editing and mansions

I'm slowly making my way through the fourth draft of my novel. Last week I was pretty motivated, this week . . . well, not so much. Next week, I'll be in Montana, so I won't get anything done on it.

On Saturday, I played a wedding reception up in Midway. It was at a "house", but a better term would be mansion. It was flippin' huge! I want one. Anyway, it was designed with a Swiss traditional look, similar to a hotel I stayed in near the Matterhorn. It was cool. I need to start taking my camera with me to gigs so that I can take pictures of some of the more interesting venues I perform at.

Meanwhile, my wife and older daughters are at girls camp this week, leaving me with only the younger two at home during the day. Music lessons are kind of slow this month, too. July is always hard on lessons.

Fablehaven and Glenn Beck

Not too much is happening now. I submitted my short story and am currently reading a few books to improve my writing chops. Once I finish those, I'll tackle my two novels again. I find the writing part is easy, it's the editing that is hard. I'm also slowly reading Fablehaven 2, mainly for study. I carefully read each chapter and take notes on what the author (Brandon Mull) did to make it interesting and keep the story moving.

On Sunday, I was able to play tenor sax in a concert band at the Marriott Center in Provo. It was a patriotic meeting in conjunction with the Freedom Festival. Glenn Beck was the keynote speaker and he gave a marvelous talk. He was introduced by Stephen R. Covey. Michael Ballam also did a couple of musical numbers. As for my part, we played patriotic music, like Battle Hymn of the Republic, Americans We (or is that Wii?), and Stars and Stripes Forever. I've been playing a lot of jazz tenor lately, but this was the first time in about 6 years since I performed classically on it. The last time was playing a Prokofiev piece with the Anchorage Symphony.