I'm currently working on a new song entitled Does a Sorceress Know Love?, which is for my forthcoming fictional horror novel. The song is about a mortal man who becomes enamored with a beautiful enchantress named Hedra. The book is about an enchantress named Omega, and Hedra, who is her apprentice. Both are omnipotent and immortal, empowered by the Greek Goddess of Strife and Discord, Eris. 8)
Cheers,
Joseph
May the gods of creativity, fantasy and imagination be the larks of your hand.
In my globe trotting youth, before a certain betrothed arrested my wanderlust and chained my boot heals down, I kept daily journals of all things that visited my 5 senses, and even then conjured up others to bait them to their limits.
Back in 1719, I remember it well, Daniel Defoe published his novel Robinson Crusoe; a story about a shipwrecked traveler, in a first-hand account, who thrilled readers with his tales of savvy self-reliance and resourcefulness. Yet, Defoe himself never left England. The entire tall tale was the work of his incredible imagination, and I'm guessing many visits to books of interest that gave his manifold accounts validity.
Have fun with that!
Thanks! Yeah, both are fun and interesting diversions. I own two businesses and making plenty of money is my main priority, but it's fun to write stories and songs and record the latter as a creative, fun outlet when time permits! ;D
Omega and Hedra are two adorable enchantresses in human form. They settle scores, avenge wrongs, and dole out punishments to the wicked in a variety of creative and imaginative ways without limits. I hope to finish the first novel in the series soon. 8)
I have 12 song demos to support the book once I publish it, including:
Track List
Hedra's Lost Her Mind
All One Enchantress Knows
Under Her Hypnosis
Loving Her is Terminal
Baying at the Moon
She Walks in Beauty in the Night
Her Malevolence
Only Fire, No Sun
Does a Sorceress Know Love?
Dark and Cruel
Her Shadow Cast Behind
Anytime You Need Me I Am Yours
All songs written by Joseph Spain
Produced by Joseph Spain
© 2025 Joseph Spain
I've been witness to the writing (book) diversion within my immediate family as my oldest son has been writing them over the years. He's employed as a writer and continues his own journey through it in is free time. I've watched it consume him into isolation and then free him to be himself again in cycles without rhythm or even limits. Many nights I've seen him in dim light emptying his head onto a keyboard or keypad. I do the same thing with an acoustic guitar. His brother is the same way as him and their mother is a research hawk on various topics. It's a weird family. Love lies in the spaces between us.
Quote from: icystorm on Mar 27, 2025, 10:30 PMThanks! Yeah, both are fun and interesting diversions. I own two businesses and making plenty of money is my main priority, but it's fun to write stories and songs and record the latter as a creative, fun outlet when time permits! ;D
Omega and Hedra are two adorable enchantresses in human form. They settle scores, avenge wrongs, and dole out punishments to the wicked in a variety of creative and imaginative ways without limits. I hope to finish the first novel in the series soon. 8)
I have 12 song demos to support the book once I publish it, including:
Track List
Hedra's Lost Her Mind
All One Enchantress Knows
Under Her Hypnosis
Loving Her is Terminal
Baying at the Moon
She Walks in Beauty in the Night
Her Malevolence
Only Fire, No Sun
Does a Sorceress Know Love? *
Dark and Cruel
Her Shadow Cast Behind
Anytime You Need Me I Am Yours
All songs written by Joseph Spain
except * Written by Joseph Spain and Andrea Brennan (in progress)
Produced by Joseph Spain
© 2025 Joseph Spain
Are planning an animated series production of this tale?
Quote from: idunno on Mar 27, 2025, 10:59 PMAre planning an animated series production of this tale?
Not at this time. Only the book, song demos, and music videos. That's work aplenty! LOL!!! ;D
I'm still working on my project as time permits in my active business schedule.
I now have 16 song demos to support my fictional book once I publish it and after I refine the songs with a professional studio engineer, including new recordings. The titles include:
Track List
She Walks in Beauty in the Night
Hedra's Lost Her Mind
All One Enchantress Knows
Under Her Hypnosis
Loving Her is Terminal
Her Malevolence
Only Fire, No Sun
Does a Sorceress Make Love?
Baying at the Moon
Inorganic
The Persona of Evil
Dark and Cruel
When All Our Sands Are Gone
Her Shadow Cast Behind
Not of this World
Anytime You Need Me I Am Yours
All songs written by Joseph Spain
Produced by Joseph Spain
© 2025, 2026 Joseph Spain
I'm writing a new song with a working title of The Dark Delusion of Bliss. It's intended as a song for a female vocalist to sing. I have a talented female goth vocalist from Fiverr in mind for the lead vocals. 8)
What am I working on? Too many things!
A novel: Remembering Rock (fantasy)
A novel: The Sensory Effect (sci-fi/fantasy)
A musical: My Grandfather's Clock
A "personal improvement" book: Transformation Emulating the Master (for Bahá'ís and like-minded people)
A "self-help" workbook: Path of Trust (also for Bahá'ís and like-minded people)
Another book: Autobiography
Winter Songwriting Challenge: Facebook page "Singer/Songwriter Songwriting Challenge"
And several more artsy projects, as well as rearranging the basement--actually some of the main floor as well. I'll never get it all done, of course. Maybe if I live to age 120. ;D I need to make a schedule so I remember to spend some time on each project.
@Vicki — Very cool! You definitely have a full plate and plenty to keep you busy. Each of your projects sounds interesting. Which one is your favorite to work on right now? ;D
Ugh! I replied to this and got an error when I tried to post it. So I went back. It was still there. I tried to post again. I got a message saying I already posted it, so I went to look. Not there. And when I tried to view the thread, I was logged out!
I'll try again...but it won't be the same.
My favorite? Too hard to choose. Easiest would be the Songwriting Challenge. Nearest to complete is the novel Remembering Rock. Nearest to my heart are the ones for Bahá'ís and like-minded people. And I would certainly like to finish my autobiography for my kids and grandkids.
<<sigh>> They're all such a struggle!
Quote from: VickiUgh! I replied to this and got an error when I tried to post it. So I went back. It was still there. I tried to post again. I got a message saying I already posted it, so I went to look. Not there. And when I tried to view the thread, I was logged out!
I'll try again...but it won't be the same.
😲 I know what you mean! It's happened to me a few times over the years in various forums, and also in email, text, and Word documents. Most of the time, I copy my content to the clipboard before pressing 'Post' or 'Send' to prevent it from disappearing into the ether. It cuts down on the annoyance factor. 😀
Quote from: VickiMy favorite? Too hard to choose. Easiest would be the Songwriting Challenge. Nearest to complete is the novel Remembering Rock. Nearest to my heart are the ones for Bahá'ís and like-minded people. And I would certainly like to finish my autobiography for my kids and grandkids.
<<sigh>> They're all such a struggle!
Those sound like interesting pursuits. Keep us posted on your progress and let us know when we can read
Remembering Rock. 😀
The autobiography will be a nice gift for your family, and becomes priceless over time.
Cheers,
Joseph
I'm currently working on
- Writing and producing my 2nd album
- Writing my third novel
- Screenwriting a sitcom and political satire
- Learning to draw then animate videos
- A handful of lessons for writing fiction
At present, lots of work projects with my business, but I am still working incrementally on new songs and my fictional novel.
I always wish I had more time for writing and recording songs, but my business obligations limit my time. Still, my mind is always active with new song ideas, and I write and record when I can.
A new song I recently conceived of and I'm excited about is titled Third Worst Enemy. I believe it is creative to come up with ideas and material that make people think. Song titles like "Enemy" or "Worst Enemy" both seem too commonplace. But a title like Third Worst Enemy isolates the detested figure into their own rank in one's hierarchy of enemies. LOL!!! They're not quite as bad as the first- and second-ranked enemies, but they're still very bad. LOL!!! 😂🤣
I may write that song, or forget about it for a long time or forever. 😁
I have some pretty exciting news regarding the process of creating music videos. Last night and today, I created my first customized music video for my song Does a Sorceress Make Love? It was a straightforward, but involved process.
First, I used Claude Fable 5 to help me create an outline and prompts for the video. This required me to provide my lyrics with a time-index for each line. Claude then created a series of very detailed prompts for each shot and its motion. The full video script outlined 34 clips of 8–10 seconds each, which I adjusted for time and placement as needed.
Then, using Runway via its Agent 2.0, I designed my leading character, Hedra, and generated all 34 clips from the prompts. I initially wanted to use an adorable model from Pexels who appears in many of my videos, but for this test exercise I went with the character Runway designed to my specs. She still doesn't look exactly as I intend, so version 2 of the video will address and fix that.
Finally, I used Kdenlive on Linux Mint 22.3 — a free video editor, and it worked great! Very intuitive for the most part. It let me insert my song's WAV, place each video clip against it, add lyric titles synced to each line, and render the full music video to an HD mp4 to upload to YouTube with my other videos. ;D
I'm not ready to share this first video prototype yet — plus the song itself needs some more work. But hopefully soon!
I'm super pleased with the process and the results for a first attempt. This will let me tailor videos specifically to my songs going forward, rather than turning songs over to a Fiverr videographer and ending up with videos that don't quite fit the story line. So yeah — tons of potential here, finally... and it will only get better. 8) ;D
I'm still working on new original songs and playing with the new video technologies that are out now and emerging. I'm also finding lots of new indy pop-rock music to enjoy, too, which I will share soon. ;D 8)
As a followup to my previous post about using Claude Fable 5, Runway Agent 2, and Kdenlive on Linux Mint 22.3 to implement some of the amazing new possibilities for music video creation: I've built a character, the sorceress Hedra, and scripted her into video clip segments for a new music video. An early prototype is below (unlisted link, forum only).
First, AI was not used in my song's composition, recording, or production in any way. I see using AI strictly as a tool for making music videos for my original songs. Songwriting itself is a very personal and emotional enjoyment for me that I can't imagine turning over to AI.
What's wrong with my video prototype?: I prompted Runway Agent 2 to create my sorceress character, Hedra, at age 31, with specific qualities and characteristics that I described. She looks closer to early 40s to me, plus the software inexplicably aged her further as the video went on. She's also supposed to be petite. All of that is correctable with more detailed scripting. I'll also fix the "double moons" and the wrong moon phase. Version 2 of my video will have the correct Hedra, more realistic backgrounds, more realism, and so on. Also, the song itself isn't finalized. There are issues left to address, but it's getting there, and the process is paving the way for easier and better mixing down the road.
Cost?: This one ran about $400. Version 2 will likely be closer to $600-$750. Still, it's a good deal in my opinion. The control and creative aspects are much better than paying a videographer on Fiverr, which is how most of my previous nine music videos were made. A few were done by a very talented friend in Oz, using her own amazing and artistic skills.
No doubt, music video creation with AI is here now, and will become better and better over time. I look forward to finishing this one with version 2 soon, and then writing, recording, and producing new songs and creating fresh, customized music videos to fit my songs going forward.
For music videos, we're only limited by our own imagination now, and by how carefully we script the scenes and characters we want. Really cool! 8)
Test —
Does a Sorceress Make Love (demo)
Version 2 of the Hedra character and video are here! ;D 8)
As I previously mentioned, I used Runway Agent 2 to recreate the character Hedra who appears in my music video and plays the central role of a dark enchantress in a fictional horror novel I'm writing. It took considerable effort to generate the correct head and body of Hedra to match her persona I've created for her. Based on her new design, I created v2 of the music video for my song demo,
Does a Sorceress Make Love?, which I am also still working on.
Test —
Does a Sorceress Make Love? (unlisted demo)
The AI video creation process and tools still have a long way to go, but they're making good progress.
In my novel, Hedra is an immortal, omnipotent being in human form. She's the most powerful being on Earth, with unlimited power, but virtually no one knows what she really is. She's empowered by the Greek Goddess of Strife and Discord, Eris.
Hedra Denise Williamson
(https://i.imgur.com/kJlqKun.jpeg)
Hedra Denise Williamson
(https://i.imgur.com/LbbVhHJ.jpeg)
I'm working on new content to support my forthcoming fictional horror novel, as well as my song, Does a Sorceress Make Love? With the image of Hedra below, I may include the quoted words from William Congreve's 1697 play The Mourning Bride:
▌ Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned,
▌ Nor hell a fury like a woman scorned.
(https://i.imgur.com/owcV0dz.png)
Greetings, everyone! Regarding online sound engineers, I've found several sites that offer professional mixing and mastering services. Two that really stood out to me are airgigs.com and soundbetter.com.
I posted requests on both sites for professional mixing and mastering of my new demo, Does a Sorceress Make Love?, and so far I've received 20+ responses within 24 hours. I believe I've found one sound engineer I'd like to work with.
I'm excited about this because I believe I write really good songs, but my mixing and mastering skills are modest by comparison.
Beyond that, I'm still working on my fictional thriller/horror novel, as well as new songs for it. Lots of fun when my business permits me the time! ;D 8)
(https://i.imgur.com/lpmZc7m.jpeg)
(https://i.imgur.com/XpNQDLg.jpeg)