busy, busy, busy - ooh squirrel!

Sorry for not posting here in what seems like forever, but I have been rather busy. 

It is hard to keep up with working full time, marketing the little Faire at Hammond Castle Abbadia Mare Festival (coming this July by the way, and how did you know I was going to plug that...hee hee), but also trying to keep up and manage my very popular fan page Renaissance Performers & Merchants fan page and also my blog Renaissance Performers & Merchants blog which now has over like 32k hits or so, plus, I have an upcoming interview with Ovathebridge on Friday - phew...

Oh wait, did I mention my son's birthday is coming up soon too?  Oy...and also uh, no real news about my children's picture book yet, I'm still patiently waiting for an answer, but as soon as I get the answer, I will let everyone know.

I will say how proud of my damn self I am of driving ALL BY MYSELF to Waltham and back (yesterday) and for those of you who don't know, I've only had my first car (ever) for about a year, and still new to driving, and will be driving all by myself to Newton on Friday.  So wish me luck with that...

The other news is that we got the green light to put on Abbadia Mare Festival, but we do have one more hoop meeting to go with the city of Gloucester.  We did end up getting a local food vendor from Gloucester, so we're looking forward to having them.

OH yes, and I forgot to mention that I am walking in the Aids Walk Boston this June 2nd, http://action.aac.org/site/TR/Events/AWB08?px=1861034&pg=personal&fr_id=1140 to which I am looking for support, love and of course donations (if you can afford to give, then please do).  I am walking in honor of my cousin Jonathan Klein who recently passed away (this April actually) and he did have Aids.  This is a debilitating disease that still affects MILLIONS.  So, please consider to donate something, and hey, my brother Josh is joining me, so yay for that.  I've already raised $70 so that's not too shabby, but my goal is at least $300. 

Okay, that's it...really...well, at least it is for now...;)

My personal thoughts and my health and not really and update

Wow, what a scary week this has been for the city of Boston, MA.  It seems so surreal that something like *this* would happen here, but it has.  I am just hoping and praying (I'm sure like a lot of us are out there) that this is over, but my criminal mind (that sometimes works overtime) that used to work for Cambridge District Court (umpteen years ago) doesn't believe so...

I am just thankful that all of my friends and my family (including some of my Rennie family) are OK.

In the meantime, roughly 2 weeks ago, I ended up with another Kidney Stone attack (not so fun), and I knew what that searing pain was in my right section of my back, so I decided to take it easy for the next couple of days and I am still passing the stone now.  I'm thinking of calling it "Sly" the rolling stone, 'cause that just makes me smile and well, it will hopefully help me pass it quicker.

No real update on my children's book yet...I did see two more drawings of what the illustrator came up with.  It's so neat to see her interpretation of what I wrote and using my (not so great) drawings as a reference.  I'll let you folks know anything as soon as I get word.

In the meantime, Abbadia Mare Festival looks like it is starting to be set in stone, although we do have two more hoops to jump through for the City of Gloucester, so we hope that those will go through smoothly (ha ha I'm funny), and we have some new people for our cast so that will help bring some umph to our event this year.  We're just really grateful to all of our performers and especially vendors to bend a little with the date change! 

We also want to thank our hardworking cast and crew for everything that they do for us.

NEWS! Dates for Abbadia Mare Renaissance Festival have changed!

NEWS!  The dates of our event at Hammond Castle Museum for the Renaissance Festival have changed due to the parking situation in Gloucester. 

The new dates will be July 27th and July 28th from 11 am to 5 pm.  Parking will be located at Stage Fort Park for an additional $15 for your vehicles, but FREE busing will be provided!

The GOOD news is that 99% of our performers and vendors have confirmed they can do the new dates, so HUZZAH for that!

For more information, please see our website at http://www.abbadiamarefestival.com

And now...the cover of the book is DONE!

I am SUPER excited to share with you all (who ever does read my blog that is) that the cover art to the children's picture book I wrote is DONE! 

The artist is Emily Zieroth and boy she took my vision to a whole NEW level of AWESOME!!!

Once the book is released to the marketplace you will ALL be the first ones to KNOW and I am hoping to do a Book Release party somewhere in MA (I hope, hope, hope) with local jazz musicians and have kids come to ask them questions if they want (and of course I'll sign copies)...

Can I get a WOOP WOOP!!?!??!???!!!  WOOP WOOP!!!

The characters are Windy Flute, Spitz Trumpet, Reed Sax, Ebony Piano, Sly Guitar, Boomer Bass and Kitt Drums...

You are now all on this "Journey" with me...let's take a walk across that bridge to "Jazzland"!

Spilled beans - or My big secret finally revealed

If you are one of my (numerous) friends on Facebook or Twitter or Google +, you may already know my big secret that I've been holding onto for a (what seems like forever) while.

The big secret is this:  In 2001, I took a Children's Lit 102 class at Bunker Hill Community College.  The final project was to create, write and draw a picture book which I got an A on. 

The book got an A+, and it was called "Journey to Jazzland".  The book is about a Flute named Windy who gets bored in Orchestra one day and plays wrong notes.  She learns about Jazzland and goes on a quest to find it and meets some new friends along the way.

After I wrote it, a lot of my friends encouraged me to try to publish it, and so when I was living in Cambridge (Spaghetti House) I sent it out to a Publisher and then it got rejected.  So...I decided it wasn't worth the time, 'course now I realize I should have not given up...

Fast forward to 12 years later (is that right?), married with one kid, still working full time, co-producing and marketing Renaissance Faires in MA (and NH) - which is now just Abbadia Mare Festival at Hammond Castle (did I mention we're going two weekends this year?  YEAH!  Oh, but I do need to find parking -le sigh) - and running Renaissance Performers and Merchants fan page and blog (http://www.renperfmerch.blogspot.com and http://www.facebook.com/renperfmerch .) 

So, with all that online (okay so I am addicted to Facebook, I'll admit it) networking that I do for the Faires, I found a publisher that did children's picture books and I sent them an e mail to see if they would accept an unknown author (me) submission for the book.

After numerous months, scanning it into a computer ('cause when I wrote it I didn't exactly keep my computer, and all my drawings were hand drawn), getting a lawyer (thanks Howard if you are reading this!) to review contracts, this book that's been sitting on my shelves that I have shown a few close friends to, is now going to be out.in.the.marketplace.  Soon.

It is still surreal to me and I just am over excited about all of this.  Once I get news as to when it will be released, you will be the first ones to know about it!

Who's ready to take this "Journey" with me?

Oh Deer - life goes on and changes are soon approaching

I'm still new to driving (and learning as I go) but the other night on the way home (why yes, I do live in Suburban-ville thanks for asking) with my 8 yr old boy in the car, we saw a young doe getting ready to cross the street.

I stopped about 10 feet away and it crossed to safety.  It was a really beautiful sight to see, and it was just another reminder that you need to slow down every once in a while to let nature take it's course.  No, really...I mean it...I know I'm being a little bit spirtual about this here, but I took it as a sign.

I'm not sure how much longer I'll be at my long term what seems to be never ending temp gig but I know things are changing this year already for 2013.

Life is constantly changing.  People move on, they change their lives, they become my friends, they don't like me or my opinions any more, but as long as I have my structure sound who the heck cares but me?

I know my life is changing soon and hopefully for the better (and no, I can't share just yet, but it is coming soon and this will be one of the first places I write about it, so bear with me).  I do know that Abbadia Mare (+Abbadia Mare Renaissance Festival ) is on again for next July and +Renaissance Performers and Merchants has over 4,450 fans on Facebook and the blog (http://www.renperfmerch.blogspot.com) has over now 27K hits!  I'm working on a website for that soon (see, and now that I've written it down I have now forced to start really working on it rather than just thinking about it and procastinating about it).

Hopefully you are on this ride with me....if not, you can just be a rider in the backseat or go with the doe into the great unknown...

Oy - what NOT to do when getting into a small car accident

 Before I get into writing this post, I know it's been a while since I last wrote, but I've been busy working my full time gig, creating the blog for http://www.renperfmerch.blogspot.com which by the way has now over 25K hits (insane!) - and the fan page http://www.facebook.com/renperfmerch which now has 4,300 + fans (OMG), trying to get ready for the Holidays (sort of), and then BANG - I get myself in trouble with a small car accident.

Yeah...I know, I'm sort of new to driving (May of this year) - Sad statement that is, but I can't tell you how many years I dreamed of having my own car and now that I do, I now understand the responsibility that really means, especially when I have my 8 year old in my car as a passenger. 

So this last Saturday I got into a small car accident and this is what I learned NOT to do:

1. Don't CRY - yeah - I kind of got a little emotional - ok, ok, a LOT emotional - sorry - jeez, I have early Menopause, I get emotional watching Disney movies for crying out loud
2. Don't panic - keep calm -
3. Don't forget to get the other parties information - ALL of it - write it down - no matter how much of in a hurry the other person/party seems to be

DO:

1. PULL OVER TO A SAFE SPOT/AREA to clear up traffic
2. Assess any damage that your car or the other car may have
3. Call the police if you absolutely need to
4. Call your insurance company right away or as soon as you possibly can
5. Take pictures with your smart phone if you have it available - (sigh, yeah I didn't do that either)
6. Keep your registration in your car at all times should you need it near by

Good news (sort of) out of all of this is I wasn't hurt (nor was my son hurt either) and I've learned some things by this - sigh

I do have nicer better news coming (hopefully very shortly I can share with you all) - but in the meantime, I CAN tell you that Abbadia Mare Festival at Hammond Castle is on for year 3!  Also, if you missed it, Ghost Hunters did an episode that featured Hammond Castle a few weeks ago and it was AMAZING!!!  So, the links for the faire is http://www.abbadiamarefestival.com and Hammond Castle website is http://www.hammondcastle.org (but they aren't open until next Spring, so keep that in mind).

PPS, I need to get a good pair of sunglasses for the car when I drive - sigh