I had a fun time with my parents last night; we went to Meymandi Concert Hall in downtown Raleigh (it's part of the now-gigantic BTI Center for the Performing Arts) to listen to a free concert by the Wind Ensemble from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. It was a great concert and really made me miss my tuba-playing days. A couple of songs they played I had played while in college; one was Festive Overture by Shostakovich, and other I can't remember right now.

I got some great inspiration for the second half of my first chapter from Nancy Galbraith's Danza de los Duendes, which I should be able to turn into an individual short story as well. I also got inspired to write a mainstream story close to my heart: the plight of the tuba player. I was making notes on my program as I got ideas. Great music does that: inspires, heals, and touches your soul. I'm glad I went last night, in more ways than one.

Janet sent her comments on "Watersnake, Firesnake" yesterday, so I'll be revising that soon to send out Monday. I'm really excited about this story. I got the tone right off the bat and kept it consistent, the situation's pretty cool, and I like the characters. Actually, the bad guys are the same pair of elementals from my story "Wicked Game", though they look quite a bit different. I'd like to eventually do a whole series of stories about Blue and Dane, since they're probably the most compelling characters I've come up with. I've already got a mainstreamish road story in mind featuring Blue picking up a hitchhiker on I-95, inspired by Tom Petty's song "Blue Sunday". Ah, so many stories, so little time.

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Now Reading:
Conjunctions 39: The New Wave Fabulists edited by Peter Straub

Stories Out to Publishers:
11

Novel Word Count:
11,600