Today being the last day of 2013, as a creative freelancer I
find it only fitting to evaluate my year with an eye toward 2014. And what a difference a year makes!
Financially, I have turned myself around and will continue
to put forth these same efforts and energies in 2014. Last year at this time I was continually in
the red by $200. Looking at my
checkbook, I have a comforting cushion of black. The turnaround occurred in early March, when
I received payment for a series of gigs for the Pikes Peak Library
District. And it has continued to build
as I slowly began work for an online educational writing entity, A Pass
Education. And I it looks like I will have some regular
work the first quarter of 2014 with a second online entity, LearningMate.
Which will be helpful, indeed, since health-wise I am
confronting what seems to be a genetic legacy:
osteoarthritis in my hips. At the
relatively young age of 50, I will face my first hip replacement (the right
one) on January 31. Since I am healthy
and in shape otherwise (thank goodness!), I am told the recovery will be
short-ish, three to six weeks. And only
a four inch scar. While I am wrestling with
the seeming unfairness of it all, I do look forward to walking normally and hiking
once again this summer in the beautiful Colorado Rockies.
Creatively, 2013 has been mixed. I thought I would be doing more regular
creative writing for both this blog and my kitty blog. Being honest, I lost steam midyear as I was
grappling with regular trips back East to help my sister manage the
ever-increasing complexities of aging parents.
This all came to a head when my father died at the end of August… Rather than beat myself up for the lack of
writing focus, which does not serve me, I look ahead to the possibilities for
2014.
I did, though, return to regular acting and taiko drumming
classes when my finances turned around. I have also slowly begun to again
incorporate yoga and the space it creates back into my life.
And…I got a surprising creative boost the early part of
December: an email from a casting
producer from America’s Got Talent inviting me to audition when they visited
Denver on December 7. (These city
visits, btw, are auditions for the producers of the show—not the celebrity
judges. At least not yet.) After speaking with her, I prepared a
90-second “best of” Percussion Lady (a little drumming, singing and
storytelling)—which got me a second audition with the executive producers that
same day. A long day it was, indeed, at
the Colorado Convention Center. It was an
amazing seven hours in the company of talented, creative individuals. Maybe I will be invited sometime the first
quarter of 2014 to audition for the celebrity judges. Or, maybe not. But the experience provided me with the jolt
I needed to refocus my creative passions.
 |
| AGT Denver Audition - December 7, 2013 |
Looking ahead to 2014:
I must and I will incorporate more drumming into my
life! More taiko! Maybe even purchase a “walking drum” so I can
play and walk at the same time while creating my rhythm of the machine… I may even participate, again, in the
Colorado Performing Arts Jamboree in January.
I will also continue to focus my energies on attracting paid
work that fulfills me—Percussion Lady and Golda gigs and educational
writing. Hopefully after my first hip
surgery, I will have more energy that is free of pain to focus on taking Golda
on the road…to the Philly area, to start.
I am also looking to attract TV and film auditions that will
provide juicy, meaty roles that pay—maybe even get my first SAG credit.
Midyear, I also look forward to resuming my efforts as the
volunteer coordinator for the Intendence Film Festival. I think it’s time, and my left-brained
qualities do come in handy.
And, of course, I look forward to more writing for my own
benefit…
*******
Perhaps 2013 needed to be the transition year it has served
to be. To help clear out the cobwebs of
my psyche and intent in order to allow me to embrace the possibilities that await
in 2014.
