James Piper, Author

Friday, March 26, 2010 ... a cautious move back to exercising ... " You could blow a gasket." Those were the precise words a cardiologist said to me a week ago. My BP was somewhere around 190 over 110. Far too high to be exercising and hence I stopped. It didn't matter a GP told me the exact opposite a week earlier. "All the cardio you want, it's good for you." Based on the GP's advice, I continued to exercise. There's a certain irony in exercising to be healthy and risking instant death in the process from a heart attack or aneurysm. At the moment, I'd like to avoid those thoughts. In the past week I've been on BP meds. First 25 mg of atenolol each day and now 50 mg. I've been reading my BP and HR at intervals and my BP has come down. I've had readings of 140/80 in the last couple of days. That's the target. As a result, it seemed safe to get back to the gym and I did. I wasn't pushing myself, was...

Thursday, March 25, 2010 ... where do the good ideas come from? ... H ere's a quote from someone's Facebook wall, Just when I think of a great script idea...I search and find out it is already 'in production' for 2012! I know the feeling. I once started work on a story only to plop a DVD into the player and discover the story I started, the great idea I molded, was already a movie and before that a successful novel in hardcover. Ugh! There was no point continuing with the same idea because it had been done--even though I had thought it up on my own--it didn't matter. I had to move onto another premise, another idea. After I soaked in enough frustration from being deflated, I felt better when I realized I had come up with a clever idea for a story and others thought enough it to publish a book and make a feature film. That was something. Much better than no ideas or tired ones. But any idea, clever or derivative, is nothing until it is forme...

Monday, March 22, 2010 ... a new plateau on Itunes ... I continue to add albums (of course, they're called CDs) to my iTunes library and I went past both the seventeen thousand song mark and 100 gigabytes. The numbers seem small and I have many more CDs to add. This can't be good, but I do like to listen to music and these days, it's rarely anything played over the radio. Posted 2010/03/22 at 21h47ET in Itunes.

Monday, March 22, 2010 ... don't need that ... I was browsing some web sites looking for info on a Bax symphonic recording and came across this web site . Here's another example of an unessential that, I must confess that I was never particularly happy with this disc... Since you don't need that, just cut it out, I must confess I was never particularly happy with this disc... You too can do it and say, I don't need that. Posted 2010/03/22 at 21h47ET in Don't Need THAT.

Saturday, March 20, 2010 ... my iTunes genius mix ... I thought I'd share my Itunes Genius mix page. As I add CDs, I update my mix and sometimes get different album art and a different order. The more I play a certain mix, the higher up it is in the order. That much I have figured out. The other factor appears to be the number of songs you have for a category. By far I have more Jazz and Jazz Vocal songs than pop or rock and they are ranked at the top. And this is the list: Jazz Mix Vocal Mix Classic R&B Mix Smooth Jazz Mix Singer/Songwriter Mix Pop Mix Classic Rock Mix Classical Mix Soundtracks Mix Adult Alternative Pop Mix Soft Rock Mix Folk Mix Posted 2010/03/20 at 17h16ET in Itunes.

Friday, March 19, 2010 ... Well, welcome to middle age ... I felt the cuff tighten around my bicep. My forearm turned red--it reminded me of beets. Pressure radiated in my hand and I thought it would rupture. Damn it hurt. This wasn't normal. I watched with curiosity to see if it would explode, as if it weren't attached to me, as if it were a YouTube video, but without warning, the cuff loosened, the air released and my arm returned to the white I was used to seeing as the blood flowed normally. A second later the machine I was attached to started to beep and squawk and flash bright red around a number over 200. It kept squawking and chirping until a nurse came in and hit a button labelled 'alarm off'. "Your blood pressure is high," she said. Her gaze fixed on the monitor. "No shit," I thought to myself. Sarcasm might have made me feel a touch better, but it wasn't going to help the situation. "And glad to see you c...

Thursday, March 18, 2010 ... you don't need THAT ... H ere's an excerpt from WRITING THE BREAKOUT NOVEL by Donald Maass, p. 14, Over the years I have also noticed THAT first novels tend to feel small. There is a superfluous 'that' in the sentence and you don't need THAT. See for yourself. Over the years I have also noticed first novels tend to feel small. If you find it awkward without THAT, give it time. You'll come around. Posted 2010/03/18 at 18h26ET in Don't Need THAT.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010 ... some things don't change ... I should just change the date on my last entry and say I wrote it today, but that would be cheating... For various reasons I haven't posted any entries to this web since last October and today I am in a position to change that and hopefully on an ongoing basis. (Yes, my stay in club prison was enjoyable. Thanks for asking.) I have two new categories to add to my web site. 1. Don't Need THAT and 2. iTunes. Don't Need THAT is a play on words. There are certain things we think we need, but we don't. That's not the that I'm referring to, but THAT as in "I knew that I was in trouble..." The THAT in the quote just isn't needed. You don't need THAT. I hope to create a collection of examples from published books. Maybe with time we will see that disappear except for all the needed situations. As for other that, that's for you to decide. It's personal. ...