Hello there!
Welcome to the new folks who have joined in the past month!
Some of you might have been taking part in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), and I hope you had fun and got a good chunk of your next story complete.
I worked on an idea I’ve been kicking around called JANET! (Yes, that includes an exclamation point.) It’s a little bit Terry Gilliam (think Time Bandits or The Adventures of Baron Munchausen), a little bit The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, with some Martha Wells Murderbot and John Scalzi sci-fi together in a stew. It’s weird, it’s sarcastic, and the first 15,000 words are done. I would have liked to reached the 50,000 goal, but two weekends of travel and a holiday really through me off.
For The Black Sky and The Red Sky, I wrote with fairly plotted out stories, knowing the ending before I started writing. For JANET!, I’m pantsing, which is a term writers use when they write “from the seat of their pants” with no detailed outline, just more of a vague idea.
In other news, I traveled to Austin, Texas to visit with my Dig Me Out Podcast co-host J and got to a concert. We saw the Manic Street Preachers and Suede (or, as known in the US, The London Suede), to UK bands that rarely tour the US. We saw them at the Moody Center in Austin City Limits, the location where legendary TV show is produced. Both bands were great, but Suede specifically caught me off guard with their volume and energy, also present on their new album Autofiction.
Here’s a performance of “She Still Leads Me On” from Later With Jools Holland.
RECENT READS
Got back in the reading groove this past month and breezed through the third Murderbot novella, Rogue Protocol, by Martha Wells. The first two were fun and entertaining along with being really strong sci-fi stories, and this one is no different. I’ve read criticisms that Murderbot is too sarcastic, but that hits my Generation X sweet-spot when it comes to humor. In fact, when I was a kid my mom would call me “Mr. Sarcastic,” so we got that in common.
RECENT TV/MOVIES
THE WHITE LOTUS (HBOMax, S.1) - Mesmerizing levels of creepiness, awkwardness, and bad behavior wrapped around a mystery.
LOW COUNTRY: THE MURDAUGH DYNASTY (HBOMax) - Three part docuseries about a powerful South Carolina family that disintegrates after criminal activity and murders rock a small town.
FIXER UPPER: THE CASTLE (HBOMax) - The Gaines are easy to enjoy, and this renovation was fun to watch. Next time I’d like to see them take on a castle in another part of the world.
MUSIC
Bush - The Art of Survival (2022)
Ginger Wildheart & The Sinners - Ginger Wildheart & The Sinners (2022)
Olatunji - Drums of Passion (1960)
L.S. Dunes - Past Lives (2022)
Sade - Promise (1985)
A few reminders before you go:
READER REVIEWS! If you read and enjoyed any of my books, I would be grateful if you left a positive review or a rating at Amazon or GoodReads. Reviews help other people find the book!
All previous newsletters are archived. Lots of stuff to check out including a link to the original 2011 screenplay of THE BLACK SKY, hints and helps to get started on the real work easter egg hunt teased at the back of the book, and more
Spotify Playlists! I made them for when I was writing THE BLACK SKY, THE RED SKY, and there is also a special one for “The Dank” bar that is in THE BLACK SKY.
If you like instrumental electronic music, I have soundtracks for THE BLACK SKY and THE RED SKY available at most streaming services, along with several other releases.
Stay Safe!
Tim
Listen to my 90s music podcast: Dig Me Out