In celebration of barbershop quartet day, here’s a record of my midnight revelries with the North and South Carolinas District convention in Myrtle Beach 2013.
Category Archives: Video
Radio Interview – Strange Vacation
What kind of wacky person writes a comedy novel about assisted suicide vacations? And who names the main character Berf?
Five years ago on Writing on the Air I talked about the article I read ten years ago that inspired Strange Vacation (and Endless Vacation).
Radio Interview – Indie Publishing
Part 3 of highlights from my January, 2015 Writing on the Air interview. We talk about indie publishing, screenwriting, and story structure. On a stick.
Radio Interview – Open Season
Remember when I read 38 novels to prepare for writing Open Season?
Find out why in this highlight reel from the Writing on the Air interview in January, 2015.
Radio Interview – The Fred Books
Did you hear the one about how I got tricked into writing Postcards from Fred?
Check out highlights from my interview on Writing on the Air in January, 2015.
Breaking Radio Silence Redux
It’s been over two years since I’ve talked about my books on the radio, and I’ve written a few hundred thousand words since then, but the long national nightmare is finally over.
Tune into KOOP FM 91.7 (or online at koop.org) at 6 pm CST on Wednesday 1/28/2015 to hear me discussing Postcards from Fred and Open Season on the program Writing on the Air.
To hold you over, here are some highlights from the 2009 show.
Breaking Radio Silence
It’s been over two years since I’ve talked about my books on the radio, and I’ve written a few hundred thousand words since then, but the long national nightmare is finally over.
Tune into KOOP FM 91.7 (or online at koop.org) at 6 pm CST on Wednesday 1/28/2015 to hear me discussing Postcards from Fred and Open Season on the program Writing on the Air.
To hold you over, here are some highlights from the 2012 show.
Jamming with Julie and Buddy Miller in 1982
I finally got around to digitizing a box of old cassettes and found this little gem recorded with Julie and Buddy Miller. It’s not a great song. In fact, it’s unequivocally lame, but on this night 32 years ago it was my newest effort. I like to think my songwriting has improved since then.
In 1981, Julie Griffin left her band in NY and returned to Waco, TX, where I met her through a common friend. When my band played a gig at the fair, Julie played 3 songs to open for us.
Several months later, Buddy Miller came down to Texas looking for his lead singer and girlfriend. In January of 1982, Julie and Buddy invited my family over for dinner and afterward we broke out the guitars and swapped songs. I hit record on a jambox before we started.
I don’t have the rights to post the recordings of their material, which included How Could You Say No, but I can post one of the songs I wrote that they sat in on, Julie singing background vocals with my wife, and Buddy playing lead guitar.
And also the fun part—some interaction from the Number One Son on the front end.
Postal Recycling
“You know what I like about Tuesday?” I said.
“It’s not Monday?” the Number One Son responded.
“It’s when the junk mail comes.”
“Ah. Why didn’t I think of that?”
“There’s more.”
“I can hardly wait.”
“It’s also when they pick up the recycle.”
“Well, there’s a mercy.”
“Yes, and an efficiency.”
Characters from Fred: Vernon Crowley
At the beginning of this millennium, I expanded a series of short stories into the Fred books. Jake was in the short stories, but as I fleshed out the story of Living with Fred, I wanted another way into Jake’s story, and Vernon Crowley was born.
In the Texas singer/songwriter tradition there is what I call “the old man” song. I drew my inspiration for Vernon from these two classic songs of the genre.
Desperados Waiting for a Train
Lyrics
Pontiac
Lyrics
A few days after Christmas 2003 I woke up at 3 a.m. and after an hour or so realized I wasn’t going to get back to sleep. I sneaked out of bed, into my office, and started writing Living with Fred. I didn’t start at the beginning. I wrote the scene where Mark Cloud meets Vernon Crowley.
After a few pages I realized I needed to know a whole lot more about Vernon before I could write him with any degree of authenticity. Months of binge-watching WWII documentaries and devouring a dozen or so books from the library of first-person accounts of the European campaign followed.
I ended up with one of my favorite Fred characters. A few years later I wrote a song of my own, The One That Got Away. It’s the first one in this video.
Who’s your favorite Fred character?