Saturday Summary, July 28, 2012

It's been a crazy couple of weeks for me.  This week has been a flurry of composing and proofing, and last week was an absolutely wonderful time at the Handbell Musicians of America National Seminar in Cincinnati.  It was wonderful to spend several days around other handbell enthusiasts, fellow composers, and the good people who publish my music.  I made a lot of new friends, got to connect with countless people, and was able to teach some classes, sharing what I've learned over the years about composing and publishing. 

I'd love to say that, to make up for not having a Saturday Summary last week, this week's will be extra long, but that won't be the case.  Here's what I've accomplished, nonetheless...

Music -- I've finished up the first draft of the commission I've been writing for the Georgia Spring Festival this coming March, a piece I've been working on for weeks and struggling with.  I'm pretty pleased with how it's turned out, and hope the people at the Spring Festival will enjoy it, too.

I've also spent some time working on another handbell project, as well as playing around with some handbell trios, too.  My plans for the coming week are to really hammer through some piano arrangements, then get right back to writing for bells.

Writing -- Sadly, I've already failed in my Year of Insanity 2 -- last Friday, I didn't write my thousand words for the day.  With the Seminar and teaching classes and other obligations during the day, I just never had the time to sit and write.  Thankfully, that's been the only day I've missed thus far, and should be the only day I miss for the foreseeable future.

And what have I written?  I've got probably a good 15,000 or 20,000 word synopsis of the third book in The Sadonian Chronicles, and should be starting soon on notes and synopses for the rest of the books in the series.  I don't know quite yet when I'll get around to writing the novels themselves, but hopefully that will happen before 2012 is done.

Publishing -- Aside from meeting with nearly all of the editors who publish my handbell music, there hasn't been much motion on this front.  I've submitted a couple of things in the past couple of days, as well as corrected some proofs for my upcoming releases from Beckenhorst, but other than that, it's been a little slow here ... might have something to do with the fact that, for there to be movement on the publishing front, I first have to compose something ...


That's it from here.  Have a fantastic and creative week, and we'll see you back here on Wednesday!