Hi, there, Dear Reader. It’s late morning here in Lithia, Florida, on Friday, June 2, 2023. It’s a nice early summer day here in the Tampa Bay area: it’s sunny, warm (76°F/24°C) and clear right now, though it’s going to be cloudy, hot (86°F/29°C) and humid later in the day. Also, the National Hurricane Center is tracking Tropical Depression No. Two. It formed yesterday out in the Gulf of Mexico – which is, of course, in my region, geographically speaking – and is currently 285 miles west of Ft. Myers (south of the TBA) and, mercifully for Florida, heading south toward Cuba.
(So, not only are we now two days into meteorological summer – “traditional summer” begins on the 21st – but also into the 2023 Atlantic hurricane season, and we’re already tracking a second tropical depression. It’s going to be a long, nerve-racking summer.)
Yesterday was not a wonderful day as far as The New Story (working title: Reunion: Coda) went. I still have not heard from the people at Concord Music about my request for permission to use some lyrics from Sondheim and Bernstein’s “Somewhere,” one of the better-known songs from West Side Story. I had every intention of either continuing Scene Three, Chapter Nine with a rough draft version that assumed permission had been granted, but then I started checking my primary email account every time I heard the “new message” beep on my computer – I don’t usually get a ton of emails, but I do get some, and if I have my primary AOL account open on my browser, the beeps that replaced the cheery “You’ve Got Mail!” voice prompt do sound several times per hour.
Since I only keep my email account “live” on the rare occasion when I’m expecting a message, this meant that every time I heard the AOL chime, I, like one of Pavlov’s dogs, would stop what I was doing (in this case, trying to come up with a workaround for the “Somewhere” duet scene that works for thee and me) and go look at my email inbox.
Well, as of 9:45 AM Eastern Daylight Time on Friday, June 2, 2023, no email from Concord Music is to be found either in my Inbox or Spam folders.
So, what am I going to do?
First, today I am not going to keep my AOL account open on my browser. I’m already stressed out and – if I am going to be honest here – depressed as it is. Checking my inbox every time that AOL receives emails from ActBlue, Norton Antivirus (they want me to buy their pricier protection features) and The Miami Herald (to which Mom used to subscribe till she died, and which I often think about getting at least in digital editions but never do), or Environment America because I’m waiting for one lousy yes or no email from Concord Music is not only distracting, but also enervating.[1]
Second, I’m going to go ahead and finish Scene Three (at least as a rough draft) with the song lyrics in the hope that when Concord deigns to reply, I will be allowed to quote them in Reunion: Coda. That way, I can get that scene out of the way and move on to either Scene Four or Chapter 10, depending on how Scene Three turns out.
If in the end Concord Music says, “No, Alex, you can’t quote Mr. Sondheim’s lyrics in your novel, sorry,” I’ll just have to double back and revise the scene in the Edit and Revise phase of the writing process. I would be happier if the copyright holders of “Somewhere” granted me permission to use the lyrics, obviously, cos right now I can’t even think of how to write the scene without them.
Anyway, if you’re wondering why I didn’t add 500-1,000+ words to the manuscript yesterday, now you know the main reason.
Action This Day
Since today is nominally part of the workweek in the U.S. and most other countries, I will make every effort to work on Reunion: Coda (not the most imaginative of titles, but it’s a “working title,” and one that sharp-eyed readers might have noticed in screenshots from my WriteItNow creative writing program or app if you prefer the more au currant term). Chapter Nine, Scene Three will be my primary focus, even though my worries over the lyrics issue give me the heebie-jeebies.
Other than that, Dear Reader, I don’t have any “big” after-work Friday night plans. I have no one to make any plans with, for starters, and it’s not like I can walk to a relatively close movie theater or shopping mall like I used to when I lived in Miami prior to the spring of 2016. I’m sure I’ll end up watching a movie or playing a computer game – once I get into a set routine, it’s incredibly difficult to get out of it. I can do it, of course; I used to watch far more “live” TV before 2010 – the year my mother became gravely ill – but the changes in my life over the past 13 years gradually reduced my television consumption from six hours a day every day to nearly zero. I can’t even say I have a “favorite” current TV show that I watch before it’s released on physical home media.
I don’t have anything else to share with you, so I’ll close this post here. Until next time, stay safe, stay healthy, and I’ll catch you on the sunny side of things.
[1] In stark contrast, Leonard Bernstein’s estate not only replied on the same day – Tuesday – that I sent my inquiry about permission to use some lyrics from “Somewhere,” but the person who emailed me was the one who referred me to Concord Music.
A Certain Point of View, Too 
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