Holiday Frankenpost 2024!

So that you can't say I never gave ya nothin' (yeah, yeah, I can't stop you from sayin' it, but we'll all know you're lyin'), here's a post I've cobbled together from some old body parts I dug out of the basement past posts and whatnot. Merry Whatever, ya filthy animals.

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If you're wanting Xmas goofery to read, you can't go goofier than Christopher Moore's The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror. (I mean, if you can, I'd love to know how.) Yes, it's kinda the third book in an unofficial trilogy, but you needn't read the first two books to enjoy this one, technically. (Though if you're a compulsive completist like me, you can check out the first one here, and the second here.) (Nearly forgot, there are a couple of characters in The Stupidest Angel that don't appear in either Pine Cove book linked above, but are featured here.)

Tuneage ~ Cannons

Cannons has been around for a little over a decade but they're relatively new to me. Allmusic's Marcy Donelson describes their sound as a "...blend of shimmery electro-pop and sultry dance-rock," which pretty much nails it. As Cannons formed in L.A., it's apt that their music conjures up images of twilight drives on California's Pacific Coast Highway.

The first Cannons tune I recall hearing is Bad Dream, from their album Fever Dream. If the hypnotic beat weren't enough to capture my attention, the lyrics were:

I been living in a bad, bad dream
Sleepwalking through a sad scene 

I mean, #relateable.

 

Winners & Tuneage

My fantasy romance novel is
available for purchase at:

Amazon | B & N | Smashwords

Print version: Coming soon!

Winners
And the three winners of the random* drawing for free e-book copies of my debut fantasy romance novel, That Fatal Kiss, are:

T. Drecker
Gill Fraser Lee
Jackie

Congratulations! Please e-mail me to let me know the preferred format for your free e-copy. (If you're not in possession of an e-reader, I can provide a PDF instead; just let me know.)

Tuneage
As I worked on That Fatal Kiss, I noticed that the styles of music to which I seat-boogied depended upon whose point of view concerned me at the moment. When I wrote from Persephone's point of view, I felt like a laughter-loving gal who tears up a dance floor whenever the opportunity presents itself. So for the goddess, it was all about the New Wave and Post-Punk. But when I wrote from Hades' point of view, I found myself feeling dark and broody, like I imagine the Lord of the Underworld felt until he'd secured Persephone for his bride. Invariably, this meant I tuned into Goth-type Rock. In both cases, there were tunes which came to mind that fit certain bits of the story. And in Persephone's playlist, particularly, there were some songs I listened to repeatedly as I wrote, so now I always think of the book (and the actor I envisioned in the role of Hades in the as-yet-not-optioned-for-film movie) when I think of those tunes. Anyway, I hied myself over to Grooveshark and made up a playlist for each Immortal, which I share with you here:

Persephone's Dance & Laughter-Lovin' Playlist

Hades' Dark & Broody Goth Rock Playlist

*The drawing was conducted via random.org.

Oh My Goth! ~ Then & Now

Image by ME!

Back in January, I blogged about some ideas I'd had for Some Dark Romantic. I'd built it as a platform for my author persona, as a way to connect with folks who might get a kick out of the kooky romances I like to write. In my first year of blogging I made loads of great connections with other bloggers, which is le awesome, but I felt perhaps I was drifting from my bloggy purpose, just a wee bit. So I considered who I am, as a writer and as a person. I strongly identify with being a Goth Mom (Lite!) and decided I should expand on the Goth part of this self-conferred title.


I got into the alt rock back in the early 80s, when more traditional rock was being tsunamied by the "new wave/post-punk" movement in music. Beginning with the New Romantics, Duran Duran, with whom I fell in love, I grew to dig Depeche Mode, Blondie, Ministry, New Order, Yaz, Love and Rockets, B-52s, Sisters of Mercy, Siouxsie Sioux and the Banshees, The Smiths, and The Cure, to name just a very few. I eschewed the bright, bubblegum pop of the day for the synthy, bassy, often dark and spooky vibes I caught from the above, as well as other bands I heard on my favorite New York radio station, WLIR (the station that DARED to be different).

Oh, to go back in time and even out those bangs!

My closest friends, who were all about the Doc Martens and black eyeliner, could take the train into Manhattan to hang out in Greenwich village. Those chicks got the cool stuff from thrift shops and whatnot, and really got properly into the Goth lifestyle. Not I. I was very, very, very sheltered. I couldn't go anywhere that wasn't school or family related, so I never got to hang in the village and kick it Goth style, as I'd have liked. I did the best with what little I had. I wore dark colors and vivid red lipstick. I strove to spike my hair but wound up less Siouxsie Sioux and more Generic Big 80s Hair (as evidenced by this pic from my senior year of high school). I wrote songs and short stories about sex. (This hasn't changed.)

Anyway, my Goth sensibilities were more about the music and fantasies than about a particular look, though I was so well known in my family for wearing mostly black that a cousin once remarked of me, "There she goes...always appropriately dressed for a funeral." Like I said, I didn't have the opportunities (or freedom) to experiment, so I did what I could and shrugged off the rest. I stuck with the black, mixed it up with blood red accents, and pressed on with long, sweeping skirts and dark, smutty thoughts.

Goth Mom Lite today...my, what an unfortunate nose...

Then I had my kid and life changed. A lot. I went from marriage to separation to single-motherhood to having to settle-the-fuck-down, put-aside-my-dreams, and provide-for-my-child, in what now seems a heartbeat. I suppressed a lot; in fact, I still do. But the wanna-be Goth Chick within yearns to break free. I continue to don the dark garb and paint my lips red, but in a manner which might now be termed "Corp Goth," or Corporate Goth. I'm not as nattily attired as some Corp Goths, though (money's tight with The Kid at college and I've got loads of single-mom debt). But, again, I do what I can with what I've got. I look forward to the day when I can let my inner Morticia cut loose. (I look forward to this like you just wouldn't believe...) I console myself with the thought that she's in there, just biding her time, and that she's always been with me, even if only in the deepest, darkest recess of my heart.

My 2012 Blogging From A to Z Soundtrack...

Not  being completely stressed out of my head by the rigors of participating in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge the past few days has felt weird. So I decided to stress myself out some more (because, as has already been noted by me, I am crazy, insane) by building a complete playlist of all the tuneage I blogged about for the Challenge last month on Grooveshark.com, as they've got a nifty embedding tool that would make it easy to plop! a player here on mah bloggy-blog. Only as I built the playlist I realized not all of the tunes were uploaded, which I figured I could resolve by uploading whatever was missing. But when I tried to upload a tune, I couldn't, which was le suck...

So then I built a playlist on YouTube. Only I wasn't able to build a complete playlist as some folks don't cotton to having their vids as part of a playlist.

Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot.

SO, I'm embedding both the Grooveshark and YouTube playlists, hoping that if one doesn't have a tune, the other will. (Most annoyingly, I couldn't get Danzig's "Killer Wolf" on either. Gah!)

NB: Some videos/songs contain explicit lyrics and images and may not be safe for work.

Rising up to the challenge...

...not of my rivals, but of Blogging A to Z for April 2012!

I told y'all I was gonna do it, a while back, and now I'm poised to make good on my threat promise. Beginning this Sunday, April 1 (no foolin') I'll blog on subjects spanning the alphabet, in order, one day at a time (skipping all Sundays but the first, 'cause even us lunatics bloggers need a day of rest).

Blog posts during the A to Z challenge could be themed or not, but I do enjoy the coherence of a good theme, so I've chosen to blog along the lines of something ever near and dear to my heart - music.

I mentioned in my last post that I've got the dream of rock stardom simmering away on my mental/emotional back burner, and it's true. Since I was knee-high to a fire hydrant (no, fire hydrants don't have knees, but I'm suburban girl, work with me, here) I've loved to sing and perform for an audience. I was a music major in college and work in a somewhat related field now, but haven't performed (or even sung seriously) in ages. I miss it terribly.

My as-yet-unfulfilled-dreams aside, music, along with writing, is my passion. And, speaking of passion, that's more or less how I've themed my A to Z blogs - around songs that I find to be some combination of passionate/darkly romantic/simply romantic/just plain dark/sexy woof!  (That last bit's a technical term.)

Every day of this April's challenge I'll blog about three tunes which start with that day's letter and that have touched me on one of the above levels, though not all songs will necessarily be about love/romance/sex. For instance, the lyrics of a particular tune may not be hot but some aspect of the music rocks my internal casbah, if you will. (Your casbah-rocking mileage may vary.) But all songs have resounded with me, at one time or another, and I hope some will grab you viscerally as well.

Of course, some letters proved deucedly difficult for satisfying my theme, so I reserve the right to use band, and even album names, to meet my goals for the Challenge. Also, I called upon some of my dear friends for song ideas when I got stuck on a letter (curse you, Q!!!!!) and will be sure to give them credit when their suggestions appear. (PS: Dear Friends Upon Whom I Relied - I heart y'all!)

Thus, if you want to get into the groove, please check back on April 1 and be prepared to shake it right along with me. (Just not at me, 'cause I'm fundamentally a very shy and modest goth gal.) (No, really.)