Dear Mid-Atlantic Climate:
Plz to be getting on with Autumn now thxbai.
That is all.
September 26, 2007
September 18, 2007
The Breaking of the World
Another in a year of lost lights: Jim Rigney, who wrote under the name Robert Jordan, died on Sunday.
He was, by all accounts, a fine human being as well as an accomplished writer: kind, funny, generous, and even in his declining health larger-than-life. The late John M. Ford thought the world of him and his work, and drew the map at the front of the Wheel of Time books; now they are both gone into the Mystery, alas, and the world is poorer.
He was also one of those names who polarized fandom, with his work often seeming to generate praise and vitriol in equal measure, and the reflexive slagging of his books got to be unfortunately popular in a lot of circles. And certainly it's possible to go on at length about his flaws and excesses (I myself drifted away from the series a few volumes back, when the event-to-page-count ratio seemed to be steadily decreasing), but I think, as Elizabeth Bear once said of another popular author, that it doesn't matter what he did wrong in light of how many things he did right. If nothing else, the criticism of his work as generic and derivative was undeserved; he did an awful lot to drag epic fantasy out of the Tolkienian mold, engineering a world that was neither medieval nor strictly western European in its inspiration, rich and evocative and wonderfully strange. (And on top of all that, he also wrote Conan just about as well as anyone since Howard himself.)
He inspired me to write one pretty good song, which I think was the first I put a barre chord in on purpose, and made an enormous impression on the way I think about epic fantasy and its possibilities. Despite not having kept up with the books themselves, I've continued to admire their imagination and ambition (and I've never stopped wanting a heron mark sword, either). I'm very sad to learn that he didn't get to see his grand tale through to the end (though there are rumors that he disclosed the secrets of the final volume to his wife and a few close friends, so it's just possible the rest of us will, after all), but I hope he knew how deeply his creation touched the people who loved it, and how much joy it gave his readers to have his world take up space in our heads.
Some remembrances of note (among many others) here, here, here, and here.
He was, by all accounts, a fine human being as well as an accomplished writer: kind, funny, generous, and even in his declining health larger-than-life. The late John M. Ford thought the world of him and his work, and drew the map at the front of the Wheel of Time books; now they are both gone into the Mystery, alas, and the world is poorer.
He was also one of those names who polarized fandom, with his work often seeming to generate praise and vitriol in equal measure, and the reflexive slagging of his books got to be unfortunately popular in a lot of circles. And certainly it's possible to go on at length about his flaws and excesses (I myself drifted away from the series a few volumes back, when the event-to-page-count ratio seemed to be steadily decreasing), but I think, as Elizabeth Bear once said of another popular author, that it doesn't matter what he did wrong in light of how many things he did right. If nothing else, the criticism of his work as generic and derivative was undeserved; he did an awful lot to drag epic fantasy out of the Tolkienian mold, engineering a world that was neither medieval nor strictly western European in its inspiration, rich and evocative and wonderfully strange. (And on top of all that, he also wrote Conan just about as well as anyone since Howard himself.)
He inspired me to write one pretty good song, which I think was the first I put a barre chord in on purpose, and made an enormous impression on the way I think about epic fantasy and its possibilities. Despite not having kept up with the books themselves, I've continued to admire their imagination and ambition (and I've never stopped wanting a heron mark sword, either). I'm very sad to learn that he didn't get to see his grand tale through to the end (though there are rumors that he disclosed the secrets of the final volume to his wife and a few close friends, so it's just possible the rest of us will, after all), but I hope he knew how deeply his creation touched the people who loved it, and how much joy it gave his readers to have his world take up space in our heads.
Some remembrances of note (among many others) here, here, here, and here.
August 28, 2007
I Aten't Dead (extended club mix)
Busy summer. Lots of Stuff happening. Energy for blogging at low ebb. Here, have one o' them Open Threads.
Will return with updates soon.
Will return with updates soon.
June 26, 2007
The Moth in God's Eye
Here's something happy for all you wyrdfolk fans: a short and very sweet interview with Timothy Renner of Stone Breath and Crow Tongue, wherein he talks about music and family and the uneasy balance of work and life. It's awfully nice to discover that some of the folks I admire, who make the creation seem so effortless, talk about struggling with their art, especially since "like blood from stone" is a pretty accurate description of what the music's been like for me lately.
On that note, I've begun the outlining process for the rewrite of The Vasty Deep, my 2003 NaNo project whose abortive first draft had some good bits in it but was, I think, fatally broken in ways I can't bring myself to fuss with. I'm hoping this time around the cool shit will be cooler, the pulp will be pulpier, and the dumb parts will be less egregiously dumb. Plus this version will be in first person present, which makes the wordings of the story more better with the reading. Not much to show for it yet, but it's a start, a start.
On that note, I've begun the outlining process for the rewrite of The Vasty Deep, my 2003 NaNo project whose abortive first draft had some good bits in it but was, I think, fatally broken in ways I can't bring myself to fuss with. I'm hoping this time around the cool shit will be cooler, the pulp will be pulpier, and the dumb parts will be less egregiously dumb. Plus this version will be in first person present, which makes the wordings of the story more better with the reading. Not much to show for it yet, but it's a start, a start.
June 21, 2007
Spring the Wode New
The Summer Solstice is upon us, moving the hemisphere from semi-official to official summertime and drawing out the daylight to its breaking point. We've had a weird mix of weather here, alternately springlike and unbearably hot; Heaven only knows what the actual summer's going to look like.
For me, the last few weeks have also been marked by several waves of decidedly un-seasonal depression of the frustrated-with-my-useless-life variety, which may be the most fun of all of them. This is one reason for my latest echoing silence around here and in correspondence, not that anyone would have had any fun reading the sort of thing I was likely to write during that time. It's better now, though it continues to come and go. Nonetheless, I think this year, and this last unpleasant relapse in particular, have sent up a red flag for me that something needs to give. I suppose what I'd really like is some new brain chemistry so that being in my nice house with my sweet doggie and kitty and the wife who still seems to like me despite several compelling reasons not to didn't bum me the hell out, but, failing that, I think a couple of things need to happen.
One, I am obviously not equipped to handle the Condition with the tools I have. This probably means it's time for some kind of therapy or other, though exactly what I'm not sure. I had several years of mostly mediocre talk therapy that probably did some good if only by accident, but I think if I'm going to go back to that sort of thing I want it to be as helpful as possible. I'm not sure what's feasibly available to me right now, and there's a phone call or two I haven't yet been brave enough to make, but it's obvious that avoiding it is fast becoming a non-option. (I remain cautious and skeptical about pharmacological solutions, though they're not out of the question; my biggest fear is that the side effects of whatever I take are going to mess with my creative abilities, because, well, see next point. If this is something I can cope with by getting more exercise and better cognitive tools, I'd rather not complicate it with happy pills that run the risk of putting me further into creative limbo than I already am.)
Two, as one of the triggers (or at least the manifestation) of this seems to be anger and frustration about all the writing/music/what-have-you that I'm not doing or not finishing, I obviously need to refocus on some things I've left fallow too long. For one thing, I've pretty much made the decision that I'm holding off on NaNoWriMo until and unless I finish a novel, because it's frankly too tempting to save it all up for November and then let myself burn out on that project and never get back to it. I've done it five times now and proved to myself I can; I think I need new goalposts now. (Also, I'd like to write a bunch of new music, as I'm going through one of those phases where I'd like to play out more but loathe most of my old material, but there are some blocks I need to work through before I get there, one of which is probably to quit beating myself up because I'm not Colin Meloy/B'eirth/Michael Cashmore.)
Third - well, this is the tough one. It's hard for me to even write it, because it's more vulnerability than I'm usually comfortable with even here, and because it feels so... selfish. But it's become clear to me that much of my problem is tied up with good old loneliness and need for attention. This is probably one of the reasons I'm prone to spending a lot of time on the Internets, even if it's a pale and second-rate stand-in for the kind of socialization I wish I was having. I suppose it should be no real surprise to learn that my angst is, at its heart, the angst of a six-year-old: I have all these wonderful toys, but no one to play with. I doubt there's any real solution to this, since going out and trying to meet interesting people in the usual ways leaves me more frustrated and sad afterwards than I started, as I'm hoping for a miracle every time. I probably need to more or less suck it up and make peace with solitude, lest I descend into the kind of puppy-eyed desperation I surely gave off during my single days, and no one will want to hang out with me at all.
Jeebus, I sure didn't intend this post to be quite so self-indulgent. Um, happy Solstice! Next time I'll try and write about something other than all Me. And about damn time, too.
(Image curtsy I Can Has Cheezburger, natch.)
For me, the last few weeks have also been marked by several waves of decidedly un-seasonal depression of the frustrated-with-my-useless-life variety, which may be the most fun of all of them. This is one reason for my latest echoing silence around here and in correspondence, not that anyone would have had any fun reading the sort of thing I was likely to write during that time. It's better now, though it continues to come and go. Nonetheless, I think this year, and this last unpleasant relapse in particular, have sent up a red flag for me that something needs to give. I suppose what I'd really like is some new brain chemistry so that being in my nice house with my sweet doggie and kitty and the wife who still seems to like me despite several compelling reasons not to didn't bum me the hell out, but, failing that, I think a couple of things need to happen.
One, I am obviously not equipped to handle the Condition with the tools I have. This probably means it's time for some kind of therapy or other, though exactly what I'm not sure. I had several years of mostly mediocre talk therapy that probably did some good if only by accident, but I think if I'm going to go back to that sort of thing I want it to be as helpful as possible. I'm not sure what's feasibly available to me right now, and there's a phone call or two I haven't yet been brave enough to make, but it's obvious that avoiding it is fast becoming a non-option. (I remain cautious and skeptical about pharmacological solutions, though they're not out of the question; my biggest fear is that the side effects of whatever I take are going to mess with my creative abilities, because, well, see next point. If this is something I can cope with by getting more exercise and better cognitive tools, I'd rather not complicate it with happy pills that run the risk of putting me further into creative limbo than I already am.)
Two, as one of the triggers (or at least the manifestation) of this seems to be anger and frustration about all the writing/music/what-have-you that I'm not doing or not finishing, I obviously need to refocus on some things I've left fallow too long. For one thing, I've pretty much made the decision that I'm holding off on NaNoWriMo until and unless I finish a novel, because it's frankly too tempting to save it all up for November and then let myself burn out on that project and never get back to it. I've done it five times now and proved to myself I can; I think I need new goalposts now. (Also, I'd like to write a bunch of new music, as I'm going through one of those phases where I'd like to play out more but loathe most of my old material, but there are some blocks I need to work through before I get there, one of which is probably to quit beating myself up because I'm not Colin Meloy/B'eirth/Michael Cashmore.)
Third - well, this is the tough one. It's hard for me to even write it, because it's more vulnerability than I'm usually comfortable with even here, and because it feels so... selfish. But it's become clear to me that much of my problem is tied up with good old loneliness and need for attention. This is probably one of the reasons I'm prone to spending a lot of time on the Internets, even if it's a pale and second-rate stand-in for the kind of socialization I wish I was having. I suppose it should be no real surprise to learn that my angst is, at its heart, the angst of a six-year-old: I have all these wonderful toys, but no one to play with. I doubt there's any real solution to this, since going out and trying to meet interesting people in the usual ways leaves me more frustrated and sad afterwards than I started, as I'm hoping for a miracle every time. I probably need to more or less suck it up and make peace with solitude, lest I descend into the kind of puppy-eyed desperation I surely gave off during my single days, and no one will want to hang out with me at all.
Jeebus, I sure didn't intend this post to be quite so self-indulgent. Um, happy Solstice! Next time I'll try and write about something other than all Me. And about damn time, too.
(Image curtsy I Can Has Cheezburger, natch.)
May 23, 2007
Pick a Window!
In the spirit of honoring the anniversary of the Second Defenestration of Prague, I've finally tossed a bunch of outdated links and got the new comments up and running. Will see about importing the old comments into the new format soon, but meanwhile, we'll actually be able to have conversations around here again. Huzzah.
Have also plunged into the forum-moderation business lately, as I recently helped to found the Charm City Science Fiction & Fantasy board over on Google Groups. It's a sort of offshoot of the writing workshop I joined a couple of months ago, but I don't see much point in restricting membership to either writers or locals, so those of you whose reading habits skew at all like mine (um, is there anyone in the readership here who isn't some variety of skiffy nerd?) should go o'er and join in.
I owe some of you emails. I am aware of this, and have not forgotten you. All will be well.
Have also plunged into the forum-moderation business lately, as I recently helped to found the Charm City Science Fiction & Fantasy board over on Google Groups. It's a sort of offshoot of the writing workshop I joined a couple of months ago, but I don't see much point in restricting membership to either writers or locals, so those of you whose reading habits skew at all like mine (um, is there anyone in the readership here who isn't some variety of skiffy nerd?) should go o'er and join in.
I owe some of you emails. I am aware of this, and have not forgotten you. All will be well.
May 02, 2007
My Fond Excuses
I know I've been neglecting this place of late. I've actually been pondering whether I want to do the necessary cleanup around here (including updating a whole bunch of links in the blogroll, installing HaloScan, and seeing if any of my archived comments can be imported) rather than packing it all up and moving to new digs; on some reflection, this feels too much like wanting to burn down the house because I don't feel like doing the dishes. So I'll be on the maintenance soon, like a responsible blogland citizen, whatever that is.
Compounding my neglect is failing to point out around here that I've been doing most of my online ruminating over on the LJ for the last month or so, where I've been doing my level best to follow Tony's advice and update regularly even if I'm not writing a masterpiece; those of you who know me may have some insight into what a challenge this poses. I know it's not everyone's favorite blogging tool (I'm getting fonder of it because, not to put too fine a point on it, Shiny! Icons!), but at least the comments don't disappear in a strong wind. Feel free to come hang around there until I get this place in order.
Compounding my neglect is failing to point out around here that I've been doing most of my online ruminating over on the LJ for the last month or so, where I've been doing my level best to follow Tony's advice and update regularly even if I'm not writing a masterpiece; those of you who know me may have some insight into what a challenge this poses. I know it's not everyone's favorite blogging tool (I'm getting fonder of it because, not to put too fine a point on it, Shiny! Icons!), but at least the comments don't disappear in a strong wind. Feel free to come hang around there until I get this place in order.
March 19, 2007
Dialogue, Duologue, Diatribe
Memes again! This one's what might be described as "self-tagging." If any of my faithful readership want to carry on with it, here's how it works:
1) Who's your favorite Gaiman character?
Starting right in with the easy ones, I see.
There's a lot to choose from here, but I have to say the one I was always happiest to see come around in the pages of Sandman was Hob Gadling. Hob is, for my money, a really fine example of Gaiman magic - he's frequently arrogant, self-absorbed, opportunistic, and full of his own sense of entitlement, and at the same time he's genuinely charming and witty and even (eventually) compassionate, and very human in spite of all the weird things he sees over the centuries. (I love how, even after hundreds of years and all his changes of fortune, his self-image is still of a scruffy 14th-century freeman commoner.) He's almost always a grounding force in the Sandman storylines, and that's not an obvious trick to pull off with a character who's immortal. Plus he gets a lot of the best lines, especially at the Ren Faire in "Sunday Mourning" ("You should spray 'em with shit as they come through the gates").
And I have to say that his storyline was ballsy in a lot of ways. He gets wiser and sadder, yes; but he doesn't learn any kind of stupid lesson that the value of life is that it ends. He learns that, despite everything, given a chance, the more of life he gets the more he wants more of it. There's something very honest and true about that, and using fantasy to say honest and true things is pretty much what I read Neil Gaiman for.
2) If you could play any musical instrument that you can't already play, what would it be?
I'd love to play lute and/or harp, the two emblematic instruments of the musical heritage I identify most strongly with. Actually, what I'd really like is to have the patience and dexterity necessary to learn those techniques, because I'm really crap at arpeggios and fingerpicking, to the extent that I sometimes wonder if there isn't some kind of actual learning disability at work.
On the more reasonable end of my capabilities, I'd really like to learn the hurdy-gurdy.
3) Favorite epoch for clothing?
Again with the easy questions. Damn.
Well, forced to narrow it down to a reasonable timeframe, considering that I'm fond of pretty much everything from cowls and liripipes on one end of the timeline to cavalier coats on the other, I'd have to say the 16th century. (Raise your hand, everyone who's surprised. Yeah, that's what I thought.) Say what you will about ruffs and pumpkin pants - and as far as over-the-top frippery goes, I'll take those in a heartbeat over a lot of other sartorial excesses - there's just something about a well-fashioned doublet that's pure style and cool. Plus, rapiers. And codpieces.
4) Name an actor or public figure you think is the hawtness.
I'm hardly unique in this, I'm sure, even in the switch-hitting dork set, so it will shock exactly no one to learn that Aly Hannigan and Alan Cumming have occupied honored places on my Freebie List for some small time now. I mean, hello.
5) What makes you happy?
The seasons changing. Moonlight. Starlight. Having a house full of people I love. New books. Traveling. Coming home. City lights. Trees. My puppy and my kitten. Staying up late. Getting up early. Sleeping in. Good food and drink. Smart pop culture, and having conversations about it. Music. Finding other people who are in my tribe. Knowing someone loves something I've created. Going to the movies. Having quiet time to read. Being friends for ten years and counting with the person I'm married to. Making things up.
Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."Me, I've volunteered to be interviewed by the sharp and eloquent Belledame, who it was my pleasure to actually hang out with in person during Spyder's birthday celebration a few weekends back. (Yes, she is also wicked cool in the flesh.) Anyway, here follow the results:
I respond by asking you five personal questions so I can get to know you better. If I already know you well, expect the questions may be a little more intimate!
You WILL update your journal/bloggy thing/whatever with the answers to the questions.
You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the post.
When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.
1) Who's your favorite Gaiman character?
Starting right in with the easy ones, I see.
There's a lot to choose from here, but I have to say the one I was always happiest to see come around in the pages of Sandman was Hob Gadling. Hob is, for my money, a really fine example of Gaiman magic - he's frequently arrogant, self-absorbed, opportunistic, and full of his own sense of entitlement, and at the same time he's genuinely charming and witty and even (eventually) compassionate, and very human in spite of all the weird things he sees over the centuries. (I love how, even after hundreds of years and all his changes of fortune, his self-image is still of a scruffy 14th-century freeman commoner.) He's almost always a grounding force in the Sandman storylines, and that's not an obvious trick to pull off with a character who's immortal. Plus he gets a lot of the best lines, especially at the Ren Faire in "Sunday Mourning" ("You should spray 'em with shit as they come through the gates").
And I have to say that his storyline was ballsy in a lot of ways. He gets wiser and sadder, yes; but he doesn't learn any kind of stupid lesson that the value of life is that it ends. He learns that, despite everything, given a chance, the more of life he gets the more he wants more of it. There's something very honest and true about that, and using fantasy to say honest and true things is pretty much what I read Neil Gaiman for.
2) If you could play any musical instrument that you can't already play, what would it be?
I'd love to play lute and/or harp, the two emblematic instruments of the musical heritage I identify most strongly with. Actually, what I'd really like is to have the patience and dexterity necessary to learn those techniques, because I'm really crap at arpeggios and fingerpicking, to the extent that I sometimes wonder if there isn't some kind of actual learning disability at work.
On the more reasonable end of my capabilities, I'd really like to learn the hurdy-gurdy.
3) Favorite epoch for clothing?
Again with the easy questions. Damn.
Well, forced to narrow it down to a reasonable timeframe, considering that I'm fond of pretty much everything from cowls and liripipes on one end of the timeline to cavalier coats on the other, I'd have to say the 16th century. (Raise your hand, everyone who's surprised. Yeah, that's what I thought.) Say what you will about ruffs and pumpkin pants - and as far as over-the-top frippery goes, I'll take those in a heartbeat over a lot of other sartorial excesses - there's just something about a well-fashioned doublet that's pure style and cool. Plus, rapiers. And codpieces.
4) Name an actor or public figure you think is the hawtness.
I'm hardly unique in this, I'm sure, even in the switch-hitting dork set, so it will shock exactly no one to learn that Aly Hannigan and Alan Cumming have occupied honored places on my Freebie List for some small time now. I mean, hello.
5) What makes you happy?
The seasons changing. Moonlight. Starlight. Having a house full of people I love. New books. Traveling. Coming home. City lights. Trees. My puppy and my kitten. Staying up late. Getting up early. Sleeping in. Good food and drink. Smart pop culture, and having conversations about it. Music. Finding other people who are in my tribe. Knowing someone loves something I've created. Going to the movies. Having quiet time to read. Being friends for ten years and counting with the person I'm married to. Making things up.
March 07, 2007
Articulate Announcements
No, I don't know where the hell the comments went. It may be that BackBlog truly did dissolve into air, into thin air.
I've been meaning to switch to HaloScan anyway; I managed to save an archive of the comments here up to the end of last year, so some of that may yet be restored. Should've updated recently! Oh, well.
In the meantime, I suppose you can always come around and harass me on the LJ.
I've been meaning to switch to HaloScan anyway; I managed to save an archive of the comments here up to the end of last year, so some of that may yet be restored. Should've updated recently! Oh, well.
In the meantime, I suppose you can always come around and harass me on the LJ.
March 02, 2007
Blameless and Amazon
Elizabeth Bear (whose books you should read, and on whose livejournal I've found myself of late engaging in the Wednesday night Criminal Minds fansquee, because I am the King of the Chubby Nerds) has written a self-described feminist screed on the Subterranean Press website that pretty much sums up exactly how I feel about this gender-and-society stuff:
(And it occurs to me that this is more or less exactly the sort of thing I mean when I say, "I'm a feminist. Not the nuts kind.")
Dear Patriarchy:It is, as the kids these days say, made out of awesome. RTWT, right now.
I don’t care what you think.
I’m not here to convert you. I’m not here to enlighten you. I’m not here to try to earn your respect. I don’t need it.
I am not scared of you.
(And it occurs to me that this is more or less exactly the sort of thing I mean when I say, "I'm a feminist. Not the nuts kind.")
February 23, 2007
Golden Apple
No one who has known me for long will be surprised to know that Spyder is one of my very favoritest people ever. I half-seriously call her the sister I didn't know I had, mostly because there isn't a word for a person who is neither a relative nor a lover, but for whom "friend" is woefully insufficient.
Anyway, she turns 23* today. I'm heading up Noo Yawkwards in a few hours to celebrate in person; the rest of you should head over to her place and give her a big virtual hug and Many Happy Returns for the sake of her imminent Illumination.
Yay!
*If you have to ask why this is significant, I'm afraid I'm not cleared to tell you. Fnord.
Anyway, she turns 23* today. I'm heading up Noo Yawkwards in a few hours to celebrate in person; the rest of you should head over to her place and give her a big virtual hug and Many Happy Returns for the sake of her imminent Illumination.
Yay!
*If you have to ask why this is significant, I'm afraid I'm not cleared to tell you. Fnord.
February 22, 2007
Shuffling Towards Golgotha
So it's been the better part of a month since I turned 33; I am now the same age as Christ was when he was tortured to death, and also Frodo when he inherited the One Ring. This is not really what you'd call a couple of good precedents.
But many thanks, anyway, to all of you who sent your good wishes last month. It was nice to see some folks around these parts who haven't joined in for a while. Consider this encouragement to keep it up.
Still beating my head aginst the winter blahs a bit, but this year has been pretty mild for all that, and it's starting to let up. I realize it's not terribly Goffic of me to be glad to see Spring, but there you have it. Perky, yanno.
And yes, New!Blogger waylaid me at login a couple of weeks ago and proceeded to eat my archive links. Stupid technology. We'll see how it plays out. Maybe it actually is as shiny as it says it is.
Going to go eat now.
But many thanks, anyway, to all of you who sent your good wishes last month. It was nice to see some folks around these parts who haven't joined in for a while. Consider this encouragement to keep it up.
Still beating my head aginst the winter blahs a bit, but this year has been pretty mild for all that, and it's starting to let up. I realize it's not terribly Goffic of me to be glad to see Spring, but there you have it. Perky, yanno.
And yes, New!Blogger waylaid me at login a couple of weeks ago and proceeded to eat my archive links. Stupid technology. We'll see how it plays out. Maybe it actually is as shiny as it says it is.
Going to go eat now.
January 22, 2007
Wintermute
Okay, okay, uncle.
Seriously, I'm fine, just going through my regularly scheduled post-holiday winter withdrawal. Normal blogging (by which, of course, I mean "bursts of loquaciousness punctuated by mysterious silences") will resume shortly.
I turn 33 in three days, causing me to wonder if maybe this will be the year I finally feel like an adult and not like a clever teenager getting away with being taken seriously. I have my doubts, though.
Updates to follow.
Seriously, I'm fine, just going through my regularly scheduled post-holiday winter withdrawal. Normal blogging (by which, of course, I mean "bursts of loquaciousness punctuated by mysterious silences") will resume shortly.
I turn 33 in three days, causing me to wonder if maybe this will be the year I finally feel like an adult and not like a clever teenager getting away with being taken seriously. I have my doubts, though.
Updates to follow.
December 08, 2006
"Come on, Ripper. You remember that time we partied with Soft Machine."
Another November victory, in case you didn't see: Patrick successfully completed his NaSoAlMo project, and it's a winner. Julia is everything you look for in a concept album (or at least, as the hints have it, the first movement of one) - deft storytelling, an interesting structure of themes and movements, and lots of really fine songcraft that holds up both separately and as a coherent whole. There are hints of Bowie and Floyd here, and of more avant influences, but in the end the voice is all his. And "Cabal" and "Dr. Bennett's Machine" are a couple of utterly terrifying pieces of industrial-edged apocalyptica that are alone worth showing up for.
I listen to this and think, "Damn. I get to be in a band with this guy." I can't wait to hear what he does next.
(And when you're done there, go grab NanoCycle too, which is lovely and strange and eerie in the signature Big Tony soundscape style, adding just enough structure to keep things, well, progressing. And I get to be in a band with him too. I have a truly fine life.)
I listen to this and think, "Damn. I get to be in a band with this guy." I can't wait to hear what he does next.
(And when you're done there, go grab NanoCycle too, which is lovely and strange and eerie in the signature Big Tony soundscape style, adding just enough structure to keep things, well, progressing. And I get to be in a band with him too. I have a truly fine life.)
December 03, 2006
Silhouettes Like Shivering Ancient Feelings
O frabjous day! Kip Manley's "A 'Restless' Exegesis" - one of my favorite pieces of Buffy crit, on the subject of one of my favorite episodes - is back online.
Of course, in the post-Season 7 world, some of it is inevitably dated (at least for those who believe there were more than five seasons of Buffy; you resurrection-deniers, I suppose, are on your own), but it's still an incredibly smart, incisive, and erudite essay that demonstrates how very intelligent both BtVS and its fans got at their best, and I've missed it while LSSP was undergoing its own long slow crawl back from the grave. Manley's style can be infuriatingly dense and playful at times, especially if you're not used to it, but it's more than worth the untangling. Go check it out.
Of course, in the post-Season 7 world, some of it is inevitably dated (at least for those who believe there were more than five seasons of Buffy; you resurrection-deniers, I suppose, are on your own), but it's still an incredibly smart, incisive, and erudite essay that demonstrates how very intelligent both BtVS and its fans got at their best, and I've missed it while LSSP was undergoing its own long slow crawl back from the grave. Manley's style can be infuriatingly dense and playful at times, especially if you're not used to it, but it's more than worth the untangling. Go check it out.
December 02, 2006
A Vast Writhing Heap
If anyone's had any doubts - yes, I did make goal once again this year. Huzzah! (It was touch-and-go this week; I was sick since last Saturday night, and still not quite feeling at full even now, but I managed anyway, because I am a Serious Artist and will Suffer Magnificently when required. So it goes. Anyway.)
Those of you who've signed on as readers, at least those with a supernatural talent for weighing prose quantity at a glance, may have noted that the last version doesn't quite measure up all 50k; this is because I got desperate at the end and started writing out of sequence, and while I'm willing to get naked enough to share my first-draft staggerings around, I don't feel quite up to posting stuff without any connective tissue. If and when I figure out what happens in between the bits I've got, I'll have it up in more complete form. (Or not, which I add simply as a way of avoiding the "More to come!" thing I've consistently failed to follow up on in previous years, and I'm done jinxing myself with that.)
Anyway, that's five for five, which is something of an accomplishment, I think. Now I'm off to give NanoCycle a listen, which promises to be something like the Coil version of Robert Wyatt's Shleep; needless to say, I'm all down with that.
Happy December, everyone!
Those of you who've signed on as readers, at least those with a supernatural talent for weighing prose quantity at a glance, may have noted that the last version doesn't quite measure up all 50k; this is because I got desperate at the end and started writing out of sequence, and while I'm willing to get naked enough to share my first-draft staggerings around, I don't feel quite up to posting stuff without any connective tissue. If and when I figure out what happens in between the bits I've got, I'll have it up in more complete form. (Or not, which I add simply as a way of avoiding the "More to come!" thing I've consistently failed to follow up on in previous years, and I'm done jinxing myself with that.)
Anyway, that's five for five, which is something of an accomplishment, I think. Now I'm off to give NanoCycle a listen, which promises to be something like the Coil version of Robert Wyatt's Shleep; needless to say, I'm all down with that.
Happy December, everyone!
November 21, 2006
The Inside is the Outside
Brief updates, since I haven't in a while.
So I left off last night at 31,700 and a bit, which certainly puts me well on the downslope (wordcount-wise, but not for plot, which is really just now picking up). The good news is that the book itself feels less broken in some ways than maybe all of my previous efforts, which I guess is the kind of progress I ought to be making.
This also steels my determination to go back to The Vasty Deep as my next big project. It's become increasingly clear that the next incarnation of that book is going to be a different and sleeker beast than the first one was; one of the good effects of the first person/present tense style I'm using in Black Feathers Fallen is that it corrects in some measure for my tendency to wax poetical in the narration. With greater immediacy comes less sense that I'm telling a story, I think, and I'm less tempted to fall back on tweeness to get the point across. Maybe because there's someting about the delivery that feels less, I dunno, artificial in the first place. Hmm. We'll see how it goes as it goes on.
Shifting the gaze upwards from the navel: I should point out, for those of you who haven't already seen, that Patrick's been making much better documentation of his progress (for NaSoAlMo) this month than I have, on his new blog; and that Andy's been writing again, after too long away, and seems to have catapulted himself right into unlikely celebrity.
Tomorrow night we're off to WV for our first Thanksgiving at home in five years, which may even end up being worth the nine or ten hours in the car it's going to take to get there. Me, I'll be sucked up into The Novel for most of the long weekend, but I've promised to surface from time to time for food and socialization. Still, I'm hoping for Many Words to be coming my way in the next few days, and maybe that way I'll have a chance to update again before Slachtmaand is over. Because if there's one thing the world needs more of, it's pretentious amateur writers dissecting their processes right where everyone can see.
So I left off last night at 31,700 and a bit, which certainly puts me well on the downslope (wordcount-wise, but not for plot, which is really just now picking up). The good news is that the book itself feels less broken in some ways than maybe all of my previous efforts, which I guess is the kind of progress I ought to be making.
This also steels my determination to go back to The Vasty Deep as my next big project. It's become increasingly clear that the next incarnation of that book is going to be a different and sleeker beast than the first one was; one of the good effects of the first person/present tense style I'm using in Black Feathers Fallen is that it corrects in some measure for my tendency to wax poetical in the narration. With greater immediacy comes less sense that I'm telling a story, I think, and I'm less tempted to fall back on tweeness to get the point across. Maybe because there's someting about the delivery that feels less, I dunno, artificial in the first place. Hmm. We'll see how it goes as it goes on.
Shifting the gaze upwards from the navel: I should point out, for those of you who haven't already seen, that Patrick's been making much better documentation of his progress (for NaSoAlMo) this month than I have, on his new blog; and that Andy's been writing again, after too long away, and seems to have catapulted himself right into unlikely celebrity.
Tomorrow night we're off to WV for our first Thanksgiving at home in five years, which may even end up being worth the nine or ten hours in the car it's going to take to get there. Me, I'll be sucked up into The Novel for most of the long weekend, but I've promised to surface from time to time for food and socialization. Still, I'm hoping for Many Words to be coming my way in the next few days, and maybe that way I'll have a chance to update again before Slachtmaand is over. Because if there's one thing the world needs more of, it's pretentious amateur writers dissecting their processes right where everyone can see.
November 07, 2006
NaNoSeconds, Part IV
Whee! I am woefully behind! This will, I hope, be corrected for as of the the upcoming three-day weekend; in the meantime, another set of helpful hints for myself and all the rest of you.
1. No outline survives contact with the characters.
2. You don't have to have every room mapped out if you keep a couple of generic encounters handy.
3. However, if something is on the map, you had better be prepared for when someone inevitably decides they need to go there.
4. Don't make the supporting cast more interesting than the heroes; they'll keep drawing your attention at the protagonists' expense. This is fair to no one.
5. The search for fortune alone is probably the least interesting thing for the heroes to be motivated by.
6. If you don't give them something to fight, solve, or negotiate with at all times, the characters will get bored and wander off on their own.
7. If you come to a place where nothing much is happening, you should sum it up briefly and move along to the next good part.
8. Someone will want more firepower unless you come up with a very good reason not to give it to them.
9. At least some of the characters will discover that it's to their advantage to act like thugs at least some of the time. This is more interesting if you allow there to be consequences for it.
10. Archetypes are best used as a starting point for creating individuals.
11. Someone will inevitably want to try something not covered by the rules. It's more fun if you don't always say "no."
12. When things threaten to get out of control, remember that you are in charge.
13. The people you are trying to entertain have read the rulebooks, and probably the adventure scenario too. You don't have to throw something unexpected at them, but if you don't, don't be upset if no one seems surprised.
Everything I Need to Know About Plot I Learned from Running RPGs
1. No outline survives contact with the characters.
2. You don't have to have every room mapped out if you keep a couple of generic encounters handy.
3. However, if something is on the map, you had better be prepared for when someone inevitably decides they need to go there.
4. Don't make the supporting cast more interesting than the heroes; they'll keep drawing your attention at the protagonists' expense. This is fair to no one.
5. The search for fortune alone is probably the least interesting thing for the heroes to be motivated by.
6. If you don't give them something to fight, solve, or negotiate with at all times, the characters will get bored and wander off on their own.
7. If you come to a place where nothing much is happening, you should sum it up briefly and move along to the next good part.
8. Someone will want more firepower unless you come up with a very good reason not to give it to them.
9. At least some of the characters will discover that it's to their advantage to act like thugs at least some of the time. This is more interesting if you allow there to be consequences for it.
10. Archetypes are best used as a starting point for creating individuals.
11. Someone will inevitably want to try something not covered by the rules. It's more fun if you don't always say "no."
12. When things threaten to get out of control, remember that you are in charge.
13. The people you are trying to entertain have read the rulebooks, and probably the adventure scenario too. You don't have to throw something unexpected at them, but if you don't, don't be upset if no one seems surprised.
November 02, 2006
Doc Tidings
Okay. After some consideration, I think I've decided that the best way to share my work-in-progress this year is through Google Documents' handy Viewers feature, which lets me invite people to look at the text without me having to do much of anything except keep the damn thing updated (which I'll be doing anyway, since Google Docs is also functioning as one of my backups).
Some of you were in the first round of my testing this feature, which went sort of okay, and in which I learned that the sharing process is slightly... quirkier than it seems at first glance.
So, here's how this will work. If you want in on watching me write this year's novel in all its stumbling first-draft glory, send me an email at maestro23@gmail.com. You'll need a Google login, which you already have if you've got a gmail account of your own, but which you can associate with another email if you don't. This means you should let me know what address you need me to send the invite to, since that will be the one you log in to Google Docs with. (And if you don't have a gmail account and want one, I have a whole pile o' invites to give out.)
Er, I hope that's not terribly confusing. Google Docs is in beta right now, so it's still got a few creases, but it's actually a pretty neat way of saving and passing around text.
Oh, and: 2100 words at the end of Day One! Yeah, baby, yeah!
Some of you were in the first round of my testing this feature, which went sort of okay, and in which I learned that the sharing process is slightly... quirkier than it seems at first glance.
So, here's how this will work. If you want in on watching me write this year's novel in all its stumbling first-draft glory, send me an email at maestro23@gmail.com. You'll need a Google login, which you already have if you've got a gmail account of your own, but which you can associate with another email if you don't. This means you should let me know what address you need me to send the invite to, since that will be the one you log in to Google Docs with. (And if you don't have a gmail account and want one, I have a whole pile o' invites to give out.)
Er, I hope that's not terribly confusing. Google Docs is in beta right now, so it's still got a few creases, but it's actually a pretty neat way of saving and passing around text.
Oh, and: 2100 words at the end of Day One! Yeah, baby, yeah!
October 31, 2006
NaNoSeconds, Part III
And now, at the eleventh hour, I reveal my Big Secrets. Attend:
It occurs to me that, this being my fifth (!!) year participating in NaNoWriMo, and having four-for-four shiny Winner bars to my credit for it, I might count as something like a Veteran; and it may be useful to share such wisdom as I have for how you might do the same.
And it should be cleared up now that I didn't have any particular breaks in being able to accomplish this. I work full-time and don't take vacation in November, and one year I did this around a three-and-a-half-hour roundtrip commute. I've written around massive depressive breakdowns, packing to move, weekends out of town, and the more mundane sort of complications of just maintaining life on top of everything else. This is all to say: Stuff will come up, and you can still manage this. And I am a spectacularly lazy person, and if I can pull this off four times in a row, there's hope for you.
Also, stuff I did not do includes many of the tricks mentioned by other forumites: no search-and-replace three-word names, no avoiding contractions, no extended dream sequences or excessive porn (note I did not say "none") - so help me and against all advice, I always come to this with a desire to write a good book, or at least one that doesn't make me cringe too badly on the reread. This is not meant to discourage any of you who want to use that sort of thing to pull you through, nor to speak ill of those who do, only to make the point again that they aren't necessary to succeeding in this.
The biggest thing - the simplest and hardest idea behind getting from Word 1 to Word 50,001 - is that you need to put one word after another until it's done. The truth is that it really comes down to that. Outlining is not writing; worldbuilding is not writing; making lists of your dramatis personae is not writing. Those can all be useful things, and I don't want to downplay them as helpful devices. But only writing is writing; anything that doesn't lead you right into the business of producing prose in a story might be getting in your way. You need to give yourself, or steal, as many hours of Butt-In-Chair time as it takes to do the actual writing of story. These don't need to be all in a row every day, depending on your schedule and particular needs (though it does help a great deal if you can break yourself of as many fetishistic crutches as you can - the Writing Hats and Special Tea Mugs and all the other stuff you're convinced you just can't be creative without - so you can better allow yourself to work anywhere), but you do need a number of them, and you need to put them to use without distracting youself too badly. Get your family on board if you can (this is one area in which I'm very lucky) so you can get sufficient time to isolate yourself and work.
And here's some slightly bad news: It's very true that some days the prose will flow out of your fingertips in golden splendor, and some days will feel like bricklaying with a hangover. You will look back at your manuscript three months later and not be able to tell which was which. There's no workaround for this, except to do your best to get your inner critic to shut up so you can work, and repeat for yourself the mantra "Keep going and fix it in the rewrite." (By the way, about half the stuff you hate the first time around will look good later, just as about half the stuff that feels brilliant will feel sort of lame in the long run. So it goes.)
All that being said, here are a few things that have made the above just a bit easier and smoother. I will not claim that they have anything like universal application, but I offer them up here nonetheless, in the hopes that some other poor bastard will find a gem among the dross and be inspired to keep on going through to the 50 large.
1. I write about people who interest me. This seems like a "well, hello" data point, except that I understand there are folks who find theselves saddled with stupid, insipid, boring people in their novels. Cut that out. Find some people who are intersting enough to obsess over; you'll be spending many, many waking hours in their company, so you might as well have them be people you want to get to know better. If that means you get a Mary Sue or two, so be it; better than the alternative. Keep going, and fix it in the rewrite.
2. I like doing multi-threaded narratives. This gives me a chance to alternate storylines and POV and such every other scene, and also gives me more Cool Shit to throw in. Even if I'm doing first-person, there are ways of breaking it up so that there's more than one linear plotline to be stuck with: backstory, digressions, vision quests, nonlinear plot tricks. Build stuff into your narrative that lets you do something different from one scene to the next, and the project's more likely to hold your interest.
3. That Cool Shit I mentioned? I don't hold back on it. My stories are always about the stuff that obsesses me. I like occult imagery, mysterious immortals, dimension-hopping, cities at night, tentacled monsters, smart, tough women, and Magicians in Big Coats. My intended audience is Other People Who Think That Stuff Is Cool. I couldn't function if I allowed myself to be self-conscious about all that; as with characters, it's going to be what I'm immersed in for as long as I'm working on the novel, so I'd better be keeping my own interest in it while I'm there.
4. I do a very broad outline beforehand - enough to have certain things I'm working towards just to keep things moving, but not enough to feel restrained if new ideas present themselves. I also keep a list of bits - ideas or scenes - I'd like to include, so I have some things to fall back on if I really get stuck. A lot of these are diversions; this is in some ways easier because I'm a genre writer, and I can usually find a place where it's useful to stop and explain something about my world or cosmology that's good for an easy five hundred words. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, but it's better to put it in when you're thinking about it - you can change, move, or delete it later as needed, and in the meantime you've distracted yourself enough that you can probably pick your storyline back up again. (Keep going, and fix it in the rewrite.)
5. I make sure there are lots of reversals going on to keep the plot itself moving. Again, this is probably easier because I'm doing pulpy adventure fantasy, where fights, captures, escapes, attacks by gruesome Things, and other derring-do are de rigeur, but I'm sure that sort of thing can be transposed or translated to whatever you're doing. If the people I'm writing about are bored, I'm not doing my job. A sticky situation to get out of is good for an awful lot of words.
6. Keep going, and fix it in the rewrite.
And, uh, that's about it. The rest is detail. I'm happy to take questions if there's anyone who wants to ask 'em.
How I Hit 50k Four Years Running and You Probably Can, Too
It occurs to me that, this being my fifth (!!) year participating in NaNoWriMo, and having four-for-four shiny Winner bars to my credit for it, I might count as something like a Veteran; and it may be useful to share such wisdom as I have for how you might do the same.
And it should be cleared up now that I didn't have any particular breaks in being able to accomplish this. I work full-time and don't take vacation in November, and one year I did this around a three-and-a-half-hour roundtrip commute. I've written around massive depressive breakdowns, packing to move, weekends out of town, and the more mundane sort of complications of just maintaining life on top of everything else. This is all to say: Stuff will come up, and you can still manage this. And I am a spectacularly lazy person, and if I can pull this off four times in a row, there's hope for you.
Also, stuff I did not do includes many of the tricks mentioned by other forumites: no search-and-replace three-word names, no avoiding contractions, no extended dream sequences or excessive porn (note I did not say "none") - so help me and against all advice, I always come to this with a desire to write a good book, or at least one that doesn't make me cringe too badly on the reread. This is not meant to discourage any of you who want to use that sort of thing to pull you through, nor to speak ill of those who do, only to make the point again that they aren't necessary to succeeding in this.
The biggest thing - the simplest and hardest idea behind getting from Word 1 to Word 50,001 - is that you need to put one word after another until it's done. The truth is that it really comes down to that. Outlining is not writing; worldbuilding is not writing; making lists of your dramatis personae is not writing. Those can all be useful things, and I don't want to downplay them as helpful devices. But only writing is writing; anything that doesn't lead you right into the business of producing prose in a story might be getting in your way. You need to give yourself, or steal, as many hours of Butt-In-Chair time as it takes to do the actual writing of story. These don't need to be all in a row every day, depending on your schedule and particular needs (though it does help a great deal if you can break yourself of as many fetishistic crutches as you can - the Writing Hats and Special Tea Mugs and all the other stuff you're convinced you just can't be creative without - so you can better allow yourself to work anywhere), but you do need a number of them, and you need to put them to use without distracting youself too badly. Get your family on board if you can (this is one area in which I'm very lucky) so you can get sufficient time to isolate yourself and work.
And here's some slightly bad news: It's very true that some days the prose will flow out of your fingertips in golden splendor, and some days will feel like bricklaying with a hangover. You will look back at your manuscript three months later and not be able to tell which was which. There's no workaround for this, except to do your best to get your inner critic to shut up so you can work, and repeat for yourself the mantra "Keep going and fix it in the rewrite." (By the way, about half the stuff you hate the first time around will look good later, just as about half the stuff that feels brilliant will feel sort of lame in the long run. So it goes.)
All that being said, here are a few things that have made the above just a bit easier and smoother. I will not claim that they have anything like universal application, but I offer them up here nonetheless, in the hopes that some other poor bastard will find a gem among the dross and be inspired to keep on going through to the 50 large.
1. I write about people who interest me. This seems like a "well, hello" data point, except that I understand there are folks who find theselves saddled with stupid, insipid, boring people in their novels. Cut that out. Find some people who are intersting enough to obsess over; you'll be spending many, many waking hours in their company, so you might as well have them be people you want to get to know better. If that means you get a Mary Sue or two, so be it; better than the alternative. Keep going, and fix it in the rewrite.
2. I like doing multi-threaded narratives. This gives me a chance to alternate storylines and POV and such every other scene, and also gives me more Cool Shit to throw in. Even if I'm doing first-person, there are ways of breaking it up so that there's more than one linear plotline to be stuck with: backstory, digressions, vision quests, nonlinear plot tricks. Build stuff into your narrative that lets you do something different from one scene to the next, and the project's more likely to hold your interest.
3. That Cool Shit I mentioned? I don't hold back on it. My stories are always about the stuff that obsesses me. I like occult imagery, mysterious immortals, dimension-hopping, cities at night, tentacled monsters, smart, tough women, and Magicians in Big Coats. My intended audience is Other People Who Think That Stuff Is Cool. I couldn't function if I allowed myself to be self-conscious about all that; as with characters, it's going to be what I'm immersed in for as long as I'm working on the novel, so I'd better be keeping my own interest in it while I'm there.
4. I do a very broad outline beforehand - enough to have certain things I'm working towards just to keep things moving, but not enough to feel restrained if new ideas present themselves. I also keep a list of bits - ideas or scenes - I'd like to include, so I have some things to fall back on if I really get stuck. A lot of these are diversions; this is in some ways easier because I'm a genre writer, and I can usually find a place where it's useful to stop and explain something about my world or cosmology that's good for an easy five hundred words. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, but it's better to put it in when you're thinking about it - you can change, move, or delete it later as needed, and in the meantime you've distracted yourself enough that you can probably pick your storyline back up again. (Keep going, and fix it in the rewrite.)
5. I make sure there are lots of reversals going on to keep the plot itself moving. Again, this is probably easier because I'm doing pulpy adventure fantasy, where fights, captures, escapes, attacks by gruesome Things, and other derring-do are de rigeur, but I'm sure that sort of thing can be transposed or translated to whatever you're doing. If the people I'm writing about are bored, I'm not doing my job. A sticky situation to get out of is good for an awful lot of words.
6. Keep going, and fix it in the rewrite.
And, uh, that's about it. The rest is detail. I'm happy to take questions if there's anyone who wants to ask 'em.
October 27, 2006
Bear Witness
John M. Ford's memorial service was today. I post this shortly before his wake is scheduled to begin.
(That first link, by the way, has a couple of excellent places to make memorial donations, if you're of such a mind.)
I cannot be with his friends and admirers today except in spirit, but I can make this offering; as I said in the thread on ML, everybody got a little Mike Ford in 'em now.
(That first link, by the way, has a couple of excellent places to make memorial donations, if you're of such a mind.)
I cannot be with his friends and admirers today except in spirit, but I can make this offering; as I said in the thread on ML, everybody got a little Mike Ford in 'em now.
Justice? We're in the wrong cosmos for that.
Only in Story is all that should be, fair.
Here, deus exes aren't drawn from a hat
Nor complications vanish into air.
Meanwhile, we do our best with what we've got,
Imagining what could be, only If;
Light-conjuring, as though all life were not
One foot still on the shore, one on the skiff.
Might some of this playacting, in the end,
Keep just a little Entropy at bay?
Far worse games have been played of Let's Pretend;
Our hope's high, though the House wins anyway.
Regret's beside the point; things fall apart.
Do what you must. Be honest. Increase Art.
October 26, 2006
Ten Forgives All Kinds of Sins, at Ten Begin Again-O
Ten years ago tonight - and probably about this time too! - I was in a little bar in Parkersburg, WV where I'd gone to see a really excellent band called Jimmy Clinton and His Mean Red Spiders, when I got a drink sent to me (for the first time in my life, no less) by attractive young woman in glasses and a black pleather skirt. Turns out she'd seen me play a couple of times in the same place, where in those days I was hosting an open mic on Tuesday nights and performing my first round of off-color folksongs.* We talked a bit, and she asked me, "If I give you my number, will you call?" And because I am a sucker for women in glasses, I said Yes, and she wrote it on a cocktail napkin, and I did.
She's asleep upstairs now, in the house we own together. We have a dog and a cat and a collection of DVDs and neither of us is working retail any more. If you'd have told me then that this would be the outcome of that first night, I might not have believed you.
It's been a good ten years. Strange and sometimes trying, as life often is, but good. I marvel still that she's stuck around this long; I am, when all's weighed, an extraordinarily fortunate guy.
Here's to many more decades to come.
*See, kids? Being a musician really will get you laid.
She's asleep upstairs now, in the house we own together. We have a dog and a cat and a collection of DVDs and neither of us is working retail any more. If you'd have told me then that this would be the outcome of that first night, I might not have believed you.
It's been a good ten years. Strange and sometimes trying, as life often is, but good. I marvel still that she's stuck around this long; I am, when all's weighed, an extraordinarily fortunate guy.
Here's to many more decades to come.
*See, kids? Being a musician really will get you laid.
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