Good Stuff! 3 Remakes That Will Go Down Into Your Bones

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Sometimes a remake of a song is better than the original. Or if not better, different and equally as good. I have three that I think fit that bill.

First is a mix of “The House of the Rising Sun” by The Animals and “Amazing Grace.” It was sung by Jerry Lawson and the Talk of the Town on NBC’s The Sing-Off, which used to be one of the best music competitions on TV. It was all voice, all a’capella, and the things some of the groups did were simply amazing. But then NBC decided to shorten it all into a one-night competition and basically ruined it by removing the multi-week build of the competition and, more importantly, letting us get to know the groups and hearing a range of songs. Oh, well. At least we got this. Turn up your speakers and let it fill you.

You can get the single here on Amazon.

The next is a remake of “Go Down, Moses” by The Lower Lights, who have taken this old choral and infused it with a new folk, soul, revival-style groove that makes me think this is probably how the song was originally sung.

Every time I hear it, it goes down into my bones and calls forth this desire to sing. You can get it here on Amazon.

The last is a remake of “Glorious” by Stephanie Mabey. This one was part of Meet the Mormons and sung by David Archuleta.

You can get the exclusive free download of the single here.

 

Calendar updates

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I’ve added a number of entries to the calendar, including three conferences I plan on attending.

I know I’ll be presenting at the first two. The title and description of the League of Utah Writers presentation are:

TITLE: The Secret to Getting Story Ideas

DESCRIPTION: How to stop generating great story ideas by accident and start generating them on purpose, whenever you need them.

I don’t know what I’ll do for LTUE. I might do a repeat of the “The Secret to Getting Story Ideas,” or I might do something on how to write scenes or how genre is the key to plot. Stay tuned!

Date & Time Event Location Notes
Right now Writing Office It’s all for you, Dear Reader
2015, Summer Release of Awful Intent, a Frank Shaw novel All major online retail venues The date is not firm.
2015, Aug 28-29 League of Utah Writers Fall Conference Logan, UT League of Utah Writers
2016, Winter Release of Hard Target, a Frank Shaw novel All major online retail venues The date is not firm.
2016, Feb 11-13 Life, the Universe & Everything Provo, UT LTUE website
2016, May LDStorymakers Conference Provo, UT LDStorymakers website
2016, Summer Release of Glory: The Dark God Book 4 All major online retail venues The date is not firm.

Awful Intent Update: Chapter 26

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I have now moved from the struggle into the resolution. It’s all down hill from here.  I expect the novel to be 70-80k words. The shortest novel I’ve written yet. But I always seem to add on most of my revisions. I hope to keep it shorter, but we’ll see.

Now you may ask, hey, how does that compare with other thrillers? Well, here are the lengths of a few of James Patterson’s.

Title Words
Honeymoon 65,572
4th of July 68,000
Lifeguard 71,634
Mary, Mary 72,426
Judge and Jury 74,288
Doublecross 70,753

And here are some more by some other authors.

Author Title Words
Lee Child Gone Tomorrow 146,000
Lee Child One Shot 124,000
Lee Child Killing Floor 162,000
Lee Child Persuader 164,000
Michael Connelly The Brass Verdict 145,000
Ridley Pearson Cut and Run 114,000
Robert Crais The Watchman 82,000
Robert Crais Taken 84,000
Robert Crais The First Rule 76,000
Robert Crais The Sentry 82,000
Brad Thor Full Black 117,000
Brad Thor Athena Project 102,000
Dean Koontz The Good Guy 93,000
Dean Koontz The Husband 94,000

Awful Intent Update: Chapter 23

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You’ll notice that the progress meter for Awful Intent is slowly rising. I just finished the first draft of chapter 23. The meter says I’m almost 75% of the way done. But I’m thinking I might need an extra six chapters to finish this tale. We’ll see. The number of chapters I estimate I’ll have is always, well, an estimate. But we are moving forward.  The next chapter is where we get the next step in the mystery which leads to the big twist in the chapter after that which ratchets up the stakes.

And for those of you wondering about the Far-Fetched Fables production of “From The Clay of His Heart,” they usually do two stories in an episode. But my story was too big to be paired with another big story, so they have moved the story “to the June 2nd (the first available spot on our schedule).”

Good Stuff! 2 Sauces You Don’t Want to Miss

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What have the Dutch got that we ain’t got?

Well, besides signs like this.

geenhondenpoepopdestoep

Which is frequently accompanied by the words “Geen Honden Poep Op De Stoep”(no dog poop on the sidewalk).

I’ll tell you what they have—easy access to sambal oelek (SAHM-bal OO-lek). Sambal oelek is Indonesian for “dang good chili paste.”


 SambalOelek

And why I started this post with the dog sign, I don’t know. Probably not the best lead in for food. But put that out of your mind now.

You have avoided the dog, and are now sitting down to a delicious meal. And it’s been made even more delicious because you used sambal oelek. “Sambal” means something like “condiment” or “sauce.” There are a lot of different sambals, of course.  Oelek refers to a type of Indonesian stone mortar and pestle used to grind things. So a rough translation is ground sauce.

And this sauce/paste is awesome. Now, I’m not a spicy foods guy. In fact, whenever we eat out, and I’m asked how spicy I want my food, I always choose mild. I hate super spicy food. But sometimes a little spice can transform a dish.

You want to perk up your stir fry? Sambal oelek.

You want to refresh your scrambled eggs? Sambal oelek.

You want to try a new kind of PBJ? Sambal oelek.

A spicy PBJ? Oh, baby.

I was introduced to this BPJ when I was on my mission in the Netherlands. BTW, it’s not by accident I became of fan of Indonesian food while on my mission. Indonesia used to be a Dutch colony, and so there are tons of Indonesians there. For almost a year, I lived in rooms rented out of the houses of Indonesian landladies who cooked our lunches or dinners for us.

So one day I watched one of my fellow missionaries spread sambal onto a piece of bread, then follow with peanut butter and a touch of jelly. At the time, I was grossed out. Then I tried it.

Have you ever had satay? It’s the Thai and Indonesian version of BBQ. It usually comes with this marvelous spicy-sweet peanut butter sauce. If you have, you know you love it. And this, well, this is what you call the sambal PBJ variation of satay.

If you like Thai, you’ll love this stuff.

So where did I find it?

World Market.

And if you don’t have one close, you can get it on Amazon. Yeah.

But, wait. There’s another mild hot sauce that you don’t want to miss.

My two daughters just returned from their missions. One went to Kentucky. At the end of her mission, she was teamed up with one Sister Barajas from Mexico and assigned to work Spanish-speaking folks. And Sister Barajas introduced her to Cholula.

Cholula

Heavenly Cholula. Not too spicy. No weird taste like Tobasco.

You want to perk up your stir fry? Cholula.

You want to refresh your scrambled eggs? More Cholula.

You want to try a new kind of PBJ? I don’t know. I haven’t tried that yet. But it’s good on steamed veggies. Good just about anywhere you want a fine little zing.

Where can you find it?

Walmart.

How easy is that.

If you like mild spice, the little bottle with a wooden top is going to become your friend.

Okay, so what if you don’t like sauces?

cafe_zupas

How about a great soup and sandwich. Here’s the freebie recommendation. If you live close to a Cafe Zupas (Arizona, Idaho, Nevada, Utah), try to new Roasted Veggie and Quinoa soup along with a sandwich. I had the California Turkey. It was delicious. It comes with a little bit of French bread and a chocolate dipped strawberry.

Life is good.