The Mystery of the Music Trolls
August 9th, 2008 by --KALEB NATION--
Listening to Into The Ocean by Blue October
Alas, I thought I had finally rid myself of the Music Trolls nearby, but that was obviously only for a week. In this place, I will never be wanting for a night full of loud, pounding, incessant, bassy, terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad music banging my desk, rattling my keyboard and knocking pictures off my walls.
I discovered the most horrifying thing of all yesterday. While the music was forcefully threatening the structural integrity of my eardrums, I decided to go check the mail. The second I stepped outside, however, the music STOPPED. I am not kidding. It just went absolutely silent. Then, to test it, I stepped back in. IT STARTED AGAIN. I did this back-and-forth motion for some time, and came to this conclusion:
In spite of that, I am just about finished with the first round of revisions. So far I have cut thousands of words of Pure Fluff that has no place in a finished novel. There were two scenes that were particularly hard to chop out. However, I managed to salvage them, tie them into a bag of bones, and I will be putting them on the website after the book is in stores, as some special outtakes.
I wasn’t able to make it to New York but I did watch the entire event for Stephenie Meyer there. It was wild even on screen. You would not believe the fans there. I watched both online shows and in the second one I sat in my site’s chatroom with about 25 other people watching too. By the time this song came on, most of us were hugging computer monitors or waving cell phones in the air. As for me, let’s just say the concert series turned me into a Blue October fan.
On a similar note, I also heard that I was indirectly responsible for messing with someone’s autograph. He he he.
Meanwhile, on those random days that I do flee my apartment in search of outside human interaction, I have still been scouring this city for a copy of the Entertainment Weekly with my interview in it. Although I was promised a free copy, it has yet to arrive, and I am impatient. My list so far:
- Walmart
- Target
- Krogers
- Tom Thumb
- 7-11
- Shell
- Chevron
- The University bookstore
- The haircut place
- Jack In The Box (I was getting desperate and hungry)
and the only thing I got in return was a sunburn. I found one copy of it, 45 minutes across the city at a store that claimed to be a Borders (the phone book said it was a Booksamillion), but I simply refuse to travel that far for one stack of papers.
While I was at Walmart, I literally got lost in the store. I was somewhere between where they sell the washrags and Hannah Montana country. I turn a corner, and suddenly I’m at a dead end. There should be no dead ends in a Walmart. It is something that will send a sane person silly. I just stood there: how is there a dead end in a Walmart! Is this real? Am I imagining it? Is this what hell is like?
Worse: an enormous, poster-sized face of Hannah Montana was sitting at the end of this place, staring back at me. I had somehow gotten lost in Miley Cyrus town. That is enough to send me running. And I did, spinning about, only to find to my horror that when I moved, the face on the poster CHANGED. Right before my eyes, Hannah Montana transformed into SOMEBODY ELSE. I am not kidding. The picture just fizzled and changed like magic. When I stepped backwards, it changed BACK AGAIN.
My reaction:
After I escaped that store relatively unscathed though mentally scarred, I got my provisions home and got right back to editing.
For those who haven’t been keeping up with the TwilightGuy.com blog, I’ve had a lot of good press recently. Although my interview got cut from the Businessweek article I got the issue in today, and happily enough there was a mention of me in there. I had my first telephone interview last week which was fun and a bit nervous at the same time. Thankfully, I wasn’t misquoted, although for the life of me I don’t remember a word I said, so they could have made up pretty much anything they wanted to.
Other than those I was told I was in the Globe and Mail on Thursday, in Canada. I think I have another interview coming out in Canada this week sometime…not sure. I also had a mention in the Gilette New-Record and a mention on Salon.com — just in time to pass the 1-million hit mark for my site! Excitement ensued.
I was hit with an idea for a new Youtube video yesterday and I should be making it soon (hint: this one will appeal to writers). Editing for days on end has left me pale and zombie-ish, so I’d want to return to my human state before filming. Along that same line of thought, my channel was recently approved into the Partners program and passed 2000 subscribers (yay!), which means I got to put the really cool banners at the top of my page. More excitement ensued.
Posted in College, Stephenie Meyer, Writing
Email This Post
August 9th, 2008 at 2:42 pm
I saw you in the Entertainment Weekly! But rather than scouring town, I had a well plotted scheme . . . I went with my mom to her doctor’s appointment, knowing they subscribe, under the pretense of needing new shoes from the shop next door, which I did kind of want. While she went in with the actual doctor, instead of shoe shopping I dug through all their magazines, at one point checking what someone else was reading . . . that was awkward (but not as awkward as when I asked him, politely, to move his feet off a pile of newspapers so I could rifle through them fruitlessly). Finally I found it, and by that time my mom was already out and watching me suspiciously ransack the magazine racks. Luckily, I got to read your interview just before she paid and we both meandered to the shoe store, her looking very skeptical . . . what teenage girl forsakes shoe shopping to read in a waiting room? I was almost disappointed after all my hunting, but I’m sure you’ll be making double page spreads in no time . . . . and I got some new shoes.
I hope you find a copy, if not I can come up with some more devious excuses to make it to her follow-up, and abscond with their copy to mail to you. (there’s no law against stealing free magazines, right? I’m pretty sure I would come out ahead if any of the secretary ladies decided to fight for it . . . )
Well keep having fun editing, even if you have to live in the nice quiet hall to do it!
August 9th, 2008 at 4:12 pm
Ha ha, Hannah Montana country. You literally had me laughing out loud there. You’re definitely on my role model’s list (I was at a Breaking Dawn release party when I saw a copy of Entertainment Weekly and went “KALEB!” My mom said something along the lines of “You wasted money on a tiny little interview?”)
August 9th, 2008 at 4:39 pm
Whoooohoooooo!!!!!! You’re already famous.:) lol And getting mentioned in magazines and being all cool and zombie-ish! haha Okay, childlike moment over.
I was telling a friend last night how much of an inspiration you are to me, and I thought I’d share that with you. You started writing your book when you were around my age (one year younger than me, actually), and now you’re being published. I wrote for a solid two hours one night in an old, huge sketch pad. Top to bottom, side to side, completely filled up. It’s nice to be able to see where you are in life and know that I could have a nice future as an author, too. It’s even crazier for me because (it said this somewhere… I think on your Myspace page) you’re from Dallas, which is just about 15 minutes away from where I live. It’s good for me to see someone near me doing something amazing for their life.
So, yeah, you’re a pretty big inspiration for me right now.
August 9th, 2008 at 4:47 pm
Ha, so you ARE a zombie!! I knew it. Just try to get a little sunlight before you do your video, ok? We can’t have the zombie police coming to kidnap you all because you have decided against venturing into the sun. :]
You’re almost done editing, that’s awesome! I’m thinking then you can get in a few days of social interaction before school starts up again, right? I’ll hope for you. Go see a movie or something. Just don’t eat a Gotham City pizza.
I sadly don’t get any of the publications in which you were mentioned… but I will definitely try to find and Entertainment Weekly in the airport tomorrow, so I’ll have something to read that isn’t the Invisible Man. I’ll just read your interview a couple dozen times to distract myself… ha.
Corinne!
August 9th, 2008 at 5:19 pm
Hurray for good things happening for you! (and for revisions, as bloody as they may be…)
August 9th, 2008 at 6:59 pm
Congrats! I eagerly await your new video. We writers have to stick together! :0
August 9th, 2008 at 7:29 pm
haha I was you 1998th subscriber. so close to being 2000, but alas someone else did the deed for me.
Congradulations on those particularly gory revisions.
August 9th, 2008 at 10:55 pm
Now off to find the EW edition…bah, so hard.
And yes, that chat was fun. We all must do more screaming for SM more often and crying about songs, because I KNOW you were! *evil stare*
August 10th, 2008 at 5:37 pm
Kaleb-
I have a copy of Entertainment Weekly that I don’t need and I would send it to you in the mail. Just e-mail me and let me know if you would like me to.
August 10th, 2008 at 7:37 pm
I haven’t been able to find EW
I’m in Canada and for some reason that means it is extra hard to find. Which sucks for me.
As for the G&M, I have the article and adore it!
August 10th, 2008 at 9:41 pm
I always knew Wal-Mart was haunted! Esp. with Miley Cyrus in them.
If the whole writing thing doesn’t work out for you, you could be a comedian.
August 10th, 2008 at 9:48 pm
Yay! Can’t wait for the new writers YouTube video! So excited!
August 11th, 2008 at 12:04 am
[...] My Never, which you will be very pleased to hear at this link. Best ever. Besides that and solving the mystery of the music trolls and nearly finishing my revisions, I narrowly managed to grab some free time for the next chapter [...]
August 11th, 2008 at 2:59 am
[...] My Never, which you will be very pleased to hear at this link. Best ever. Besides that and solving the mystery of the music trolls and nearly finishing my revisions, I narrowly managed to grab some free time for the next chapter [...]
August 11th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
By the way Kaleb, I sent you a scan of the article a week ago lol. CHECK YOUR MAIL!!
August 11th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
OMG i was at the mall yesterday, and came across one of those Hannah Montana posters today that changes when you move! My little sister was thrilled, but my friend and I darted into the nearby Bookstore… I had to read a page of twilight to rid my mind of the horrible image! lol.
August 11th, 2008 at 5:10 pm
You are not even a zombie! You wouldn’t touch my brain cake. Jerk!
August 11th, 2008 at 8:42 pm
Maybe the music will stay off if you sneak in through the window. Hopefully there isn’t a trigger switch laser thing on your window.
Waiting for your new video! All the ones you make are really amazing and funny.
August 12th, 2008 at 1:34 pm
I haven’t found a copy of Entertainment weekly, but I went on their website and found your interview.
It was short, but still great to see. (I didn’t know you wrote Stephenie Meyer e-mails!)
August 16th, 2008 at 11:58 pm
I read your article in EW at Borders! Go there.
August 17th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
Coool! Your getting more famous day by day.
Haha. Hannah Montana country.
Lol.