Christmas...yay

It finally started snowing for real.  I know that sounds odd because we have, of course, had snow already in Utah.  But the last couple weeks have been nothing but the rain. 

Driving home from work last night was…fun.  The roads were covered in ice.  My car had bald tires.  Could I have replaced them during the summer in anticipation of the coming winter, well yes.  But I chose to go to Japan instead.  Wouldn’t you?   In fact, I could probably replace them now,  but I want a piano.  .  I know, priorities, priorities.  But I’ve wanted a piano again for so long that it no longer feels like a want.  It feels like a need.  And with my brother moving out and freeing up my spare room, I’ll have somewhere to move my drafting table so it’s not in the living room and I can put my new, shiny piano there.  So let the snow fall, the tires can wait.  I’m a careful driver and I tend to only be driving in the middle of the night when the roads are relatively clear (look at me living on the edge!).  

For book stuff, well editing is a slow process.  I had my friend Rhett (a fellow lover of fantasy) read through part 1 and he found some massive errors that I missed.  You know how when you stare at something too long it starts to disappear?  Yeah, that must be what happened cause I got it back and was like, “wow…how did I miss that?”  I’ve been pushing myself to write so much that it’s disappearing.  So I need to put it aside for a few days and read a book.  Or finish reading a book.  I’m still reading Princep’s Fury by Jim Butcher (my all time favorite author).  The book actually came out a few years ago but with moving, dating, getting dumped, moving again, car problems, work, homework and my own book writing, it kinda fell by the wayside (sad).  But last night after I got home from work I watched the Miracle Worker (great movie), and read a few of Jim’s chapters, next thing I knew it was almost 5am (oops!  Damnit Jim!)

Now I’m half asleep/awake, having my morning tea and getting ready for work (except for this little break to post an overdue blog).

So for a little catching up, Christmas was kind of like a Monday (I actually like Mondays).  I went up to my sisters place and spent it with her family in Heber.  They have a momma mountain lion with some cubs in their back yard so my nieces can’t go out and play in the snow.  We don’t want to risk one of them becoming a snack.  Especially when my brother in law would make such a great meal (well fed, marinated and smoked as he is).  Here kitty, kitty…

I got home Christmas evening and spend the remainder of the day alone.  It was nice and quiet.  Just me and the kitties.

The next day I spent some good time with my parents.  I showed my dad how to use itunes and we sort of lost him for the rest of the evening (holy technology batman!).

I got to see the new Tron, Legacy movie (AWESOME! AWESOME! AWESOME!) in 3D.  I’m going to have to go see it again.  It was just incredible.  And Daft Punk did a wonderful job on the soundtrack.  If you are a fan of the old Tron, you will LOVE this movie.  In fact, even if you’ve never even heard of Tron in your life, you’ll still love it.  I would have to put it up there with How to Train your Dragon as the best movies of 2010 (Yes, I’ve seen Inception.  It was enjoyable, but predictable.  The problem with being a writer is when you’re reading something or watching something you think of what you would do to make it better or how you might twist the plot, then it happens and you realize that many writers think the same so you can pretty much predict the outcome of most movies or novels.  Not to say I didn’t like the movie.  It was good). 

Well, back to the getting ready for work.  I’ll write again next year J 

Music or Silence?

Music…

            It’s such a large part of our lives.  We are so constantly surrounded by music that silence often makes us uncomfortable.  It seems that many people play music, not to listen to, but just to hear.  Because music, sound, noise, voices…they make us comfortable.  It’s in movies and TV shows, blaring out car windows (I’ve made a game of singing to other people’s music while on the road), it plays in stores and even when you’re out, just walking down the sidewalk, you will hear music. 

            Music is a wonderful muse for a writer, but so is silence.  Writers have to put themselves in uncomfortable situations if for no other reason than to feel uncomfortable.  To experience it.  You cannot write that a character simply walks into a room and hears music (unless the music is the whole point of walking into the room).  Rooms have noise.  Life has noise and if you’re always drowning it out with music, you won’t hear it and therefore cannot describe it.

            Sometimes it’s those little noises in the distance that we don’t really pay attention to that make a scene feel real.  Like now, sitting in my apartment, I can hear the freeway outside my window and from this distance it sounds like a long, heavy sigh.  I can hear the wind as it whispers past my window, the jingle of my cats collars as they play in the living room and the constant, loud purr of my fridge (the fan has a problem but I’m used to it and it doesn’t bother me.  I think it adds character to my place…).  I can hear kids playing in the snow outside and even the soft tick, tick, tick of the clock in my bathroom.

            All these sounds are what make my place feel like my place.  These sounds are a part of home.  Without them, I would have that feeling of wrongness.  Like something is out of place but I can’t tell what.  Like the fridge, I usually don’t even notice that it’s purring until the fan stops and it’s suddenly quiet and I’m left in the silence of it’s wake (It’s loud enough to have a wake, believe me). 

            Since the speakers in my car shorted out a few years ago, I’ve been face with silence while driving and it’s made me appreciate the noise of the world around me that much more.  I sit in silence and contemplate.  Come up with “room tone” for whatever scene I’m going to write.  It’s the same with film.  Sure, they’re going to use music, but they will always get about 30 seconds to a minute of room tone too, just for sound.  Without it, the show or movie would seem…well, weird. 

            I’m not saying to not listen to music.  By all means, listen away.  I have very specific soundtracks set aside that I listen to for certain situations within my stories and I’ve found the instrumental music works the best.  Songs with words are about something already.  But instrumental pieces can be about whatever you want to be about. 

            For instance, the soundtrack for ‘The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford’ by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis.  If I were to describe that soundtrack, I would say it sounds like heartbreak and the strings and piano move you through every level of sorrow from denial to acceptance.  I’ve listened to this for scenes where characters die and for regular heart smashing alike.

 

            How to Train Your Dragon by John Powell is all joy and adventure.  Listening to this soundtrack makes you feel like you’re flying. 

            Gladiator by Hans Zimmer and Transformers part 1 are great battle soundtracks.

            And of course anything by Nobuo Uematsu, the genius behind all of the Final Fantasy soundtracks.  They are all of the above and his Piano Collections have pulled me through many a rough spot both personally and literary.

            There is a big difference between listening and hearing.  I tell this to my students at work all the time.  In order to truly understand something, you need to listen, with full attention.  You’ll notice little things about people that you didn’t not previously realize, you’ll hear sounds that you never before perceived.

            You’ll see that even when the music if off, the world around you still makes it.