David S. McWilliams

April is for Salsa!

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Howdy, y’all,

I’ve got a nice slate of upcoming salsa gigs, both with Hecho a Mano and Orquesta Trabuko. It’s gonna be a good April!

First of all (and I’m just about to run out the door to this one), Hecho a Mano is playing tonight at our usual haunt, the Pangea Lounge. You know the drill — music at 9, dance lesson at 10, more music at 11 and until your feet get tired!

Tomorrow night I’m beyond excited to sit in with Orquesta Trabuko @ the San Antonio Gloria’s. It’ll be my first road trip with this band, and if you’re down South I’d love to hang.

Next week Hecho a Mano goes to a new venue — we got the call to fill the Thursday slot at the North Lamar Central Market. If you haven’t been there before, it’s one of the most family-friendly venues on the north side of town and has a great rotation of talent come through on a regular basis.

And finally, Hecho a Mano will be back at Pangea Lounge to finish out the month on the 27th.

Hope to see you out and about!

P.s. I’ve still got some room for beta readers on my most recent manuscript if you want to get on this list — shoot me an email or use the contact form.

Beta Readers Needed

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Do you enjoy detective novels?

Do you love science fiction?

Do you want to contribute to improving a work in progress?

I’m looking for beta readers for a 50k word manuscript. It’s a detective story set in the distant future:

Ethyll Pratchett is a half-cyborg private investigator trapped on the isolated planet of Klio. Wracked with guilt over her role in the incarceration of her partner, she takes on a sensitive case searching for the abducted wife of a high-ranking military officer. Immediately after taking the case, though, she barely survives a bomb attack on a crowded café and becomes one of the chief suspects in the investigation. When the bomber disappears into the same tea shop that the officer’s wife disappeared into, she realizes that the two cases must be somehow linked.

Before the end, she’ll have to face the decision that put her partner into prison, and the forces that are keeping her there…

If this sounds like something you’re interested in, let me know! I’m considering two different levels of beta reader:

1. I’ll send you the manuscript; you read as much or as little as you care to and provide feedback as you see fit. I’ll give you a few questions to prod your brain, but it’s up to you if you want to follow them or not.
2. If you feel like sci-fi and crime stories are your bread and butter, let me know. I’ll send you the manuscript along with a more detailed questionnaire, and we can talk about compensating you fairly for your time (I’m thinking around $30, but let’s talk. I’d also love to beta read one of your manuscripts in return if you’d prefer that).

I’ll be ready to send these out next week sometime, and I’d like to get the responses back by May 14th. If you’re interested, please drop me a line at davidsmcwilliams@gmail.com. Talk to you soon!

New Track Up: Juana Peña (in progress)

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Hey y’all, since we’re playing at Pangea tonight I wanted to share a track Hecho a Mano is working on:

https://soundcloud.com/hechoamanosalsa/juana-pena-v1

The roughs takes for this and four other tracks were squeezed into a three-hour period back in December, with the band crammed into a single room and everyone distinctly aware of what brand of deodorant their neighbors were wearing (that’s how you get that authentic sound, right?). What you can’t see is James bent nearly double, playing bell on the moña into a mic on the floor while trying not to let the alto hanging from his neck hit anything, or Will threading his slide between mic stands every time he brought his horn up to play. It was a good time.

The only thing we didn’t cut that day was José’s vocals — everything else you’re hearing live as if you were in there with us (but with less Old Spice). So yeah, it’s a little rough, a little bit raw, but the vibe is good and so I’m happy with it.

Upcoming SXSW Gigs

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SXSW descends on us once again … I’ve got five gigs lined up this next week with three different bands, and I’d love to see y’all!

Hecho a Mano is excited to (finally!) be returning to the Pangea lounge this Friday now that the weather’s warmed. We’ve got some new music ready for you–including originals–and as far as we know, the dance floor will be open and popping. I’ll be leading our ever-popular drink-as-you-learn beginner salsa lesson at 8pm, and then the music starts at 9pm!

Big Wy’s Brass Band is a familiar sight around Austin, and I am really excited to join them for their official SXSW showcase on the 13th. We’ll be joining the world-famous Preservation Hall Jazz Band on the 14th for a parade, too, so be sure not to miss that!

The Capitol is a new Austin funk project that’s doing some pretty cool stuff with original compositions. I’m one of the old men in this band (some of them can’t even drink yet?!?) which is a really strange feeling, but these dudes are bringing it. The Co-Op show is going to be a fun grungy mess and if that’s your thing you should definitely come dig it.

Friday March 9th
Hecho a Mano @ The Pangea Lounge
Salsa Dance Lesson: 8pm
Music: 9pm-11pm

Saturday March 10th
Big Wy’s Brass Band @ Empire Garage
Music: 8:30pm

Saturday March 10th
The Capitol @ New Guild Co-Op
Music 11pm-Midnight

March 13th
Big Wy’s Brass Band @ Empire Garage — Official SXSW Showcase!
Music: 8:30pm

March 14th
Big Wy’s Brass Band @ 6th/Congress — with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band!
Music: 5:30pm-ish

Enjoy SXSW and stay safe, y’all!

Upcoming Gigs! (And some new music)

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Busy week ahead!

First, you can catch Hecho a Mano live this Thursday at Sabor Colombia on 6th street from 8-10. Facebook event here: https://www.facebook.com/events/310039482814650/?ti=as

If you missed us on Thursday, we’ll be just down the street on Friday at band-favorite Pangea Lounge from 9-11. Facebook event TBA.

And I’m extremely excited to be subbing with Austin’s own Orchesta Trabuko on Saturday night at Gloria’s in The Domain. That’s a late set, 11-2 (!) and the Facebook event is here: https://www.facebook.com/events/2016518718632202/?ti=as

Finally, the good stuff: we’ve got a new track up from Hecho a Mano’s gig last Saturday. It was our first gig with the new sound board, and we’re really happy with how it turned out. Keep in mind that this is the rawest of raw cuts–literally just my stereo recorder sitting on top of a crate in the audience–but the energy is so good I wanted to get it out there. Here it is:

Enjoy, and see you this week!

On The “Liberals Don’t Respect The President” Meme

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“Do you believe that Donald Trump and Barack Obama deserve the same amount of respect?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because they are both presidents of the United States.”

“So we should afford them respect because they chose to run, and win, the presidency? We should respect them because they took this action?”

“Yes.”

“Can we then say, more broadly, that we should afford people respect based on the actions that they take?”

“Yes.”

“Both Barack Obama and Donald Trump have taken actions other than becoming president. Should we also consider these actions when deciding how much respect to give them?”

“…”

“Moreover, as these actions have been very different from one another, is it possible that these two men should then be afforded differing levels of respect?”

“…”

“Finally, is it then possible that Donald Trump’s actions have led him to be deserving of a different level of respect from, say, Colin Kaepernick, than Barack Obama?”

“… … really I just meant that people should respect anyone in a position of power, because I’m one of the 30% of individuals in any given society who harbors a subconscious inclination toward authoritarian hierarchy and I needed a rhetorical prop to beat up on liberals with.”

In The Austin Chronicle

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My writeup about Zach Weinersmith’s panel is in The Austin Chronicle:

https://www.austinchronicle.com/daily/arts/2017-11-05/texas-book-festival-2017-soonish-a-funny-future-of-technology/

Zach Weinersmith on Writing

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Zach Weinersmith (of Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal fame) was here in Austin for the Texas Book Festival this morning. His talk dealt mostly with Soonish, but at the end there were a few interesting nuggets about his creative process.

  1. Zach reads 3-5 books a week when he’s not on a promotional tour.
  2. The reliability of the comic comes from setting aside an hour every day to write, even if that time is spent staring at a blank page.
  3. When stuck, it’s vital to read something that’s difficult for you to understand.

He expanded on these a bit at the signing.  I’m paraphrasing, but:

“Some people say they read a lot, but it’s all fantasy and science fiction.  That’s fine, but maybe go back 200 years to the source material that those things come from.”

Good News, And Bad News

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Hey y’all,

Good news first: I’ve finished compiling my beta feedback for the new manuscript.

The bad news?  It needs a near-complete rewrite.  I’m hoping to have the next draft done by the end of 2016.  To make up for it in some small measure, I’d like to talk briefly about the biggest thing that’s broken in this manuscript.  Hopefully that will keep someone else from making the same mistakes that I have.

The external genre of this story is action, and every action story needs three things:

  1. A hero
  2. A villain
  3. A victim

To reduce an action story its most simplistic, the hero risks all to keep the villain from harming the victim.

I have a hero and a villain in the manuscript, but my only real victim figure is rescued at the end of act I.  Without a solid victim, the hero and the villain have no reason to come into conflict, and so the rest of the manuscript feels contrived and flat.  I’ve had to rely on coincidences and unrealistic grudges to keep the hero and the villain in conflict with one another.  Why should the hero bother fighting the villain when there’s nothing at stake?

There’s no easy fix here except rethinking the victim role entirely.

Thanks a ton to my beta readers for helping me figure out what’s going right (and wrong) with the new book!

Scene Sheet for “The Name of the Wind”

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Those of you with an analytical bent may find this interesting.  Here’s my scene sheet for Patrick Rothfuss’s hit first book, The Name of the Wind:

The Name of the Wind Scene Sheet

I’ve been working from Shawn Coyne’s book The Story Grid, and a big part of his analytical method is breaking books down into their component scenes.  I spent about a week doing this for TNotW; a few conclusions:

  • Lots of short scenes, particularly in the beginning.  They get broader and deeper as he goes, which I think is his writing style maturing as he works through the book.
  • Plenty of quick scenes where nothing happens.  You’d think this is a no-no, right?  And for a crime thriller, it probably would be . . . but Rothfuss is writing a fantasy epic.  They’re short, usually funny, and generally clever enough that the book would be lesser without them despite the fact that (from a strictly plotting-perspective) they’re unnecessary.  It’s a thrill to see a master break the rules and be able to recognize it for what it is.
  • These same quick scenes also serve to keep the reader invested in the frame story after we’ve had 200 pages of flashback.  Good to remember that particular trick.
  • Mapping the value shifts points out the main conflicts of the book.  The most dire moments concern the Life/Death axis, as should be expected . . . but there are very few Life/Death scenes in the book.  They’re vastly outnumbered by conflicts on the Poverty/Wealth axis and the Love/Loneliness axis.  This is a valuable lesson in varying one’s sources of conflict; Kvothe’s moments of deathly peril would be much less intense if he was fighting for his life all the time.
  • Related to this point is the fact that antagonists and villains are not the same thing.  The people and forces that Kvothe spends the vast majority of his time in conflict with are not the antagonists.  He barely even sees the Chandrian, even though we know that the final conflict must inevitably be with them, but he spends most of the book fighting with Ambrose, trying to stay solvent, and trying to find Denna.  I’ve decided to call this the Snape/Voldemort principle.
  • I have a hunch as to the theme of the series: “We become what we believe we are.”
  • Names are important, obviously, and so it’s important that Denna keeps changing her name.  Students of Joseph Campbell will quickly recognize the “shapeshifter” archetype.
  • Kvothe is the mother of all Mary Sues and I don’t even care.

More thoughts to come, but I think that’s enough for now.  I’m thinking about which book to do next, and I’ll be continuing my focus on the Fantasy Epic genre.  Suggestions welcome in the comments, of course.