Thursday, June 17, 2021

Works In Progress (secrets, updates, and maybe even a few details)

As if writing a daily blog weren't enough, I have a number of other projects in some form of development. Today's Boppin' communiqué will go through the list of what I'm working on, and what I am not.

Though it shouldn't be a surprise at this point, my long-promised Greatest Record Ever Made! book is no longer a current project. I retain a naive belief that I will be able to see this book through to completion and publication some day. That day is not in the near future. I'm suspending my weekly GREM! video series on YouTube, though I may still do some more of those here and/or there as the mood hits. This project is not dead. I'm setting it aside for now, but I'm not abandoning it, and I continue to tweak it. An infinite number of songs can each be THE greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. My GREM! book will get its turn yet.

That said, however, I am beyond pleased to say that I do have a book deal. It's just for a different book instead.

Yeah, although The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) was supposed to be my first book, a different tome is likely to appear before GREM! does. I have a deal in place for a book called...no, I can't tell you about that yet. That book has a publisher, we have a mutual understanding of terms, but we can't announce anything until the contract is finalized and signed. Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed. Details will follow. Projected publication date is late 2022. I am delighted, and I look forward to sharing more news about this as soon as I'm able to do so. I have a book deal. That, my friends, is a life's dream come true.

In smaller-scale news, I was asked to contribute an article to a forthcoming issue of a music magazine. That article has been written, submitted, and accepted, and (like the above-teased book) it's also a secret. Shhh. Don't tell anyone.

One project I can talk about involves the liner notes for a live CD by Syracuse's own power pop powerhouse The Flashcubes. Flashcubes On Fire: Live At The Firebarn 05.26.79 preserves a killer vintage live show by my favorite power pop group, captured at the peak of their invigmoratin' live prowess. The hype will fly freely on this one, and you can hear a track from Flashcubes On Fire this very Sunday night on This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl. (That's Sunday night, 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, http://sparksyracuse.org/)

Speaking of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, we have an extra-special show lined up for you on July 4th. Our intrepid stats man Fritz Van Leaven is whipping up a playlist, fine-tuning a countdown concept we've used before, but with a specific spin that we have not used before. The stats aren't in place yet, so neither Dana nor I know exactly what we're going to be playing on that 7/4/2021 program, but we know it's gonna be exciting, and we know we'd love to have you tune in. There will be Flashcubes. Also Beatles, Kinks, Ramones, and...well, you'll find out soon enough.

Finally, I have started writing fiction again. 2019 was a breakthrough year for my accomplishments as a professional liar, as after decades of non-fiction freelancing I finally made my first-ever fiction sales. I wrote ten new short stories in 2019, and I sold five of them. Four of those five have been published by the good folks at AHOY Comics; the fifth remains bought and paid for, but still in AHOY's to-be-published queue. 

But, for whatever reason (and no, I don't think it was the pandemic, but what do I know?), I was unable to finish any more stories after "The Copperhead Affair" in late 2019. Last week, I dug out the beginning of a story I'd started in either late 2019 or early '20, and in one evening I completed it to my satisfaction. It's since been submitted to AHOY, so if you wanna wish me luck, I accept that wish with grace and gratitude. 

I have also set that new story in a file with three of the published stories, seeing how they might fit together as the first four chapters of a book. 

Yeah, another book. Why stop at just one? One book leads to another. Just gotta keep the faith. And just gotta keep writing.

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This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, and on the web at http://sparksyracuse.org/ You can read about our history here.

The many fine This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio compilation albums are still available, each full of that rockin' pop sound you crave. A portion of all sales benefit our perpetually cash-strapped community radio project:


Volume 1: download

Volume 2: CD or download
Volume 3: download
Volume 4: CD or download
Waterloo Sunset--Benefit For This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio:  CD or download

I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl.

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