Yesterday I played Dungeons and Dragons in a one off in between our regular group, Lorem Ipsum's sessions. As it turns out, the real big bad in D&D is scheduling when you are playing as an adult with jobs, side gigs, dog shows, dance gigs, and author signings to try to sort through. So the son of one of my friends from LI (who also runs a character in that current campaign) DM'd for us and our regular DM got to play a character. Very cool.
[Note to self: It doesn't matter how long you have researched to find just the right name for your character...Róisín (Roh-sheen) looks like raisin to everyone that doesn't have any experience in the Irish language, and they will call you that. Anyway, back to the post...]
One of the things we do to frustrate our regular DM is that we keep picking up familiars. Strays, they are. I honestly don't remember how it happened with the first one, Terrence the Wombat, but since then we have another wombat, two goats, and several horses in our group. So this song by Colm R. McGuinness jumped out at me the first time I heard it, and I thought it was appropriate for this week. Enjoy, and remember, a troll is not a familiar.
On that same drive that inspired last week's post, I also heard a song that has been in Lark's playlist for awhile: Uninvited by the fabulous Alanis Morissette. I have loved this song for awhile now and it has stuck in my head like someone WANTED me to hear it. Apparently that person is Lark. She is a demanding soul, for sure.
Anyway, as I listened to that one in stop and go traffic, I thought of a scene that I've had trouble visualizing: the final battle with the big bad (I'm trying to avoid spoilers, y'all, I really am). Lark has to stare down her mortal enemy and potentially end him, coming out still...alive? on the other side. The tricky thing with writing vampires is that there is SO MUCH lore about what they can do to humans and to each other, and I have been working on not letting one of those...things ruin this scene.
Whew. I may need to sit down after all that avoiding.
Well, anyway, as I was listening to that song, I was seeing other scenes in my head. Other battles she fights along the way, both physical and mental. And it came to me...the battles we fight lead us to a place where we are strong enough to do the really hard things. They don't "make us stronger," exactly; I'm not a fan of people telling me how strong I am to have beaten cancer and be still standing because I am not strong. It was awful. There were times when I wanted to just give up but I didn't have a choice. Lark doesn't have a choice in the memories coming to her because of the others in those memories and that's what makes her strong enough for that fight.
Well. We hope so. I mean, it could go sideways. Spoilers, sweetie. Anyway...here's her inspiration--and mine.
I was driving back from an interpreting gig recently and heard a song come on my playlist that I think I added after hearing it in a commercial. Now, y'all know that my style of writing is to watch my characters do whatever it is they want to show me and then write up the incident report, right? Well, sometimes they decide to talk to me when I can't write...like when I am driving. I've tried doing a speech to text note in my phone but the Google is a fickle mistress when I'm stuck in traffic on I-85.
Last week on my way down to see my sister I saw a trailer being towed by a vehicle (because it merged in almost on top of me) that was painted red and had the name Lark in the upper left corner. Lark. Sweetie. Please, I want to hear from you and I want to get you and Connor out into the wild but THAT IS NOT THE WAY TO GET MY ATTENTION. Creole vampires, I tell ya.
Well this song hit me today in almost the same way, so my co-author (bless him) got a speech to text message from me detailing what popped into my mind. I think we have sorted out another bit of our take on vampire lore which is good, but again, NOT IN THE CAR and NOT WHILE I'M DRIVING, PLEASE?
Anyway, here's the song. Might be more like 150 years for Connor and Lark, but it still applies. Enjoy.
I'm a long time fan of Beauty and the Beast. I mean, come on...Sath and Gin? Also, the tv show with Ron Perlman and Linda Hamilton? Yes please. So when I heard last week that Greenville, SC native Peabo Bryson died, this was all I could think of. Thank you for this amazing performance.
Lyrics
Songwriters: Howard Elliott Ashman / Alan Irwin Menken
I am a recent convert to all things Yungblud. I discovered this amazing young artist at the time we lost Ozzy because they had an absolutely beautiful friendship...and I've gradually been listening to his work. This song hit me pretty hard today when I saw a concert clip of him performing it on social media, and now it is in the back of my head singing to me about Sath and Gin, Em and Lex, and Lark and Connor (who you haven't met yet but I hope you will soon). It's is just beautiful, and I hope you enjoy it. Lyrics are in the video.
Now, I love Florence + the Machine. Love. Adore. Will stop dead in my tracks if she comes on the radio or playlist. But this new one, Kraken, hit me right in the chest with the first line: "Sometimes my body seems so alien to me..."
Anyone that has had cancer treatment can relate, but I think when your treatment involves an amputation like a double mastectomy, it makes that feeling more vivid. My clothes don't fit like they did. I can't trust that I can put things away in a high cupboard or even do things like brush my teeth. My hair was growing back with luscious curls and then when I started on the next to the last phase, Verzenio, it became thin again.
"...so when your hand reached out I just pushed it farther down..."
I've reached the point where I'm starting to be okay with me and I'm finding the tribe that buoyed me up during active treatment has gone back to their regular lives...and while that is okay, I mean if course it is, I do feel invisible. A lot. To the point that Florence saves me yet again:
I was hopping around among playlists on a LONG drive recently and found an old one called "Music for Orana." As I was on my way to a book event in Knoxville (hello LONG delays on I40 from Asheville to the Tennessee state line), I put that on to get me in the headspace to sell the stories I wrote about my Orana characters...who have in many ways become more real to me than some real people in my life. Authors, you know what I mean about the voices that wake you up in the middle of the night to deliver a plot twist...
Anyway, the title for this song by Alex Clare slid onto the screen just behind my steering wheel and I took a quick second to remember what part of the books was inspired by this song. Two seconds later I knew... This is what I imagine it is like for Gin to feel the bond in her mind when Taeben is controlling her but convincing her he does it because he cares for her.
Relax my beloved, don't worry for me
Don't shed a tear for me, always be near for me
Be confident my love, don't bow your head for me
Promise you'll smile for me, don't ever cry for me
He is soothing her and convincing her to let him take care of her. He wants her to be the best version of herself, unlike the Qatu Sath who wants to hold her back so he has to rescue her. He begs her to smile for him, though her smile is the bit that brings into sharp focus what he is actually doing, and it breaks him a bit each time.
I've got nothing to add to this, really, except that this is where I am in this quagmire of a timeline we're living in now, and it helps to remind me what I need to stand for and stand up to...because you can call me irrelevant, insignificant...I won't call on you at all.
This weekend was my first one back at the Georgia Renaissance Festival (spring) and despite the dust and a slightly skittish wolfhound it was glorious. One more Irish tune to play for this weekend of pipes, drums, and Celtic culture, i nGaeilge of course. It mentions Grace O'Malley! How could I not...enjoy.
There seems to be similarity among those of us in GenX when it comes to ways to de-stress. One of them is dancing to fantastic 80s music--whether you're in the car or your kitchen, it is a hit of dopamine that apparently we need from time to time. There's even a group of women of a certain age that I follow on the socials that post nothing but videos of them dancing to the songs that were the soundtrack to my life in the 80s and I am HERE FOR IT.
This one showed up for me this morning and I'd forgotten how wonderful this song is...and how much it helps. Soooooo much. (lyrics below)
She Sells Sanctuary
-The Cult
Oh, the heads that turn
Make my back burn
And those heads that turn
Make my back, make my back burn
The sparkle in your eyes
Keeps me alive
And the sparkle in your eyes
Keeps me alive, keeps me alive
The world
Oh, the world turns around
The world and the world, yeah
The world drags me down
Oh, the heads that turn
Make my back burn
And those heads that turn
Make my back, make my back burn, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah
The fire in your eyes keeps me alive
And the fire in your eyes keeps me alive
Inside her you'll find sanctuary
Inside her you'll find sanctuary
And the world, the world turns around
And the world, and the world, the world drags me down
And the world, and the world, and the world, the world turns around
And the world, and the world, and the world, and the world
The world drags me down
Ah, hey yeah, hey yeah
And the world, and the world turns around
And the world, and the world
Yeah, the world drags me down
And the world, yeah, the world turns around
And the world, and the world, the world drags me down
One more from Chasing Abbey because I am more and more in love with this band...and I'm still waiting for them to release Saoirse... But this one speaks to the state of our country and our world today.
"The scars of war are hard to fade/so who's to gain?/So who's to gain? Ní mise (not me)/Ní tusa (not you)\Ní mise (not me)/Ní tusa (not you)."
For my second signing event in 2026, I'm over the moon (with Artemis II) to get to tell you I will be at SC Comicon this weekend! Saturday and Sunday, 10-6ish, I will be in the Vendor Hall in Artist's Alley with books ready to go home with you!
I will be in space 1032 (marked on the floor map below) which is on the opposite side of the hall from last fall if you came to the one day Fall Comicon, and will have all of my Orana Chronicles epic fantasy novels, The World of Arcstone litRPG duology, and the first in the alternative fiction series Luminous Beings series, Strið.
I hope to see you, not just because my books need homes but because the line up for this Comicon is amazing! Anson Mount (Star Trek: SNW), Ron Perlman (Beauty and the Beast), Ruth Connell (SPN), Mark Sheppard (SPN, Firefly)...it's going to be amazing! Also, there will be authors I love there, including Darin Kennedy, Matthew Saunders, and the Crowded Shelf!
I'm not going to pretend that y'all don't know what is going on in the world right now. We all do, especially those of us in the US as we watch the juxtaposition of reports out of Iran and its neighbors and the rhetoric coming from the White House. Again and again...and it's only been a year and a half.
This song is not about that, but it feels like the entire world is crying arís is arís (again and again) every time a new atrocity happens. Also, this past weekend was the 110th anniversary of the Easter Rising, and I would imagine that the ancestors are looking at us in amazement and horror that we have not yet learned those lessons. Cén uair a chríochaíonn sé? (When does it end?)
Hopefully before the Dorchadas, Dorchadas, Dorchadas sa chroí (Darkness, Darkness Darkness in the heart)...
I've been listening to a lot of Irish music this spring, and finding that I can pick up more Gaeilge (Irish) that way than I am on Duolingo or by just looking up words and sentences. While waiting for Chasing Abbey to put out Saoirse, I'm sharing a song from the Irish Kings. Enjoy...and ROAR.
Lyrics:
Fair auld pride for the county I Was called upon to lead Was born and bred with a braisened head By a wild Atlantic sea
Through fear we ride and death we stride And face a life of toil We're marching on where we belong On Ireland's rugged soil
So run and power on and power on And follow me I'll bring you to the light In through the fight
As men we live and bleed So fear be gone and blood be on Our tweed and garments wore And men will pray and rue the day They hear the Irish roar
Ireland Bleed Ireland Live Ireland Breathe Ireland Lift Ireland Lead Ireland Be I.R.E.L.A.N.D. (Glóir, Croí, Grá, Éire)
Ireland Bleed Ireland Live Ireland Breathe Ireland Lift Ireland Lead Ireland Be I.R.E.L.A.N.D. (Glóir, Croí, Grá, Éire)
We are but land and grit and sand And bog and stone and flame Our spirits wake through crashing lakes And songs without a name
From Clare to Down, from hill to town The bloodline runs afar And every grave where good men lay Shall guide us through the dark
So rise and power on and power on And follow me I'll lead you through the light, into the fight As men we shall but lead
Our mothers weep, their sorrows deep But know the cause is true For every son that bears a gun A thousand more will do
Ireland Bleed Ireland Live Ireland Breathe Ireland Lift Ireland Lead Ireland Be I.R.E.L.A.N.D. (Glóir, Croí, Grá, Éire)
Ireland Bleed Ireland Live Ireland Breathe Ireland Lift Ireland Lead Ireland Be I.R.E.L.A.N.D. (Glóir, Croí, Grá, Éire)
Ireland Bleed Ireland Live Ireland Breathe Ireland Lift Ireland Lead Ireland Be I.R.E.L.A.N.D. (Glóir, Croí, Grá, Éire)
Ireland Bleed Ireland Live Ireland Breathe Ireland Lift Ireland Lead Ireland Be I.R.E.L.A.N.D. (Glóir, Croí, Grá, Éire)
(Glóir, Croí, Grá, Éire)
(Glóir, Croí, Grá, Éire)
(Glóir, Croí, Grá, Éire)
(Glóir, Croí, Grá, Éire)
Ireland Bleed Ireland Live Ireland Breathe Ireland Lift Ireland Lead Ireland Be I.R.E.L.A.N.D.
Ireland Bleed Ireland Live Ireland Breathe Ireland Lift Ireland Lead Ireland Be I.R.E.L.A.N.D.
Ireland Bleed Ireland Live Ireland Breathe Ireland Lift Ireland Lead Ireland Be I.R.E.L.A.N.D.
Ireland Bleed Ireland Live Ireland Breathe Ireland Lift Ireland Lead Ireland Be I.R.E.L.A.N.D.
