The Dragon’s Mirror

So I turned in my Mosaic project today! I’m mostly pleased with it… I feel like I got across what I was wanting, but I wanted to skip a couple chapters and bring about the first major plot point. I also realized that I’m very good at writing bad dialog. I’m also rethinking this being a “adult” fantasy novel, and I might turn it more towards a young adult book. I’ve got most of my outline together. I spent some time talking the story over with Cathy, and she kept asking questions about certain characters, and offering advice. At first I was slightly annoyed (sorry babe) but it’s so good to have someone to ask those questions, especially if I’m leaving gaping holes in my story… So check back here later and the Original blog http://danieljohnmusic.com for the first chapter to my novel: “The Dragon’s Mirror”

And finally! Here is the link to a pdf of my story. Obviously it’s not finished. I will work over the week to get more done and keep posting my updates here.

http://danieljohnmusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/The-Dragons-Mirror.pdf

Snowflake Method: Step One

Step One: Take an hour and write a one-sentence summary of your novel. The sentence will serve you forever as a ten-second selling tool. This is the big picture, the analog of that big starting triangle in the snowflake picture.

When you later write your book proposal, this sentence should appear very early in the proposal. It’s the hook that will sell your book to your editor, to your committee, to the sales force, to bookstore owners, and ultimately to readers. So make the best one you can!

Some hints on what makes a good sentence:

Shorter is better. Try for fewer than 15 words.

No character names, please! Better to say “a handicapped trapeze artist” than “Jane Doe”.

Tie together the big picture and the personal picture. Which character has the most to lose in this story? Now tell me what he or she wants to win.

Read the one-line blurbs on the New York Times Bestseller list to learn how to do this. Writing a one-sentence description is an art form.

So here are my drafts for step one:

A young man goes on a journey of Discovery and Adventure.

A young man is pulled from his home and thrust into a journey of adventure.

A young man is taken from him home and finds his place in a world of magic and monsters.

An average boy discovers a wondrous gift but is taken from his home, and embarks on a journey of discovery.

A young boy discovers his wondrous gift, and finds his destiny in a world of Dragons, magic and Kings.

Final Decision:

An average boys discovers his wondrous Destiny in a world of Dragons, Magic and Kings!

I think this last one really covers everything I want to portray in my story. Typical Hero’s Journey story about a young boy who is taken from his home (slavers) and sees all the darkness of the world, and meets different characters throughout the journey. Over the course of the story the villain is introduced who is the last of the Black dragons, which are manipulative, harbingers of death and destruction. That is all you get for today!

Mosaic

Fo Dan’s new project - http://danieljohnmusic.com/the-m-o-s-a-i-c-project/ - I’m working on my Fantasy Novel. I’m going to update my blog while I work on it over the next week up to the big reveal of my project! So far, I’ve decided on using the snowflake method (http://www.advancedfictionwriting.com/art/snowflake.php) to work out the synopsis and get my plan into words and on paper. Check back for my first entry!

NO Negative

The title of this blog post has been my mantra for the past several days, and if you take it to heart, it will revolutionize your life!

Our Pastor preached a message this past Sunday night about living life with God, and he brought up that life isn’t about you. That is something I’ve thought about for a long time, and I think I’ve hit different understandings of that concept at different times, and “NO Negative” is just the latest understanding. To me, NO Negative is getting above your personal frustrations, beyond your personal perspective and past your personal grudges. When work is tough, and the computers are all having the same problem, but the same solution isn’t fixing them the same way, it’s easy to get really frustrated and want to give the problem to someone else. But then you’re just putting those frustrations on someone else, but if we ask God for help and truly rely on His knowledge, the problem is going to get fixed. It’s easy to come home after a long day of work, and sit on the couch and watch Stargate while your wife makes dinner. She might not need your help, but what does it do for your relationship if you get off the couch and offer help, or stand in the kitchen and talk with her?

The thing about not being negative is that it doesn’t only affect you. Your attitude and the way people perceive you affects those around you. So in my after work example, my wife might’ve had a blagh day too, what kind of a husband am I to not ask her about her day? If I’m too focused on my own bad day, hers isn’t going to get better either. Than we’re both upset and what kind of example are we being to our son? You never know when someone just needs a kind word, or a hug, or someone with confidence to show up and help. You can’t do that when you’re being negative yourself. Oddly, this kind of reminds of Superman. When the super villain is destroying the town, the citizens instantly cheer when Superman arrives. He’s not worrying that he’s on an alien planet never to return home, he’s just wanting to help people and stop Evil. He’s swoops in with confidence and strength and saves the day. Does he do this for himself? No, Superman stops evil so that the everyman can be safe. By taking a minute to become positive you can gain the confidence, and have the strength to accomplish anything! Don’t you want to be like Superman?

I’m not intending for this “mantra” to be like the movie “Yes, man” (Don’t watch it) – where you never say no to anything. This has more of a, “You’re being a jerk, get over it because someone else needs you”  feel. Also, “What are you accomplishing by thinking like this? Nothing? Then change!” – obviously this is not an easy thing to do, I’m sure I’ll fail from time to time, but over the last several days when I’ve gotten negative, I really feel like the Holy Spirit sends a system check through my heart, and at that point I’ve got the decision to change, or continue. Also, when I need help being positive, flipping through a couple Psalms REALLY seems to help!

So my challenge today is to change the way you handle stress! When an unexpected problem comes up, don’t freak out, ask God to help and be strong for those around you.

Perspectives

So as you can see again, I’m not the best at really keeping up with a writing blog. So rather than forcing myself and missing fake deadlines on myself, I’m going back to the format of writing what I feel like, and putting what I want to on my blog. Today my thoughts are about

 

Life from my Perspective

 

I work in a computer department that supports dozens if not over a hundred clients and computers. IT, is a service industry that always has two perspectives: The Customer and the Service Provider. From a customers perspective, they were just watching a free movie on a website, or clicked a link they thought said “free ipad”, now their computer doesn’t work, so fix it. From the IT perspective, what website were you on? What did the link actually say? – A lot of times, it’s very easy from the Service perspective to get frustrated at those on the customer side, because from their perspective, the customer just wasn’t paying attention and now they’re in trouble and interrupting whatever project was being worked on. At this point, the job gets done, the computer gets fixed and returned, the customer goes home happy, to more than likely return next week with the same issue. Cynic thoughts like this can easily be my first perspective, they come from years of dealing with people that just don’t understand the ins and outs of computers, and from the flesh that tries to say “I’m more important”. Obviously this is not a “good” or right perspective to have, but it’s easy and makes us feel better than the Customer.

It’s so easy to take the low road on this one, just blame the user and fix the problem, and get it out the door. So let’s take a look at this perspective from a different situation. God creates mankind and gives them a garden, someone eats an apple, oops… that apple had some wicked malware: “God, can you fix this?” – see where I’m going with this? How many times do we take our virus ridden lives to God only to return the next week with the same story? Aren’t you glad that our Heavenly IT department doesn’t have our worldly perspectives?

Let me say next that I love my job so much, and I feel that I’m good at what I do, because I enjoy solving problems. Even though my flesh may try to sway my attitude towards arrogance and frustration, I have to find the Grace of God daily to find His Love for the people I’m serving. Accidents happen, apples gets eaten, “free ipads” get clicked and some people just don’t understand or think about computers like me. Likewise I rarely think about air pressure in my tires or the oil in my car, I wonder what my mechanic thinks of me….

Basically, don’t let your frustrations and arrogance ruin your perspective of God’s people. God will give you the Grace to be patient with your customers if you ask Him. Patience is a choice, not a magic “Chestpiece of Love Thy Neighbor +3″.

Music Mondays

Today I’d like to talk about the music I’m involved in. One of my current hats is a sound man for a travelling rock worship band called findingBethel. It consists of Dan White on keys, Darin Rihanek on bass guitar, and Jared Nickerson on the drums! I absolutely LOVE to travel with these guys! In my opinion they are one of the greatest power trios the world has yet to see. I’ve been travelling with them for just over two years now and we’ve been to several churches, street corners, festivals and even a Culvers restaurant. Our big event this year is going to be at Crossover Music Festival in Camdenton Missouri. http://www.crossovermusicfestival.com/2009/

FindingBethel plays in between every band during the stage switch. They’ll be there both Friday and Saturday and you all should come check it out! We also use software audio console when we travel which is a soundboard on a computer. It’s pretty sweet. Rather than running our 300 lb cable snake over 200 feet to the sound board, we can run ONE Cat5 (Ethernet) cord… You can actually connect wirelessly to the server and run sound from ANYWHERE you want, but just to be safe, we normally use the Cat5. Anyone who’s setup sound and staging for an event know that what I’m saying is invaluable during setup and teardown. FB is currently working recording their first debut CD. You should follow all those I linked on twitter and check out findingBethel on facebook!

How loud is too loud?

For today’s music post I’m going to link to a website by my great sound/bass mentor and good friend Darin Rihanek. Darin has been running sound in Church for years, and is an accomplished bass player for the World Renown band findingBethel. This article “How Loud is too Loud?” asks just that question. With several comments included and answers to them at the end. I’ve been running sound at chapel services and main church services for about seven years (if you count kids chapel’s on an 8 channel Mackie) and I’ve come to the point where it is my instrument.

I’m sure there are many musicians out there can attest that there is a point in playing their instrument, when it is no longer just playing notes, but worshiping the Most High God with your music. Last night I ran sound for a service that provided a moment just like that for me.

I won’t say that I’ve never worshiped from the sound board before last night, but last night God took me deeper on the sound board. I absolutely love music, every piece, every instrument, every note. I love it when a band comes together! When the drums are whacking the heck out of the toms, and they’re panned to provide that stereo sound. When the piano is hammering away, that little bit of reverb holding their notes. When the guitar is soloing, wailing away at all the meedlys. And the bass player is running up and down the neck, and gets that slappy groove. The Vocals are giving everything they have, hitting harmonies and rhythms all of their own. THAT is when worship is at it’s peak. In that moment for me at least. When a worship service hits that point, and then all the music cuts, and the congregation continues as loud as they can, even louder than the music had been, THAT is when worship is at it’s peak. In moments like those I feel God’s presence, I can tell He is smiling at children, giving us His Love as we love on Him.

So I ask this question then to those readers daring enough to comment:

What is worship to you?

Shifting the Night

Well it’s currently 5:30am right now, only an hour and a half left of my shift at the dorm. It has been almost two years of spending every other Saturday night on the Joshua Hall, making sure the boys are all sleeping in their beds. It all started with the want for a little extra money around Christmas time, and turned into another way I can help the Ministry in the background and let one of the regular night-shifters get some sleep. I still work for Heartland Telecommunications, but I add a shift every other week working for the dorm and usually sleep in then on Sunday morning. Since I’ve started this position the boys who sleep in these rooms have changed, some have left, and some have been added. When I get here at 11:30pm they are all sleeping soundly, and they start waking up around 6:30am, giving me 7 hours of staying awake and walking the halls. It’s a shame it’s taken me this long to use this time for some writing… I spent a couple hours tonight rewording some of my story from the other day, and adding on the next little bit, but you will have to wait until Wednesday for that!

I’m so tired right now I think I’ve hit the delete key a hundred times writing so far… my words are coming, but my fingers don’t want to move right. So this is all for now!

Feeling the Friday

Sorry for not writing yesterday, I had a BUSY day! Cathy and I went to the Doctor in Kville and were able to hear our lil kiwi’s heartbeat for the first time. It’s a pretty strange thing, knowing there is a life being created. Once we got home we had to clear our furniture out to make room for our new sectional that was arriving sometime between 2-4… it showed up about 4… It’s a really nice couch! You should come over and sit on it sometime! We’ve also been battling some weird allergy/ sickness that hasn’t been being nice. Cathy went to bed on Wed night at 4pm and pretty much slept until Thursday morning… She started feeling much better after taking some meds on Thursday, but then it started going after me  We also had a mini barbque last night! Cathy had to work, but Schrockstar’s sis was coming up for the night, so we grilled some AMAZING burgers and he made a sweet chocolate cake: it’s a secret Schrock recipe… mental note: Steal that book. After cooking we started watching Avatar on Blu Ray. EPIC! Everything shut down early-ish, Cathy got home and I took some meds and crashed!

I’ve really enjoyed all the comments on my story from Wednesday I’ve got some great twists and adventures for Capt. Ross in the coming weeks! I’ll probably pen a bunch of during Night Shift on Saturday night and fix some stuff from Wednesday’s start for a repost. Maybe if you’re really good I’ll draw something…. which prolly won’t happen unless it’s really good by my standards…

Work has been interesting… Jared is away in Israel on a Mission’s trip leaving Jason and I to run stuff here. It’s been a slow week, with several exceptions of our daily/ weekly maintenance stuff. It’s actually been nice, everyone is just getting their stuff done and no one is blaring Party in the USA or Charlie the Unicorn. However there is that spark missing… Jared is a vital part of our team, our leader in fact and his absence is noticeable. We’re making it without him, but could not live without him!

This weekend is going to be a nice normal weekend! I can’t wait! Tonight will be some video games and writing, with tomorrow spending time with my wife and maybe getting some painting done and house cleaning. Maybe find some time to Skype with my Mom in California! Saturday night is Night Shift at the dorm which means more writing and staying up all night! I get to sleep in on Sunday and then sit in service at church at the night service. Savannah is staying with us next week while her Mom is in Israel and we’re thinking about Sushi in Quincy one night! Should be fun!

When re-reading all of this I realize how great my life is! God is a merciful God who gives us more good than we deserve. This has been such an amazing week! Life’s Good!

Life Blog

Well yesterday was supposed to be a music or technology blog, and today the life blog, but yesterday was more of a life blog, so I’ll splurge on some technology stuff today!

Right now the big news is about the alleged new iPhone 4.0 hardware that gizmodo.com picked up. It ends up that Apple sent a formal letter requesting it be returned, which Giz is adhering to, but the whole thing still smells fishy to me… This apple employee was at a German pub for his birthday, and left his iphone (a prototype for the next gen iphone) sitting on a barstool. Another guy, we’ll call him Bob, had been sitting next to the Apple guy, but didn’t know him. When Apple guy left, another guy, we’ll call this guys Random Drunk Guy, pointed out to Bob that there was a phone next to him, and he should grab it… Random Drunk Guy then left… leaving Bob alone with the Apple guys iphone. At first Bob thought it was a standard 3GS, until the next morning when he pulled the cover off to reveal some shiny new features. You can check out the full write up over at http://gizmodo.com/5520164/this-is-apples-next-iphone

What my brain has trouble with here is this: who is the Random Drunk Guy? My guy tells me it was Steve Jobs himself, disguised, releasing the new prototype in the wild to see what would happen. He just didn’t think it would get sold to a tech review website and read about by millions of people. All in all it is very interesting that Apple slipped. Something similar happened in one of Apple’s Asian plants with the iphone 3GS, but that employee later “committed suicide”… it’s crazy how much hype can come from one piece of technology. Everyone wants the newest and the greatest thing. I personally think that technology is great, it allows us to communicate across buildings, states and even planets! You just can’t take stuff too seriously, you can’t let technology control your life. I don’t think God provides us with technology so we can all have Facebook addiction, “gotta-have-the-newest” syndrome, obsessive tweeting, or wiki-junkies.  Technology is a tool, like a hammer and nail, we use it to make us more efficient, to learn, to communicate and share our lives with family spread across the globe. I love technology, but I do say that some days you just need to shut your cell phone off, and sit under a tree and bask in God’s perfect Creation. I did that while I was in New Zealand. I took a “technology fast” of sorts, we had wifi pretty much wherever we were, but I made the conscience decision to not pull my iPhone out every second and update the world that I was “standing on a street corner looking at the Ocean.” It was nice realizing that just talking to my wife and being with my family was enough sharing. I don’t think I could live anti-technology, but it’s great to not being ruled by it!