I was at a retreat last weekend. It was a gathering of my witchy and pagan friends over near Wimberley, Tx. Four and a half days at a lovely and private country place with no cats to feed, etc. Can you say awesome Halloween night? My lovely lady was being Kitchen Goddess and I of course volunteered to help. In the midst of visiting with a bunch of my closest friends old and new I turned it into my very own writing retreat! It was easy. The scheduling was pretty free-form except for meals. There were voluntary workshops or classes offered around Samhain/Halloween sorts of things. Since I was already hanging around the dining area a lot, and it was often pretty quiet except for conversations, I pulled out my laptop and finished off a play I've been working on.
I used to write more plays when I was more active in theater. I've posted a couple in this blog. I still have a few ideas back-burnered. Some have been worked into current novel or short story projects. I do enjoy writing plays, but I've been trying to focus more on novels and short stories the last few years. "The Vampire's Quiche" is one that never let go of me, and it just feels like it wants to be a play. I can so "see" it playing out in my head! I think of it as a Halloween play, although it isn't, necessarily. It's been on back burner for several years and I pull it out and dust it off and play with it around this time of year. I finally decided to just finish it and let people see it.
The story is about the Pettus family. An extended family living in one suburban house. Father works, mom likes to bake, the kids are nearly grown. Uncle is unemployed, Aunt reads Tarot and Grandpa thinks he's a vampire.
Think "The Munsters" meets "You Can't Take It With You".
This play is a lot of fun, and it feels wonderful to finally get the first draft finished. I hoping a few of my writing/theater friends will offer to give it a read and offer some feedback.
