D. Lee Jackson

Words and Music

Some Health and Musical Stability, At a Cost

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Focusrite 2i2 Gen.2The turmoil of November is yielding a tiny bit of stability in December. However, as the title of this post says, it hasn’t come cheaply. There’s been money spent, but there has also been pain and stress paid out. In return, I’ve been able to go outside, and I’ve been able to return to writing music for short periods. It’s been a long time since I’ve been physically and mentally able to do either.

Keep in mind that all of this has been made possible by my work with Dr. Andrew Konen of Dallas. We’re nowhere near done with treatments, but he’s helped me get this far, and for that, I’m thankful. Ask my wife or myself, though, and we’ll both tell you that we’ve got a lot more to do before we can close this out, if we can ever close it out. That much is questionable.

Now, let’s start with the music. I’ve had days where my pain levels have been steady enough for me to get up and be active, and my head has been clear enough to think about music. I need to keep my Voting Membership eligibility with the Grammy organization, so I need to put out an album by April 2018. Thanks to the stability, I’ve been able to work on that. However, I’ve had to make an investment in a new piece of gear, shown at the top left of this post. It’s a Focusrite 2i2 Generation 2 sound module. My 2i2 Gen.1 still works, but the 2i2 Gen.2 supports higher sample rates and better stereo separation for monitoring incoming sounds. The base price was $149.95, but when you figure in the State of Texas’s taxes, I forked out just over $162 for the new box.

I have plans for the Gen.1 box, though. You see, I used it to compose and record the new music for the new levels in Gearbox Software’s Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary World Tour. If you’d like a genuine piece of gaming history, you can get it by buying my Gen.1 box! I’ll autograph the original shipping box it came in and the 2i2 Gen.1 box itself. All I’m doing is looking to recoup $60 or $75 of the original box, since times are tough and my medical bills this year have been high enough to break my catastrophic deductible level. I’ll set it up so that it works for an extra $10. If you’re interested, let me know. We can start via the comments or the Contact page, but we’ll have to work out an exchange of funds from there.

If I get no takers, it goes on eBay.

The other part of the stability, obviously, has been my health. This one’s a bit trickier. I’d say my health has only been stable for about the last five days, with one hiccup when my pain level shot up to an eight for a couple of hours. That was just a matter of getting used to the new system Dr. Konen has laid out for me. It’s also a part of the price I’ve paid for that stability. I predict more hiccups, but hope for not many more.

I still haven’t had my epidural steroid injection scheduled. I’m starting to wonder if they’ve forgotten about me on that. A phone call would be in order.

All in all, the month has been more interesting than November. I just hope it ends better.

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Back To Literary Work

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Before I hit the topic of this post, I want to thank everyone who has commented on the new soundtrack for the latest episode of the Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary World Tour! The music received a ton of good reviews, all of which made the effort worthwhile from my point of view. Much obliged!

With the music done (for the moment), I’m going back to my novel, Tapper. I start working with a “beta team” in The Ubergroup on Scribophile this week. Put simply, a beta team is where several authors put their entire works up for critique. Each author has a week in the spotlight, where everyone else in the team critiques that work from start to finish. It’s a lot of effort, but it’s worth it due to the all-at-once nature of the critiques received (versus the chapter-a-week model of a normal Ubergroup team). Tapper will get its weeks (yes, plural) starting with the week leading into Christmas (beginning Monday, December 19th). There’ll be a break in my part of the cycle from the 22nd through the 26th, at which point the group will resume critique and discussion through New Year’s Eve. This is possible since we’ve only got four people on a team geared for a six-week period.

I’ve done a lot of revisions since my last beta cycle, which took place almost a year ago. This one should be very interesting. 😉

Comments? Questions? Please feel free to use the Contact page. Thank you for reading!

 

Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary World Tour is Out!

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dn3d20awt_250x444It’s finally here! The release of Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary World Tour happened as scheduled, on Tuesday, October 11th. With it came an entirely new level, “Alien World Order,” and new music from yours truly to accompany it.

I’ve been excited about the release, but I’ve also been a little anxious about it. I put a lot of effort into the music when I wrote it several months ago, especially considering the lousy state of health I’ve had to deal with this year. There’s also been a lot of lead-up publicity ahead of the game’s release. All of this had me wondering how I’d handle it if the music got bad reviews. Thankfully, that hasn’t happened yet—at least, not that I’ve been able to see. The reviews so far have been way above my expectations.

If you get a chance, please grab a copy and let me know what you think about the music. All of the music is available in Ogg format within one of the game’s directories, so you can listen to the tracks outside the game (without looping, which only happens if you play it in the game). See if you can find some of the musical Easter eggs that I hid in the melodies and backing lines. (One hint: there’s a drum corps drumline used in a couple of songs.)

Please use the Contact page and let me know your opinions about the music. Thank you for reading—and for listening!

In The Meantime

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bookduke1While we await the impending release of the Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary World Tour with some of my new music in it, a few other things have been going on. For example:

  • I have sent out several queries to agents, seeking representation for Tapper. Not all of them have come back with a “no thank you” e-mail, so my hopes are still intact for the moment.
  • I have resumed work on the second book in the Tapper series while the queries are still out. It’s going to be more of an adult sci-fi thriller than book one, if I’ve got my genres correct.
  • I’ve learned that one of my biggest influences, Thomas Dolby, has written a memoir. I’ve already got a copy on pre-order. This is definitely going to be more than just a coffee table book.
  • I’ve been toying with the idea of releasing some of the outtakes/unused tracks from my work on the new Duke Nukem release. If anyone has a good reference on how to independently get something up on iTunes and Amazon, I would appreciate it very much if you would use the Contact page to let me know about it.

As always, thank you for reading!