Yet Another Writing Update

Tonight, I cracked 29,000 words in Devil's Handiwork. I wrote 2,025 words from 1AM to now; I wrote 1,701 words yesterday; and 1,064 words the day before. It brings my total for July to 21,812 words, and, adding in my previously-existing material, a total of 29,294 words. Lots of writing.

Stupid Things

The Van Morrison thing has more implications than I originally thought. It turns out that Van Morrison and "his people" are only having videos deleted if they were taken at paying gigs. Which, as per my original argument - that the bars pay the licensing companies so the songwriters get paid - makes this argument even weaker. More suspicious? Mr. Morrison has a "retrospective" album collection coming out later this year or early next year through Polydor records, which is owned by the Universal Music Group. For more than a year now, Universal Music Group has had an agreement with Google/YouTube to allow YouTube users to use music owned by Universal Music Group in user-created content on YouTube. And then they start ripping down videos that were taken at shows where the songwriter got paid?!?!?! that is ridiculous, and it will not - as they have asserted - increase sales of Mr. Morrison's forthcoming "retrospective" collection; it will cause people to boycott Mr. Morrison (I know I will. I had a Van Morrison record on my Amazon wish list for a while now, but I will delete that, and my "Brown Eyed Girl" ringtone is gone, too). When cover bands stop playing your music and people stop putting up videos of themselves playing your music, people will not be reminded of you or your music and will not buy your stuff.

I Feel Like I'm Being Lazy...

...but I guess I'm not.

I wrote 2,162 words in Devil's Handiwork last night, bringing my nine-day total to 17,022 words, and the total word count for the book to 24,504. I am very nearly half way to meeting the JulNoWriMo goal of 50,000 words for the month of July, but, more importantly, I think I might actually be able to finish this project before August! ::happy dance::

My Day

Tonight, I wrote 3,338 words (from 1AM to 4AM this morning, actually), adding to the 11,552 words from the previous week. I might actually be able to do this! The total for the book is now at 22,342, accounting for the 7,000 or so words I had prior to starting JulNoWriMo. I'm excited and really proud of myself. Right now, a lot fo the writing is very bland: "I did this and then I did that" kind of stuff, but I can flesh it out later. Right now, I just need to get the story down. :)

Another Writing Update

I am up to just over 18,000 words for the total of Devil's Handiwork as of 4 AM this morning. I have written about 11,000 words in the past 6 days. To be perfectly honest, I think that most of what I am writing now will eventually actually be readable after I spend August getting it critiqued, re-writing, editing, adding stuff. I really want this done before school starts.

I keep putting little details in that I might be able to use later. Like the dead body in Chapter Three. Or the supposedly condemned house that is perfectly fine in Chapter Six. What could those be used for? Who knows?!?! That's the BEAUTY of it!!!

4th of July Writing Update

I wrote 2,320 words on the 4th, bringing my four-day total to 5,544 words and the total of the whole book so far to 13,026.

Writing Update

I added 1,776 words on the 3rd to Devil's Handiwork.

Whoa!

I just finished writing for the night, I just cracked 10,000 words!!! In the last two days, I've written more than 2,500 words: 337 on July 1st; 1,111 on July 2nd, and, so far on July 3rd, 1,140!!! I've got a total of 10,070 words. This thing could actually get done by August 1!!!

JulNoWriMo - Day One

July 1st, I only got 337 words written, thanks to thunderstorms, power outages, and miscellaneous life stuff. Arg.

Hope to get on track today, though.

This And That

Kenny and I went out to Copper's on Friday and Saturday to support another local band. Well, when we were there on both nights, everybody in the bar was all, "How come you guys aren't playing?" and "They should let you play tonight!" or "I'm gonna ask them if you can sing with them!" That was pretty cool....

I finished the outline for Devil's Handiwork and will start writing tonight so as to finish it by the end of the month.

YouTube yanked two of our videos today. "Brown Eyed Girl" and "Wild Night." They are both Van Morrison songs. Apparently, Mr. Morrison's record comany and lawyers want to charge astronomical fees for "syncing rights'... that is, the right to display a performance of a song. You see, apparently, even though the bar we played at pays licensing fees to ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, and the Harry Fox Agency for bands to be able play cover songs in their bar, and while it is legal to record yourself playing those songs, you can't publicly display those performances without buying an exhorbitantly priced "sync license" from one of these agencies. Even if you aren't making money on the videos. Even if you EXPLICITLY say it is a cover of a song. Even if you EXPLICITLY say who the song was recorded by originally, performed by originally, and/or written by. Even if you EXPLICITLY say that you don't hold any rights to the song. You either pay the fee or have the video removed. YouTube's letter also implied that they would take down ALL our videos if we re-uploaded those two. I swear to God that I am going to record a version of the song except with my "Brown NOSED Girl" lyrics. Parodies are protected, even without asking the songwriter or anybody else.

The above item got me to thinking just how FLATTERED I would be - regardless of my fame - if someone covered my song and was proud enough of their performance to make that performance public. If I ever get famous, I am going to instruct my lawyers not to do anything to people who cover my songs in videos that were taken at shows or at home with their web cams or whatever (recording them for profit is a totally different story).

My back is still out. I have a tingling/numb sensation in my left pinky and ring finger and my left palm. I can feel the vertebrae that is out, but there is nothing I can do about it.

Writing Again!

So, tonight, I am finishing up the outline for Devil's Handiwork. I have been working on this for about three days. Thinking up stuff to happen in the middle is really hard. But this outline will really help me when I am writing. Once I have the chapter-by-chapter view I am working on now completed, I should be able to finish this thing up by the end of July. In fact, I know I will. I start in on what is called JulNoWriMo one the 1st. That jumble of letters is short for July Novel Writing Month. I need this thing done by the end of August because school starts back up then, and I'll never get it done then.

While writing the outline, I realized that the theme of honesty is running through the whole thing. This is probably because I detest lying so damned much.

Our Show this Weekend

Friday, the band and bunch of my family came over to help move things to the show. We went to the show, had something to eat, set up, and soundchecked. And we were awesome. There wasn't a very big crowd, at first, but the place filled up as the night wore on, and the whole performance was great, and I had a lot of fun doing it. The crowd was really into it, too. All kinds of people came up and told me I was a really good singer; in fact, this one lady went on and on and on about it. :D

The next day, I made set lists, and then got ready for the show, which took me a surprisingly long amount of time, as I was having a "fat day," which is is a day in which absolutely NOTHING looks good on me, to my eyes. I ended up wearing the same outfit I'd worn the night before.

So, we get to the bar, and one of my best friends is there, and I was so happy to see him there. It isn't very often that my friends come to my shows, so it was really, really nice to see him and another of my best friends there. One of my friends took a bunch of pictures and some videos of the first two sets of the show. As far as our performance went, we were pretty good. In my opinion, not as good as the night before, but, all in all, passable.

Songwriting

I saw on MySpace today that a film is looking for a song and they're running a contest to find said song. The film is called "Henry Poole is Here," and the prize is to get a video made by the movie's director for the submitted song.

So, I looked at the rules. Apparently, the song MUST be named "Henry Poole is Here" and MUST use those words in the lyrics; you grant them all rights in perpetuity for the song, and allow them to be listed as the author in the copyright. Then, they reserve the right to not let you be in the video, and the video may not be used at all... and the song may not be used at all. They won't give you royalties or any money at all for the song, either.

WTF? What a shitty deal.

The sorry part is that there will be bands and songwriters who will enter this contest simply to get a music video. They won't even read the rules and realize what they're giving up. Might be a decent promotional opportunity, but it looks like another ripoff to me.

In related news, I just entered a contest, but a real one this time, that actually has benefits for me. It cost me $35, but the grand prize is $50,000, so, yeah... worth it. Cross your fingers for me!

**YAWN**

I re-did my personal site... again. I keep getting letters from people that the light text on the dark background is hard to read. So, I changed it, almost back to where it was two years ago. It even has the same background as it did back then. Oh, well.

I also started writing a new song today. It's called "You're The Reason." I'm not finished with it yet, but I'll get it done tomorrow, probably.

Slightly Less Depressed

We had band practice on Friday, and that went really well. The originals are starting to sound quite polished.

Saturday, I went up to Sandpoint and went grocery shopping. Bought a HDTV and a new entertainment center to put it on. I like the new HDTV set-up for football already. NFL Network had the Steelers/Browns match-up from mid-season on this morning, and, holy schmoly! You can see every blade of grass! Kick ass. Some of the other channels (even in HD) aren't as amazing, but I guess they'll all get on a standard sooner or later.

I have been writing in Devil's Handiwork the last couple of days, but it isn't going very well. I suppose I should just write and leave the editing for later this summer. **sigh** But I have so much trouble doing that. I just can't leave it alone. I will write for a while, go back and read, and simply delete more than 75% of what I've written.

I watched CSI from Thursday night the other day (I'd taped it), and the season finale was, like, WTF?!?! They killed off my favorite character!!!

Later tonight I might start recording scratch tracks for the band's upcoming second album. The plan is to get these scratch tracks to the new guy so that the songs will all be in tempo and won't waver all over the timing spectrum. For whatever reason, I absolutely HATE recording. (I'm sure you all can figure out WHY I hate recording so damned much! ::grin::)

Grades

I got my grades for this semester today. Two more 4.0s! That makes three altogether!!

Been So Busy...

I tried for days to write my term paper, but couldn't get into the right frame of mind to do so. I was going to on Wednesday, but the fiasco with the studio was a major deterrent. Was going to Thursday, but I decided to watch TV instead. About 2 in the afternoon on Thursday, Kenny calls me and tells me to get ready to go to the Legion and that he'll be home at 4PM to go up to Cusick. I think this is odd because he never calls me that early in the day to tell me to do something unless it is like looking something up on the Internet. And I had thought all week that he was planning something, but I didn't think he would pick Thursday to do it because of a number of reasons. First, my Dad would have to work the next day. Second, Kenny himself would have to work the next day. So, even though I suspected that something might be up, I really didn't think that he would pull anything.

So, we went up to the Cusick Tavern and had tacos, as usual. After dinner, we got in the car to go to the Legion (as usual), and I started fixing my lipstick, which had worn off while eating. Because my head was down doing that, I did not see my Dad hiding his truck. When we pulled up to the Legion, I looked up and saw one of my best friends standing on the porch of the Legion. The jig was up!

Kenny had thrown me a surprise party, complete with balloons and cake and some of my friends and my family, so it was a really nice surprise. I only wish Dad and my friend could have stayed longer and that some of my other friends could have made it. My drummer and bassist came over a little later, and we all had a great time. It was a very nice party. :)

On Friday, after drinking pretty heavily the night before, I woke up at 6 AM after going to bed at around 1:30AM. I don't know why, but drinking messes with my sleep patterns. Anyway, so I ran to the store and bought water for coffee ('cause I was out... again) and a dozen donuts for the kids.

After that, I drank some coffee and then started writing my paper. I stayed writing my paper all day long. I finally finished the thing at 6AM Saturday. So, anyway, I finished my paper and went to bed and then got up the next day and swept and mopped the kitchen. I went to my aunt's house, and I worked on her son's computer for a while, trying to remove a virus and a trojan from the machine, to no avail. The hard drive was, eventually, reset.

On my birthday, I talked to my friend from Sandpoint for a while, and talked to Mom for a while, and finished dusting and vaccuuming and started cooking for everyone. I made rigatoni and cheese sticks and had chips and salsa set out for munchies.

I got up today intending to make my forum postings, but instead let the kids play on the computer for quite a while, and then I cooked dinner. I finally did get my forum postings made. Anyway, I have some more forum postings to do, but I will catch up on all of those later in the week, and then be done on Friday. Yay!

Tomorrow, I am working on my Sekrit Prawjikt. Wednesday, forum postings. After that, no clue.

I'm Finally Caught Up...

...until tomorrow.

Let's see... Mom and Dad came and got the kids Thursday, and the band practiced. That went really well, actually. Then, I went out with a bunch of friends to the Legion and bought my drummer birthday drinks. Everybody but Kenny got completely hammered. (!!!) (Kenny was the designated driver, as usual, because he can no longer hold his liquor. At all.)

Friday, needless to say, I was a little slow getting around. I was majorly hungover, and did not get to much school work at all before I had to pack up the band gear and get ready to go. We had a great show Friday. There was another birthday party there, and the bar was pretty full all night. I was pleased.

Saturday, I got myself together and finished my school work for the week (except for the forum postings and reading other people's stuff). The show Saturday was even better than the Friday show, for once. We were really good, and the vocals were really, really good, in my opinion. I know that some of the songs seem a little low for me now, but, when we actually get to practice them in the lower tuning instead of just hopping up and playing them without practicing them, they'll get better. I think. Anyway, the bar owner told Kenny that they made $4,000 over the weekend, which isn't bad at all. Definitely worth what they paid us. :)

I went up to Sandpoint and did the shopping for the month with the gig money. I bought the kids each a pair of pants and got Cait a pair of shoes (that were on clearance for $3!!!) and got my sister a birthday present and Hunter a birthday present.

The Band

We had band practice Saturday. It was actually quite a lot of fun, and cutting it down to one day a week has given me more time to deal with school and other stuff, but it has cut down our productivity A LOT. We aren't getting NEARLY as much done in the one practice as we were with two, in my opinion. but it did go really well. We have added six new songs to our covers list.

I guess other than that, nothing's really going on.

First "New Computer" Post

Well, I got my new computer set up! It's going to take a bit of getting used to. The screen is HUGE!!! The keyboard is a little light and delicate for my tastes and the mouse is a little bit big.... I haven't installed all my programs yet.

I moved my mail over from the old computer with nary a burp in the delivery of said mail; the only thing that pisses me off about the whole thing is that, since I downloaded IncrediMail on my old computer in 2005, they've changed their junk mail system, so, now, you have to pay $60 a year to get your junk mail delivered to a different folder. I am about THISCLOSE to switching to another mail program, but I am going to check into having junk mail re-routed before it ever reaches IncrediMail from my server.

The weather is seriously weird. Fifteen minutes ago, it was overcast and slightly warm. In the last ten minutes, it's rained, hailed, snowed, and sleeted (is that even a word? I think not...). Strange.

I have to make a shopping list, take a shower, and write a one-page paper proposal, so I guess I better stop farting around and get stuff done. More later.