Why writing a book is hard

I'm halfway through the first draft of my sequel to The Musomancer, and it's hard work. You know why? Cos I'm pretty lazy, and ever so easily distracted. I actually love writing. Once I get started, I'm happy as an ungulate in sludge. Even just writing that last sentence, I convinced myself I had to search up some words in a thesaurus, which could potentially have lost me down a wordy rabbit-hole for half an hour or so. I'm getting a little better at this writing thing, though. Just like in tai chi, you have to keep doing it, and accept that you won't be great at it to start with because you're a beginner. That's cool, it just means you have a lot of cool stuff to look forward to learning!

In news of stuff I actually managed to finish, here's my latest EP: The Serene Chromatic Assembly of Music Mages. It's an all-instrumental deal, 5 short tunes. The idea was to make the weirdest textures and stereo effects I could. Again, it's a step along that direction. Hopefully I can go much weirder in future!

Thanks for reading. The words would have been terribly lonely without you.

Ngā mihi.

Bing

Locking it down with the 'Nockers

The very first band I was in was called Simnock On Steel, and we were horrible. That's how we all remember it, anyway. And yet, once Covid-19 appeared and swept the world in a wave of desolation, Simnock On Steel took the opportunity to record a new version of our very first song - Mark III Wagon - and it wasn't as ear-abusingly bad as we thought it was going to be.

Our respective parts were recorded separately and then stitched together in a triumph of unity over distance.

Stove, Jay and myself know how fortunate we are to be able to do something like this while other people around the world are having a pretty shit time. So we share this with you in the hope that it gives you a bit of a laugh, or lets you forget some of the bad stuff for a few minutes.

Looking forward to connecting with some of you kanohi-ki-te-kanohi (face to face) in a sunny future situation when the pandemic is hopefully just a memory.