Thursday, July 29, 2004

WALKING AWAY, NOT LOOKING BACK

It's official; I'm free (in my own head at least).

I was in a record store at lunchtime today, buying two CDs by Albert Ayler (Witches And Devils and Complete Live At Slug's Saloon), and I spotted a Miles bootleg I don't have.

It's called Fat Time; it was recorded at one of his comeback gigs in 1981. I already have two discs from that string of gigs - We Want Miles and Miles! Miles! Miles!. Still, it might have been nice to have some more music from that period. I liked that band, particularly Mike Stern's guitar and Marcus Miller's bass.

But I left it on the shelf.

I might go back for it next week. I don't know. But knowing that I didn't have to buy it felt strangely freeing.

And besides, the Ayler stuff I did get was totally ass-frying in exactly the way I'd hoped it would be.

Tuesday, July 27, 2004

REPORT FROM THE NOTHING TO REPORT DEPT.

Not much to report right now. The book's in the publisher's hands - my editor swears he's gonna read it very soon and get back to me with his thoughts. I'll post some of that feedback here.

In the meantime, I have moved on to The Next Thing, which is the Novel. (I would say "First Novel" but there are sizable chunks of at least three truly wretched fiction-things on discs in drawers that predate the current effort. I haven't decided whether the fact that they'll never see the light of day means they "count" or don't, but I'm leaning toward don't.) I hope to have that manuscript finished by year's end - I promised my agent I'd give it to him after New Year's, and since it's already fully plotted, it shouldn't be that difficult to pound it out in the next five months. It has nothing to do with Miles Davis, or jazz, though, so I don't know how much space I'll devote to it here. With luck, RTVD-related matters will occupy much of my time in 2005.

There's another Next Thing in the hardly-worth-mentioning stages, but it's hardly worth mentioning. It's nonfiction, and music-related; that's all I'll say until I hear from the money-people involved.

Friday, July 02, 2004

IT'S BEYOND MY CONTROL

The publisher has the manuscript. I got an e-mail acknowledging receipt that reads, in part:

"An initial sampling of the text indicates a compelling and well-told story."

[carl spackler]

So I got that goin' for me, which is nice.

[/carl spackler]