Author: Becky

Thinking Things Thursday

I’m not entirely satisfied with what I’m writing. That usually means I need to JUST KEEP WRITING. But instead, I’ll pick at it and tear at it and delete it and otherwise freak myself out about it. Did that today while listening to these:


Elton John, self-titled, which I’ve probably written about on here a couple of times before; Elton John, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, which I heard for the first time LIVE in what I often say is the best concert I ever saw, and maybe it was; and Norah Jones, Feels Like Home and …Featuring Norah Jones.

Seems like a sad lack of Elton John, but I have several of his albums in iTunes and maybe I still have some vinyl, but I don’t think so. The real moment to pause and appreciate is that I finished the “A” to “J” binder!


Which means I’m now in the “K”s, and I did hear one before I stopped writing for the night.


Kicking off with Kansas, Super Hits. I think I may have picked this up on a road trip with Debby because she loves the song “Dust In the Wind.” I’m not trying to disrespect Kansas, because I saw them live, too, when I was in college, and it was a good concert. But I have to wonder. Hypothetically speaking, how freaking high was I were people back then to sit and listen to hours of synthesizers and think, this is good shit what fine stuff, and we whoever wasn’t even talking about weed life?

In other words, I’m kind of glad there’s only one Kansas CD and it’ll be some other “K” artist or band tomorrow.

Rest well, friends. And don’t do drugs. Unless you’re about to stream some Kansas. Highly recommend.

Starry Wednesday


The Starry Night, Vincent Van Gogh. This painting is in the public domain.

Following up on my recent Button Sunday post, sometime in 2019, maybe 2020, I was thinking of Vincent Van Gogh’s The Starry Night, one of my favorite paintings, though I admit to a soft spot for all of Van Gogh’s work. When I went searching for it online, just to look at it again, I stumbled across a digital painting by Alex Ruiz that blew me away.

During the summer after (my) fifth grade, our parents sent Debby and me to camp for a week. Debby’s a few years older, and that did NOT fit in with a teenager’s view of how she wanted her summer to be. She hated camp (her word). I don’t remember much about it, but I do remember this. At least one night, everyone went outside and lay in the grass staring up at the sky. This was in rural North Carolina, no light pollution, and I was mesmerized in a way I never had been. I finally asked someone older, maybe a counselor, “What IS that?” and was told I was seeing the Milky Way. Had never heard of it, didn’t know what it meant, but I knew I’d never forget it, and I never have.


©Alex Ruiz, 2011
When I saw Alex Ruiz’s Starry Night, I returned to that magic moment and eleven-year-old me. Alex created it from roughly Van Gogh’s same location as an homage to the artist. Van Gogh is the person in the painting, and this is what Alex imagines he saw that inspired his “Starry Night.”

Ever since, I’ve used that image as a place I mentally go when I have insomnia: Ruiz’s meadow, the breathtaking sky, and Van Gogh in a field of flowers soaking in beauty and inspiration. Though I haven’t written it yet, when the Neverending Saga nears the last novel, I already know the chapter Van Gogh and Ruiz have inspired. It may be a while before I get there, but it’s a transcendent moment of kindness and love and a splendid night sky.

I have a print of Ruiz’s digital art hanging in the writing sanctuary. It makes a good companion to a print Debby gave me at Christmas.


©Ravens of the Night, WingsDomain Art, Photography Canvas Print, 2010

Finally, below is one of a set of four different Van Gogh-inspired cups that I think Tom’s parents gave us for Christmas one year. I’ve photographed it with today’s writing playlist.


Natalie Imbruglia, Left of the Middle; Joe Jackson, The Millennium Collection; Etta James, Mystery Lady: Songs of Billie Holiday; Jewel, Pieces of You and Spirit.

May you find beauty and inspiration wherever you look.

Tiny Tuesday!

I decided to do a photo today for Instagram because I last posted on February 3. Though I almost never sign into Facebook, and checking Twitter gets more infrequent, I do still scroll my Instagram feed daily, but I forget to post. I figured it was time to say, “Yep, still here.”

While setting up a photo to note–what else, Valentine’s Day, I took out this wee box from one of my display cabinets. I THINK I know who it’s from, but there are three strong candidates. So if you happen by and you were the giver, tell me! I’m freaking old. I forget things.


Shot next to a Hershey’s Kiss for scale.

Writing (yay!) and will add today’s playlist later.

ETA: Started off with Hole, Live Through This. I included the actual CD because it has a heart on it–Valentine’s Day and all.

Kept going with The Hollies’ Greatest Hits; Hootie and the Blowfish, Cracked Rear View; and Chris Isaak, Forever Blue.

Mood: Monday

A photo previously posted here was of Night Sky Painting, 2015, acrylic on canvas, by artist Hyoyoun Lee, Korea.

I got up this morning and started writing so intently that I forgot to turn on music. At some point, I played the next four “H” CDs, all from the spectacular John Hiatt.


John Hiatt: Hiatt Comes Alive at Budokan; Overcoats; Walk On; and Perfectly Good Guitar.

If you think you don’t know any John Hiatt, you may have heard his songs covered by (deep breath, Wikipedia): Rosanne Cash, Aaron Neville, B.B. King, Bob Dylan, Bonnie Raitt, Buddy Guy, Chaka Khan, Albert Lee, Dave Edmunds, Delbert McClinton, Desert Rose Band, Emmylou Harris, Eric Clapton, Iggy Pop, I’m with Her, Jeff Healey, Jewel, Jimmy Buffett, Joan Baez, Joe Bonamassa, Joe Cocker, Keith Urban, Linda Ronstadt, Mandy Moore, Maria Muldaur, Marti Jones, Nick Lowe, Paula Abdul, Paulini, Rodney Crowell, Marshall Crenshaw, Ry Cooder, Suzy Bogguss, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, The Searchers, Three Dog Night, Willie Nelson, Asleep at the Wheel, Don Henley, and Willy DeVille. The Dutch singer-songwriter Ilse DeLange recorded the album Dear John with nine of his songs.

Button Sunday

ETA: Here are my CD tracks from Saturday and Sunday writing.


Josh Groban, self titled. I used a quote from Don McLean’s song “Vincent” (about Vincent Van Gogh) on our friend Jeff’s NAMES Quilt panel. The song is included on this CD, and our friend Nora, who adored Jeff, gave the CD to me a few years after Jeff’s death.
Guns N’ Roses, Use Your Illusion I and II.


Merle Haggard, The Essential Merle Haggard: The Epic Years; Sophie B. Hawkins, Whaler; Ted Hawkins, The Next Hundred Years; Heart, Greatest Hits; Joe Henderson, Double Rainbow; The Jimi Hendrix Experience, BBC Sessions 2-CD set.

Music and dogs

Friday’s writing required a lot of research. In terms of setting, it’s much easier for me to make up a town, and if I use actual places, for those to be places I know or at least have visited. Throwing my characters into places across the US and Europe–and Australia, for that matter–where I’ve never been is an interesting challenge. I know I can’t possibly get it all right, particularly when it includes decades before I was born. But I want to get it as right as I can and seek accuracy from others when I complete this saga.

Sometimes I’d like to listen to that inner voice that whispers, WHY does it matter? Who’s going to care? Who’s even going to read it? But listening to that inner voice makes me wonder why I’m doing any of this, and the wiser part of me knows it’s because I have to. Or I choose to have to. This iteration of stories about these characters has provided something for me since 2019, and at (almost) six books in, I wouldn’t be giving up something I don’t like doing or am tired of. I’d be giving up something I love.

Here’s the music that played while this mental stew of quit/neverquit bubbled, spilled over, made messes, got a few more ingredients and water from my tears added, and kept trying to escape a cauldron I call “1974.”


The Grass Roots, Let’s Live For Today; Greatest Hits, Volume One; Greatest Hits, Volume Two; and Anthology 1965-1975, two disks; Green Day, Insomniac (I have no idea where this came from); and Greta Van Fleet, From The Fires and The Battle At Garden’s Gate.

For those who have zero interest in my tunes-to-write-to, here are some other photos. Because if you have a soul, you either love dogs or you love photos of them.


Eva and Delta in front of the fire. Amusing for them to be together, as they consider themselves competition for the crown.


Delta. Always so much to think about.


Jack and Delta. Those faces. It must have been closing in on dinner time, the way they are watching me.


I envy Anime’s ability to sleep in a variety of places and positions all over the Hall.

Since I’m putting this post together in the wee hours of Saturday morning, I’ll try to follow her example and sleep.

Happy Saturday!

ETA: Much later Saturday morning, after seven hours of sleep, a shower, outside dog time, and mopping the library floor, I’m back at work, tunes ready for playing, with my brunch sitting next to me. Since my muse characters are gathered in London (at the Savoy–swanky!), I chose my Abbey Road cup for my coffee today.

Cup gift of Timmy and Paul from a London trip they took.

No writing Thursday…

Too many things to do, too little energy. Maybe tomorrow, if these four muses together will help me out.


Four friends out for drinks. In their younger years, they dubbed themselves the four musketeers. While they aren’t the swashbuckling type, to a man, rich or poor, straight or gay, they will defend the safety and honor of any female in distress. I would want them all on my side.

Please stand by…

More technical difficulties with the site and a spate of insomnia has me behind. I’m doing this post mostly to see if I can post, and if I can edit a post, or if I need to seek tech support again.

When I wrote, those times I could, this was the music I heard. Hopefully all this stuff will be cleared up and I can get back to whatever normal is. Thank you for your patience.


Marvin Gaye, Gold 2-disk set. Nobody like Marvin Gaye. <3

Couldn’t choose only one of Marvin Gaye’s spectacular grooves, so I’ll link to this old Commodores tribute to Marvin Gaye and Jackie Wilson (both died in 1984). I have Commodores-related stories, but I’ll save ’em for my memoirs. =)

Tiny Tuesday!

Yesterday, I got my best writing done before noon, without any music, because I had to stay laser-focused since I knew I had to leave the house at twelve. By the time I got home mid-afternoon, I was tired and drained*, though I did work a little bit more in the evening before I had to call it a night.

So this morning, I took a suggestion from the book that launched Tiny Tuesdays in the first place.

It wasn’t quite as glorious as it looks with the Instagram filter, and it was more brunch than breakfast (because I have to wait at least an hour to eat or have any dairy products after my first meds of the day, I usually forget to eat and end up doubling up breakfast/lunch, then have a snack mid-afternoon to tide me over until dinner). One egg that was supposed to be over-easy, but I broke the yolk so ended up scrambling it, a mini bagel with cream cheese, a small apple, two strips of bacon (halved so I could fit them in my favorite small frying pan), with coffee, water, and a wee glass of orange juice.

This is the music from yesterday. I have more Fleetwood Mac, but there were a lot of repeats found on the CDs I’d previously listened to, so I finally moved on to the “G”s. Who’s up next, I wonder? (For part of it, my timing is perfect, because Tom is working in the office today. He wasn’t at all excited about maybe having to hear one of my favorite bands from my early teens. He doesn’t mind when my iTunes shuffles them in an occasional song at a time, but entire CDs in one sitting are a nope for him. 😂)


Fleetwood Mac, Behind the Mask and The Dance; Peter Gabriel, US.

ETA: *I’d forgotten to put a note about one reason I was drained. Too much news. I get so exhausted by our national news when I see news from other parts of the world–like southern Turkey and northern Syria right now, dealing with the devastation and loss of life from earthquakes. So many parts of the world have to cope with those things when they are already reeling from humanitarian crises. Here, we have so much and often give so much, at home and abroad, but we behave so deplorably toward one another within our borders. Even bringing these things up publicly, one runs the risk of accusations of performative politics, being “woke,” being a sheep and a “libtard.” If that’s what compassion and hope and the occasional plea for awareness, kindness, and education are, I reckon I’m guilty.