Gregg Rolie's Concert Inspired

After seeing and thinking about Gregg Rolie's concert last Friday night, I am finding myself inspired. After all, I aspired to be a song writer in the not too distant past. I did write over a hundred songs, mostly rock songs that I had saved on several floppy discs and cassette tapes. That right there shows you how long ago I did that. It was twenty years ago.

Since then, I've been focused on being a father, a husband, and a school teacher. And now a book writer. But I was inspired by a rock band before. It was the return of Black Sabbath twenty years ago, which prompted the composition of most of my songs. Then I got into writing books the last ten years, and I've found a little bit of success at that. But now with Gregg Rolie's concert so fresh in my mind, I'm thinking about going back to my music.

When I started this blog, I posted the lyrics to the last music "album" I wrote. It was my"volume 13" and I called it Rockin' the Afterlife. I had no clue as to how to post the music to go with it, so I just stopped at that point. But now that I'm inspired again, I posted the lyrics today to the second to the last album I wrote. I had never named it, I just called it "volume 12" but in the spirit of giving albums names, I'll call it Rockin' the Cosmos. The lyrics will explain why, just as the lyrics explain the title Rockin' the Afterlife.

But I know that somehow it's possible to put the music on there too. I'm still figuring out how to put the music on my computer, and when I finally got that figured out, my next step will be to copyright it and then post it onto the blog. That way, I'll have another of my creative products accessible to the public. All of the music was written and performed by me. Which is not necessarily a good thing, because all of the instruments were simulated on a keyboard.

Overall, I think it sounds good enough. My dream would be for a live band to perform it, but playing in a live band is not so easy as it sounds. For now, the simulated instrumentation will have to do, and my own singing will have to do. Don't worry. I do hit the notes and I do stay in key. Obviously, I'm no Gregg Rolie. Not even close. But like I said. I do stay in key. I had a friend a long time ago who used to sing the Black Sabbath tunes while I played them on the piano. I remember that was a blast. He was good enough to stay in key, and he hit the notes, even though he was no singer. That's what made me think I could do it. Like him, I'm no singer, but I hit the notes. Stay tuned.

Looking Back

How appropriate that the final song to my 13th volume of music I wrote years ago is called Looking Back. It's because I am so very near completion of my first draft to my third novel. I could stay up late and finish it now, but I don't dare. I have got to get to bed now, and stop this bad habit of writing all night.

But when you have two sons, aged 14 and 8, who demand your supervision lest they tear up the house, and a wife who you've been married to for 21 years, you find you get the most done when everyone else is asleep.

I can finish the first draft tomorrow. In the meantime, Looking Back does tell a little about my vision of a life lived, and a death that is inevitable.

What Did You See?

The ninth song from Rockin' the Afterlife is up now. Had a lot more trouble picking a picture for this one. I choose random photos from the internet. (With the exception being Kings Will Rise Up, which I used a medieval painting.) But I wanted a picture of someone asleep, and I wanted it to look like they were dreaming, and at the same time portraying them as seeing what they were dreaming in a cognitive manner.

Normally, I don't want to put up another artist's painting or drawing, because that would be like a writer putting up someone else's writing to make their point. Even if they credit the other writer, I think a writer should use their own work, thus, if I would use a painting other than one of my own, I would only use one from the old masters. (Or one like the medieval painting.)

I was going to use Giorgione's painting of the Sleeping Venus, because the first three lines of the song, "When you laid down, you had a dream, you closed your eyes..." seemed to fit the painting. But after I pasted it in there, it looked like she was playing with herself, so I decided against it. (Didn't know they were that risqué in the 1500s!)

I ended up finding some new age work, and it seemed to fit what the words of the song were saying, so whoever did that visual, which I don't even know who it is, I hope you don't mind.

Sideways

Just got the eighth song up on the Lyrics page. Plus I figured out how to put better images in there. (Yeah, I'm still a novice at this, but who will show me? My wife is a Dental Assistant. She expects me to show her.)

Anyway, for those who have time to check out my lyrics to Rockin' the Afterlife, I added some customized images above the words, instead of my eyes that were there before.

It's all just an excuse to break from my WIP which I am really down on right now. I might have to start over...almost from scratch...I changed so much from the outline, that now I wish I never did an outline.

I thought that writing my third novel would be a lot easier than the first two. Guess what. It isn't. It's harder. Now there's a WTF moment. A real one. Damn.

Now You're There - In the middle!

Song number seven from Rockin' the Afterlife is up now. Actually, it was up yesterday, but I forgot to mention it. Don't know if anyone believes in the afterlife or in reincarnation, but that is the theme of the album. Still working on getting the soundtrack put into the blog. I would love for anyone who wants to hear it to be able to hear it. It's in the future.

And that title, (Now You're There) is applicable to where I am when it comes to writing my novel, I'm at that sticky stage. Yeah, I'm still coming to terms with the new stuff I put in that wasn't in the outline. The funny thing is I didn't have this problem for either of my first two novels. I was able to start and zip on through to the end. Again, one was not outlined and one was. I felt that with the outline, I would have a concrete blueprint to follow, and it worked like that with THE VASE. I followed the outline from start to finish. Sure I put a couple new things in that weren't on the original outline, but it didn't change the course of the story. That's what happened this time. The course of my story has changed, and I can't adhere to the outline...well, I'm trying to. I'm trying to make it work. I talked about it yesterday. I said you just got to try harder.

Here's where my snag is. The climax of the story is supposed to take place in a large biochemical laboratory. (As it did in the first book.) But I have to get all the key character over there to make it happen. Trouble is the lab is in Minnesota. The key characters are in New York and San Francisco. And I have so many characters, I feel like I'm swimming in characters...drowning even.

So each character has got to have a good reason, a believable reason, to go to that lab in Minnesota. Every time I think I have the answer, I think of something that makes it not so believable. But the thinking cap is still on. I am committed to this story. It is, after all, my favorite character. And I do have the ending down, although not on paper yet. I may write it sooner than later if I can't unsnag this middle.

Kings Will Rise Up

The sixth of ten songs on Rockin' the Afterlife. Gettin' there.

As for Trent Smith...he's working out at Joe's Workhorse Gym right now, and just gave a free demonstration of his martial arts expertise at the expense of an overconfident braggart. Needless to say the braggart is no longer overconfident nor is he still a braggart. Joe's gym is in downtown Manhattan. (Originally it was in LA, but too much is coming down in the Big Apple, so Trent's got to stay put on the east coast.)

In my outline, I had him in California all this time, and I was at a crossroads to figure out why would he be zipping back and forth so many times in such a short span of time. My conclusion was to have him just be in New York and NOT be going back to California. But I had to rewrite all those LA scenes to take place in NY instead.

I also had to change an LA baseball team into a NY one. It makes more sense anyway, since the ballplayer on that team is supposed to be under the East Coast honcho's umbrella. That's why we got to be flexible. We're writers, after all. You understand. It's the greatest thing. We're literally world builders. We create characters...events...problems...solutions...we have all the power.

Time in the Sun

That's the title of the fifth song from Rockin' the Afterlife. It's up now. I still plan on linking the music. It's only half of the product when just the lyrics are posted without the melody. One day.

But my focus right now is writing KILLER EYES. It's at 36,000-plus words, page 128, and I'm rockin' the keyboard every day. This is why I'm a writer. Nothing stops you but yourself. Don't need band members, don't need microphones or musical instruments, (although I've got all those anyway...just not the band members.)

I suppose I could link somehow the music from my Yamaha synthesizer...since it synthesizes all the other instruments, but it won't sound as good as the real thing.

But all you need to write a book is you and your computer. Of course being hooked up to the internet is a great help. You know...for research. At the tip of your fingers. No more library excursions...phone calls...interviews...although I have done all of that anyway. When I wrote KILLER OF KILLERS, I interviewed the Shihan from my son's dojo. My son is a black belt in Kenpo Ju Jitsu, (the art I studied myself when I was younger) and I also interviewed some of the senseis there.

In case you're wondering, Sensei is the Japanese term for teacher, and Shihan is the lead teacher, or maybe like the Principal, if comparing it to an American school. They agreed to interviews whenever I requested them, and made available to me a ton of literature. But I'd be less than truthful if I didn't admit to using the internet, as well. I most certainly did. Same thing for THE VASE.

So yeah...no reason to be held back from writing. Unless you're just not in the mood. If that's the case...writing ain't for you.

Now, back to KILLER EYES!!

Song #4 - Drum Beat

Just posted one of my personal favorite songs. But they're all my personal favorite songs, really, since I wrote them all. You don't write a song you don't like, because if you do, you scratch it before it gets written.

It's like would you write a book you don't like? Of course not. If you don't like what you wrote, you delete it and go again.

I write and I write. If I reread it, and find I don't like it, (and yeah, that has happened,) I delete it and rewrite it.

Being a late night person, it is not uncommon to be in a zone. But it can be a GREAT zone, like you're in cruise control. Or that other zone. The zone that is mysterious like automatic pilot. What's the difference? Well, cruise control, you still see where you're going. Automatic pilot, you don't. You can write something you think is great, but then the next day, it's like, WTF??? DELETE!!!

Anyway, these songs were not written in the zone. They were written with care and insight...from the soul after I wrote the music.

Talking about the past...and I do in these songs...is like reading history. I like history. I like these songs. I hope to get that band together.

Song #3: Not Your Show

Got to get that band together so I can post the music to these lyrics.

In case you don't know what I'm talking about, they're the lyrics to my 13th volume of original songs I composed years ago, and since I am only recently adept at this blogging thing, I am only now posting them...but not all at once. I should have the ten songs from Rockin' the Afterlife down soon enough, and whether I post any of the other 12 volumes remains to be seen.

Got to get the band back together...sheesh, I sound like those guys from The Blues Brothers. Didn't really like that movie, btw. When it comes to movies, I seldom like comedies but there are some that I think were good. I have a couple posted in my favorite movies section in my profile. I think I'll list the only movies that made me laugh.

In order of how much they made me laugh:

1-Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
This movie was ahead of its time. It's a satire based on the movie, Failsafe, starring Peter Sellers in three separate roles.

2-Galaxy Quest
This movie busted me up so much, it took over for a couple others that maybe should be in this spot.

3-It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
This movie from the 60s features just about every big name comedian from that decade.

4-Up in Smoke
This was Cheech and Chong's first movie, and the only one that made me laugh. Boy, did it ever make me laugh.

5-Which Way is Up?
Richard Pryor's best movie, imo. He was at the top of his game in this one.

Anyway, time to get back to Killer Eyes...WHAT? It's 1:35 a.m. Sheesh, maybe I should go to sleep. Naw...

Progress, Part 3

Over 20,000 words. Trent is up against the Killers Guild. I know it sounds like a redone TV show. I remember the League of Assassins in the Wild, Wild West. But I figure for a man known as the Killer of Killers, there's just gotta be some kind of organization like that somewhere along the line. And since I'm not sure if I'll write another sequel past this one, I better get them in there now. That's why I call it Killer Eyes. A beautiful Chinese woman is the head of the guild, and she's got the hots for Trent.

BTW, I have my second song on reincarnation up on the lyrics website. Hope you like it. I'll be on vacation starting tomorrow. Taking the family to Disneyland. Be back after the 4th of July. I might use my son's laptop while we're there. I plan on continuing my WIP, but maybe I'll blog. But if I don't, that's why.

Something Different

Put a link to one of my songs today. Actually, it's not the music, it's just the lyrics I wrote years ago to a song called Soul of Liberty. (I wrote the music too, but I still need to get it recorded by a band with modern technology. Right now it's still on cassette. Yeah, I'm from the old days.)

Anyone out there believe in reincarnation? How about the afterlife? Ever give a thought to what comes next? I don't get into religion...I just write about the what ifs and sometimes I write about logical (to me) explanations to all of the spiritual stuff.

I wrote an entire album of songs (ten) that tell a story of reincarnation. It's something I find intriguing. Don't know if I believe it necessarily, but these songs do explore it. I figure to post another song every day or so, until all ten of them are linked.

You know...just for something different.