife at intermission – the show was well in hand.
Cheers to the cast, and especially the crew. Andrea and Emily made the costumes work, and Jan says Mitch was a god, with his calm murmurings of, "Two minutes, you enter stage left."
So the show went great, we had a nice dinner after with friends while Jan recovered from the adrenaline rush, we went home and put Dash to bed, then left him with his grandmother while we went to see the Simpsons Movie ("Spider-Pig." "Boob lady." "I’m troubled." Awesome).
Then Monday was spent playing with Dash, and reading HIS MAJESTY’S DRAGON, a book I have resisted, and now love. I hate when that happens (last time it was Harry Potter).
Today I met for lunch with Martin Walsh. He earned a big thanks for MV by translating a biography of Cangrande from German for me. Now he’s helping with book three by hunting down biographical info on Emperor Ludwig the Bavarian. There’s a lot out there about the events of his life, but little on him as a person. But Martin found a great German text that only dealt with Ludwig’s appearance and temprament. Fantastic stuff – I was scribbling notes all through the meal.
So I haven’t had time to think about the novel that I actually have in the stores. Some reviews are up on Amazon, which is great. And the delayed copies are finally being delivered, which is even better. And there’s a couple of previews at greatthinkers.suite101.com. I’ll hear a few numbers in the next few weeks, but I won’t really know how the book is doing for awhile. From here on out, it’s a matter of putting copies in people’s hands. Everyone who has read it has loved it – so now we wait for word-of-mouth to spread.
Like a plague of goodness. Upon all your houses.
Cheers,
DB
