Musical collaboration

I'm about 3/4 way through my novel rewrite. I average about 1500 words a day (depending on my other tasks), though on good days I manage 3000-3500 words. Meanwhile, I have some other novel ideas screaming in my head, begging to be written, and I'm starting to outline those. So much to write, so little time.

I love the Internet. As I've mentioned before, Urban Tapestry has been invited to participate in performing with Playing Rapunzel on a song in their concert on Saturday at FilKONtario. I am VERY excited about this because I love Playing Rapunzel and also love the song, "Sholem" (which is also on Mich Sampson's fabulous CD, "Just Beyond.")

Mich arranged the song for our two groups, then e-mailed us a multitude of sound files including the song as a whole, our individual parts, and "karaoke versions" where we could practice our parts against the others, AND all the sheet music plus arrangement summary in text. This is one incredibly organized woman!

I found that the vocal part arranged for me was a bit too low for me to sing; I have a VERY narrow vocal range, which is why I write most of my songs for Jodi and Allison to sing lead -- three-note songs would be dull to write and sing after a while otherwise, I suspect. :-) Anyway, we ended up changing my vocal part to flute instead, after which Mich and I then had several satisfying exchanges (I LOVE this sort of musical collaboration), tweaking my flute part after I recorded my proposed flute part against the others and sent the result to her, plus also e-mailed her a photo of my altered sheet music.



From one of her recent e-mails: "Your bars 37-38 - rather than F - D - D, could we please replace that with one long D (D - D - D), to keep the ending of the vocal line clean?" Am I crazy that I love this sort of in-depth attention to musical detail? I feel the same way when I listen to Joey Shoji talk about wine. *SWOON*

Anyway, there is NO WAY we could have done this by traditional snailmail within the space of a couple of weeks.

For those in the Toronto area, it's not too late to decide to attend FilKONtario this weekend! You can find out more at the Web site. Jodi, Allison and I will be participating in a song in Playing Rapunzel's concert on Saturday afternoon as well as participating in the children's roundtable concert on Sunday (tentatively scheduled for noon).

FilKONtario attendees are starting to arrive this week from around the world! Looking forward to hanging out with Dave Clement (from Winnipeg) tonight. And Sibylle Machat arrives from Germany for a visit tomorrow, woohoo!

Link O' The Day

Breakout: Remember that old game, Breakout? This is a highly unusual and entertaining take, from Japan. :-) (Thanks to Jeff, who found the link through Daring Fireball)


Parki and me. Photo by Jeff.



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Flatmouse Fame!

My sister's new book, A Trip With Grandma, is now available! At least it's available in the U.S.; my friend Rand already has his copy. I've been told that my local bookstore is supposed to get it any day now. You can see some sample interior pages and a rough in Ruth's Web site, which I've just updated.

Jeff is particularly excited about this because pretty much every illustration in the book features Flatmouse, one of his childhood toys. Jeff claims that Flatmouse (a name he gave the toy himself as a child) was always flat, but what demented toy company would produce such an obviously weird-looking, flat toy for a child? No, I'm convinced that Flatmouse used to be a regular-looking mouse....until tragedy struck.

I have my own theories about how the poor thing got flattened. The nose is crooked, as if it was pressed very hard against a hard flat surface. Like the pavement, as Little Flatmouse is being repeatedly run over by the family car, for instance. Or perhaps young Jefferson was in the habit of sleeping on top of the defenseless toy, a subconsciously aggressive action sprung out of a secret but deep-seated hatred of mice. Possibly. He'll deny it now, of course.

In any case, Jeff has fortunately grown out of these childhood neuroses (though who knows if he ever truly recovered from the shock of being taken to the hospital emergency ward by his mother when he got that pussy willow stuck up his nose) and regards Flatmouse with genuine affection these days:



Four days until FilKONtario!

Link O' The Day

A short while back, I mentioned Part I of Wil Wheaton's funny but sad story about his first meeting with William Shatner. Thanks to Danea for alerting to me to the posting of Wil Wheaton's Geek in Review: William F** Shatner, PART II!

Arrogant Worms YouTube Video: Carrot Juice Is Murder: I had never seen an Arrogant Worms video, so thanks to CDenise for the link! I first heard the very funny "Carrot Juice Is Murder" in an open filk circle ages ago.



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Chipmunks and Warm Macbooks

I'm happy to report that Ernie and the Violets are still alive despite my loving care. I'm worried about scaring Ernie to death, so I only tend to approach his fish bowl to give him his two pellets in the morning, two in the afternoon. As a result, Ernie gets VERY excited whenever I visit him, enthusiastically hurling himself at the surface of the water (upside-down, of course), gulping in gustatorial anticipation.

Illustration above: Yes, I know Ernie is supposed to be upside-down. But it's the first time I've attempted to draw a goldfish, and I figure I need to learn to draw them rightside-up first.

I tried the woodcut effect in an Inkygirl cartoon but wasn't too crazy about it:



Still, it was worth a shot. I love experimenting in Corel Painter. I know I should pick a style and stick with it, but I'm having too much fun!

Only a week to go until FilKONtario! I'm also very much looking forward to a visit from my friend Sibylle from Germany before the convention:



And of course there will be hordes of Brits in town for the convention! I've already taken a chunk of time off this month (unlike those with day jobs, we freelancers don't get paid when we take time off :-)) else I'd want to be trailing after you all, pointing out interesting places to see and interesting things to eat in Toronto.

Feel free to bug me before or at the convention with any questions you may have about the downtown area, esp. bookstores. I may not be able to answer all of them them, but I'm willing to give it a shot. If you post your questions in Livejournal, I'm sure other Torontonians will help as well.

Links O' The Day

Chipmunks and Warm Macbooks: sooooooooooooo cute! Thanks to Ray for the link.

Full Bloom Tea: SO gorgeous. A tad too expensive to indulge in myself, but I can admire, can't I? (thanks to Ray)

Kinetic Sculpture: A BMW commercial, but it also happens to be a very interesting supershort documentary about a cool kinetic sculpture as well. :-) (thanks to Jim B.)




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Photos, comics and artstuff

I created the image above in Corel Painter 9.5; I've been experimenting with a woodcut look. I basically just create the initial drawing with thick black lines in a layer separate from the background colour, then etched away some of the black with background colour. Brushes used: Smooth Ink Pen, varying sizes (I changed it as I worked, using the square bracket keys).

I notice that Corel Painter has come out with a new version.

Hm.
*drool*



Will Write For Chocolate has been updated. Click the image above for a bigger version.




Dave Clement was visiting with Beckett and Paul out in California before Consonance. During his visit, he played some music for both Casey's and Riley's classes at school. The photo above was taken by Beckett, who is one of the best photographers of people that I know; she gave me permission to re-post it here. Check out the photos she took of Joey Shoji, Kristoph Klover, and Dave Clement, for instance. Beckett's main focus, however, is illustration...so do visit her online sketchbook!



Above: I cropped and tweaked a photo that Tony Fabris took with my camera in California. Wow! Women on Writing is interviewing me for an upcoming issue, and wanted a photo of both me and Jeff. Jeff is not the most...er...enthusiastic model for photographs :-), especially couple photographs, so I was pretty pleased with how this came out. Thanks, Tony!

By the way, I'm also going to be a guest blogger for Sessions Online School Of Design in early April. This is the first time I've been asked to blog about ILLUSTRATION rather than writing! I'll post a link in Blatherings when my blog entries appear.



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Ernie the Upside-Down Fish

My comp copies of the Writer's Yearbook 2007 arrived, yay! My article, "2006: The Year In Review" is the first in the issue and runs five pages (four and a bit, really :-)).

I wrote another kids' song yesterday. I didn't try to -- it popped into my head while I was taking a shower. I love when that happens. I recorded a quick version of it in Garageband as soon as I got to my office (a 28 second commute) so I wouldn't lose it, finished it at the end of the day, then sent it off to Allison and Jodi so we can (hopefully) learn it to perform in the children's round robin concert at FKO.

It's a food song. Surprising, eh?



I am babysitting a goldfish and some African violets for two families right now. The fish's name is Ernie, and his young owner told me not to be alarmed if he turned purple, grew bumps and swam upside-down. I thought she was joking. See the photo above: Ernie seems to swim upside-down most of the time. He's missing a fin, which probably accounts for his unusual choice of locomotion.

No sign of the purple bumpy part yet.
I've been told to knock on the bowl if I think Ernie's dead, to see if he wakes up.

One of my nieces asked me to babysit her Sea Monkeys (tm) last year, and left detailed instructions. I followed her instructions to the letter, yet I managed to kill them anyway. :-( They died one at a time, first dragging themselves along the bottom of the Sea Monkey Tank (tm) in a truly heartrending drama for about 12 hours before giving up the ghost. The last Sea Monkey (tm) had the audacity to expire one day before my niece returned. When he was in his tail-dragging phase, I begged with him to PLEASE hold on just a few more days. He ignored me.

(For those who have not seen Sea Monkeys (tm) in real life, I regret to inform you that they do NOT hold hands and smile and dance with each other in a circle, Whoville-fashion. They are brine shrimp. But they are still fascinating to watch for seconds at a time.)

I recently posted in Livejournal, asking for advice on how to keep Ernie and the Violets (what a great band name, eh?) healthy until their owners come to claim them, and my friend Luis offered the most amusing (though of dubious value in practical application, I suspect) advice:

Liquid Plummer! It's the wonder liquid. Good for both Goldfish AND violets. Also, Goldfish Love to be Juggled. I know, it's probably more than you are willing to do for a fish but believe me, The fish will thank you. Or look at you in a very fish like way....

Wish me luck. Many thanks to those of you who posted advice! Yes, even Luis!

Links O' The Day

One of the most amusing deodorant commercials of all time: Thanks to Jim Bowlin for the link.

Twirl A Squirrel: Thanks to Margaret Middleton for this link. :-D

William F*** Shatner (Part 1): A sad and shocking story of Wil Wheaton's first meeting with William Shatner. I am anxiously awaiting Part II! Thanks to Ray Vankleef for the link.

UNBELIEVABLE paper sculptures by Jen Stark, using only construction paper. Thanks to Ray Vankleef for the link.



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