Improvisations on Reality

In AlterNet. Also, the incident with the cat.

Let me say this again: this does not happen in a void.

We’ve always know that the Republican rhetoric was violent. Gabrielle Giffords had a bullet pass through her brain as a result of said rhetoric. Now this? A Bible verse specifically aimed to wish a President his death, and killing the family pet of an opposing political party’s campaign manager?

Enough. Seriously, enough.

Let me drop some crim-J knowledge on you. Mens rea is just as relevant as actus reus. For those of you who don’t speak Latin or legalese, it means that thoughts and mindset matter. Court cases all over the US, as well as the entire spectrum of punishments for incitement, enticement, and conspiracy to commit a crime, will show you: influence matters. And violent influence definitely plays a part in committing a violent act, specifically continuous exposure thereto.

Look, going back to Gabby Giffords – her shooter had been listening to violent rhetoric for so long that it’s pretty solidly ingrained in his brainpan. You cannot deny that it had played an influence in his ultimate decision to shoot Rep. Giffords. And you know, I can’t think of any way that the incident with the cat is in any way different. Violent rhetoric breeds violent action, and this has been proven, time and again, all over the world.

How many more incidents like that with the cat will it take to see that the Republican rhetoric is a showcase of violence?

Seriously. Is discourse that dead?

When will we return to a point where we can debate different points with a certain modicum of logic and respect?

And for those of you who may be thinking that the cat was an unrelated incident – oh, spare me. I would have thought about believing it if the poor cat didn’t belong to a Democratic campaign manager. For those saying that the left wing does the same thing – really? When? When did a Democrat kill a Republican’s pet? When did a Democrat threaten a President with death through a Bible verse? I’d like some specific incidents as proof here, because it seems to me that the violent rhetoric is pretty damn one-sided, and it’s inciting some people to act on it.

Maybe I’m an old soul, but do I ever wish that politics could actually be…I don’t know…civil again. I don’t remember any of this crap happening when it was Bill Clinton vs. Bob Dole for the presidency, and the debates back then didn’t make my head hurt. Granted, I was a kid back then, but if there was anything that struck me as good about those debates, it was that both Clinton and Dole were respectful of each other, even if they opposed.

Now, it’s just violent rhetoric and the inability of certain people to accept that a black man is in the White House.

K.G.

Inspired by a similar post by J.W. Manus, found here. 

Okay. By a show of hands, how many people reading this blog write genre fiction? Or, basically, anything that doesn’t fall into the umbrella of contemporary literary fiction? Very good. Now how many of you have heard the phrase, “Why don’t you write a real book? No one wants to read [the genre you write].”

You know, your sales figures beg to differ by the simple fact that they exist, but we all know that saying about opinions and body orifices.

Let me be the first to admit that I don’t normally read romance novels or “chick lit”. I’ve yet to find a single chick-lit novel that I don’t put down within the first ten minutes because the writing doesn’t grab me or the plot is so formulaic that Hollywood had made a killing off it. I like historic fiction with romance elements – I very much enjoy Philippa Gregory’s writing style – but modern romance fiction? Honestly, no. My mother reads it, and I tried to, but I found it, again, formulaic and somewhat flat. I do not like it.

Does it mean I don’t consider romance a real genre? No. Absolutely not. It is a genre every bit as real as anything else, but it’s just not something I like to read on a regular basis. If someone recommends me a book, I”ll give it a shot, but if I don’t like it, I’ll let the person recommending it know.

Now, you know I write sci-fi. Now, I also read it on a fairly regular basis, because some of the authors who had asked me to read their NaNoWriMo novels are brilliant. Kevin O. McLaughlin’s books are beyond good. I found a great vampire fiction novelist in S.R. Torris, whose book is both gripping in its suspense and very thorough in its research. And, of course, I write mine. And I heard it all. “Why don’t you go write a real book?” “Who wants to read about that?” “Why didn’t you do X, Y, and Z in the first book? Now no one will want to read 2 or 3.” “Why are you self-published? It’s not a ‘real’ book.”

Ladies and gents, let me drop a little truth on you. It may be a little unexpected, but I think that it’s something that you have to hear. Ready?

There’s no such thing as a “real book” because all books, regardless of their quality or genre, are real by the simple virtue of having been written. 

I mean, let’s face it. We don’t have zombie books on the shelf, right?

Going back to my old post, Stigmas in Self-Publishing, I will reiterate that most qualifications for a real book are bunk. The distinction of whether or not a book is actually good – that is so subjective that one person’s, “Don’t waste your time writing this trash and write some real books” is about as relevant as the buzzing of a mosquito, and just like a mosquito, it can get squashed pretty damn fast. I find books interesting based on the plot and the quality of writing, and sometimes, one outbalances the other. Caroline B. Cooney, the YA author, had written a few books that I thought were brilliant because of their plot. But there was one book, the title of which I don’t remember, where I found the plot to be very lacking, and unusual for Cooney. But I read it, and enjoyed it. Why? Because Cooney’s style is addictive. I can re-read her brand of YA at 26 and be just as engrossed as I was when I was 15. However, J.R.R. Tolkien and the Lord of the Rings? I tried reading it. Believe me, I did.  But the books were not well-written at all, at least in my opinion, and I put them down – never to pick them back up again.

The distinction of one genre being somehow “better” than another is, in my personal opinion, imaginary. I know it’s in human nature for people to judge, but there’s a massive difference between judging on merit (Is the book written well? Can I conceivably read more by the same author?) and judging on something that’s simply the person’s opinion about genre, which is so very often based on complete inexperience with the genre. If you hadn’t read urban fantasy, or steampunk, or romance, or horror – how do you know that you don’t like it? And most people believe, rather erroneously, that the lack of exposure gives them the right to dictate the superiority of one genre above the other, as though the authors of said genre genuinely give half a whit about their opinion or their imagined superiority complex.

Fact is, every genre has its following, and for as long as there’s a following, there will be authors willing to provide material. It doesn’t devalue the genre one way or the other or make it less than any other genre out there.

But what about all those chestnuts that we authors hear? Well, I do have a couple of comebacks, and yes, I use them often.

“Why don’t you write about X or Y?” – Why can’t you write it, if you think you know how?

“Science fiction (or some other genre) isn’t real!” – Please inform Barnes & Noble, then, then because they have a whole mess of that genre in stock…and it’s selling.

“Self-published authors don’t write real books!” – So those things on my bookshelf are zombies?  (yes, I used that, more than once. Goes over like a lead balloon, but…)

And most importantly? Keep writing. You know your story, and you know how to tell that story.

K.G.

So I’ve been noodling around this idea of an anthology of music-themed stories, art, and poetry. I’m no poet, but I do know several who may do well being featured. This anthology will not be just mine.

I have also signed up for Duotrope, and will attempt to find a paying market or two for some of the stories, because hey – won’t hurt. That and if there’s a trad-pub market that will like some of these stories, all the better.

Now, for what this anthology will contain:

- The Haunted Club Series: I was thinking about Etta James after putting up her commemorative story, and how every time that we lose a great musician, I always say, “They’re at the grand jam session in the sky.” Well…this, in turn, gave me an idea: how about I write about what some of those jam sessions are like? Let’s cross decade boundaries and time, and put Count Basie together in the same room as George Howard. The reason for it being a series – of short stories, not novels! - is because there’s just too many pairings that I can have fun with. Benny Goodman and Wayman Tisdale? Duke Ellington and Grover? There can be a lot of potential genre crossovers.

- Photo & Art: There are a lot of great photographers and artists in the contemp-jazz world. Jerry “JB” Brooks shoots a great set. So does Ron Hancox. So does Keith McD. So why not feature them? Also, Bettie Grace Miner’s paintings are gorgeous. Nathan East is on Flickr.

- Musicians’ Insights: This is an endless set of possibilities as well. I’ve read Mindi Abair’s columns in Wine and Jazz, and Matt Marshak’s blog posts. Bob Baldwin is trying his hand at being a book author as well. I will see who is willing to contribute what, and I have no idea what I’ll get. This is a little exciting.

- Commemoratives: Self-explanatory.

Altogether, I’m looking for about fifty pieces to go into this anthology. I will have to figure out how copyright and royalties will work, depending on how many people will be contributing. They will get fair share of their royalties, and I will publish them in a medium that is beneficial to all of them. Yes, I plan on paying the contributors if the anthology will be selling. No, I have no intention of running a small press, but I do not think that it’s right for me to take a contribution and not give something back for it. Not how I roll.

Lots to think about, and I will have to do plenty of research.

K.G.

Late last night, between rampant coughing and inability to sleep because of said coughing, I entered the 2012 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards.

The beautiful thing about self-publishing is that you have the freedom to enter those sorts of competitions. Per the rules, your manuscript cannot be shopped around to publishers while it’s tied up in ABNA, and I will admit that while I’m lukewarm towards the idea of trad pub in general, the thought of a $15,000 advance and a contract is a very, very good thought to entertain. It won’t make me quit my day job, but the post-tax amount of that 15K is a very, very welcome thing for my finances.

I’m also thinking about entering the Beach Book Festival, which is run by the same individual who had once hosted the Nashville Book Festival, wherein I had once received an honorable mention with Book 1. I would love to see how Books 2 and 3 do in that mix.

Now, a comment in a prior post had brought up that, if I have little chance at winning ABNA (which is true), and that I am not a big fan of Penguin (also true), then why bother entering? Myself personally, I enter because 1. it’s fun to try your hand at a contest now and again, 2. whether it’s Penguin or any other of the Big Six, it’s an advance.

The thing is, knowing what I have been learning about book copyright, I’m starting to wonder if the contract that will be offered by Penguin can be amended. I am very glad that I had taken business law in college, and I want to be sure that if – and it’s a pretty major if - such a contract is offered to me, I know what to look for and how to phrase certain things to safeguard my ability to reclaim the rights to my work in the event that this goes south. Because so many authors who have gone trad-pub and want to go self find themselves caught up in a contractual mess because of a fine-print clause or two. Or ten.

Apart from the contract, I have a few thoughts on the review process. As I learned the hard way in 2010, the reviewers pick the books at random. While I see the benefit in it – if someone who’s not typically into a genre is grabbed by the excerpt well enough, then that does give a point to the overall quality of the book – some great work goes by the wayside only because the reviewer doesn’t like the genre, and rejects the book for that reason. Case in point, both of my reviews of Book 1 in 2010, where neither reviewer was a fantasy/sci-fi fan. Okay, I understand – not everyone’s cup of tea. First reviewer admitted it, and I’m happy with that. Second review still makes me laugh. I get it, you don’t dig the genre, but if that’s the case, why not make like the first reviewer and just admit it as opposed to comparing me to things who had zero influence on my writing? (Still don’t watch BSG…lol)

But hey, them’s the breaks. Not my first barbecue.

At this point, though, it’s just fun for me to enter. I’ve had readers come back to me and bug me about the storyline because I’ve got quite a soft spot for writing cliffhangers, and that makes me happy. I have a dedicated audience. If I get a contract and an advance, that’s icing on a cake that I’ve been baking since 2009.

So. I will find out on February 23rd if I’m in or not. Until then, I will relax and keep plugging at the prelim edit/rewrite of Book 4. Soon to receive some more cover art too. :)

K.G.

PS: the first story of the soon-to-be-anthology is out on Smashwords.

Very recently, I had a small explosion of drama, which I have so far done without for the better part of a fair few years. I won’t name names. Said individual was promptly told off and blocked. Phone number was deleted as well.

What he did was insult someone while trying to “be supportive” – his words, not mine – and then take severe umbrage with me for pointing out that I really didn’t find his insult of a complete stranger funny. You see, I’ve never been a fan of the “bring me up by putting someone else down” approach.

I’m honestly not sure what infuriated me more about that exchange: the fact that this was someone whom I had considered a friend right up until that point, the fact that said person thinks that it’s perfectly okay to pull the supportive card while insulting someone else in the same breath, or the fact that said person, who had known me for years, thinks that I was “overreacting” if I point out that his own behavior is very much 1. not funny, silly, joking, or any synonym of above, and 2. does nothing to actually support me if it insults someone else.

Let me say this, without mincing words: there is no one on this green earth – not my blood family, not my clients, not my friends, not the Queen of England – who has the right to tell me how I should perceive something. Insulting someone to “support” someone else is not funny. It is not supportive, either. But telling me not to get offended when someone is clearly being offensive? It won’t make me less offended, but it will, in fact, make whoever’s telling me that look like a presumptuous asshole who thinks that he/she has the right to tell me how to think and how to feel. You can have the right to say what you want, but I have an equal right not to like what you say, and call you out on your words.

If you think that makes me “mean”, then you know what, then I’m mean, I’m a bitch, and kindly get over it. I’d rather be mean and stand up for what I feel and believe in, as opposed to just sit there and keep my mouth shut  to not “rock the boat” and “keep the peace”. I was raised with that mentality, and doing the whole keep-the-peace thing had done me a lot more harm than good. I’m no doormat, and refuse to keep silent when I have something to say.

I’ve also been told, in more than one unrelated instance, that I will “miss out on a lot of opportunities” if I don’t “tone it down”.  And what, precisely, are those “opportunities” that I will be missing out on? Give me some specifics. Because as far I can tell you, I didn’t get to where I am as a person by being all sweet, nice, demure, and cooperative. I got to where I am by being myself, and myself happens to be a cast-iron, outspoken bitch. And honestly, if someone with an opportunity for me isn’t willing to accept the person that I am, bitchitude and all, then there’s a pretty good chance that 1. I don’t want that opportunity in the first place, and 2. I don’t want to have much to do with that person.

This is a fair warning, and one that I don’t want to have to repeat: if you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen. If you want to stir up trouble, I will not tolerate it. If you have a problem with what I say, delete me. Because, at the end of the day, you’re probably not the person I want reading my work anyway. In other words, either you respect me, and respect the people of which you might speak on my page, and I will respect you in return. Otherwise, I have no problem in 86ing you out of my life, digital or in-person.

And go ahead, tell me about all those “missed opportunities”, because I would still much rather be myself than have to put on a mask for a bone to be thrown. I tend to prefer quality in my opportunities, rather than taking whatever I can get. I’m not desperate.  I would much rather wait and take my opportunities with the people who will accept me the way I am, as opposed to taking the “don’t rock the boat” tack to take whatever comes along.

K.G.

The blues legend, born Jamesetta Hawkins, had passed away yesterday at the age of 73. You may remember her cover of At Last, which was originally written in 1941.

A lot of Etta’s music speaks to the heart. Hers is a voice that you can sink into and let it soothe away whatever’s on your mind. It’s not a voice we hear often nowadays.

I wrote a short story as a tribute. I am posting it for free here. Eventually, if I write enough of them, I will compile an anthology.

Requiescat in pace, Ms. James. Say hi to the Rat Pack for us at the grand jam session in the sky.

Read more…

Story at USA Today.

Now, while some people may view it as a mass overreach by the government, especially in light of the ongoing battle against SOPA (another post on that later on), but…there’s something to be said about copyright infringement.

First of all, what you may not know is that Swizz Beats is involved with that site. There are some articles to contrary, but I have my reservations. This guy had multiple musicians endorse that site, most of whom are now in very hot water with their labels. But one thing is for sure: if a musician has been running a shareware site, this effectively shoots his own industry in the foot.

But this just got me nice and pissed. Not because of the government shutting down a website, but because people are very quick to forget what’s what with copyright of creative product.

In the early days of shareware, I’m sure you have ventured to Kazaa for a quick download of that song you heard on the radio. You’d borrow a CD and rip it to your computer. You probably thought nothing of it.

Sorry, but that’s theft. Copyright infringement, if you have to be exact, which breaks down to theft if you look at how money plays into this.

You may say, “Hey, I bought this, and this means I do whatever I want with it!” – No. Let me get one little thing straight per the US Copyright Act: you bought your right to use it, but not the actual master copyright. So think about how you distributing something that you “own” affect other people. You own the right to use it, but if you give it away, you’re devaluing it. That CD that you have no problem passing on to a friend is now half its value because two people have the product. The artist never sees a whit of income from your friend ripping the CD. If your friend is using his/her computer as an upload source with that CD, that CD loses in value with more and more people downloading its contents via shareware. What does the artist get for these extra people listening to his material? ZILCH.

Let’s do some cashflow analysis here. Suppose that you buy a CD for $20.

Of that $20, the distribution medium takes its cut. Let’s say, for argument’s sake, it’s $5.

$15 remains. Money goes to the label next for overhead costs, which include publicity, representation, etc. $10 will be their sample cut. You now have $5.

And of that, guess who also needs to take a cut: the press. You know, the guys who actually make the physical CD.

Using this example, the artist sees $2.50 from the sale of that one CD, if and only if they hadn’t made enough to offset the label’s advance, which was given to them to compose the music for said CD to begin with.

In other words, there’s a solid chance that the artist won’t be seeing money from this CD for quite a long time.

Think about that for a second. And you think, “So what if someone borrows my CD and makes a copy of it?” Less money to the artist. Less money for future production. Less money for the label, which will drop the artist because of said lack of revenue but still continue to make its profits off the existing sales until the advance is recouped, which will take much more time, and until then, the artist will not see a drop of royalty money.

It’s pretty similar to traditional publishing, wherein you won’t see a penny of royalties until you recoup the advance.

And if you’re bootlegging an indie artist who doesn’t have label backing, that artist may see more money faster, but again, it’s all going against the out-of-pocket costs incurred in creating the CD.

Still think that CD or venture to Kazaa is no big deal?

If you like the artist, great. Want to keep listening to the artist’s future music? Awesome. Now, let me ask you this: if the artist doesn’t make enough money off that CD, do you think that artist will put out another one? If you say yes, or, “They will if they love music”, then you need a wake-up call. The love of the music only goes so far, it doesn’t pay the bills, and doesn’t put food on the table. Money does. If you want to get  a quick song, then please, iTunes or Amazon mp3 has the right to distribute, and the cost to you is a whopping dollar. Of that dollar, the artist will be lucky to see 30c, by the by, but there’s benefit to quick access and volume. There are other distributors who will let you download songs for a fee. Know where that fee goes? To pay the artist.

An argument that I heard is that the government had interfered with the way people share their things. Okay, fabulous, but make sure it’s actually yours first! Because guess what: when you buy that CD, or that mp3, you are buying your right to consume the product, and nothing more! You’re listening to the music, that is your consumption. But you are not the master copyright owner. That’s either the artist or the label, and they dictate their product’s distribution and how it’s heard. Therefore, that music you’re enjoying? You bought your right to enjoy it. You never actually bought the ownership of it. The masters are owned by either the artist or the label.

And please don’t start about MegaUpload being used to share family pictures, etc. That usage is in the very, very tiny minority for shareware site usage. The majority use is to disseminate copyrighted material, first and foremost. I mean, come on: Kazaa was NOT used for family pictures. It was, however, the go-to one-stop shop for media.

Oh, and also, for family pictures, make a private album on Photobucket or Flickr. They’re legit sites that protect your photo copyright. You can also use Dropbox, which is free up to 2gb (expanded with heavy use; mine is 4gb I think) and ad-free, and works with literally every operating system.

I won’t deny that the current distribution system for music leaves much to be desired, but until people actually recognize what copyright infringement does for the industry overall, then the industry will stay as it is for a while. I don’t like it, and my musicians don’t like it either.

Oh, and as far as Swizz Beats? What utterly annoys me is that a musician is involved with a shareware site. The disputes on who to best distribute music aside, of all the people in the world who would be involved with a shareware site, I did not expect a musician. That is the one person who would have a major problem with copyright infringement as opposed to facilitating it.

Look: the majority of musicians are not wealthy. Those who are and who are of the current generation – mid-twenties – are probably so because of clever marketing, performances, and endorsements. Not because of sales. If it’s not a popular genre, then the artist is just plain screwed, because they’re never going to know exactly where their music had ended up.

Also, there are better ways to share. You see artists on YouTube putting up segments of their songs as promo – but again, segments. Promotional material; enough of the song to pique an interest, not enough to where someone can attempt to de-embed the music from the video and then share the rest. And YouTube, just FYI, links to where this song can be bought in full – iTunes or Amazon. There are ways to harness the digital sharing realm without said sharing infringing on copyright, but few people see that and instead focus on their right to do something that is,  for all statutory intents and purposes, illegal. You may have that right to share things, but the people whose material you’re sharing without their consent or permission have the right to not like it and do something about it.

And look…I’m an independent author. I have my book uploaded in e-form to several mediums. And yes, it’s probably being bootlegged here and there. On one hand, it’s flattering that I’m being bootlegged, but I would much rather have my potential readers respect the work that had gone into the book and pay the whopping three bucks to have it legitimately.

K.G.

Juliet Kachyk had thrown my blog into the mix for The Versatile Blogger Award!

Wow. I think this is the first award for this blog! Okay, so now I…

1. Thank those who nominated me.

2. Nominate 15 other bloggers who I think deserve it.

3. Share 7 random facts about myself.

4. Add a picture of the award to this post (see above)

Thank you, Juliet!!! And happy editing to you too!

—

So…seven random facts about myself.

1. I have a weakness for pomegranates. I love them, adore them, and can’t resist them every winter. They’re in season around mid-December, and a properly ripened one tastes like something between a cranberry and a black cherry, just a little more tart.

2. I am nearsighted and wear glasses/contacts to correct it. But, even though I am myopic, I have excellent perception for color and contrast, and excellent night vision on top of that.

3. I research random things when I’m bored, and spend enough time researching to write a paper on it.

4. I have an actual, hard-copy list of places that I want to visit. I’ve been steadily crossing them off.

5. I play the lottery, but nowhere near on a regular basis…and nearly always end up getting the small prizes. Most I’ve won was $20.

6. I assemble my own furniture, and had done so since I was 12. It’s a workout, and there’s something very satisfying about building.

7. I’ve been awake for 24 hours straight only twice in my life. I slept for 24 hours straight only once.

—

Now, for the blogs! I do have to limit to ten, though. A lot of the blogs I read are incredibly political, and/or concerning VERY specific issues that are of value to me. An award is not something that I want to get political on. This one will be for my fellow writers.

1. Gayle F. Moffet – My editor, in all her versatile, sarcastic glory.

2. Wide Awake but Dreaming - run by Raymond Frazee. Discovered this via Facebook, promptly subscribed. Beautiful writing style.

3. Lisa Marie Basile – One of my oldest friends, whose field of choice is surreal travel-inspired poetry. Owner and proud operator of Patasola Press

4. Sheldon Nylander – CA-based, strong, concise, and to the point.

5. Kate Policiani - Concise, well-written reviews and more.

6. J.W. Manus – an author who doesn’t mince words one bit.

7. Let’s Get Digital – by David Gaughran.

8. A Newbie’s Guide to Self-Publishing – by J.A. Konrath. If you’re a self-pub and you need resources, he and David Gaughran win the best go-to blog.

9. S. R. Torris - A fellow author with a flair.

10. The Geeky Chic – Book reviews, promo, and then some! Run by Olivia Melancon

K.G.

But of course, it’s music season. :) Yes, early.

Cheikh Ndoye & Friends, Blues Alley, Washington, DC

If you’ve not heard of this guy, I strongly recommend checking him out. Doubly so if you like Gerald Veasley’s brand of music: kicky, funky, with a strong bass lead. Unlike Gerald, however, Cheikh is less groove and more snap. His brand of music is a different deviation of bass-heavy jazz; a bit more serious, almost as though his bass, in and of itself, is a bit more thoughtful than its counterparts.

So this show, with Chieli Minucci, Lao Tizer, and Karen Briggs as special guests, was an impulse trip. I thought about it, then thought against it, and about two weeks prior to the show, I asked myself, “What do I have to lose? It’s DC, a new city, and someone new to see.”

Well, it’s not like my travel bug is that difficult to convince. But you already knew that.

The thing about Blues Alley – and my regulars will confirm this – is that it’s located, quite literally, in an alley off North Wisconsin Avenue in Georgetown. In my meanderings around Georgetown, I had ended up walking past it twice, before I glanced down the alley next to the sushi place where I just had dinner. Yep, there it was, and immediately, I thought of the old speakeasies, and the way they were hiding in plain sight. One glance inside, and the comparison is all the more apropos: the entire club is exposed brickwork and mahogany. The house lights, even when on, are dimmed, and the atmosphere is a modern look at an old-school concept. For an old-school soul like myself, yep – that’s what home looks like.

Cheikh definitely impressed me from the get-go, and that is because having a show with the electric bass as a lead instrument, balance is key, and he more than had it. If you’ve heard Chieli Minucci on stage, then you know that when he starts up on the electric guitar, he has no trouble overpowering the backing musicians. Karen Briggs on the violin – same. Cheikh clearly had lead on the stage, even though Chieli did indeed let it rip on the electric. The bass was front and center, right on par with the guitar and violin; snappy, a little introspective, and definitely front-and-center.

The others were also showcased on that stage. Scheherazade by Karen Briggs, a lovely deviation on a classic, and Special EFX’s Daybreak, that same bass that had led the game just a few minutes ago would blend into the rhythm on both songs.

One thing to note: Daybreak was pleasantly different last night too, and that is thanks to Lao Tizer. It’s usually a vocal-led song, and I’ve heard it in that variation effectively ever since I had started attending Special EFX shows. But this time, it was piano-led where the vocals would ordinarily be, and I found myself feeling the same warm little tingle down my spine that I felt the very first time I heard this live. Lao gave this song a whole new flavor, and it’s a flavor I should very much like to sample again.

Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, BB King’s

If you are among my fellow jazzers and you’re not familiar with the band offhand, I recommend that you look up Mr. Pinstripe Suit. You’ll recognize some of the riffs from the Olympics and Carly Patterson’s gold-winning floor routine. You’ll also recognize this band as one of the players of the 90s Swing Revival.

Or, if you’re like me, you’ll see it as a trip right back to the 1940s.

I will say this outright: before I fell ass-over-teakettle in love with contemporary jazz, I had a love of an entirely different music: big-band and swing. I was maybe 10 when I started listening to it, and it was also the time of the Swing Revival, and I caught a rendition of Glenn Miller’s In the Mood. Hooked? Oh, come on, like you have to ask.

Big Bad Voodoo Daddy was on that radar here and there, but with time, and with a love affair with contemporary jazz, swing receded to the back burner…right up until I saw the BB King’s schedule and saw that they were playing.

This was last week.

You know, BB King’s has a very under-utilized dance floor. It’s a dance floor that I usually see set with tables as part of its usual audience seating plan, but this time, in an anticipation of some people knowing the proper steps to the swing (who were, in fact, hotdoggin’ it on the floor later on), the floor was free.

Out comes Scotty Morris and the band, and I will say this without hesitation: that has to be one of the best horn sections I’ve ever heard. Trombone, two trumpets, a tenor sax and the very seldom heard bari sax – and you’ll find yourself saying only three words: let ‘er rip! But easily, the guys who stole the show were Dirk Shumaker on the upright double bass and backing vocals, who actually went on and spun that bass on its peg like no one’s watching, and Joshua Levy on the keys, who looks like and plays like a very young Dave Brubeck. Scotty may’ve brought Mr. Pinstripe Suit front and center, but between Dirk being Mr. Heatmiser and Andy Rowley on the bari sax, photographing this show fell by the wayside somewhere around Cab Calloway’s Reefer Man. That was somewhere in the first 25 minutes. The rest of the time…well, what else can you do when the music is just begging you to hit the dance floor?

My feet have stopped complaining at me since that show, by the by, but the day after was a lulu.

Life on the Road

Technically, I’m not on the road that much, if you consider the number of days out of the year that I actually pack up and get out of town to catch a show. The thing is, I’ve noticed lately that whenever I see something on the music radar that requires traveling, I immediately think of the tote bag in my closet, and how quickly I can assemble what I need to crash for two nights max. The rest is getting there, exploring, meeting up with people, and whatever else I need.

You’d think it’s ordinary, but not on short notice. I know a lot of people who would be thrown into a panic at the prospect of jumping and getting on a bus, train, or plane within any timeframe less than a month. Me…nope. In fact, the shorter the time, the more I like it.

I’ve been thinking, more and more, of why I keep doing it. What is it about even this moment, where I’m sitting in the back of a Bolt bus, on the free wi-fi network, nursing a soup that I grabbed right before I left Union Station, that holds the appeal? I’ve always known myself to chase adventure and chase jazz, and far as I can tell you, I do it out of love for both. At the same time, I’d love to take a couple of days and stay home and keep putting the apartment to rights.

And yet, if someone told me, “Great show at Warmdaddy’s; grab your camera!”, you and I both know that I will be on the next Philly-bound Bolt bus and booking a room at the cheapest hotel possible as I go.

Still, even in this frenetic chase of music, moments, and memories, there are certain things that give me cause to lean back and simply enjoy it. For instance, right now, the bus is about halfway to NY. The mushroom bisque from Au bon Pain is delicious. Free wi-fi. A fantastic musical high. Pause to reflect on the first two shows of the new year, and the first out-of-state trip of the year that, all in all, didn’t put a massive dent into my budget. And it’s a fabulous way to start off the year.

May the jazz season officially begin.

K.G.

My editor and I have a very cool arrangement for how we overhaul my books. She gets a PDF of a chapter, opens it up, rips it into shreds via the markup and highlight tools, then tosses it back to me. Then I pull that PDF side-by-side with its Word-document twin and work it over per her instructions. Some instructions I follow, others I discuss with her. Sometimes, I overhaul it so completely that I have to re-send the entire chapter back to her.

It’s incredibly effective. It’s also the style of editing that I had adopted for my own business clients as well.

The thing is, though, is that I fillet my work before it ever goes to Gayle, and thus, am several chapters ahead. As it so happens, this way I get to see where my book had gone into, and what I have to do to make it an effective story. Gayle gets the refined draft, hardly ever the rough one. This way, I can also correct storyline inconsistencies before the story ever gets to the editor’s desk.

Usually, it’s a pretty smooth process, albeit time-consuming and eye-crossing, like most editing tends to be.

And then you have moments like I had recently, wherein you continue to edit, and then come to the realization that pretty much the entire second half of the book needs a full-scale consistency overhaul, a.k.a. a massive content edit. Or, better put, a rewrite.

…egad.

Rewrites are a funny thing. They’re definitely a step above a conventional copyedit, and are a very necessary thing in most cases. I have said it before and I will reiterate myself: a first draft is a first draft only. Few times, if ever at all, does an author get the novel right on the first go. Chances are, the first go is not the best book in the world, and it is often full of plot holes, bad grammar, and underdeveloped storylines.

Surprise rewrites of the breed that mine had happened to be are a completely different animal, though. They just happen after you had edited through a good portion of your first draft, and are feeling that you can clock through the rest of the manuscript without a major overhaul. It kind of creeps up and bops you over the head, and then you’re surprised and wondering how you can possibly overhaul this much.

You know what the answer to that is? Slowly, and without discarding what you have already.

Granted, I’ve done it before when, upon the initial re-read, the first half of Book 1 had struck me as so cliche that I couldn’t keep it in the book. I’m talking a full-scale I cannot believe I wrote that sort of moment. Thus, I spent the better part of three years rewriting it. It was an interesting deal; I had to work mostly from scratch on that first half, but the scenes that were already there had given root to what it had ended up becoming. For the most part, though, I was writing the entire beginning half all over again.

With Book 4, though, the content is all there, and even in the current state, the action ramps up and cools off at just the right pace. The thing is…it’s a series. And considering that, 1) this would wrap up the first arc, and 2) the second arc is already mostly written, the main purpose of this overhaul is to make it all cohesive. My task is to both wrap up all the loose ends from Books 1-3, and springboard the plot properly into the next arc. Book 5 is its own little set of adventures, and the beautiful thing about Book 5 is, when laid out in Scrivener, all those plot holes hidden in the wall of text that’s usually the end result of novel-writing in Word are suddenly as obvious as spotlights.

This is the approach that I would recommend for attempting the Surprise Rewrite:

- Read the remainder of your story. By this time, it had already sat around for a while, and after you’ve already started the edit, you have a pretty clear idea of where this story is going to go. If you have a look at the rest of your story with your editing framework in mind, you suddenly end up viewing your writing in a much more critical frame of mind.

- Take notes, and lots of ‘em. Whether Post-Its are your poison, the Notes feature on Scrivener had struck your fancy, or you like OneNote from MS Office, you have to take notes. Make them as detailed as you like, but make sure that you will be able to understand them two months after you take them.

- Go slowly. Scene-by-scene, paragraph-by-paragraph, it matters little how you do it, but make sure that you take as much time as possible. As I’ve said before, editing a mass amount of text at the same time can and will make your eyes cross. You can and will get lost in your own story. If you have to rewrite or insert a scene, make sure that that’s all you do for a given block of time.  It will, without fail, take you a lot of time to get done this way, but your story quality will be glad for it.

- If you’re straight-out rewriting chunks of your story from scratch, don’t discard the original portions. Don’t. They won’t come in useful just for nostalgia moments, but for future inspiration as well. As I learned the old-fashioned way, you literally have no idea where your next story idea will be coming from. Copy-paste your discarded segments into a separate file, and store it somewhere in your archives. When you have writer’s block some months – if not years – from today, have a read. You never know.

As it is, I have inadvertently started the overhaul earlier today. I touched back onto a couple of points in Book 3 and realized that if I wanted to have a turning point for one of my characters, then that was the perfect way to engineer it. It may cost me half of a dialogue to do it, but it’ll be pretty great.

As far as deadlines, I’ve had a small chat with Ragan Whiteside, a hell of a talent on the flute and a great fan of my books, and realized that, realistically, there was no way to get this done early. So, with that said, the deadline for the release of Book 4 is…my 27th birthday, May 13th, 2012. 

I think it’ll be a hell of a way to celebrate.

K.G.