An eventful few weeks
Whew! I've certainly been busy since I last posted in March.
First, my band. Being part of an Irish/Celtic bar band means that the month of March is the month of March.
First Major Show of March
We played for a bunch of lawyers at a networking event. On the one hand, this is a really low-profile gig because no one wants to hear the band. Instead, they all want to share business cards. (And they don't want to share them with us. Even if I do speak passable tourist Japanese.) On the other hand, corporate gigs pay a lot better than bars do.
Unfortunately for the one Irish guy in the audience, he came and hung out with the hot girls in the band. (i.e., me and the fiddle player) He was super-sweet, super-Irish, and well on his way to being drunk. I promised him some anti-British songs, which we shouldn't have played. He finished segueing into drunk, and then started shouting things like "Down with the British" and "Shut up!" (the second to lawyers trying to talk instead of listen to the band).
He made a great audience member, but not such a great networking lawyer. Ooops.
We Went on Tour! In...Yakima
Ah, Yakima. A town where the streets are paved with, um, pavement. Hey, what do I care if it's pavement, dirt, or gold? We had a gig and all-expenses-paid hotel rooms. Score!
Before we went, we knew that we were only on for 45 minutes. There'd been some discussion about doing a second set for free. This turned out to be pointless. Our tiny school-gym affair turned out to be a 700-1000 person charity event. The opening band, we were on stage for less than an hour, but we had a supremely amazing sound technician and were on a large TV projector. Whoa.
Also exciting about being on tour: the hotel. We stayed at the Fairfield Inn in Yakima, which is basically a Marriott. But the service! The service was amazing. And the pillows made my xyon happy, which never happens with pillows. In fact, we go through a new pillow every other month in his quest to find the perfect one.
Well, when we checked out, I made sure to ask about the pillows. The lovely young woman at the front desk couldn't tell me much, but gave me her manager's card. There were a few weeks of delayed communications and then voila! We now own two lovely pillows.
St. Paddy's Day - A Day for Musicians and Drunkards, But Not Irishmen
On St. Pat's we had 3 shows. I worked a 14 hour day, and on March 18th only spoke in a super-sexy and masculine register.
The Seattle Firefighters Pipe and Drum Corp crashed our second show, complete with bagpipe playing during our set breaks. Only in the USA would Scotland's national instrument be considered Irish holiday music.
Second, work. The fact that I had work is super-eventful to me. Plus, it's awesome writing-a-videogame work. I love writing dialogue and lore for videogames. I wish all my jobs were this creative and fun.
A Fun Quest You Won't See
I didn't get to write the druggie quest. Well, I wrote it, but then I wrote another version for actual use because the game I work on is rated "T for Teen" and our rating doesn't include drug use. (We have mild language, alcohol, and violence.) This deeply disappointed me because I spent all last weekend thinking about it and re-reading The Straight Dope's one question about MDA ("Miracle Drops of Acid") to get in the right mood. Admittedly, my snake oil salesman is just as much fun, maybe more so. But still.
Coming Up With Character Motivations
Characters who only get one or two lines tend to get a lot of servalan-love. I write little backstory notes for all of them with their wants, motivations, and nightmares. Often-times, these are the most interesting characters for me.
Like, the girl whose hair is styled over one eye (even though she's a super high-level warrior) and who is selling weapons? I can tell you how she lost her eye (not just a hairstyle!).
Or the armor dealer. The armorer spent time in a foreign prison and only her armor kept her safe from...things. She sleeps in that armor, so she knows what she's selling.
Or the psychopath/sadist who's been driven insane by millennia of undercover work.
I can give you a lot of backstory on all three of these characters. They don't get to talk much in the game. But if you don't write up at least a basic personality profile for them, all the NPCs start to sound the same. And no one wants generic NPCs, right?
Third, writing. Actually, it's been a pretty lazy month for writing. I had a short story come out (yay!), but have barely written anything...aside from 15-20K words of quests per week.
Well, I wrote a book review, but the blog I'd done it for decided that they weren't going to run any snarky reviews (in their relatively new reviews column). I'll post it here soon instead. Until then, I just finished reading another book that qualifies, and which I plan to give "3.75 gratuitous spaceships out of 5", so that's probably safe enough.
I expect to do more creative writing this month, though, unless I find a new gig. Friday marks my last day with the videogame company, and I've already got 2 writing groups scheduled plus some intended "martini and manuscript" time.
Random Extras
* almost perfected my "1.5 hour chicken soup" recipe
* am thrilled with my homemade pan rack (on the topic of kitchen-y things)
* received my pillows from the Fairfield Inn & Suites (this may deserve its own post)
* gave away some reviewer copies of the anthology my "Heir Apparent" is in
* really need to hunt through the mess of my office/boudoir to find my passport (I know it's in here)
First, my band. Being part of an Irish/Celtic bar band means that the month of March is the month of March.
First Major Show of March
We played for a bunch of lawyers at a networking event. On the one hand, this is a really low-profile gig because no one wants to hear the band. Instead, they all want to share business cards. (And they don't want to share them with us. Even if I do speak passable tourist Japanese.) On the other hand, corporate gigs pay a lot better than bars do.
Unfortunately for the one Irish guy in the audience, he came and hung out with the hot girls in the band. (i.e., me and the fiddle player) He was super-sweet, super-Irish, and well on his way to being drunk. I promised him some anti-British songs, which we shouldn't have played. He finished segueing into drunk, and then started shouting things like "Down with the British" and "Shut up!" (the second to lawyers trying to talk instead of listen to the band).
He made a great audience member, but not such a great networking lawyer. Ooops.
We Went on Tour! In...Yakima
Ah, Yakima. A town where the streets are paved with, um, pavement. Hey, what do I care if it's pavement, dirt, or gold? We had a gig and all-expenses-paid hotel rooms. Score!
Before we went, we knew that we were only on for 45 minutes. There'd been some discussion about doing a second set for free. This turned out to be pointless. Our tiny school-gym affair turned out to be a 700-1000 person charity event. The opening band, we were on stage for less than an hour, but we had a supremely amazing sound technician and were on a large TV projector. Whoa.
Also exciting about being on tour: the hotel. We stayed at the Fairfield Inn in Yakima, which is basically a Marriott. But the service! The service was amazing. And the pillows made my xyon happy, which never happens with pillows. In fact, we go through a new pillow every other month in his quest to find the perfect one.
Well, when we checked out, I made sure to ask about the pillows. The lovely young woman at the front desk couldn't tell me much, but gave me her manager's card. There were a few weeks of delayed communications and then voila! We now own two lovely pillows.
St. Paddy's Day - A Day for Musicians and Drunkards, But Not Irishmen
On St. Pat's we had 3 shows. I worked a 14 hour day, and on March 18th only spoke in a super-sexy and masculine register.
The Seattle Firefighters Pipe and Drum Corp crashed our second show, complete with bagpipe playing during our set breaks. Only in the USA would Scotland's national instrument be considered Irish holiday music.
Second, work. The fact that I had work is super-eventful to me. Plus, it's awesome writing-a-videogame work. I love writing dialogue and lore for videogames. I wish all my jobs were this creative and fun.
A Fun Quest You Won't See
I didn't get to write the druggie quest. Well, I wrote it, but then I wrote another version for actual use because the game I work on is rated "T for Teen" and our rating doesn't include drug use. (We have mild language, alcohol, and violence.) This deeply disappointed me because I spent all last weekend thinking about it and re-reading The Straight Dope's one question about MDA ("Miracle Drops of Acid") to get in the right mood. Admittedly, my snake oil salesman is just as much fun, maybe more so. But still.
Coming Up With Character Motivations
Characters who only get one or two lines tend to get a lot of servalan-love. I write little backstory notes for all of them with their wants, motivations, and nightmares. Often-times, these are the most interesting characters for me.
Like, the girl whose hair is styled over one eye (even though she's a super high-level warrior) and who is selling weapons? I can tell you how she lost her eye (not just a hairstyle!).
Or the armor dealer. The armorer spent time in a foreign prison and only her armor kept her safe from...things. She sleeps in that armor, so she knows what she's selling.
Or the psychopath/sadist who's been driven insane by millennia of undercover work.
I can give you a lot of backstory on all three of these characters. They don't get to talk much in the game. But if you don't write up at least a basic personality profile for them, all the NPCs start to sound the same. And no one wants generic NPCs, right?
Third, writing. Actually, it's been a pretty lazy month for writing. I had a short story come out (yay!), but have barely written anything...aside from 15-20K words of quests per week.
Well, I wrote a book review, but the blog I'd done it for decided that they weren't going to run any snarky reviews (in their relatively new reviews column). I'll post it here soon instead. Until then, I just finished reading another book that qualifies, and which I plan to give "3.75 gratuitous spaceships out of 5", so that's probably safe enough.
I expect to do more creative writing this month, though, unless I find a new gig. Friday marks my last day with the videogame company, and I've already got 2 writing groups scheduled plus some intended "martini and manuscript" time.
Random Extras
* almost perfected my "1.5 hour chicken soup" recipe
* am thrilled with my homemade pan rack (on the topic of kitchen-y things)
* received my pillows from the Fairfield Inn & Suites (this may deserve its own post)
* gave away some reviewer copies of the anthology my "Heir Apparent" is in
* really need to hunt through the mess of my office/boudoir to find my passport (I know it's in here)