New song--I've Got A Thing (For Parentheses)

I am thinking this will be in an early rock-and-roll style. The Collaborator recently bought a ukulele though, so it might be rock-and-roll ukulele. Who knows. Here it is:

I've got a thing (for parentheses)
Just the right brackets (put me on my knees)
They're good for asides (and soliloquies)
I've got a thing (for parentheses).

Some people have a footnotes fetish
But that's not really me
They like it in the asterisk
Or with a superscripted three.

Some people do it with a period
Some prematurely punctuate
Some people like to subject and object their predicate.

But
I've got a thing (for parentheses)
etc

Just the sight of those loving arms
Gets me all aroused
I tingle reading Vonnegut
And I devour Proust.

I checked out a book of poetry
With a very modern air
When I came to e e cummings, I came everywhere.

Because
I've got a thing for parentheses
etc

You can keep your semicolons and dashes
Your carats, tildes, back-and-forward slashes
When it comes to insertion
Of pointless diversion
I've got a thing
Oh I've got a thing
Got a huge huge thing
(For parentheses).

Should be recorded next month...I'm already excited.

There won't be a lot of novel updates anymore.

While I had a spike in late May/early June, the blog visits have fallen off again. And I really don't get a lot of comments. All blogs are vanity projects, but this one seems kind of meaningless. I would rather have dialogue than endless monologue.

I'm also a little hesitant about putting a whole novel up, too. It seems like a bad idea, but I can't articulate why. So, I suppose if any of you would like to do a read-through critique of the novel when it's finished, I would love to have a lot of good feedback. But other than that, I won't be putting any more of it up here.

There may be occasional updates to link some music or put down some poetry or short prose, just so I can keep up with it. But I'm not really seeing the need to keep a blog that focuses almost entirely on my novel when honestly, it's not very interesting.

Thanks for everyone who has been a reader in the past. I really appreciate your patronage. Excelsior!

One reason why writing a novel is harder than you think.

It's really a very simple concept. Research.

I am writing a semi-comic (and dramatic) fantasy novel, which you would think would not require a lot of research. WRONG. WRONG WRONG WRONG.

Sure, courtroom fiction needs research, and medical-suspense-thriller-fiction needs research, but comic fantasy needs a megaton of research too, mostly because comic fantasy tends to parody the heck out of popular culture, history, other fantasy and sci-fi, gawd, you name it and some comic fantasy writer has probably used it in his books. Especially if his name is Terry Pratchett. And I am going a lot lighter on the parody than he does, so Og only knows how much time he spends researching for his Discworld series.

I've just spent 30 minutes checking the names I am giving different countries within this book to make sure that the allusions make sense. Tomorrow or Sunday I plan to devote a few hours to research about various mythical species (dragons, phoenixes, elves, sprites, domovoi, witches, huldrafolk, you get the idea).

I have to say that this is the most exhilarating experience I've had writing. I have about 6-7k words at the moment. I just need to repeat that 15 more times, then edit the crap out of it. And get other people to read it. Then edit it some more...and then maybe, just maybe, it will be good enough for a publishing house to at least consider.

However, next month I'll be polishing up a couple of short stories and shopping them around, mostly because I want to already have a little work out there when I'm trying to find someone who will take my novel. I do have some poetry published already, but I need to get my name out in the prose world.

There will be an update to the novel sometime this weekend, I think. Have a good one, all three of you!

Grrr, Comcast.

So, this makes the third time in the past week that the internet has been out at my house. Monday, Wednesday, and now ever since Friday afternoon. Needless to say, I'm pretty unhappy with Comcast and I am already looking around for another solution.

I am currently visiting my parents for Father's Day. I will make a small, holiday-related post tomorrow. I am not sure when I will update my story, but I'm hoping by Tuesday. I suppose now is the time to announce it: it's becoming a novel. I have about 5k words typed so far, and about another 3-4k words to get typed up. I'm aiming for an 80k-90k word count, as that seems about standard for comic fantasy. So...if you're reading and you feel like critiquing it, please let me know. I need to know what makes sense and what doesn't. I need to know what's funny and what isn't. I need to get rid of awkward turns of phrase and horrible grammar.

BUT HOORAY! I AM FINALLY WRITING A NOVEL!

Maggie and the Dragon, Part III

I keep my promises. Part IV is already written and coming soon. I have the beginnings of Part V and some of a later installment, as well.

I have been remiss.

I am so sorry. I know I promised a story update at the beginning of the past week, but I haven't yet finished Part III. This is partially because I do some of my writing at work (I'm allowed) but work has been extremely hectic lately, as I've been helping coordinate a big event that took place Friday. Also, Disclaimer Man has been staying the week with me, so I've been making dinner almost every night (which I do not mind). With one thing (or person) or another, I've just not had the time to pour into writing. BUT, because things should die down a bit over the next week, I should have Part III up before next Friday. That's a promise; it's about half-written already.

Hopefully later on this summer, around July or August, I'll have new music to post as well. We'll see. I also have a piece of visual art (a comic) that I keep meaning to scan in. I know it's one that Aavelyn especially would appreciate.

In other words, keep visiting, and thanks for your patronage of my blog!

Mini-vacation!

Disclaimer Man and I are taking a much-needed mini-vacation to Tennessee for the weekend. Look for a fiction update sometime around Tuesday. Until then, have fun, and thanks for more than trebling my blog's visitor stats in the past week! Nearly 5,000 views now since I started it last October (considering it was hovering around 1,300 lifetime views until the last week of May).

Many thanks to Disclaimer Man, Ryan, and Reassembler, for providing most of the hits not associated with my Facebook updates. ;)

Maggie and the Dragon, Part II.

Well, the title says it all. I'm adding more because Sarah told me to, and I do what Sarah says (especially because it's been YEARS since Sarah told me to do anything). Welcome to Maggie and the Dragon, Part Deux