Leon Stevens's Blog, page 43

Music Monday: Canada Day Edition

There is a radio show on CBC here in Canada that occasionally does a feature called SYNTH: Songs You Need To Hear.

Now, I can’t say to someone, “You’ll like this song” (or book for that matter) because I can’t presume that others will share my taste in music (or books), so it is safer to say, “You might like this” and if they don’t like it, so be it.

Maybe you will find a new favorite.

CBC MUSIC, Central · Mornings with CBC Music

What do you get when you Google greatest Canadian bands? Well you get this Rolling Stone headline:

Sorry, Nickelback. Here Are the 50 Greatest Canadian Artists of All Time

Every country has their fair share of great musical artists, yet many don’t reach beyond their borders for one reason or another, so I try to feature some less than well-known bands. And since today is Canada Day, I thought I’d share some Canadian music that I have not featured on my blog before.

From 1967: We lost Gordon a year ago. I grew up hearing his songs either on the radio, record, of coming from my father singing his favorites. I think of my dad* whenever I heard one of Lightfoot’s songs.

From 1969: You couldn’t grow up in the 60s and 70s in Canada and not know The Guess Who.

From 1974: Joni Mitchell. That is all.

From 1977: Rush. The Nickleback of the 70s and 80s. People either loved of hated them.

From 1980: If any tune brings me back to my high school days, this is it.

From 2014: Apparently, in 1998, The New Pornographers were only going to record one album.

Carly Rae Jepsen hit the music scene with her 2012 hit, Call Me Maybe, but here is her latest offering.

From 2016: I saw sisters Tegan and Sara at a folk music festival when they were just starting out. Two girls and two guitars. You might have heard another of their songs, Everything is Awesome, from The LEGO Movie.

From 2020: I was in Chicago in 2015 and saw a marquee sign on an old theater and a huge lineup stretching down the street. I said, “Who is The Weeknd? And someone should tell them they spelled the name wrong.”

-Leon

*No worries, he’s still alive…

Want to read more music blogs? Here are some of the ones I follow: Mostly Music Covers, Take it Easy, Beetley Pete, A Sound Day, PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture, SuperdekesVinylReviews, Peat Long’s Blog, Fox Reviews Rock

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, and a new collection of poetry titled, A Wonder of Words.

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

Sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter and receive a free book!

Oh, pick me! C’mon, space stuff!

Songs for a Sunday: Bakar

Abubakar Baker Shariff-Farr, better known as Bakar, is an English singer. Known for his experimental indie rock style, he made his professional solo debut with the mixtape Badkid in May 2018.

-Leon

Want to read more music blogs? Here are some of the ones I follow: Mostly Music Covers, Take it Easy, Beetley Pete, A Sound Day, PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture, SuperdekesVinylReviews, Fox Reviews Rock

Looking for reviewers who want to receive an advance copy of my latest book!Sign up here

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, and a new collection of poetry titled, A Wonder of Words.

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

Sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter and receive a free book!

Oh, pick me! C’mon, space stuff!

Weekend Wrap-up June 29: Words, Words, Words

I am currently on a 21 day posting streak, which, if I finish this post in the next 16 hours will be extended to 22. The burning question is: Did I plan this unprecedented streak?

Definitely not. I’m not a planner. I usually write when inspiration comes to me or if I have to (like today, if I want to keep the streak going).

I’m always amazed that some writers can write 10K words or more in a day, because I often struggle to get a couple of hundred. I’m a slow writer. Sometimes I’ll get stare at the screen and wonder about how a certain scene will play out or how I can negate the contradiction I’ve just created. A good day for me is to get 500 words done in my current project.

Then yesterday, after writing a blog post about the Olympics, I realized I had just written 496 words (let’s call it 500). Now, I could have thrown up my arms and tapped out for the day, but I still had a blog post to write (200 words) and then hit the work in progress for an hour or two (let’s call it an hour, because two hours is a long time to write…).

600 words later I still had some emails to write (200 words), an interview to revise (100 words), a shopping list to write (30 words), and a couple of Google searches (20 words)—

Okay, the last few are pushing the word count, but it does put my over 1600 for the day, which is what the National Novel Writing Month suggests to hit the goal of a 50K word novel.

But, I’m counting them. So there.

Check out the first review for Euphrates Vanished!

In case you missed it:Weekend Wrap-up June 29: Words, Words, WordsFree Book Friday June 28: Leon Stevens Interviews Himself (again)Thursday Thoughts: StreaksWeird Wednesday June 26: CartoonTuesday Top Ten: Things that annoy me about Facebook

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, and a new collection of poetry titled, A Wonder of Words.

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

Sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter and receive a free book!

Oh, pick me! C’mon, space stuff!

Free Book Friday June 28: Leon Stevens Interviews Himself (again)

How many times have I interviewed myself? This will be number six.

The first time, I thought it would be fun to interview myself as a reader, then for the second, I was the reader interviewing the author. I had grand plans to do a podcast, so I recorded myself and posted it on the free podcast host, Anchor.fr, or was it fm?

Anyway, I recorded the two interviews and posted them with little fanfare, and as expected, received little fanfare. So I forgot about it for a while until yesterday, when I discovered I have a Spotify podcast (since Spotify bought Anchor). I also discovered I had another episode which I had forgotten about.

Another thing I discovered is that I have a boring voice. Not very expressive and monotone.

Do I do more? I find I’m not good a just talking with out a script, and reading a script sounds like, well, you know…

In Conversation With: Leon Stevens

Hey!

Sup?

Not much. Whatcha working on?

Just going through Euphrates Vanished, doing a last-minute check for typos.

You know what they say about typos, don’t you?

I do not.

[silence]

Are you Googling it?

Maybe. Did you know there are no funny quotes about typos? Lots of funny signs with typos, though. Like look at this one. It’s a motel sign that reads—

So, I’m kind of busy, can we get this over with?

Sure.
What was your inspiration the latest book?

Euphrates Vanished started out as a short story titled, How Sci-fi Saved My Life. About someone who wakes up on a starship and everything he needs to survive comes from his recollection of science fiction shows.  I wondered if I could continue the humorous take on the genre portrayed in television and movies—much like how Galaxy Quest did in the early 2000s—into a longer volume.

It’s a comedy?

No. There are some comedic elements. As I was planning out the story, my notebook became a list of ideas that had been covered in one form or another, and while nothing is truly original, I tipped my hat to the writers and comedians before me and began to revise the story to be a mystery.

So not the next Hitchhikers Guide or Redshirts?

Or the next Red Dwarf or Lower Decks.

Oh, I like those shows!

Yeah, they are great examples of comedy in sci-fi but I didn’t want to completely abandon some of the parts that made me chuckle, I retained a few of my original ideas and set forward on this next writing adventure.

You said it was a mystery.

The story is. The adventure is mine.

So…no adventures in the story?

Well, no story is completely devoid of adventure.

Good point.
You’re not a physicist, so how do you go about explaining the future technology in your books?

Simple answer? I try not to.

Doesn’t that seem like cheating?

Not really. Unless it is crucial to the story, things just have to work, right? Take Star Wars for example. They had hyper speed, but it didn’t matter how it functioned, just that it was used to get from A to B.

But—

I know, I know. It’s called science fiction, but many readers—myself included—don’t want to be bogged down in lengthy, technological explanations.

But—

Yes, yes. But some do.

Please stop doing that.

Sorry. Continue.

I’m kinda done.

Don’t be like that. It’s unbecoming.

You’re unbecoming.

What’s that supposed to mean?

[shrugs]

So, what’s it about?

It is about a young man who wakes up to discover he is on a starship, as a member of its crew, but no memory of how he got there. There are things he automatically knows, and as his memory slowly returns, he has to piece together the clues to figure out who he is and why he is there.

I noticed on the cover that it says book one. Now you have committed yourself to a series, right?

Well, at least one more book.

I don’t know if you can call two books a series. Three maybe, but that’s more of a trilogy, like The View from Here. I’m thinking you have to have at least four.

What’s the next book about?

It’s a prequel to Euphrates Vanished. I thought it was necessary to tell the back stories of the characters and the setting.

Could you read it first?

Definitely not.

 When does book one come out?

August 1.

Can the readers get a peek at the book?

Of course! I have chapter one available on my website, or you can download it when you sign up for my newsletter.

What if they don’t want to sign up for your shitty newsletter?

Really? That’s where this is going?

[Laughter] I’m just having fun with ya. The newsletter is mildly amusing from time to time on a semi-regular basis.

Are you done?

Pretty much. So…where can we read it?

There’s a link to download a newsletter free copy on the ARC form, if readers really don’t want to sign up.

That’s all we ask. Shall we wrap this up?

I already have.

Touché.  

Read my past interviews here:

Leon Stevens Interviews Himself

Looking for reviewers who want to receive an advance copy of my latest book!ARC sign up here!The story behind Free Book Friday:

I’ve met many authors and readers during my time marketing, cross-promoting, and blogging. I think writers have a responsibility to inform readers about all the indie authors out there in the very crowded world of book publishing. You can’t do it alone, and why would you when you have a supportive group available?

Readers don’t just read one author – they stick with their favorite genres. Therein lies the power in cross-promotion. If one of my readers buys a book from an author I promote, then chances are there will be a reciprocal effect, or so is the hope. Do I want to boost sales? Of course I do. Do I want to boost other’s sales? Why not. It’s called karma.

Some free book offers require a newsletter sign-up, which is a small non-monetary price to pay to try out a new indie author.

Reads From StoryOrigin and BookFunnel

StoryOrigin and BookFunnel allows authors to advertise their books to each other’s audience. I hope you have been able to discover a new favorite!

Note: After this month, I will be offering promos from StoryOrigin only as I am trimming my budget this year.

Free BooksEnds July 2nd Ends July 31 Ends July 31st June 15 – July 16Review Copies (These are free!)

Review copies: Like reviewing books? Try my two poetry collections: Lines by Leon and A Wonder of Words

Sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter and receive a free book (poetry or science fiction or both): Leon’s Newsletter

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, and a new collection of poetry titled, A Wonder of Words.

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

Sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter and receive a free book!

Oh, pick me! C’mon, space stuff!

Thursday Thoughts: Streaks

No, not that kind…

If I post today, it will be twenty-one days in a row.

I could have stopped there, but that would be cheating, right? My blog is all about entertaining and informing my…one sec…389 followers, not about stroking my ego.

Do I like likes? Of course. That tells me I’m doing something right.

Here are some other numbers:

666 (really): The number of newsletter subscribers I have1034: Twitter followers917: Twitter followers once you remove the bots and all the lovely ladies (and one man) who really want to meet me. You know who you are, Lara2898765 (and Mitch548711)857: Instagram followers44: Facebook followers87: Bluesky followers2: TikTok followers1: Podcast follower. You didn’t know I had a podcast, did you? I forgot I started one too. Stay tuned tomorrow for more info on that little venture.

So, there you go. That’s not a cheat post, is it?

-Leon

Looking for reviewers who want to receive an advance review copy of my latest book!ARC sign up here!

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, and a new collection of poetry titled, A Wonder of Words.

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

Sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter and receive a free book!

Oh, pick me! C’mon, space stuff!

Weird Wednesday June 26: Cartoon

-Leon

Looking for reviewers who want to receive an advance review copy of my latest book!ARC sign up here!

My newsletter goes out every Wednesday: Lines by Leon Super Newsletter Extravaganza

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, and a new collection of poetry titled, A Wonder of Words.

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

Sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter and receive a free book!

Oh, pick me! C’mon, space stuff!

Tuesday Top Ten: Things that annoy me about Facebook

I wrote recently about my troubles with Facebook removing a couple of my Tuesday Top Ten posts, so I thought I would see if I can sneak one through.

First, I removed the “Letterman” graphic, so no infringement there and replaced it with an ugly generic one I made.

Second, I wrote a list.

Things that annoy me about Facebook

10: Their customer service. Granted, there are a lot of users (probably with a ton of issues) so do I expect one-on-one chat? Not really.

9. Did I mention their customer service? Okay, so there is no chat, but there must be an email address somewhere, right? No. No there is not.

8. FAQs. There’s a lot of them, but do they solve my issue? No. No, they do not. I do however get to select “No” when they ask is the article was helpful. What would be helpful is some help.

7. Feedback form. It does clearly state that no response will be issued, so you know where those forms are going.

6. Facebook ads. I joined Facebook as an author for two reasons. One, to connect to some author/reader groups, and two, run some adds for my books. Well, I must have done something wrong during the setup of my author page because when I tried to create an ad, I was informed I was permanently banned from running ads.

Yeah. Permanently. This was my first experience with trying to get answers from Facebook.

5. Facebook kinda sucks.

4. No, really.

3. Can you tell I ran out of annoyances?

2. Blah, blah, blah.

1. Is Facebook going to remove this post? I’m taking bets.

2:1Yes5:1No100:1I get kicked off of Facebook

So, in closing, if anyone working for Facebook reads this, get in touch. We need to talk. It’s not me, it’s you.

-Leon

[Update: It is on my Facebook page along with one of the other Top Ten lists with the Letterman graphic.]

Looking for reviewers who want to receive an advance review copy of my latest book!ARC sign up here!

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, and a new collection of poetry titled, A Wonder of Words.

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

Sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter and receive a free book!

Oh, pick me! C’mon, space stuff!

Music Monday: 2002

Note to readers on my blog on Goodreads: Videos do not display, so please enjoy on my blog directly at www.linesbyleon.com/blog

There is a radio show on CBC here in Canada that occasionally does a feature called SYNTH: Songs You Need To Hear.

Now, I can’t say to someone, “You’ll like this song” (or book for that matter) because I can’t presume that others will share my taste in music (or books), so it is safer to say, “You might like this” and if they don’t like it, so be it.

Maybe you will find a new favorite.

CBC MUSIC, Central · Mornings with CBC Music

2002.

The year of Avril Lavigne. She kinda took the airwaves by storm that year. Maybe people had enough of the female diva and wanted a badass chick.

Complicated reached #1 in Canada and the US, and many other countries around the world.

Sk8er Boi didn’t do as well but was #1 in North America.

I’m With You faired about the same.

Now, a couple of laid back hits:

Country music. Much of what had been offered over the past few years was watered down pop/country. The Dixie Chicks did it right. You’ll be foot tappin’ if not two-steppin’ with this one.

Sometimes I like to include a one-hit wonder, but I decided to search “worst songs of 2002” and this one kept coming up. I had never heard it before, but the title, The Ketchup Song, might have been a giveaway on the quality of the song. but is it the worst song?

Well…it’s not very good.

-Leon

Want to read more music blogs? Here are some of the ones I follow: Mostly Music Covers, Take it Easy, Beetley Pete, A Sound Day, PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture, SuperdekesVinylReviews, Peat Long’s Blog, Fox Reviews Rock

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, and a new collection of poetry titled, A Wonder of Words.

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

Sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter and receive a free book!

Oh, pick me! C’mon, space stuff!

Songs for a Sunday: Elliot Brood

Elliott Brood is a three-piece Canadian alternative country band formed in Toronto in 2002. It consists of Mark Sasso on lead vocals, guitar, banjo, ukulele, harmonica and kazoo, Casey Laforet on guitar, lead vocals, backing vocals, bass pedals, keys and ukulele, and Stephen Pitkin on percussion, sampler and backing vocals.

-Leon

Want to read more music blogs? Here are some of the ones I follow: Mostly Music Covers, Take it Easy, Beetley Pete, A Sound Day, PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture, SuperdekesVinylReviews, Fox Reviews Rock

Looking for reviewers who want to receive an advance copy of my latest book!Sign up here

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, and a new collection of poetry titled, A Wonder of Words.

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

Sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter and receive a free book!

Oh, pick me! C’mon, space stuff!

Weekend Wrap-up June 22: Facebook Follies

Two weeks ago, I opened up my Facebook page and saw in my notices that a post had been removed:

So I click it and it took me to my notification page:

So…no problems…Then I go back an there is a pop-up which informs me that the post was removed because of misleading content. There is a button on the bottom which says request a review.

There is also a link to the page which tells me the common issues, so I go there and read through a list. I then go back to request a review, but that pop-up is no longer active.

I try the “Help and Support” tab which is neither helpful nor supportive, so I scroll through my feed to see what is missing and it is my latest Tuesday Top Ten. I scroll further and my other Top Tens have been left alone, which leaves me scratching my head, because all my blog posts are automatically uploaded to my Facebook feed.

Fast forward to the next Tuesday post and guess what? That gets removed as well. I quickly select the request a review option and request a review, but the reasons available don’t really match what I think the issue is so in absence of anything else, I select, intended as humor.

Then I decide to see if I can get a customer service representative on live chat or even email.

Yeah, if you have ever tried that…

-Leon

In case you missed it:Weekend Wrap-up June 22: Facebook FolliesFree Book Friday June 21: It’s all downhill from here.Thursday Thoughts: Happy Solstice!Weird Wednesday June 19: Cartoon / Doppelgangers (Part II)Tuesday Top Ten: Slightly (and no so) Painful ThingsLooking for reviewers who want to receive an advance copy of my latest book!Sign up here

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, and a new collection of poetry titled, A Wonder of Words.

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

Sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter and receive a free book!

Oh, pick me! C’mon, space stuff!