Leon Stevens's Blog, page 28

Terse Verse Tuesday: Can AI write poetry?

FYI, I used the AI prompt: Robot Hemmingway for the picture.

Well, I’m sure it can, but it probably won’t be very good. I’m thinking it might go something like this:

The user asked me to write
A poem they could claim as their own   
How hard can it be
Let me see
Poetry, poetry, ahh… How to!

It’s harder than I expected
These words so infected
With multiple meanings and entendre
Limericks were dirty
Sonnets slightly snooty
If not just a little pretentious
Haiku could be paramount
But I have no fingers to count
And I need more syllables than that
Acrostics are too easy
The sestina made me queasy
And the couplet just seemed so trite

So in the time that I had
I just copied and pasted
A regurgitation of literature libation
Tah-da!

-Leon

Leon Stevens is a multi-genre author, composer, guitarist, songwriter, and an artist, with a Bachelor of Music and Education. He published his first book of poetry, Lines by Leon: Poems, Prose, and Pictures in January 2020, followed by a book of original classical guitar compositions, Journeys, and a short story collection of science fiction/post-apocalyptic tales called The Knot at the End of the Rope and Other Short Stories. His newest publications are the novella trilogy, The View from Here, which is a continuation of one of his short stories, a new collection of poetry titled, A Wonder of Words, and his latest sci-fi mystery, Euphrates Vanished.

My new book page: http://books.linesbyleon.com/

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Music Monday Part II: My favorite Christmas song.

Note: This is a repost from 2022.

When does Christmas begin? Acc—
Am I supposed to answer that?
No. It’s my lead-in to the post.
Oh. Sorry.

According to facts:

Globally, 45% of people engage in some sort of Christmas festivity.

From: Facts

For many it is of religious significance, for others it is a time to get together until we annoy each other enough that out comes the “airing of the grievances” and a full blown “Festivus*” is achieved.

Music is a big part of Christmas. Seems like every musician’s right of passage is to record something for that holiday. Here is something to ponder for a brief moment before continuing:

“All albums of Christmas music are Christmas music albums but not all Christmas music albums are albums of Christmas music.”

What’s that supposed to mean?
I don’t know, I just made it up. Ponder away.

Back to the original question. I think Christmas begins when you hear that first Christmas song, not when Costco puts out the decorations, otherwise we’d be celebrating in September.

You might like the traditional carols, or the made up ones to make money [cough] (Mariah), but my go to song for the first playing is Don Ross’s arrangement of Gustav Holtz’s In the Bleak Midwinter. There is no video, but you can stream it here or on Spotify.

The album contains arrangements of other tradition carols and is well worth the price.

-Leon

*Festivus is a non-religious holiday, started by Daniel O’Keefe in 1966 and popularized by “Seinfeld” in a 1997 episode written by his son, Dan O’Keefe.

Leon Stevens is a multi-genre author, composer, guitarist, songwriter, and an artist, with a Bachelor of Music and Education. He published his first book of poetry, Lines by Leon: Poems, Prose, and Pictures in January 2020, followed by a book of original classical guitar compositions, Journeys, and a short story collection of science fiction/post-apocalyptic tales called The Knot at the End of the Rope and Other Short Stories. His newest publications are the novella trilogy, The View from Here, which is a continuation of one of his short stories, a new collection of poetry titled, A Wonder of Words, and his latest sci-fi mystery, Euphrates Vanished.

My new book page: http://books.linesbyleon.com/

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Oh, pick me! C’mon, space stuff!

Music Monday: Nia Nadurata

What can I say about Nia Nadurata? Apparently not much, since there is very little information when Googled. Here’s what I know:

She’s Canadian.

Enjoy…

-Leon

Leon Stevens is a multi-genre author, composer, guitarist, songwriter, and an artist, with a Bachelor of Music and Education. He published his first book of poetry, Lines by Leon: Poems, Prose, and Pictures in January 2020, followed by a book of original classical guitar compositions, Journeys, and a short story collection of science fiction/post-apocalyptic tales called The Knot at the End of the Rope and Other Short Stories. His newest publications are the novella trilogy, The View from Here, which is a continuation of one of his short stories, a new collection of poetry titled, A Wonder of Words, and his latest sci-fi mystery, Euphrates Vanished.

My new book page: http://books.linesbyleon.com/

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Songs for a Sunday: Milwaukee

Quick. What do you think of when you hear the name, Milwaukee? Time’s up.

Power tools? Beer? Polka capital of the USA? Happy Days? Laverne and Shirley?

What about bands like Beatallica, Chicken Wire Empire, Nitro’s T.J. Racer, or perhaps Die Kreuzen?

No. You thought about The Violent Femmes, right?

Violent Femmes are an American folk punk band from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The band consists of founding members Gordon Gano and Brian Ritchie, joined by multi-instrumentalist Blaise Garza, and drummer John Sparrow.

it was their first album that I am most familiar with, and if you’ve never heard of them, you have because if this song:

You are wondering about those other bands, aren’t you?

I vaguely remember this band:

Rock on, Milwaukee!

-Leon

Leon Stevens is a multi-genre author, composer, guitarist, songwriter, and an artist, with a Bachelor of Music and Education. He published his first book of poetry, Lines by Leon: Poems, Prose, and Pictures in January 2020, followed by a book of original classical guitar compositions, Journeys, and a short story collection of science fiction/post-apocalyptic tales called The Knot at the End of the Rope and Other Short Stories. His newest publications are the novella trilogy, The View from Here, which is a continuation of one of his short stories, a new collection of poetry titled, A Wonder of Words, and his latest sci-fi mystery, Euphrates Vanished.

My new book page: http://books.linesbyleon.com/

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Weekend Wrap-up Dec. 14: Unlucky Day?

Did you know that at one time in history, Saturday the 14th was the unlucky day?

Mount Vesuvius was the first recorded Saturday the 14th bad luck event. Archeologists uncovered a papyrus fragment which seems to be a partial transcript of a conversation which read: “What the heck was that?”

The survivors then came up with a set of rituals to be performed on Friday the 13th to ward of the evil of the next day. This included spilling salt, walking under ladders, opening umbrellas indoors, releasing 100s of black cats, and breaking mirrors.

This seemed to solve the problem until Julius Caesar introduced the leap year, throwing the whole system out of whack. Then Nero burned Rome to the ground on what would have been a Saturday the 14th, setting of the superstition that Friday the 13 was the unlucky day.

True story.

-Leon

In case you missed it:Weekend Wrap-up Dec. 14: Unlucky Day?Thursday Thoughts: NumbersWeird Wednesday: WTF?Terse Tuesday: Words for Words sake?Music Monday : John Prine

Hope you enjoyed the recap! Feel free to share it with others.

Leon Stevens is a multi-genre author, composer, guitarist, songwriter, and an artist, with a Bachelor of Music and Education. He published his first book of poetry, Lines by Leon: Poems, Prose, and Pictures in January 2020, followed by a book of original classical guitar compositions, Journeys, and a short story collection of science fiction/post-apocalyptic tales called The Knot at the End of the Rope and Other Short Stories. His newest publications are the novella trilogy, The View from Here, which is a continuation of one of his short stories, a new collection of poetry titled, A Wonder of Words, and his latest sci-fi mystery, Euphrates Vanished.

My new book page: http://books.linesbyleon.com/

Free books? Sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter and choose one or more!

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Thursday Thoughts: Numbers

292

I sold 202 books last year and had 16,506 page reads in Kindle Unlimited which is about 90 books.

243

This year I gave away 78 copies of The View from Here, sold 125, and had 40 books worth of KU reads.

32

The 78 free copies generated 32 sales for the rest of the trilogy (17 copies of book two and 15 of book three).

1

I put all my books on sale on Nov 29/30th and had 1 sale

$0.004

My hourly wage…

http://books.linesbyleon.com/

-Leon

Leon Stevens is a multi-genre author, composer, guitarist, songwriter, and an artist, with a Bachelor of Music and Education. He published his first book of poetry, Lines by Leon: Poems, Prose, and Pictures in January 2020, followed by a book of original classical guitar compositions, Journeys, and a short story collection of science fiction/post-apocalyptic tales called The Knot at the End of the Rope and Other Short Stories. His newest publications are the novella trilogy, The View from Here, which is a continuation of one of his short stories, a new collection of poetry titled, A Wonder of Words, and his latest sci-fi mystery, Euphrates Vanished.

My new book page: http://books.linesbyleon.com/

Free books? Sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter and choose one or more!

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Weird Wednesday: WTF?

Wait. Do you see it too? Yeah, that’s that Matterhorn in the background of the President-elect’s post after saying that Canada should become a state.

Of course it is an AI generated image, but he didn’t realize the geographical inaccuracy? Maybe our border isn’t the problem…

In other news, The Untitled makes a return with a cartoon that will make some people laugh and leave others scratching their heads.

-Leon

Leon Stevens is a multi-genre author, composer, guitarist, songwriter, and an artist, with a Bachelor of Music and Education. He published his first book of poetry, Lines by Leon: Poems, Prose, and Pictures in January 2020, followed by a book of original classical guitar compositions, Journeys, and a short story collection of science fiction/post-apocalyptic tales called The Knot at the End of the Rope and Other Short Stories. His newest publications are the novella trilogy, The View from Here, which is a continuation of one of his short stories, a new collection of poetry titled, A Wonder of Words, and his latest sci-fi mystery, Euphrates Vanished.

My new book page: http://books.linesbyleon.com/

Free books? Sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter and choose one or more!

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Terse Tuesday: Words for Words sake?

Do you remember Reader’s Digest condensed books? If not, check your grandparent’s bookshelves.

What were they? Four or five classic novels edited of superfluous information and details so that they fit in a single hardcover volume. What is interesting about this is that I write without superfluous information and details.

Some descriptions are necessary to set the mood and some back story will solidify a character’s motivation, but notevery read needs to be a “chonky” tome.

That being said, I am trying to expand on my details so that one day I will publish a novel. But wait? Haven’t I already? Technically not, but if you consider my trilogy as one volume, it does come in at a whooping 60K.

I’ve been revising my current project, A Matter of Sabotage, trying to find ways to lengthen it without bloating it unnecessarily. For example:

“He put a teabag in the pot.” became:

“Xavier opened the glass paneled cupboard and took down the teapot Jannella’s grandmother had given her. The tin container, patinaed with age, contained the last of her favorite tea, and he stared at the four remaining bags before replacing the dented lid, and sliding it back into place.”

Now I just have to do that 100 more times and I’ll be at 35k.

-Leon

In case you were wondering:

Leon Stevens is a multi-genre author, composer, guitarist, songwriter, and an artist, with a Bachelor of Music and Education. He published his first book of poetry, Lines by Leon: Poems, Prose, and Pictures in January 2020, followed by a book of original classical guitar compositions, Journeys, and a short story collection of science fiction/post-apocalyptic tales called The Knot at the End of the Rope and Other Short Stories. His newest publications are the novella trilogy, The View from Here, which is a continuation of one of his short stories, a new collection of poetry titled, A Wonder of Words, and his latest sci-fi mystery, Euphrates Vanished.

My new book page: http://books.linesbyleon.com/

Free books? Sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter and choose one or more!

books.linesbyleon.com/Newslettersignup

Music Monday : John Prine

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You can’t know all the musicians out there and sometimes you discover one late in their career.

John Prine had been around since the late 60s, but was introduced to me (not personally) on 1991. He is a bit of Bob Dylan and little Willie Nelson, and true to folk, he is one of the quintessential American story tellers you’ve never heard of.

Angel From Montgomery, covered by Bonnie Raitt, is the song he is most known for.

1971

1972

1978

1986: Channeling some Jimmy Buffet.

He released nine more albums before he died in 2020. Here’s the Bonnie Raitt version of Angel from Montgomery.

-Leon

Leon Stevens is a multi-genre author, composer, guitarist, songwriter, and an artist, with a Bachelor of Music and Education. He published his first book of poetry, Lines by Leon: Poems, Prose, and Pictures in January 2020, followed by a book of original classical guitar compositions, Journeys, and a short story collection of science fiction/post-apocalyptic tales called The Knot at the End of the Rope and Other Short Stories. His newest publications are the novella trilogy, The View from Here, which is a continuation of one of his short stories, a new collection of poetry titled, A Wonder of Words, and his latest sci-fi mystery, Euphrates Vanished.

My new book page: http://books.linesbyleon.com/

Free books? Sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter and choose one or more!

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Songs for a Sunday: Jorja Smith

Jorja Alice Smith is an English singer-songwriter. Born and raised in Walsall, West Midlands, she has been writing songs since the age of 11. In 2012, Smith’s friend uploaded her cover of Labrinth’s “Earthquake” to YouTube, which led to her discovery by record producer Guy Moot.

-Leon

Leon Stevens is a multi-genre author, composer, guitarist, songwriter, and an artist, with a Bachelor of Music and Education. He published his first book of poetry, Lines by Leon: Poems, Prose, and Pictures in January 2020, followed by a book of original classical guitar compositions, Journeys, and a short story collection of science fiction/post-apocalyptic tales called The Knot at the End of the Rope and Other Short Stories. His newest publications are the novella trilogy, The View from Here, which is a continuation of one of his short stories, a new collection of poetry titled, A Wonder of Words, and his latest sci-fi mystery, Euphrates Vanished.

My new book page: http://books.linesbyleon.com/

Free books? Sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter and choose one or more!

books.linesbyleon.com/Newslettersignup