Book Coaching Business

I'm proud to announce that I've started a book coaching business!

My goal is to help aspiring authors (especially those who write from or about marginalized or neurodivergent perspectives) share their stories with the world, drawing on my experience as an author and an instructor for Autism Empowerment's Neurodivergent Creators Collective. My specialties include:

- Science Fiction

- Fantasy

- Action-Adventure

- Middle Grade

- Young Adult

- Autistic and Asian American representation

- Independent publishing

- First-time authors

- Authors who are starting later in life

(Basically, everything I learned from writing and publishing the Joel Suzuki series).

If you're interested in learning more, email me at brian.tashima42@gmail.com!

Third AE-NCC Workshop!

The third workshop of Autism Empowerment's Neurodivergent Creators Collective (AE-NCC) is this Saturday!

And the instructor will be...yours truly! I'll be giving a high-level overview of what goes into writing and publishing your own book, based on my experiences with the Joel Suzuki series. I'll be covering topics like:

- Do you need previous writing experience or credentials?

- What are some good resources to help you get started?

- Are you a Plotter or a Pantser?

- How to set goals, overcome writer's block, and stay on track

- Options for publishing your book

And much more!

If you're in the Vancouver/Portland area, please join us at Stephen's Place, 501 SE Ellsworth Rd, Vancouver, WA, from 2:00pm - 3:00pm Pacific Time. It's free, but space is limited, so prior registration is recommended (you can sign up here). If you can't be there in person, it will be simulcast via Zoom; you can get the link via the same registration page. It will also be recorded and available to watch later.

Hope to see you there!

Overcoming Writer's Block

One of the tips I like to give about overcoming writer's block is this: just write ANYTHING. There's a scientific term called "activation energy" that basically refers to the amount of energy needed to start a chemical reaction, which is usually a larger amount that it takes to maintain said reaction. Think of it like starting your car (this may or may not be an accurate description of activation energy; I'm a writer, not a scientist). The idea is that getting started is the hard part. After that, it's easier to keep going.

So in the context of writing novels, this means having your characters doing any sort of random, silly activities, even if it makes no sense to your overall story. Like, say you last left off with your protagonist having narrowly escaped from a treacherous dungeon with a number of serious injuries and no healing potions or spells, but you're not quite sure where to go from here (even though you have an outline - you do have one, right? - sometimes you find yourself having to fill in gaps along the way). Instead of banging your head against the keyboard several times before giving up for the day, simply switch gears and do something like this (paragraph breaks and lack of indentations are for blog format purposes):

Joel looked up to see an outstretched hand near his face. He realized he was lying prone on a hard, flat surface. He craned his neck a little further and saw that the hand belonged to Felicity.

"C'mon, dude, get up," she said.

"Um...what happened?"

"What do you mean, 'what happened'?"

Joel took Felicity's hand, and she helped him up. "The last thing I knew, I had escaped from the Caves of Wrath," he said. "But now, I'm..." He glanced around. To his left was a GameStop store. To his right, a Hot Topic. The distinctive smells of Cinnabon and Hot Dog on a Stick wafted through the air. "...at the mall?"

"Of course you're at the mall," Felicity said. "Where else would you be?"

"Um...outside the Caves of Wrath?"

Felicity shook her head. "I don't know what you're talking about, dude." She sniffed. "Are you feeling okay?"

"I..." Joel inspected himself. He remembered having multiple lacerations on his arms and torso, and his standard Spectraland-issue vest had been torn to shreds. But now, he was wearing an intact T-shirt (short sleeved, green, with the Hyrule logo from The Legend of Zelda emblazoned on it), and his wounds were gone. "Yeah, I guess I am."

"Good," Felicity said. "Well, let's get going."

"Where?" Joel asked.

"To Mount Doom."

"What?"

"I'm kidding," Felicity said. "To the shoe store. Remember? We're here to get you a new pair of Chucks."

"We are?"

"Hmm." Felicity narrowed her eyes. "Are you sure you're okay?"

Joel wasn't sure, but he decided not to pursue the matter any further. "Um...yeah," he said. "Yeah, I am. Let's go."

** Back to Blog Post **

See how that works? I just started writing anything - in this case, Joel and Felicity shopping for shoes at the mall - and ended up with 271 words, which is a little over one page and could very well have met my word count quota for the day (my most common previous quotas for the Joel Suzuki series were 400 or 500 words, but 250 was still considered not bad). And I could have easily kept going.

Besides getting you into a writing mode, there's an extra bonus to this exercise, which is that sometimes you may actually end up with something useable! Maybe not at this point in your manuscript, or even for this particular book, but possibly in the future (this has happened to me on multiple occasions).

So the next time you encounter a blank page and feel stuck, give this idea a shot. At the very least, you'll make progress toward what Ray Bradbury said were (and I paraphrase) "the million bad words that every writer has to get out."

Happy writing!

Start Writing Your Book With...Math??

This week, in an exclusive special article just for you blog readers, I'm going to share some specific details about how I wrote the Joel Suzuki series!

And it all starts with...math.

Not because I'm Asian, mind you - I actually didn't like math as a subject in school. I think it might have more to do with my neurology.

But anyway, after Volume Two (that book and Volume One had their own somewhat messy origin stories) I had not only finalized my characters, themes, and worldbuilding, but I'd also arrived at a system for starting a book that I applied to the rest of the series.

It goes something like this: I'm a plotter, not a pantser, which means I outline my books before I start writing them, as opposed to authors who just dive in and see where the story takes them (looking at you, Stephen King. I have no idea how you do it). So when building my outline, I begin with a target word count, and then I break it down from there, using a structure that combines concepts from both Plot & Structure by James Scott Bell and Save the Cat! by Blake Snyder.

So, say you want to make your book 75,000 words, or roughly 300 pages (assuming that a page is around 250 words, which is pretty standard). You then want break it up into Acts, which, because each Act should land at a particular point, leads you to this outline (this is an actual example from an early outline for Volume Three):

Act I: pages 1-60

Act IIa: pages 60-150

Act IIb: pages 150-225

Act III: page 225-300

Then, decide how long you want each chapter to be. I like my chapters to be around ten pages each, or 2500 words. So based on the above outline, I now have this structure:

Act I: Chapters 1 through 6

Act IIa: Chapters 7 through 15

Act IIb: Chapters 16 through 22

Act III: Chapters 23 through 30 (I know, the math isn't perfect)

Then you want to break that down further into Story Beats. I won't get into that here, but you can learn all about them from the two resources I mentioned earlier (the Save the Cat! franchise even has this handy free tool on their website that will do the Acts & Beats math for you).

After that, you'll want to write short summaries of each chapter. There's always a chance that things will change as you write - Joel and Felicity would often take matters into their own hands once I got into the weeds with them - but it's good to have a general idea of what should be happening and where you want to go. Think of it as a travel itinerary that leaves room for on-the-fly detours and alternative plans (which, if you've ever traveled, you know there almost always are).

If you're starting out with your first book (or a new book, not a continuation of a series), you'll want to establish things like character, arc, theme, and worldbuilding before you do this. But once you do that, it's time to crunch some numbers! Personally, I found this method to be very helpful in getting started and staying on track, as opposed to just opening a blank page and trying to spit out words (again, Stephen King, you are amazing).

Hope you found that helpful, aspiring authors!

Volumes Ten And Eleven Status Update

Whoa...a Joel Suzuki series update? Are you kidding me?

Well, sort of. I haven't actually started writing Volumes Ten and Eleven yet, mind you, but I think I may have at least arrived at what kind of stories I want them to be.

Let's back up for a minute. If you've been following along, then you know that while the main story arc of the series ended with Volume Seven, I've had this idea to write four additional volumes ever since I changed the name of the series from the Spectraland Saga to the Joel Suzuki series back in 2017 (details are in this previous blog post). Why four? Because while each of the volumes in the main series corresponds to a particular color on the visible light spectrum (red, orange, yellow, etc.), there are four additional colors outside the visible spectrum, which are infrared, ultraviolet, black (the absence of light), and white (the sum of all colors). Plus, seven plus four equals eleven, and you can't have a book series that is based on rock music and not "go to eleven."

I've always sort of intended Volumes Eight (the "infrared book") and Nine (the "ultraviolet" book) to be short story anthologies about events that take place before or around the time of Volume One (the red book, hence, "infrared") and during or after the time of Volume Seven (the violet book, hence, "ultraviolet"). You can read prior blog posts about them here and here. But up until now, I've been undecided about what Volumes Ten and Eleven would be about. One idea I had was a duology about Joel and Felicity taking on an ultrapowerful adversary in a super-high-stakes adventure, but then I thought, well, (spoiler alert!) I've already kind of done that. Then I thought about doing a "Cursed Child" sort of thing, where the kids of the main characters in the original series get their own story. But that just didn't feel right.

So, I stopped thinking about it for while, especially since the entirety of 2024 and the beginning of this year was spent focusing on a little short film project you may have heard about. Then recently, my thoughts have been slowly drifting back to Joel and company, and I had this epiphany: what if, instead of a high-stakes adventure, I went the complete opposite way, and made the final (for real, this time) two volumes character-driven, almost literary fiction-like stories about Joel's ordinary, day-to-day life? Genre-wise, it could be like a memoir (which I've been reading a lot of lately), or "cozy fiction," or even a style of Japanese novels in which nothing really happens. I mean, I've read and seen a lot of posts and memes where people say they would watch a movie about the Skywalker family set in an alternate universe where Anakin never turned to the dark side and they just go about their happy, normal lives (as normal as life can get in a galaxy far, far away). Heck, I would watch that!

Anyway, we shall see if that idea holds. Even if it does, I probably won't start writing anytime soon, even though I do already have tentative subtitles for each volume (which I won't disclose just yet). But who knows. Stay tuned!

Tying Up A Loose End

Some of you may remember this blog post from December 2022 when I announced that someone (not me, I swear) had created a page for the Joel Suzuki series on the TV Tropes wiki. I was, and am, honored and flattered by the inclusion of my humble set of novels in a database that consists largely of much bigger names in the world of fiction. And so, to whoever created the page, if you are out there reading this, I just want to say: thank you! I'm really grateful for your interest.

And also, I have one small request: do you think you could add Volume Seven?

I know that at the time the wiki page was made, Joel Suzuki, Volume Seven: Vision of the Virtuoso, had not been released yet. It came out the following year, in 2023. So it's been almost a couple of years now, and I, being a somewhat obsessive completionist*, have been occasionally checking back every so often to see if the final volume has been added.

* Which, now that I think about it, might be a sign of my neurodivergence? When I read books, I cannot stop until I reach the end of a chapter. I am mostly incapable of leaving a movie or TV show half-watched in my various streaming queues for too long. Joel is this way, as well.

Page creator, I will even send you a free electronic copy of Volume Seven, if that will help! Just email me at joelsuzukiseries@gmail.com. Please?

Checking In With Joel And Felicity

INT. BRIAN'S LIVING ROOM - DAY

A young man and a young woman are here, sitting on a couch and playing Madden NFL 25 on Xbox. This is JOEL and FELICITY. There is a bowl of popcorn and a can of diet cola on a table in front of them. Felicity, playing as the Las Vegas Raiders, tackles the running back of Joel's team, the Seattle Seahawks.

F: Hah! Booyah!

J: Do people still say "booyah"?

F: I just did.

J: Yeah, but...

F: But what?

J: Never mind.

F: Heh. You're sounding more like me every day.

A middle-aged man enters the room. This is BRIAN.

B: Hey, folks.

F: Whoa! It's...it's...what's your name again?
J: It's Brian. Don't you remember him?

F: Dude, I was just kidding.

B: I know, you haven't seen me in a while. I've been busy.

J: Working on that film project?

B: Yeah.

F: What was it called? Something about beer?

B: "Hold My Beer."

F: That's right.

Felicity pauses the game, puts down her controller, and takes a sip of diet cola.

B: Anyway, how are you two doing? How's retirement?

J: We're not retired.

F: We're not old, like you.

B: Oh? Then what have you been up to?

F: Stuff.

J: Mostly playing video games, writing songs, and watching movies.

B: Umm...that sounds kind of like retirement to me.

F: Hey, we deserve a break, after everything we've been through.

B: You mean, the events of Joel Suzuki, Volume Seven: Vision of Virtuoso?

F: The what of what now?

B: Forget it. I'm just glad you're having fun.

J: Thanks. We are.

Felicity tosses some popcorn into her mouth.

F: (chewing) So why are you here? Is that beer film thingy done?

B: Kind of. We held a screening for it in January, and it just went live on YouTube last week.

J: Congratulations.

B: Thanks. But we're not really done yet. We're trying to get funding to turn it into a series. And also create a real-life pub. And also develop a video game.

F: Geez, ambitious much?

B: Yeah, we really want to turn it into something that will put Vancouver in the spotlight while providing entertainment industry opportunities to people in the autism and neurodivergent communities.

J: That sounds like a good mission.

B: It is. So I just wanted to check in on you two and see if maybe you'd be interested in participating in some fashion.

F: Dude, I'm retired.

B: I thought you said you weren't.

F: Joel said that. I just said that we're not old, like you.

J: She's right.

B: So you're not interested?
F: Eh, check back later.

B: Joel?

J: Um...I'm kind of busy at the moment.

B: Playing Madden?

J: Yeah.

B: Okay, fine.

Felicity picks her controller back up.

F: (to Joel) Ready for more beatdowns?

J: Sure.

Brian starts to leave the room.

B: (under his breath) Maybe I'll have to start working on Joel Suzuki, Volume Eight sooner than I thought.

F: What was that?

B: Nothing.

CUT TO BLACK

More Location Scouting

This past weekend, my band-slash-production team did an advance recon mission to Loowit Brewing Company in advance of our Day Four of filming there later this month.

Of course, this was not our first time at Loowit; we've been there many times before, mostly just for fun, but also once to shoot workprint footage late last year. This time, though, we went in with our real gear to scout out camera angles, lighting, and other logistics (like which table would be best to use for the scene - the winner being the Bicycle Chain Table pictured above). And, of course, since we were there, we treated ourselves to a couple of rounds of amazing Loowit beer.

Stay tuned for a recap of Day Four in a few weeks!

I'm Back At READCON!

A couple of days ago I had the privilege of participating in READCON 2024, an annual (except when pre-empted by random global pandemics) book-centric pop culture festival organized by Vancouver, WA-based teacher/librarian/Jedi Master Paul Warner.

This was not my first rodeo, er, READCON; long-time readers of this blog may remember that I participated back in 2016 and also in 2018. Back then it was held at Shahala Middle School, but this year it was at Thomas Jefferson Middle School, where Master Warner is now employed.

Like in those previous years, this year's festival also helped to support Autism Empowerment, which is always a good thing. Here I am with John Krejcha (who blog readers will recognize as one of Autism Empowerment's cofounders).

Another cool thing this year was that there was a fellow author there! Jace Schwartz launched his debut novel, The Caverns of Cracklemore, last December, and it was fun chatting with him and sharing my experiences as a grizzled veteran of the publishing industry.

One not-so-cool thing was that unfortunately, this may be the last year READCON takes place, due to staffing shortages. Hopefully the situation changes for the better, because the event was really popular and successful, and it would be great to see it continue!

Hold My Beer Update

Time for another Hold My Beer update!

The latest news is that our workprint (basically, a rough draft of the film) is just about complete. All the raw footage has been shot, and post-production (editing, etc.) should be done by next week. It's not great, mind you, and no one but our cast and crew will ever see it (unless we decide to include snippets of it in the eventual "making of" video), but it was a great rehearsal for the real deal, and we learned a lot by doing it (brief moments here and there are actually, believe it or not, pretty darn good).

Next up: a crew-only meeting to help us get on the same page, and then *gasp* actual filming begins in March!

Stay tuned for more updates...

Table Read For Hold My Beer

The table read for Hold My Beer was a great success!

Huge thanks and shout-outs go to our amazing cast and crew: Andrew York, Ian Engelsman, Ethan Blackwelder, Lydia Pearl Pentz, Rich Ray, Karen Krejcha, Kevin Coy, Eric Holmes, Anne McEnerny-Ogle, Jennie Greb (in absentia), Karen York, Heidi Blackwelder, John Krejcha, Torin Tashima, Ryan Krejcha, Justine Krejcha, Elizabeth Holmes, Andy Lockhart, and Beth Harrington. The guys in SPS and I are so happy and grateful to be working with such a talented bunch of people.

Thanks also to Stephen's Place for hosting us, Autism Empowerment for the food and co-production, and, of course, the Vancouver Culture, Arts, and Heritage Commission for the generous grant that is helping to make this project possible.

More to come!

More Hold My Beer Updates

The Hold My Beer production train keeps rolling along!

On December 10th, we shot test footage at Bader Beer & Wine Supply, a brewing supply shop here in Vancouver where one of the scenes will take place. Big thanks to owner Quintin Murchison and the Bader staff for their support! (we'll be back...)

Then on December 17th, we had our first meeting with film industry veteran and all-around cool person Jennie Greb (at Loowit, naturally), who will be the sound mixer on set and will also help with post-production. We're so grateful to have her as part of our crew!

Lastly (for now), we made our first official purchase with our grant funds from Vancouver's Culture, Arts, and Heritage Commission: a clapperboard (aka slate).

That's right, things are getting real. Stay tuned for more updates!

Hold My Beer Casting Announcement!

In my recent Thanksgiving post, I mentioned in passing that the cast for Hold My Beer was complete. But unless you follow Second Player Score and/or Autism Empowerment on Facebook (or are on my personal friends list), that is all you would have known! So, I'm rectifying that this week...

There are nine primary speaking roles, filled by the awesome and talented people listed in the picture. Here are more details:

Andrew York - Val (the lead character)

Ian Engelsman - Jess (Val's friend)

Ethan Blackwelder - Sky (Val's friend)

Lydia Pearl Pentz - Shannon (a commercial loan officer)

Rich Ray - Doug (Val's biological father)

Karen Krejcha - Ellen (Val's biological mother)

Kevin Coy - Carl (Val's stepdad)

Eric Holmes - Roger (owner of a brewing supply shop)

Anne McEnerny-Ogle - Amber (an investment banker and Shannon's mother)

Also, in case you didn't know, Anne McEnerny-Ogle is the mayor of Vancouver, and Eric Holmes is the city manager! All of us in the production team are so grateful to have them and everyone else on board.

More to come!

Author Talk

My recent mini-resurgence in doing live Joel Suzuki-related events came to a close this past Tuesday with a presentation for the Washington State University Vancouver Creative Writing Club. As I was walking to the room where the event was to take place, I witnessed this awesome bit of signage:

And not once, but twice! (I didn't take a picture of the second sign because I was too busy admiring the beautiful WSU-V campus.)

Anyway, I had a great time meeting and speaking with the club members, passing on what I've learned from my twelve-ish years of being involved in the publishing industry. Big thanks to Andrew York (the lead actor of Hold My Beer) for setting it all up!

Neighborhood Toy Store Month

November is Neighborhood Toy Store Month! And yes, while today is the last day of November, our wonderful neighborhood toy store Kazoodles Toys is holding a bonus event this Saturday, December 2nd, called "Celebrate Local."

The day - or, more accurately, the five hours between 11am and 4pm - will feature brands with local (the Vancouver, WA area) ties, including Marmals, Earth Grown KidDoughs, Mukikim, Mirus Toys, eeBoo, Tonies, and yours truly, the author of the Joel Suzuki series.

So if you're in the area, stop on by and get your holiday shopping done!

Words & Pictures Festival 2023

By the way, I forgot to mention (actually, I didn't really forget, it's just that I had a bunch of stuff all happening at around the same time and I only do these blog posts every Thursday for reasons that I can't even explain myself) that I, once again, took part in Vancouver's very own annual Words & Pictures Festival!

(Thanks to fellow author Gretchen McClellan for the photo. Check out her books. Seriously.)

As always, it was a lot of fun, and in addition to selling books (thanks to everyone who bought one!) I also got to do a presentation called "Song & Story Structure," where I talked about how songs and melodies that are catchy (like the "Happy Birthday" song, for example) are structured like stories, and also why anime theme songs are SOOO GOOD. Big thanks to library branch manager Rachael Ries and the staff at the Cascade Park Community Library for having me and for being such awesome hosts.

Looking forward to next year!

Exciting Hold My Beer Update!

Happy and excited to introduce the young adult cast of Hold My Beer!

From left to right: Lydia Pearl Pentz, Ethan Blackwelder, Andrew York, and Ian Engelsman (the old guy on the far right in the Blazers shirt is the writer/director/producer). All four have extensive acting experience and we're very grateful to have them on board.

More updates to come!

Southwest Washington Autism Conference

Yesterday I had the pleasure and privilege of attending the 13th Annual Southwest Washington Autism Conference in Centralia, WA (about 90 miles north of Vancouver) presented by the Lewis County Autism Coalition.

It was a one-day conference packed with informative panels, terrific vendors, and an amazing keynote speaker (more on that below). I was there as both a board member of Autism Empowerment as well as the author of the Joel Suzuki series, of which we donated a full seven-book set as a raffle prize.

Even after so many years of being involved in the autism community, I still find it awesome that almost wherever you go, you can find groups like the Lewis County Autism Coalition who are working to help make the world a more inclusive and accepting place for people of all abilities.

Oh, and the keynote speaker? None other than Autism Empowerment's own Karen Krejcha.

Karen did a fantastic job with a speech that was emotional, heartfelt, passionate, inspiring, educational, and, yes, empowering.

Big thanks to Karen and her husband John for allowing me to opportunity to attend the conference, and to Nicole Miller and the Lewis County Autism Coalition for putting on an awesome event.

Next, this coming Saturday I will be once again participating in the annual Words & Pictures Festival at the Cascade Park Community Library! This year, I'll be presenting a mini-workshop for young people called "Song and Story Structure," with tips on how to craft catchy tunes and captivating novels using examples from popular culture (anime theme songs, anyone?) as well as my own stuff. My workshop runs from 2:00-2:45pm, but the festival itself is from 10am-4:30pm, with lots of other great panels and presentations by local authors. There's also a virtual track for those who want to participate remotely. Hope to see you there!

I Was A Production Assistant On A Film Set!

For the past three days, I had the privilege and pleasure of being a Production Assistant on the set of a brilliant documentary-in-progress called Our Mr. Matsura. Directed by my good friend and awesome independent filmmaker Beth Harrington, it tells the story of a photographer named Frank Matsura who journeyed from Japan to live in rural Washington state in the early 1900s.

Beth was kind enough to let me join the production during the time it spent filming in Seattle, where I had the opportunity to learn and observe the ins-and-outs of filmmaking while performing typical Production Assistant duties like watching equipment (a job apparently called "Fire Watch" in show biz language), moving equipment, driving crew members around, and picking up lunch. Locations included a store called Vintage Posters, Photographs, Postcards and Ephemera, the Lake View Cemetery (where Bruce and Brandon Lee are buried!), and the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Washington (pictured above).

Big thanks to Beth and the incredible, gracious crew (Nora, Kevin, Asia, Caitlin, and Jordan) for being patient with me and answering my questions. I learned a lot and had a great time while (hopefully) lending a helping hand. All in all, it was a terrific experience and an invaluable education as I attempt to level up my filmmaking skills in preparation for Hold My Beer.

Oh, and tomorrow, my band/multimedia production team Second Player Score will be dropping the second-to-last track off our latest album 4-D. It's an anime-theme-song-inspired, six-minute-plus epic affair titled "Battle Royale" that, in the grand concept album scheme of things, is about the climactic final confrontation between the heroes and the villain, but can also apply to any fight you have in real life (which is hopefully not as violent as the one in our story). Here are the lyrics:

I lost the war before I even began

This whole charade was just a part of your plan

You only wanted someone else you could blame

Well now I've gone and changed the rules of the game

And you won't take me down tonight

'Cause all you have is selfish spite

So yes, I guess it's finally come down to this

And no, you won't be someone that I will miss

'Cause only one of us will stand in the end

My lone regret is that I called you my friend

And you won't take me down tonight

'Cause all you have is selfish spite

And I will take you down tonight

'Cause we both know that I am right

And you won't take me down tonight

'Cause all you have is selfish spite

And I will take you down tonight

'Cause we both know that I am right

I don't care

And I swear

To mend the broken little pieces of my heart

Check it out on all the usual streaming platforms!

Things Are Happening

Exciting times!

First of all, remember the film project tentatively titled Hold My Beer? In the last status update post about it back in April, I mentioned that I was working on an application for a grant from the Vancouver Culture, Arts and Heritage Commission that would help fund the project. Well, on Tuesday, it was announced that the grant has been awarded! (it's going to Autism Empowerment, who is coproducing the film with my band/multimedia production team Second Player Score). So now, we can move full speed ahead, which means you'll be seeing a lot more status update posts. In the meantime, Second Player Score has been developing our filmmaking chops by creating a music video for "Daily Grind," the song mentioned in this previous post (the picture above shows one of the sets of the video, complete with green screen).

Second, the secret recording project that I talked about in this post has been unveiled! It's called "Welcome to Punky's MixTape," and it's the new theme song for the internet variety show "Punky's MixTape" on Twitch. We've been good friends with the show and its host/creator, Punky Bruiser, for a number of years now (you may recall us having a virtual launch party on the show back in February 2021, and also playing Dungeons & Dragons as a fundraiser for Autism Empowerment a month after that), and we are honored to now be the official soundtrack for their opening credits. You can check out the song and its awesome accompanying footage on YouTube at this link, and be sure to tune in to Punky's Mixtape every Wednesday on Twitch at 4pm Pacific/7pm Eastern.

And finally, tomorrow another track off of Second Player Score's new album 4-D will be released! It's from the album's Spring Suite, it's called "Fourth Quarter Comeback," and it's about...well, it's basically about what it says in the title. Also, it features guest backing vocals from Dan's wife Molly and Kyle's daughter Fallon. We wrote it with the idea that it would make a good anthem for high school football games across the country. Here are the lyrics:

Let's see those rally caps go on

We'll seize this chance before it's gone

Stay calm I know we got this now

It's not too late to show them how

We're never giving up

We're never giving in

We're never gonna stop

Not until the end

You know there's still a lot of time

And fortune can turn on a dime

It isn't over 'til it's done

And then we'll see just who has won

We're never giving up

We're never giving in

We're never gonna stop

Not until the end

Check it out on all the usual streaming platforms!