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.
