Halloo! Another step on the road to Volume 1, where we take a bit of a look at the crazy world of Costa Rica quarantine, and how absolutely ecstatic I am about the upcoming book.
You can listen to the audio version of this blog on iTunes or on Spotify.
Quick Hits for the Week
- Watching
- The Last Dance. God Michael Jordan was a fascinating human. Watching his vulnerability, opening up behind the at-times hostile warrior and alpha dog was super interesting. Excited to watch the next episode when it drops tomorrow
- Reading
- Chugging Through Book 9 of Wheel of Time. So I’m not close to finishing. However, I heard someone yesterday say “Knife of Dreams is the best fantasy novel ever” on Reddit, so there ya go I guess.
- As a side note, I sure hope I finish my epic fantasy series before I die. It’s an unfortunate trend that awesome fantasy writers die before they finish sometimes
- Playing
- CrossFit! Put down Pokemon, and have been slappin’ down some killer times on a snatch challenge yesterday
- Shoutout to another MJ, some might call her the true MJ, MJ Mendez for absolutely killing it that day
- Listening
- Dude, my boy Espi is slapping down some fantastic tunes! Not putting anything out for the public yet, but I’ll be damned if some of his experimental stuff isn’t a BOP
- This guy, one of my best friends, and he’s one of the most thoughtful connoisseurs of music I’ve ever met. Width, depth, really a fantastic understanding of the craft, and it’s suuuuuuuper cool to finally see what he’s making. He’s actually a listener and reader, so hey Espi.
- Writing
- That brings us to this week’s topic
Road to Volume 1 — Progress
Well, according to Justin, 6 hours in the booth don’t count as writing time. Here’s a blog and podcast Justin, ya happy!
For real though, just passed the halfway point for the raw recording (Currently onto Chapter 13 of 22) and this volume is electric! I’m LOVING it. Totally tooting my own horn, but whatever. The energy has been contagious.
I’ve got this friend Fern (of the Critically Acclaimed Fern Talk: Uncensored blog (that she hasn’t started yet but we’re getting there (oh god double parentheses this reminds me of coding, should I go deeper? (no, certainly not but I’m going to anyway)))).
Anyway, Fern is a kick-ass queen of big-dick energy, poet in two languages, former CrossFit Games Athlete, current mama of my favorite little slug-dog Brews who’s learning how to walk again, and also my current outlet for leftover creative energy. She’s sitting over on her porch or in her living room more often than not, and so whenever I hit a really good scene or a line that gets me excited, I like to jump up, run a lap of the house, and head over to hers, where the general interaction is.
“Ferrrrrrrrrrrrrrn”
“What?!”
“I did a creative thing Fernnnnnn I’m so excited! Pay attention to me Fern”
“Alright, alright I’ll be right out you stupid bitch.”
“Awwww, stupid bitch! Love you!”
Love that girl.
Road to Volume 1 — Quarantine
Note on the quarantine. Not sure if I’d have survived if I’d been totally alone. Too much energy, too much sociability. Too much good vibes!
Luckily, I live right next to Fern and the Majos (two girls both named Maria Jose who are my current OTP and favorite couple besides maybe EA and Jack), so we have a little workout crew that gets together for evening CrossFit while the dogs play.
We’ve accepted that we’re essentially a four person family unit, and being in this together really makes this quarantine life not so bad. We go on morning bike rides, we stay in shape, Majo makes cold-brew coffee, Fern and I call each other stupid bitch and whine about lame shit on the internet, MJ brings over Emma my favorite dog who definitely knows that my spirit animal is a yellow lab so we totally vibe.
Keeping things sane. Also if we ever formed a pop super group it would LGBTTQQIAAP + A Straight Guy
Road to Volume 1 — What’s Coming Up
We’ll have a pretty kick ass new website by the time we’re really gearing up for the launch, which I’m working on thanks to Cyrus (The Real One), and the past few days have brought another solid chunk of time in the booth from Cyrus (Delgami), and my other favorite characters.
Today was a mild day of creativity though, went on a long bike ride at a safe distance with some of the boys, came home for some pan pizza, had a little swim and finally a 2 hour nap. As of time of writing it’s just about sunset, and getting ready to cook some pineapple teriyaki tofu stir fry, which shlaps.
Looking ahead though, the week to come is all about go time. Alternating voice rest and recording Monday through Friday with the goal of having all of the raws done by Friday and into round 1 of sound edits, while shooting a bit of promo material for Volume 1, so you’ll get to see my smiling face and hear my voice as we go over where we were in Volume 0, what’s to come in Volume 1, and a little more about the characters and the world.
Thanks to everyone who’s been reading and listening so far. I was talking to my parents today and I’m absolutely BUZZING about Volume 1. In the recordings I’m just getting from setting these pieces together to bringing all of these tensions to a head, and I’m just bouncing off the walls. God, what an adventure! Can’t wait to share.
As always, if you like reading this, feel free to subscribe below, and if you know anyone who might like the series spread the word! Always glad to share this passion with more people.
