Main, Music

A few things of no particular consequence

came over this afternoon, and we had a delightful time getting her laptop updated to Snow Leopard (plus the .1 update) while watching the first two hours of the BBC version of State of Play. I really liked that, and it’s quite nice how the US version did a decent job of preserving the bones of the plot while condensing it down to two hours. John Simm is easily a match for my beloved Mr. Crowe, I’ll totally grant–plus, the BBC version has David Morrisey, who I’d first seen being awesome in the last Doctor Who Christmas special, “The Next Doctor”. It’s quite cool to see him in something else.

Meanwhile, I have made my first ebook purchase inspired by my recently joining the Outer Alliance: a short work called Rot by Michele Lee. It’s a zombie work, and it adds an extra level of tension by making the zombies still sentient while their bodies are rotting around them. You can check out the Outer Alliance’s spotlight post on Michele here, and her own page about the work here.

In addition, I’ve picked up copies of Treason’s Harbour and The Far Side of the World, since I needed those to continue the Patrick O’Brian goodness. Y’all may remember I listened to an audio version of Treason’s Harbour already, but I didn’t have a physical copy yet. Very much looking forward to reading The Far Side of the World, too!

I have issues with the 3.1 iPhone OS update: namely, it’s totally broken Smart Playlists. All of my Smart Playlists on my device are displaying out of order, although they’re fine in iTunes on my computer. So to get around this, I’ve started listening to a lot of my stuff via album view or via the podcasts view. As a consequence, I’ve been stricken with an urge to just listen to my entire collection in alphabetical order, just because I haven’t listened to quite a bit of this stuff in quite a bit of time. Still working my way through the A’s. I think I’ll do a summary post when I’m done with each letter.

And, last but not least, speaking of music, the Murkworks now has Beatles Rock Band. We played it some Friday night and it was highly entertaining, and a Beatles Rock Band gathering at our house is highly likely next weekend. We need more mikes to properly do the harmonies. And I am totally requiring some Beatles in my iTunes collection now.

September 20, 2009 by
Faerie Blood

Another nice Faerie Blood review spotted

spotted this nice mention of Faerie Blood in connection with YA novels the reviewer was reading. Somebody in the comments thought it sounded neat too. Yay!

To anybody who happens to wander by as a result of that post, first, hello! Second, for the record, Faerie Blood is not actually YA, although arguably it’s YA-friendly. Kendis at age 28 is too old to really qualify as a YA heroine, though.

Also, Christopher is only half-Scottish! This doesn’t actually come up in the story, but for giggles and grins and the reference of any of y’all reading this, Christopher’s father, Malcolm MacSimidh, actually is from Scotland. He moved to St. John’s, Newfoundland, at some point in his younger days and married Christopher’s mother, a Newfoundlander. Christopher however considers himself a Newfoundlander, even if he has a very Scottish name, since he was born and raised in St. John’s. It’s his mother’s blood that gives him his magic, not to mention his music.

September 17, 2009 by
Great Big Sea

Great Big Sea at Malkin Bowl, Vancouver BC, 9/12/09

And now, ladies and gentlemen, the highlight of , , and my trip to Vancouver: the Great Big Sea concert at Malkin Bowl in Stanley Park, Saturday night, September the 12th!

Fangirly squealing behind the fold, and this time, y’all, thanks to my beloved Dara, I am bringing pictures. There are links off to suitable tasty videos as well, and mad props to OKPers sticckler and katy for those!

Continue Reading

September 16, 2009 by
Great Big Sea

Great Big Video Goodness

For those of you who didn’t see me tweet these yesterday and this morning, I must share with you two delightful videos from a young lady I met on the way out of the Great Big Sea concert on Saturday night. She had attended both shows in Vancouver and had the great fortune of being up near the stage, with a camera! I therefore bring you the work of fellow OKP denizen sticckler:

Here’s her catching Sean McCann doing the Extended Remix Edition of the Mermaid Dance! Watch for where he completely forgets the next verse.

And, from the show I attended, The Mighty Doyle nailing “River Driver”. To wit, YUM. <3 Also, Doyle fans, note the presence of the beard!

My own Extended Remix post for the concert is on the way, y'all. 😉

September 15, 2009 by
Bone Walker, Child of Ocean Child of Stars, Queen of Souls, Shards of Recollection, Vengeance of the Hunter

And now, back to business

Now that I’m back from a delightful sojourn up to Canada to see my favorite band, and now that I’m done with “The Blood of the Land” and editing Lament of the Dove, it’s time to think about what I need to be doing next.

First up is likely to be resuming editing Queen of Souls. Y’all may remember (at least, those of you who were following my now-defunct annathewriter Livejournal) that I had barely started editing the second draft; now I need to dive back into that and getting it closer to being formally queryable.

Meanwhile, I have four, count ’em, four other works in progress that need attention, all of which need some serious review of their core concepts so that I can start planning them better and getting more work done on them. These are of course Faerie Bones (the projected Book 2 for Faerie Blood), Shadow of the Rook (Book 2 for Lament of the Dove), Shards of Recollection (which I never have been happy with yet), and Child of Ocean, Child of Stars (which starts okay but which needs further review). I don’t know yet which one I’m going to start throwing serious words at; I think this is a decision I’ll need to make after I get a bunch of outlines written up.

September 14, 2009 by
Faerie Blood

One more super-quick Faerie Blood status check

It’s been about a month now since Faerie Blood showed up on Fictionwise, and I’m pleased to observe that I’m still in the top 20 on the Fantasy list there. I’ve peaked at #2 and am as of tonight at least back down to #18, which is where I started when I first paid attention to this. I am up to 12 ratings on the site, most of which appear to be “Great”, and I’m apparently now also the best-selling Drollerie book in their database. 14 people total have added me on Goodreads, too, and I had a new and very nice review show up on Amazon.

All of which is pleasing! It’s all small potatoes, sure. But they’re my potatoes. And they’re tasty!

No sign of me yet on Barnes and Noble, although I do note that the other ebook called Faerie Blood that I’d previously sighted in Fictionwise’s database is over there now. Hopefully I won’t be too far behind!

September 14, 2009 by
Book Log

Book Log #73: Shadow of the Antlered Bird, by David Sklar

If you’re somebody who thinks “old school” when you think “urban fantasy”, if you like more mythos and lyricism and things wondrous and strange in your fantasy novels than the sort of grim darkness you get in a lot of ’em these days, then David Sklar’s Shadow of the Antlered Bird is a Drollerie Press release you’ll want to read.

The plot’s about as basic as you can get. Tam is half-human, half-Sidhe, and wants nothing more than to get out from under his mother’s shadow and carve out a life for himself in the human world. But his mother won’t leave him alone, and so he employs a desperate act of magic to escape her–only to find that he must flee across the country to Seattle and enlist the aid of a mortal girl before he can accomplish what he desires. He is of course pursued, not only by his mother, but by a creature who seems to be able to change into anything while he’s hunting, including Tam himself.

I really quite liked this work overall. The language is rich and the story is just about as long as it needs to be, without a single detail that doesn’t absolutely need to be there. Check it out. Four stars.

September 14, 2009 by