Keith D. Jones's Blog, page 11

Journal: Ripped out of Action

I can think of two other reasons why I write journal entries; although, they are probably both tied into the first reason I gave yesterday. Having something to say. The others I basically never try to describe. One of them is just having so much energy left over from the storytelling that I'm fit to burst. Need to find an outlet other than the story I'm trying to commit to paper itself. Really, sometimes you just need to step back from the story in hand and find another outlet. Any old thing to prattle on about. Otherwise you run the risk of the story getting stuck in the gears and burned to cinders by the heat. I would tell you to picture film getting caught in the movie projector, but I don't know if that even happens anymore. I remember film freezing mid-action or whatever and suddenly starting to melt. On the one hand, it's actually kind-of cool to watch happen. On the other, you paid money to see a freaking movie, and there it goes, burning up.

The other is basically the opposite of what I just said. Writing a little nothing just to get the gears moving again. Shed dust. Figure out where to apply the old WD-40. There is a risk here. The kind-of random writing can have too little to do with the story you want to tell. The techniques can be too dissimilar. The trick is guessing when and how to apply the technique. Use it too much and you will get the gyros spinning but only for the kind-of random crap that have been flowing. No help to story at all.

I actually did have more I wanted to prattle on about yesterday, but I made the conscious decision to stop. Let the entry end where it did. Not dwell too much on journal writing in any one go. Have other things to do.

Journal: Coping with the Day-to-day

I try not to write something in this journal unless I actually feel like I have something to say or at least think that I have something vaguely amusing to convey. As I'm sure I've written way too many times, I don't simply want to post something just for the sake of having posted something. I don't always succeed. In fact, I'm sure there are lots of times when I just wind-up writing random crap and factoids and assorted whatnot. This is my wonderful way of attempting to offer an apology for whatever nonsense is about to follow. The twin forces of having something to say and simply not wanting to let the journal lay fallow for long stretches at a time is limping in the direction of wanting an update. Any old freaking update will do.

The day job has been one serious motherfucker of a bitch of late, which I really don't want to get into, but I guess I'm going to write a few random words about it anyway. At least, it hasn't been just the sheer volume of work for a change. Not that it hasn't been a hell of a lot for the last two years but they've actually been good of late of not pushing too hard. I would actually be in a good spot for the day-to-day workload if I was performing at a reasonable level as opposed to the wounded, barely functional, state I've been in for the past couple of months. It's downright frightening at times. My best guess is that it is simply the compounding exhaustion that has left my crawling along and hoping that I don't completely implode leaving a big smelly mess on the floor.

I keep waiting for the immediate people I work for to point out that I've been seriously off my game of late and that it's way past time I pull myself together. Fortunately, they are good, kind people, and they've been putting up with my inability to focus on anything for more than five minutes at a stretch without complaint.

News: Available for Barnes and Noble's eBook Reader

I've managed the trifecta. All of my books are now available for Apple's iBook app, Amazon's Kindle, and Barnes & Noble's Nook eBook reader. I'm really surprised. For whatever dumb reason, I was convinced it was even harder to get stuff into Barnes & Noble's eBook reader than Apple's iBook reader. Last time I checked—which was years ago I must admit—it was all but impossible to get books into Barnes & Noble. They only wanted to work with the distributors they wanted to work with etc. and other such non-sense words. Yesterday, I discovered they had simplifed the process, and today they are there. Now, that's service.

News: The Faire Folk of Gideon and The Magic Flute Available at Createspace.com

Both The Faire Folk of Gideon and The Magic Flute are now available at Createspace.com. I don't know how long it will take, but these revised versions should also become available via Amazon.com. Theoretically, Createspace will make all three books available to bookstores and libraries. No idea if this will actually happen since it is kind-of based on demand from bookstores and libraries. We shall see.

News: The Etymology of Fire Available at Createspace.com

I'm trying out Amazon's print-on-demand service, which is called Createspace for some reason. Currently, this version of The Etymology of Fire is only available at Createspace's website, but it is supposed to become available directly from Amazon in a couple of days. I'm also planning on going through the extra hurdle of making it available at bookstores, which is something I've never actually been able to accomplish before. We shall see how it goes. This has required accepting a Createspace ISBN for the book, which turned out to be a much harder decision to make than I thought. Psychologically and philosophically , it was staggeringly hard, but I won't bother trying to explain now.

News: Red King Outgrabe, 3. Fright, Score

Okay, this is spooky. I've just uploaded the PDF score of the Red King Outgrabe's third movement, and that means all of the scores have been converted. I'm done, and I can't wrap my brain around it. This probably had a lot to do with why I went through the whole long-winded and wholly unnecessary process of re-entering every score by hand rather than just letting Sibelius' conversion function work. Of course, it probably won't feel quite so weird in another five minutes. After all, I really did just finish converting and reviewing the score a couple of minutes ago. Haven't given myself time to process.

News: The Magic Flute Available on iBook app

It only took forever and a day plus the creation of a whole new cover, but The Magic Flute is finally available on Apple's iBook app. This means that at long last all three of my books are available for both Apple's iBook app and Amazon's Kindle.

Journal: Chekhov's Gun

I know I've mentioned Chekhov's gun before, and I'm pretty sure I've even mentioned it in this here journal. I've mentioned it the same way I will go on and on about Schoenberg and twelve-note composition. At least, I'm pretty sure I've mentioned Chekhov's gun. I'm not interested in searching back through my journal archive to find out.

I've actually just finished ranting about this over on Google Plus just for something to do. Why not try out new and different things whenever the mood should strike, right? Sometimes they can be fun and entertaining. Other times, they just turn out to be a complete waste of time.

Not my point. I liked how the rant over on Google Plus turned out, and I actually considered just copying/pasting the whole thing verbatim over here. Then, I thought, why the hell should I do that? Where's the fun? Where's the sport? Things should be different if not unique. It would be much more entertaining to rewrite the entry or at least compose a vaguely original if not overly entertaining intro to what was already ranted about elsewhere.

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News: String Vignette, No. 2, Score

I've finished a second String Vignette and uploaded both the music and score to my website. I'm debating just a bit what to do next. If I write another String Vignette, it'll start to look like a suite or something. All connected in some ineffable way. Don't want that. They're all independent little monkeys. Nothing to do with each other outside of the instrumentation. However, if I do move on to other instruments, does that mean that I am done with string quartets. Couldn't hack any more? These are the stupid things that race through my mind. At least, the vignettes have accomplished one of their stated tasks. They were both done without the slightest thought to proper form and design or what other people might consider proper, good music.

News: Red King Outgrabe, 2. Eerie, Score

The music and score of the Red King Outgrabe second movement have been uploaded. This was tricky because of the finger clicking and instrument tapping or whatever it is called. Still had to substitute other sounds, which don't really fit. But, what are you going to do? This second movement of my thesis composition is also what I always thought of as the faculty pleasing movement. Done to demonstrate that I really could sound more like what they wanted me to sound like if I tried. It's also the only place in the whole three-movement composition where the twelve-note row is spelled out, so to speak.