I’ve been listening to a lot of classical music lately, especially while writing. One of my favorite pieces so far is Scheherezade by Rimski-Korsakov. I especially like this version, for how the conductor and players start shouting like pirates in the buildup toward the end. My kids and I call it the “pirate music” when we’re listening in the car. Good stuff!
Tag: music
Just for fun: Retroflow 1985
So the YouTube algorithm recently recommended this channel to me called Retroflow 1985. It’s a guy in Germany who puts out these synthwave music videos, with AI-generated artwork (and probably AI-generated music) that feels like it could have come out of the 1980s (hence the term “synthwave”).
I’m not a huge synthwave fan, but I do like this guy’s stuff. More than that, though, I’m fascinated by the fact that he’s put out something like 250 videos since he started his channel six months ago. In fact, he puts out something like 3-5 videos per day, so that the algorithm is constantly recommended new ones to me. Most of them only have a couple of hundred views, but a handful have more than a thousand. As of right now, he has <2k subscribers.
As a fellow creative who is also dabbling with AI, I am really interested to see how this strategy works for him, and where he (or she, I suppose) goes from here. Because we do live in an age where the algorithms determine a lot about what art & entertainment we are exposed to, and how we consume it—and it appears that in many domains (including books, to some extent) you have to churn out a lot of content in order to feed the algorithm.
Or maybe this guy isn’t human at all, but an AI agent creating and publishing this stuff? In which case, it will be even more interesting to see what he/she/it comes up with…
Mariachi Ducktales?
God bless the internet!
My life is CRAZY right now
Oh my heck. How can I count the ways?
- My writing computer crashed yesterday. Upgraded to Ubuntu 16.04, and it crashed again this morning. I think I have a fix, but only time will tell.
- I started a new job on Monday. Carpentry crew. Nine to five. It’s exhausting, but the pay is good, and that’s what I need right now.
- The brakes on my truck need work. Pads for sure, and probably rotors too.
- I’m months overdue for a dentist appointment.
- I need to find a new place before the end of the month, or the first week of July at the very (very!) latest. Unfortunately, everything is overpriced.
When I make progress in one area, things seem to fall back in another. And of course, everything’s time sensitive. Still making writing progress, though—that is, when I have a machine to write on!
If this blog goes silent for a while, here are the reasons why. Don’t worry about me, though. I’ll figure it out.
In the meantime, here’s something I’ve been listening to:
Non Nobis Domine
Not unto us, oh Lord, not unto us,
But to thy name give the glory.
Now I really have to see a production of Henry V.
Publishing is as easy as the Irish Tinwhistle
David Gaughran has another excellent blog post up, this time about publishing in general and something that most newbies don’t realize when they first start out. From his post:
I’m saying that when a newbie has been convinced that self-publishing is hard or expensive the chances of them falling into the clutches of a third-party which will result in a poor outcome increase exponentially. Because they’ll take any kind of deal, or sign up with any fly-by-night outfit, or engage one of the vanity presses masquerading as a self-publishing company.
So we need to get the message out. Yes, writing is hard, but these third parties will give you no help there. And yes, marketing can be tricky, but that’s probably going to fall on you no matter what path you choose.
Publishing, on the other hand, is easy.
I’ve found this to be exactly the case, and it’s one of the reasons why I’ve decided to stick with the indie publishing path.
Publishing is easy. Publishing is fun, in fact. There’s a lot of hair-pulling when you first start out, but once you get over the initial learning curve, it’s a blast. These people selling “self-publishing packages” are almost all scammers, especially if they’re charging more than $1,000.
Marketing is an aspect of this business that currently eludes me. Even so, I’m still doing all right. I’ve been making a profit since 2012, and I’m currently about halfway to making a full-time living at this. With the whims of the market, that could change at any moment, but there’s still a lot of room for things to go up so I’m not too worried.
As for writing, well, that’s probably always going to be hard. I tend to self-edit a lot as I write, so hopefully nanowrimo will help me out with that. Once you’ve found your voice and gotten the basics of your craft, you have to learn to let go and let the story happen, which is something I struggle with.
Right now, I’m having a hard time with putting out a consistent word count. That’s probably the hardest part of taking the indie path–keeping yourself from getting spread too thin. I’m trying to get print versions of the Star Wanderers novellas out on Amazon (Outworlder is already out! Get it here!), so that’s taking a fair amount of time and energy, even though I’m taking it slow. Really, though, I wonder how much of it is just fear or self-doubt or other writerly angst that pops up from time to time. It’s a constant struggle.
But publishing? Publishing is easy. Give me a manuscript, and I can turn it into a fully functional, well formatted ebook in less than an hour. For a print book, I can do the typesetting and cover design over a long weekend if I’ve got nothing else going on. Easily. And from there, it’s just a matter of uploading to Amazon / Smashwords / wherever, filling out the metadata fields, and clicking the button that says “publish.”
There is nothing about the technical aspects of publishing that a writer can’t learn how to do for himself. If you can publish a blog, you can publish an ebook. The only reason to pay someone to do it for you is if the opportunity cost of taking the time to learn is too high, which is only really the case if you’re a highly paid professional at something else and writing isn’t your main career. Even so, it’s not hard to find someone (like me!) who can do a good job for $50 or less.
It’s kind of like the Irish tinwhistle. Sure, you can pay through the nose for a limited edition collector’s piece (which probably has a very generic sound), but the best ones cost less than $20 and look like they’ve been used as a doorstop for a while. The quality of the sound does not correlate at all with the price–in fact, you’re more likely to get a better instrument if you don’t pay through the nose. You can even make your own!
In fact, there are a lot of similarities between self-publishing and playing the Irish tinwhistle. You can teach yourself how to do it, pick up tips and tricks by hanging out with other unwashed, self-taught musicians, learn all sorts of tunes or make up your own, and play it any way you like. You can play for pennies in the park, beers in a pub, or go for gold and hit the big time.
Dang–now I really want to get back into Irish music again! One dream at a time, Joe–one dream at a time.
But yeah, publishing is easy–not to mention, fun!
SW-VII: REPROACH coming out soon!
So I’ve been working hard at Star Wanderers: Reproach (Part VII) these past few days, and I’m happy to say that it will be coming out sooner than I’d expected! I finished a quick proofreading and touch up pass today, which mostly involved cutting some unnecessary paragraphs and rewording a few sentences here and there. I also wrote the author’s note and acknowledgments, so all it needs is another proofreading pass and it should be good to go!
This story wasn’t quite as difficult as Sacrifice, but it certainly was a challenge, and I’m surprisingly pleased with the result. Revisiting the Star Wanderers story from Mariya and Noemi’s points of view was a great experience, and I did my best to really get into their heads and show what they were thinking. The themes are a bit unusual for a science fiction story, but if you’ve followed the Star Wanderers this far, it should be another fun and interesting ride!
I suppose this is where I should include an excerpt or something. I’m not a fan of huge, unwieldy excerpts, so here’s a quickie:
The others laughed with her. As they returned to their work, however, a strange silence fell over them, as if some unspoken tension hung thick in the air. Mariya glanced nervously at her mother, making Noemi wonder if it was something between the two of them. But instead of speaking with Mariya, Salome turned to her.
“About Jerem-ahra,” she said. “He’s a good man, isn’t he?”
“Oh, yes,” said Noemi, slowing down a little as she folded the last of the clothes. “Why?”
“God knows there aren’t many good men where we’re going—the Far Outworlds, I mean.” Salome pulled the bed-sheet taught and tucked it expertly beneath the thin foam mattress. “Not many Deltans out there either. At Zarmina, we’ll be the only ones.”
Noemi frowned. She glanced at Mariya, who was watching her intently out of the corner of her eye. Something was going on here—she didn’t know what it was exactly, but it felt as if they were backing her into a corner.
“Really?” she asked, her arms growing tense. “Just the three of us?”
“And father too, of course,” Mariya interjected. “He wasn’t born Deltan, but he’s as good as one of us now.”
“And Jerem-ahra,” said Salome.
What are they trying to get at? Noemi wondered. Both of them were staring at her now, making her hands feel clammy. It was as if they expected an answer from her, but she didn’t even know what they were asking.
“J-Jeremahra hasn’t been baptized yet,” she said, her voice quavering. “I don’t know how to bring it up. We understand each other when it comes to little things, but—”
“I can talk with him!” Mariya said, smiling cheerily. “I can help translate almost anything for you. And even though he hasn’t been baptized yet, I’m sure he’ll come around eventually. When he married you, he practically married into it—just like daddy. For your sake, he’ll convert before too long.”
That’s odd, Noemi thought to herself. Back on Oriana Station, she did everything she could to avoid bringing up religion. It wasn’t like she’d stopped believing, though—just that she was nervous talking with people who didn’t share their faith. Considering all the anti-Deltan bigotry back on Oriana Station, Noemi didn’t blame her. But why was she so eager to see Jeremahra converted now?
“Let me put it this way,” said Salome. “Where we’re going, we need to stick together. And what’s a better way to do that than to become one family?”
Stars of Holy Earth, Noemi realized, they want Mariya to become his second wife. Her eyes widened, and an awful sinking feeling began to pull at her gut even as her legs turned to water.
I’m not sure whether to hire a proofreader or just proofread it myself. I doubt I’ll find someone who can turn it around before the end of the week, but who knows? The manuscript is pretty clean, though, so it shouldn’t take too much work to catch the last few typos–just a good eye.
In any case, I’ll leave you with the track I’m listening to right now. It’s a great track by Paul van Dyk, Arty, and Sue McLaren, remixed by Pedro Del Mar. Stuff like this really helps me to get in the zone.
Take care!
Last chance to get my books 50% off on Smashwords!
Hey guys, just a heads up that tomorrow and Wednesday are the last days to get all my books 50% off on Smashwords for the annual summer sale. Everything is under $2.50 USD, and the $.99 stuff is free! That might seem like a pretty steep discount, but I actually earn as much from each sale as I would for a trade paperback sale if my books were traditionally published, and I don’t mind passing on the savings to you.
Also, my friend and fellow writer Ben Keeley did a blog post about our low-key backpacking trip up Rock Canyon, so if that interests you, you can check it out on his blog. That rattlesnake was pretty freaky! Good thing he was about as eager to get away from us as we were to get away from him. We didn’t climb any mountains on this one, but we did find a gorgeous campsite on the side of a steep ravine. I definitely want to go camp there again sometime.
I’m taking it easy as far as the writing goes, but making some progress on The Sword Keeper. A lot of it right now is gathering ideas and reviewing what I’ve written so far (eleven chapters, or about 50k words). The first chapter requires some changes, but the rest I’ll probably let stand as it is and pick up where I left off. Once I’m fully immersed in this story again, I think the rest will come quite readily.
In the meantime, here’s a video of Mariam Elieshvili singing “ჩვენ ახლა ერთურთს,” chven axla erturts. I have no idea what the lyrics mean (something about looking for love in each others’ eyes), but Mariam’s voice is amazing and I think I may have a small celebrity crush on her. All this Georgian music definitely puts me in the mood to work on The Sword Keeper, kind of like how all that Arabic music helped me to write Desert Stars.
… and now I want to go back to Georgia. Again. :'(
Hey! Are you an aspiring writer / artist / creative whatever?
If you are, you really really really need to check out this webcomic about the three jaguars.
It’s about the three main voices in every professional artist’s head, and how they bicker and play off of each other. As someone whose been in the writing business for a few years, I can say that it’s absolutely spot on (and not just because they’re anthropomorphized jaguars). Seriously, this webcomic needs to be like a primer for all creative types or something.
The thing I’ve learned the most by following this webcomic has to do with the marketing voice. I’ve always had it in the back of my mind that marketing is evil. And if you do it wrong, it really is. But if you do it right, it’s actually pretty amazing:
…your goal in marketing is to create sustainable relationships with people who want you to succeed; in short, to seek patrons, rather than one-time customers. To do that, you can’t be focused on the money or the one-time sale. You want to inspire customer loyalty. You want people to be invested in your success. You want them to feel special … because they are.
A lot of the stuff I do, like keeping this blog, or putting Author’s Notes at the end of all my books, comes back to this idea of making meaningful connections with people. I just never saw it as marketing. But if marketing yourself is really about focusing on people rather than obsessing about sales, that’s totally something that I can do–something that I’m excited to do!
The character I can relate to the most is probably Business Manager. It’s the entrepreneurial spirit I can trace back to my grandpa, who started his own oil company in West Texas and was successful enough to put all us grandkids through private school. But Artist is definitely in there as well–it’s why I’m always jumping from project to project, driving my inner business manager crazy.
So yeah, if you’re a creative type, you’ll definitely want to check out this webcomic. It’s written by the self-published author whose books briefly got pulled from Amazon during the Space Marine controversy (fortunately for all of us, she held out and won). Lots of good stuff there–she really knows what she’s talking about.
In the meantime, let me leave you with this incredible piece of orchestral trance music. It’s quite possibly the most epic thing I discovered last week. The video is pretty good too.
Take care!
Chris Hadfield is my commander
And he always will be.
That is all.