Just a reminder that John Braheny and I will be visiting the Northwest, offering seminars, consultations and critiques, for songwriters, musicians and bands.
All the info (and more) is on on his web site, but I'll put the bare bones here for your pleasure.
 How music libraries — film/TV song placement co.s work.
 How to make the best use of Blogs, Webcasts and Podcasts to promote your band and songs.
to: Song critiques – Selected at random — lyric sheets required.
schedule a one-on-one session on Sunday May 14.
Location: Holiday Inn Express, 2889 East Hastings Street, Vancouver, BC.
Contact: Event Organizer, Esther Sarlo, in Vancouver.
Email: esther.spokensoftly@telus.net or phone: 604-253-3039.
We (John Braheny and I) will be presenting a 3-day “Goosing Your Song Muse” songwriters workshop retreat on beautiful Shaw Island (Washington – off the coast of Seattle), Friday/Saturday/Sunday, May 5-6-7, 2006.
This particular retreat, due to limited facilities, is for 10 women only … and there are still a few openings if you haven’t already registered. Talk to either Sharon Wooton or Maggie Savage … Their contact info is at SongAndWord.com.
The location (in the San Juan islands) is simply stunning, with all the tranquility you can handle, excellent meals prepared straight from their garden, wide open views of the bay as you play their grand piano in the main room, or enjoy their under-the-stars hot tub, plus opportunities to co-write and learn about how to market your songs on the Web with one of the best songwriting teachers in the business (if I say so myself). Also, a bit of time is devoted to creativity exercises too.
This is our third time there and we hope you can join us!
I know. It doesn’t sound possible…but this article, How to Write a Novel in 100 Days (or less), by John Coyne, really maps it out for you, day by day.
So many of us are not linear thinkers, you know, following step 1, step 2, step 3, etc. We tend to get an abstract picture in our minds that, somehow, makes sense only to us. When it comes to producing the product (i.e., song, book, story), we still have to put it into some kind of pattern for it to communicate to the masses.
To illustrate a completely different way to approach a novel-writing project, here's an article, (found at del.icio.us), by award-winning novelist, fiction teacher and physicist, Randy Ingermanson, The Snowflake Method for Writing a Novel.
The visual concept of building a snowflake shows me how each section of a novel can be 'built' to handle plots twists and yet hang on to an overall pattern.