2008

Today I uploaded two new music videos to YouTube, which I shall post below.

Music composition wise, I’m kind of dry for now. I have three pieces which are mostly complete but need a bit of editing, but I haven’t really had any strong desire to write anything new for a while. I have been writing a lot of melodies though, probably around 15 since the year began (actually 13, I just checked), so when I do want to start a piece I’ll have plenty of ideas. I just haven’t really been in the mood lately. I’ve been in the mood for literature writing lately… though there seems to be even less productivity in that department.

I’ve got one week left before school starts… not really looking forward to that at all… and then who knows what I’ll do after school ends. I’ve always wanted to take a year off, but I guess that’s not an option…

Ok, here are those videos:

Creativity is cheap.

Eventually I want to do a post about my favorite books of ’07, now that the year is gone. But for some reason I started thinking about books I enjoyed when I was younger, so I’m just going to write a post about that.

I wasn’t a big reader when I was young (actually, I’m still not that big of a reader… and I’m still young) but every now and then I came upon a book that really engaged me. Here are some books that I remember very fondly that really aren’t famous… of course I read Avi and Nancy Farmer and Brian Jacques, but their books are still around and still very well known in the children’s sections at bookstores and libraries. The books I mention here are more of the “underdog” books… books that didn’t really become famous.

One of my favorites was called The Daydreamer by Ian McEwan. (Looks like it was recently just rereleased in paperback in 2007.) From what I remember, it was basically a collection of short stories, each a different daydream from one quiet kid. I remember losing track of time reading this book, which is probably the best thing that can happen to you while reading. The daydreams were sometimes a bit creepy, but they had a flow to them so that I always wanted to know would happen next. It hasn’t gotten the greatest of Amazon reviews, but I remember checking it out of the library more than once because I enjoyed it so much.

Unfortunately these next two books are out of print as far as I can tell, but I remember loving Anne Lindbergh’s Travel Far, Pay No Fare and Bailey’s Window. The former book involved a young girl with a magical bookmark which allowed her to travel into the world of a book, and so with her cousin or brother (I can’t remember) she would dive into some classic novels like Alice in Wonderland and mess things up. She couldn’t go into contemporary novels, of course, since that would involve copyright infringement. (By the way, do the Potter Puppet Pals pay any license fees, or is that just more infringement?) Bailey’s Window portrayed a young lad with the power to paint pictures (windows) of other worlds and then walk right into them.

Finally, I remember reading all of Bill Brittain’s “Coven Tree” books, such as The Wish Giver, Dr. Dredd’s Wagon of Wonders (I remember reading that book in one night being so captivated), and Devil’s Donkey.

I’m not sure what I’d think of these books were I to read them today; surely I’d be much more critical. But I have fond memories of these books… always nice to have books that you look forward to reading… it’s when you start those long stupid books that reading seems a chore.

I’ve been thinking about doing a podcast about composing music for about half a year, I suppose, and I finally have it up and running at The Compose Pile. Rather than focusing on just a bunch of music theory, I hope to blather about my thought processes while composing certain pieces, thoroughly going through pieces measure by measure and talking way too much about them.

The first episode is up, in which I go on and on about Dragon of the Mist (and still don’t get through the whole piece). It’s the first episode, so I obviously need to practice speaking into a mic and not pausing and saying “um” so much, but I think it and the next few episodes will still very much be “test episodes”…

My hope is that the podcast will be interesting to… well… anyone who likes my music, I suppose.

Last night (or early this morning I guess) I finally finished another short story! It came to about 6,100 words in length, though it’s still in rough draft form. I’m going to wait a week or two with it off my mind so I can come back to it with fresh eyes and try to do some editing… hopefully I won’t end up hating the story; I already think certain parts might seem far to too sappy.

The story is called Oberon’s Paradise. Here’s the opening, which pretty much shows what the story’s about:

“Oberon,” the large bearded man read from a scroll without looking up, “in order to pay for the destruction of the Marcelin Glass, which you caused with your carelessness and lack of consideration for other people’s feelings and a bunch of other bad attributes you have, you have chosen to accept, for the following three nights, a decade’s worth of the collected nightmares of all the residents of Brokenhill Fort, freeing us all for a decade of the burden of bad dreams. After your sentence has been carried out, you will be rewarded with permanent residence at Glanendale Palace. So let it be.”

“So let it be,” the gatherers echoed monotonously.

Hmmmm… is that engaging? Or… not?

What I’m thinking about doing is joining the Critters Workshop to get my story some serious critiques. I’d have to wait a while for the story to get through the queue, and I’d have to write some critiques myself for other people’s short stories, but that could be very helpful.

And then I’ll sell the story to a magazine, sell the rights to a film, and make a whole lot of money and never have to work again.