Saturday Summary, January 28, 2012

Another week gone, another Wednesday post completely forgotten.  Perhaps it's time yet again to rethink the frequency of my posts here on The Creative...  In the meantime, here's this week's Saturday Summary...

Music -- I spent most of my composing time this week working on some violin solos for Lynne Latham.  I'd promised her four new solos by the start of March, so with three of them basically done and high hopes for finishing up the other today, it looks like I ought to meet that deadline with time to spare.  After that, I'll turn my sights to some handbell projects I've got on my plate ... but more about those later.

Writing -- I've done a little looking at Fealty and Fire, but I really need to get these composing projects out of the way so I can spend a good, solid chunk of time on the book.  Until then, I'll keep working little by little, hoping those little bits of work will keep moving me toward completion.

Publishing -- It's that time of the year when royalty checks start showing up and, more importantly to me, records of how many copies of a piece have been sold.  If nothing else, that lets me know how different pieces are faring.  I like all of my pieces (I must, since I cared enough to write them), but I have no way of knowing what the music-playing and music-buying public will think of them until I get those statements that let me know how things are going.  It's very humbling to look at my spreadsheet where I keep track of that sort of thing and to see that, since Il Est Né was published back in 2007, I've sold over 27,000 copies of music.  I know that's far less than a lot of composers, but when I realize that I've only been in this composing "game" for just under five years, I am excited and humbled beyond measure.  To all of you who have purchased and played my music, thank you from the bottom of my heart.

I also received this week my complimentary copies of my latest release from Jeffers -- an arrangement of For the Beauty Of the Earth, as well as complimentary copies of the upcoming editions of Lorenz's Ring and Rejoice magazine and The Church Pianist magazine, both of which contain at least one of my arrangements (and, in the case of The Church Pianist, two arrangements). 


That's all from here.  I've still got several hours of composing left to me today, so I'd best go and make the best of them.  Have a wonderful week, and happy creating!