Moving on to New Projects
The past week has been incredibly busy here in Nota
Bene. After a week of sunshine and warm temps, we
found ourselves back into the rain, sleet and, yes,
snow just in time for our long-anticipated visit from
my sister Janice and brother-in-law Harry earlier
this week.
It was a great visit, though much too brief and much too busy. I know we wore ourselves out with the whirlwind tour and I think I dropped two pretty exhausted people off at the Freddie airport on Tuesday afternoon. It was still, however, a great deal of fun and so nice to see them again.
On the Reading and Writing fronts, there's a great deal to report. The Silent Goodbye has been sent to some of my readers (Patti, Ross, John and now Janice and Harry) and I'm starting to receive some very positive responses to it. Ross has sent his comments on the first 80 pages of the book while Patti has given me verbal responses on the first half. I'm happy to report that both readers seem to like it and both have made suggestions and offered criticisms that are remarkably consistent. That's good news when you're a writer: when multiple readers find the same things strong and the same things needing work, it's much easier to do the revisions.
In the meantime, I have begun a full rewrite of my first Phillip Gold novel, A Fleck of Gold, to match the narrative style of TSG. Since I wrote the original version of Fleck more than a decade ago, I've decided to try to write it again from scratch. I know the plot and characters very well so I'm avoiding rereading the original draft; I'm writing it again fresh. It's a weird feeling, to be sure, but I think the approach will help. I'm a better writer today than I was back then and, were I to try simply to revise the original version, I don't think I would be aggressive enough in my revisions.
I have also come up with a better working title for the next completely new Phillip Gold novel: instead of Luke, as I had at first proposed, I'm now working with the title, The Shadow of the Father. Not as snappy but I think it captures well the central theme of the book.
On the reading side of things, I finished Stieg Larsson's epic first novel, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, last week. It was great. An impressive book with a complex, challenging plot and several truly fascinating characters. I thought the denouement went on a little long (the climax takes place a full 120 pages before the book finally skids to a stop) but it was still a pretty fantastic read.
I dove right into Larsson's second book, The Girl Who Played With Fire, but, after reading the four-page prologue that is told entirely from the point of view of a thirteen-year-old girl who has been imprisoned by a sexual predator and chained to a bed, I had to put it aside for a while. The first book was pretty intense; I think I'm going to need a little bit of psychological rest before I tackle this second one.
Instead, I'm back to Dick Francis for a while. Less stressful. I'll return to Larsson in a couple of weeks, I think.
On the music front, my brother-in-law Gavin helped me figure out how I can turn my old cassette tapes into MP3 files. Unfortunately, most of my store-bought tapes from the '80s (Kate Bush, Thompson Twins, Pat Benatar, et al) have proven themselves to be completely degraded and virtually unusable; fortunately, the tapes I really wanted to preserve are still in good shape.
My main goal was to save a series of tapes I have that feature a Hamilton band I hung out with while in University in the late 1980s: the Dik Van Dykes. I have seen some discussion of the Dykes on the internet and even a couple of cover versions of their iconic tune, "The Birthday Song", on Youtube. I was surprised to read people lamenting the fact that so many of the early Dykes recordings are not readily available on the net.
So I've spent some time converting four tapes I have of the Dik Van Dykes into MP3 files. Once I figure out how to do it, I'll share some of them with the public (unless of course Mike, Renee, Stu, Sarah, Steve or Paul contact me to ask me not to post them online), either through this website or Youtube. In case you're wondering, I've converted the Dyke's second major album, Waste Mor Tape, into digital format as well as three live tapes I've got: New Years Eve 1988 at the Gown and Gavel (a simulcast on CFMU radio hosted by yours truly); a live show at Chuggies bar in Hamilton from 1989 (I think) as well as an earlier live show from the Gown, date unknown.
We'll see how it goes. Meanwhile, I'll keep reading and writing.
It was a great visit, though much too brief and much too busy. I know we wore ourselves out with the whirlwind tour and I think I dropped two pretty exhausted people off at the Freddie airport on Tuesday afternoon. It was still, however, a great deal of fun and so nice to see them again.
On the Reading and Writing fronts, there's a great deal to report. The Silent Goodbye has been sent to some of my readers (Patti, Ross, John and now Janice and Harry) and I'm starting to receive some very positive responses to it. Ross has sent his comments on the first 80 pages of the book while Patti has given me verbal responses on the first half. I'm happy to report that both readers seem to like it and both have made suggestions and offered criticisms that are remarkably consistent. That's good news when you're a writer: when multiple readers find the same things strong and the same things needing work, it's much easier to do the revisions.
In the meantime, I have begun a full rewrite of my first Phillip Gold novel, A Fleck of Gold, to match the narrative style of TSG. Since I wrote the original version of Fleck more than a decade ago, I've decided to try to write it again from scratch. I know the plot and characters very well so I'm avoiding rereading the original draft; I'm writing it again fresh. It's a weird feeling, to be sure, but I think the approach will help. I'm a better writer today than I was back then and, were I to try simply to revise the original version, I don't think I would be aggressive enough in my revisions.
I have also come up with a better working title for the next completely new Phillip Gold novel: instead of Luke, as I had at first proposed, I'm now working with the title, The Shadow of the Father. Not as snappy but I think it captures well the central theme of the book.
On the reading side of things, I finished Stieg Larsson's epic first novel, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, last week. It was great. An impressive book with a complex, challenging plot and several truly fascinating characters. I thought the denouement went on a little long (the climax takes place a full 120 pages before the book finally skids to a stop) but it was still a pretty fantastic read.
I dove right into Larsson's second book, The Girl Who Played With Fire, but, after reading the four-page prologue that is told entirely from the point of view of a thirteen-year-old girl who has been imprisoned by a sexual predator and chained to a bed, I had to put it aside for a while. The first book was pretty intense; I think I'm going to need a little bit of psychological rest before I tackle this second one.
Instead, I'm back to Dick Francis for a while. Less stressful. I'll return to Larsson in a couple of weeks, I think.
On the music front, my brother-in-law Gavin helped me figure out how I can turn my old cassette tapes into MP3 files. Unfortunately, most of my store-bought tapes from the '80s (Kate Bush, Thompson Twins, Pat Benatar, et al) have proven themselves to be completely degraded and virtually unusable; fortunately, the tapes I really wanted to preserve are still in good shape.
My main goal was to save a series of tapes I have that feature a Hamilton band I hung out with while in University in the late 1980s: the Dik Van Dykes. I have seen some discussion of the Dykes on the internet and even a couple of cover versions of their iconic tune, "The Birthday Song", on Youtube. I was surprised to read people lamenting the fact that so many of the early Dykes recordings are not readily available on the net.
So I've spent some time converting four tapes I have of the Dik Van Dykes into MP3 files. Once I figure out how to do it, I'll share some of them with the public (unless of course Mike, Renee, Stu, Sarah, Steve or Paul contact me to ask me not to post them online), either through this website or Youtube. In case you're wondering, I've converted the Dyke's second major album, Waste Mor Tape, into digital format as well as three live tapes I've got: New Years Eve 1988 at the Gown and Gavel (a simulcast on CFMU radio hosted by yours truly); a live show at Chuggies bar in Hamilton from 1989 (I think) as well as an earlier live show from the Gown, date unknown.
We'll see how it goes. Meanwhile, I'll keep reading and writing.