So I’m a professional writer now, kind of.

A couple of months ago, Brennan Taylor (awesome name) asked me to write a campaign frame for his awesome supernatural story game, Mortal Coil. It’s for sale on RPGnow.com with photography by J. R. Blackwell and illustrations by Jennifer Rogers.

Sorry for the crappy photograph, but it was snapped from my car on my iPhone. Someone, in their infinite wisdom, decided to put in a subdivision right behind the biggest cemetery in town (it stretches for about a mile). I’m sure kids will just love growing up in this neighborhood.

I was mentioned in a post on a forum today. The poster spelled my name “Breenan.”

I’m beginning to wonder if there is some kind of conspiracy going on. My name has been spelled “Brannon,” “Brennon,” “Brenner,” “Brendan,” “Brendon,” and “Brennan.”

I have an uncle who thinks my name is “Brandon.” He’s not a distant uncle.

What’s so hard about spelling my name correctly?

I’ve been reading way too much Lovecraft.

When the Stars are Right (128kbps mp3)

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I’ve written songs about murder, and I’ve written songs about the Devil. This is the first song I’ve ever written about both.

A Murder of Crows (128kbps mp3)

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This is the first demo for my upcoming album.  I wrote it for my friend Julia Ellingboe who wrote an amazing story game by the same name. Her game is named for an imaginary gospel song. The song is imaginary no more.

The narrative alluded to in my lyrics are based on the legend of the vengeful slave who decapitated his master, Penn Young, at Spring Villa, about ten miles from where I grew up and currently live. If you believe in the paranormal (and honestly, what kind of world would we live in without ghosts?), Spring Villa is supposed to be as haunted as hell.

What do I mean by Demo

This is a rough recording done soon after writing the song. It’s usually a first or second take with little arranging or production. If this song makes it onto the final album, it will have quite a bit more polish, and likely a guitar (or banjo or mandolin) solo.

Steal Away Jordan (128kbps mp3)

If you like this song, consider buying me a drink by clicking on the button below:

It’s been a long time since I’ve written or recorded any new music, and some of my more vocal fans have been pressuring me to remedy that. I’ve decided to attempt to record an album over the summer, and perhaps even try to produce it and market it for real. Additionally, I’m going to make the process of writing, recording, producing and marketing the album very public by documenting every step of the way on my blog.

Time, Energy and Priorities

I’m a husband and a father, and over the past two years I’ve noticed a shift from primarily self-identifying as an artist to self-identifying as a family man and provider. I enjoy spending time with my wife and son, it’s one of the most important aspects of my life and one I’m not willing to sacrifice. I have to  make time for creativity without attenuating the quality time I spend with my family.

If it were only a question of time, that would be an easy fix: I’d just stay up late the way I used to before Parker was born. However, I no longer have the energy and focus I possessed pre-fatherhood. I’m not sure how I’m going to solve this problem, but when I have some ideas, I’ll let you know.

Joe McDonald said this over here:

It’s Not Done Until You’re Proud Of It. The world has a ton of artists, of art, of games, of bands, of professionals. The amount of stuff we produce and participate in is astounding. And, as a result, the world has no need of things which are good enough. And I reproach myself for going to press with something that I told myself was “good enough.” If it isn’t something that you’re unwaveringly proud of, there’s zero need for it.

This really resonated with me. Joe could’ve written only that one sentence at the beginning of the paragraph, and it would’ve gotten my nomination for blog post of the year.

Since I’ve become a father and time and energy is scarce, I’ve been guilty of settling for good enough in order to get any artistic output at all. Two or three years ago, that wouldn’t have been acceptable for me.  Lately, Parker is getting much more independent and Sarah and I both have more time to work on stuff, but I can tell that I’ve dulled my edge a bit. I could write a long list of things I used to be better at than I am now. It’s lack of practice, lack of time, lack of passion.

I’ve noticed a subtle change in myself. I’ve become complacent. I’ve become concerned with making a living rather than creating art. I don’t like this at all. This is not the kind of father I want my son to have. I’m determined to be a wolf and not a sheep. Not only hungry, but vicious.

A few weeks ago I was commissioned to design this logo. I was determined to do the best job I could do, so I put about 25 hours into it. As a result, I ended up making about a third the hourly rate I’d like. That’s okay. I just couldn’t stop until it was something I was proud of. The client loved it. She’s proud of it, too. Hopefully, this will lead to more work, but even if it doesn’t I pushed my skill to its limits and raised the bar for all my future work.

When I read Joe’s post this afternoon, I felt like shooting a pistol into the sky.

After this month, I’m losing two students that I really loved teaching. Dongwook Kim is moving back to Korea, and Griffin Limerick has landed a newspaper internship in Rome, Georgia, just a stone’s throw from Howard Finster’s Paradise Gardens. Both of these guys have huge futures ahead of them.

Dongwook, at age 14, is one of the most diligent students of music theory and technique I’ve ever had. A couple of weeks ago I laughed when another teacher tried to show him the blues scale. Dongwook can already recite the 7 modes of the major scale in every key and knows quite a bit about harmony. At today’s lesson we worked on superimposing the ascending melodic minor scale over chords with different roots, and thinking in terms of its modes.

Griffin is an aesthetic polymath, and is a man after my own heart. We talk as much about literature and philosophy as about guitar. I maintain that the guitar is an artistic medium just like any other, and to truly master it, you must be familiar with all forms of art. It’s great to be able to share much of the wisdom I learned from Steve Giordano, and from my explorations into various cultures of knowledge.

You guys will be greatly missed.