Just updating

Still wrapped up in many projects related to writing and not. There is much to ponder as to the value of blogs, but for now, will continue on...If and when a "micro-story" comes to me through the ether, I'll post it here.

have not forgotten this little blog

But I've been busy with my music, and continuing on with what has become a very long process of finishing my novella for publication. The funny thing is, a lot of my music is up for free in various places places, yet I seem inclined to spend a lot....I almost wrote "effort" but that takes no effort for me really. Writing takes a great deal of discipline and effort, though. So, that part seems to come slower. But, it is almost there (even though I've been almost finished for what seems like months), and hopefully, within a matter of weeks if not less, it should be ready for submission for publication.

I'm still working on a Science Fiction novella with the working title, "A Child's View of Inter- stellar War."

Joe's Art

This story appeared in a slightly different form on another blog, This version is perhaps more concise:

Many years ago, Joe lived in a modest home he owned. Well, actually the bank owned it. He had a reversal of fortunes, and now lives in a small apartment. This didn't bother him. He never had an attachment to material possessions. He didn't mind the lack of space.

He did miss his privacy, but his neighbors were pretty relaxed. He wasn't really very noisy anyway. He did like to play his keyboard very softly in the evening. In what was left of his spare time, at night before bed, he liked to paint.

There were times he considered putting his music or paintings on the internet. He decided against it based on privacy concerns, not too mention he viewed the current state of the internet as problematic. He believed it was filled with miscreants up to no good.

He used it like everybody else, but was cautious about his use of it. To him, it was a good source of information, which was only because the other sources were beyond hopeless, with nothing but the most vapid propaganda to offer. So, he refused to upload anything, and as a consequence, his music and paintings were private to him and a few close friends.

Then, one day, he decided to make a JPEG image of one of his paintings, create an account with one of the smaller blogs, and put it up online. He was curious to see what would happen. He worried about doing it, but decided for it eventually.

He wondered what would happen. Days and weeks passed. Just as he sort of suspected, not much anything happened at all. A few people seemed to be seeing his painting, but that was it.

He went back to playing his keyboard softly in the evening, and painting at night. He did this each night until he was tired enough to fall asleep for the night.

I've decided to bring back this writers blog, at least temporarily. We'll see how this affects SEO and indexing, as this means I will have duplicate content in some cases. Perhaps, a new micro-story will be posted soon.

Distribution of time

As time is something that is lacking, I've decided, no later than 8/1 to delete this blog to focus on the creative and editorial work that seems to be a priority for me. I will, of course, stop the feed into my Amazon page as the time approaches. The idea now, is to consolidate. There is a business site that will be redesigned, and will be the one place for links and information about my writing, music, and eventually other artists. Thank You.

Some Times Thoreau's Words

I think of what Thoreau said about simplifying. Too many platforms, and then one tends to get too caught up in technical details, and never may get to the thing that mattered - which was the various attempts at art. No decisions have been made, other than the next novella has to be finished. It actually is finished, but all in cursive on loose leaf paper. I did have another micro story written in that way, but somehow it never got put up on this blog.

There may come a point where I have to organize my scribbling and music better under one roof, but for now, I'm leaving things as they are. This blog is still out here, and the idea, of course, is to keep updating with new material - lest it become a void of some sort (or perhaps worse). I intend to do this. I intend to do that. I flutter about. I don't believe in Astrology, but when I finally read about my sign, the Gemini, I even agreed with bad things they were saying about me.

I've spoken about time and the lack of it before. That still seems to be the case. But, in between the rest of it, I might look around for that micro-story that never made it to here. Or, it is possible that I could write something else.

Incidentally, I've now become aware of the idea of speech recognition voice to text programs. It still doesn't quite work well enough to replace a keyboard. Then, I thought, how backwards it seems to still be typing away in this day and age. We all should have microphones that take dictation while we continue on with our stories. It can almost work, if you do a little at a time, and aren't copying from an old fashioned pen and ink text you've just scribbled out to use as the framework for your story.

I seem to remember, but could be mistaken, that Henry James, in his later years dictated some of his stories. Of course, that wouldn't be quite the same as speaking directly into a computer.

A Random Post

As it becomes painfully obvious that time really is finite, or at least perceived as such, one has to make decisions as to how to allocate one’s time. As things progress (hopefully), perhaps more time can be spent updating blogs.

In the meantime, there are songs to collect and prepare. There is a Science Fiction novella almost ready for submission.

Keep checking back. As time permits, there will be more blog posting.

Joe's Coffee Problem (Micro-story #2)

Joe always woke up at eight in the morning. He would have his coffee, and perhaps a bowel of cereal. Inevitably, he would notice that he was running late. He would quickly comb his hair, using a little bit of water, and a tiny dab of hair gel. Although he was aging, he seemed to have most of his hair. He was in fairly good health.

There was one thing though. He always seemed to be tired. Thus, he had formed the habit of drinking a lot of coffee. By the middle of the morning, it was impossible to know how much of it he had already consumed.

There were some consequences as a result of his habit. One was that he made many trips to the restroom during his work day. The other was, despite being tired, he often had trouble falling asleep at night. Of course, the second problem would resolve itself. After a few late nights, he became so fatigued he'd fall asleep at an early hour. This didn't mean he wouldn't be tired when he woke up in the morning. He would start the whole cycle over again.

One day, Joe decided he was going to ween himself off of the caffeine fix. So, a little each day, he replaced the caffeinated coffee with decaf. His hope was to reach the point where he didn't feel the urge to drink coffee at all. But even if he could only reach the point of drinking decaf exclusively, he would be happy.

At first, over a period of a few days, he felt horrible. Over a longer period, he felt even worse. So, eventually, he went back the other way, and began to drink more and more caffeinated coffee.

He supposed, some addictions were not only worth not giving up, but were enjoyable and useful. He decided coffee was actually good for his health.

Joe and the Bird ("Micro-Story" # 1)

Every morning Joe would drink his coffee as he watched out of his window a small bird fluttering very near the window. If he could reach his outstretched arm just far enough, the bird would be close enough to touch. He never did that, of course. For whatever reason, he was just inclined to leave the bird alone to flutter about in front of his window.

He was absolutely sure it was the same bird every time. If you were to ask him how he knew that, or even what type of bird it was, he could not tell you. He knew nothing of birds. Still, over time he considered this bird a great friend. He felt as though he could have morning coffee with it, or he, or she - whatever the case may be.

After a while, he built a bird feeder, and hung it outside the window. He filled it every day. He felt as though the bird was very grateful to him for doing that. Joe would have his coffee. The bird would have his (or her?) seed. They were quite happy together each morning for many months.

One day, the bird disappeared. Joe was quite sad about this, and couldn't understand why the bird would leave him like that. Imagine, to leave him so suddenly. Yes, he was quite sad.

A few days later, Joe noticed a big cat, looking rather sinister, sitting underneath the bush just below his window. Well, Joe thought he looked sinister, but in actuality, the cat was quite happy, and rather fat.

Needless to say, Joe and the cat were never very good friends.

Micro-stories concept

I've come up with a concept I might try out on this blog. Maybe, as is often the case, it has already been thought of before. So, that would mean that I think I'm very clever, but I'm really not. Anyway, the concept is something I will call "micro-stories." These will will be very short works of fiction, perhaps as short as I can make them. Yet, they must must be complete regardless of their brevity. We'll see how it goes. I'll be writing these while working on my novella, which I hope to complete in the not so distant future.

None of these "micro-stories" will be for sale, and I doubt they would appear anywhere but here. However, plans do change. I hope to have one ready soon.

The First of These Posts

I'm using this blog as a feed  for my Author's Page, so I hope to keep the information as relevant as I can for that purpose. As I'm away from my creative endeavors, which are basically writing and music, I find it difficult to say anything of great importance using this venue. However, I should mention that I am working on a new Science Fiction novella. I could make it a novel, but especially for the e book format, I think I prefer the novella form. I won't give away too many details, certainly not details pertinent to the plot, but perhaps in future posts will describe it a little more.

As I do music and writing, I sometimes wonder if I can claim it is unusual to do both - but am certainly aware of those that have done both. Paul Bowles comes immediately to mind. He was one who often focused on shorter fiction like myself. And I am sure there are many other musicians who also wrote, and writers who were also musicians.

But keeping to the point of this blog, which is my writing, I intend to keep writing shorter works of fiction as well as my novella, which I consider a longer work. Maybe, I'll do a full novel at some point. Of course, everything is uncertain, as that's just how these ventures go. I'll do my best, at the very least, to write fiction that reads well on an e reader.