Tag: entertainment

Tiny Tuesday!

When I started the sixth book in the Neverending Saga, I checked all the previous novels to see which characters got the first (or first couple) of chapters from among the four characters who are allowed points of view in the series. That’s when I realized someone was way overdue, so it was an easy choice. By choosing that narrative voice, there was also a natural best choice for beginning the seventh novel.

Early in his life, this character began to think of himself as a lone crow. He was kidding himself, and I think he’s only now beginning to realize it. Crows aren’t loners. Not only do they stay in units that can include family members from multiple generations, but they’re monogamous and mate for life.

The birds in the corvid family hold endless fascination for me. They include choughs, crows, jackdaws, jays, magpies, nutcrackers, ravens, rooks, and treepies, but not grackles or the various blackbirds who come from other groups.

I like grackles, but there are a lot of parking lots and public areas in Houston where so many grackles gather that a walk is laced with all the suspense of a Hitchcock movie.

Of the corvids, I’m most drawn to crows and ravens. Debby gave me a beautiful drum with a raven on it.

It’s actually been a great rhythm instrument for me to use when I pause while writing the “Lone” Crow. The back of the drum is as beautiful as the front.

Far more musical than me playing the raven drum would be:


Frank Sinatra, The Columbia Years three-CD set; Patti Smith, Gone Again; Soundgarden, Superunknown and King Animal; Spin Doctors, Pocket Full of Kryptonite; and The Very Best of Dusty Springfield.

Right now I’m midway into listening to a group of ten CDs from another “S” artist, though it’s distressing me a bit when I realize all of the Harvey-drowned albums I haven’t replaced from this particular collection. Can you guess the artist?

More to come; gotta get back to my crow.

There’s a fun song by the Wilderbeats performed for children that will help you identify a crow versus a raven. Now that I think of it, I have a character who likes to sing to children. But I digress.

ETA: I almost never remember the significance of this date to me personally. I’m mostly glad about that. ♥

Saturday Night’s Alright for Writing

Apologies to Sir Elton John for misappropriating this title from the Goodbye Yellow Brick Road album, “Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting.” To add insult to injury, I’m not listening to Elton John today. I’m listening to this.


Frank Sinatra’s four-CD collection The Best of the Columbia Years, 1943 to 1952

Frank has helped give me a productive writing day, but he may have gotten some assistance from a couple of father and daughter muses.

Funny story: This young lady has a little friend who loves Elton John and does not love horses at all.

I don’t ride but I like horses, and I also like dolls, Frank, and Elton. In fact, also from Goodbye Yellow Brick Road is a song I’ve used as a theme song for this kilted gent (who I originally wrote in 1971, and boy has his character gotten a lot more story since then) from the first time I heard it on the Goodbye Yellow Brick Road album (thanks, Debbie M!) after seeing Elton John on his 1974 North American Tour (oh, the story I could tell about that fun and crazy night, David K).

I can see by your eyes you must be lying
When you think I don’t have a clue
Baby, you’re crazy, if you think that you can fool me
Because I’ve seen that movie, too
The one where the players are acting surprised
Saying love’s just a four letter word
Between forcing smiles, with the knives in their eyes
Well their actions become so absurd
So keep your auditions for somebody
Who hasn’t got so much to lose
‘Cause you can tell by the lines I’m reciting
That I’ve seen that movie, too
So keep your auditions for somebody
Who hasn’t got so much to lose
‘Cause you can tell by the lines I’m reciting
I’ve seen that movie, too
It’s a habit I have, I don’t get pushed around
Stop twinkling the star like you do
I’m not the blueprint
For all of your B films
Because I’ve seen that movie, too
The one where the players are acting surprised
Saying love’s just a four letter word
Between forcing smiles, oh, with the knives in their eyes
Oh, their actions become so absurd
So keep your auditions for somebody
Who hasn’t got so much to lose
‘Cause you can tell by the lines I’m reciting
That I’ve seen that movie, too
So keep your auditions for somebody
Who hasn’t got so much to lose
‘Cause you can tell by the lines I’m reciting
I’ve seen that movie, too
So keep your auditions for somebody
Who hasn’t got so much to lose
‘Cause you can tell by the lines I’m reciting
I’ve seen that movie, too
So keep your auditions for somebody
Who hasn’t got so much to lose
‘Cause you can tell by the lines I’m reciting
I’ve seen that movie, too

Songwriters: Elton John & Bernie Taupin

Bonus Friday post


Listening to Carly Simon’s two-CD Anthology. These songs evoke certain times and relationships in my life when I first heard them, beginning when I was a young teen and into young adulthood.

It’s a little hard to focus on the character I’m writing when this music makes me think so much about Carly Simon’s memoir and Pattie Boyd’s memoir, both of which shared stories that made me hurt for them and the price love exacts from women who love men whose creativity and talent have brought them fame. Their stories aren’t my stories, but they do evoke my characters’ stories. In the end, after all, even if my life and circumstances and stories are different from those characters’, or Carly Simon’s or Pattie Boyd’s, a heart that loves is a heart that loves, and loss is loss.

Fortunately, the next to last song, “Actress,” made me laugh and drew me back into the world of the Neverending Saga, and it was time to write again, to the next music. Stay tuned.

And enjoy this song from a movie (Heartburn) that, while brutally eye-opening for me, was a film that promised something I needed to believe in: starting over.

Is Wednesday really a day…

…when one can get over a hump? Time will tell.

The “Be Positive” coloring and writing journal that Lynne gave me–May of 22?–that I use for coloring and speculating about what I’m writing or should be writing and the inspirations and challenges involved. Today, after I wrote next to the page I’d colored, I closed the book and laughed at that name…be positive. Gotta say what I wrote today in the journal is maybe one of the least positive things I think/feel. The words I almost never say out loud because they would likely be misunderstood or else prompt advice or guidance that I’m not looking for. That’s not my Aries resistance to being directed or told what to do. It’s only that this Aries knows herself–myself–too well to pretend I’m looking for answers from outside when the answers within have been hard won.

On the other hand, the drawing I colored is pretty and untroubled.

Plus I have written today, and every bit of writing nourishes the Muse who in turn nourishes my creative drive.

While writing, I listened to really good music all the way around, meaning of course, music I like/enjoy/admire/feel.

Kicked off with Brighter: A Duncan Sheik Collection from Duncan Sheik, and great liner notes from James Hunter (from Rolling Stone magazine). Certain parts of Hunter’s notes resonate with me, and the music is good to listen to, write to, think to.

Tom and I were on a road trip many years ago when we stopped somewhere and bought a bunch of CDs so we could hear music we didn’t know, and that’s when we got Shinedown’s The Sound of Madness. I used to hear it a lot because I uploaded it to my iTunes library, but after my main iTunes computer stopped working early in the pandemic, the only songs that will play on my iTunes are ones I’ve actually purchased from Apple. We still need to either get that Mac fixed or figure out what we can grab from its backup drive. That task has been “on the list” since the world reopened in 2021.

Finally, The Best of Simon & Garfunkel. No explanation needed, right? WAY BACK when I was given my first record player, a Simon & Garfunkel album was one of the first three I received, probably for a birthday. They never get old, and their song “The Boxer” still does battle with Bruce Springsteen’s “Thunder Road” as my favorite song of all time. There’s a nod to the duo in the first novel in the Neverending Saga.


Shared before but always happy to show Becky’s First Record Player. There were times it felt like the only thing teenage Becky could count on. In the current novel in progress, a character has just received her first record player and a collection of 45s. Lucky little nine-year-old. I was a few years older when I got mine.

Mood: Monday

This painting is in the public domain.

Couple Riding
oil on canvas, 1906
Wassily Kandinsky, Russia

Colored a coloring page yesterday, but I’m only putting a tiny snap of it here because it’s copyrighted and I’m already being too bold. The coloring page and today’s Kandinsky art are both connected to the character I’m working on in one way or another.

Here’s the music I enjoyed while I worked. Doesn’t go with the novel, maybe doesn’t go with the time period or setting, but it does go with my mood.


[Carlos] Santana: Supernatural, 1999, and Shaman, 2002.

What’s your mood this Monday?

Button Sunday

Today is Old Rock Day, which as you can read at that link, isn’t about old rock stars (though I’m equally willing to celebrate those, too). It is, as they point out, “the day that geologists and amateur rock enthusiasts take it upon themselves to show their appreciation of all things fossilized and stony.”


Here are some stones, rocks, and crystals that stay close to me every day. The pendulum at the bottom is Smoky (once nicknamed “Stony” by Jim). Smoky helps me with all my smudging and space clearing work.


Above, on the right, is a beautiful incense burner Tim gave me at Christmas. Right now, I’m burning Nag Champa (the original), and he also gave me a variety of new-to-me scents to try. So far, they’re all wonderful.

Sometimes, I also like to use Heritage Store’s Aura Smudge™ spray. I think I haven’t been doing enough of these energy rituals. Though I don’t make resolutions every year, I do try to list things I hope to work on, and as I always say, to do better, be better.

Speaking of those other rock stars, though, so that I don’t neglect them: These are the CDs that played during my recent writing efforts and reflections. Even some Stones in the mix. =)


Zero Church by Suzzy and Maggie Roche, of the Roches, which consists of songs they created from prayers; 11:11, a collection of acoustic guitar duets by Rodrigo Sanchez and Gabriela Quintero; The Rolling Stones, Voodoo Lounge and Stripped, the latter including some of my favorite Rolling Stones recordings; and The Very Best of the Ronettes, full of great songs.


Living In the USA; Prisoner in Disguise; Feels Like Home; ‘Round Midnight; Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind; and Greatest Hits I and II, all from the incomparable Linda Ronstadt, who I first got to see live when I was in high school and my brother took me to a Neil Young concert in Birmingham. Linda opened for Neil. I saw her again in Tuscaloosa on one of her solo tours. It’s heartbreaking that her health issues have robbed her of her beautiful voice. I haven’t replaced all of her albums that I lost in the Harvey flood, though I started by buying a couple of these used, but they aren’t in pristine shape. Sooner or later, I’ll have all that music again. She is a MUST SING ALONG for me.

Last full moon of the year


Was able to catch a shot of this month’s Cold Full Moon in Cancer, the last full moon of the year. Here’s some of a “Today Show” article by Lisa Stardust on what that might mean to your sign.

The last moon of 2023 presents an opportunity for emotional release as we enter the new year. Here’s what to know.

Within the astrological practice of moon mapping, full moons are known as being times of rest and release. But they also take on the flavor of other cosmic happenings.

With Jupiter retrograde in Taurus and Saturn in Pisces present, we can confront and resolve any lingering resentments and embrace resolutions to such matters.

The day before, Venus in Scorpio will aspect Neptune in Pisces, allowing us to embrace our innermost desires. The same day, Mars in Sagittarius will aspect the nodes of destiny, leading us to make choices that will improve our lives.

While Mercury’s square to Neptune in Pisces, combined with its connection to Mars, on Dec. 27 may cause confusion, the alliance between the sun in Capricorn and Jupiter retrograde gives us the strength and determination to move forward towards what brings us joy.

Behind the cut you can read how this full moon might affect your sign.

Continue reading “Last full moon of the year”

Fast like a snail


R.E.M: Accelerate; New Adventures In Hi-Fi; UP; Reveal; Around The Sun

You’d think with all this music played today I’d have gotten a lot of writing done. You’d think wrong. The first few chapters of a novel, at least a novel in a series, are apparently the most challenging for me.

That last CD, the Best Of, won’t play. The back is in really bad shape. Not sure what the story on that is, but it’s outta here.

Incremental progress…

…is still progress. When it comes to writing, I’ll take it. I have a first chapter draft finally, after several false starts. This has been my accompaniment.


Lou Reed, New York and Walk On The Wild Side, The Best of Lou Reed.


And this two-song “CD Single” of The Rembrandts. The back side might remind you who they are if you were alive in the Nineties and have forgotten.


Yup, the theme song from the TV show “Friends,” or “I’ll Be There For You.” I think I got this to use on a video we made for the place I worked from ’92 to ’96. Memories…

Then I moved on to these.

R.E.M.: Murmur; Out Of Time; Automatic For The People; and Monster.

There’ll be more R.E.M. to come before I continue in the “R” section of my CD binders. None of this music has been really connected to what I’m writing (except that this novel does begin with a sort of who’s who among a group of friends, I guess).

Different time, completely different kind of music. That’s fine. I’m a little partial to “Nightswimming” from Automatic For The People because if I recall correctly, Timothy referenced it in Three Fortunes in One Cookie. THERE’S a blast from the past.