California Dreamin

I felt from the onset, upon returning to Minnesota, that this season would be different. I wasn’t wrong. Waleed, Sweetpea and a host of other characters made it one memorable summer. The work flow continued unabated and kept growing.

Waleed, my loveable skinny hippo, kept growing with two additional languages added to the storyline. In addition to English in every book, there now will be a choice of a second language; Swahili, Spanish or Hmong.

My new kind of comic strip called ‘Sweetpea and the Gang’ continued to morph in many different directions. Rather quickly, Sweetpea gained newfound traction with four comic strips completed, a sampler going out for review to prospective readers, and a growing inventory of story ideas for the strip. There are still many miles to travel before a clearly focused marketing plan is finalized.

While I wasn’t able to produce a new play in Minnesota this summer, I struck gold in California. ‘Widow’s Waltz,’ a different kind of love story, was accepted by Script2Stage in Palm Springs, California. Chosen for one of eight performance slots out of more than eighty submissions (from as far away as Germany and Thailand) my new play will be performed in November.

There were a number of other projects in various stages of development or marketing efforts. Both the PTV and Tangled Roots are at the head of that writing bundle to be completed.

I started out this summer with high hopes for a continuation of my ‘Coffee and Chat’ sessions. Very quickly, reality crept into the picture and several past participants choose to go their own separate ways. My remaining cerebral partners shared a wonderful summer, meeting up at parks, beach fronts, patios, and coffee shops, to engage in a wide variety of verbal bantering, mental jousting, and comradery.

The number of my blog readers seemed to rise and fall according to the subject matter; always a mystery to me. I also lost several long-time faithful readers who gradually disappeared over time; who knows why?

All of which leaves me entering this fall with a growing portfolio of projects; all of them in various stages of development or marketing phases. My transition to the desert should be a smooth one given my second lifestyle inside my head. While it’s not the land of milk and honey as envisioned by the refuges from the dust bowl back in the thirties, there’s definitely something about California that is calling me.

I have had a long and fractured romance with California. Its part delusional, part opportunistic and part magical. Mostly it’s a comfortable relationship that seems to bring out the flip side of me that a lot of folks never see. It is at once my friend, advisor, irritator, and councilor. It forces me outside of my Midwestern comfort zone.

We’ve been going there for more than twenty years. It’s like some intermittent love affair within a diverse community of characters in an environment of fascinating amenities. As much as the state changes and evolves, and stumbles and leaps ahead of others, it remains a pathfinder to me in so many ways.

It’s the cradle from which my imagination gives birth to creative, frivolous, silly, and enlightened ideas, concepts, and storylines. It inspires me and mocks me at the same time. It’s the flip side of that routine called lifestyle. If ever there were a strange balance in my life it might be labeled the Minnesota-California connection.

There’s a quote I love that goes something like this: “At some point in the journey, you realize it’s time to head back home. It doesn’t matter where you are in the journey, the Gods begin calling and you must return home.” I think there is something about that mysterious force called ‘home’ that calls to all of us. It happens to me every fall and then again in the spring.

Every fall, my tenure in Minnesota is challenged by my West Coast other-half knocking on the door of residency. Now that I’m part-time Californian, my perspective about my home state has changed. I love California. It appeals to my restless youth, errant and wandering mind, free soul, sometime corrupt and tranquilizing imagination. Come springtime, I feel the same way about Minnesota.

I live in two different worlds and I’m comfortable in both. One is progressive, adventurous, and sometimes a bit outrageous but always leaning forward. For half a year I wear my Southern California flip-flops as comfortably as any other seeker. But I also live in the Midwest and I’m darn proud of that too.

Starting this fall, there will be a new play to produce, more work on ‘Sweetpea’ and ‘Waleed’ and more involvement in the theater scene here. There will also be new trails to explore and more distant attractions like Joshua Tree, Laguna Beach, and Idyllwild to add to that list.

It’s a different environment for me here among the bobcats, cougars, coyotes, and bear-state mentality but the workload continues on unabated. I have a plethora of writing projects that are screaming for my attention.

Yet I know for a fact that come next spring, the same magical force will once again draw my attention back to Minnesota. I’m born and bred Minnesotan with a strong streak of California to taint my mind. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Both states have become home in more ways than one. They’re like a cradle upon which my imagination gives birth to creative, frivolous, silly, and sometimes enlightened ideas, concepts, and storylines. It’s the flip side of that routine called your average lifestyle. If ever there were a balance in my life, it would be called the Minnesota-California connection.

What can I say; it works for me.