Took an evening off from working on strategies for the re-write to indulge myself. I did something I haven't done since 1982.

I attended a concert.

Let me amend that. I actually went out to watch a band not performing at a bar. A real concert.

.38 Special, Styx and REO Speedwagon were performing about four miles from the house and I simply couldn't miss it. I'm a huge fan of all three of the groups and to be able to get them all in the same night was just too much to resist. wishweaver and the daughter-unit decided they weren't interested, but no one objected to me getting tickets for myself. I wound up getting seats about 20 rows back from the stage where I could watch everything.

.38 Special opened the show. I thought of the three groups, their performance was the most consistent. It seemed to take the crowd a few songs to get into the feel of the concert, but by the time they hit their trademark songs, people were starting to rock.

Styx came on next. They were the most uneven of the groups. I really loved their performance of Lorelei, Come Sail Away, Blue Collar Man and other songs, but they seemed almost out of tune performing The Grand Illusion, which surprised me and actually took the crowd out of it for a bit. Also, when they did "I am the Eggman", I think they confused a bunch of people. It was a good cover, but I didn't pay to see Styx cover the Beatles. Couldn't complain about their encore though (Blue Collar Man and Renegade).

REO Speedwagon was the closing act and I enjoyed it a lot but they played a lot of stuff from before I started following them. I enjoyed it and actually added a few songs I want to track down, but it was weird after knowing every song Styx performed. Still, they hit the highlights from "You Can Tune a Piano" and "HiInfidelity". Plus, they closed the concert with the song I knew they would - "Ridin' the Storm Out" (my favorite REO song bar none).

For the final encore, Styx and REO performed a song they'd written just for the concert tour. It was wild seeing eight guitarist out on stage at the same time (Styx's drummer grabbed a guitar and he's got some chops there too). It was a pretty good high-energy song and a great way to close out the night.

Got to the car with minimal amount of pain and the trip home was quick and painless. Time to drink some water, unwind for a moment and get to bed.

Reminder to self: Next time bring camera . . . your cell phone camera stinks.

I expect my hearing will return to normal around the 4th. *grin*

Went and saw Up today in the theater. Damn good movie. I thought the quiet montage at the first was a very touching part that they didn't underplay or overplay. Nice amount of silliness and seriousness in the movie and I think Ed Asner had a ball doing the part. The short before the movie was cool too. Had never thought about the stork that had to deliver porcupine babies before. *grin*

Did a little shopping and picked up some music from a couple of groups that had been recommended to me by friends. Of course, FYE's scanners were down so I couldn't listen for myself, but they were used discs so I figure it's worth a chance. I'll listen to them tomorrow at work and hopefully I'll think my friends have wonderful tastes in music.

Did get some work done on Childhood's Tears tonight. Finished the re-write to Chapter 4. I added almost 2000 new words in the process and am now well on my way to finishing Chapter 5. I may be re-doing a chunk of this chapter too. I'm going to read it again tomorrow and make a decision then.

All right, computer is showing low battery, so I'm going to go to bed now.

Wow.

Having that weight lifted off of my shoulders has made the writing start flowing again. Heck, it even flowed well at work today . . . that is, when they weren't pulling me away to work on other stuff . . . or attend meetings . . . or do excel spreadsheets for requirements . . . aauugh! Oh well, keep telling yourself it's paying the bills.

I picked up a couple of new CDs after work at Borders while the daughter-unit was buying her supply of Pocky. I snagged a Keiko Matsui CD I didn't have, a CD by Gary Stadler called Fairy of the Woods, which looks like it'll be good to write to and the D-U pointed out a Best of Glenn Miller CD. She knows as a former trombonist as well as a former jazz trombonist, I'm a huge Glenn Miller fan, so I snagged it also. She enjoyed In the Mood and String of Pearls but Moonlight Serenade was a little too laid back for her.

Hey, I've got an almost 16 year old listening to Glenn Miller. I'm not going to complain that she doesn't like all of them. *grin*

But, as I said, the writing came together well tonight. I added 1953 words to Shadows tonight and finished Chapter 17. The novel feels like it's a little light at the moment in the word count department, but I expect it'll grow during the editing part before I submit it. I've thought of a few things I want to expand on earlier in the book, but I want to get to the end before I start changing stuff up earlier. Better to be a little short on words than to miss the deadline.

Thank goodness the weekend is almost here.
_________________________________________________________________________

Words for Today

1953 / 1000 words. 195%

Progress on SG-1: Shadows of the Heart

56052 / 80000 words. 70%

Words for 2009

47498 / 365000 words. 13%

After my daughter's appointments this morning, we hit the Apple store where she fell in love with the 20" iMac. We picked it up with some writing software (iWorks) and a Manga drawing software suite. She finished downloading all of her stuff from the old dying laptop after we got home and then after dinner tonight, we pulled the iMac out of the box, uploaded all of her stuff and started having fun with it. We're going to have to track down her WACOM drawing pad software to see if there's a Mac version or if it's universal software. Worst comes to worst, we'll just have to try and contact WACOM and have them send her a new CD. She's still having too much fun with her new "shiny" to worry about the drawing pad for the moment.

Of course, wishweaver fell in love with it too, but that's a purchase for another day . . . way far away. I never saw her as a Mac user, but Microsoft Vista is definitely pushing her toward it. Let's just say, its unreliabiliity is only exceeded by its memory-hogging slowness. I have a feeling we'll be blowing Vista off of her desktop soon and replacing it with XP. Hell, I'm thinking about doing the same with this laptop. Vista was NOT a better idea, Bill.

After all that, I uploaded my Bach collection into iTunes and prepared to write. That's where I hit a wall. I don't know why, but I just couldn't get into writing tonight. Maybe I'm already looking ahead to starting the sekrit project or maybe I was having too much fun visiting my old novel yesterday, but it was tough getting into the Chronicles tonight. So, after about two and a half hours, (most spent doing stuff other than writing), I finally logged 1,187 words. They're not bad words, and they were starting to come faster and better toward the end, so I'm encouraged by that.

Perhaps things will feel better after a good night's sleep.
_________________________________________________________________________________

Words for Today

1187 / 1000 words. 119%

Progress on CSD: Dragon Couchant

92550 / 120000 words. 77%


Words for 2008

144156 / 366000 words. 39%

I was uploading some more of our CDs into my iTunes library when I realized I'd just gone from Harry Chapin to Dvorak to Lynard Skynard to the Batman Beyond soundtrack.

Yeah, I have varied tastes in music.

I think besides some opera and almost all gangsta rap, I'm pretty well represented across the musical spectrum.

Got the Writer Beware blog post up, did family stuff most of the afternoon and evening and then settled in to do some writing. Started Chapter Fifteen for the Chronicles of the Sea Dragon tonight, slapped on Jethro Tull's Songs from the Wood, which is strangely appropriate for this story and got to work.

2116 words later, I think it's time to go to bed. With a little bit of luck tomorrow, I should be able to get this chapter finished as well as taking care of some housekeeping I need to do for Writer Beware. Heck, I might even treat myself to a little time on the ol' Playstation if I keep this up.

Oh, and on a personal note, I've officially exceeded January's projected words for the month and we've still got five days to go. Go me!
______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Words for Today

2116 / 1000 words. 212%

Progress on Dragon Couchant

61804 / 100000 words. 62%

Words for 2008

32560 / 366000 words. 9%

Well, it's been a great weekend here at Casa Blanca.

UCM won their homecoming game with Missouri Western, the University of Missouri (not my alma mater, but I did grow up about 12 miles from there) crushed the high-powered offense of Texas Tech 41-10 and by hook and by crook, the Chiefs slipped past the Oakland Raiders 12-10.

Also, we went back to the Maryland Renaissance Festival today. Got to see the two groups I really wanted to hear perform - Mediaeval Babes and Wolgemut. Also, watched a great Punch and Judy show, saw Shakespeare Scum deconstruct Henry the "V" and enjoyed watching the Fight School demonstrate broad sword, bastard sword, quarterstaff, transitional rapier, rapier and main-gauche, short sword and cased rapier (florentine style).

wishweaver picked up some nice faire garb for next year and I picked up a very nice wooden mug for use both there and when I'm working on my stories, as well as the two Mediaeval Babes CDs I hadn't bought yet. I'll be adding them into my iTunes Library tomorrow night.

Although, I will admit, going to the RenFest meant I blew off my writing for today (bad author, bad author), but I got quite a bit done yesterday and I'm three chapters from finishing the breakdowns. I'll try to make it up tomorrow night while the daughter-unit has her vision therapy. Then it's time to write the first chapter and start editing both.

So, have a good night, Live Journal.

My order from Amazon came in last night.

No, not the latest novel from (insert name of megastar writer here).
No, not the latest DVD featuring (insert name of super cool action flick here).
No, not the latest CD featuring (insert name of power rock band from the 70s here).

But, it is a CD.

I snagged the Final Fantasy XII Limited Edition Original Soundtrack (4CD set).

People may or may not like video games, but this is one hell of a soundtrack and it's definitely going into my iTunes in my "Writing Music" category. I foresee many enjoyable hours writing to this music. Strong string sections, great low brass accompaniment, just enough woodwinds to keep things honest and a solid tympani going in the background (one of my old instruments).

So, not only did this game pull me in, (I'd love to find out who's got the publishing rights for any fiction based on this game), but the soundtrack is keeping me in love with the game.

Where's that controller? *grin*

Otherwise known as an excuse to go to Barnes and Noble and spend money.

Luckily for me, I received a $25 gift card for B&N at work the other day, so I decided to make good use of it. Hit the "sale" table for books and came away with a nice haul.

The Secret Voyage of Sir Francis Drake, 1577-1580 by Samuel Bawlf
Captured by Pirates edited by John Richard Stephens
The Tao of War by Wang Chen, translated by Ralph D. Sawyer
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

I'm rather pleased to find The Tao of War was translated by Sawyer. He was the translator on my copies of The Art of War and Military Methods of the Art of War. Actually, I'm pretty pleased with all my purchases. I've been wanting to add The Count of Monte Cristo to my library for quite a while.

In fact, the only things I didn't pick up tonight was The Divine Comedy by Dante. I used to have a great copy in white leather that I lost in the divorce. *sigh* I can find the individual pieces as books, but I'd like to pick it up as one complete book. It would go nicely on the shelf next to Machiavelli.

Got my pitch for the anthology off in the mail this evening. Nothing to do now but start thinking up other ideas in case the editor wants something different. Of course, that's supposing he doesn't ban me from ever e-mailing him another pitch *grin*.

Oh, the music library slowly is being restored. I've uploaded eleven albums this evening (5 anime soundtracks, three goth/heavy metal and two new-age (according to iTunes)). Only about sixty or so to go.

*whimper*

I'm really getting into Shattered Mirror ever since April came up for our writer's enclave. We've always had a pretty good feel for the story, but we really developed the characters that I'm writing right now. One guy in particular is a lot of fun because he's such a pompous ass. It's going to be so much fun sticking pins into him later in the story, but right now, I'm getting to set his character up for a fall.

Course, it probably helps that I'm (mostly) over my cold. Amazing what some fresh energy will do for the creative spirit.

I'm stopping tonight in the middle of a fight. I know, a strange place to stop, but there is this small thing about having to go to work that's encouraging me to call it a night. Bleah. Well, that just means we'll probably do Shattered Mirror tomorrow instead of Chronicles, but I need to get this fight finished while it's still fresh in my mind.

Course, it helps that I picked up some new music to write to. I found some Babylon 5 episode soundtracks on sale for $9.99, so I picked up the tracks for War Without End, Parts 1 and 2. I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed the music for this show. Very nice stuff. I'll probably have to track down some more of them as time goes on.

Time to grab some sleep so I can get this fight finished tomorrow.

Words for Today</i>

1,730 / 1,000 (173.0%)

Progress on Shattered Mirror

3,620 / 80,000 (4.5%)

Words for the Year

10,393 / 365,000 (2.8%)

Had a pretty productive day today. Imported 16 CDs into my iTunes (9 rock albums and 7 soundtracks). Next time I take a trip, the iPod is going to be pretty well set up.

Finished Chapter Nine this afternoon, and got about halfway through Chapter Ten of Harbinger. Chapter Nine wasn't really long compared to the two in front of it and therefore I didn't trim quite as much from it. It went from 2644 words to 2516, just 128 words. This chapter was longer in the original, but most of Chapter Six came from this chapter when I did the first re-write of the story.

Had a good talk with Steve Roman this evening. Steve's been my writing mentor and friend since 1992. Steve published my first small-press comic and has worked with me on other comic projects since (most recently with the Chronicles of the Sea Dragon comic that debuted at San Diego last year. He's got several projects in the fire and we discussed our current writing plans. I'm hoping to announce some good news for him here soon, but until then, I'm just keeping my fingers crossed for him.

Wow, where the heck did the weekend go?

Current Harbinger final draft status:

31,005 / 100,000 (31.0%)

Well, I copied three more CD's into my iTunes (Noir Original Soundtracks 1&2 and Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl), watched way too much TV with my family, enjoyed a good dinner and got half-way through the edits on Chapter Seven of Harbinger. I think that's about enough for tonight.

I'm making progress on the chapter. I've culled several whole paragraphs out, but I'm saving them for potential use elsewhere (in this book or perhaps another one). They're not necessarily bad paragraphs . . . they just don't belong where they were. I should be able to wrap this up tomorrow night. I'll just have to put in a little extra work over the weekend to make up for not finishing the chapter tonight.

After the couple of marathons I've done recently, I think going to bed closer to midnight than 2:00am is a good thing.

Went to one of the local coffeehouses this evening to get some work in. It was nice and quiet in there, just the counter staff and me. Unfortunately, I didn't get there until almost 8pm and they closed at 9, so I only got one chapter red-lined tonight. I did a massive rewrite on the chapter though, so I think it was a well-spent hour.

Finished the typing of Chapter Two of Harbinger tonight. Apparently the "Red Pen of Doom" (patent pending) turned into the "Battle-Axe of Red-Lining" overnight. I chopped 969 words out of the chapter and I think it flows a lot better. Reading it out loud, I found a few phrases that looked good typed but sounded "just wrong."

I leave for FantaSci on Friday. Meeting Tee Morris south of D.C. and then carpooling together down to Chesapeake, VA. Sometime this week, I need to prep my questions since I'm moderating two panels there. It looks like dzeytoun will be meeting us down there for the show. One of these days, when he finishes working on those non-fiction books, I hope he gets back to the fantasy story he started several months ago. I'm REALLY curious to see what happens next (so far, I've only read the first chapter in our writing group).

Taking a break from listening to Anime soundtracks tonight. I have my Live365 set to In Dark Faith Eternal. A very nice change of pace from my usual listening habits. Not 100% a fan of the heavier goth music, but I can get into this "darkwave" genre.

Anyway. . . time for bed.

Current Harbinger final draft status:

6,969 / 100,000 (7.0%)

The daughter-unit had her spring concert this evening. Wow! It was an amazing time. The kids (4th and 5th Grade Choir, 6th Grade Choir and 7th and 8th Grade Choir) put some effort into preparing for the concert and it showed. Although I had a "oh no" moment. Let's face it, when music you used to listen to in college is now being performed at a Middle School Choir concert - you're getting old. Ouch. And, not only was the concert good, it was short. From start to finish, to include getting choirs on and off stage, it was 45 minutes long. Huzzah for not having to sit in hard metal folding chairs for 2.5 hours like the winter concert. I think everyone learned something from that.

Started working on an idea for a Star Trek story I'd like to pitch. Yes, I got out the infamous flow-chart and went to it. I started listing questions . . . why was the character there, what caused the incident, who was involved and why, what does the character do to make writing about him/her important, what's the immediate results, what were the long term results. Those were my headings and then I started adding sub-layers and then trying to carry the sub-layers out to their logical (or sometimes illogical) endings. Once I have everything on paper, I can start deciding which thread I like best, which will add enough drama to the story without overwhelming the overall theme to the story, and which ones are just plain silly. I think I've got a good idea now what I want to pitch, but I'm going to go over my ideas with wishweaver to see what she thinks of my ramblings. She's good at going, "So, your point is . . .?", forcing me to defend my thought process. Highly useful before starting out on a project.

Also, I got started back on Harbinger tonight. I'm keeping the first four chapters for now and started on a completely new Chapter 5 tonight. I thought one character in the book needed to be introduced earlier than he had appeared and have more contact with Raven early on. It's been fun writing in this world again. I like Chronicles, but Raven's world is rapidly becoming my favorite milieu.

So, with the rewrite, I know I don't want to exceed 100,000 words, so I picked up the word count with Chapter 5. However, as we go further into the story, you may see the word count bar take major jumps. Those will be when I incorporate stuff from the first draft into this one. But, I'm hoping to get some kind of progress at least five nights a week.

Also, I'm listening to a new music station on Live365.com. It's called In Dark Faith Eternal and it specializes in Darkwave, Ethereal, Gothic, Neo-Classical songs, primarily with female artists. Very nice and very easy to write to this style of music. A little break from the Anime/J-Pop I normally listen to on Live365.

Current Harbinger status

17,910 / 100,000 (17.9%)

Picked up a couple of soundtracks today. Snagged the soundtrack to Hoodwinked. As you might recall, I really enjoyed this movie. I think what made it fun was the music (both BG and sung). The mountain goat's song was an absolute riot, especially the second half of the song. (For those of you who've seen the movie, you'll know what I'm referring to.) Also, for some reason, the song Red is Blue appeals to me. wishweaver says its because it's a bluesy-type of song, and she's probably right. I was talking it over with the daughter-unit today and I think we're going to go see this movie again this weekend.

But, the find of the day was when I turned around and saw they'd released a soundtrack for Cassablanca back in 2002 to celebrate its 60th anniversary. It contains all the songs to include As Time Goes By, but it also includes selected bits of dialog from the movie, to include one of my favorite scenes.

Rick - "What are you shutting me down for?"

Renault - "I'm shocked, shocked to find there is gambling going on here."

Waiter - "Captain Renault, here are your winnings."

Renault - "Ah, thank you very much."

Let's just say, I got a boost to my Bogart geekdom there. I told wishweaver about my purchase. I think rolling her eyes was the politest way to describe her feelings about it. What can I say, she's just not into the old Black and White movies as I am.

Took the daughter-unit to Fidos for Freedom tonight. She's working with them for her community project both for school and the Girl Scouts. It seems like a pretty cool organization and they've got a TON of dogs there. If you're a dog person like me, it's a little slice of heaven.

Among all this, I did manage to get some writing done. I added 2015 words tonight to Dragon Couchant. I'm getting ready to introduce the next major character in my book here as well as a nice bar fight. Hopefully, it'll all flow together the rest of the week. I've read a little of my newest chapter to wishweaver and she didn't run screaming into the night. I'll take that as a good sign. ;)

Need to spend a little time tomorrow night reading the submisisons for our writer's group meeting on Friday. Right now, we're all still in the "how much should I accomplish? What kind of critique do you want? Are they going to be offended if I say this?" mode. In a few weeks, things should be all sorted out.

All in all, it was a good day.

Here's looking at you, kid.

Current CSD: Dragon Couchant status:

15,890 / 95,000 (16.7%)