Daniel Waters's Blog, page 5

Too Soon?

I'm not sure why this special, one-of-a-kind Christmas edition of Generation Dead makes me so happy every year when I post it, but whatever. If you want to give the gift of zombie this holiday season to that special someone, HERE is a great place to start.

I do have a few copies of the first editions of the Generation Dead series, both paperback and hardcover, for anyone who would like to gift (or greedily keep) a signed copy. I may even have some of the Spanish editions, I'd have to check. Also some of Break My Heart 1,000 Times, I think. Cover price plus shipping but if you want a bunch I'll cut you a sweet deal. 

Terrible/Beautiful Synchronicity

I posted about Hawkwind yesterday, and my post title a few days ago was taken from an album title of theirs. My obsessions, especially the obsessions that run over the course of my lifetime, can grip me intensely for days if not weeks, so of course I was listening to Hawkwind again today (Space Ritual, what a classic). This led to clicking around the Internet to research various minutia about the band, albums, and songs. One jaunt through Wikipedia brought me to Barney Bubbles, who designed the distinctive cover of Space Ritual and a run of Hawkwind's psych/proggy album art. Barney, or Colin Fulcher, was a graphic designer responsible for a great deal of iconic album art in the seventies--he was art director for Stiff Records in 1977, among other things. An interesting and creative guy who unfortunately took his own life in 1983 at the age of forty-one.
All of which I learned about fifteen minutes ago. The terrible synchronicity part comes in because today, November 14th, is the 35th anniversary of his suicide.
Why did the universe conspire to send me surfing through the Internet to find and learn about Barney on the anniversary of his death? I've no idea. Coincidences, serendipities, and synchronicities like this seem to happen  regularly to me. Of course, the tendency to attach weight and import to events and occurrences that most likely are just random happenstance in likely a common affliction of writers, or these intersections loom large simply because one is attuned to them, or they have a greater likelihood of happening to someone who is constantly absorbing and sifting through vast amounts of information, trivial and otherwise, like most writers do.
I'm thankful for these strange moments. I find them both comforting and unsettling, which, I now realize, is probably my favorite state of being, especially when I'm trying to write. Space is deep.
So thank you, Barney, on the anniversary of your tragic end, for the art that you left behind. 
Learn about Mr. Bubbles HERE

I Live My Life by Hawkwind's Teachings

Went right for the treadmill after work today--hmm I never noticed how irony-laden that statement is--and put on Hawkwind's Coded Languages: Live at the Hammersmith Odeon November 1982.  I love Hawkwind, but especially live Hawkwind. The band's roster has changed dozens of times over the 49 years of their existence and, more so than just about any other heavy band I can think of, each permutation utterly transforms the live sound. I was listening to the album above, Glastonbury 1990, in my car, and although both it and Coded Languages have a few of the same tracks like "Brainstorm" and "Angels of Death", they sound almost nothing alike. Only two of the musicians--mainstay Dave Brock and Harvey Bainbridge play on both of the sets, one  a furious headlong aural assault (with barking dog), the other more an introspective, atmospheric journey through time and space. 
By mile two I think I was in another dimension. 

The Periphery

Prior to my current careers (yes, I have several), I spent most of my twenties in various occupations I'd refer to as "peripheral". I briefly managed a CD store named after a fruit. I also managed several chain bookstores while concurrently working my way up from usher to head popcorn guy to assistant manager at a local theater. These jobs were peripheral jobs as I felt I was always on the periphery of a creative field that I really wanted to be in, circling like a buzzard around my hungry dreams and diminishing prospects. I was of the worlds of music, writing, and film, but not truly in them.
My goal was to write and publish books and in my most unguarded moments would admit to desperately wanting to have a story of mine adapted for film--Achievement unlocked!--and it often felt  that each shift spent at the mall or the megaplex took me further from my goals.
But...it wasn't all bad, because during those years I read hundreds of books, watched dozens of movies, and wrote thousands of words in my notebooks while on breaks in the food court. Living for your dreams in the moments you can't live your dreams isn't a bad life strategy, and I never had a shortage of creative fuel for the fire while in those peripheral gigs. 
And now my home is filled with some of that fuel--the books I'd read and loved sit on my shelves, posters from some of the movies hang on my office walls, and I even kept the standee for the movie Cool World so cartoon Kim Basinger could watch over me when I write.
Because of my previous work experiences, I had a complex reaction on seeing the above photo of the gorgeous 3D standee for I Still See You (I haven't seen it in person; In Rome they had electronic billboards and a nice big 2D standee; in Danvers they didn't even have a poster). My second reaction was that I'd love to drag it into my office. My third reaction is that I'm no longer on the periphery.
But to be honest, my first reaction was that I should probably go get my dustpan and whisk broom and go clean up all the popcorn in cinema seven.

Amazing Sounds, Amazing Music--the I Still See You Soundtrack

I never dared dream there would one day be a soundtrack to a movie based on a book I had written, but if I'd been so daring Bear McCreary's soundtrack to I Still See You would have been my dream. In one of those strange moments of serendipity, I learned  Bear would be doing the soundtrack when I was watching season four of Black Sails, a show Bear scored. The I Still See You soundtrack is haunting, beautiful, and inspiring. I like to write with music playing, and so to write and be inspired by music that in some way was inspired by something I'd written is a special thrill. 
Tracks eleven and twelve are "Break My Heart" and "A Thousand Times".
Listen to Bear discuss his work and process with I Still See You 's brilliant and tall director, Scott Speer: 


The I Still See You Soundtrack is available for download at iTunes and Amazon.

I Still See You Film Poster

Break My Heart 1,000 Times Trailer

I Still See You:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvPmJ...

The Generation Dead Series

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Cidade Dos Fantasmas

While I'm still shocked that the Olympic selection committee passed me over for a spot on the U.S. Men's Basketball team, at least I will be in that fine country in spirit. I'm told that Break My Heart 1,000 Times, retitled Cidade Dos Fantasmas (City of Ghosts) was released there last week--my first time any of my work has appeared in Portuguese. The Portuguese language includes my all-time favorite word in any language: saudade. Worth looking up and adding to one's ever-expanding vocabulary. Also the title of one of my favorite songs, by Love and Rockets, as I once wrote about HERE (includes partial Secret Origin).
Reports are unclear as to whether or not the word saudade appears in Cidade Dos Fantasmas.
"...in spirit." Heh heh.

Generation Dead

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The Generation Dead series!
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Generation Dead Book 4: My Best Friends Are Dead