Writing Soundtrack

People have asked before what music is best to write to, and there's no one "best" answer for that. Not only could it depend on your own personal musical preferences but I like to believe it also depends on what kind of project you're working on. For me, since I prefer to write Fantasy, some of my favorite music is purely orchestral (though not necessarily Classical) and I wanted to share.

Months ago, I ran across an internet radio station called StreamingSoundtracks. While the radio station itself plays memorable tracks from films like The Rock and just about every "Disney" movie, a few of the more obscure songs I found myself loving were actually deemed "movie trailer music."

It sounds weird to love "trailer" music but upon thinking about it I realized this is the music that is supposed to excite you in the short amount of time that it can. Why shouldn't it be amazing?

With trailer music on the brain, I sought out the album Globus - Epicon and, subsequently, Unearthed by E.S. Posthumus. I definitely suggest searching for this on YouTube if you're not familiar; some of it will certainly sound like you've heard it before.

More recently I've found the "name" responsible for these themes is called Immediate Music and, while it sounds like Globus sampled many of the original tracks while adding their own flavor, the original retains all of the punch.

I'm also a big fan of soundscapes and ambient music when reading so I grabbed an album called Music of The Spheres by Mike Oldfield. The track "Harbinger" sounds somewhat similar to the Halloween theme with its haunting piano progression but takes it a few steps further. Definitely worth checking out if you're into instrumental/soundscape music.

Samples posted

In case you didn't notice, writing samples and more details on my novels can be found in the sidebar --------------------->

Feedback is always welcome and appreciated, whether by comment, email, or in person.

An interesting deadline

I just heard about the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award, a contest that will have it's 2nd annual run in February 2009. My mind instantly began racing, wondering if I could complete the Thomas Redpool book before the entry deadline.

I think I can.

And if I do, I definitely believe I stand a good chance of winning. If you've read the sample, hopefully you agree.

2009 is shaping up to be one of the most exciting years of my life.



More details on the contest can be found here.

Approaching Destination

I'm one step closer to "self-publishing" (I think I'm going to abandon calling it subsidized-publishing because I don't really care about the distinction) of my Fantasy novel. I had a call today with a publishing dude at iUniverse and the potential is very good that I'm going to go with them to get it done. I'll definitely post all kinds of purchase links and whatnot whenever they become available.

A question for any readers out there is would you like to see sample chapters? I can certainly post samples of The Ninth Avatar and the Thomas Redpool book, and the short story (titled Man or Murderer) that I had critiqued recently at my Writer's Group. But, would anyone read them? Are you interested?

Speaking of Thomas Redpool, I hit 43000 words on it over the weekend so things seem to be going strong. I definitely don't think I'll be hitting my hoped-for 100000 word count, but if I hit 65-70k, I would be comfortable with that. Just long enough to be not "short". I wish I knew what a good guideline for a non-Genre Fantasy book length/word count was, but since I don't really know what genre the TR book fits into yet, I'll just go with my gut and how much story I can actually tell.

Keep writing. Keep reading.

Thomas Redpool update

Today I crested 40,000 words on the Thomas Redpool book (that still has no "official" title, but what the hell, I didn't pick a title for The Ninth Avatar until halfway through the second revision of what was then "part 2"). All kidding aside, things are shaping up nicely, and my running estimate of 392-words-per-page is seeming pretty accurate at this point (the word doc is at 99 pages, including two "pages" containing just a famous quote).

I was able to successfully execute a chapter that both propelled the story forward and stretched it out at the same time, which is very good and something I was quite worried about, so hopefully the word count will end at a comfortable spot even if it doesn't hit 100K.

A trusted person offered to read the whole thing (what I have so far), which is always exciting and welcome, so we'll see how that goes in the next month-or-so. I'll continue to post updates as I hit milestones so stay tuned and celebrate with me when the initial draft is actually complete!

Pondering "cover art"

Based on my recent expostulation regarding self-publishing the book (which would mean I was in charge of the cover art), and in going with my also-recent post on my relative uniqueness (over on RedFlagWaving), I started pondering today about my ideal "cover artist." This, again, is just expostulation but I thought it would be fun.

Obviously my first choice of a cover artist is one that could read my mind. Barring that, I've come up with a few criteria that might flesh him/her out better should someone get curious.

I need someone who looks at Yoshitaka Amano's work as "a good sketch" or "a nice first coat of paint" ... the kind of person who can see the similarities in the art book for Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and the one for Dynasty Warriors 6.
I need someone who admires the art on a Magic: The Gathering card more than playing the actual game. A person who agrees that H.R. Giger is a pioneer with some good ideas but, ultimately, falls in the same vein as Boris Vallejo and Luis Royo in that not all of their work is perfect or widely appreciated. Take some inspiration from there.
Someone who sees the trend of Fantasy cover cheesiness - and likewise scorns it - would be helpful, as yet another "sword guy" standing on an ambiguous mountain top in a triumphant or threatening pose would relegate my novel to the "crap covers" on Speculative Horizons.
I need someone who knows that silhouettes are fantastic but they are not the end-all-be-all of artwork. Someone who doesn't forsake real life beauty for gigantic airbrushed breasts on every token female character threatening to walk across the plotline would be helpful, as well.

So, there you go. I'd be looking for someone with that kind of influence if it came time for him/her to design and produce a cover for The Ninth Avatar. And did I mention that I can be a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to creativity?

Only a Sith deals in absolutes

I'm giving serious thought to self-publishing (subsidized-publishing) my book due, mostly, to my lack of patience and numerous rejections. It's not just that, though, honestly. The US economy is going through a rough patch right now which means it's less likely that an agent/publisher will "take a chance" on an untested author, especially with a manuscript larger than usual for a debut novel. At least, that's the way I see it.

I've been checking out a few companies to do this (iUniverse, LuLu, Trafford) and I am leaning heavily toward iUniverse. If anyone has any horror stories they'd like to share on these guys, I'm open to hearing them.

I spent over an hour doing a cover "mockup" yesterday and found that I just couldn't stop messing around with it. It was fun and exciting to see what I might put on the cover of my own book, thinking it might "soon" be in the hands of readers. Then I realized my manuscript could always use another coat of polish and the reality of cost set in - even with self/subsidized publishing, it's not going to be as easy as flipping a switch (or clicking a mouse).

After all that, though, I think my prospects will be good to self-publish this novel and rack up some sales. I will have some self-marketing experience, a sales record, possibly an interested reader base for when the Thomas Redpool book is ready, and frankly a tangible representation of all the work I put into my novel.

I'll definitely try to post the latest news and developments here so stay tuned. Thanks for reading!

Challenges

I've already stated there's a difference between deciding to write a novel and deciding to finish one. The difference is the challenge involved.

As it turns out, the "writing" part is the easiest part of being a "writer." Coming up with ideas isn't so bad, typing them up also not a huge issue unless you're striving for word count. The big deal is knowing when to stop, making sure you said everything you wanted to say, and editing out all the things you didn't need to say (or shouldn't have said).

And the challenge isn't the writing - it's getting published. I've started a spreadsheet for all of my Agent rejections (partly to keep track but also partly because I'm kind of a masochist, apparently) and it's going strong.

So, some advice if you want to become an author (aka "published writer")... get ready for challenges. If you bruise easily, give up when things don't go quite right the first time, or don't have the determination God gave a Rottweiler, you might want to rethink your choice. And even if you are the dogged, persistent type (like me), thickening your skin against constant rejection only helps.

I'm still waiting for the light at the end of the tunnel.