Home Stretch: Sun & Stone

Yes. Still alive. Still here. But whoa, what a month it's been! I'm still a bit swamped, but I did want to share a brief update: Sun and Stone (Tales of the Dead Man 2) is in the last stages of edits, the cover is being finished and, if everything holds course, it should be available in time for Christmas! I'm really excited for this launch - this has been the hardest novel for me to write by far, and I've been very pleased at how much story made it into this book. 

I'm also clearing off my plate to see what project I'll be working on next. Obviously, the conclusion of the Tales of the Dead Man book, Sea & Shadow, will be up at some point, but I think I'm going to do a different novel in between - and I've a few short stories that have been impatiently waiting on the back burner. When I decide, I'll let you know. Promise.

Until then, have a great week! 

Soundtracks and Soundscapes

This is what I get for posting on Facebook. There I was, being all innocent and posting a quick comment about my writing mechanics, and now here I am writing a blog about it to expand on my thoughts. I'm really my own worst enemy.

So here's the thing: I love music. Like, Love it. It's always been somewhere in my head, and I can't remember what my life was even like before there was music in it. My first favorite present was a little record player, upon which I destroyed Winnie the Pooh albums; my first 8-track (you kids can go google that if you don't know what those are) was the Muppet Movie - though I also had a copy of the Superman Movie soundtrack. I grew up loving Beethoven and Tchaikovsky, Mozart and Rossini, Brahms and the Beatles. Star Wars had a wonderful double album, with composer notes that I read as if it were the meaning of life. My first favorite song was "Play that Funky Music White Boy" by Wild Cherry, and the first cassette ever bought was "Rio" by Duran Duran. I've since made sure that same album is the first I buy in each successive media format - CD and digital. It's a thing, I can't explain it.

Part of what I love about music the transformative quality it possesses, but also, it's a wonderful storytelling element. I used to become quite agitated in complete silence, always needing some sort of music to fill in the gaps. I kind of suspect this is why I used to write (and likely still could if I spared a creative neuron for it) music. And now, when I write, it's still there. It has to be, in fact. If it's too quiet, my brain goes back to trying to fill in those silences with music, and I'm pretty much useless for anything else.

I've since learned to channel that into my writing. I set up playlists and soundtracks of my own, and have them in the background while I'm working. It's great for helping me mentally and emotionally find the pacing and intensity I'm looking for in a moment, and turns my subconscious to the storytelling elements I desire. 

In the Chronicles of Aesirium, I leaned heavily on movie soundtracks - Hans Zimmer, Danny Elfman, John Williams. I listened to the Daft Punk "Tron" and the Matrix soundtracks a lot when working on the Machine city scenes. I played Yoko Kanno often when writing Rom, and listened to Joe Hisaishi soundtracks when working on Kari and other characters. Oldtown-Against-the-Wall got a lot of "steampunk" music, as well as lots of jazz. And of course, most of book 6 got into a lot of dramatic overtures. The 1812 Overture by Tchaikovsky played a major part there; feel free to listen to that one along the final few chapters, along with Beethoven's 9th. You'll see what I mean.

So this new series has been weird for me, though. In Steel & Sky, I did the same sort of thing - the "Man of Steel" soundtrack was great, and I pulled a lot of music from the Ghost in the Shell movies, as well as a lot of my old favorite belly dance music. A lot of world music, really. And on this new book, I'm using a completely different playlist, much of which includes contemporary stuff - Sting, October Project, Howard Jones, Michael Hedges, Michael Manring, Gershwin, Andreas Vollenweider and so forth. Really odd choices, but... it's really working. It's taking my writing in some different directions, and making the flow a lovely and oddly comfortable dance as I head into the last chapters of this book. (note: if you have Spotify, feel free to follow me there - I'm currently using the "Othermind" playlist as I work on these last chapters)

But all that being said - - I know a lot of you who read this are writers as well - - do any of you use soundtracks for your writing? Share, please - I'm curious what kinds of music helps you write. 

Ren Dreams of Sci-Fi

I find sometimes I have to apologize to the universe. All the answers I might ever need are out there, lingering in the aether, waiting for me to notice. To pluck it down like a ripe fruit suspended from a heavy branch.

Today's lesson for me was finally watching "Jiro Dreams of Sushi." It's not about sushi. Well, okay, it's ALSO about sushi. But it's also about how to be excellent at something. Anything.

Jiro is my new totem spirit.

What (or who, or where) is yours? Please share below, I'd love to see what inspires you.

Powers of Ten

Some of you may be old enough to remember that "powers of ten" movie that we got to watch in school. The basic gist of it is that the camera locks in on a couple enjoying a nice picnic in the middle of Chicago or someplace, and the frame contains a single square meter. It then begins panning back, until a new box locks in at 10 meters by ten meters. Continuing up so that each new factor of ten is encompassed in a matter of ten seconds - 100 sq. meters, 1000 sq meters, and so forth. Eventually, it gets to the outer edge of known space and the screen contains all recognized points of light in the cosmos, some billions or so of square meters. Then it speeds in and zooms in until it can perceive the most infinitesimally small parts of the atom. All going by factors of ten, up and down.

At its extreme, both perspectives can be truly inspirational. Seeing the whole of existing matter in a single glance; seeing the building blocks of matter - it's breathtaking to grasp for comprehension across that tremendous breadth of reality.

It's the point in the middle, however, that I find I occasionally become caught up in. Such has been the case.

I've been watching a few friends of mine come into their own these past couple of months - it's been long overdue for all of them, where they at last are receiving the attention and success they deserve. I've also been seeing some of my friends going through some terrible struggles. If I had my way, they'd all be getting the good successes and triumphs, but alas, it's not done that way. I've even come to the point where I just won't watch the news any longer - it's all either just celebrity gossip or attempts to empower a national shouting match - and the temptation has been to make me feel frustrated and impatient. These are not good sentiments for writing.

So I started meditating again this week. Just to clear my head, return to center, sort of a pleasant mental scraping of all the cerebral barnacles. And then last night, I had a dream about Favo, Sjora and the gang, right where I'd left off writing for Sun & Stone. So there we go.

TL;DR - it's on the home stretch (yes, still), but we're getting close to a wrap. Fear not.

Movie Review: Tomorrowland

When I set this site up, I didn't really expect it to be a point of pop culture and media saturation, but looking at all my "Have You Met...? Monday" posts (and don't worry, I haven't forgotten about those, I've just been highly distracted lately), I suppose that really is a huge chunk of my developmental process. But reviews... well, I seem to have missed doing those for the other various films and television shows I've been watching of late, but then "Tomorrowland" came along and made me ponder it.

When I first heard about this movie, I'll confess, I totally rolled my eyes. (Literally, I'm pretty sure I did, which is weird since I am pretty sure I heard about it online. But I digress.) A whole movie based not even on just a Disneyland ride, but a whole section of their park? Oh come on, guys. What happened to originality? New ideas? Something maybe not so blatantly commercial in origin? Would Walt have supported this? And did you even think about... wait, what? Brad Bird is directing it? The man who brought us "Iron Giant" and "The Incredibles"? Oh. Well. Um. Okay, fine, but I'm not going to see it in the theater, I'm going to wait until it's on BluRay.... ooooohhh... wait, that's an awesome trailer. Um. Okay. Damn it. Fine. I'll see it in the theater, but I'm not, I repeat NOT, getting my expectations up.

So we saw it, and we loved it.

Now, confession here - I'm a big Disney nerd. We've been to both US parks multiple times, and own copies of most of their films, and so on. I used to watch the sunday night TV show when I was kid, watched the Mouseketeers show ("Who's the leader of the club that's made for you and me? M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E!") even had a bit of a crush on Annette Funiccello (who didn't?) and on and on and on. So it's probably evident that I'm really easily within their target audience for a film like this, I'll put that right out there. That being said, here are my thoughts on the film, and I'll keep it as spoiler free as possible.

I've been asked a few times what the movie is even about (is it weird that I wanted to see this before I even knew the answer to that question? Probably.) - my answer, now that I've seen it and thought about it, would be this: it's a love story set beside a race to save the world.

But it's also a movie with a profound message, one that I won't blatantly share here, because I think it works best within the structure of the movie itself.

What I will say is this; it's a movie about hope. There aren't really a lot of films that can say that, and certainly not so-called "disaster movies", but this one was just as much as I could have wanted it to be. It's not about having blind hope - the kind where you just sit there amid the ruins of your world and say "gosh, I really hope things won't get any worse," but more one of "I am going to do THIS THING and hope that the results are fantastic!" It's about looking towards the light and not just at the shadows that it casts. It's about taking that sweet, deep breath before the plunge. It's about closing your eyes before taking that leap from the lion's mouth, so that you'll know your worth. It's about boldly going.

It's not just thinking happy thoughts and holding out for the pixie dust, either. It's about knowing the way may be hard, but in the end it will be very much worth it.

From a story construction perspective, I'd have to say I had a few itches about the final scene. I'm kind of tired of the bad guy always being an unrepentant ass, and wish movie studios recognized that the worst punishment is to be forced to stick around and see how wrong you were. Few villains are ever that nonredeemable, and to be perfectly honest, I find that there are already plenty of people who are so resolved to their way of thinking that can't be shown a better path to getting what they want. But maybe that's just me. I don't like writing characters like that.

And speaking of which, I should wrap this up. I've got a final act of my own to write, filled with unrepentant villains who may or may not turn from their paths of destruction.

To summarize - go give "Tomorrowland" a view. Along with "V For Vendetta", I find it a well crafted and beautiful look at the future, and an exploration of social evolution and revolution.

Unlike V, though, this one presents the material with a spoonful of sugar. And sometimes, that really does help the medicine go down.

Writing Update - the home stretch!

Just a quick update for today - I'm all caught up from the data loss of last month, and I'm even a bit past that original chunk of the story. I'm now on to the final act, nearly all of which is action-based. Three major battles taking place, each with their own requirements and narrative arcs. The last chapter is the dessert - one which will be savored tenderly following this challenging novel. And then I've got to finish a couple different short stories as well as mark out the plotting for Book 3 of Tales of the Dead Man: Sea & Shadow. Plus, there will be a few rounds of edits, cover and interior design, and eventual publishing.

I'm sorry for the marked absence of "Have You Met...?" episodes. I've made a few new friends over the past months, however, so brace yourself for a prompt resumption to those fun posts.

Also, I've been getting peppered with new ideas for additional books. Apparently, either I'm writing or I'm coming across new ideas to be writing. The cycle never ends, and though I am emotionally required to be deeply grateful for that deepening well, there are times when the pile of "To Be Done" begins to block out the sun. Yeah, yeah, I know. What terrible problems I have!

Okay, back to work. Feel free to drop me a line or leave a comment. I know you guys are reading, but I'm always up for feedback!