The Dogini Diaries

The Hills Are Alive, With the Sound of Music(?)

Over the last couple of evenings, in the interests of Knowledge (and of finding some background music for the book trailer I spoke about last week), I've been randomly clicking albums on Jamendo.com, subjecting myself to all sorts of bizarre tunes.  

As I wasn't sure what type of music I wanted, I decided that I should start by checking out the 'tags' - ie the different categories of music that have been loaded onto the site. 

Before starting this task, I'd been smug in the knowledge that, along with retro stuff like jazz and rock, I knew what ska and emo sounded like... but looking at the mile-long list of musical styles on Jamedo, I was humbled; flabbergasted by the sheer number of genres I'd never even heard of.

It was clear that to find the perfect music was going to take a lot longer than I imagined. I managed to knock a few genres off the list of 'possibles' by name alone. I knew what I wanted wouldn't be found in the 'brutaldeathmetal', 'microtonal' or 'tribe' categories, but had no idea what chiptune, onirique or phyloexera was. There was only one way to find out...

Thankfully I managed to survive the musical surfing without making my ears bleed - though it was a close thing on occasion. I actually had quite a good time. Found some music I liked, and even some which might be suitable for the trailer. 

I also learnt that there are some genres I will never, ever warm to. Take Psicotropicodelia for example: the word looks like a parrot related disease, but the sample I listened to sounded like a horde of Orcs tearing each other to pieces and eating the remains. Mind you, if it's true that the next craze to hit YA will be zombies*, and I'm tasked with creating the trailer for a 'living dead' book, I already have the perfect music for it!

*This is a hotly contested question - Twilight spawned  many many vampire romance novels, but what will the next big thing be? Some say zombies, some say werewolves, and others say angels. I have some doubts about the zombie thing myself - you can create interesting romantic characters out of vampires (and for that matter, werewolves and angels), but the living dead? hmmmm... What do you think it will be?

Thanks to Hebedesign for the photo.

Slow Starts and Online Marketing Magic

I've been doing something very retro over the summer holidays - offline blogging, aka writing a diary. 

You'd have thought that would be enough to satisfy me, but each time I sat down with my pink notebook, I found myself missing my blogging fix and planning what I would write when I got home. 

So... it's odd that I've found it so difficult to start blogging again.

Every day since our return, I've told myself, I'll blog, once I've finished work - I'm in the middle of editing three novels for teens (not written by myself) - but there never seemed to be an end to the pile of urgent stuff, which had to be done instead. 

To be fair, due to the fact that we're nearly ready to to go to print on two of the books, there has been an unusual amount of research to do, and decisions to make. For example we've had to decide on cover design, layouts, and new-age marketing ideas such as how to go about holding an online book launch: what party games should we have? What about party favours? And, more importantly, what sort of virtual cupcakes should we serve? (Grace Lin set a pretty high bar for that kind of thing - as you can see at the online launch here, of her lovely book, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon.).

We pondered about blog tours. Were they effective? Who should we approach?

And the biggest project of them all - the making of the book trailer. We've been debating whether to use live action (like a film trailer) or to use photos, voice-overs and interesting film editing techniques. I think we've come to a consensus, so now all we have to figure out... is how we can persuade George Clooney to star in it.* 

See, I HAVE been busy.

Last night however, I realised that all of those excuses were just that - excuses, and that the real reason for my inaction was that I didn't know what to blog about. Like the person who feels guilty at not writing a long overdue letter, but continues to put off writing it until he has enough time to pen a huge, wonderfully entertaining missive (ie never), I'd been stymied by the huge list of things I could/should/would maybe blog about.

So, I decided to ditch the entire list. But then, I still had the dilemma of what to write.

My summer holiday? Yes, I thought, I should at least mention my trip, but, what aspect of it?

The modern and classical art I sought out around Europe? The gastronomic delights? Philosophical musings on communism? My compulsion to bake scones everyday whilst in Cornwall - with related trivia about how clotted cream is made? Should I ramble on about architecture? Document the fishing trip from hell (hint: some of the fisherfolk fed the fish their breakfast)? 

For a while, I even toyed with the idea of transcribing my entire paper diary to the blog.

You'll be glad to hear I decided against it. Nor will I upload the hundreds and hundreds (and hundreds) of photos I took - mainly because I'm saving them to enthrall/bore the pants off any friend who professes an interest in them, and doesn't change the subject quickly enough when I offer to fetch the photo album(s). 

Friends, consider yourself warned.

Luckily, whilst procrastinating, I stumbled upon this site, and had a brainwave... I would encapsulate my five and a half week journey around Czech Republic/Austria/Italy/UK; of being awed by sights both natural and man made; of walking all day till we were footsore to sitting in a traffic jam for hours; of being roasted by the sun and alternately shivering in the biting coastal winds; of eating, drinking and relaxing with friends and family, into a haiku.

Here it is:

A summer of fun

It was hot, and cold.

we walked, saw sights, laughed with friends.

roll on next summer!

*I am, unfortunately, kidding.