We Had A Show

Our show Saturday went really well. I'm sorry if you missed it. It was awesome. :)

Cool Video

MY BOOK IS IN PRINT!!!

I Am Having A REALLY Bad Day...

You know that car I got back yesterday? It's not driveable... again.

I drove myself to the studio tonight, and things went really well, I thought. I was singing only to ther rhythm guitar track, so the vocals turned out fairly awesome, I think. I guess the proof will be in the pudding, so the old cliche goes, when I get copies of the tracks so far.

Shortly after that, I went to leave, but my car wouldn't start. I could hear the solenoid running, and things try to turn on, and dome light would come on, but the starter wasn't getting any power. So, I had the engineer give me a jump start, but it was obvious there was something wrong with the alternator. So, I tried to drive home, anyway. But the lights were getting dimmer and dimmer by the second. While I am on the curvy, twisty Fertile Valley Road headed toward the 4-lanes, I meet this car. And do you know what that accident of nature did? He kept brighting his lights at me! Brightdimbrightdimbrightdim... and then... BRIGHT. I'm like, "M*****F*****!!! I already KNOW!!! DUUUUUUHHHHHHH!" I mean, seriously: what thought processes must have been at work there? "Oh, there's a car with really dim lights. I'll bright 'em and blind 'em."

Cheese and rice!

I eventually - creeping along at about 10 MPH - make it out to the 4-lanes, but, I don't get on. Instead, I stopped near the entrance to the road, and called Kenny to see what I should do. He said that I should wait there for him, and to put the car in a safe spot. I went to back up, and it died, and it would not be restarted. So, I opened the door and the dome light came on. I left it like that so people might have a chance of seeing me.

Eventually, Kenny and my cousin - the mechanic - showed up, and they got it started by jumping it again. Lights got dim really fast, and, by the time I hit Scotia Road, it was dying again. So, we pulled over, and jumped it again. This time, my cousin adjusted something in the alternator, and we all thought that it was going to work. No such luck. I got about a quarter of a mile on the Newport side of Diamond Lake, and it died for good. The battery would no longer take a charge.

By now, I had had it. I went to call a tow truck, but they didn't answer. Kenny called my other cousin who was at the house watching the kids while they were rescuing me, and had him bring my mechanic cousin's pick-up over to us to tow the freaking car home.

Have you ever driven a car with power brakes and power steering when it has no power? At night? With no headlights? On a chain? With only one very slow trip of being towed ever before under your belt?

Well, don't. It's not fun. I was so afraid that I was gonna hit that truck. I was standing on the brake with both feet the whole time, trying not to hyperventilate from the stress of chain towing the car that I had just spent $1,300 repairing... God... it was a HORRIBLE night.

While I was back on Fertile Valley Road, I prayed that God would help my car to just get it home. It died the first time just shortly thereafter as God gave me the middle finger.

I Got My Car Back!!

Good as new!

I am going to the studio tonight. I am doing the lead vocals. I listened to the demo tracks I did at that same studio in May for a metronomed demo to build the rest of the songs around. The vocal track on the May demo was clear, and about 99.9% in tune. When I did the tracks in May, I was singing to just an acoustic guitar, so I could hear the vocals really well. So, tonight, I plan to sing to just the electric rhythm track throughout. Hopefully, we'll get an awesome result that way. It won't hurt to try.

Grrr...

I guess I shouldn't be whining too much. I bought the camera in November of 2006. Still, only three years of sporadic use out of a camera? Seems a little on the "short-lived" side. Anyway, I've been having trouble with it, and suspected the battery as it was obviously some kind of power issue. So, I bought a new battery (at the cost of $18 for the battery and $20-some odd dollars for shipping). Mom brought it to me today; it was delivered to her place sometime last week.

Anyway, I charged the new battery and put it in the camera. Guess what?!?! It wasn't the battery. So, after football got over, I went to Kodak's web site and went through their troubleshooter, which, to no surprise from me, determined that it was a much more serious problem. After spending nearly half and hour trying to find the exact date that I purchased it, it turns out that it is no longer under warranty (again, cue lack of shock from me), and the site provided me with two options: either send Kodak the camera and $200 (plus $48 shipping) for maybe getting it repaired (they might send me a remanufactured one, if they couldn't fix mine) or getting $25 off an order in their store.

So, not willing to spend another $248 on a 3-year-old camera, I looked through their prices, and compared those with the prices at Dell, and found a Fuji 12x optical zoom, 5.7x digital zoom, 10MP digital camera with a 4GB SDHC memory card for $211. What a deal. According to the e-mail, I should get it October 1st.

Other things happening: my books are being shipped from the printer, so I am about to update the web site with pre-order stuff for A Night Borrowed. I don't know what it is with people, either, but, every time I tell someone that I wrote a book, they want a copy... for free. Exactly where is this kosher? Because, if I haven't spent more than a minute with you on the phone (and I called you), then we're probably not friends, and I am not going to give you a free copy of my book. I don't care who the hell you are. It's the same thing with CDs. For some reason, people seem to get it into their heads that, if they've spoken to me for 10 minutes at a bar that I somehow owe them a copy of my CD for free. Not happening. Same thing with books.

And don't get me started on "friends" wanting web sites from me... for FREE. I mean, honestly, unless I've offered to do something for you for nothing, then it's probably not going to happen for nothing. I do this for a LIVING, not to make friends and influence people. How would these same people feel if I asked them to part with their work for free? Yeah.

Still Really Busy...

I re-did the band's web site.

Thoughts? Does it look right to you?

Been Busy

I had a kinda bad day on Thursday. I had gone to bed at about 4:30-ish Thursday morning, and then got up at 10:30 AM. I made coffee, watered the lawn, got cleaned up and dressed, and then went to check e-mail. While I was doing that, Kenny returned from Cusick, where he had gone to get an application from the Tribe for a deputy position with the Kalispel Tribe. He only had Thursday to get it in, so he was going to do it online, but he had to have a resume in order to complete it. I had one on my external hard drive, so I went to get it onto my thumb drive so he could use the laptop to put in his app because I had things to do on the desktop computer.

Well, when I went to access my external hard drive, I got this error that said: "A file is corrupted. Drive is inaccessible."

So, I FREAKED OUT. I had just spent two months writing a book, and the ONLY copy is on that hard drive. Not to mention that ALL of my files for the sites I have built are on that drive. ALL of my billing files and Kenny's billing files are on that drive. All of my photographs, graphic work, and the pictures Hometown Digitals had taken for the band are on that drive. All of my school work and papers dating back to when I was getting my Associate's degree in 1999 are on that drive.

So, I try a few times to get into it and nothing works. I Google the error message and find a forum where a guy says to unplug this and that and re-plug everything in in a certain order. That didn't work. Found another forum where someone said to run a chkdsk on the drive. I did that, and the error went away, and all my files were accessible again.

But that made me paranoid, so I made back-ups to CD of everything that was on the drive, got Kenny his resume on the thumb drive, and got everything together to go to Spokane. While there for business-related stuff (collections... le sigh) and a class, I went and bought a new external hard drive, so, no fears, everyone! The book - A Night Borrowed - is still coming out October 1!!

Holy Frickin' Crap, People

I just finished writing A Night Borrowed. I cried when I wrote the ending.

The book is 433 pages, and 86,547 words.

YAY!!!

Still have 12,000 words to write to meet my goal, though. They'll go in Devil's Handiwork.

Word Count Status Update

I am so close to hitting 40,000 words for the month that I can smell it. I stayed up until 5 AM this morning to write my daily 4,500 words; I didn't quite make it, but that's okay. I finished a really important scene in A Night Borrowed, so that works.

Sleeeepyyyy

I just went over 30,000 words this month. I am tired. A Night Borrowed may be finished - for the most part - by the end of the week. Will have to go back and add some characterization scenes, but it is almost done. Only three major scenes left to do.

I honestly can't believe I have written more than 80,000 words since July 5th. Crazy. (And that's not counting work articles, e-mails, blog posts, tweets, or the update to my personal site - updated with release dates for A Night Borrowed and Moonshine Valentine.)

Well...

...I am no longer working for KGB. I checked the amount of money I made in 6 hours, and it came to a grand total of $12.85. Not worth it.

I have been practicing piano like crazy here lately. I am going in to record the piano parts on ten of the thirteen songs (as well as horn parts on one song and organ parts on another) on Wednesday, so the window is closing on practice time. I have tomorrow left to practice, and THAT'S IT.

I am up to 17,000 words in A Night Borrowed and Devil's Handiwork for the month of August. A Night Borrowed is up to 70,780 words total; Devil's Handiwork is at just about 60,000 total. I don't know if I will need all those words, but I figure that it is better to have more than you need going into editing; it's easier to cut than it is to create.

The cat that had the broken leg and the head injury last year is now missing. We fear that he is dead. He has not been around in 4 days.

I Am Semi-Employed...

I don't know if you have seen these ads for KGB. I found the one I've linked to there pretty funny, so I looked them up on the Internet, and it turns out, they were hiring. So, I went through several testing processes, and I worked my first shift for them tonight. My ass is tired. I remember now why I don't like shift work: I can't really get up and move around! I won't be taking any more afternoon shifts, I can tell you that.

I am going into the studio tomorrow afternoon at 1PM to record at least acoustic guitar tracks. I might do the piano parts, too, but I am not sure yet. It depends on who I can get to take me, as the piano is rather large, plus I'll have the stand, and the acoustic guitar. I kind of thought about video taping the recording of the piano parts, but I don't have a video camera and I don't know who has one, anymore.

More Recording...

I went in tonight and finished all the electric guitar work that needed done. Saturday, I am doing at least the acoustic guitars. I might do the piano parts, too. We'll see.

That's about all I have to report. I have been slacking on the writing these last couple of days. No particular reason; just have been.The swelling has gone down on my lip, but the bite is still there. I have been treating it with hydrogen peroxide, alcohol, and toothpaste to dry it out. It is working, but it is going to look nasty for the next couple of days.

I Got Bit By Something...

...while I was sleeping last night. It is not a whole lot better now.

Here is a cell phone picture of just how swollen the left side of my upper lip was this morning:

Stuff

I figure I will need another week to finish the basic storyline of A Night Borrowed, and then another week to finish up the main bulk of the story in Devil's Handiwork. After that, I'll spend another week editing and adding scenes, going over the stories, taking things out and adding other things.

In the meantime, I have to practice the piano, but I don't have any work pressing. And, other than that, I probably should go for a walk, take a shower, and, uh, you know, do some writing or something.

Bass & Drums Are DONE!!!

We went into the studio this afternoon and we re-did "Dear Jane" (the drummer's song), "Relax," and "The Cover." They came out a LOT better, so I have my bass and drum tracks! We can start building the rest of the stuff now.

Next week (sometime between the 10th and the 14th), I'll be going into the studio again and re-recording electric guitar tracks on:
Fine Fools
The Night Let Me Down
Strings
Moonshine Valentine
Even If It's Wrong

...and fixing one bum note in "Honor Among Thieves."

The weekend of the 15th, I'll go back in and do acoustic guitar tracks on:
Strings
The Night Let Me Down
Moonshine Valentine
Honor Among Thieves

Hopefully, on the same day (the 15th) I do the acoustic guitar tracks, I'll do piano tracks on:

Moonshine Valentine
Honor Among Thieves
Strings
The Night Let Me Down
If The Stars Align
Rumors
Fine Fools
The Cover
Even If it's Wrong

... and then record the horn parts on "You're The Reason" and then record "You Suck More Than I Do." (LOLOLOL)

The week after that (sometime between the 17th and 21st), I'll go in and do the lead vocal tracks for all the songs, and then the week after that (sometime between the 24th and 28th), Kenny will record his lead and rhythm tracks. Once that's done, we have backing vocals and harmony parts to do (probably between the 29th and the 10th of September), and then mixing (probably between the 10th and the 16th of September).

And then we'll be done.

Writing Crap

So, I basically took the first two days of this month off from writing, even though I signed up for another writing thing for the second consecutive month. So, my word count total so far for AugNoWriMo is just what I have written since about 2:30 AM, which is 1,111 words (no, I am so totally not kidding).

Since I have set a goal of 65,000 words, I am going to have to keep a better schedule than this. I need to write at least 2,500 words a day, or I won't make it. Luckily, I am in an exciting part of the book, where everything is starting to come together (though I guarantee you that you won't see the twist coming... it's starting to twist in A Night Borrowed, but you won't see the full rotation until the third book, Night Fades.

My Neck Is Killing Me

I must be sleeping funny again, as my neck is doing almost the same thing as before when I went and saw the chiropractor. I feel like someone's stabbing a railroad spike into my neck. It's terrible. I have ice on it now, even as I type.

I planted lawn seed today with Caitlin, as we still had some bare spots out in the lawn from all my gardening efforts earlier this summer. I also got copies of all the stuff we've done in the studio so far, but I have yet to listen to them. Gonna do that shortly. Then, I have to re-write an FDA report for a client, and then I am going to play piano, and then I am going to write... if I have time.

Sometime this month, I need to put the CD cover together. I need to get a bottle for the front cover, and I need to get a label to put on the bottle with the band's name and the album title printed on it. I need to get pictures of the band, and I need to get some custom picks made, and then there is a ton of other stuff that I can't do until I get my school money in September. Le sigh.

I DID IT!!!

I just hit 53,730 words in A Night Borrowed for JulNoWriMo. That's just for the month of July, and I didn't even start until a few days into the month. Ha! I am really pleased with myself right now.

Now, on to AugNoWriMo, where I plan to write 65,000 words in 31 days. That's only about 2,100 words a day, but I'll have to write every single day to do it.

So, I am celebrating tomorrow. Taking a day off from the computer!! (Don't make much sense, do I? Have to write every day and then taking a day off? Pppttthhhhfff!)