Studio City, California
What is this? A day at the office and no libretto to write? ‘Tis true, at least for today. I have reached an impasse – not because there’s nothing to write or because I have any kind of writer’s block, but simply because I cannot go on until I have a comprehensive meeting with Leo to go over some corrections to Act I and consolidate the treatment for Act II. It’s all right, for the most part; I expected there would be a gap between acts. But my intention was to resume writing 25 September and I think at this point it’s going to have to be 2 October. As long as it’s done by the beginning or even middle of December, which it should be. You, of course, will be apprised of my progress.

In the meantime, Leo’s parents are visiting from Toronto, and Mrs. Marchildon wanted to read Act I. She had a few questions about character definitions, but I’m gathering they were about minor characters, and Leo and I agree that, depending on the scene and situation within it, the minor characters don’t necessarily need to be all that defined. We’ll check into it when we go over Act I. But what really felt good was when she asked me if I was the one that wrote all the “poetry”. She was talking about the lyrics, of course…and, aside from a few examples of Maud’s poetry and someone else’s poem that I worked into one song, yes, it’s all mine. She said it was very good and that she was impressed! She’s the only one so far who has seen the libretto besides us…I’m really very honoured. Plus, it’s a good sign!

I have one other piece of news that I’m going to gloss over simply because I’m not at liberty to go into details at this point, plus it’s all so embryonic that it’s best not to get too excited about it all…but the gist of it is, we may have some major help in the next step of the musical – getting produced. I wish I could tell you because it was incredibly serendipitous and there were just too many coincidences involved to be an accident…but for now, I’ll have to just tease you with that. But it could be huge, and I’ll certainly go further into it when I’m able to. Exciting stuff, and all by way of bringing The Nine Lives of Lucy Maud Montgomery right to you!