Thursday Thirteen - 264 - 13 Bits of Randomosity

1 – This was my reaction to a whole bunch of sale prices in the dairy aisle last night:

"Why is there so much of this stuff on sale? Is there something wrong with the refrigeration unit?"

I totally passed on the yogurt, even though I wanted some. 

2 – The bus that rolled up to take me to work this morning had my birthday numbers on the front. I took that as a sign it would be a great day...and it was.

3 – Not that I'm recovered from Lady Sybil's sob-fest-inducing departure from Downton Abbey. *sniff* 

4 – Very busy this week highlighting all of our authors on our Romance Writers of Atlantic Canada Facebook page. Drop by and Like us!

Once you sign into Facebook, it takes you right to our page. Meet our members and get all the latest on what we're up to.

5 – My husband just asked me, "How many of your thirteen have you done?" and laughed when I said, "Four."

6 – That's because I've been sitting at the computer 'working' while also watching a rerun of Supernatural season 1 - Nightmare - immediately followed by the newest season 8 episode - As Time Goes By.

See: My Obsessions 

7 – Just made the mistake of glancing over at the TV again. James McAvoy on The Graham Norton Show. 

NO

Keep writing.

8 –  Feel good about today, however, as revisions on Book 2 of my Scorpius series is shaping up nicely.

9 – Hope this gets posted tonight. The wind is howling out there...the TV flickered a few times during Supernatural, but we made it to the end of the episode. Phew. *typing fast typing fast* 


10 -  Thinking a lot about the upcoming production of Romeo and Juliet at The National Ballet of Canada. Wishing I was going to be in Toronto this March to see it.

11 – If anyone watches dancer Guillaume Cote in the above clip wondering at the end how opening night will work out in the end, here's what critics thought of the new production that premiered in 2011:

Ratmansky's Romeo and Juliet - DANCE magazine

Argh! I'm just making it worse for myself...

12 – I also find myself dreaming about attending the rather new society event for Halifax, the Halifax Dance Viennese Opera Ball.

Maybe next year, I'll be there draped in my finery, watching the young women from Halifax Dance and actual soldiers from the Princess Louise infantry unit swirling in waltz time to Symphony Nova Scotia...sigh... 

13 – Okay. It's 1:00 am. Have to get some sleep. Still have one more day at the day job before a three-day weekend. 

5 on Friday - Set 155

Travis at Trav's Thoughts invites everyone to lay down a short set of music that takes their fancies for his 5 on Friday meme.

Definitely time for some British soul.

1 - Gimme Some Lovin' - Spencer Davis Group

2 -I'm Crying - The Animals

3 - What's New Pussycat? - Tom Jones



4 -Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey - The Beatles

5 - Gimme Shelter - The Rolling Stones

I'm blogging at The Popculturedivas today

Join me at The Popculturedivas today for 13 Words I'll be Living This Year.

5 on Friday - Set 154

Travis at Trav's Thoughts invites everyone to lay down a short set of music that takes their fancies for his 5 on Friday meme.

This week, it's time to get your groove on. Let's get funky.

1 - Funkytown - Lipps Inc.

I'm including a few disco tracks in this set, because disco is basically a popular off-shoot of hard-core funk.

2 -Love Rollercoaster - The Ohio Players



3 -Boogie Wonderland - Earth Wind and Fire featuring The Emotions

This one first appeared on 5 on Friday in Set 106 in February of 2012.

4 - Brick House - The Commodores

5 - Tower of Power - Loves to Do It

Thursday Thirteen - 262 - 13 Things I Discovered While Cleaning My Apartment

1 – My bedroom floor.

2 – A toony with dog hair clinging to it. Keep in mind that our dog passed away last January. 

3 – A red blouse with the tags still on it. Yay, me! I need a red blouse for work. I guess that's why I bought it.  

4 – A bag with eight envelopes filled with photos of my Toronto visits and my writing retreats. *happy sigh*

5 – A stuffed Soft Kitty Warm Kitty that I got at Fan Expo last August.

6 – My Rockettes Christmas Spectacular mug that I got last November at Radio City Music Hall. Woo hoo!

7 – My Hal-Con program.

8 – A chair.  

9 – My late dad's navy-blue-and-tan puffer vest.

10 -  Six blue stack-able bins to hold various and sundry items. Will come in handy right about...now.

11 – Vintage (probably 70's) Batman drinking glass we picked up from a second hand store somewhere. It's a beauty.

12 – Brad's magic wish-granting wand which was a birthday present two celebrations ago at my mom's. Other people may have bought it as a dollar store knock-off lightsabre, but Brad's is definitely a magic wish-granting wand.

13 – The hanging stemware rack which will come in handy when I get kitchen shelving going on.

Have you reacquainted yourself with long-lost things when you did a major clean-up? Or are you a purge-and-toss kind of person?

5 on Friday - Set 153

Travis at Trav's Thoughts invites everyone to lay down a short set of music that takes their fancies for his 5 on Friday meme.

Time to celebrate! This is the third anniversary of Travis' musical meme, Five on Friday.

I believe I joined in on the second or third week and haven't looked back since. I'm often thinking about the coming Friday's set list as I scan documents at my day job or sitting sleepily on the bus.

Here's to Year Four! Anyone can join in on the fun. Just drop by Travis' blog, sign in and post your choice of five tunes on your own blog. For busy writers, this is an easy way to come up with a weekly post.

Just sayin'.

1 - Music! Music! Music! - Teresa Brewer

2 -Rock and Roll Music - Chuck Berry



3 -I Believe in Music - Gallery

4 - Play That Funky Music - Wild Cherry

5 - Music - Madonna

I'm blogging at The Popculturedivas today

Join me at The Popculturedivas today for  13 of My Obsessions.

5 on Friday - Set 152

Travis at Trav's Thoughts invites everyone to lay down a short set of music that takes their fancies for his 5 on Friday meme.

So let's get the 2013 party started with some January birthday boys!

1 - Tonight's the Night - Rod Stewart

2 -I Didn't Mean to Turn You On - Robert Palmer



3 -Let's Dance - David Bowie

4 - Kick - INXS (Michael Hutchence)

5 - Don't Stop Believing - Journey (Steve Perry)

Thursday Thirteen - 260 - 13 Highlights From My Amazing Year

1 – Having been born in the Year of the Dragon, 2012 turned out to be pretty freakin' fantastic for me, starting with the arrival of the hard copies of my debut release, SAINT SANGUINUS.

2 – My friend and fellow author Shawna Romkey gave me this first-ever moment: my first book signing during the Valentine's Hearts on Fire event for my writers' group at The Halifax Club. 

3 – In March, I attended the Women in Film and Television conference with my producer and friend Tara MacDonald, and our friend YA author Renee Pace.  

4 – Later in the spring, I attended a women's retreat at the Oak Island Inn with Tara and Shawna. A much-needed rest before a crazybusy summer.

 5 – WAY, way up at the tippy top of my joy this year: directing the book trailers for my Scorpius series. Produced by Tara MacDonald and shot by Caroline Ruyle. Best time I ever had on set.

 6 – This May I participated in Free Comic Book Day. Thanks to three local comic shops, I gave away free downloads of the e-book version of SAINT SANGUINUS, since it's a Dark Ages vampire superhero origin story. Many thanks to Giant Robot Comics, Quantum Frontier and Monster Comic Lounge.

 7 – The thrill of seeing your very own book for the first time never gets old! My second release BOUND BY DRAGONSFYRE arrived in the mail in early summer.

 8 – The book trailer for SAINT SANGUINUS won two awards!

9 – In August I signed copies of my Dark Ages vampire novel and my dark fantasy novel in the Indie Artist Alley at Fan Expo in Toronto. Many, many thanks to my friend Tara for helping me navigate this venue, and to my husband Brad who worked alongside me.

10 - Easily, the most amazing moment of this year came when I finally made contact with a friend whom my sister and I met almost 30 years ago. We met Rashid Kamalov during the 1984 Tall Ships event in Halifax, while the Iron Curtain was still firmly in place. After writing about him here on my blog many times, his email showed up in my spam folder in September, which I only looked at because of the Fan Expo contest I held.

Rashid is now my Facebook friend!

Here's what he wrote after reading the tale of our summer together which I told to readers here at A Piece of My Mind:

"Dear Juliа, thank you for the wonderful story about our meetings and for good memory about me. I carried in my heart warm feelings to Michelle and to you through all life. I am glad to know that you are well, we can email each other. It is so well you are here!" - Oct. 2, 2012 

11 – In October I attended my 10th writers' retreat with my writers' group. Already counting down the days until the next one.

12 – A few weeks later, I shared a table at Hal-Con with paranormal/sci-fi erotica author Lilly Cain. Signed more copies of my books and had a ball.

13 – To cap off the Dream Come True year, I went on my second trip to New York City, sat in the red booth at the Russian Tea Room and walked into the lobby of Radio City Music Hall to watch The Rockettes Christmas Spectacular.

That's my sister with me in the red booth, and my BFF at Radio City.

SO amazing.

I can't believe it sometimes!

Thank you to all my readers who have become friends over the years. You've made the world a much, much smaller place.

Here's to 2013! Hope you're off to a fantastic start.