Happy Birthday to an Old Friend

I am working diligently on revising my novel, The Vase, so as to resubmit it for publication, this time with an independent press. I am confident that once my latest revisions are done, it will be worthy, once again, for publication. But as I paused to consider this day, I remembered that this day, March 28th, is the birthday of an old friend. A friend I had lost contact with long ago. Actually, it's the childhood friend I had when we used to play the Black Sabbath songs. I had posted once that I would play the Black Sabbath songs on the piano, and he would sing the lyrics. No, he wasn't a singer. What he was, was a drummer. But he sang the songs in tune, and hit every note. Those were enjoyable times for me. Because, at the time, Black Sabbath was my favorite rock band. Flash forward years later, to now: I have written my own music, and as I had posted before, it was when I remembered that this childhood friend was singing the Sabbath songs well enough, even though he wasn't a singer, that I too could sing songs, especially when those songs were my own songs that I had written! So hats off to this old friend, because it was those memories that convinced me that I could sing my own songs which I do now, and you and anyone else can listen to one or all of them by clicking on any of the links to the right of this post that feature the 14 albums of original songs I have written over the years. And yes, I plan on dropping my fifteenth album this coming summer.

The New Year and What it will Bring

So 2025 is well underway. And the new year brings a great prospect of change for the better. I will remain a teacher, sure, as it brings a great deal of contentment and satisfaction knowing that I am contributing to society in a great way. But I would like to believe that I can contribute to society in another way. Sure, raising two great sons who are now in their twenties was a great task. Especially since they too are contributing to society in the health and fitness field. But my contributions, I would like to believe, also contribute in the artistic way. That being in art, music, and literature. I will continue to revise and improve both my music and my novels. I have already begun writing songs for what would be my fifteenth album. I began last summer, but it took a pause when I decided to improve the songs I had already published. And I did. And I will continue to do. And I will continue to improve the novels. My goal is to see the novels republished this summer and to finish my fifteenth album of music this summer as well. It's a tall order. But it's what I do.

Book Blog and Music Blog

As I reflect on this blog and its contents, I'm reminded that I started it as a writing blog. That was because I had begun to write some novels, and fancied myself a writer. It wasn't any hubris on my part. It was prompted by my San Jose State University professors who were mentoring me during the two years I spent in the Teaching Credential Program over there. Often, it was required to write reports of varioius kinds. Actually more than often. More like it was constant. And then some years later when I was in the Master's Degree program majoring in Education, report writing again was constant. And both times the professors were telling me that I was a good writer. (Which probably explains why I was getting straight As throughout those programs.) So I had been only a moderate reader during my life, but I liked the idea of writing some novels about things in which I had an interest: Martial Arts heroes, Football heroes, along with a story about The Vase, and another interesting topic about which I had learned which was the true story of a historical character named John Dunn. And after some moderate success which saw all five novels published, I returned to an original interest wich was music. I had always been a musician, and I loved music as much as the next guy, but I also had a knack for writing original tunes. I would dabble on the piano during my spare time and write my own songs. I was never too serious about it, because I never envisioned myself becoming a professional musician or song writer. Nevertheless, I found myself writing new songs, one after another as if I were a conveyer belt putting out new songs by the tons. In a couple years, had written enough music to fill 13 conventional albums. And after a failed attempt to find a singer, I ended up being the singer. There were two reasons for this. I had briefly played with a band, all of whom wrote their own songs. I didn't want to play their songs. I wanted them to sing my songs. But they insisted that anyone who writes a song must sing his own song. And then I remembered an old friend who would sing some of our favorite songs while I played on the piano. Now that guy wasn't a singer, but he actually did sing the songs in key and he hit every note. So I thought if he could do it, why can't I? So I did. And like books, revising took place. And more revising. And yes even more revising and then writiing more songs for a 14th album. And now I am content that even though I still don't consider myself a singer, (like my friend wasn't) the singing is still in key and I am still hitting every note, and the songs are complete with a full band in accompaniment, and the vocals in place. And this blog can now be about both... the books and the music. It's on... (One caveat. This blog does not allow paragraphs. I have five paragraphs formatted in the draft I just wrote, but when I publish the draft all of those paragraphs disappear into one giant piece. Maybe I'm missing some formatting thing.)

Okay Back to the Books

As I indicated, I have revised and/or re-sung a lot of my songs, which can now be heard, not only on SoundCloud (Volumes 1 - 14), but on Spotify, YouTube, Pandora, and many other platforms, (Volumes 1 - 5). Yes, I still want to revise and/or re-sing some more songs on albums 6 - 13, but that will have to wait. For now I want to get back to my books. I had revised the heck out of all five books already, but as I revisited The Vase, sure enough, I found more prose to revise. And so that means the same thing must be true for all of them. Which I will do. So, here we go again. Starting with The Vase, which I still hope to republish one day.

Revised Albums 1, 2, 4, and 8 too

I talked about revising albums 9 and 11, but I also said I was going to keep at it, and I have. I have revised other songs on other albums, too. Mostly I'm resinging the songs, since my singing can only get better each time, and it has. But I've made some minor adjustments as well, mostly toning down some of the volumes, and rearranging some of the instrumentation. So, yeah, with that in mind, writing music isn't so much different than writing novels. Revise, revise, and revise, and the end result is a better work of art. I suppose it's true for everything. At least in the art world. Glad I'm an artist.

Revising Albums 9 and 11

I figure I've revised the hell out of my five books. I'm sure there are more improvements I can make and I will. But I have spent the last two weeks improving my music during this summer break. I've resung many songs on Volumes 9 and 11. I have always conceded that I'm not a singer. But that doesn't mean I can't try and make efforts to improve. I believe I have. The songs on Volumes 9 and 11 are great songs, and when I listen to them I'm amazed that I'm the one who wrote them. And now, with the improved vocals, they're even better. I will keep it up. It's what I do.

Finished Revising The Vase

I know. For the umpteenth time. The writing is as polished as can be. I originally wrote this story more than ten years ago. It was well written then, but like anything, the more you do something the better it gets. And the better you get at doing it. So after all these years of revising, polishing and making the story catch up to the times, the manuscript is ready to go. Now if only an agent would request to read it, I am confident said agent will be impressed. It's an uplifting story. It features a topical issue, and has a lot of conflict. But it has a happy ending. And when finished reading it, the reader will feel good about the world. That's what I wanted and that's what I achieved.