O! You Muse of Fire, you . . .

As I'm leaving for work yesterday morning, literally as I'm locking my apartment door, this idea for a story, a novel, something, hits me.


It's a good idea. It's one I like a lot. But right now I need to concentrate on The Sorcerer's Daughter, so it'll have to go on the back burner.


But it asks a question I've always found intriguing, and I'll pose it here, too, for anybody who wants to respond. Imagine that you are given a chance for an ultimate experience. For a few years it will be exciting, full of intense adventure and almost unbearable ecstasy It's guaranteed.


The flip side, though, is when it's over it'll be over.  It'll be the high point of your entire life, something that will never be repeated. You'll never experience anything like it again. You know you'll live the remainder of your life wanting to go back to this and knowing it will never happen again.


The question is--knowing this, would you say "yes" to this opportunity? Would the inevitable crash and the years of not living that life be worth it for the few years when it's happening?


I'm not sure what my own answer would be--I'd like to think I'd go for it. But, really, I can't say that for sure. How about you? What would you do?

Let Us Burn

I finally broke down and got the new Within Temptation CD, Hydra the other day.


I love Within Temptation. One reason I love them so much is their music is so dramatic--damned near every song could serve as the soundtrack for any number of films. In fact, I imagine quite a few of their tunes as the soundtrack to the stuff that I write.


Their music also inspires me. Just sitting and listening to it causes ideas to come to me, to begin to coalesce into something that may or may not be worth developing. The inherent worth of the ideas is not the issue--it's the fact that the ideas come when I'm listening to this music.


That's the highest compliment, I think, an artist can pay to another one, by the way--when you as an artist can tell another artist that you find his or her work inspiring in your own work.


And speaking of being inspired, this CD--specifically, the first track, "Let us Burn"--has convinced me that this would be good material for a musical drama. Unfortunately, at .the moment I lack the time and resources to put something like that together, but there is a wealth of material here to create a pretty interesting story to go along with a lot of tunes that were just made to be presented in a setting like that. Maybe one day I'll be able to do something like this. I'd love to give it a shot.


If you don't believe me, check this CD out for yourself. Hell, just go to You Tube and listen to them. See if their music inspires you as much as it does me.

March 1 and the sucking is now over . . .

This is a discussion I had online with an old friend the other day. February has been pretty rough for her (and it hasn't exactly been a picnic for me, either), but I decided that this was just all of the suckiness we were going to get in 2014 getting out of the way early. Starting today it's just going to be good stuff for the rest of the year.


Let's hope I was not just being optimistic. And, honestly, I do feel pretty good about the rest of the year. I can't really say why, so much--I've got a couple of things working that may turn out to be big deals, and you never know what else could come up--but I don't really have that hovering black cloud over me that I normally have.


I feel like the film project I'm currently collaborating on will turn out to be Something--I'm pretty happy with my early draft of the script and I think the producer is, too. We have a looooonnng way to go before there's any hope of it ever getting made but I think we've made a good start.


I've begun another version of The Sorcerer's Daughter and I'm pretty happy with it, so far. Now that I've decided just to do it in one novel instead a series I'm a lot happier with the pacing. I'm hoping to be done with it by the end of the year so I can begin shopping it around to publishers.


And, right now, I've got some baby back ribs basting in barbeque sauce in the slow cooker. Maybe that lovely aroma is tempering my mood. One can't feel sad when one is anticipating having ribs for lunch.


Anyways, I'm feeling pretty good about the next few months. Hopefully, it'll turn out to be for good reason!

3 years ago . . .

Tomorrow it will be three years since I said goodbye to my big, silly dog, Atari.


I still dream about you, Atari. I still think about you all the time. If I believed in such things I'd say your spirit still haunts the backyard at my dad's house, running and sniffing around and barking at the cows and staring in hypnotized fascination at the horses. Watching Sheba--my brother's chocolate lab who has also left us--chase after a tennis ball and wondering what the hell was the fun in that?


Your ashes still reside in their box atop my dresser, along with your collar. One day I'm hoping they'll be mingled with mine and we'll both be buried in some peaceful, scenic spot where we can mix with the earth. Maybe the flora and fauna in that area will be able to find a use for what's left of us. I sincerely hope so.


The pain and grief I feel over losing you is still too much for me to bear. I can only allow myself to feel it a little at the time or it will overwhelm me. Just typing these words is causing my hands to start trembling again and my eyes to fill with tears.


I love you. I always will.





Pleasant Sunday afternoon randomocity

For once it's not freezing, snowing, icing, lightning, flooding, earthquaking, or whatever other issues we've been having, weather-wise, for a while. It's a pleasant fifty degrees with a slight breeze and sunny skies, which is as nice as it has been for a while now.




So, I just got in from a little walk out in this pleasant weather, and really enjoyed it. Also, I've been thinking about other projects to get started on. I'm thinking something prose-based, maybe a novel, while I wait for the notes from my collaborator on the screenplay thing.




I also did some playing around with colored pencils this morning and created these two pieces. I'm pleased with both of them--not bad for a dilettante if I do say so myself.

Anyway, that's been my Sunday so far. I'm going to chill (pardon the pun), relax, maybe make some more art, and maybe write a little. We'll see.



Milestones, ice days, and randomocity

I finally got this screenplay thing knocked into decent enough shape to send off to my collaborator. I sent it to her an hour or so ago. I haven't heard any explosions yet so either she's happy with what she's seen so far or she hasn't read it yet.


This is a big step in this process, for me, showing the work to others. It always makes me nervous. Sure, I like it, but it's difficult to remain objective about your own work. Especially so, for me.


You could say I've gotten lucky a couple of times on this project, too--the weather helped me out, giving me a total of four extra days to work on it, with two snow days a couple weeks ago and two ice storm days this week. I wasn't expecting to be at this point until this weekend.


As I mentioned, it's an ice storm day, for me, as was yesterday. If you didn't know already, a huge storm system moved through this area and dumped snow, sleet, and freezing rain all over everything. The office where I work was closed yesterday and again today because the roads were a total mess--fortunately, the power didn't go off here. I took advantage of this opportunity to get some serious work done on the rewrite.


I just took a look around the property, after being cooped up in my apartment all day--the ice is now melting. It's supposed to get below freezing again tonight so any ice that had only partially melted will refreeze, but hopefully there won't be all that much. My poor old truck was covered with a sheath of ice and snow--hopefully, that will be gone tomorrow morning, too.


What's the plan for the rest of the day? Hmmm . . . I can't work on the screenplay until I hear back from my collaborator, so that has to sit. Maybe I'll make some art, if I can come up with something that interests me. I may start putting together some notes for another project I can work on in the mean time.


Or maybe I'll just not do much of anything the rest of the day. I have gotten a lot of stuff done the last couple of days, and tomorrow at work is going to be insane I think.


That plan sort of resonates with me. I think I'll go with that one!

Beware! Here be metaphors . . .

I managed to finish the first draft of the screenplay I've been writing.


Actually, I finished it a few days ago. I've given myself a mini-vacation from it for a few days before beginning the rewrite. It's something I have to do at this point--I've been submerged in this world for a while now so I need to stick my head above water and catch my breath for a time before diving back in.


The first draft, for me, is the most difficult part. Once I get the words down it's much easier to work with them, to make it into something. If I can get through the first draft I'm pretty much golden.


To use another metaphor--it's like I'm creating a sculpture. At this point it's a hunk of marble that, when I'm done, will look like a lion. I've  meticulously selected that hunk of marble. Now, I'm going to start carving away all the stuff that doesn't look like a lion, and shaping what remains into as attractive and as interesting a lion as possible.


And I think what wound up on the page is pretty good. Hopefully, my collaborator will agree, and hopefully this is the movie she wanted to make. Or, at least a start on it.


So, that's my plan for the weekend--making a couple of passes through this thing, knocking it into shape. Hopefully in a week or so I'll have it in good enough shape to send off to my producer/co-writer, and see if she either a:) loves it, or b:) hops on a plane, flies down here, and kills me with her bare hands. I'm hoping for a:), needless to say.


Then the real work will begin, when she gives me her notes on it and I have to rewrite it again.


If it sounds like I'm complaining, I'm not. This is the fun part, for me. The first draft is the part that I have the most trouble with, and that is now behind me. The fun part is making that first draft into a movie that you will plop down your money to see in the theater.


To use yet another metaphor--the first draft is the pregnancy. Now the baby is home.


Remember--great stories aren't written, they're rewritten.