Chance Meetings

There’s only five days to go before the start of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo),  and I’ve been working hard to get ready for the stresses and strains of trying to write 50,000 words in a month. Last weekend I went along to the York launch event for NaNo. It was great to meet up with all the local  writers. There was a great mixture of new and old participants, writing everything from children’s short stories to regency romances, with a good smattering of fantasy in between. The enthusiasm of the group is catching, and I can’t wait to start on my book.

Gamal and the Dancing Death. My first attempt at novel writing, and I haven’t a clue what’s going to happen!

Exciting though NaNoWriMo is, it’s not the most interesting thing that’s happened this week. Some of the best things in life happen by coincidence, and this week I’ve been involved in the launch of a new collaborative project with origins in a chance meeting a few years ago.

It all started when me and my old mate John and our wives went to see a band called the Peat Bog Faeries. As befitted the music John and I were in kilts and carrying fully loaded hip flasks. Surely we’d be the only blokes in Malton in kilts that night? As it happens there was one other kilt wearer.  Andrew and his wife soon introduced themselves and we sent the night listening to the band, drinking scotch and chatting about music.

At the end of the night we exchanged emails and Andrew and I became Facebook friends, and for five years or so so we exchanged the occasional message.

Fast forward to this summer. Andrew happens to be a musician, with an interest in creating guitar based ambient music. He contacted me with an idea: if he wrote some tracks, would I be interested in adding pictures and collaborating on a YouTube channel? I love anything new, so there was no doubt about the answer.

The result of our chance meeting all those years ago is The Aaah Project. Aaah stands for Ambient Art and Audioscape Harmony, and is a combination of ambient music and photography.  Our YouTube Channel is at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC87gNjFlGG7byvEtC1n4pDg?view_as=subscriber, if you want to check us out.

As you might gather, I like taking photographs, and working on Aaah has opened up a whole new area for me.  There are now five tracks on the Aaah Project channel and we’re planning to add a few more over the course of the next month or so. Let me know what you think: better still subscribe to our channel and share it with your friends.

Spare a thought for me when I start novel writing next week. I’ll post an update in two weeks time. Until then, enjoy The Aaah Project. 

Regards

Dave