Hey there, Reader!
What’s up? How’ve you been?
This week was my parish’s picnic/BBQ and my contribution to the planning/set-up was primarily in decorating our photo booth. The theme was kinda rustic/Western/plaids so I reused some burlap we already had and made some pennant banners with a polka dot burlap, plus the red plastic table cloth and a couple black coreplex horseshoes:
This has kinda become my thing whenever there’s a big event and it’s always fun to see how it turns out.
The event was a blast and while there was some worry the day before that we might get rained on, it held off… of course, with temps over 30C and smoke from the interior fires wafting our way, a little sprinkle might have been refreshing, but still: a fantastic evening... which I pretty much didn't take any pics of (the photo booth ended up outside in front of a hedge).
NOAH’S ARCHIPELAGO COMICS COLLECTION
Aside from the photo booth, I got my color space snafu sorted out for the Noah book, so the interior’s all done ready for proofreading and getting the cover done this week. Which means it’s also time for me to write the marketing copy like book description and keywords and other metadata for Amazon… and suddenly I’ve got a dose of the writer’s block.
Ugh… I’ll get it sorted, especially with a little help from the formula Reedsy gives for writing descriptions, but it seems I’m firmly in the “I hate it, let’s throw it out and start something else instead” phase… which is good because that means I’m almost done. Many moons ago in my past life hanging around the Vancouver music scene and going to audio school, one of of teachers, Shawn Cole, told us there’s a point in every album recording where someone in the band, often the singer, suddenly hates everything about it and wants to scrap it and start over with brand new songs. Sometimes the whole band gets like that.
And it apparently happens on hit records by some of the biggest bands in the world the same as nobodies.
So… I guess I’m in good company. And that inspiration I got for a series of novels starring Noah’s daughter Ursula waging war against the government to free the kiddos from school? Well, we’ll get to that. Eventually. I took notes for future use.
Speaking of future use, now I know to start working on those descriptions etc. A lot earlier in the process, which will be useful for other books I’m working on.
SONG OF THE WEEK
Y’know what? Scratch the one song thing. My favorite music thing this week was catching this fantastic Van Halen tribute band, Van Halen Nation, all the way from New Jersey, courtesy of their soundman Chris Hammill’s livestream:
The actual band starts around an hour and 15 minutes in, before that Chris is talking with the chat, answering questions, telling stories, and explaining about his gear set-up, then the band plays for about an hour and 45 minutes and the last 20 minutes or so are chat questions again.
You might even catch a couple comments from me in the chat, lol… towards the end, though, as I was late to the stream.
URSULA’S COMPLAINTS CORNER
It’s the third week of the month and that means it’s Ursula’s turn to hog this space. Take it away, Ursula:
Nice try. I know what you’re doing. You’re trying to make me do homework and it’s not even school yet.
I’m not doing your stupid writing assignment.
I’m not going back to school, either. Mr. T-Rex said the other dinosaurs are coming back from Alpha Centauri on August 31 and they’re gonna stomp all the schools down so we don’t have to learn stupid boring history or stupid boring math. Or do gym class.
Now beat it. The commercial break is over and I’m watching Bunnyman blow up the carrot factory so it rains carrots everywhere.
Uh… thank you for that, Ursula… I for one welcome our saurid overlords from space.
I mean, they can’t possibly do a worse job than our current human overlords from right here on Earth.
UPCOMING “HOLIDAYS”
It’s a running gag with Noah’s Archipelago that Noah loves any National (Fill In The Blank) Day or other observances and holidays. Here’s a couple fun ones happening this week:
- Monday is National Thrift Store Day
- Thursday is National Radio Day… followed by National Senior Citizens Day on Friday since that’s who still listens to radio… well, them and disgruntled young weirdos, but I’m not sure when they have a day (I say this as a disgruntled formerly-young weirdo who spent close to 15 years involved with campus/community radio)
- Saturday is National Tooth Fairy Day
It’s also Elvis week this week. Enjoy your white spandex jumpsuits… no one else will, though.
Well, that’s about it from me and my cartoon friends for this week. Go see what weird stuff you can find at a thrift store today.
If you know anyone who might find this newsletter fun, be sure to forward it to them.
Talk to you again next week.
Pyra
