Hey everyone! Good to see you again. About the title, that’s an order to myself, not you. A while ago my long term goals were to write novels or short stories and get them published, or do it myself. I have a long history of starting projects and not finishing them (ask my wife about the retaining wall in the backyard. Actually don’t). Same goes with the novels I started. Pretty convinced I’m not alone in this.
Anyway. Several years ago, maybe nearly ten, I reached a point where I was prepared to begin work on the cover artwork of at least two of my novels. One of them involved a young female Caucasian character. My kids had just finished secondary school so I knew a few of their friends so it wasn’t difficult to find one who was willing to pose for me for the book cover photo. The other book, however, involved very different characters. I didn’t know anyone who physically resembled those characters enough to work with so I had a problem. Being the introvert I am, and needing to work with people (preferably models or actors) I didn’t know, was a bit daunting. But the end goal was motivation enough to jump out of the comfort zone and tackle this thing head on. I also had to up my photography game.
I spent a few years accumulating a bit of camera and lighting gear, finding models I could practice shooting with and directing, and generally improving those skills. You can see some of those results on my Instagram page.
Then we had a pandemic full of lock-downs. You might remember it. So that slowed down the shoots somewhat. I never really got back into it, neither the photography nor the writing. Kind of lost the motivation.
The job I had at the time had an abnormally high staff turn-over rate (and due to the nature of our work we still had to go into the office) so I got to meet quite a few new people over those years since 2018. Some of them I felt comfortable enough with (eventually) to admit that I write novels and short stories in my spare time, even though I hadn’t opened Scrivener for years. I was surprised when a couple of these people were interested enough to want to read my stuff and actively encouraged me to keep going. This was awesome. And it lead to another problem.
Long story short, I recently bought a virtual drum kit (think air-drumming but with sound!) and in my efforts to make it work with my laptop I broke Scrivener.
I have since found a solution to the Scrivener issue that just leaves the drum kit. If anyone knows how to get MIDI working over Bluetooth on Linux, I’m all ears.
Thank you to those who do provide much needed encouragement. You know how much this means to any writer.
On another note, When I get annoyed with things and need a break I find some music on YouTube. I discovered an awesome acoustic band from Romania who do covers of songs from the 50’s to today. Check out their version of Radar Love by Golden Earring. These guys and girls love what they do and it shows. So much fun!
Richard Leonard - Words & Pictures 