Sword-and-sorcery and heavy metal are among a small handful of my great passions. I write about these and other related topics on my blog, The Silver Key (https://thesilverkey.blogspot.com/). Flame and Crimson: A History of Sword-and-Sorcery (2020, Pulp Hero Press) is my first book. I'm working on a second book, a heavy metal memoir.
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Arcane Arts: Dispatches From The Silver Key
Published 7 days ago • 4 min read
Dispatches from the silver key
Arcane Arts
My jam is reading and writing, analyzing art, and sharing cool things. But today I'm not doing these things. Instead I’m neck-deep in production, the mechanics of creating and publishing a book.
On Sunday I spent +/- 6 hours importing and formatting text. And then another couple hours Monday. Not fun, but necessary.
And rewarding in its own way.
Growing Up Metal has migrated from .docx files on my One Drive to formatted chapters in the Reedy publishing platform. There is something inspiring about seeing chapter titles with a proper headline template applied, and text that’s not arial in proper paragraph breaks with a formal, print-ready look. I’m looking at something that approximates the layout of a real book, not an unfinished draft on a personal computer.
But there’s more to do. Always more to do.
I have to create the copyright page and some back matter. I’m including a few photographs from various stages of my heavy metal life. These need to be reasonably placed and imported into a collage template, for which I’m using a program called Canva.
Then I’ll be exporting the book and purchasing an ISBN number as I prepare for publishing on Amazon.
You might call today’s issue the Arcane Arts of self-publishing.
Because this is all so tedious and technical I’m balancing it out with a cover countdown. Here are some unused designs from the cover designer, and a little about why I didn’t pick them.
A bit too clever by half... I liked the Spinal Tap allusion but it took me a while to realize those were my ages on the dial, as covered in the book.
This was clean and sharp and I liked it... but I don't play the guitar and this sort of implies that. My daughter Hannah said the same.
I almost went with this one! Love the concept, one I had suggested, but I ultimately opened door no. 4.
I shall reveal the final cover next issue.
All heavy metal, all the time
It's going to be a very metal September.
I’m going to see Iron Maiden twice next month: Saturday Sept. 5 at the Sports Illustrated Stadium in Harrison, New Jersey, then Wednesday, Sept. 9 at the TD Garden in Boston.
I’ve seen Maiden a lot. At least 13 times, possibly more. They are IMO either the best heavy metal band of all-time or second to Judas Priest, flip a coin.
I never miss them when they tour. Typically I only see them once but I have a friend in New Jersey and another in MA who both wanted to go. I couldn’t let either down. And, to paraphrase “Somewhere in Time,” Time is Not On Maiden’s Side. This might be their last go-round.
Expect some type of review and maybe a few pics in an upcoming issue.
Full Whitesnake concert
Algorithms are designed to keep our attention fixed on our gleaming screens and so usually work. Sometimes they overdeliver. YouTube fed me an upload of an entire Whitesnake concert recorded on August 12, 1984 in Tokorozawa, Japan. I clicked. And wound up watching the entire one hour and four-minute performance.
This was akin to stepping back in time, into the former half of the 80s. I would have been 11 and not a metalhead in August 1984. This show was prior to Whitesnake’s smash-hit self-titled 1987 solo album so you get songs you wouldn’t ordinarily hear. They’re rawer and less polished then you might expect, if you’ve only see the Whitesnake of “In the Still of the Night,” but no less excellent. David Coverdale and co. sound great here.
Metal Party planning
I’m hosting a heavy metal themed party at my house on Sept. 19, featuring a live band in my living room. I must have the metal memoir done by then so I can give away a few copies and maybe create the best book trailer ever. I recently confirmed the time the band, Wildside, will be playing: 7:30-10 p.m.
Yes, I’m half nuts for doing this.
Ron Finn, lead singer of Wildside, with whom I've been exchanging emails about setup times, in my living room.
White was a lifelong fan who followed his enthusiasms wherever they led him—and they led him to some fascinating places. He published his first fanzine at the age of 15, and in 1968 he won the Hugo award for Best Fan Writer. He went to fan cons, organized fan cons, and was the guest of honor at fan cons. His love of music led him to become a jazz critic, and his love of science fiction and comics led him to become a novelist. He was the editor of the science fiction magazine Amazing Stories for almost ten years and of Heavy Metal for a year. Wherever it led him, fandom remained an important part of his life.
Here’s a prior piece I wrote on Fantastic for DMR Books, "A Fantastic Chapter for Conan and Sword-and-Sorcery." White (editor of Fantastic from June 1969-January 1979) returned the magazine’s focus to original fiction, with a renewed emphasis on sword-and-sorcery.
Sword-and-sorcery and heavy metal are among a small handful of my great passions. I write about these and other related topics on my blog, The Silver Key (https://thesilverkey.blogspot.com/). Flame and Crimson: A History of Sword-and-Sorcery (2020, Pulp Hero Press) is my first book. I'm working on a second book, a heavy metal memoir.
Dispatches from the silver key Arcane Arts As noted in last week’s issue of Arcane Arts I had some difficult decisions to make regarding the cover of Growing Up Metal. I engaged a cover designer and he sent me four treatments, three of which I liked but had to dismiss. Spinal Tap volume dial: A bit too plain and a bit too clever. Guitar: Clean look, great font, but implies I play the instrument. Average dude with silhouette of guitar hero—near perfect, nearly the cover. But I could only pick...
Dispatches from the silver key Arcane Arts It’s time. This week I begin formatting the manuscript of Growing Up Metal, the next step on the path to publication on Amazon. Having never done this I’m feeling the usual trepidation of the unknown. But I’m committed. Write, publish, and market is the reality of authorship in the 21st century. I knew pretty early on I was going to go the self-publishing route. Last year I sent a half-dozen formal inquires (proposals, synopsis, sample chapter, etc.)...
Dispatches from the silver key Arcane Arts The writing on Growing Up Metal is done. (there’s your title reveal, Arcane Arts readers!) Outside of some copyediting and formatting that will occur during layout, the writing portion of my heavy metal memoir is finished. I made the final tweaks to chapter 11 Monday night. It’s as good as it is going to be. (flashes devil horns) I will have a lot more to say in the coming months. For now, just know that nearly 4 years of thought and effort and sweat...
