Hey everyone!
I just wanted to let you know a few things. First off, a name change to the blog since I am no longer a law student, I've renamed the blog. While I'm not quite a lawyer yet (give me a few months) but it seemed fitting.
Additionally, I can finally announce that I have contracted my firs book. It will be released sometime in the near future by Musa Publishing. So I will be chronicling my experience through this process. I will also be putting out a bunch of promo as the time gets closer.
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
Saturday, June 2, 2012
Sunday, July 10, 2011
A smattering to share
So this weekend has been a really good one. And this week should be equally as good. As I've mentioned here before, this summer I'm doing a big pleasure reading campaign. To date, I have read fifteen books. I've still got seventeen on my list to read. No, not this entire summer. I'll probably get through five or six more before school begins. Especially once I sit the MPRE and get that out of the way. Plus, at that point, I'll also be only working my weekend job. I haven't read this many books in a long time. Last year I read the Percy Jackson series and maybe one or two others. Still, that's only six or seven. I am really loving being able to discover all these new series and continue ones I've picked up previously. Of course, once I finish the list, I'll have to wait a year or more for new installments. I've got eight series to wait for. Only one of those is non-sci-fi/fantasy, too. Which is kind of impressive. I'm not 100% sure of the break down but I think only 3 of them are young adult series. The rest are all adults. Which for me is kind of odd as I really like young adult novels.
As for writing, I'm nearly halfway through the first draft of Shanna O'Guinn (family saga set in Northern Ireland). After starting two other novels this year and stalling out a little over the 10,000-word mark on each, I'm quite pleased with the progress I'm making on this project. I've also been thinking about what I'd like to write for National Novel Writing Month this year. It's likely going to be a kind of futuristic sci-fi with sword fighting, political assassinations and winged badass leather-clad women. Currently called A Broken Hallelujah. I'm also planning in August (again, once the MPRE is completed) on getting back to revising Euterpe's Song. If you haven't heard, I'm turning it into a young adult novel from a middle grade. I've already added about 3,000 words in word count. And I'm only on chapter 3! I'll definitely be able to beef up the storyline. Then probably in like October-ish (hopefully) I"ll be able to start querying it.
In a more temporally proximate line of thinking, I'm only 4 days from seeing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. I will be going to 3:10am showing at the theater up the street from my apartment because the 12:01am showing was already sold out. Yes, you read that right. Three o'clock in the morning. And then I'm going to work that day, too. Now I know I"m not a college kid anymore and I never did pull all nighters (the awesome folks of the Boston Wrimos will tell you crashed near the end of our twenty-four hour write in last November) but I've got a plan. I'll get home on Thursday, the fourteenth (between 4:45-5:00) and sleep probably until ten o'clock or so. Grab something to eat and maybe watch Suits. Then I'd like to get to the theater around midnight (hopefully they'll be letting us into the theater at that point in time. I'm bringing a book (I do have to keep up that campaign, plus it's a 3 hour wait). I'll be reading The Jefferson Key by Steve Berry. I'll get home from the movie around 5:30 or so and probably nap for a bit. Til maybe seven o'clock, then get to work by 8;30 per usual and work until 4:30. I'll come home, sleep for a bit and hopefully get up and watch Torchwood at ten and then go back to bed and be up the next morning to go to work. I've been planning this for weeks so I really hope it works out properly. I've read a few reviews of the film and they are positive. I'm really hoping they do the parts of he book justice that they've not done so well in the past (i.e. Snape's memory in the fifth film was pretty pointless).
The last thing I'd like to share is that I recently bought concert tickets to see Hanson play the House of Blues here in Boston on October 9th. I saw them at this venue two years ago and it was all right show. I couldn't get out of class so I was a little late to venue so didn't have a very good spot in line to get a good spot within the venue. This time I'm getting there early and getting in line. I want to be near the stage damn, it. I'm also bringing a friend from school. This will be her first Hanson show so hopefully it will be a great experience for her
As for writing, I'm nearly halfway through the first draft of Shanna O'Guinn (family saga set in Northern Ireland). After starting two other novels this year and stalling out a little over the 10,000-word mark on each, I'm quite pleased with the progress I'm making on this project. I've also been thinking about what I'd like to write for National Novel Writing Month this year. It's likely going to be a kind of futuristic sci-fi with sword fighting, political assassinations and winged badass leather-clad women. Currently called A Broken Hallelujah. I'm also planning in August (again, once the MPRE is completed) on getting back to revising Euterpe's Song. If you haven't heard, I'm turning it into a young adult novel from a middle grade. I've already added about 3,000 words in word count. And I'm only on chapter 3! I'll definitely be able to beef up the storyline. Then probably in like October-ish (hopefully) I"ll be able to start querying it.
In a more temporally proximate line of thinking, I'm only 4 days from seeing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. I will be going to 3:10am showing at the theater up the street from my apartment because the 12:01am showing was already sold out. Yes, you read that right. Three o'clock in the morning. And then I'm going to work that day, too. Now I know I"m not a college kid anymore and I never did pull all nighters (the awesome folks of the Boston Wrimos will tell you crashed near the end of our twenty-four hour write in last November) but I've got a plan. I'll get home on Thursday, the fourteenth (between 4:45-5:00) and sleep probably until ten o'clock or so. Grab something to eat and maybe watch Suits. Then I'd like to get to the theater around midnight (hopefully they'll be letting us into the theater at that point in time. I'm bringing a book (I do have to keep up that campaign, plus it's a 3 hour wait). I'll be reading The Jefferson Key by Steve Berry. I'll get home from the movie around 5:30 or so and probably nap for a bit. Til maybe seven o'clock, then get to work by 8;30 per usual and work until 4:30. I'll come home, sleep for a bit and hopefully get up and watch Torchwood at ten and then go back to bed and be up the next morning to go to work. I've been planning this for weeks so I really hope it works out properly. I've read a few reviews of the film and they are positive. I'm really hoping they do the parts of he book justice that they've not done so well in the past (i.e. Snape's memory in the fifth film was pretty pointless).
The last thing I'd like to share is that I recently bought concert tickets to see Hanson play the House of Blues here in Boston on October 9th. I saw them at this venue two years ago and it was all right show. I couldn't get out of class so I was a little late to venue so didn't have a very good spot in line to get a good spot within the venue. This time I'm getting there early and getting in line. I want to be near the stage damn, it. I'm also bringing a friend from school. This will be her first Hanson show so hopefully it will be a great experience for her
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
How Music is Like Writing a Novel
So I thought I'd bring you all a little post about something other than just general updates this week. I was thinking last night about how creating music and writing novels are similar.
As I listen to the new Hanson album (Shout It Out) (don't judge me), I'm reminded what it is that I love so much about the band. No matter what the music sounds like, it always evokes in me a renewed sense of admiration. I've grown up with the band since the beginning in 1997. And the core of their music making hasn't changed. They still have their trademark 3-part harmonies and soul and '50s-'60s rock n roll feel.
So how, you ask, is music like writing a novel? It's simple. Both novel writing and music making tell a story. The real heart of music is communicating a story to your listener. Musicians, especially songwriters are really poets in disguise. They weave tales with beautiful lyrics just as a novelist crafts a story with the right words. It's about sharing a piece of the musician's soul with the wider audience. And isn't that what we, as novelists, do as well? We take a piece of ourselves and bare it to the world in what we write. Sure, it's sometimes difficult to pinpoint the piece of the creator in the finished product but it's always there, regardless of whether you can see/hear it or not.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that music can serve as great inspiration for other creative endeavors. As I continue to work on my various projects, I let the music I listen to fill me up and inspire me to greatness.
Thank you Hanson for 13 wonderful years and many more to come!
As I listen to the new Hanson album (Shout It Out) (don't judge me), I'm reminded what it is that I love so much about the band. No matter what the music sounds like, it always evokes in me a renewed sense of admiration. I've grown up with the band since the beginning in 1997. And the core of their music making hasn't changed. They still have their trademark 3-part harmonies and soul and '50s-'60s rock n roll feel.
So how, you ask, is music like writing a novel? It's simple. Both novel writing and music making tell a story. The real heart of music is communicating a story to your listener. Musicians, especially songwriters are really poets in disguise. They weave tales with beautiful lyrics just as a novelist crafts a story with the right words. It's about sharing a piece of the musician's soul with the wider audience. And isn't that what we, as novelists, do as well? We take a piece of ourselves and bare it to the world in what we write. Sure, it's sometimes difficult to pinpoint the piece of the creator in the finished product but it's always there, regardless of whether you can see/hear it or not.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that music can serve as great inspiration for other creative endeavors. As I continue to work on my various projects, I let the music I listen to fill me up and inspire me to greatness.
Thank you Hanson for 13 wonderful years and many more to come!
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