Another year in the books, and 2024 ended up being a bit of a harvest year for me. Certainly a tough year to get through, but one I look back on with some fun memories and knowledge gained. It was an enormous year for me in terms of my writing and my music, beginning back in January with the release of Highland Songs – an introspective folk album inspired by the Southern Highlands of New South Wales. I have had family live there both past and present, and felt inspired by the environs to explore past generations of family, this culminating in a short trip around the area in April which also involved the Canberra Marathon – more on that later.
With April approaching, so too did the ten year anniversary of my first novel – Tenebrae Manor – and so, under the banner of 10EBRAE 2024, I set out to celebrate with a run of new material releasing. I spent most of February and March recording a modal jazz album; the resultant Minstrels of the Modes ended up being, in my opinion, the best music I’ve written yet. Using the modes of the major scale, I composed one song for each of the seven, each piece having a unique feel to it. If you hear nothing else of my music, please hear this one!
Realising I’d written close to 100 songs in the last few years, I decided I’d compile all my lyrics into a short chapbook, Trick Shots – The Lyrics of Pinnacle Tricks, which released in April as well. Still, this didn’t seem like enough to celebrate a 10th anniversary of being (I suppose) an official artist, and soon my attention turned to the veritable white whale of my recent career – that of my unfinished third novel tentatively titled Verdigris. After reading through my manuscript again, and with no clear end in sight for the overall story, I made the decision that I would publish what I had so far, under the title Patina #1. The numeral in the title should reveal that it is part one of a greater story to be completed in time, but for now it is certainly a work that stands well on its own. I appreciate all feedback received on it, I believe it is the best I’ve written. It feels wonderful to have it out there in the world; I had worked on it for eight years, and I felt it deserved more than to be locked away in the vault of my computer.
Still no signs of slowing down, my ninth album – Violent Dreamer – was released in October. Definitely more contemporary in style that the previous two releases of 2024, but one I enjoyed putting together. It combines psychedelic rock with a little delve into atonal music, and a couple of reworked old songs for good measure. What next? Well I’ve plenty of song ideas in the works, including redux versions of some of my old songs with better mixing, vocals, etc. Stay tuned for that release one day soon.
Before we move into the books – I joked in last year’s letter that I’d run two marathons in 2024, and well… I did. I won’t say I’ll do three in 2025, but I do think a new goal of mine will be to run a marathon in each of Australia’s state capitals. Sydney, Canberra and Perth are done.
Of course we finish with my best reads of 2024:
The Man Who Fell to Earth (Walter Tevis) – a science fiction novel grounded in the mundane of reality, this book was interesting for its characters, especially the eponymous Thomas Jerome Newton, and how society deals with people who are different. It would later be adapted to film starring the late great David Bowie.
Man and His Symbols (Carl Jung) – I love Jungian psychology, and was very intrigued by his seminal work detailing our dreams, anima, shadows – all sorts of thoughtworthy ideas.
Pedro Paramo (Juan Rulfo) – a challenging read highly regarded as a Mexican classic. A haunted romp through ghosts of the past, an abandoned desert town, and a few twists I had to re-read to fully understand! Take your time with this one, perhaps use a study guide as well.
The Haunting of Hill House (Shirley Jackson) – granted I’d read this before way back in 2009 as a 21 year old, and at the time I didn’t think much of it. I adored the Netflix adaptation (personally my favourite piece of television of all time), so I decided to read the book again. Wow, I found so much more impact in it this time around. I perhaps lacked the life experience to truly understand this book way back when, but now I find it to be deeply sad, relatable and an all time favourite.
Bonus mention – miscellaneous philosophy read this year:
How to Grow Old (Marcus Tullius Cicerco)
On the Shortness of Life (Seneca)
The Dark Brain of Piranesi (Marguerite Yourcenar)
The Garden of Forking Paths (Jorge Luis Borges)
The Courage to be Disliked (Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga)
I wish all my readers and listeners a Merry Christmas and a prosperous 2025. God Bless You. We’ll speak again soon.
PSCx
P.S.Clinen 