As Neko Case sipped her morning coffee, enjoying a late-summer day in Portland, Ore., while working on mixes for a forthcoming record, I managed to blow her mind. The singer-songwriter, sometimes-member of the Canadian indie-rock outfit the New Pornographers and current Northeast Kingdom resident has had a particularly intense past few years. She's not only recorded the follow-up to her 2022 career retrospective, Wild Creatures, but also written her first memoir. And she's working on a secretive Broadway musical. We were discussing that last project by phone when I baffled her. "It's not like it's some huge secret; that's just not how Broadway works," Case, 54, said of the musical. "You don't talk about it until it's ready. And I definitely don't want to be the dick talking to the media and saying something like [speaking in a comically deep voice], 'Yeah, we're making a tribute to Don Knotts,'" she continued, referring to the late comedic actor, who was famous, among other roles, for playing Ralph Furley on the classic sitcom "Three's Company." She added: "Which I would totally go to, by the way." "Speaking of Don Knotts, do you know about the Mrs. Roper Romp?" I asked Case, referring to the annual pub crawl in White River Junction where attendees dress as Audra Lindley's "Three's Company" character, Mrs. Roper. "Wait, what?" Case demanded sharply. "Dude, if you're going, tell me. I want to wear a muumuu and represent the Kingdom!" Alas, she'll be on tour when the Roper Romp goes down this Saturday, September 21, so we decided to rain check until next year. As part of that sprawling North American run, Case will make a local stop at the Lebanon Opera House in New Hampshire on Wednesday, September 25. In January, she'll drop her memoir, The Harder I Fight the More I Love You, in which she explores her troubled upbringing — though it's lighter than it sounds. The new album should follow. And then there's that pesky, unnamed musical. Seven Days spoke with Case about all of those projects, living in (and maybe leaving) Vermont, and trying to make people laugh while they read about trauma. Writing a memoir can't be easy when you have a traumatic past. Were you hesitant to dive into your childhood memories? Well, I definitely would have rather written fiction — writing about myself is a little weird. It wasn't…