Life Updates

     Well, in all this time, it is a logical assumption that I have been doing things. (Or, at least, if I haven't been doing things, that I've successfully wasted a whole year.) 

Life in General

    To start, as I mentioned in my last post, my family moved this summer. They are now living down South, and I still abide in the lands of the North. I'm in a music school at present for a dual degree in Music Performance and Music Education (my primary instruments are voice and piano). I got another new sibling this past summer, and he's very cute and very fat. Pressured by location, I am back to the Novus Ordo grind and in the choir. I live with my best friend and writing confidante, and we have gotten a lot of nonsense and very little writing done thus far with this arrangement. On the side, I teach music, work a pretty effortless desk job, and help direct a high school musical theater group. Those are really the biggest things that are going on at the moment. 

Writing

    As far as writing goes, I was somewhat productive up until the school year started. The Second Brother is now finished and under critique from beta readers, and the sequel(s) have been started with some headway. I decided to trash My Land, My Heart (the idea was very trite), and my opera's present plot, In Greater Hands, and my Giselle retelling are also prospectively on the chopping block. I wrote some draft ideas for He Travels the Fastest, and I may be writing it in earnest as the next main project. I came up with another archive novel idea (which I will probably expound on in another Meet the Books! at some point). 

    Probably the biggest thing that happened as far as writing goes was a redraft, though. My writer friends on Camp NaNo may remember that I have a coauthored novel project which has never been talked about on this blog (mainly to respect my coauthor's privacy). Now, however, Grim has her own blog, and I plan to introduce the story via Meet the Books! sometime very soon. In a nutshell, the story was dull, medieval fantasy of a rather cliche type and has been - um - remodeled, shall we say? Very, very remodeled... Anyhow, more on that later.

Reading

It would take all night for me to cover the reading of a year, so I will just touch on some honorable mentions:

The Journal of Hildegard of Bingen, interpreted by Barbara Lachman

• You must read it!
• Don't read my translation because it was terrible. The lady was intent on making St. Hildegard out as some proto-feminist or female priest or something. Her footnotes were beyond weird. Do yourself a favor and find a better version. 
• Overall, even with the terrible commentary, it was quite a fascinating look into life in a twelfth-century abbey. St. Hildegard was quite an inspiring woman, too - scientist, singer, composer, doctor, abbess, and mystic, and writer of the first musical, to boot. 

Awake, Not Woke: A Christian Response to the Cult of Progressive Ideology by Noelle Mering

• This fabulous book takes the reader through a careful reconstruction of the processes leading to common political thought today in America. She then proceeds to look at each aspect of the philosophy through a Christian lens, with frequent recourse to the Bible, Catechism, writings of the saints and other great Christian authors. Certainly worth reading.

Beethoven: Anguish and Triumph by Jan Swafford

• Okay, guys, you need to know about Beethoven. For better or worse, intentionally or not, this guy created the musical world we live in now. (The musical nerd side of me wants to promote it more, but I think I'd probably better stop before I get carried away.)
• The one huge problem I had with this book was the anti-Catholicism of it all. The author showed rather painfully that she had no competent understanding of Christianity at all. She was quite biased when mentioning anything about the Church, and very strangely positive about every conflicting philosophy except traditional Catholicism. I find this a very high failing when dealing with a composer like Beethoven, who had a complicated and influential relationship with Catholicism. You'd think she would put a little more time and thought into that aspect of the book at least for Beethoven's sake. 

A Man for All Seasons by Robert Bolt

• To be perfectly honest, I was actually a bit disappointed by the play. It was not as good as the movie (*gasp*), and the author had a very strange way of looking at St. Thomas's philosophy that didn't really show up in the original movie version. 
• All the same, beautiful verse, splendid play. Definitely go watch the Paul Scofield movie. 

Music

    Well, All's Fair got two new songs added to it that it really didn't need and doesn't have a place for. I also wrote a quite useless, cheery little WWI style song and a fantasy for oboe and piano (the fantasy was for a composer's competition which I did not win but had a lot of fun with... the WWI song still has no purpose). I sang on the radio over the summer and got to perform at the reopening of a certain old theater building here, so that was cool. I also got somewhat addicted to TwoSetViolin for a period. 

    As far as music goes, I'm quickly gaining a persona as someone who collects and learns really random instruments. I've sung and played piano for a while now, but I now also play organ, banjo, and ukulele. I dabble in recorder and bagpipes. I plan to take up violin or cello for my strings class this semester and drop the recorder as soon as my wind exams are over. If anyone has need of a dying cat meme track, I would be happy to pick up my recorder for a little bit longer.

Well, that's really about it. How about all of you? What has life held for you this past year? How are the writing projects? Reading? And my musical buddies? (Does anybody else name their instruments...???) 

Meet the Books! - By the First Light of Dawn (What?! It's Back?)

I said back in May that there would be no more Meet the Books! posts. And, well... there won't... at least not any full ones, here. But, at that announcement, it seemed that there were a good few people who wished the return of Meet the Books!, and had further use for it. So, I intend to do it about every three months, perhaps, now, with a prospective WIP (as I have no more real ones to introduce myself) or with just the questions attached, for other bloggers to use the link-up to introduce their own works, especially since NaNo's started up. After that, perhaps, the feature may finally retire. For the moment, it shall remain in partial retirement, at any rate.

Anyways, getting down to the actual goings-on, I'm pretty sure most of you know the rules by now: answer the questions, use the picture if you like, and link it to me in a comment here so I can see the post. Like I said above, I used to make this central post for the link-up one of my stories, but I have no more full WIPs left for introducing. So, like with the last one (Pack Up Your Troubles), I'm going to use an "archive" story, yet to be written and mostly idea at present.

What is the genre?

The genre will hopefully be Fantasy, though it's not my strongest genre, so hold tight.

What is the title? Time period?

The title is By the First Light of Dawn, and, as some of my buddies here know, it is a retelling of Giselle. Due to this, it is in the same rough time period - the fifteenth century-ish.

How is it written (POV, main character, etc.)?

Not at all yet - I usually only write idea stories in summary form.

What is the setting?

A small, 1500's village in Rhineland (basically Germanic territory near the Rhine River). 

Who are the characters?

Giselle, of course, is the main character, and is pretty much the same as in the ballet - a motherly, if sickly, girl with a dream to dance and a thing for her sweetheart, Albrecht. The change I did make to her character will be explained momentarily. 

Albrecht is only known by Giselle as Loys/Loeys/Loes (I haven't decided which spelling I like better yet...). In reality, he is the prince of the province, engaged to a duchess from another... but in visiting the village once without regal train, he fell in love with the place's beauty, simplicity, and quiet, and came afterwards in disguise as the fictional shepherd, Loys. While there, he fell in love with more than the village... Giselle. But he was already betrothed from birth, so things could get complicated... especially with

Hilarion around, a hunter, and Giselle's suspicious best friend. Hilarion wanted to court Giselle himself, and he senses something strange about Albrecht, so he is, of course, very dubious of "Loys." Even though Giselle turned him down, he harbors hopes of courting her still, which bye and bye turns him more resentful and hard to fool - bad for both Giselle and Albrecht.

Berthe, Giselle's down-to-earth mother, worries for Giselle (who is diseased in the heart, and thus frail), as well as worrying about the forces at work around the village. Because of this, she is extremely protective, and denies Giselle's dreams of dancing.

Myrtha is the cold queen of the Wilis, a group of ghostly fae. She herself is the most prominent force among them, leading their loathing of humankind. Her power is mostly unrivaled in the forest, which causes those who know it alarm, and those who don't potential danger... 

                                           

What does the plot consist of?

On a whole, it's mostly like the original story, but with a twist or two. First off, the story begins with Giselle having strange, erratic dreams - dreams wherein, like the title, everything around her seems to reach a peak of light and fall, twisting until it's crushed itself. Strange visions of strange events speckle the dreams, and they puzzle and frighten Giselle. 

Then, some of the things in the dreams start to take place - Giselle's dream causes her suffering, her best friend soon becomes an enemy, and even her devoted lover is revealed as a liar. With this, Giselle dies. No, no, no - just kidding. Well, sort-of, anyways. Giselle does die, but she's not plain dead - meaning, there's more than chicken to this pot-pie. The Wilis summoned Giselle, and caused her death so that she could join their number - it was not natural, by her weak heart, as it seemed. For Myrtha sees the situation with Giselle and Albrecht and wishes to avenge Giselle... as well as herself, as she was once in Giselle's place, in a way. With this, she could give Giselle the powers of the Wilis, and together the group of them would take vengeance upon Hilarion and Albrecht, the causers of Giselle's woe. Unfortunately, the rest is rather hard to work out sensibly in my summary, so I'm afraid I have to leave it there plot-wise (sorry!). 

What gave you the idea?

I got the idea after watching the absolutely brilliant ballet version of the story by the Bolshoi/Parisian ballet. The story was, even in a format sometimes not too conducing to details, so potent, that I laid awake thinking about it. And as much as I hate retells normally, I wished that someone would write one, fleshing out the story even more, and maybe even adding some new elements. And then popped in, of course, that old quote about writing the book you want to read - so I decided I would.

Who are the favorite characters so far?

As it's not written, there are none.

What is the favorite scene so far?

As above, there are none yet.

Any drawings?

Unfortunately not...

Any themes of music for this work?
Beyond the music to the ballet, no, not yet.

Any snippets?

Again, not quite written yet, so no.

Strong point in story?

So far, the inspiration - I'm so revved up for this story... the only reason I haven't started it yet is because I intend to finish another project first.

Weak point in story?

How about... the fantasy? I am not really a Fantasy writer naturally - it takes some serious work, time, and planning for any of my fantasy to be palatable. 

What are your plans for it?

Whelp... to write it, before anything else, I think.

Any particular writing habits for it?

None - I haven't written it yet. 

If it were made into a movie, what would be your ideal cast for it?

Eh... eh... Let's talk about the movie another time - the book's not even finished yet... 

***

Well, that's Il Fine, I'm afraid. I apologies for backing out on a lot of the questions, and for not having very fleshed out information, but there isn't much else to say at this point about my projects. How about yours, though? Did you do the link-up? If you did, comment so I can see! I love seeing your Meet the Books! posts, so, if it sounds good (even if you've never joined up before), just go for it - remember, it's not gonna come out again for a while!