It’s not easy creating a new word to describe a piece of art that you want to showcase to the world.  But why do you want to showcase anything to the world to begin with?  This synical, over-analytical, waiting-for-you-to-fuck-up world, anyway?  Simple.  To connect.  To connect with people that still give a shit.  Sure, you’ve got your family (well, the sane-members at least) to connect with, and you’ve got your true friends (well, the one’s who’ve seen you fall and still believe in you).  But it’s never enough, is it.  You always want to know, what else is out there?  Who else is out there, like me?  And let’s not forget that an artistic connection can connect you to people in the world even after you die.

Whoops…  Too deep, too soon…  I’ll move forward.

As we continue our present search for “what else”, we contribute little offerings to the universe, in the hope that it will give greater meaning to our daily lives.  Some of us paint.  Some of us play music.  Some of us practice law.  Some of us program.  Some of us deliver.  Some of us graphic design.  Some of us teach.  Some of us hug trees.  Some of us serve coffee.  Some of us crunch numbers.  Some of us manage companies.  Some of us take our clothes off.  Some of us dig holes. 
I write.

And so… (Here it comes) I just spent the best part of three years writing my first fiction novel.  It’s a speculative fiction novel (okay – it sits somewhere in between Science Fiction and Fantasy) about a guy named Nudge who is the only Human on Earth to be given a green light from a higher power to unconditionally rid the world of dickheads.  Imagine that.  Imagine having that sort of power.  Not hurting innocent people, but the people you are absolutely sure are dickheads, beyond the shadow of a doubt, you can delete them from existence, saving yourself and everybody else in the world from future unwanted hardship and pain.  Rid the world of these dastardly oxygen-thieves.  And you never make a mistake because you are thorough with your research.  You target evil people who inflict pain on others. You take your research seriously.  You stand by it.
Maybe this is what Scientologists think?
Anyway.  It’s what my character Nudge thinks, but it takes him a while to become this way…  which is explained in the novel. It’s nice work if you can get it, taking-out-dickheads, at least, according to Nudge.

The novel is called Silverbirch; A Tear in the Fabric of the Night Sky.  (Come on, I told you it was coming!!) And yes, for the record, I realize I am sell, sell, selling my bloody novel to you at this point, but I’ve paid my dues.  And if I don’t tell you about it, at least initially, then who’s gonna? My publicist? Ha! Not bloody likely. You’ll probably think her emails are spam. But don’t worry, I’m not some pretty eighteen year old with a wealthy Mummy and Daddy either, paying for my stuff to be “distributed“.  I have “LIVED” long enough and hard enough to build my character in a way that enables me to spew out the odd gem or two onto my computer screen.
It has NOT been easy.
I think I’ve got something to say.
I used to do it through music…  you know, connect.  Now I do it through stories.
I’ve learned by my mistakes, instead of by trusting my elders.  And in that way, I’ve got a few opinions on life I would like to voice, through my novels. I already told you, I’ve paid my dues, and in this particular case I just spent THREE FUCKING YEARS, SEVEN DAYS A WEEK writing this novel and am currently turning it into a MYRIC (Nice segway!), which is a whole other nightmare in itself.  Lucky for me, it’s a nightmare I enjoy.

“What’s a myric?” I hear you speak softly, but out-loud.

A Myric is a term that me and my lawyer created last week, eating Indian food at our bi-monthly lunch meeting in Como, Western Australia.  I was telling Andrew about how I wanted to do an audio version of my book but was insanely bored by doing a cliche audiobook.  He suggested I use my music background (yes, I told you – I’ve paid my dues – I was a professional rock star for ten years – I got signed to a major record label and everything, and…  that’s a whole other story…) …  yeah, he said to use my music background and my love of lyric and novel writing to create a new way to audibly tell my story.

Well, I tried.  And I did the first chapter and showed it to him.
And Andrew called it a “Myrical” – explaining its possible meaning to be, “a collaboration of music and lyrics/words to communicate to the people.”  But secretly, maybe he was letting me know he thought I finally created something in the past 5 years that didn’t suck.
“Not bad”, I replied, but said, “What about calling it a “Myric” (acting like a genius and trying to steal his thunder), meaning, “a musical and lyrical story?”
“Not bad,” he replied, but “for me the description should be communicating through a combination of music and lyrics or words in a unique way.”
“Not bad,” I said, and settled for this version, without asking him for any further opinions… (good way not to get shot-down)

A MYRIC is an audible way to communicate a story using a combination of music and lyrics.

Sure, maybe it’s just a glamorized podcast or audiobook … but fuck it, it’s the word I’m using to describe the audible versions of my novels.  From now, on.  And hopefully, they’re not just boring old audiobooks.

The word is MYRIC, and that’s what I’m creating, so get used to it.

MYRIC!!!!!  MYRIC, MYRIC, myric…

Whoa…

And with that…  You can listen to the first Silverbirch Myric for free, as a podcast at the iTunes store, if you search for SILVERBIRCH or, more simply, (because we are, after all – very basic creatures at heart) you can just click on this link —> Silverbirch Myric

The lyrics/words come directly from the novel, while the sound effects are created as I go.  Most of the music parts come from my instrumental project that I spent a year writing when I lived in Santa Monica a few years ago.  I had planned, at the time, to add vocals and release the dozen songs as an album, but my vocals sucked, so I left the songs as instrumentals.  Lucky too!  Because they came in handy for the Silverbirch Myric’s.  It now seems, this was their destined purpose all along, I just didn’t know it at the time.

Oh yeah, I’d better tell you this right now, for the record…  (I don’t want you soon-to-be-feeling like a fish who’s just realized there’s a HOOK sticking out of his cheek)  …You may have remembered me a little earlier, carrying-on about how I’ve payed my dues…  I’m just letting you know, so you don’t get the shock of your life down the track, that I’m giving away the first three chapter for free… on my site and as podcasts, but after that, I want your bloody CASH ($$$) for the other 20 chapters.
I WANTS TO GET PAID!!
At least a little.  So I can put more time into making more.

SILVERBIRCH; A TEAR IN THE FABRIC OF THE NIGHT SKY
The Novel will be released on October 31st 2009.
The Myric is available now for free on iTunes and from the website.  The first three chapters are free.  To receive the other 20 as they are created, you must SUBSCRIBE.  Initially, the price will be $10 (for every episode) for the early subscribers… but the price will go up.