OK, I have a passport application appointment scheduled for the first week in May (the first date available at a local post office). The processing time for applications right now is 11 to 14 weeks, so I’ll get it sometime in September or a bit sooner. That’s still plenty of time before I plan to fly to NZ and OZ in the spring of 2024.
POTENTIAL INTERNATIONAL STAR TREK CONVENTIONS GIGS IN 2024
Stuart Blair is planning to have me as a guest speaker in Adelaide, Australia in 2024, so I’ll schedule my visit to NZ to stay with Helen and Deborah immediately after. That way I can legitimately deduct the cost of the longest leg of the trip (from USA to OZ and back to USA from NZ) as a business trip (to appear at a convention).
I plan to write several articles for travel magazines about my trip to NZ anyway, so as long as I spend at least 25% of my waking hours doing business overseas, I can deduct the cost of the trip (plane, 50% of business-related meals, etc.).
So, all this is in the works. Now I just need to make enough money during the rest of this year to have about $3K to spend up front on an international flight and two to three-week stay. I’ll be staying with friends, so no hotel fees, and the convention hotel will be covered by the convention. $3K in mad money ought to do it unless flights go up between now and then! Right now they’re around $1400 if I were schedule this far out, which I’m NOT, because everything has to be in place before I do that!
And Thorsten Walch (who wrote the German translation of my De Kelley book) is looking into getting me an all expenses paid speaking gig at a convention in Germany next year, too. That would be awesome. Germany was the birthplace of all of my grandparents or great grandparents on both sides, so it would be wonderful to visit there and to see the many De fans I know who are German. Several of them have flown here to be with me in the U.S. in the past. T’would be a dream come true! (My grandmother on my mom’s side came here in 1910 through Ellis Island as a pre-teen.)
“EVER NEW” TWITCH.TV GLITCH
There was an unfortunate Twitch glitch this morning when Hannah and Abbie McCrane and I tried to go live at 10:30 a.m. sharp. The broadcast didn’t happen although we went live right on time. We were on the air for 15 minutes before someone noticed there weren’t any listeners or comments. Turns out the Twitch.tv interface didn’t kick in or something. I will check to see if Roger’s broadcast went overly long and that’s why we didn’t get in.
We started again and then got people coming in via my Facebook page, but not via the usual channel. Very weird! Roger is looking into it for me. Fortunately it was recorded on Facebook, so Roger and Michael Day can probably get it from there and post it to his Twitch.tv EVER NEW page if it isn’t hiding there behind something I can’t see from the home page.
On today’s EVER NEW, Hannah and Abbie McCrane regaled us with images and anecdotes from their recent Disney cruise. After that, I read two of De’s non-Star Trek spiritual poems and a couple excerpts from my book DeForest Kelley Up Close and Personal. One was funny; the other was poignant. Hannah, Amy (who popped in about 40 minutes in, after Twitch finally kicked in) and I got a little teary while I read it. You may want to watch it if you missed it and and you’re curious. Here’s the link: https://www.facebook.com/KristineMSmith/videos/912124169839513
That’s all for now. I’m looking for extra work so I can get more money into savings so I’ll have some mad money when go Down Under (and perhaps to Germany, too!) next year.
Happy Easter to those of you who celebrate!
