Tag Archives: music

Progress Report: The Album is Closer than Ever

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Work on my album — Truths and Lies and Make-Believe — continues as time permits. Here’s the latest status chart, showing that seven of the ten tunes are complete.*

If I include the progress we’ve made on the remaining three songs, then the initial recording process is about 85% complete.

In other production news, I’ve found two candidate locations for the album cover photo shoot, which I hope to complete before the end of the month.

It’s coming together … slowly, but hopefully surely!

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*It also shows that I’ve rearranged the order of the songs.

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It’s Summer, So Where’s That Album I Promised?

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We’re working on it, trust me. Here’s a little chart I made up of the status of the songs that will be on Truths and Lies and Make-Believe:

Thankfully, summer just started and has a few weeks left in it.

Over the next few weeks I need to get going on finding a location for the album cover photo shoot, contracting a photographer, producing the final cover art, etc.

Oh, yeah, and finish the remaining songs — that would seem to be important.

And having the album mastered, and arranging to produce some physical copies, and letting folks know about it.

At least I’ve got that last one covered for now.

Stay tuned!

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Coming This Summer: ‘Truths and Lies and Make-Believe’

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With the help of my friends and family, I’m putting together an album of original music which I’m calling Truths and Lies and Make-Believe.

Truths and Lies and Make-Believe

I describe it as “a compendium of musical selections, inspired or influenced by science fiction, fantasy, life, and faith … a multitude of things.” The plan right now is for it to include ten original songs: mostly “filk” (genre-related music), but with a few other odds-and-ends thrown in as well.

Like all my other projects, this is a part-time endeavor — heck, these days it seems as if I’m living a part-time life — but I intend to finish and release it this summer. Exactly when this summer I’m not sure, so I’m not being any more specific than “summer.” As we make progress, I’ll post updates here on the Ghost Writer blog.

Meanwhile, you can get a PDF version of the flyer here, if you have some strange desire to share it your friends (or even your enemies). And don’t forget, “The Monster Hunter Ballad” is available now.

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Galleys for Asimov’s, Nebula Nominations, and MystiCon Schedule

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Nothing like news of a meteor strike to put the day in perspective, eh? No matter how busy you are today, or what you happen to be going through, I hope you can take some time to enjoy yourself … but keep watching the skies!

As for me, today I need to review the galleys for my novelette, “What is a Warrior Without His Wounds?” and send any changes back to the good folks at Asimov’s Science Fiction. The story is scheduled to appear in their July issue. (As an aside, I’m thinking of donating my payment for the story to the Wounded Warrior Project. Do you think that would be appropriate?)

Asimov's Science Fiction

 

Today is also the LAST DAY to nominate for the Nebula Awards, so I need to do that, too. Over the past few weeks I’ve read a LOT of terrific short fiction, which makes it hard to decide what to nominate. Guess I’d better get to it.

Nebula Award Logo

 

Finally, in the “upcoming events” category, next week I’ll be at MystiCon in Roanoke, Virginia, where I will play a concert (yes, really), moderate some panels, and generally make a nuisance of myself. My schedule looks like this:

Friday, 22 February

  • 5 p.m., A Musical Hour with Gray Rinehart
  • 6 p.m., Writing Space Battles (I’m moderating this panel)
  • 10 p.m., Koffee Klatch … Reading with Peter Prellwitz

Saturday, 23 February

  • 1 p.m., Grasping for the Stars (moderator)
  • 2 p.m., How Military Technology is Catching Up with Military SF Tech (again, moderator)
  • 4 p.m., The Baen Traveling Road Show
  • 8 p.m., Remembering Uncle Orson’s Literary Boot Camp

Sunday, 24 February

  • 9 a.m., Worship Service
  • 12 p.m., No Shirt, No Shoes, No Entry — Business Etiquette

So, as long as we don’t get smashed by rocks falling from space, it should be a good time!

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Another New (and More Serious) Song: ‘Winter Simplifies the World’

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A few weeks ago I had the chance to debut a couple of new songs at “Winter Tales,” an Orange County Library event organized by James Maxey. I previously posted the video of the second song, “Tauntauns to Glory,” and here’s the video of the first — and much more serious — song, “Winter Simplifies the World.”

The clip includes James introducing me and a little about the inspiration for the song: my year at Thule Air Base in Greenland. After I sing the song, I lament the fact that it turned out to be pretty emotionally heavy, and that becomes my way of introducing the much lighter, Star Wars-inspired “Tauntauns to Glory”.

Finally, here are links to videos of the other “Winter Tales” presented that night —

It was a lot of fun, and I’m very glad James let me be a part of it!

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New Song Debut: ‘Tauntauns to Glory’ [video]

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Last Thursday I had the pleasure of appearing with several other central NC authors at the Orange County Library in Hillsborough, for a combined reading called “Winter Tales.” Here’s a YouTube video of one of my contributions:

From left to right at the table behind me were fellow authors James Maxey — who organized the gathering and recruited the rest of us — Rebecca Gomez Farrell, Alex Granados, and Mur Lafferty.

It was great fun, and I debuted two songs I wrote specifically for the event: a serious song called “Winter Simplifies the World” that alluded to the winter I spent stationed at Thule Air Base in Greenland, and, in the video above, my first-ever STAR WARS filk, “Tauntauns to Glory.” I hope you enjoy it!

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Official Poster for the Upcoming 'Winter Tales' Event

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This Thursday is the “Winter Tales” event at the Orange County (NC) Library. Here’s the library’s poster for the event:

I’ll be one of five local authors appearing at the event, along with Mur Lafferty, Rebecca Gomez Farrell, Alex Granados, and James Maxey. James organized the event, and invited the rest of us to participate. Everyone is supposed to present some original story, poem, essay, or something written just for this event. My contribution will be a couple of new songs (only one of which is filk).

Details, if you’re interested:
Thursday, December 13th, 6:00 p.m.
Orange County Main Library
137 West Margaret Lane
Hillsborough, NC 27278

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New Cover Art for 'The Monster Hunter Ballad'

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I announced this yesterday on Facebook, but here’s a big version of the new cover for “The Monster Hunter Ballad,” featuring the artwork by Alan Pollack that was on the cover of Monster Hunter International.


(Click here for an even larger version, if you have a bigger screen.)

Many thanks to Alan for allowing me to use the art. For more of his work, visit his web site.

Thanks also to Toni Weisskopf and the fine folks at Baen Books for letting me adapt the MHI cover type.

If you haven’t already heard it, here’s the song on Bandcamp.

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A Song for Halloween

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I put this on Facebook last night, but I decided it should go on the blog as well. My apologies to folks who will, therefore, see this silliness twice.

Just in time for Halloween, the studio version of “The Monster Hunter Ballad” is now available on Bandcamp.


(Click the image to be taken to the Bandcamp page.)

You can listen to the song for free, and you can also download it for free by putting a zero in the payment box.

If you like it, share it with your friends! If you don’t like it, share it with your enemies!

And have a safe and Happy All Hallow’s Eve.

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My Nephew's Jazz Album … + This Date in Space History

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If you like jazz, check out my nephew Ben Rolston’s album, Fables.


(Cover art for Ben Rolston’s FABLES. From the associated Bandcamp page.)

Ben is a bassist and composed all the songs in the collection. I am not particularly an aficionado of jazz, so don’t take my opinion as authoritative, but my favorite selection is “Branches and Bark,” which has some nice horns in it.

On the Bandcamp page, Fables, you can listen to each track, which is a pretty cool feature. The whole album has ten tracks, and sells for $10.

Now, as for this date in space history, so …

Thirty-five years ago today — September 29, 1977 — the Soviet Union launched their Salyut-6 space station from the Baikonur Cosmodrome atop a Proton K booster. Aboard Salyut-6, cosmonauts were able to stay in space for longer durations than ever. What that has to do with jazz, I don’t know … but there it is.

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