Archived News 2009
December 29, 2009: I'm going to at some point put some samples up for you guys to read. I want to wait until my proofreader/editor goes through everything first, which may be a little bit. But it's on my mind to get a few things up there. Things are shaping up nicely, although I'm taking longer than I'd prefer (Isn't that usually the case?) Admittedly, you can't rush these things. I want to make a book that Butler, Iommi, Ward and Osbourne, not to mention the rest of you guys, would be proud to have on your shelves. The business of interpretation is an interesting one, and the more I delve into these lyrics, the more I find. What surprises me too is just how socially conscious, positive and spiritually profound many of these songs really were (even more than I had originally conceived), not to mention controversial (for their time and for now, although perhaps in different ways). Some of you might be wondering if I ever get sick of the songs and lyrics after two years of intensive studying, not to mention the twenty-six years prior of listening to Black Sabbath. But you know, I don't. I still really love listening to these albums and they continue taking me places like nothing else ever has. I have no doubt I'll be enjoying them for many, many years to come.
November 29, 2009: The second draft is complete. It'll get proofread and edited by an outside party before I begin the third and final draft. There's been some interesting developments as well that I can't yet discuss, as well as some challenges that'll have to be overcome as I move closer towards publishing. More details to come as the days push forward.
October 6th, 2009: Welcome onboard monster maestro, Aeron Alfrey! You can find samples of his work, as well as other works of wonder on the following sites: The Mutated Skeleton Cave, Exhibits from the Imaginary Museum, Monster Brains, Eaten by Ducks and Fantastic Animation! Enjoy!
October 1st, 2009: Two Oz-related packages came in the mail today, The Wizard of Oz Blu-Ray collection and Ozzy Osbourne's new autobiography, I Am Ozzy. I got around to checking out both, though I'll dispense with a review of the former. I was very really rather surprised by Ozzy's book! I've read every biography out there on Ozzy's life (and several times) to do research for my own, and knowing Ozzy's memory, I just wasn't expecting much beyond what we've read from interviews over the years. That'll teach me to prejudge. This thing is chock-full of new information! The chap who aided Ozzy in the writing of this really got the best out of Ozzy. I'm only in the 2nd chapter and there's dozens of recollections in here that you'll find nowhere else, and of the one's you've heard of, they're in far greater detail. And you'll hear 1st hand reactions to them. It's a vastly entertaining read as well, well-written in an easygoing style, and because it's Ozzy's life, it's an admixture of tragic, comic and tragicomic! I can see that about a 1/3 of the book is on Black Sabbath and Sabbath-related material, and already in the second chapter Ozzy's clarified one thing that the media's gotten wrong over the years. Iommi is always described as someone who bullied and beat up Ozzy during school. Not according to Ozzy! I'll be curious to see what else he rectifies!
September 20, 2009: Into the second draft, and things are progressing well. We can happily add the name of illustrator Pol Ledent to our esteemed list of artists! Check out his fantastic work here. Welcome aboard Pol! The book currently stands at the 400 page mark. Not too shabby, but there's still a lot of editing ahead, so let's see what that number becomes by the end of the second draft. One thing I've learned about proofreading and editing your own work is to give it distance and time. Coming to your own work again after having not seen it for a period of weeks or longer allows you to approach the material fresh, as though it wasn't your own. At any rate, I'll also be having it proofread by others prior to the third draft.
July 24, 2009: Tony Iommi is set to score an upcoming horror film from Mike Fleiss' (Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake, Hostel) new company Next Films. The movie will be called Black Sabbath, no relation to the Mario Bava film (originally called The Three Faces of Fear) or to the band. Iommi's instrumental work has always been brilliant, so even if the movie's not stellar, it'll be fantastic to hear an album's worth of new instrumental material.
July 23, 2009: Welcome aboard illustrator J.P. Targete to the family! You can check out his amazing work here! Update: This is proving to be a day a welcome! Illustrator Sean Hopp has also joined our team!! Check out his fantastic work here!
July 21, 2009: Ozzy will finally see his autobiography released in October of this year, which aught to be chock full of hilarious and harrowing tales from over the decades. While Ozzy's seen his share of criticism over the years, one thing that can't be denied is that he's lived a colorful life. The book will cover everything from his days as a young boy to the present. What's surprising about this book is that this isn't part one of a series! No US release date has been announced yet, but I'll keep an eye out. Should be a wild time!
July 20, 2009: Completed the 1st draft of the manuscript! Still a ways to go, and as those of you who've written know, there's a giant's world of difference between one's first and second drafts, but it's a landmark nonetheless. Meanwhile, the search for a publisher continues. Without an agent, I'm flying in the face of the wind, but there are still plenty of smaller publishing houses willing to take a look at unsolicited manuscripts. So far, I'm collecting some lovely written rejection letters, but I remain undaunted. As I have no problem self-publishing, it's nice to know there's a safety net upon which I can land. But for the sake of the customer, who's cost will be considerably lower if I secure an outside publisher, I'll continue to look and submit proposals for a time.
Speaking of time... If you have any to spare, Amazon.uk just recently released the new Deluxe Remasters of Black Sabbath and Master of Reality. The quality of these remasters is superb, and a far cry from the horribly overcompressed Rhino remasters, which due to the ear fatigue I get from listening to them, are going on Ebay soon (though I do like the black book of the Black Box, even if the lyrics aren't 100% correct). Aside from the stunning remaster quality that sounds hauntingly like the old LPs when they were new (minus the needle-on-record crackle), the bonus discs contain some real gems: "Lord of this World" with steel guitar completely changes the feel of the song, and is very cool, and how about a new track: "Weevil Woman" (no relation to "Evil Woman") is an unfinished recording from Master of Reality that sounds like it would've been a strong track had they chosen to finish it (and with the album at only 34 minutes, it's anybody's guess why they didn't). There's a lot of other goodies on here, including some fun behind-the-scenes banter that gives you the barest glimpse of what making these albums was like.