This one is short, simple, and sad. It’s called The Rain is So Cold. Another one I recorded quickly, but still planning to crank these out for another 3 weeks…

So this one’s a bit rough, and my guitar doesn’t sound so great, but I wanted to make sure I got today’s entry in. This one is called Time’s Running Down. It had its start about 10 years ago, but it was only last year that I completed the song and I’ve been fiddling with the middle eight, but I consider it the start of my new bunch of songs over the past year or so.

In any event, hope you enjoy it.

Those who have known me for a while, or have followed my site or my now defunct livejournal know that I love advent calendars. I’m not religious — I’m not even Christian — but I’ve always loved Christmas, and I’ve always found advent calendars to be somewhat magical. In the past I’ve done my own, several times with original fiction, short flash pieces for each day leading up to the holiday. The thing is, I’m at a point in my writing career where I can’t just rattle off a short piece in a day and feel comfortable posting it. It just doesn’t work. But I have been working on songwriting, and improving myself as a musician and I thought to myself, maybe I could do it with songs.

So here I am, getting it in under the wire (it’s 11:42 PM as I write this in Brooklyn) and I am committing to a Song Advent Calendar — 1 song a day leading up to Christmas. They might be videos or audio only, they might be old or new, they might be covers or originals. But I am committing to putting up a song every day for 24 days, starting now.

This song, “Back in School”, was already posted on my Facebook page earlier this year, and is the sole entry on my Youtube page, but since this was a late decision today, I’m going to go with it. Anything after this will be new to all of you. This song is an original. More about this idea and songwriting in future posts.

Without further adieu:

I have been traveling lately, so I’ve been remiss in reporting that Lightspeed has reprinted my story, “Card Sharp,” in their latest issue (August 2019). They will be publishing the third story in the sequence, “All In,” in September, so now all three stories are available on the Lightspeed website. They don’t need to be read in order, but all three tell one extended arc. The stories and links are:

1. Card Sharp
2. Second Hand
3. All In (link forthcoming)

For those of you who have been around for a little while, you’ll know that I started a podcast back in 2017 with Devin Poore called Spirited Discourse. It’s a simple premise — we get together with fellow creatives or fellow geeks and talk over drinks and record it. After a long absence after our first season, we’re back with Season 2 of the podcast. Two episodes have already gone up, episode 1 with Theresa Delucci where we discuss Game of Thrones (pre-season 8), Red Dead Redemption 2, and The Haunting of Hill House television show (among other things), and episode 2 with Trevor Quachri, editor of ANALOG SCIENCE FICTION & FACT to discuss Avengers: Endgame. The podcasts are available on iTunes, Stitcher, and most other podcast outlets including our website.

I’m really excited about our upcoming guests which include N. K. Jemisin, Scott Andrews, and Mercurio D. Rivera.

In addition to co-hosting a podcast, I have also appeared a few times recently on the Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy podcast. Most recently I joined Dave Kirtley, Sara Lynn Michener, and Chris Cevasco to discuss the indie SF film Prospect starring Pedro Pascal (of Narcos and Game of Thrones).

Earlier this year, I also joined Dave, Sara, and Matthew Kressel to discuss Series 11 of Doctor Who (with Jodie Whittaker).

And late last year, on the same podcast, I discussed the Netflix miniseries, Maniac, with Dave, Chandler Klang Smith, and Matthew Kressel as well.

So, if you feel the need to hear my voice, you have plenty of options to choose from.