Monday night randomocity

Waiting to get my additional copies of the anthology--gonna autograph some and give them to some people. Should be here by now.

And I've been thinking about my music. The next thing. I'm thinking I'm going to make an adjustment to my style. I've been listening to some stuff that's a little outside my usual and getting some ideas. The next batch of tunes is going to be really heavy--as heavy as I can make them. I'm in the mood to thunder.

I need to start rewriting Mythophobia--my friend has given me some notes and has helped me improve it dramatically. It'll require a tear down and rebuild but that's a Good Thing if it helps. It wasn't bad before (or so I believe) but it'll be really good after I finish this.

My friend, by the way, is set to produce/write/direct her own web series, "Witchy Ways." You can check out the Facebook page here. Be sure to click "Like" while you're there. It's going to be amazing.

Nothing in particular going on with me tonight--done with the day and I'm just chilling before House. How about you guys? Doing anything special on this Monday night?

The moment I''ve waited a lifetime for has come . . .

To my eternal delight I had a package waiting for me at the UPS store the other day. It was a book--the one you see to your right. I tore into the package and turned to page 183--what did I see there, you ask? I saw this:

Yes, that is my story. My byline. Me. I can remember writing the words that appear on those pages. I wrote them on this very computer.

Yes, it's a small press. It ain't like it's Playboy or Cosmopolitan, but hell, I'll take it. I really can't describe it. I mean, I've read that story until really I'm sick of it, and I've seen the proofs that look exactly like the book but in electronic form, but it's not the same thing as actually getting my hands on the damned thing.

I do have more ideas for stories and I may actually write them, since, now that I can say I'm published, a lot more doors are open to me that were closed before. We'll see. Maybe this will lead to something. Maybe not. Either way, I"m happy.

Now, if I could just get somebody to listen to my music . . . that's next on the list. You could do that--just click the links above or underneath the image of the book. After clicking the image of the book and ordering it, that is.

I can feel it . . .

It's moving around inside me. It's been there for a while now. I keep waiting for it to mature and emerge but it's taking it's sweet time.

It's driving me crazy.

It's an idea for a story. I know when it's ready that it'll be a really good one, intense, powerful, with a bittersweet ending.

Unfortunately that's about all I know about it so far. I've got a setting and the very beginnings of a plot. And a basic theme--it'll be about how love is not possible without pain, and the more one loves someone the more pain one will feel.

It'll also be a study in contrasts. I love having really beautiful stories set in places of almost unimaginable horror. Finding beauty in places of horrendous ugliness. Swans in sewers. Roses in hell. It makes for some moving, powerful stories.

So, it's really frustrating that my subconcious apparently still isn't quite ready to vomit this thing up. I've learned from experience that attempting to start something before it's ready is a big mistake, and could possibly ruin it for me down the road.

Which means I wait. And wait. And wait . . . that blank first page will remain blank until it's really and truly ready to be filled.

Dammit!

In case you didn't know

I do have a Myspace page for my music. Go to www.myspace.com/jfranklinevans and you can hear 25 of my tunes. Do a dude a favor and give them a listen. You'll find the new one, "Walks Like A Man," there--I'm especially pleased with that one--along with "Inside," inspiration for a short story yours truly will be working on. I'm even inspiring myself! Anyway, click over, give them a listen. I'll be right here if you have any questions or comments.

A return to prose

Okay, I've got this idea for a story.

I don't ordinarily write prose. Not anymore, anyways. I spend my time writing lyrics and screenplays and proposals for screenplays--hopefully one day something will get produced, But prose? Not so much. Just doesn't appeal to me after beating my head against the "gotta be published to get published" wall.

Of course now I am published so a few more doors are now open to me that weren't before. Which now means that it may not actually be a waste of time to sit down and write a story.

So, as soon as I work out a few more details I'm gonna start on this tale that's inspired by my song, "Inside." It should run to about twenty thousand words or so, I guesstimate.

It'll be a horror story, but in the end it'll be about love, and how it may be the ultimate act of love for someone to allow them to destroy themselves.

These are the things I think about.

It should be pretty intense. There is a very difficult concept that lies at the heart of this thing that, if I can convey it properly, will be quite wonderful. If I miss the mark, though, it'll . . . what's the word? Suck. That's the word.

So, wish me luck, and I'll keep you posted. I wrote a little on it a while back and posted it here but I think that'll change significantly.

If you want to hear the song that I'm basing this on click the links to your right or at the top. Feel free to check out the other tunes, too. I feel sure there will be one or two that you'll dig.

Mid-Week Randomocity!

In the next couple of days I should have my own, writer's copy of the book to your left in my hot little hands. It's my payment for contributing a story. Check out page 183 "Cabin Fever." It's a real page turner! The rest of the stories ain't bad, either.

I'm writing this to put off doing something productive--rewriting a proposal for a TV show. The show is a good idea, I think, and the industry friend I had take a look agrees. So, we'll see. Keep your fingers crossed we can get a deal for it. If we do my friend has promised to help me with it--that makes me very happy, because a:) she's a terrific writer and b:) she can actually be counted on. Ain't many people like that in the world these days, I can tell you.

I've been listening to my new tune, "Walks Like A Man," quite a bit over the past few days. I'm still extremely happy with it. It's exactly what I was trying to do. So, if you're interested, you can go to my Myspace profile here and click "Play" to give it a listen. It's the first tune on the list. You can check out the others while you're there. Let me know what you think!

I just won a hundred buck gift card in a drawing. Really cool---it's gonna come in really handy over the next couple of weeks.

And, silly me, I didn't even notice until yesterday that Thanksgiving is next week! Damn!

Oh, well.

Walks Like A Man available

Just uploaded "Walks Like A Man." You can hear it by going here to my Myspace age, or clicking one of the links above or to your right. It's really heavy and I'm extremely happy with it. Please, give it a listen and let me know what you think!

Projects in the queue

A friend of mine who knows a helluva lot more about the TV and movie industry is giving me feedback on some stuff I sent her--one was a screenplay, the other a proposal for a TV series. She's gonna give me some more on the screenplay, but she gave me enough on the series proposal that I can start revising that. She really dug the series idea, and I value her opinion, so I'm excited about it, too. Anyways, rewriting the proposal is moving up the to-do list. Then I'll probably have more detailed feedback from her on the screnplay and can rework that. I've got a little more I want to add to it now, anyway.

But first I want to finish this song cycle, Ashes and Bone. Got two more tunes for it. I'm maybe two-thirds of the way through the third tune, "Walks Like a Man." I'm hoping to be done with it in the next few days. I'll be doing the vocal today, and maybe some lead guitar work. I know there will be more guitar tracks. Whatever else it needs. I'm digging it, so far, and the further I get into it the more excited about it I am.

After that will be an instrumental piece, "Said and Done," (title may change later). That will close out the Ashes and Bone song cycle, with four tunes. That's when I'll revisit my screenplay and re-enter that world. (The proposal is much shorter and won't take nearly as long so I can fit that in while I'm working on other stuff.)

The next song cycle I'm calling Cold Iron, and it'll be composed of extremely heavy stuff. Like, Black Sabbath inspired tunes, heavy, slow backbeats, thundering, menacing guitars, that sort of thing. I'm realy looking forward to doing that, too. It's the music I love, and while I know I'm weird I also know I'm not the only person in the whole world who digs that kind of music.

So, keep your ears open for "Walks Like a Man," coming up in the next few days! Busy, busy . . .

Low Carb Brown Rice Salad!



So, the above is a pic of my supper tonight. Turned out pretty tasty, and it does not cause a spike in my blood sugar. It weighs in at about 30-40 grams of carbs--most of them those lovely complex carbs that burn slowly and steadily. I've made this several times and it's pretty versatile--there are a few things you can do to change the vibe, depending on what you have a taste for.

1/4 cup brown rice

1 cup water

5-6 sugar snap beans

two table spoons frozen sweet peas

1/4 cup fresh baby spinache leaves

5-6 baby carrots (or one small sliced squash)

Put all the above into a microwave safe bowl. Cook on high for 10=14 minutes--until the rice has absorbed all the water. When you take it out of the microwave you can do what I did tonight--add a couple tablespoons of olive oil vinagritte dressing and a couple tablespoons olives (green or black, doesn't mattter--though I adore olives) for sort of a garden-salady vibe. Or, you can add a couple tablespoons of low-fat, nonflavored yogurt and a little cinnamon for a creamy, sweetish vibe. Either way you're getting something else good for you--the olive oil helps lower the bad cholestoral, the cinnamon is supposed to help your body regulate insulin.

It has the added benefit of being pretty darned tasty, too.

Friday night randomocity

So, I'm watching wrestling on Syfy after spending a couple hours recording guitar tracks for the new tune, "Walks Like a Man." (See previous post for the lyrics if you want.)

It's been a long week and I'm beat. Unfortunately I'll be going in to work tomorrow morning, too. The phones will be down, though, so it won't be so bad. I can put on my headphones and listen to my iPod for hours.

Speaking of work, got some news about the future yesterday. The office here will be closing a year earlier than we thought--by April 2012 instead of April 2013. Which means I'll probably be moving to Birmingham or somewhere west of Atlanta next year sometime.

I hate moving and I'm dreading this one. It's going to be expensive. Yes, I get reimbursed for most of the cost, but that's the key, isn't it? Reimbursed. Gotta front the money myself. I think I can come up with it but it means borrowing against my 401K. Just finished paying off another loan against my 401K a couple months ago. So, that sucks. Still, if I want to have a job I need to find a way to do it. I've just got too much time in with this job to try to find something else.

Healthwise, I've lost 20 pounds so far. Blood sugar is balls-on perfect. The program there is progressing. Of course, Thanxgiving is coming up, and that's gonna be a challenge for me. I love turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, all that. I can still have that stuff, too, but only in very small doses. I'd rather not have it at all than just have tiny tastes of it righ tnow.

Monday night randomocity

I think maybe I've figured this carb/blood sugar thing out, finally. With a little help from http://www.behealthy.com/. Basically I track my carbs--15 grams = 1 unit. No more than three units per meal, no more than two per snack. Three meals and three snacks a day. 15 units of carbs per day, give or take.

It's a bit of a pain finding out carbs for some foods but most have it on the label. Most restaurants have nutritional info on their websites for most of their menu items. Very helpful. I'm also only eating meat maybe once a day, and not much then.

It's not so bad. For breakfast yesterday I had a half waffle--I added some wheat germ to the mix--and some sausage and even syrup. Two hours later, blood sugar was 120. Awesome. (Atari got the other half of the waffle, if you're curious. He loves waffles, especially when I add the wheat germ to them.)

So, blood sugar the past couple mornings has been around 118. At night, two hours after dinner, it's . . . 118.  Doesn't get more stable than that!

Musically, I just laid down the bass track for "Walks Like a Man." This tune is gonna be kind of bass-heavy, a dark tune that'll have some quiet moments and some moments of utter cacophony. It's also gonna be probably my longest tune--weighs in at over seven minutes now. I may cut some of it. Or I may not. We'll see. I'm really excited about it, though--this tune is gonna be especially badass.

I realized the other night that another sign iof getting old is I actually watch the drug commercials on TV and some of them hav relevance in my life. And I brag to strangers about my blood sugar. Sheesh.

Walks Like a Man lyrics

Walks Like a Man



She was out late one night in a different part of town

She'd done a good line or two and was looking to party down

she found herself in a new club, a new vibe, a whole new crowd

and the music it was smokin'. The music it was loud.



He was a tiger. He'd seen her a million times before she'd seen him once.



She could feel the moment, when he singled her out

dancing on the crowded floor the entire world shut out

he gave her time to feel at home, time to find her groove

let her have a drink or two before he made his move



Oblivious to the danger, she smiled at the stranger, the man with dark, dark eyes



He walks like a man

He talks like a man

He feels like a man

But he's not a man . . .



He awakened demons inside her, she didn't know she had

a prisoner of his gaze, this tall and strange nomad

Her friends would have warned her but none of them were around

she was taken without making a sound



She never watched the news, she was a stranger to this town



He walks like a man

He talks like a man

He smells like a man

but he is not a man . . .



He needs her eyes to see

he needs her lungs to breathe

he doesn't exist unless he's in her mind



He needs her heart to feel

he needs her tongue to taste

she didn't know this about his kind



He knew everything about her, plucked it from her eyes

he saw through her pretense and stripped away her disguise

He worked his way in now she's conquered from within

and he walks around in her skin



Now he walks like a man

He talks like a man

He looks like a man

but he's not a man . . .



words and music by J Franklin Evans

My tunes

If you will direct your gaze to the right you will now see where you can click to hear a few of my tunes. More convenient than ever! Give it a try!

Frustration, the nature of the Beast

You know, I've done the healthy living thing before.

I was a body-builder. I monitored my calories, proteins, carbs, all that. I took protein supplements. I worked out at the gym every day--cardio and free weights. My legs became incredibly strong. I had art students wanting to use me for a model. I was running--not jogging, running--three miles at a pop. My weight dropped to around 200 pounds--I lost almost 100.

All this was before my wrist problems. I couldn't work out for a while after my surgery and I fell out of the habit. I let myself go. I felt like I'd proven my point to myself.

This is my way of saying I'm experienced with all this. What I've never had to worry about before is my blood sugar.

Hence my frustration. It's at 199 now, which is high. I really haven't eaten anything that I haven't had before, when it scored in the normal range.

It's frustrating as hell. It seems if I eat anything other than raw vegetables it causes my blood sugar to go up. Right now I'm wondering why I even bother behaving myself. Am I just depriving myself of my favorite things for no purpose?

I have to say, though, that I do feel better. I can actually read, now--my eyes seem to be adjusting back to where they should be. For a while there it was really hard.

I do sleep a little better. I'm still losing weight.

Still, it seems that everything, and I mean everything, I eat gets converted to sugar. Goddammit.

Don't mind me. I'm feeling sorry for myself. I"ll get over it. I've still got some adjusting to do and I'll do it.

But, still, it's frustrating.

Warped Words - hardcopy

The softcover version of the book will be available in the next week or so--it's on Amazon now though. Just look to your left, and click. It'll haunt your dreams . . . especially the story "Cabin Fever." The author of that one is really good looking, too. and an extremely talented musician and recording artist. So I heard.

Ashes and Bone available for your pleasure

I just posted the title track from my "Ashes and Bone" song cycle. To hear it, you can go to my MySpace profile. Or to my artist profile on Facebook where you can download the MP3 for free, if you want. Please go check it out, let me know what you think!