Music Monday: I'm Back!

 Wow, a lot of things have happened since I last posted. I am done with my active cancer treatments and reconstruction surgeries. I managed to survive Satan's Spanx (don't ask). I've been to three shows to sell and sign books. And since January, the world has blown up over and over again.

I chose Ordinary World for today because of this line: "Where is the life that I recognise? Gone away." In a lot of ways, personal and professional, this line resonates. But in terms of my writing, I'm closing in on publishing a novella (I know! I had no idea I could write a short book either!) that covers Taeben's back story or, as the kids say nowadays, his villain origin story. I have a reader who felt that he was a bit two dimensional and basically a few clicks away from tying Gin to the train tracks and twisting his moustache. So I started exploring how he got to be who he was in the trilogy and Darkness, and this novella became my last ever NaNoWriMo. 

Ah, yet another thing that has changed. I'm pretty mad about that whole thing but that is a topic for another day. Anyway, Taeben's origin story deals with a lot of frustration over plans that were never realized or not realized in the way he wanted...and so this song seems perfect. "But I won't cry for yesterday, there's an ordinary world somehow I have to find..."

(Lyrics in the video.)

Music Monday: Thanksgiving Leftovers for Birthday Dinner

The title is part of a joke that used to go around my house on my birthday, which sometimes fell on actual American Thanksgiving Day. "What do you want for your birthday meal, Nancy? Ah, well, we're having turkey." I should have made the switch to vegetarian sooner.

Also, I guess, it's my birthday. Hooray. I mean, it is my birthday, but things like baldness and chemo have stolen some of today's joy. But not my niece, Joy. She is still pretty dang awesome.

Anyway!

Last night, as I was driving back from having a late lunch/early dinner with my sister and her family to celebrate my birthday, I got stuck in traffic. I mean, GENIUS move, traveling anywhere further than the postbox on the Sunday after a holiday, but it is what it is. This was 4mph for many miles of traffic, the kind where you think you've made progress only to find it took almost an hour to go 15 miles - and you have less than a quarter of a tank of gas. But as I sat there on the highway surrounded by trucks, I heard this song and knew it was today's Music Monday.

It speaks to a current WIP that will get more attention after Nano is over. Picture two vampires, whose long lives keep intersecting due to a shared destiny, sitting in comfy chairs by a fire sharing a nice bottle of red wine and telling stories about their time apart from each other - when they suddenly realize WHY they keep finding each other. That's what kept me from losing my mind in the car...Connor and Lark, I'm coming for you soon - get ready!

Fix Youby Coldplay, Cody Fry
When you try your best, but you don't succeedWhen you get what you want, but not what you needWhen you feel so tired, but you can't sleepStuck in reverseWhen the tears come streaming down your faceWhen you lose something you can't replaceWhen you love someone, but it goes to wasteCould it be worse?Lights will guide you homeAnd ignite your bonesAnd I will try to fix youTo fix youHigh up above or down belowWhen you're too in love to let it goBut if you never try, you'll never knowJust what you're worthLights will guide you homeAnd ignite your bonesAnd I will try to fix youTears stream down your faceWhen you lose something you cannot replaceTears stream down your face, and ITears stream down your faceI promise you I will learn from my mistakesTears stream down your face, and ILights will guide you homeAnd ignite your bonesI will try to fix you

Multiverse was a blast, and was so much fun that I apparently forgot to do a NEW Music Monday. Sorry about that. But Sister Moon is speaking to me in terms of the WIP for NaNoWriMo so you got it twice. This time I was thinking about Moonlighting because it was just released on streaming and I made sure to watch my two favorite episodes...one of which featured the song below during a dream sequence. Good, fantastic stuff.

The lyrics are below because this one doesn't have captioning but it does have Sting, so I think that's... no it isn't really a good trade, but it has Sting. Enjoy. This time next week I will be well into my 2k words a day, so I'm going to just lean in to the vibe this song creates.

Big Man on Mulberry Streetby Billy Joel
Why can't I lay low?Why can't I say what I mean?Why don't I stay home?And get myself into some boring routineWhy can't I calm down?Why is it always a fight?I can't get unwoundWhy do I throw myself into the night?
I'm on the outsideI don't fit into the grooveNow I ain't a bad guySo tell me what am I trying to proveWhy can't I cool out?Why don't I button my lip?Why do I lash out?Why is it I always shoot from the hip?
I cruise from Houston to Canal StreetA misfit and a rebelI see the winos talking to themselvesAnd I can understand
Why is it every time I go outI always seem to get in trouble?I guess I made an impression on somebodyNorth of Hester and south of Grand
And so in my small wayI'm a big man on Mulberry StreetI don't mean all dayOnly at night when I'm light on my feetWhat else have I gotThat I'd be trying to hide?Maybe a blind spotI haven't seen from the sensitive side
But you know in my own heartI'm a big man on Mulberry StreetI play the whole partI leave a big tip with every receiptI'm so romanticI'm such a passionate manSometimes I panicWhat if nobody finds out who I am?

Music Monday: Of Time and Bottles

This week starts a new round of infusion treatment for me and a new round of uncertainty. In that vein (see what I did there?), this song is speaking to me, because I'm not a real fan of being unprepared by design. I need to know what's coming, but you can't, of course. So when I was listening to this song as a part of my Nanowrimo 23 prep, the line "But there never seems to be enough time/ To do the things you want to do once you find them" really struck me. The first round of treatment I focused only on the treatment. I planned my life around it. And to some extent, you have to do that...but I haven't written anything since July's Camp Nano save my Very Short Stories on the bird app. That has to change. That will change. There is enough of me to do both. Let's do this. Hand me that bottle.

(lyrics on screen)

On Writing, Nanowrimo, and Writer's Block

This happens every time I attempt a Nano month, and you'd think that I would have learned my lesson by now. After all, this Camp Nano that's going on right now is the 37th time I've committed to a specific word count goal in one month.

It's a funny thing, being a writer, especially when you aren't writing for your DayJob™ income. Some days I am so ready to throw off the day's frustration and will make my target word count and then some. Other days, I know what I want to get done but none of it it happening. Every sentence is awful.

Usually, the Nano months will pull me out of that ofnadwy (my favorite Welsh word these days, means terrible) slump and get me back to putting words down. You can always sort out the good from the bad later.

Until this month. Holy Shnikes, is this an uphill battle! It's a new project but not a new genre, if you will. I've got two "manuscripts" in my hard drive that are vampire fiction and the fits and starts of a third. I think the difference is that this one is a collaboration with another author, and I'm frustrated by only hearing one of the two main characters in my head.

There is still plenty of time to go, at least. My word count target is very low, so I don't have to worry about not being able to finish, no matter how ofnadwy the end result is. If you've gotten to this point where NOTHING IS HAPPENING, how do you pull yourself out of it?

Music Monday: Leaping into Camp Nano Like...

...get it? A Catapult?

Listen, I had many other puns involving felines that were MUCH worse, so...you're welcome. 

I have a feeling I have posted this song already before it got lost in the seventy-eleven playlists that I have for every significant moment in my life, but if so, enjoy it again. Another writer I follow on Twitter just finished Darkness and referred to Sath and Gin's relationship as "delectable" (what? Maybe I AM a romance writer after all? No...). I heard this song again recently and it really does bring me into the mind of the Royals of Qatu'anari, so I'm sharing it with you. Romance with a side of never-ending danger and a bit of sarcasm - Sath and Gin all day long. Since this April's Camp Nano isn't going to be in Orana, I'm getting all my Sath and Gin vibes out here. 

Maybe. 

Probably not.

Catapultby Jack Savoretti
Following the headlightsGot to find a way back to youI can be the white knightYou can play the princessWe'll be running like outlawsHiding in the midnightBreak down them gatesLet in the sunlight
Throw me over these wallsHigh up in the atmosphereIf I could catapult my heartWatch the empire fallI'm gonna get you outta hereIf I could catapult my heartTo where you are
You say you had your heart brokenWhat a stupid little thing to doNow you're tied to a train trackBut I'm a gonna comeAnd rescue youMake no mistakeI'll do whatever it takes
To get over these wallsHigh up in the atmosphereIf I could catapult my heartWatch the empire fallOoh I'm gonna get you outta hereIf I could catapult my heartTo where you areIf I could catapult my heart
Oh throw me over these wallsOoh high up in the atmosphereIf I could catapult my heartWatch the empire fallOoh I'm gonna get you outta hereIf I could catapult my heartTo where you areIf I could catapult my heartTo where you areI'm gonna catapult my heart

Off Camping...Again. April 2023 Newsletter

 Well, here goes nothing.

Again.

This is my 24th Camp Nanowrimo, which means 12 years of trying to fit in 2 more 30-50K word months in the year. There have been a few that didn't reach that goal, but that's okay. I just looked back at my projects, and I do have something listed for all of them at least.

This is why I preach the Nano gospel whenever someone asks me for my best advice for someone that wants to get started writing - the accountability is there, the community is there - I firmly believe it can be a great introduction to this crazy life.

So many of my books have started as Nano/Camp Nano projects, including all of the Orana Chronicles, the World of Arcstone, and the Clobberpaws/Proud Racer novels. If you have any questions about joining up for either of this year's Camp sessions (April and July) or the full Nano proper in November, I'd love to hear from you.

As always, if you want signed copies of my books and can't make it to one of the events, contact me and let's talk about how I can make that happen. If you have a copy of one of my books, I'd love it if you'd leave me a review - that's the best way for others to find my books and for me to know how my writing is being received!

Cheers, y'all!

Music Monday: A Bit of Heartbreak, after a Win

 First things first, I finished Nanowrimo this weekend. The lucky thing about having it in November is that there is a holiday in there that sees me off work and full of cheese, wandering about and asking what day it is...and with plenty of time to write. The manuscript isn't done but I can slow my pace a bit.

Now, that said, the story is turning out to be a lot darker than I'd originally thought, and with that darkness comes me seeking out writing inspiration that matches. This is one of the most emotionally evocative songs I know and when it came up in my playlist I had to take a moment and just live in the feelings. The first time I heard it I think I gasped out loud in the third act. I would say enjoy, but...sit with it for a bit.

The Highwaymanby Loreena McKennitt
The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty treesThe moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon the cloudy seasThe road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moonA highwayman came ridingRiding, ridingA highwayman came riding, up to the old inn-door
He'd a french cocked hat on his forehead, a bunch of lace at his chinA coat of glaring velvet, and breeches of brown doe skinThey fitted with never a wrinkle, his boots were up to the thighAnd he rode with a chill and a twinkleHis pistol butts a twinkleHis rapier hilt a twinkle, under the jeweled sky
And over the cobbles he clattered and clashed in the dark of nightAnd he tapped with his whip on the shutters, but all was locked and barredHe whistled a tune to the window, and who should be waiting thereBut the landlord's black-eyed daughterBess, the landlord's daughterPlaiting a long dark red love-knot into her long black hair
One kiss, my bonny sweetheart, I'm after a prize tonightBut I shall be back with the yellow gold before the morning lightYet if they press me sharply, and harry me through the dayThen look for me by the moonlightWatch for me by the moonlightI'll come to thee by the moonlight, though hell should bar the way
He rose upright in the stirrups, he scarce could reach her handShe loosened her hair in the casement, her face burnt like a brandAs the black cascade of perfume came tumbling over his breastAnd he kissed its waves in the moonlightOh, sweet waves in the moonlight!Then he tugged at his rein in the moonlight, and galloped away to the west
He did not come at the dawning, he did not come at noonAnd out of the tawny sunset, before the rise of the moonWhen the road was a gypsy's ribbon, looping the purple moonA red-coat troop came marchingMarching, marchingKing George's men came marching, up to the old inn-door
They said no word to the landlord, they drank his ale insteadBut they gagged his daughter and bound her to the foot of her narrow bedTwo of them knelt at the casement, with muskets at their sideThere was death at every windowHell at one dark windowFor Bess could see, through the casementThe road that he would ride
They had tied her up to attention, with many a sniggering jestAnd they bound a musket beside her, with the barrel beneath her breastNow keep good watch and they kissed herShe heard the dead man say"Look for me by the moonlightWatch for me by the moonlightI'll come to thee by the moonlight, though hell should bar the way"
She twisted her hands behind her, but all the knots held goodShe writhed her hands 'til her fingers were wet with sweat or blood!They stretched and strained in the darkness and the hours crawled on by like years!'Til, now, on the stroke of midnightCold, on the stroke of midnightThe tip of one finger touched it!The trigger at least was hers
Tlot-tlot! Had they heard it? The horse-hoofs ringing clearTlot-tlot, in the distance, were they deaf that they did not hear?Down the ribbon of moonlight, over the brow of the hillThe highwayman came ridingRiding, ridingThe red-coats looked to their primingShe stood up straight and still
Tlot in the frosty silence, tlot, in the echoing nightNearer he came and nearer, her face was like a lightHer eyes grew wide for a moment, she drew one last deep breathHer finger moved in the moonlightHer musket shot her in the moonlightShattered her breast in the moonlight and warned him with her death
He turned, he spurred to the west, he did not know she stoodBowed, with her head o'er the musket, drenched with her own red bloodNot 'til the dawn he heard it, his face grew grey to hearHow Bess, the landlord's daughterThe landlord's black-eyed daughterWatched for her love in the moonlight, and died in the darkness there
And back, he spurred like a madman, shrieking a curse to the skyWith a white rope smoking behind him and his rapier brandished highBlood-red were the spurs inthe golden moon, wine-red was his velvet coatWhen they shot him down on the highwayDown like a dog on the highwayAnd he lay in his blood on the highway, with a bunch of lace at his throat
Still of a winter's night, they say, when the wind is in the treesWhen the moon is a ghostly galleon, tossed upon the cloudy seasWhen the road is a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moonThe highwayman comes ridingRiding, ridingThe highwayman comes riding, up to the old inn-door

An Upcoming Signing Event and a bit of Gratitude

The book that started it all, in Orana, anyway...

Once again, I will be at the Carolina Renaissance Festival for Time Traveler's Weekend, hanging out with a bunch of fellow SciFi/Fantasy authors to sell signed copies of our books. You may remember that in 2019 I was there for the first time, selling a book that I'd started during the 2010 Nanowrimo. It came into the world as a ginormous 350K manuscript called - because I'm clever like that - Superginormous_Manuscript.doc. Yeah. That became the Nature Walker Trilogy, then the Orana Chronicles which has just seen the launch of the 8th book set in the universe of Orana, The Temple.

But this post isn't about that. Not really. 

This is about working for so long at CRF and seeing the authors set up on that weekend and wishing I could be one of them. This is about finally sending the email and seeing my name listed on the CRF website as one of the authors. This is about remembering how scared I was that first weekend, and how others around me had to basically pull information from me about my books.

I'm not going to lie and say that it has gotten any easier - if anything with so many titles it has gotten worse. But here's where the gratitude comes in.

I'm not really a part of any writing groups, not formal ones. I belong to two writing/author groups on social media and I am a proud member of the Broadleaf Writers Association in Georgia...but only because I attend their annual writer's conference and want to support what they do. So that first weekend at CRF I didn't know how to be an author. I'd sold books before, but they were never mine. I think I came back home after the weekend with almost as many copies as I'd taken with me.

But that's not the point. I am more grateful than I can ever express to the authors that were there that first weekend for treating me like I belonged there. I listened to them talk to people that came up to look at their books. I practiced saying what they said and working on my elevator pitches for the two titles I had with me. I have used Tell me what you like to read? and What kind of books are you reading right now? at all of my signing events since then, and it gives me a not-so-scary way to start a conversation.

When I returned in 2021 (2020 was cancelled because the faire didn't happen) I thought I was ready, but I still listened and still learned. And now, in 2022, I'm ready to spend a weekend up there hanging out with people who get the writer side of me. People who live in fantasy worlds and have characters on their mind day in and out. And I'm going into this on my own, without a Sherpa or a sidekick, and I'm gong to keep listening and keep learning.

Come see us, won't you? We will be there cannon to cannon this Saturday and Sunday. Tickets for the faire are advance purchase now and there are only a limited number. 

I'd love to see you at my table and have you tell me what you like to read. 📚

Music Monday: Nano Week Two

Y'all, the first week is always so easy. The target wordcounts are lower. The project is new. Your characters are still paying attention to what you want them to do. None of them have gone off the rails...yet. It's coming though, you know it is. And that complete nightmare happens in week two, but you need hope. Hope that the characters will finish running amok and come back home to where you want them - or that where they've gone is where the story needs to go. You've got to be unbreakable, so that at the end of the next two weeks, you remain undefeated.

(no lyrics this week because they are in the video)

Nanowrimo 2022 - Here goes nothing, again.

I bet she'd told me I couldn't have any cake. Stand back...

Yeah, it's here. Allegedly I'm going to work on the next in the Orana Chronicles series, Hero, but all I have so far is the cover. Cart before the horse, I know. 

I mean, I have a rough idea, but as a die-hard pantser I really don't have an outline. As my poor mother could have told you, "Nancy doesn't work well with an outline unless it is filled out after she's done writing." Sorry Mom.

Anyway, so I'm off and away today on this month long, coffee fueled expedition that I have taken every November since 2010, when I was here visiting my family from the UK and happened to hear about Nanowrimo somewhere. I thought I'd give it a go, and the bare bones of the Nature Walker Trilogy was born. 

Very bare bones. Like strung together with duct tape and bandanas and hope. 

I like to think back on that, though, when I am getting frustrated and starting to believe that the impostor syndrome is speaking for the collective universe when it says I need to give up this writing thing.

Another thing my mother could have told you is how stubborn her eldest daughter is. So I will be thinking of you this month, Mom, and how you believed that all you had to do to get your Nancy up and moving was suggest that maybe she couldn't do something. I will try, once again, to prove that wrong...and make you proud.

Music Monday: Mad [Author's]World

Well, that sums it up, doesn't it? The first time I heard this one I thought that it was spot on, what with everything going on in the world these days, but then I listened to it through the lens of a writer/creative...and it meant so much more. We want to scream our pain and break away from the dark. Yes. YES. Enjoy that last day before Nano starts, won't you?

(No lyrics because they are in the video.)

Music Monday: But where IS home?

I may have already featured this song on Music Mondays past, but it is such a favorite and a good writing inspiration that I'm going to do it again. I make no secret of my love for both Genesis and Phil Collins as a solo act, and this song was on my radar way back in 1995 when my family and I spent six weeks living abroad in the UK. I can't hear it now without cringing at how much I ignored all of the fantastic things I had to learn in favor of six weeks of homesickness and longing for friends far away. Spoiler alert: all those things were still there when I got back, but I won't ever live in that house with my parents and my sister again. So now I listen to this and I think of home as where you need to be at that moment in time, with those that you are meant to have around you...just as my main character will discover in the Nano project that starts in...JUST OVER A WEEK. WHAT?

Take Me Homeby: Phil Collins
Take that look of worry, I'm an ordinary manThey don't tell me nothing, so I find out all I canThere's a fire that's been burning right outside my doorI can't see but I feel it and it helps to keep me warm
So, I... I don't mindNo, I... I don't mind
Seems so long I've been waiting, still don't know what forThere's no point in escaping, I don't worry anymoreI can't come out to find you, I don't like to go outsideThey can turn off my feelings like they're turning off the light
But, I... I don't mindNo, I... I don't mindOh, I... I don't mindNo, I... I don't mind
So take, take me home'Cause I don't remember, take, take me home'Cause I don't remember, take, take me home, oh Lord
'Cause I've been a prisoner all my life, and I can say to you
Take that look of worry, mine's an ordinary lifeWorking when it's daylight, and sleeping when it's nightI've got no far horizons, I don't wish upon a starThey don't think that I listen, oh, but I know who they are
And, I... I don't mindNo, I... I don't mindOh, I... I don't mindNo, I... I don't mind
So take, take me home'Cause I don't remember, take, take me home'Cause I don't remember, take, take me home'Cause I don't remember, take, take me home, oh Lord
Well, I've been a prisoner all my life, and I can say to youBut I don't remember
Take, take me home'Cause I don't remember, take, take me home'Cause I don't remember, take, take me home'Cause I don't remember, take, take me home
'Cause I don't remember, take, take me home'Cause I don't remember, take, take me home'Cause I don't remember, take, take me home'Cause I don't remember, take, take me home
'Cause I don't remember...

Music Monday: Peak Autumn

Well, I don't know about you, but all that this piece of music is missing is a comfy blanket, a good book, a steaming mug of cider, and a cabin in a autumnal colored wood to hold it all. I'm seeing retellings of fairy tales and epic battles and...well, the rest would be a spoiler, wouldn't it? Roll on, Nanowrimo 2022. (No lyrics because it is purely instrumental.)

Music Monday: Talk to Me

 Oh, the Nano prep is swinging into high gear, and while I think I know where this year's project is going (never mind the whole OVERHAUL and REDO process), I don't ever really know until 1 November. Until then, all the characters yammer on inside this writer's brain, hoping to be able to join the fun next month. In that vein...I discovered this song while building out my playlist and it is stirring the muse a bit. Lzzy Hale never disappoints. (No need for lyrics this week - they're in the video!)

Music Monday: Preptober Week One

Here we are in October already. What on earth? For those of us that are Nano junkies, October becomes "prep-tober" as we get ready for our upcoming 30 days of writing and losing our minds. 

Well, it would if I were a plotter. However, I'm still firmly in the pantser category, so this month is for getting my 5 November release ready to go, my stock ready for a signing event mid-November, and generally clearing everything else off my calendar for the month of my birth.

Yep. I'm a November baby - a Sagittarius to be exact, so the pantser aspect shouldn't be a surprise. Anyway, this song has jumped out at me as I'm driving and singing like the mad GenX'er I am and whispered all sorts of things in my ear about my project for this year's Nano...enjoy.

High on You

by Survivor

There you stood, that'll teach her
To look so good and feel so right
Let me tell you about the girl I met last night

It's understood, I had to reach her
I let the wheel of fortune spin
I touched your hand before the crowd started crashin' in

Now I'm higher than a kite
I know I'm getting hooked on your love
Talkin' to myself, runnin' in the heat
Beggin' for your touch
In the middle of the street

And I, I can't stop thinkin' about you, girl
I must be livin' in a fantasy world
I'm so high on you

Smart and coy, a little crazy
The kind of face that starts a fight
Let me tell you about the girl I had last night

Piercin' eyes, like a raven
You seemed to share my secret sin
We were high before the night started kickin' in

Now I'm screamin' in the night
I know I'm getting hooked on your love
Talkin' to myself, runnin' in the heat
Beggin' for your touch
In the middle of the street

And I, I can't stop thinkin' about you, girl
I must be livin' in a fantasy world
I've searched the whole world over
To find a heart so true
Such complete intoxication
I'm high on you

There you stood, that'll teach her
To look so good and feel so right
Let me tell you about the girl I met last night

Now I'm higher than a kite
I know I'm getting hooked on your love
Talkin' to myself, runnin' in the heat
Beggin' for your touch in the middle of the street

And I, I can't stop thinkin' about you, girl
I must be livin' in a fantasy world
I've searched the whole world over
To find a heart so true
Such complete intoxication
I'm high on you

I'm high on you
I'm high on you
I'm high on you

Music Monday: It probably won't do...

I know. It was used in Spiderman. It's by Nickleback. I know all these things, but I also know that it is A-List for belting out in the car, slamming my palm against the steering wheel to keep time, and trying NOT to bang my head or break into interpretive dance like the GenX kid I am. But with the upcoming Nano being...most likely, I mean it is only September still and I've lots of sleeps to change my mind between now and then...right, the next Nano is PROBABLY going to be focused on the next Guardians of Orana novel, Hero, it seemed appropriate. Enjoy.

Heroby Nickleback
I am so high. I can hear heavenI am so high. I can hear heavenWhoa, but heavenNo heaven don't hear me
And they say that a hero can save usI'm not gonna stand here and waitI'll hold on to the wings of the eaglesWatch as we all fly away
Someone told me love would all save usBut how can that be, look what love gave usA world full of killing, and blood-spillingThat world never came
And they say that a hero can save usI'm not gonna stand here and waitI'll hold on to the wings of the eaglesWatch as we all fly away, Hi-ii-igh!
Now that the world isn't ending, it's love that I'm sending to youIt isn't the love of a hero, and that's why I fear it won't do
And they say that a hero can save usI'm not gonna stand here and waitI'll hold on to the wings of the eaglesWatch as we all fly away
And they're watching us (Watching Us)And they're watching us (Watching Us)As we all fly away!
And they're watching us (Watching Us)And they're watching us (Watching Us)As we all fly away!
And they're watching us (Watching Us)And they're watching us (Watching Us)As we all fly awayWhoa, whoa

Music Monday: Love Of Mine (Lyrics)

If you know me, you know I love Imagine Dragons, and I've said for ages that if I were to ever work on a soundtrack for a movie version of my books, they would be my first stop. There is so much in their catalogue that IS Orana and all my characters that live there...but this time I'm hearing them in a new light and with a new story in mind. My new project is the combination of several manuscripts in my never ending quest for a vampire story - kind of a Lost Boys meets Pretty in Pink urban fantasy...and this might be a good place to start. (No lyrics because they are in the video!) Enjoy.

Music Monday: Diabolical Blue

This song came up on a playlist recently and while I'm not sure yet, I think it will be very important come to November's Nanowrimo. Or I just like Elbow. One or the other. Or both. Enjoy.


What Am I Without You?by Elbow
The universe keeps singing this songYour eyes are diabolical blue, oohI've been watching you walk on the water latelyMy arms outstretched when you do
What am I?What am I on the earth forIf not to put you to bed?If not to remind you to eat sometimes, if...If not to cradle your head?What am I without you?
The universe keeps singing its songI can't get it out of my headIt skips right along like a stone on waterAnd I think I know how it ends
The last eyes I wanna seeAre yours, are brown and diabolical blueThey never once criеd without laughing, babySo I'll line up a zinger for youThat's what I'll do
Ooh-ooh-ooh-oohWhat am I without you?Ooh-ooh-ooh-oohWhat am I without you?What am I without you?What am I?

Music Monday: So, it's to be vampires, then?

I think I have posted this tune before, but this version jumped out of my television at me and demanded to be heard. I'm not familiar with the movie shown in the video, but I've always had a soft spot for this admittedly WEIRD tune after hearing it in Lost Boys. So...there is a Camp Nano coming up... 

Cry Little Sister

as performed by CHVRCHES

Last fire will rise behind those eyes
Black house will rock, blind boys don't lie
Immortal fear, that voice so clear
Through broken walls, that scream I hear

Cry, little sister (thou shall not fall)
Come, come to your brother (thou shall not die)
Unchain me, sister (thou shall not fear)
Love is with your brother (thou shall not kill)

Blue masquerade, strangers look on
When will they learn this loneliness?
Temptation heat beats like a drum
Deep in your veins, I will not lie

Cry, little sister (thou shall not fall)
Come, come to your brother (thou shall not die)
Unchain me, sister (thou shall not fear)
Love is with your brother (thou shall not kill)

My Shangri-La, I can't forget
Why you were mine, I need you now

Cry, little sister (thou shall not fall)
Come, come to your brother (thou shall not die)
Unchain me, sister (thou shall not fear)
Love is with your brother (thou shall not kill)

Cry, little sister (thou shall not fall)
Come, come to your brother (thou shall not die)
Unchain me, sister (thou shall not fear)
Love is with your brother (thou shall not kill)

Cry, little sister (thou shall not fall)
(Thou shall not die)
(Thou shall not fear)
Love is with your brother (thou shall not kill)