Improvisations on Reality

A short memory of a walk I took…set to the song that matches it best.

Click “Continue Reading” and enjoy!

K.G.

—————-
Set to: Boney James – City Of Light
via FoxyTunes

Read more…

Since this is a writing blog, and I’m a writer, I might as well post my vignettes.

For those of y’all not familiar with writer-speak, a vignette is a one-shot scene, a short story of sorts. Normally, they’re no bigger than one page in length and set one scene only.

Now, as a lot of you know, I love music.

Specifically, I love music that paints a picture for me; music that matches what I’m seeing and feeling, almost akin to a  soundtrack. It depends very heavily on where I am and what I’m doing, but usually, I am always able to find something to match.

So, it struck me recently that I should post these scenes of what I’m thinking and feeling and what music matches that scene best. If you know these artists, it would certainly put a new spin on the way you listen to them. If you don’t know them, but you know my writing and you know me, this will be an interesting way for you to see things how I see them. If you’re new here – take a look and take a listen, you might like what you find : )

These works will be cross-posted to my friend Lisa’s creative collage, the Caper Journal, which is linked through this blog. Most of them are scenery, some of them are memories, others are purely imagined, and there may be some scenes from The Index that were inspired by a particular song. Either way, enjoy them!

K.G.

I will include, behind the Continue Reading cut, a teaser scene from Book 2.

As of lately, I’ve been tinkering with it and I find that while a lot of things still need rephrasing, I like the plot that I set into place. A lot. It’s a little bit fluffy at the beginning, so I decide to pull out some of the major plotlines in Book 3 and seed them properly into Book 2. The characters of Charlotte Stevens, Alex Kramer and Jason Watson will make their first appearances earlier than originally planned – but it is all in the name of plot continuity!

Jason will not be as prominent in 2 as he is in 3, that is for sure. Jay is too much of a central character in Book 3 that I have to keep him on the peripherals in this little undertone I’m setting.

Bear in mind, this is just a teaser. The actual plotline, well….heh. Read Book 1 and Book 2 once that surfaces ;) Pardon the whacked formatting. It’s a copypasta.

Read more…

Today I’m meeting up with E. of Dorchester Publishing. E. is a good friend of mine and at one point was my supervisor when she was in grad school. Frankly, she’s twenty ways of awesome; aside from being a kickass reunion, we’re going to talk business. Business of course being…the book.

The drop-off at Long Beach Public Library went well. I hope I get at least a confirmation phone call from the director to see if I can rustle up a pre-NaNoWriMo event or kickoff party and a “hey, you can get your work completed and published” thing. The Bay Ridge NaNo group is already talking about meetups and write-ins, to which I say….let me at it.

There is also some thought to be given to an on-campus event at my alma mater, but I may encounter difficulties in that. Reason being is that the campus is not exactly an accessible place, unless I do the thing for university students only. Also a point to consider; I still have people in the school and I am sure that the English dept. would like an event like this… Here’s to hoping. Promo is key and if this catches on, I can at least mark off a check on my list of things to do post-book completion…

By popular demand (mostly propagated by Brann and my own inability to sit still), I’ve started the editing and retooling of Book 2. The plot is pretty much set – has been set for a while – but the stylistics and the wording needs some work. In addition thereto, I planted a lot of seeds in Book 1 and Book 3 serves up a heaping helping of back-story references – all of that needs to be woven into Book 2. There’s also a lot to be said for effective flashbacks (I will not spoil it, I swear!), but they too need to be expanded and amended.

There’s also a lot to be said for character development – and again, I already know what needs to be done – I just need to have it done.

Well, back to work I go.

K.G.

You know, of all the things in the world, I do not give anywhere near enough credit to my graphic designer, Jenna Bacci.

First off, you have to know how I met her – she’s the sister to one of my closest friends. A writer in her own right, also in the fantasy genre (and the first chapter of her story made me giggle for hours at a time!), someone who takes her art very seriously and professionally – I have ten years on her and she amazes the hell out of me. How we met was simple: barbecuing party at the house. Between people and other people, Jenna and I ended up talking about The Index and as soon as I saw some of her artwork, I asked her if she could toss together something for the cover.

She did and I was astounded – and not just by the quality of her art, but by the fact that the story now had a face. To give the story a face, especially a fledgling story at that, takes a good amount of talent and moxie. I’m delighted to say Ms. Bacci has both.

The cover that you’re seeing now is actually the second cover that Jenna drew. The first cover I still have on my draft copies and am holding onto them for a while. The scans will be posted…well, just as soon as I have the time to do so.

So, behind the cut please find the original concept sketch and a finished merchandise piece, both of Arriella, the story’s main character. Copyright for artwork reserved by Jenna Bacci. The Index copyright is mine.

K.G.

Read more…

*does the Got First Review dance*

Amazon review is up! And it’s a good review!

Yes, I’m happy. Can ya tell? ;)

K.G.

And a busy day it is already!

First things first: ads and facebook.

I may have some personal reservations on Facebook, but as you may see, I have a page. I’ve also started an ad campaign there to see how it will do; the targeting range is absolutely excellent. I am thinking of expanding the age range – right now, the ad is pushing for the 17+ set – not because the book is rated NC-17; it’s not, but more or less on a to-start-off basis – which I think I will do either way… And it now has a Facebook fan page, which I am linking also. If you’re reading this, have the book, or just like that I’m keeping this blog, please click the ‘become a fan’ button. Seriously. Get the word out there.

As per further book info – one of the critiques I received is that it would help immensely to have a glossary, character list and the like. Since it’s a bit too late to put that in the book innards – files are locked once in print – then I will do that either here or on Shelfari, or both. The Shelfari page already has a small character list, table of contents and the like. I’m tinkering with it as time goes, so check back there every once and again.

And for those of you who have and read Book 1 and love it – Book 2 is in progress of editing as we speak. I can’t really sit still for long! The excitement of having one segment of this story out there is infectious. That and I want to get good at this. I’m still a fledgling author – yesterday was one month since release – and there is and will be a long way to go.

Until more things develop….

K.G.

So I went out of town this past weekend to Long Beach and ended up getting into a conversation with the library director there. He’s very open to me donating my books – yes, donating, not selling, this is for circulation and getting the word out there overall – and just as open to potentially doing youth authorship programs, or anything of the sort. Again, NaNo is in November. If I could do either a write-in in Long Beach or something along those lines…that is awesome.

Now, there’s also the NaNo possibilities, overall. NaNo in NYC is pretty involved; I’ve seen many events being advertised last year, most of them in easily-accessible neighborhoods. I work in Midtown and can take the subway damn near anywhere; working on an event is 1. good promo and 2. great for NaNo.

And yes, I did get in touch with Chris Baty. I do hope he’s game for me doing pre-contest events in my name as well as his. I would imagine there is a degree of iffiness copyright-wise, but that is yet to be defined…

In 15 days exactly, the NaNo website is re-launched. After Oct. 15th, I can go to and do events. And after that….well, Book 4 is finally plotted out. Scene-mapping comes next and when Nov. 1st comes about…here we go!

K.G.

I don’t normally write on personal subjects in a blog that I devoted to the book and its particulars, but this is one of the proverbial Those Subjects that you simply can’t let sit.

The subject here is Sept. 11th.

I’m a New Yorker. I was there when those airplanes hit, although not in the area. I went to school a few blocks away from Ground Zero. I got frequent reminders of that, let me tell ya…

Once and again, I take the Manhattan-bound R train. It ties into the post-9/11 aftermath because…well, you New Yorkers know this, but for those that do not – the Cortlandt Street R and W-train stations exited right into World Trade Center Plaza. For the past eight years, my Manhattan-bound R would amble past it with the usual screech of metal wheels on metal rails; that sound would borderline deafening when it would pull away from Cortlandt to take the hairpin turn to approach and enter the City Hall station up ahead.

Cortlandt Street was closed since 9/11 and only now have the debris been removed enough to put up the lights. It’s a haunting sight; the station always looks frozen in time. All others were updated, upgraded in turnstiles, etc – but not Cortlandt. The way it stands now is the way it stood in 2001. The train doesn’t stop at the station, but passes by it and when it slows down, it lets the riders glimpse into that part of the city past. Much like the abandoned train stations and seldom-used express tunnels, Cortlandt Station is an innocuous-seeming sight that tends to linger because the rider becomes keenly aware of what’s just beyond the layers of plywood.

I have a habit of staring out the windows on my subway rides and every time I’m on that R train and it creeps into and away from Cortlandt Street, I’m reminded that, regardless of how safe this city may seem, it’s anything but.

There were entirely too many people that lost their lives there. Civilians, police officers, firefighters, the unfortunate passengers of those two planes – not one of them deserved to meet that sort of end. And for what? Political retaliation? Sending a pointed message? Religious fundamentalism?

Whatever the reasons may be, I am quite proud of my city for getting back into thge groove, so to speak. It will never be exactly as it was in the pre-9/11 days, but it had certain restored its sense of order. Slowly but surely, Ground Zero is becoming less of a pit and more people are starting to think about it and look forward to seeing what can rise from that place.

Moreover – we muscled it. Yes, it was jarring. Yes, it shattered a certain sense of security; it reminded us that while in some ways, we have it pretty damn good, we’re still people in a country and we aren’t immune from the actions of other people in other countries. Yes, it was devastating on a lot of levels, but we got past it, got to work and got back to our lives. Granted, there’s now this reflex to look to the sky at certain sounds, but we got back to our lives.

The most important thing is not to forget. Not for whatever reasons the media touts – and some of them are quite valid – but for what I mentioned above: while we have it pretty good in some ways, we’re still people in a country, on a global stage. We aren’t immune from the actions of others on the same stage. We aren’t immune from the economic impact of others, or cultural, or political. Nor are we immune from the informational impact, being on the Internet and having nearly all information at our fingertips. We are no more people than anyone else and the actions of some can impact a whole lot of others.

On Sept. 11th, 2001, the actions of nineteen impacted the lives of six million.

That’s what you should not forget. That all actions have impact, one way or another.

Ciao until next time…

K.G.

And this is, again, my own fault on delivery discrepancy.

Was hoping to have the book business cards by close of day today. I don’t think that may happen, if only owing to the fact that the handoff from FedEx to USPS (SmartPost shipping) was this morning. So now I effectively cross my fingers and pray that it’s delivered before I have to go to catch my train.

…yeah.

UPDATE: Called the people of USPS. It’s arrived at the P/O, which is the one local to me. If it’s not delivered today, I can attempt to swing by – it’s the one local to my office.

UPDATE 2:  Got ‘em! And they are gorgeous!

K.G.