Rewrite of Books and Songs

 I have spent most of my time revising, re-singing, re-recording, and reposting my songs that I haven't had a lot of time to post on the Blog about my books. It's fun, though. Both are fun. That is, writing books is fun and writing music.

The funny thing is, I started writing music as a teenager so many years ago. I really only started writing books about ten years ago. So that makes sense that I've written 145 songs and five books.

Actually, I started writing my first book when I was about 8. That is I was eight years old. It was a child's effort of course, and I never finished it. But in college I actually started to write and illustrate a graphic novel.  You know....like a comic book. I almost finished it too. I got three or four "issues" done, (or was it two or three) I can't remember. That is I did the art, the writing, and everything.

But in the real comics worlds a comic book is a collaborative effort. Meaning there's a writer who writes the story. Then there are THREE artists who illustrate the story, (the penciller who creates the storyboard, then the inker who inks it, and then the colorist who, you guessed it, colors it.)

Of course there is the editor, the editor-in-chief, and the letterer who puts in the word balloons and such, and probably a lot of others also.

There are some artists who have done it all alone like Jim Lee and Frank Miller and others who excelled at doing that. They are legends who took over for the prior legends....those being Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, Steve Ditko, Gene Colon, John Romita, Neil Adams, John Buscema, Jim Steranko, Jim Starlin, and the list goes on.

So, my graphic novel effort took a big pause when I got married. 

But way before that, I had started writing songs on the piano. I had a piano in my house and I had taken piano lessons, so I knew how to play it. And soon enough, I started writing some very good songs. I had written a dozen songs or so in those early years. I did not have the means to record them so I had to remember them in my mind over the years. But remember them, I did.

And then the technology caught up to me. I had become an art teacher, and I was married with a son, and there was a huge "Yamaha" store not far from my house. I dropped in one day and bought one of those Yamaha portable keyboards and bingo, the music flowed. 

I wrote the equivalent of four albums in the space of a couple months. (Yes, those albums are indeed Volumes 1, 2, 3, and 4.) As I said, I had already written a dozen songs for Volume 1, but I wrote a few more and put a total of 15 songs on Volume 1. Then I wrote enough songs for three more albums.

Then I bought another Yamaha portable keyboard, an even better one, and over the next few months I wrote the music for Volumes 5 through 13. After some years of just letting them sit on cassette tapes, and being unable to find a singer to sing them, I decided to sing them myself. 

Finally I wrote the songs for Volume 14 and all volumes are on SoundCloud now and can be accessed on the right margin of this blog. I think the songs are great, (if not the singing.) But I sing in tune and in key. So it works. And I am content. I am back to the books now. I will continue to revise Killer of Killers, Killer Eyes, The Vase, John Dunn, and Second Chance until new publishers step up. 

I'll keep you posted. Just don't hold your breath on those. I won't.

Revisions Continue

 Well, I talked about revising. As in revising many of the 145 songs I've written. (Contained in the 14 albums I've "dropped" at this time.) This revising includes re-singing many of them as well. And of course, the result is better songs.  

But at the same time, I've been revising my novels. I have the rights to all of them now, and I have focused on improving them. It makes sense. I'm older now, and more experienced now. I have a better understanding of how to write a novel.

So after doing so, I have resubmitted John Dunn, The Vase, and Second Chance for publication with different publishers. Each book is submitted to a different publisher, that is. (As well as different publishers than the original publishers.) It will be a long wait, but the time goes by whether you submit or not. I had revised each of those three books countless times over the past couple years, so it goes without saying they are all vastly improved at this point.

As for Killer of Killers and Killer Eyes? When I got the rights back I went right to work on revising them too. I found a publisher in the UK who specializes in the genre of Crime Fiction and Thrillers. Just right for my Martial Arts Thrillers. This publisher also noted that in his view a thriller novel should be around 72,000 words or so. So I promptly revised Killer of Killers, which stood at 88,000 words, down to 72,000 words. That's 16,000 words I cut out. And you know what? It's a lot better for doing that.

As for Killer Eyes? It was a novel with 96,000 words. And I'm just now finishing my first pass through it and I've already cut out 12,000 words. So, it's at 84,000 words now, but I'm not finished. I will give it another pass and then another, and if need be another until I'm in the 72,000 range. Can't wait. Because then, I'll submit that one too.

As for my music? I'm not quite done revising my songs yet. I still have to redo the percussion on Looking Back and maybe re-sing parts of Volume 12 and 13. Maybe I'll have time over Christmas break. The good news is I'm pretty much done revising and re-singing Volumes 1 - 11, and 14 too at this point. And those songs are all sounding great right now, even with my less-than-ideal singing voice. But I'm cool with that. Hope you are too. Hope you have time to give some of them a listen. 

Resinging Songs

Since I'm not a singer, (but I sing my songs anyway,) I have found that treating my songs the same way I treat my manuscripts, (novels) is the best way to go. That means, yes, I am revising them.  

The good thing about Soundcloud is that you can replace any file without interrupting the song's playlist or any of the stats each song or playlist has compiled. (For me, a "playlist" is the same thing as an album.) But it's not the same thing to Soundcloud. Albums to Soundcloud are real albums produced by a real recording label and released or "dropped" by those same producers.

I'm just a loner doing everything myself. But so what, I'm getting it done. Surely not with the same production values as a real recording studio, but hey, I'm not a real singer and as far as I'm concerned, the music is sounding great anyway.

Well, they're my songs, so they better sound great. And they do. I actually have 45 followers now. I know it's a far cry from 45,000 followers. In case you don't know, a "follower" is someone who has heard a song or two and decided he or she likes it enough to follow the artist to hear more of his or her songs later. And yes, some people are actually "liking" some of my songs.

One of the good things about Soundcloud is that it compiles the number of times each song has been played by someone other than me. Some of my songs are in the triple digits now. I don't know how anyone knows about my songs. I suppose people surf through the Soundcloud "line up" and choose songs at random in the genre of the music they prefer. And they can click on the heart icon which means they like the song. Some people are doing that too, even people who are not followers.

Sure, artists want people to like his or her works, and that goes for any kind of art. Whether it's fine art like drawings, paintings, or sculpture, or a performing art like music, it doesn't matter. But the bottom line is that I like my music, and that's good enough for me. 

So if anyone who's reading this happens to listen to a song or two of mine, I can only hope you will like it too. Just click any of the "album" covers in the right margin of the blog. Just be forewarned. I won't sound like Frank Sinatra or Dean Martin. But I will sound like me.

Blacklist - Meh

So it's over just like that. Marvin Gerard is dead, apparently by suicide. It was appropriate, but, of course, the audience did not see it. The audience was only privy to hearing a gunshot from the car in which Gerard was sitting. And that's it for this season.

Next season promises a brand new villain. A Chinese assassin, who was tipped off (by Gerard) who it was that put him behind bars. Was it Red? According to Marvin Gerard it was. Is it true? We don't know. We had never seen this guy before. But I had said that I wanted new villains, not just the same old premise of former friends turned enemies. So I suppose they are giving me what I asked for. Right? We'll see.

I still want to see storylines that include the Skinners. It was a great idea, but seemingly forgotten. Maybe they can meld the two storylines. That's what I would do. Again. We'll see.

This is So Old

So it's not Mr. Kaplan. But once again, the writers of The Blacklist can't think of any new or original storylines, but to make another one of Red Reddington's closest allies into a hated enemy. 

So it seems the Mr. Kaplan angle was a hoax, as I hoped, but that didn't make it any better. Instead, it's his oldest friend and attorney, Marvin, who had betrayed him. And he's the one who had Lizzy killed, and he's the one who was framing Harold. I was so disappointed because I have been criticizing this show for a long time, years even, that I was so tired of the same old storyline of Red's closest friends betraying him and becoming his enemies. From his closest friend, (and who better be his daughter,) Lizzy to his other close friends, and now it's Marvin.

Why can't they create a new foe? A real foe? Or at least stop rehashing the same storyline over and over again. Will they ever get back to that Skinner story? I was thinking they had a good concept there. But it was a one and done deal. At least so far. Once this Marvin story is over, I would very much like to see the Skinner story resumed. I hope they won't make me wait until next season. But they probably will.

Mr. Kaplan? Again? WTF?

 I really hate to continue this seemingly never ending criticism of what used to be my favorite show. Yes, The Blacklist. But once again it is failing to entertain. And once again I am on the verge of quitting that show. As the title of this post suggests, it's about Mr. Kaplan...again.

I used to like Kate Kaplan. (She was called Mr. Kaplan by a tormentor in her past, a mocking of her being gay, and the name stuck.) I liked her character because she was a loyal ally of Red Reddington. Until she wasn't. See the pattern here?

I never liked it when a man as good and generous and loyal as Red has been, is betrayed by those same people that he had been so generous and loyal to. It's like the writers of this show can't think of any other storyline. So they find Red's closest allies and turn them into enemies.

And a few years ago that was the storyline and I hated it. It went like this: Mr. Kaplan, who was a close friend and ally of Red's, suddenly becomes his rival and near equal in crime. And of course bent on DESTROYING him. (Caps deliberate.)

It lasted an entire season, until she jumped from a bridge into the Potomac River. Now it seems these lousy writers are expecting us to believe that a frail old woman survived the fall (and the drowning) to once again torment Red Reddington. No! I've had enough of that. So it better be a scam, meaning it better be an imposter and it better get resolved in this next episode. I don't want another long drawn out battle with this kind of tired storyline.

Actually, the storyline was supposed to be finding Lizzy's killer. Or are we going to have to suffer through a resurrection of Lizzy next?  And going by what we've been seeing, I'm betting she will rise again vowing to DESTROY Red Reddington, the man who saved her life no less than three times. 

Oh wait, she'll blame him for being shot. And oh yeah he had a secret, (which was the reason she wanted to DESTROY him the last time. (Even though he had saved her life maybe four times or more, (I lost count.) But yeah, that's how it will pan out. Just watch. And if it does, that will be the nail in the coffin for me. Pardon the pun. 

I'm No Reviewer

I may not be a reviewer, but that doesn't mean I don't have opinions of what I think is good writing and what isn't. And what I think is a good idea, and what isn't.

TV shows have been sinking in quality, imo, for the last several decades. I'm referring to the years since what I call the golden age of TV, which was the 60s. Back then, you had great TV shows. Bonanza, Gunsmoke, The Wild, Wild West, Lost in Space, Star Trek, and even The Time Machine. Of course, the list goes on and on. I can't even count the number of great shows from the 60s.

The TV shows back then were great ideas for shows. The characters were great, and the casting for the characters was spot on. I mean James Arness as Matt Dillon was spot on. Lorne Green as Ben Cartwright was spot on. Robert Conrad as James West was spot on. Guy Williams as Professor John Robinson was spot on. And William Shatner as Captain Kirk was spot on. Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock was spot on. It seemed that the 60s was the golden age of TV.

I might concede that TV was okay in the 70s, but I was not sitting in front of a TV during that decade. Unless it was a football game. And that continued through the 80s too. Of course had there been a show worth watching, I would like to think that I would have. Alas, to me, at least, there weren't. Not even the return of Star Trek, (as in TNG) made me interested again. I'll admit I gave it a chance. At first I thought the older captain of a larger starship with a larger crew made sense. But at about half way through season one, I realized this new version of Star Trek sucked.

To be clear, I still had a deep affection for Star Trek TOS. And I had high hopes for TNG version. But those hopes were dashed by the portrayal of a starship captain who was always second-guessing himself, and who always needed the counseling of a much younger woman who actually had a position on the bridge as part of the command crew... It was like....what?

Can you imagine a captain of a battleship in our modern navy having to consult with a younger man or woman sitting next to him before he made command decisions? I don't think so... And so I stopped watching Star Trek, TNG before season one even concluded. I was glad I did. As for the subsequent editions of Star Trek shows, I'll admit I watched them on and off, with mixed opinions.

Which brought me into the 90s. Those shows were a roller coaster ride of highs and lows. There was the Babylon 5 show which I thought was pretty good. I never got into Cheers or Seinfeld, or any of those sitcoms. I wasn't much of a sitcom type of person. I didn't even appreciate All in the Family from the 70s. I thought it sucked actually. Which is my overall opinion of all sitcoms.

And now, in the 21st century, things aren't much better for me, as my most watched TV remains football games. The NFL in particular, and even that has suffered with the kneeling protests and the racially motivated lawsuits and such. It's a distraction and a detriment, imo.

Football was always a place, for me, at least, where race did not matter. First of all, skin color to me never mattered. Not when I was a kid growing up, not when I was a teenager and not now as an adult. A man was a man no matter what color was his skin, or what country was his origin. And a woman was a woman, regardless of any ethnic background.

But in the 21st century, race seems to be the issue that is on everyone's mind. Most people anyway, since it's always in the news and in TV shows and in the movies. Race and LGBTQ issues. It seems like TV and the movies are force-feeding these issues down our throats. And I don't appreciate that. I don't need Hollywood preaching to me. I don't need anyone preaching to me. Never did.

So I write what I like. Meaning I write my own books, I write my own music, I create my own art and my own stories. I don't expect anyone to appreciate what I write, nor do I need them to. If they have an opinion, even a bad one, that's their right. But life is too short to care about petty things like that. It's like I said many times, it doesn't matter to me. I have better things to do. 

Not Canceled

 So the Blacklist TV show is not cancelled apparently. And the rift between Red and Dembe seems to be mended. I thought it was stupid anyway. And even more stupid was when Dembe was going to betray Red for his daughter. Not that his daughter wasn't worth it. But the last time we saw his daughter she was like five years old, and now she's a grown up, like thirty something. It's lousy writing. And speaking of daughters, when will they confirm that Lizzy was Red's daughter?

I had said that I thought the show was going in the right direction because Red was now the leader of some ages-old secret organization called the Skinners. But since then, nothing has happened in terms of that.  It's suddenly all about who killed Lizzy, or who hired the guy that killed her. Okay. But I would like to see that secret organization return to the storyline. 

Just have to wait and see. At least Red's friends have stopped betraying him. For now.

Forget Blacklist

 I posted a lot about the TV show Blacklist. I did that because it had become my favorite TV show. I didn't even watch the show when it first came out. I think I started watching after it was on for over three years. Then I binged watched it with my wife, and I quickly declared it my all time favorite TV show. But after the third season, I was disappointed it was falling short of the already established level of greatness it had achieved. And for the next five years, I did not enjoy it much at all.

In short, the writing sucked. This current season, which is the 9th season, had made a slight rebound, but I read recently that the show will be cancelled. And that is all right with me. Because, even though I liked the direction it was going, it keeps on going back to the same old storylines of Red Reddington's closest allies conspiring against him. Even Dembe. Twice now.

The last episode that aired seemed to rectify that idiotic plotline, but there's another thing that bothers me about what these writers are doing. Using topical issues that include real life people in their fictional show. Another episode that disgusted me was the one about abortion. More specifically, it was about some lunatic who was transplanting pregnant women's uteruses into men who were against abortion and then daring them to get an abortion.

Not only was that disgusting, it was plain ridiculous. I almost quit the show at that point. But I kept on watching anyway, but with a reduced enthusiasm. So if it's true that Blacklist is being cancelled, I say Good Riddance. It was a once great show that turned into crap. It's not uncommon.