Someday I won’t turn everything I do into some sort of art project. However, today is not that day.

These are the liner notes for Bone Walker. See? Special paper, custom cutting, typesetting – everything is a blinkin’ art project. XD

We’ve decided to go ahead and included the “(Original Soundtrack)” like CD Baby suggested. This means we’re in the very end of pre-order for the CD, so if you want a chance at the test disc as a bonus, pre-order right now. We only have one test disc, and this is your only chance of getting it. ^_^

Talking of CD Baby, we’ve sent in approval for general distribution. The album won’t go live on iTunes, et al, for a bit still – it takes a while for things to fall through all the systems. But we should be generally live by the end of the month. Anna’s also finishing up the technical release of Bone Walker, the novel; it’s up for pre-order on Amazon, with other links to follow. You can also talk about it on Goodreads, if you’re one of the lucky pre-order/pre-release people.

And, as always, if you’ve seen any commentary on Bone Walker, the soundtrack? Throw us a link. We really want to hear what people have to say. Thanks!

So CD Baby put “(Original Soundtrack)” onto the end of the Bone Walker album title. If you know nothing about any of this project, does that make you more or less likely to look at it when browsing?

My thoughts are that on one hand, it’s an atypical marker and thus distinctive, which is a plus. But on the other hand, most people won’t know what it’s a soundtrack for, and may skip over it on that basis.

They did it on their own and seem to think it’s better to have it, but I can have it pulled. What do you think? Are you more or less likely to look at something that says “(Original Soundtrack)” if you don’t know the thing it’s a soundtrack for?

Meanwhile, on the novel side, Anna just posted good news: Bone Walker (the novel) is now on Amazon for pre-order. She also has MOBI and EPUB versions ready for proofreading/testing – go look at her blog post for details on both.

And since I posted late in the day yesterday; in order not to make the Kickstarter backers wait any longer, we’ve gone ahead with a soft release of Bone Walker the album on Bandcamp only. The general release will wait until closer to the release event, but we didn’t want to make Kickstarter people wait any longer than they have already.

We’ve seen one or two public comments already – if you see any more, post in comments? That’d be really helpful. Thanks!

So Bone Walker is genuinely ready to go in download form. We’re holding the full release (iTunes, CD Baby, all that) until the book is ready too, closer to the CD release show at Conflikt.

HOWEVER! We realised over the weekend that since we are ready, it’s unfair to keep it back from the Kickstarter backers who have been waiting so long. And since the easiest way to get that sorted was to hand it out through Bandcamp, we’re gone ahead and made the Bandcamp edition LIVE.

Final Wraparound Cover

Yep, THE BANDCAMP VERSION OF BONE WALKER IS COMPLETE AND DOWNLOADABLE NOW. You can also still pre-order CDs, and one of you who pre-order the physical CD will get the little bonus we mentioned before. If you pre-ordered the CD already, you should have mail and download codes in your inboxes.

We aren’t ramping this monster up through the roof yet – the big event will be the book and album at the same time, and all that, and there’ll be the show and it will be awesome, like y’do. But the Kickstarter people have been incredibly patient, and sitting on it another couple of weeks just seemed rude.

It would be really nice if you post a review or comments if you let us know. That would be really excellent of you.

So remember the guest post that Jeff Bohnhoff wrote for the Studio Buildout Series of articles I posted while building out my studio?

Jeff has his own blog now for his own studio, and yesterday he put up a really good and extensive build report on his latest round of studio room conditioning, including a lot of details on building really large and pro-style sound baffles. They look spectacular and if you have any interest in home recording or sound control in a room, you should go look at it. It’s great.

Advance Review Copies of Bone Walker went out last night and we already have an awesome surprise that I can’t talk about yet. But I will, later. so exciting

The disc is approved. NEXT!

We just signed off on the master (with one small CD-TEXT modification, but that’s nothing). SHIP PARTY AT CONFLIKT! EVERYBODY SHOW UP OK!

The test master CD for Bone Walker should arrive today from Mark Yoshida, our mastering engineer in Memphis.

The musicianship on this is amazing.

–Mark Yoshida, on the phone, last night

I’ve never worked with Mark before but he works for much bigger fish than us in Memphis, a music capital, so he knows from what, and apparently, this is what. eeeeeee so excited

eta: It got here. THE PLAYTESTING HAS COMMENCED!

Heavy weekend of graphic design and editing here at Supervillain Studios. Particularly the editing – Anna got through the last sweep of Bone Walker the novel today.

The CD case we’re using for Bone Walker the album is wraparound-style! It’s also damn near indestructible. It comes from Australia, so that’s undoubtedly why. But it also means we can do new things with the art:

There’ll be a little booklet on the inside again too, with thanks and liner notes and all the usual. This thing is becoming physical, it’s turning into an object. (An object that, I remind you, you can pre-order. You’ll have a good shot at an extra present, too.) The album is starting to manifest.

…and the book is not far behind. Pre order now, because pretty soon, it won’t be a pre-order anymore.

I’m mostly doing graphic design today. But enjoy some nature photos from hatsumode 2015. More at Flickr as usual, but I liked these two particularly.

Well, it’s 2015, and I’m writing this as the fireworks are still going off around me and downtown; I didn’t go, I’ve been too busy working on all the tune parts for the live Bone Walker release party/concert at Conflikt at the end of the month.

It’s hard work, too. I have a little secret that isn’t very secret: I am not a natural tunes player, and, this being the trad album, there’re a lot of tunes in it. They were by far the most difficult part of the album, and they’ll be the most difficult thing to perform live, and even though I’ll be kind of miked down a bit on mandolin, I still need to get it right.

Seriously, though; rhythm parts: 10 minutes to learn. Melody on flute: maybe 20. Sung parts: 10-15 minutes, and I’ll make new parts. Tunes: weeks. No idea why. It’s such an outlier that Anna has incorporated it into the Free Court universe, in the background, as part of the way magic works; traditional Irish tunes and the Sidhe magics don’t get along, and that’s on purpose.

But I’ll manage, I always do.

Perhaps coincidentally, the Space Needle is currently fireworking Newfoundland colours. I’m not even making that up. Newfoundland Liberation Army, represent.

I’ve seen people say that 2014 flew by; not for me. For me it felt kind of endless; 2013 seems so long ago. 2014 certainly had some personal lows; two more rounds of eye surgery, including – hopefully – the last one; way too much hanging out at home (recovering) and studio (recording). But it had highs, too – the most successful nwcMUSIC to date, actually finishing the Bone Walker project (preorder OK!) and y’know what, I’m going to say it again:

Korrasami is canon and nothing hurts.

No, seriously, see… here’s yet another level of it. There’s this longstanding trope of having queer couples who end up dead, or in tragedy. I mean, sure, mostly we don’t exist, but if we do: tragedy or death. Not cake or death; tragedy or death. We get one or the other, and sometimes both. Mercedes Lackey did it, for example; big three-book queer love story; one ends up dead, and gets reincarnated (without memories), so he can fall back in love with the survivor… who then dies. Tragedy and death twice in one trilogy! It’s amazing.

Similarly, as much as I love Revolutionary Girl Utena, it did it too, more or less. Maybe Utena still exists; maybe Anthy will find Utena; we don’t know. (In the manga, she doesn’t, but the anime is different in many ways.) At the time, I was really angry about it, because it hit that same trope after teasing us with better; even though she’s not dead (or so it’s implied), they’re still ending apart, as stories say you must, if you’re queer.

Elfquest, too. Dart’s boyfriend Shushen? Introduced and dead in two issues. Boom.

Basically, as a rule, queers don’t get to go off into the sunset together, in fiction. That’s historically not for us. For us: tragedy and/or separation, often through death.

Until now.

I can’t overstate how much that changes the world. It may not seem like much to people who are used to having it. But in a desert, even a teacup’s worth becomes an ocean of water. And for that, I can forgive a lot about 2014.

We face 2015 with a whole new world. Gear up, everybody – let’s see what it brings.