Goodbye to the Far Horizon (II)

PeavyH2Never mind the writing stuff for a bit. This afternoon I’m saying an official goodbye to my Peavey Horizon II guitar. I wrote about acquiring it some time ago. It was and is a beauty, and one of the most well-made guitars I’ve ever owned, but as space dwindled and what I laughingly refer to as my playing focus started to develop, I realized that ax just wasn’t meant for me as either a guitar student or player. I know I did the right thing, rescuing it from that flea market. I also did the right thing when I sold it, for about four times what I paid for it, to someone who will treat it well and play it as it deserves to be played. I will also point out that the buyer still got a really good deal, even at that multiple. I got it cheap, and so did they.

I “only” have five guitars now, which is really three or four more than I need at this stage of my development, but I’m not giving up any of the others for the forseeable future. Just so you know.

 

Sometimes You Just Have to Turn Around and Take Another Road

As I once explained to a friend, I don’t have hobbies. I have serial obsessions. I know I’ve talked about this before, and how it often relates to research for the stories and books. I owe at least some of the impetus for the Yamada series to a fascination with ancient Japan and Asian mythology in general, which probably grew out of my general fascination with world mythology. Never met a mythos I didn’t find at least interesting. So in general I have to say that this penchant for serial obsessions, at least where the writing is concerned, is a good thing. It has kick started a lot of stories and probably every novel I’ve ever written. But there’s an aspect to the inpulse that I don’t think I fully appreciated until very recently. Continue reading