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!)

I Am So Far Behind...

...I couldn't catch my ass with both hands and Stickum.

It's been a long month. I'm at about 40,000 words so far in A Night Borrowed in JulNoWriMo. Which means, in the next three hours - if I was to make the 50,000 words for the month - I'd have to write another 10,000 words. Which, at this point, is probably not going to happen.

An acquaintance told me that my storm pictures of the "potential tornado" we had on Tuesday were used on KXLY News 4 - without attribution. Grr.

Better get to writing, I suppose.

Must Be Stupid

I am about 10,000 words behind to get to 50,000 words for JulNoWriMo, but I just signed up to do 65,000 words in AugNoWriMo (August Novel Writing Month) for the month of August. The goal is to finish Devil's Handiwork and A Night Borrowed by the end of August. Devil's Handiwork needs about another 25,000 words to be done, and A Night Borrowed will need about another 40,000 words... assuming that I actually hit 50,000 words in it for July. HAHAHA.

We Recorded

So, we recorded again yesterday. It went all right. Got to the studio right about 3 PM. We unloaded my amp and guitar and the bassist's guitars, and set those up. I went over the site with the recording guy, who wants some changes to the site.

The drummer arrived, unloaded his stuff, and set up his drums. That took about 15 minutes. Another half hour to set up microphones on the drums.

We started with "Strings." It took about 4 takes, but we got one that worked pretty quickly. Encouraged, we went into "The Night Let Me Down." It took us probably a dozen takes but we finally got a good take. Next, we did the drummer's song, "Dear Jane." That one took about a half dozen takes, mostly for false starts. The drummer was not happy with one of the spots on my guitar, so I will re-do it later. Next, we did "Rumors," and, even though that's a pretty difficult song to play, we only needed three takes to get it right.

Once we were done with those - which were the songs we had planned to get done yesterday all along - I went over the list of songs left to do. I had previously listened to the six songs we'd recorded the last time, and decided that we might want to re-do "The Cover" and "Even If It's Wrong," but that the second take of "You're The Reason" we could keep, along with the three I knew were good from the last session: "Moonshine Valentine," "If The Stars Align" and the third take of "Honor Among Thieves." So, after yesterday's session, we only had "Relax" left to do, and, possibly, re-doing "The Cover," as the band decided that they liked the take of "Even If It's Wrong."

I have a new-ish song called "Fine Fools," and I really like that song, so, I decided that we would record it, too, for this record. So, we took three takes to get "Fine Fools," and then two takes on "Relax." After listening back to them, I still think that we need to re-do "The Cover" with a metronome, and I also think that we should re-do "Relax" with a metronome. I am waiting to get copies of everything from the recording guy and then we'll make a decision on those two songs. I am pretty sure, though, that we will be re-doing those two with a metronome.

So, all in all, this is what is done for the record, as far as bass, drums, and rhythm guitar go:
Moonshine Valentine
If The Stars Align
Rumors
The Night Let Me Down
Fine Fools
Strings
Even If It's Wrong
You're The Reason

I will have to re-do or edit guitar tracks on:
Dear Jane (one damned note, but that's enough, I guess)
Honor Among Thieves (one damned note, too)

We'll probably be re-doing:
The Cover
Relax

And then I have one more song to add, but it is piano and vocals only:
You Suck More Than I Do

I should be writing today, but I am not. I am tired.

Word Count Status

I'm at about 31,000 words in A Night Borrowed for the month of July!

Recording Stuff

I talked to my cousin, Angel (since she has played in a brass section), and asked about getting a brass section to play on "You're The Reason." I showed her the song and the parts as I have written them on the keyboard, and she said that real horns probably wouldn't come out a lot better than the way the keyboard sounds. She says that recordings are generally pretty harsh on horns. So, I will probably just play the keyboard for those parts. Saves me some money, too.

JulNoWriMo & Stuff

Didn't write at all yesterday, but we did have a short band practice. We practiced the four originals that we're going to record the bass, drums, and rhythm guitar for on the 25th, when we go back into the studio.

I have four new show recaps up: here, here, here, and here.

Today, I plan to write some more in A Night Borrowed. I am almost at 30,000 words for the month. :)