Lyric Break

This is going to be a short post today because I wanted to do something simple. Song lyrics you might have missed. This is a song from Brian Setzer's first solo album that has all-but-faded from public memory called "Breath of Life" which is, well, great. It really is a shame that the album is out of print, because songs like this, "Three Guys", "Barbed Wire Fence", and "Radiation Ranch" feature some really good lyrics.

These are a bit different from his usual songs about rockin', cars, and being cool (always fun topics), and is about something a bit more. So, I decided to post them for, hopefully, greater appreciation.

I'm not going to force my interpretation of it, I think it's fairly obvious what it's about, but they are well written lyrics and will probably leave you smiling for a while. Hopefully, long after you first read them. Next time, I'll try for a longer post but I think its nice to take a break like this every now and then.

So without further delay, here they are.

This Week

Boy, that was a quick weekend, huh?

As July comes to an end and kids have to endure those painful back to school ads popping up everywhere, I think I'll center my posts around more juvenile/young adult material this month. If only to show my support for the poor children.

Won't somebody think of the poor children, they say? Well, I'll try!

While You Were Dancing - The Placement & The Meaning

*Sorry for the lateness of this post, I've had a rather complicated day*

Get it here!

 

 

This is it, the final entry in my series. This week I'll be focusing on the overall direction of my stories and how it relates to what I was trying to do with this novella. Feel free to skip this one if you aren't interested in the extraneous details and only want to know about the novella. If you do, simply read the other posts in the series. If not, read on!

"While You Were Dancing" is, in essence, the beginning of an ongoing story. It's not the first story chronologically,  nor does everything that happen here directly relate with others, but it still is part of a series. If you're confused about what I mean, then I'll try and explain it a bit better.

First, this is not a situation where I'm setting up a prologue for a trilogy or a series of standalone adventures like you see so much these days. It's not the elaborate. What I'm attempting is much simpler than that.

"Songs From Lonely Avenue" by The Brian Setzer Orchestra

 Tracklist

1. "Trouble Train"
2. "Dead Man Incorporated"
3. "Kiss Me Deadly"
4. "Gimme Some Rhythm Daddy"
5. "Lonely Avenue"
6. "King of the Whole Damn World"
7. "Mr. Jazzer Goes Surfin'"
8. "Mr. Surfer Goes Jazzin'"
9. "My Baby Don't Love Me Blues"
10. "Love Partners in Crime"
11. "Passion of the Night"
12. "Dimes in the Jar"
13. "Elena"

Now, it's no secret to anyone who knows me, but Brian Setzer is probably one of my favorite musicians. Early rock n roll music is my preferred style of music from rockabilly to blues, and Brian Setzer has pretty much covered the gamut.

And the album I want to talk about is one of the best, not only one of the best albums, but uses of storytelling in music I've heard in quite some time.

The man is known to span the genres. Rockabilly, swing, jazz, blues, instrumentals, even mainstream rock, he has even done a big band album full of classical music entitled "Wolfgang's Night Out" which is quite as strange as the album I'm about to tell you about. The point is, the man has tremendous respect for the roots of music and is an excellent songwriter to boot.

This Week

I'm currently in a bit of weird place right now regarding real life and waiting for specific phone calls and e-mails, so I haven't had much time to think of a topic for the blog this week outside of my Friday post. Weekend was kind of hectic so I didn't get much of a chance to think of anything, but I'm sure I'll be able to post something. I just have no idea what it'll be.

See you on Wednesday!

While You Were Dancing - The Sight & The Sound

Get it here!

I have so far explained the influence that went into much of its construction, but I have yet to explain the images and sounds in my head that helped get it all into shape. Yes, that's a bit of a trickier explanation to get across, I admit, but I'm still going to give it a shot.

You see, I was born in 1984, and as such, there are certain stories that have influenced me more than others, just as there are for those born in the 1970s or 1990s. The difference is that the images put in my head when a story starts to bubble up there is much different than one born in another era might expect. I grew up on "Unsolved Mysteries" and not "CSI", on "Rocko's Modern Life" and not "Spongebob Squarepants", on S.E. Hinton and not Stephanie Meyer, and on "Akira" and not "Avatar" like the current generation.

When a story comes to my head, it tends to be filtered quite a bit differently than several stories of similar styles. I simply don't come from that place. You won't find the common element in suspense stories nowadays by lingering on a build up for a dozen pages in my stories, you'll find action sequences that slide out of the background and into the forefront that might catch you out of nowhere and end as quickly as they began.

Ten Rules For Authors

*I got the idea for this post from author Declan Finn's "A Pius Man" blog and the entry "Ten Rules I want Writers to follow" which can be found here. Be sure to check his blog out and read his books if you're interested in fun thrillers that Dan Brown wishes he could write.*

We all have certain storytelling niggles that send us into a black rage with constant use. There are some rules that make for good storytelling that some authors just can't seem to follow and that others outright reject either purposely (the more annoying) or ignorantly. I had recently come across writer Declan Finn's list of his own rules that I basically agree with, but wanted to expand on some more of my own.

When reading books I have strange tastes, but I still wanted to give making this list a chance.

Now, these might seem either strange or pedantic, I can be that way, or straight up odd depending on who you are, but I'm going to try to be specific.

So, enjoy.

This Week

Not much to report after a boring weekend, except that a new week has begun!

Friday will be my next post on my novella, but as for Wednesday . . . well, I'm not sure. Unfortunately there are so many choices to go through and I'm just not sure what to go with yet. Still, I'll most likely have something up on Wednesday. We'll see.

Have a good week out there!