You can’t go more than about 10 feet in Austin without bumping into a writer. They call our city the “Live Music Capitol of the World” but in reality, I think we have more writers and authors than musicians these days.
Jackie Dana
The Magic of Solas & Seamus Egan
There’s nothing quite like getting to thank your heroes who inspire you. For me, one of those people is Seamus Egan.
Last night I attended the 20th anniversary concert by my favorite all-time band Solas at the One World Theater in Austin, and I was able to finally share with Seamus how much his music has meant to me.
Razors and incisors – a short bit of fiction
Tonight I attended a writing meetup at the Austin Zen Center.
After a brief meditation we all wrote for 25 minutes on a prompt. One of the participants unwrapped a small metal sculpture. It was an emaciated figure of man (in the style of the sculptor Giacometti as illustrated here), standing with a rat’s nest of wires jutting out from his head at acute angles, like a bunch of triangles. The sculpture made me think of disturbed thoughts or nightmares, and from that, I wrote the following:
Public Reading – and a Discount!
A public reading! Oh my!
On January 23, from 3-5pm at Malvern Books in Austin, TX, I’ll be one of three authors giving a public reading of my novel By Moonrise.
Joining me are Matt Herron, author of the sci-fi thriller The Auriga Project and Kate Baray, author of several urban fantasy novels including the Lost Library collection. We’ll each read selections from our books and talk a little about our journey to becoming indie authors, followed by a book signing and refreshments.
The Rebirth of a Great Site for Music
The streaming music site thesixtyone.com used to be my favorite site to find new music. It was a lot like what Wattpad and similar sites are for indie authors and their fams. Then six years ago the owners pushed out a radical redesign that changed almost all of its functionality, and drove a stake through its heart.
Last night I found out that the owners returned the site to its old design, with all of its previous functionality. It’s ALIVE!
I just wrote up a post over on Medium talking about the site and my experience. Check it out: thesixtyone.com: a lesson in hubris. I’d love for you to give it a read, but even more, I’d love it if you’d give thesixtyone.com a try. It’s going be only as good as the community behind it, so I want to get the word out!
Could a cup of coffee change the world?
I finally got around to watching The Imitation Game, thinking it might inspire me for one of my projects. Not only did it give me some new ideas for my fiction, it reminded me how important it is to believe in ourselves and be the best we can be.
Faced with the tragedy of Alan Turing’s struggles, though, I bawled my eyes out about a half-dozen times, and now I’m glad I missed seeing it in the theater.
It also made me wonder how many other people are as great as Turing, and could achieve amazing things if they’re given a chance, and with that thought pressing on the grey matter in my head, I wrote a new post on Medium, Could a cup of coffee change the world? Go check it out!