All Published Works – Enneagram and Encaustic

Bandcamp Friday

I mostly forget that I have music posted to Bandcamp, but recently I’ve been wondering if any of it stands up. I haven’t listened to Heart of Iron since I published it in 2019. After playing through the album, I would say that the singing is tolerable, the music is greatly enhanced by the musician who helped me record, and the lyrics are still my pride and joy in the project.

It sounds obscure and somewhat crazy now, but I wrote a musical screenplay of Jane Eyre. If you listen to the album and you’re familiar with the story, you might be able to guess which songs go with which part of the plot. (It plays in chronological order.) Fair warning, though: I sing Jane’s and Rochester’s songs. I tried to beef up my voice for Rochester, but that’s utterly ridiculous. I sound the same.

Bandcamp, I’m informed in a recent email, has brought back “Bandcamp Friday”, a day in which they waive their revenue sharing and pass all funds to the artist. Give the album a try, if you’re so inclined. On listening again to the songs, some were as I remembered — not bad — and a couple were worse. One song, though, “Fly”, which takes place at the story’s climax, gave me that great feeling every artist seeks on returning to past work: Did I write that? Damn.

The Story Enneagram of Fort Defiance

ONE

Establish the Emerald Rose Saloon in the late 1800s American west. Two middle-aged sisters own and run the place that their parents, now deceased, built. The elder, Izzy, is a more steady presence. The younger, Luisa, is more restless.

TWO

A mysterious wagon, coming into town at the head of a monsoon, crashes in front of the Saloon. Driver and horses are crushed. Only the cargo, a large box, remains intact. Emerald Rose customer Leon notices a handbill attached to the wood. He shows it to Luisa: a reward for return of the box to its owner in Fort Defiance.

THREE

Luisa agrees to upend her life and accompany (and finance) Leon’s trip. In order to smooth her decision with Izzy, Luisa plays their family song, “Desert Lullaby.” Moved, Izzy relents. She’ll travel with her sister.

Fort Defiance

I’ve published a new screenplay at Amazon!

Perhaps, lol, you will remember this post about my decades-long project. I claimed that the original story for Fort Defiance was dead. Time had passed and I had changed.

It turns out I was wrong. I considered how I could adapt the screenplay to suit who I am now. What’s interesting, at least to me, is that the core of the story hasn’t changed in 30 years. It exists separately from me, an entity in the world. I tinkered with the protagonist, making her older, but the basic bones of the plot are consistent. I’m so very proud to publish this — again — after all this time, and I believe the story became better with age.

Tribe of Liars: Gage and Wrigley

I started dipping into my writing archives last week, and now look where I ended up! Tribe of Liars is an extensive world created by our family. It’s a gaming IP with detailed character backgrounds, all unrealized or in process.

The following is the opening to one of my unfinished short stories or novellas detailing two of the characters. It’s fiction, which is a strange writing beast to me. I prefer the leanness of screenwriting. However, I’m in a weird blogging lull, burned out on generating content. And I genuinely believe that creative work needs to breathe in the world rather than stay locked in a folder. So, here goes.

Gage and Wrigley (Chapter One, Part One)

Gage is generally considered good-looking. You really can’t get around that; people treat him with the preference the beautiful generate. Your definition of handsome will define how his beauty manifests, though, so create him as you will. What you can’t get around is his mechanical ability. This guy likes to engineer stuff.

Right now coffee and sausage cook over a campfire. Look closer. What’s the contraption next to the breakfast? A boiler uses steam to power an experimental crossbow that you now hold in your hands and are prompted to shoot.

In case you couldn’t tell, you’re in a tutorial.

You’ve got a steam-power meter for a beginner’s weapon. When you press the x-button you ratchet a clumsy mechanism into place. Right trigger to release the valve that sends steam to the piston, and away your arrow flies toward your target.

Try hitting an acorn in that oak tree over there.

Checking that the tubing was hot and the steam ready, Gage angled the crossbow to point into the branches of a nearby oak. A magazine of arrows, each with a piston behind it, tilted into position. Aiming at an acorn in the tree, Gage prepared to release the valve to the first firing pin.

A gray squirrel hopped along the branch and grabbed the exact acorn Gage had sighted. As the squirrel ran back along the branch, it looked directly at Gage.

Okay.

Blinking, Gage hiked up his goggles and gave the squirrel a dirty look. He rotated the crossbow on its base and found another acorn. The squirrel dropped from a higher branch, plucked the acorn out from under Gage’s nose, and jumped into the foliage.

“Look, you little . . . This better not be what I think it is.”

Again he lined up a shot. No hesitation this time. Gage released the valve, steam pushed into the piston, and it smacked the arrow. The arrow flew true, headed right for an acorn, when the squirrel dove past and stripped the acorn out of the arrow’s path.

“What!” Gage shouted. “You crazy damn squirrel, what are you doing?”

The squirrel sat on a branch and looked at Gage. “What do you think you’re doing?” it said. “I’m trying to gather my breakfast.”

It’s published!

Acting the Enneagram is now available at amazon. You may have noticed I’ve become more interested in how a character’s Enneagram impacts the overall success of the story.

In this book I go over the basics of Personality Typing for the Enneagram using movie characters and posts from the blog. I add some never-before-seen Storytelling Enneagram breakdowns for an assortment of movies, and then I mash the two sections together.

Going forward look for me to try more of this weaving of Enneagrams in my posts and in future books. I’m convinced this is the best way to write, create, and critique film and television stories. Besides, it’s fun!

“Rosings” at youtube

Rosings

The latest track for Argent is now live at bandcamp.

I recorded this song very differently. Musescore, the composing software I use, will playback the song. Instead of just writing melody and chords, this time I notated an orchestral score. What you hear is the computer playing the sheet music, and a vocal track I laid over. I feel like my experience with notation, reading and writing, might be my greatest strength as a musician. (Since I’m so very amateur at guitar, lol.) Anyway, here’s the simplified music. The orchestral score is an immense file, so I won’t post it.

you
If you were my bell
If you were my well
but you’re you

A voice like clear water
a face like a star
my tongue turns to butter
whenever you are
you

you
If you were my clerk
If you were my park
but you’re you

you
why can’t I talk to

you
If you were my lake
If you were my fate
but you’re you

A voice like clear water
a face like a star
my tongue turns to butter
whenever you are
you

Get Lucky

New song available for Ardent at bandcamp. From Elizabeth’s perspective, Charlotte is foolish for accepting Mr. Collins’ proposal. For Charlotte, though, it’s a lucky opportunity.

Oops! I originally called this song “The Scheme” because that’s how Charlotte thinks of her encouragement of Mr. Collins. The song itself suggested another title, though, and “Get Lucky” is the official and proper name.

Paint It Red

Track Three is now available at bandcamp.

Burning again

I was never quite satisfied with the track art for the song “Burning” on Heart of Iron. Uploaded to bandcamp is this new encaustic piece, based on Robert Salmon’s 1828 painting Ship in Storm.

The original post introducing the first attempt at “Burning” track art is here. You can see why I was dissatisfied. Visually and thematically murky!

However, the funny part is this:

If you look closely you’ll see that the poinsettia piece is actually the original “Burning” art slightly smoothed and fused, and then repurposed as a background. Although I work on wallboard, which is inexpensive, the layers of wax and the build-up of color over days of painting are precious. It’s nice to get a second life out of something that became disappointing.