4000 Holes – C. W. Schultz

January 14, 2024

Hello and welcome back! We’re two weeks into 2024 and I don’t know how to feel. My last post was published November 6, 2022… so, what happened in 2023?

Well, 2023 was a mixture of sadness and happiness. In terms of sadness, some of my favorite musicians passed away. To name a few: David Crosby, Harry Belafonte, Gordon Lightfoot, Sixto Rodriguez (the OG mysterious musician), Steve Harwell, Greg “Fingers” Taylor, and of course, Jimmy Buffett. In terms of happiness, the Lostwave community hit a new record for most identified songs in a year (143 songs!), surpassing 2021’s record of 124. Metrics gathered from this list. December 2023 alone closed cases on some of the community’s most sought after songs, specifically: “Filthy Frank’s Kenya Dance” was identified as “Katonda Alinawe” by David SonJC (watch episode for mystery), and “Fond My Mind” as “Feels Like A Wish” by Station K (watch episode for mystery). Since the beginning of recorded music, countless talented musicians have gone unrecognized. Thanks to Lostwave, some of these musicians and their songs can be enjoyed and remembered forever.

In November 2023, I ran a site update. This resulted in my notifications reverting back to an old email address, so no messages had been sent successfully from the contact and submit mysterious music forms. If you tried to submit a message to me between November 2023 and now, I didn’t get it and I apologize for keeping you waiting. Please consider resending your message, if it’s not too much trouble.

Now it’s 2024. I have a lot to look forward to, but it hasn’t been off to a good start. My cat (Snowpuff) had to be rushed to the emergency vet on Christmas Night after collapsing. Given Snowpuff’s age (18½ years old), known thyroid and heart disease, and the uncertainty of whether she had cancer, the vet let us know that it wouldn’t be unfair to euthanize Snowpuff right then and there. After careful consideration, my wife and I decided against it, knowing that Snowpuff wasn’t in pain. Instead, we decided this would be Snowpuff’s final visit to the vet, and that she’d spend her remaining days eating whatever she wanted and visiting her many friends.

On Tuesday (01/09/2024), Snowpuff had another episode, which resulted in her having difficulty breathing and moving, and refusing to eat. It was time. My wife and I had already made the decision that Snowpuff would gain her wings in the comfort of her own home, so I got on the phone with Lap of Love and a vet came out right away. Despite Snowpuff’s discomfort from trouble breathing and moving, the vet did an excellent job ensuring that Snowpuff’s final moments were peaceful and filled with love.

Today is easier than yesterday, and yesterday was easier than the day before, so we’re doing well. I can’t help but think that it might be difficult again once the weather starts to warm up. Snowpuff developed a pastime late in life of joining Charisma and me on walks around the neighborhood and hanging out at the outdoor bars at the top of the hill. A fluffy cat in a stroller brought a lot of smiles to passersby and fellow patrons.

Farewell, my fellow couch potato. Legends never die.

Lots of updates – Some good news, some bad

I have some new content out. Ordinarily, I’d let my work speak for itself and that’d be the end of my post. But, because I made it a goal to post more often, and because a lot has happened since my last post, I thought I’d share more than usual, considering some of it will likely affect my work.

For starters, I know I wrote that I have a lot of projects lined up, but several of these may unfortunately never see the light of day. There was one that I got really invested in back in March; and, because I wanted to respect someone else’s request, I ended up putting this project on indefinite hold. It’s a never-say-never type of thing, so there’s hope I can share it with all of you eventually; but, for now, my project will compromise a fellow creator’s project that they’ve been working harder and longer on, so I agreed to put the brakes on mine. Without going into detail, their request is very reasonable… it’s just terrible timing. Yes, there are other projects to work on; but for this one, I was at a point of no return. So, huge bummer. Luckily, this creator is very sympathetic, supportive of my project and understands that me respecting their wishes was a huge sacrifice. When a fellow creator recognizes this, it really softens the blow. So, kudos to them.

I’m also anticipating some scheduling changes, which could interfere with my work/life balance; which, in turn, could interfere with my writing time. It’s never gotten me down before, but I thought I’d point it out just in case there are any unexpected delays.

There’s also been a tragedy in my life. Back in April, I lost a friend to suicide. I rotate through states of sadness, disbelief, and anger. Throughout the coping process, I’ve discovered that I might have a lot to say about this situation that could help others. Once a few months have gone by, maybe I’ll share something more for suicide awareness.

Another piece of bad news is that a loved one of mine got into a car accident. It could’ve been much worse; nonetheless, it’s likely going to be a recovery that I’ll be assisting with for a few months.

I’ll leave you with a piece of good news. There’s a new opportunity that could potentially be a breakthrough for literature, in a world that’s constantly distracted by cellphones, movies, social media and videogames. It’s going to take a few months to determine the success (which is partially why I’m being so vague about it), but if it is, then Whispering of the Autumn Leaves is perfect for the type of format it offers. Regardless of how it turns out, I’ll make sure to continue sending updates on the status of my fifth book’s publication.

Thank you for your continued interest and support. It’s always meant a lot, but during times like these is when it counts the most.

Snowy Valentine

Sometimes, I feel like I have all the luck. Other times, nothing seems to go right. Unfortunately, this post will be detailing the latter.

By delivering the most recent Mysterious Music episode over a week early, it allowed me extra time to achieve my next goal that I planned on sharing by 03/03/2021. But, for whatever reason, despite all the hours of work (and even about a half-hour’s worth of usable material), things just aren’t lining up right. The good news is, there are a lot of ideas I’m eager to bring to life for both my bibliography and YouTube channel; the bad news is, the projects keep hitting roadblocks. Admittedly, this isn’t the first time I’ve encountered this problem. Between 2013–2015, I had three false-starts with A Book About a Film. With the house-of-cards that storytelling can be, I just couldn’t get an entire level standing without collapsing. Luckily, I eventually cracked the story of A Book About a Film, so I have no doubt that I’ll do it again with the bind I’m in right now.

It’s difficult to give details about a project that hasn’t even been fully realized (and may never be), but what I can share is that I have ideas for content on Batman, Him, Indiana Jones, sleep paralysis, The Sopranos, the Tyrion Targaryen Theory, true crime; as well as more short-stories, Mysterious Music episodes (including Panchiko’s D>E>A>T>H>M>E>T>A>L) and Scream content. Some are ideas in my head, others have made it on paper, a couple even have videos in the editing process… but, unfortunately, nothing that I feel is worth someone’s time. You can praise my work or criticize it, but you can never accuse me of making something in which I didn’t take my audience’s time into consideration. Even to those who’ve given me a bad review, I appreciate them taking a chance on something I created. So, at the end of the day, I feel okay not delivering something because I know that when I do deliver it, it’ll be without regret—not rushed and not for the sole purpose of being relevant. I know that those who were looking forward to my March 3rd release understands and supports this. For that, I thank you.

Here’s something that happened, which excellently summarizes things: During the snowy Valentine’s Day of 2021, of all the dozens of cars parked on Holden Street in West Seattle, only one had a cock-and-balls drawn on it. Of course, my car. With my luck, it probably wasn’t a finger that drew it either. Anyway, I shall continue to write on, so please check back soon. Thanks for visiting.

Audio editing, done; video editing, started

Initial isolated vocal tracks for the next episode of Mysterious Music have been recorded and the audio has been edited. I decided to take a day off before the video editing process begins. In that time, I went for a nice long walk, where I stumbled upon a huge bush covered with awesome web patterns, accentuated by the dew of a late-morning winter in the Pacific Northwest. Afterwards, I finished Season 3 of Cobra Kai before giving Snowpuff a haircut. Despite her countless hisses, I came out of it without any bites or scratches.

New Workspace for a New Year

Switching to a new desk, tucked in a different corner of the office. This is where the writing will take place. I’m currently hard at work on the next Mysterious Music episode. You can spot my ghostwriter at the bottom of the image. She knows that, of all the places I move around the house, sitting down here to write is the most likely place I’ll be.

2021

Those who’ve read just one of my books will know, based off of my dark sense of humor, that I’m not optimistic enough to assume things are suddenly going to get better just because 2020 is over. After all, it’s called COVID-19, not COVID-20, so we’re not out of the woods yet. My writings also reveal that I firmly believe that beauty outweighs ugliness, good outweighs bad, and happiness easily outweighs the inevitable (and unavoidable) tragedies. Therefore, even if we don’t go back to normal in 2021… if we made it this far, we’re going to make it.

2020 being over also marks another year of Whispering of the Autumn Leaves being unpublished. Certainly, as my fifth novel moves closer to a release date (whenever that will be), there will be last minute changes. All-in-all, I’m satisfied enough with the manuscript to be itching to share this with the world for almost two-and-a-half years now. Unfortunately, there are more reasons not to release it. For starters, I’m just not convinced people are interested in reading anymore. Any time I point this out to writers, I’m immediately seen as a pariah. My conclusions are based on what I see; too many distractions that have quicker payoffs for entertainment than reading, such as: movies, videogames, the ability to get any song you want right away on Spotify, the concept of “binge-watching” which has turned into a common pastime. This is the world we live in now, for better or for worse. Instead of resisting and being an embittered old man about it, I’m doing my best to embrace the inevitability. Thanks to advances in technology, people can still celebrate the Holidays with their loved ones while also social-distancing by using Skype, Google, Zoom, etc. With progress, however, there are also drawbacks. At this time, due to the state of the world and the lack of demand for literature, it’d be unwise for me to take the next step in releasing Whispering of the Autumn Leaves.

To me, Whispering of the Autumn Leaves is my best work. There was so much of my blood, sweat and tears put into this book. I hope to share it with you some day. In the event I’m stubborn enough to never release it, I’ve given a copy to four people: my wife, my father, my best friend, and one of my wife’s friends. So, Whispering of the Autumn Leaves can never be taken to the grave with me, and they have my permission to publish it if I die before choosing to release it.

In an attempt to stay current, I’ve turned to YouTube as a creative outlet, and it’s honestly been nothing short of fulfilling. The encouragement I’ve received to continue making Mysterious Music episodes is inspiring, plus I’ve also had an opportunity to meet fellow horror-movie fans in response to my Scream content. So, until Whispering of the Autumn Leaves is published, anyone reading this will have plenty of Mysterious Music and Scream episodes to look forward to, as well as other YouTube content which I plan on releasing every first Wednesday of the month, from February–August 2021. As for September 2021 onward… well, that’s the start of autumn, so it might be a good time to revisit the possibility of releasing Whispering of the Autumn Leaves. We’ll see…

Lastly, you can count on more updates at www.cwschultz.com throughout the year. I even gave the website a makeover for the first time in several years. While posts will be more frequent, they’ll probably also be more lighthearted. Before, the site only got a post for something significant; for now, my motivation has shifted to stay in touch and stay writing, regardless of progress. I was partially inspired by a blog called One Day in the Life of Jerome. As of this writing, the blog has been taken over by his son Matthew, after Jerome passed away from COVID-19 in July 2020. Despite his untimely death and having never met him, I found Jerome’s love for life touching. Since you’ll probably agree that my time is better spent writing stories and making videos, I’m unable to commit to a daily blog. So, I’ll use a different line from a similarly titled Beatles song and call it… 4000 Holes.

So, here’s a picture of my cat in a box on the couch. My wife and I wanted to snuggle with her on the couch, but Snowpuff refused to leave her box that was on the floor; so, I instead moved the box to the couch with her in it, and she still refused to leave.

Anyway, we’ll see how long this nonsense lasts. Until next time, stay safe and thanks for visiting www.cwschultz.com!