I don't mean to alarm anyone, but I'm moving kind of slow. Guess what, though? I published this book last month!

​I apologize extensively for being slow to promote it or say anything about it.

Last year, I hopped on board the AI craze to see about all the new gadgets. Between March and July, I tried (and tried, and tried, and tried; some weeks, in the capacity of a more-than-full-time-job) to write a book using AI. Turns out, AI sucks at writing books. At least, the way I would write them. I attempted to write each chapter for the sequel using AI. In the end, that book resulted in a full book of... first chapters. Seriously. They're terrible, will probably never see the light of day, and not useable in any way, except to say, "Here's proof this doesn't work." By July, the book was "done" and I was done thinking AI could write books.

Luckily, in August, I got to be on a podcast. It was awesome! But, I was asked if I had planned a sequel. From the beginning, I had told myself this was either going to be one book or three. Unfortunately, the host asked about 2 weeks after I had determined AI was not the way to go, and with a cost of 5 months recently sunk, I was reluctant to say one way or another. Time went on, other things happened, and, eventually, I decided this sequel (and the book that will follow it) is possible.

So, here it is: Salt Academy Mysteries. It continues the tale of Charlie and Tuna, this time exploring concepts of dreams as related to trauma. Not a single word was written by AI, and, other than the page number missing at the bottom of the initial run of physical copies (to be fixed in the near future), I don't think it could have turned out better. At least, not until the demand for books with only first chapters increases.

Also, to step off my anti-AI high horse, there *is* an audiobook available. It was made by AI. I don't think it's perfect, and I don't think it's terrible. As previously mentioned, a third book is planned. All three books will be compiled and expanded similarly to Branching Chaos before being released as a single book with an audiobook of the full version by me.

​In theory, anyway.

Find it pretty much anywhere you buy books, or:

Amazon
​
Smashwords

I recently found a website that helps connect readers and authors called Shepherd. After they helped me find my next read, I had to reach out to them to see if a collaboration was possible. Here's the result: a list I wrote comprising books that were unexpectedly horrifying. Find it here!

​Shuffled in Time was made using the AI platform Udio,
with vocals recorded and mastering done with BandLab.

I recorded several takes of vocals,
some of which made the album's final cut.

I wrote the lyrics, and they range from the last 13 years of my life,
encapsulating a variety of experiences woven into a tapestry of waveforms.

A couple songs had lyrical contributions from from AI:
the title track and "Wandering Mind".

There are some songs that are AI covers of old songs I wrote.
(Those songs are stylized with part of the title in parenthesis.)

Shuffled in Time will not be released on BandCamp.

Listen Online
Buy Physical

Now available in eBook format
and
paperback
​
You can also view a
sample here.

See other options.
(Available from most online retailers April 6th)

I've been writing a new story.
Mostly, it's about
a girl and her cat
who solve mysteries.
(but it's about
​other things, too.)
You can view a sample here.

What follows is a lengthy and scattered tale detailing the reason for posting such a blog entry.
You can, of course, take a look at the remaining data here.

​One may suppose others are more rational than me. Others would have made an ACX account first, but not me. I fought an uphill battle of fire trucks, police and ambulance sirens, preschool hours with screaming children, elementary school bells, constant air flight traffic of all kinds (although, one supposes it is worth noting in reference to “all kinds”, I didn’t actually see anything I couldn’t identify; in fairness, I didn’t always check what was going on through the window), local neighborhood traffic, dogs barking, a cat meowing, a freeway, one public railway, some less-public railways, a whining refrigerator and a laptop that wanted to overheat by the end of every recording session. Oh, and a ton of stammering and starting sentences over to make sure I got the lines said as close to the way I wanted them as possible. And that was just recording.

Then, I fought multiple DAWs (Digital Audio Workstation) to get what I wanted from a production standpoint, probably more due to my own unfamiliarity with them than anything else. I later enlisted the help of my brother, who also used at least 2 other DAWs, at which time we had to scrap our initial work for the initial chapters and start over. (Oh, and this was after a separate recording for the entirety of “The Dreary House” part of Branching Chaos as “The Dreary House”, the slightly different novella published before appearing as it does in Branching Chaos, and scrapping that in favor of recording the work as a whole.)

I had no idea audiobooks were this hard, and I will do my part to keep reading print and digital, because this is way too much work for one person. That, or I’ll hire someone else next time, because I’m not dealing with this again. Not yet, anyway. I’m much happier writing books, saying or singing words, and making music. Audiobooks are, decidedly, “not that,” and, to those who prefer audiobooks, I’m so happy you waited for me to get all of this as a final product. I hope you enjoy it.

I’m just now having ACX check everything as I write about these experiences, and there are 3-4 chapters with issues, chapter 6 is stuck on analysis like chapter 1 was for a while, so we’ll see if it, too, gives an error. But those errors should be easily fixable by me or my brother this week. By the time anyone reads this, the mental landscape of recording of this audiobook will be looked back on by me like something out of Eraserhead: Gray scale, distant, and a time bordering on hostile that, while terrifying, does at least seem to be over with until I make a screenplay.

As for the cover being “off”, I wanted readers to look closer at the cover of duality depicted, because a theme of duality permeates this book in the way everyone chooses their own reality. I also wanted the letters to connect and be framed by the branches in some way, and, offsetting it, I felt, emphasized the chaos.

To get into it just a little further, the final publication of Branching Chaos didn’t go well, either. I once again did whatever I wanted without reading the instructions, and this resulted in a rather difficult-to-read book from a “there are words, with exact spaces for those words, missing” standpoint. It has been reworked for a better “all the words are there” experience to coincide with the release of this audiobook. I would like to think the “without reading the instructions” part of these experiences has been worked out, and I’m excited about future projects.

It’s pretty cool how it took the published, well-known authors about 2 years to publish an audiobook back when I was younger. And, despite all the aforementioned frustrations, it took me, as an independent author, a month and a week and maybe a few days shy of 2 years to do the same, almost completely by myself.

[Thanks, bro.]

Audiobook?
Writing?

Not much news on that yet.

For now, here is a mix of some of the music I've made since last year. Please enjoy :)
​

[MUSIC]
I've been excited to release one of those "extended play" music contraptions!
As it turns out, The Notes That Exploded runs 32 minutes (a full long-player.)
Watch the first music video from The Notes That Exploded at 7:00 MST tonight.
New music next week!

[WRITING]
Up next, as usual, is the audiobook for Branching Chaos.

I wrote this many years ago. It's been on my mind a lot over the last year or so. I just found it again. The date on my computer is near the end of 2015, but I think that's just the day I took it from a note I made on facebook, which was taken from a note written at some point while teaching.

Please consider leaving a review, sharing a link to this post, and/or talking to others about it.

Just wanted to mention the new
website for Branching Chaos
​is up and ready for (non-hacky) testing.
​From the Pinned Tweet:

For more information, visit the website
or
​check out this blog post.