Evening, everyone!
It's been a somewhat hectic yet still enjoyable week since last post: prelims and classwork galore, preventing more than token fiction work, capped by my sister's fantastic wedding in North Carolina this past weekend! Needless to say, a little downtime and reflection is needed, before venturing back into the Outside World, not to mention world-building and the countless other kinds of mental prep needed for the grueling and exhilarating slog that is NaNoWriMo :) . Thus, for this week's song, I share with you Vivaldi's Concerto in D Major, RV 93: Largo, another gem from the performance of Christopher Parkening and the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields Orchestra (Usual copyrights apply; I own nothing!)
In contrast to the other, much more sprightly music on the album, this piece is slower and more mellow, encouraging you to just sit back and enjoy the moment, or to nod off in your chair after a trying stretch of work or life in general. Sometimes the effect is powerful enough to make you sleep through the rest of the album (as I found not long ago, during a particularly blocked writing session :D ), or just to put you in a comfortable doze, until the next one yanks you back to consciousness. Such occasionally irritating moments aside, this song, which I prized as a kid and have finally rediscovered, is helping tremendously with providing just the right kind of musing state needed right now, for writing and life.
I'll be enjoying this state for a couple more days, enough to reacclimate to WI and all the demands waiting for me there. After that, it's nonstop (or near enough as makes no difference :P ) worldbuilding for my NNWM draft All Eyes, which has fallen behind schedule a bit, but can be made up in a couple of marathon sessions. This scifi/thriller draft will revolve around a not-too-distant future where 24/7 surveillance, at multiple levels, is not only accepted but considered necessary by nearly all of the U.S. and the world, as the only possible bulwark against terrorism, illegal government acts, cyberbullying and numerous other socio-political and even environmental ills. The basic character details will be hammered out by no later than Saturday; still not sure how much of the story I should put down in the outline, given how fluid it often becomes in the actual draft work, but there will be plenty to get me rolling when Nov. 1st rolls around.
The read-through and preliminary edits on Dixie Curtain are finished as of this past Wed, though the outline work has likewise slackened a bit; new ideas are still percolating, however, and I should have them down by this weekend as well or shortly after, along with the beta-read edits for Bloody Relations. I'll also be prepping a sale period for my other works on Kindle and Audible, around Halloween; if you're looking for a holiday gift, or just a quick reading fix, feel free to check them out! Further details upcoming on all the above projects, as ever; meanwhile, keep up the shares, comments and reviews!