Music Monday: Life in (Semi) Lockdown

I'm going to make a slight departure from my normal Music Monday post to tell you about a song that you just need to hear. If you aren't familiar with British artists, this may go over your head without the video to watch (it does for me when I just listen to it) because like the ever famous We are the World and Band-Aid compilations, there are almost more artists here than you can follow. But this should be the official lockdown/pandemic theme song, and it is just good stuff. Like those hugs that we all still look forward to getting. Enjoy.

Times Like These 

(BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge All-Stars/Foo Fighters)

One, two, three, four

I, I'm a one way motorway

I'm the one that drives away

Then follows you back home

And I, I'm a street light shining

I'm a wild light blinding bright

Burning off alone

It's times like these you learn to live again

It's times like these we give and give again

It's times like these you learn to love again

It's times like these, time and time again

I, I'm a new day rising

I'm a brand new sky

To hang the stars upon tonight

I, I'm a little divided

Do I stay or run away

And leave it all behind?

It's times like these you learn to live again

It's times like these you give and give again

It's times like these you learn to love again

It's times like these, time and time again

Let's go

It's times like these that we activate

Do something to improve, don't procrastinate

I've been cooking now make a wicked pasta bake

Stream games at 11 but I clap at 8

And I'll do a facetime if you tempt me

Time to pay back with all the health docs lent me

And for me west ten's elementary

But right now I wanna see ladbroke grove empty

You get me?

We make it better together we'll make a better life

Because the pressure is ever upon us every night

And everyday so we pray and we will forever fight

We'll make it better together, we'll make a better life

I, I'm a one way motorway

I'm the one that drives away

Then follows you back home

I, I'm a street light shining

I'm a wild light blinding bright

Burning off alone

It's times like these you learn to live again

It's times like these you give and give again

It's times like these you learn to love again

It's times like these, time and time again

It's times like these you learn to live again

It's times like these you learn to love again

Music Monday: Wishing Well

I'm going in a slightly different direction this Music Monday and introducing you to a band that I first discovered on TikTok (I'm one of those old ladies now, it seems) and have since found matches a lot of what I look for in writing music. The first song I found by The Dead South was In Hell I'll Be in Good Company, but then I found this little gem and it speaks to me in reference to the Appalachian project I'm working on - and not just because these fellas are amazing on traditional instruments like banjos. Now, which of the Wraiths are speaking to me through this song?

"Wishing Well"
by The Dead South

So sweet so genuine.
I bet you taste like sweet cherry pie.
So gorgeous every man's jaw drops.
When will you choose my straw.

So I find you put flowers to shame.
You've got all the guys playing your game.
In the moonlight I will ask you to dance.
Will you let me taste sweet romance.

I throw my penny into the wishing well.
What that wish was I will never tell.
Can I be by your side at night?
Can I be your everlasting light.

I will be your warrior.
I'll be the one who takes care of you.
Just let me know when shit get tight.
Oh baby please just let me ignite.

I'll be the one to control disease.
I'll change the weather anytime you please.
Everyone will know your name if you please just be my queen.

I throw my faith into the wishing well.
What that wish was I will never tell.
Can I be by your side at night?
Can I be your everlasting light.

I throw my fate into that wishing well.
I pray to god that I don't go to hell.
No no no...

I throw my fate into that wishing well.
I pray to god that I don't go to hell.
No no no...

I throw my fate into that wishing well.
I pray to god that I don't go to hell.
No no no...

I throw my penny into the wishing well.
What that wish was I will never tell.
Can I be by your side at night?
Can I be your everlasting light.
Can I be your everlasting light.

In which I get fancy and then throw Gin off something...

 The length of the aptly titled Very Short Story catches me out every time. I had a whole post in my head with lengthy and, if I do say so myself, literary comparisons between a sunrise and Sath's fur, and then suddenly I didn't have enough characters left and...well, this happened:

Gin closed her eyes and thought of another morning long ago, when the sunrise bathing the land in pinks and purples reflected in the mirror surface of the #river running under the stone guard tower - the same stones now under her feet.

She opened her eyes and jumped.#vss365 pic.twitter.com/qLamnTiuWV

— NancyD_writes📚 (@nancyd_writes) February 10, 2021

Music Monday: Yep, I'm THAT Supernatural Fan...

 So...2021 feels a bit like a repeat of 2020 so far, right? At least we didn't wake up to THIS on January 1st.  #IYKYK

Heat of the Moment

by Asia

I never meant to be so bad to you
One thing I said that I would never do
A look from you and I would fall from grace
And that would wipe the smile right from my face

Do you remember when we used to dance
And incidents arose from circumstance
One thing led to another we were young
And we would scream together songs unsung

It was the heat of the moment
Telling me what my heart meant
The heat of the moment showed in your eyes

And now you find yourself in '82
The disco hot spots hold no charm for you
You can concern yourself with bigger things
You catch a pearl and ride the dragon's wings

'Cause it's the heat of the moment
The heat of the moment
The heat of the moment
The heat of the moment showed in your eyes

And when your looks are gone and you're alone
How many nights you sit beside the phone
What were the things you wanted for yourself
Teenage ambitions you remember well

It was the heat of the moment
Telling me what your heart meant
The heat of the moment showed in your eyes

It was the heat of the moment
The heat of the moment
The heat of the moment showed in your eyes

Heat of the moment
Heat of the moment
Heat of the moment
Heat of the moment...

Sometimes I fancy myself a writer of space operas...

 And when I do, this happens over on Twitter for #vsspic: 

Translator crept down the sandy path to where the little one stood. I knew to let him approach first-some young ones had never seen humans before, despite their outward appearance.

Her balloons...that looked like our planets?

"From First Earth," he said, noticing my stare. pic.twitter.com/JQTmMyvnB8

— NancyD_writes📚 (@nancyd_writes) February 2, 2021

Music Monday: Welcome Home, Scarlet.

Back in November, I was working on a piece that was supposed to be a ghost story based on my experiences at a small college in the mountains of North Georgia. As predicted, though, by anyone that knows me, it turned into a weird paranormal mythology-influenced story...with a wolfhound. There are bits of my original idea still there: a girl grows up steeped in her family's legacy and duty, taking care of the old gods of the mountains to keep them from swarming down into the human population and causing havoc. So I'm going to let that biz ruminate for a while. 

I worked on a cover for the book because apparently, I have flipped the normal process for writing and need to have the cover ready for a manuscript that may or may not be written. As I was getting it ready to put on Tiktok (because I'm one of those middle-aged women authors that discovered the app during the pandemic) I found a song that I thought was perfect for the little 60-second cover reveal: Welcome Home, Son by Radical Face. It is very much like my main character, Scarlet: sweet-sounding and cozy on the outside but a hot mess on the inside. Enjoy.

Welcome Home, Son

by Radical Face

Sleep don't visit, so I choke on sun
And the days blur into one
And the backs of my eyes hum with things I've never done

Sheets are swaying from an old clothesline
Like a row of captured ghosts, over old dead grass
Was never much, but we made the most
Welcome home

Ships are launching from my chest
Some have names, but most do not
If you find one, please
Let me know what piece I've lost

Peel the scars from off my back
I don't need them anymore
You can throw them out
Or keep them in your mason jars
I've come home

All my nightmares escaped my head
Bar the door, please don't let them in
You were never supposed to leave
Now my head's splitting at the seams
And I don't know if I can...

Here beneath my lungs
I feel your thumbs press into my skin again