Saturday Summary, May 21, 2011

Every Saturday, The Creative will feature a brief post about my current creative efforts and how they are progressing. If this doesn't interest you, read no further -- not only will I not be offended, I'll never know. 

It's been a long, long week, but oddly enough, it's also been a very productive one, as well.  In all fairness, it probably would have been even more productive if I hadn't broken down and bought Rosetta Stone Spanish (found it for a good price on Amazon) and hadn't been spending hours working on it.  Sadly, the most intelligent thing I can say so far is El no tiene un bolígrafo, which, as I pointed out to my friends on Facebook this week, is only useful for assuring those people with crippling fears of writing implements that their doom isn't imminent.

Anyway, on to the update ...

Music -- I've finished the rough draft of my set of 2-3 octave communion pieces for Lorenz.  I just need to have my proofreader (my lovely wife) go over them to make sure I didn't pull something Earth-shatteringly dumb before I send them off to Doug Wagner to see what he thinks.  I won't count them (yes, they're one set, but I'm counting them as five individual pieces -- you can't stop me!) in the yearly total until I actually send them off, but that number will -- thankfully! -- be dropping, and soon.

Writing -- Well, if you've missed my posts this past week, I'll reiterate here one more time: my first novel, The Coming of the Heroes, is now available for purchase.  You can buy it via the link at the left of the screen, or else find it at Amazon.com. I'm really excited to have it available to the world at large, and against all odds, have actually sold a copy through Amazon.  Sadly, that doesn't get me to my primary goal to sell 50,000 copies, but it does get me halfway to my secondary goal of selling two.  If you'd like to be the one to get me to that secondary goal, feel free to check it out at the link above.

I hope to have the Kindle version available this week.  Sadly, it's not just a matter of taking the same document and sending it somewhere else.  There are strange formatting things one must do if one wants his book not to look stupid, and one just hasn't yet taken the time to do them.  Rest assured, when The Coming of the Heroes is Kindle-ready, you'll hear about it here.

If you're still not sure what it's all about, feel free to check out some sample chapters and other info about the book at the website, sadonianchronicles.com.

Publishing -- I got a nice, fat envelope from Beckenhorst this week with my proofs and contracts for my four upcoming pieces from them: two arrangements, and two originals, including a really cool antiphonal piece that can be played by one three-octave set of bells.  Normally, when you do an antiphonal piece (the group is split across a distance so you get a nice stereo effect), you need two sets of bells, two brass quintets, two orchestras, or whatever.  With this one, all you need is one three-octave set of handbells and some folks willing to play some non-traditional bell assignments.  I'll post more on these pieces as they get nearer publication.


That's it for this week.  I'm so thrilled to be almost done with the set of pieces for Lorenz -- that's been hanging over my head since Pinnacle last July, and has a deadline of this July 1.  I like beating deadlines by freakishly-long amounts, so to only beat this one by about a month had me edgy.  Next week should be an even better week for working, since my church groups won't rehearse, my piano lessons are done for the year, and the school year is in its waning hours.  Until then, keep on creating, and have a great weekend!

Oh, and check out The Coming of the Heroes. Tell your friends!