Episode #96: If You Don't Open Your Mind, Then How Can You Grow?

And a very lazy {I'm hoping} Sunday afternoon to one and all. I sincerely hope the weather is treating you very well, no matter where you might be reading this post.

It's been a brutally hot/humid week here in Connecticut and there have been days in which I was like that guy in Airplane! who became completely drenched taking over the piloting duties on the plane.

But I've managed to keep my sanity on a even keel by taking once-a-day trips into the mountain in order to cool off and cool down.

But, the other part of keeping my sanity, besides listening to different types of classical and ye olden folk music, is working on a writing project, which in this particular case, is re-writing a previously published novella/novelette.

At this point, I have completed the rewrite, which bottomed out to just a smidgen over 22k words.  And, in addition to completing the rewrite, I've also completed the first round of edits as well, so I'm happy about that. It's currently sitting off to the side, patiently waiting for me come back to it, but right now, I'm just letting it sit for a lengthy marination. This in turn will allow me to think/meditate/mull over about what the titled of the rewrite should be. I wasn't overly thrilled about the original title, since I don't think it really fitted with what the overall theme of the story was/is {I'm leaning towards failed plan of revenge/karma/redemption}.

Once I get that properly decided on, then I can also mull over what the cover should look like, and a few other things as well.

In the mean time, I'll keep tuning in to the strange genres that I've seen to settled into for writing, since it's become the perfect background noise for the daily grind to what is my life these days.

Talk to ya later!

{c} 2021 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #95: Not Quite Classical, But Medieval Instead

To thine own wind chimes be true, for the forest's beauty is complimented by music emanating from the gentle windiness of itself.

Welcome to the literary world of G.B. Miller, where the past is making progress and the present is never quite standing still.

I'm still making steady progress with my writing, as I've settled in quite nicely to my groove of late night writing. I've also managed to expand it expand it to writing whenever I won't have any eavesdropping {which in this case is looking over my shoulder from the kitchen into the dining room}, which usually means that the family is either out and about or vegging out watching television.

The rabbit hole that is YouTube can be very strange when it comes to certain things, like music. I found about 11 hours worth of classical music to listen to, mostly from the composers from the 18th thru the 19th century. From there I'd eventually branched off to New Age instrumentals {I strongly do not recommend this if you have a tendency to meditate listening to soft instrumentals}, as well as baroque music featuring classical guitar.

I finally got a little burned out on classical music, so off I went in search other types of non-normal {e.g. genre music that you enjoy listening to} music. Roughly seven minutes of side searching the suggestions brought me to four videos featuring medieval music like this. Thus, this is the type of music that I'm currently writing, including blogging, to presently.

Granted, it's very strange music to listen to, especially since vocals are involved, but it seems to do the job as the vocals are just as minimally intrusive as the music itself, which in turns makes it easier to concentrate to write. In fact, I've find that when I tune out the music for a short period of time while I'm concentrating on a particularly difficult scene, it's easy peasy to tune back into it w/o worrying about getting lost.

But. not to worry, for after the four video set, which totals about 3 3/4 hours or so, I found two other videos featuring mandolin and lute. Yeah, that should be fun.

Basically, the one thing that I've found incredibly refreshing for myself is that I'm way more open-minded to explore other genres that people would've listened to way back in the previous centuries. And this, can only be a good thing for future use. Expanding the personal horizons will always make a person genuinely more affable as well as laid back.

And isn't being mellower and laid back the primary goal for everyone as they get older?

{c} 2021 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #94: Classically Gassed In The New Millennium

"When it's summertime in the corn belt, the birds can be heard hiccuping on a starry, starry night....."

Picture to the right was taken some time on the second to last vacation that I had taken in the 2010's.

Anyways, to continue on a theme, apparently writing with classical music is my new semi-permanent thing. So is writing at night time a new semi-permanent thing.

As most of you are aware, I've pounded the message over the past decade or so that in order to write, I have to do it in complete and utter silence. No background noise, no front ground noise, no sideways noise. Nada. Nil. Zip. Zilcho.

But to circumstances beyond my control, I am now forced to listen to classical. Actually tried New Age music for about an hour, but that was about fifty-five minutes too much for my tiny brain to handle, so away it went from YouTube.

On the upside, listening to non-harsh (aka no brass, no timpani, no percussion of any kind, only woods and strings) classical music has allowed me to get actually harsh and nasty with my re-write. I've long ago figured out that the first two thirds of the book I'm re-writing should match up with the last one-third of the book (last third is actually quite violent and nasty).

So writing with classical music as my white noise has allowed me to tap into my inner bully. unfettered and unapologetic, to the best of my ability. It's also allowed me to revisit, without guilt, earlier themes that have fallen by the wayside in the past decade or so, mostly due to personal reasons.

In another piece of semi-interesting news, after a who bunch of personal reflection (like about a year's worth or so) as well as discussion with the family, I've now got my two shots scheduled for the month of August. And before you accuse me of being an anti-vaxxer and all of that crappola, I do believe in the vaccine science (mostly), but as my daughter has always said, "your body, your choice", so for the longest time that has been my mantra. But, even though that's still my mantra, circumstances have changed, and I've made the decision to get the shot.

I also believe in herd immunity, so that has helped me a lot, as well as being in about 95% personal quarantine too. I'll still be pursuing that personal quarantine, since I really have no need for contact with the human race 95% of the time, so after the shot, it'll be business as usual.

{c} 2021 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved