Several of you… Or I should say, the three or four of you who actually read these entries regularly (and thank you for being such loyal followers!)... Anyway, some of you have asked for more posts about writing (and why so many posts about music?!).
Well, I’ll answer the latter first: It’s easier for me to talk about music. The process of writing a book is difficult to describe, involves a lot of starts and stops, revisions and re-writes, not to mention the inevitable moments of self-doubt! However, I’m always buying new records (or CDs), shopping for new records or listening to the music found on said records. It is a passion, yet I see the two – writing and listening to music – as very much connected things.
Mostly, I listen to music when I’m at work (the day job, ugh!), or when I’m writing, and a lot of my ideas for writing occur during those moments when I’m spacing out to a really good tune!
Example: Recently I’ve been working on a longer piece that was inspired by a really nice weekend afternoon spent listening to a lot of records from the late seventies and early eighties (1977 – 1983). I was five years old when the earliest of these records was released, eleven for the latest; so no, I didn’t get to experience them first hand. But that’s exactly when the light bulb went off in my head… what about a kid inheriting his brother’s (or maybe father’s) record collection and going through them for the first time? Well that would mean that maybe something bad happened to the brother or dad… Well, what was it? How did it change the kid? How did he deal with it? I opened up my laptop, and a couple of hours later, found myself two chapters into a rough draft.
As for what I’m writing on these days… The CerulAeon Virus is still the main thing that I’m working on, and at my current rate, I hope to have it finished just before Thanksgiving. I know, I know, George R.R. Martin made a lot of promises about when his latest book would be finished and yes, it took a little longer than anticipated (sarcasm intended). A few disclaimers: (1.) I’m nowhere near as good as Martin; so it may – in fact probably will – take me a lot longer! (2.) That being said, CerulAeon is much shorter than any of his books, and (3.) November is just the completion date for the current draft. Who knows when (or even if) it will ever be accepted by a publisher.
No worries however… My original idea was to release it a chapter at a time on my regular webpage (www.cerulaeon.com), and see if we couldn’t use it to expand the circle a bit. I received such encouraging feedback from the few people I’ve shared it with that I decided against that, at least for now.
Other things… I’m also working on a “ghost story” for Halloween, editing my detective novel (again) and a few other ideas. Hope that helps, and thanks again for reading!
