These lists fly around all the social networks, and I got tagged this week.
Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. Consider yourself tagged.
1. Already this morning I've sung songs by Billy Joel, Billy Ocean and Lenny Kravitz.
2. Almost all of my best memories revolve around pop music. An example? On the way to Death Valley, my wife bought a Marshall Tucker CD at a truck stop and proceeded to "prove" she knew every word to every song.
3. My paternal grandfather retired from John Deere. My maternal grandfather retired from J.I. Case (which is like John Deere). My father worked for a decade at John Deere. My mother retired from John Deere. Her three siblings all retired from or will retire from John Deere.
4. Hence, my workmanlike approach to novel writing. I've written two pages a day (rarely more, rarely less), five days a week, every week, every year, for over twelve years. I'm currently doubling this output to make sure I finish my third novel this year.
5. If I don't write, I get grouchy (and sometimes when I do).
6. As a child, I wanted to be a professional baseball player, until it dawned on my that being afraid of the ball would be a serious impediment to my career. At 14, I switched to wanting to be a rock 'n' roll bass player. At 28, I switched to wanting to be a novelist, which I've pursued ever since.
7. You've probably heard me yell "Yee Haw!" during the end credits of a certain television theme song.
8. I never want to be in a position where I have to tell someone how to dress. However, as a band leader, I have one requirement of the people who play with me: no cowboy hats.
9. I get very nervous around famous people.
10. My second novel is better than my first. My third is already better than my second.
11. I just recorded my first ever solo CD, after which I wrote the best song of my life.
12. I believe a musician's solution to every problem is, "Let's make another record."
13. I'm currently working on two creative projects--neither of which involve music or novel writing--that with some luck will be ready for debut within a year.
14. From the time I was 15, and not counting freelance work, I've had 23 jobs. The best one was my first, as a bus boy in Bettendorf, Iowa. I was good at it; I made minimum wage plus tips, which was more money than I knew what to do with; and all the girls liked me.
15. My second best job was delivering newspapers on the Pima Indian Reservation just outside of Phoenix, AZ. I had about 60 customers on the 55 mile route, had to brave dirt roads and stray dogs, and developed myriad and elaborate ways to launch newspapers out of my truck's open windows.
16. I've lived in Moline, IL; Phoenix, AZ; San Francisco, CA; Ashland, OR; Chicago, IL; but Portland, OR, where I now live, is my home.
17. Not long ago, I wrote my first short story in years, *The Move*, which is about Hote--the protagonist of both of my published novels--when he was sixteen. I'm currently looking for a magazine to publish it.
18. No Hote in Novel 3.
19. I have an unnatural fear of sharks, which stems from having seen *Jaws* when I was seven.
20. I can name every member of most every heavy metal band from the first half of the 1980s. Example: Scorpions' bass player? Francis Buchholz. Iron Maiden's drummer? Nico McBrain.
21. I knew I wanted to be an artist when I first heard REM in 1987. I knew I wanted to write novels when I first read *Slaughterhouse Five* in 1988.
22. I will always find the easiest way to do any menial task.
23. I'm probably more of a math person than you'd expect.
24. I can only get excited about clothes when they're second-hand.
25. I believe the most important parts of any band are its songs and its drummer, followed closely by the way the singer's voice sounds.
Yours in laying down the blog,
Art
Buy Ghost Notes
Buy Songs from Memory
Buy Stuck Outside of Phoenix
No comments:
Post a Comment