Amy Studt has always been a favourite of mine. She’s currently doing gigs in the UK and I’d recommend her latest album (My Paper Made Men) for anyone who likes pop music. Here’s her latest single.
Track Name: Nice Boys
Artist Name: Amy Studt
Since finishing the 365 blogs challenge I have finished with all but two of my self imposed deadlines for posting entries. I still do the New Music Monday post [link] and the ones about writing that I publish each Wednesday, but there’s no reason for me to do any others unless I want to.
WordPress Mug
This change of pace has had an odd effect: I’ve started thinking of less things to blog about. When I was writing a blog each day there were some occasions when I struggled to think of something to say, but on the whole I always had thoughts kicking around. Now, rather than finding that my mind is overflowing with ideas, I discover that I have nothing to say. (Some may suggest that this proves nothing has changed.)
Deadlines are probably the real reason. With nothing to drive me I am not forced to come up with ideas to blog about. The same often goes for my fiction writing. If I didn’t have something driving me, some reason to get a short story or a section of a novel written I would wander off to do more interesting stuff. Procrastination is the doom of many a writer and deadlines are often their saviour. Long live the deadline.
Of the eight short stories I’ve worked on over the last couple of months two have become my strong favourites. This isn’t to say that they’re the most commercial, but they are my favourites.
Writing
One came from a challenge a couple of friends gave me some time back to write a story around the boiling frogs experiment. It’s actually become two stories, one fantasy, one science fiction, both based on the same theme: people getting in over their heads without realising it.
The second story I’ve become attached to is set in a small ice bound town. There’s one bar where the miners and a few shop owners gather for warmth and company along with truckers and the tribe of gypsies who track the wandering packs of elk across the frozen wastes. During one of the many drink filled nights Antti, the son of a store owner, bumps into Abbi who has come out of the snow fields with her clan, and the course of many lives are changed.
This second story I like because of the feel it has, and because the characters have depth. It could be modern fantasy, or even science fiction, regardless the setting of the bar and the people drinking to forget the harsh lives they lead, has something about it.
If neither of these stories get accepted anywhere, or prove inappropriate for magazines, I’ll post them online as I’d love to share them.
My country music fetish has been indulged again, this time with a group who have been rising in notoriety over the last couple of years. This is the first song of thiers I’ve really got into, possibly because it’s a bit more main stream.
Track Name: Need You Now
Artist Name: Lady Antebellum
I wasn’t intending to blog about the iPad, but in a coupel of days I’ve had a few in depth voice and email conversations and so I thought I might as well put most of what I’ve said in one place. (This text was also used in various forms as replies to the following blogs before I got around to posting it here: Tony, Simes, Jon.) Who’s says I don’t repeat myself?
There was no doubting that the first iPhone wasn’t a great. The thing that made it special was the touch screen; or more importantly the fact that you didn’t need a keyboard because the onscreen one was good enough for basic typing.
Other manufactures /have/ learnt from this, but at the same time Apple has learnt from everyone else and added things to the iPhone that were missing (MMS, copy and paste).
With the iPad, what Apple is really doing is making computing for the masses simple, in the same way that they did with MP3 players. Before the iPod came along there were plenty of MP3 players, but there was no integration. Now when Joe Blogs buys one, he can install iTunes and just has to feed his CDs in (or buy music online). Even today the music software you get with other portable players (and phones) is put to shame by iTunes. It’s not the best music software (I also use WinAmp), but it’s the best for the general public.
The iPad is much the same thing. Many have tried with a tablet, but all the models have been too difficult to use for the normal person who just wants to press a button and see a web page. The main problem has been Windows, which is far too complicated for what is needed.
Most people just want to browse the web, check emails via MSN and look at cool things they’re friends have sent them on Facebook or Youtube. The iPad does this (barring Youtube at the moment) and it does it with (more or less) instant on and a simple interface. They don’t want to run a major graphics package, write a novel, or edit a movie. They want to check cinema times and read the newspaper.
This doesn’t escape the fact that the iPad is not as good as it could be. A front facing camera would have been cool; but then how many people make video calls? A couple of rear facing ones would have been fun; but who plays with augmented reality at the moment? Loads more storage is needed; but only for those of us with massive music and movie collections.
The iPad is much like your average fridge or a washing machine: it does what the majority want to do the majority of the time. I’d like to think it’ll kick Sony et al up the behind, but sadly, unless Apple license their OS or someone does something really good with a version of Linux, everything else that is released will be a pale imitation that’s too complicated.
I suspect a lot of people will buy the iPad and in a year Apple will bring out a new, and improved version.
From a personal perspective my current phone (Nokia E71) is never off and effectively does everything I want from a computer (except play MMOGs) but the screen isn’t ideal for reading books, web pages and newspapers (nor is the one of the iPhone for that matter) and while I can write blogs and stories on the word processor and QWERTY keypad it’s not the perfect experience. Something I can use while on a train or in an airport lounge that’s bigger but just as easy to carry around would be great (and I don’t mind paying the extra for a real keyboard). Plus at $499 (not much more than a Kindle) it’s a good price.
Forty Six albums. That’s how many I purchased last year. It is neither a lot or a little, but when the various individual tracks I bought, got given, or gained from free download services such as iTunes single of the week, it amounts to around fifty hours worth of music.
iTunes
As you would expect the selection is a mixed bag. I’ve still been trying to stick to my rule of listening to at least three tracks before buying an album, but it’s not always guaranteed quality music. Youtube and Myspace help (and maybe Vevo in the future). Friends are also a good source of recommendations and they are great at introducing me to stuff I wouldn’t normally go anywhere near.
All of the forty six albums from last year were physical purchases and I’m curious if this will continue. I’d always steered clear of downloads because I like the idea of owning what I’ve paid for as well as being able to not only listen to it on my computer, but also via the media streamer, through both iTunes and WinAmp and on my phone. Of course, a lot of the download services have changed and DRM is becoming a thing of the past. This has tempted me to purchase individual tracks, but so far not albums.
Maybe that will change during 2010. I have already made some inroads, getting three CDs worth of music without the actual CDs and an audio book all from one supplier. I don’t regret this, I’m just not sure how I can lend them to friends to listen to like I would with the physical version.
A month ago I said I was going to send short stories to publishers. As the only short fiction I’d read was a couple of collections in books, and those a very long time ago, it seemed sensible to do some market research first. To that end I’ve been downloading, buying and borrowing science fiction magazines.
Writing
At the same time I have been writing and editing the stories I would like to send out. So far I have six.
I don’t know how others handle their writing but for me it’s get the idea, draft it out, leave it for a bit, write the story in full, let it rest, edit it, proof read it, leave it again, proof read it, done. So, when I say I’ve got six short stories ready, they are actually all at the latter stages of this process but not all are in a state I’m happy with.
The next task is to decide which stories are worth sending to market and which magazines they should go to. There’s still more research to do, and who knows if it’ll come to anything, but I’m having fun.
Fyfe Dangerfield (him from the Guillemots) with an excellent solo.
Track Name: She Needs Me
Artist Name: Fyfe Dangerfield
I’ve been trying to remember if I’ve ever read a book without first reading the blurb on the back. The same goes for films. I’ve come to the conclusion that the only thing it doesn’t happen with is short stories.
Writing
Over the last month I’ve been buying and reading fiction magazines. With all of these I have started reading without any knowledge of what the story is about and, given that they are science fiction magazines, they could be about almost anything.
At the moment I’m reading these stories for market research, but I have begun to realise that if I didn’t have this immediate need I probably wouldn’t bother. In a world where I have a permanently long list of things to deal with I am more likely to give my time over to a piece of fiction for which I have a hint about the plot than I am something I know nothing about.
The same thing occurs with articles on news sites. As much as I would like to read everything, every day, on the services I follow this is never possible, so instead I go for the ones with the interesting sub-headings.
This has left me wondering if all short stories should have a line or two at the start giving a hint at what the story is about.
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