This song...y'all. If you're a Lindsey Sterling fan, then you probably already know this song. It's typically soaring and beautiful and just makes you catch your breath to listen. If you're a Team USA Olympic gymnastics fan, then you know this song from Suni Lee's similarly breathtaking routine that eventually won her a bronze medal..I think. That seems to change daily.
I listened to it with several of my characters in mind, and one stepped forward and strapped on her ice skates while her long-lost love watched from a window - he hasn't revealed himself to be back in her life yet. As goes with a lot of things that have Lindsey Sterling involved, this is going on my writing playlist. Enjoy. (No lyrics.)
Today's post is late, but that's because it became something else this morning on my way back from an interpreting gig. The song I was going to post isn't as meaningful right now...so here we are.
Seals and Croft's We May Never Pass this Way Again is important to me as it was in the soundtrack to a play I was in at uni - one of my favs, The Shadowbox. But today, a dear friend of mine lost her mom, and it just came all the way back to me. The play is about three families living in hospice, and at the time I couldn't really understand my character. But now, having lost both of my parents, I do..and I hope I can be a light in this awful dark for my sweet friend as she navigates her new normal.
Today's Music Monday is a little bit about my current WIP and the FMC, but also a lot about me and my current situation. I was listening to it the other day and just reveling in the lyrics as I often do with Taylor Swift's music, but then I saw the video. All those past iterations of her arguing at the end made me think - I am not the same person I was this time last year when Eugene was discovered to be stage III breast cancer and not just a recurrence of my cyst from a decade ago. I've heard Hoda Kotb say that she has two lives now, pre and post breast cancer and that's very true.
It isn't just about the ways in which I look different now, post-chemo/radiation/bilateral mastectomy. Those things are surface level, really. The change that is sticking and that I'm thinking a lot about today is the change that happens to the me that was and the me that is. In early days, I just wanted to be through all the treatment, "so I can get back to my life." That, at the time, meant back to my then normal - hybrid remote work for the DayJob™️, appearance at the Georgia Renaissance Festival with Ciaragh, working all kinds of fandom conventions and other faires to sign my books...getting on with working toward being a full time author. Planning for our move abroad. Hanging out as much as I can with my US based friends before that move happens.
That stuff belonged to who I was before. Some of it has transitioned with me: the friends, the book signings on a smaller scale, the working toward being a full time author, and the DayJob™️ have all remained, just in different guises and on changed levels. But the renaissance festival appearances with the Hounds of East Fairhaven are in limbo at present - Ciaragh's death from lymphoma means I no longer have a rennie hound. The move abroad has been put off for a bit. Hanging out with the friends as much as possible has become keeping in touch as best I can and hanging out once in awhile.
But it's all okay. Eugene...look what you made me do. I am now worth the changes, even though they were awful in a lot of places. Welcome to the second half of my life.
I missed last Monday, not sure why, but honestly I didn't think of it until end of day on Tuesday. So here we are a little late, but...
I heard this one and thought immediately of the MC in my current WIP. She's very serious and careful about her outward appearance, but my writing partner said that he would like to see her dancing and letting go now and then. I can just see her dancing around in her flat on her own after carefully making sure there is no one around. It's also a fantastic song, another Eurovision number and we all know how much I love Eurovision. Malta did not disappoint here.
"Je me casse" is a slang French phrase that means "I'm outta here," and is something that I can hear Lark muttering under her breath when humans hit on her or just generally get in her face. Sometimes it's just too much for a vampire to keep her cool, you know?
