5 on Friday -- Set 305

Spinning Friday tunes since 2010...

After being on a medical leave that lasted for one year and three weeks, I'm just finishing up my final week with Wednesdays as a mid-week buffer. Next week my Wednesdays will move to half days, and by March I'll be back to full time hours.

I've been extremely grateful for this ease-back return-to-work schedule, as I'm managing three separate but connected conditions: multiple chemical sensitivities (which were the most pressing problem at the time my medical leave began,) chronic pain and chronic fatigue.

I've been careful to get loads of rest as I built up my stamina for the work week, while at the same time changing what I do with my break time, which now includes going for a walk away from my desk.

So far, so good!

Even though last weekend was a long weekend, I find I'm much more in the mood to celebrate this Friday. 

1 - New Sensation - INXS 

2 - Tonight I'm Yours (Don't Hurt Me) - Rod Stewart 

3 - Let's Go! - The Cars 

4 - Roller - April Wine 

5 - The Song Remains the Same - Led Zeppelin 

If you'd like to join in, simply choose five pieces of music and post them for other bloggers to enjoy. Then check out the set posted by the other 5 on Friday blogger -- you can sign in over at Golch Central's Rambling Stuff.

5 on Friday -- Set 297

Spinning Friday tunes since 2010...

Merry Christmas, Everyone!

I've been taking a once-a-month look at specific instruments and showcasing five songs or tunes which place that instrument front and center.

This year's feature has been Spotlight On...

...and for our twelfth and final installment for 2015's year-long project, let's swing with woodwinds. I'm concentrating for this set mainly on flute, but there are a few recorders in these tracks. Flutes bring us full circle back to the ancient world.    

We began the year listening to the primal body instruments of hand-clapping, whistling and vocal harmonies.

Moving on, we explored percussion with April's look at drums, May's look at the vibraphone or vibes, June's look at piano, and wrapping things up with cowbell in July.

In August I trained the spotlight on a favorite of mine, the bass guitar. In September we gave the stage over to that diva of instruments -- the lead guitar.

In October, I moved from stringed guitars to orchestral strings.

For November, I focused on horn arrangements.

December wraps up this year's musical project with the mellow tones of the flute and recorder. Flutes have been played on battlefields, they've been played by shepherds on hillsides, they've been part of an orchestra or played by peasants. They generally evoke a feeling of the Everyman, as well as reaching back through time to our earliest ancestors. Flutes and recorders give a dual sense of being rooted, as well as the floating sensation suggested by the wind descriptor of woodwind.

For all of you who have enjoyed this year's Spotlight On feature, I invite you to check back next week on New Year's Day for a brand new year-long project.

I've had such fun with the three I've done so far. I love taking up creative challenges like Blogging From A to Z in April, or the NaNoWriMo writing marathon in November. Deciding on a musical challenge for my 5 on Friday feature is a way to broaden my own musical horizons.

I embarked on my first 5 on Friday challenge in 2013 with the Birthday Boys/Birthday Girls project. I alternated male and female singers each month, beginning with January Birthday Boys, to see what sort of music they bring us.

In 2014, I ran The Hit Makers feature, where I looked at different styles of music each month, five of my favorite artists in that style and what songs launched their careers. That was an amazing project, beginning with the British Invasion set.

Where will 2016's musical journey take us? Drop by on January 1st to find out.

Let's finish up 2015 with a Spotlight On flute.    

1 - Coming Home Baby - Herbie Mann - 1961

2 - The Hustle - Van McCoy -1975

3 - Fernando - ABBA - 1976

4 - Colour My World - Chicago - 1971

5 - Stairway to Heaven - Led Zeppelin - 1972

If you'd like to join in, simply choose five pieces of music and post them for other bloggers to enjoy. Then check out the set posted by the other 5 on Friday blogger -- you can sign in over at Golch Central's Rambling Stuff.

5 on Friday -- Set 244 -- The Thanksgiving Edition

Photo courtesy of the Graphics Fairy

Spinning Friday tunes since 2010...

For anyone who wants to join in, simply choose five pieces of music and post them for other bloggers to enjoy. Then check out the set posted by the other 5 on Friday blogger -- you can sign in over at Golch Central's Rambling Stuff.

This weekend is all about giving thanks here in The Great White North.

To all of my readers, friends and family -- I wish you many blessings on this Thanksgiving.

1 - The Green, Green Grass of Home -- Tom Jones

2 - Thank You -- Led Zeppelin

3 - Thank You For the Music  -- ABBA

CLICK HERE to watch the video

4 - Counting My Blessings  -- Bing Crosby

5 - How Great Thou Art  -- Elvis Presley

5 on Friday -- Set 205

Spinning Friday tunes since 2010...

For anyone who wants to join in, simply choose five pieces of music and post them for other bloggers to enjoy. Then check out the set posted by the other 5 on Friday blogger -- you can sign in over at Golch Central's Rambling Stuff.

If you're in the eastern two thirds of North America these days, it's freaking cold.

Even for us, in Canada.

Here's a song list to stop your teeth from chattering -- songs about winter that rock.

  

1 - Cold as Ice -- Foreigner

2 - Immigrant Song -- Led Zeppelin

3 - Snowed In with bonus track Cruisin' -- Joel Plaskett Emergency 

4 - Wintertime -- Steve Miller Band

5 - Snow (Hey Oh) -- Red Hot Chili Peppers

5 on Friday -- Set 196

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.

It's Hal-Con time again!

Starting today and running through Sunday, I'll be at my booth on the main floor at the Halifax World Trade and Convention Centre, 1800 Argyle Street in Halifax, Nova Scotia. If you're looking for print copies of my Dark Ages vampire novel Saint Sanguinus or my dark fantasy novel Bound by Dragonsfyre, I'll be signing copies.

Also appearing at Hal-Con this year: my friend and fellow Romance Writers of Atlantic Canada member Shawna Romkey, who will be signing copies of her angels-and-demons novel Speak of the Devil.

Together, we'll be giving a workshop on Heroes and Villains on Saturday, Nov. 9th at 12:45 until 1:30.

In the meantime, the great NaNoWriMo writing marathon of 2013 continues. If you're doing the marathon and you want to find me, I'm NaNo-ing as vamprom.

Let's celebrate all things superheroic. This week's set features songs written about superhero characters, a super villain and one classic hero of old.

1 - Flash -- Queen

2 - Surfing With the Alien -- Joe Satriani

3 - Joker's Wild -- The Ventures

4 - Superman Song -- Crash Test Dummies

5 - Achilles Last Stand -- Led Zeppelin

5 on Friday -- Set 195

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.

The great NaNoWriMo writing marathon of 2013 has begun. If you're doing the marathon and you want to find me, I'm NaNo-ing as vamprom.

For today's music mix, let's go for the chicks. Female point-of-view, and all that.

1 - Bubbly -- Colbie Caillat

2 - Sweet Surrender -- Sarah McLachlan

3 - The Battle of Evermore -- Led Zeppelin with Sandy Denny

This is a combo song, with folk singer Sandy Denny joining with male supergroup Led Zeppelin and lead singer Robert Plant. They compliment each other beautifully. Strangely enough, I'm a big fan of Led Zeppelin, while my husband is an admirer of Sandy Denny.

4 - Come Away With Me -- Norah Jones

5 - You Were Meant For Me -- Jewel

Thursday Thirteen - 288 - 13 Songs I've Played Obsessively While Writing

I freely admit to many forms of obsession.

I don't see any of them as minuses in my life as a creative person. An obsessive compulsive disorder detracts from a person's life, getting in the way of doing basic things.

A driving passion, however, is not only to be embraced if you're going to master something enough to truly understand your creative medium (or your sport, if that's what you love to do) -- it's actually necessary.

If I told you someone repeated the same actions in the same sequence over and over every evening before he went to bed, you might think, wow, that person must have OCD. Yet, if I told you that person was an elite violinist and he was working on musical scales, perfecting his technique, you would have a much different view of that person than if I told you it was a guy who re-sorted his DVD collection into perfect blocks of color according to the packaging spines of the jewel cases -- but only if he looked behind each DVD three times.

If you asked hockey superstar Sidney Crosby how many hours he's spent shooting a puck into the net, he probably wouldn't be able to tell you. If he didn't obsessively practise his hockey technique, he would not be the player he has become. For artists and athletes, the word 'obsession' could basically be replaced with 'passion'.

One of my most enjoyable obsessions/passions is listening to music while I'm writing. It often has nothing to do with the tone or subject matter of the scene I'm working on. I just have to be obsessed with it.

I'll know I'm obsessed with a song or a piece of music when I end up choosing it as the first song of the writing session, playing it about six times in a row, and then returning to it a few times during that writing time.

Often, that song will go through my head while I'm riding the bus, and I'll hum it through the day, only to race towards it once again the next evening.

For me, I find that my musical obsessions act as a short-cut to placing me in the head-space I need in order to write fiction. I'm telling my brain 'Write NOW' with my obsessive selection.

So, here are thirteen of my current and former musical obsessions, all of which have led to the scenes that become my books.  

1 -   I'm Your Boogie Man -- KC and the Sunshine Band

2 - Assassin -- Muse

3 - Princes of the Universe -- Queen

4 - Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad? -- Moby

This version specifically, with all of the Dean and Sam voiceovers from Supernatural

5 - Lies -- The Pierces

Also, this version specifically, because there are Guy of Gisborne scenes in this one that I will stop to watch.

6 -  I'm Crying -- The Animals

I guess I can see a bit of a pattern here (LOL!) Guess that's why I'm obsessed with these ones.

7 - I'm a Man -- Black Strobe

8 - And Your Bird Can Sing -- The Beatles

9 - Sex Crime -- Eurythmics

10 - Peace Frog -- The Doors

11 - The Song Remains the Same -- Led Zeppelin

12 - Closet Romantic -- Damon Albarn

13 - So High -- Elvis Presley

5 on Friday - Set 90

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.

Susan @ West of Mars has been hosting Rocktober over at her blog, so for this week's 5 on Friday I'm taking part in the festivities.

Celebrate the collision of music and books however you see fit says the All-Access Pass on her blog. Susan invites us to share fiction, biographies or non-fiction that celebrates rock 'n roll in all its glory throughout the month of October. I'm sneaking in at the tail end, but the party's still in full swing. Let's rock!

Two of my dear blog buddies and writer friends have published stories set in the world of rock.


















Wylie Kinson's Law of Averages tells the story of British rocker Gabriel Law, known as the Dark Angel of Rock, who needs to reconnect with his missing songwriting spark and books a vacation spot in Bermuda to regroup.

For this week's first track, Jim Morrison from The Doors will stand in for Wylie's Dark Angel of Rock.

1 - Strange Days - The Doors



Megan Frost, worn-to-a-frazzle restaurateur - is already at the double-booked vacation home. When the Dark Angel realizes she doesn't know who he is, he's in no hurry to sort out the confusion.

I think if Gabriel dedicated a song to Megan on an upcoming tour, it would be this one:

2 - Little Wing - Sting



Wylie is giving away a free copy of Don't Ask, Never Tell, an anthology which includes Law of Averages to one lucky commenter.


















Hostess for Rocktober herself, Susan Helene Gottfried's Trevor's Song follows the story of a rock band whose sarcastic bass player finds it hard to weather the change in band dynamics when his lifelong friend and the band's lead singer builds a future with his lady love - especially when a secret Trevor keeps makes a friend's support even more prized.

Standing in for Trevor's bass playing in this next track is Black Sabbath's Geezer Butler.

3 - Supernaut - Black Sabbath



ShapeShifter front man Mitchell Voss is the rock god whose change in life path sets Trevor's equilibrium on edge. Standing in for Mitchell is Led Zeppelin's Uber Rock God Robert Plant.

4 - Communication Breakdown - Led Zeppelin



To finish out the set, here is my salute to Wylie and Susan and their fictional rockers.











5 - Paperback Writer - The Beatles

5 on Friday - Set 83

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.

I just made it through a crazed revisions marathon over the Labor Day weekend, getting my vampire manuscript ready for three readers so they can give it the very last once-over. Then I'll be handing it to the formatter to prepare for e-book distribution. Hold on! I'm comin'!


Needless to say, I leaned heavily on some pulse-quickening music playlists to keep me going. Here are a few of the tunes that saved my ass last weekend.

1 - Hold On, I'm Comin' - Eric Burdon and The Animals

2 - Honky Tonk Woman - The Rolling Stones

3 - Baba O'Riley - The Who

4 - Roundabout - Yes

5 - Rock and Roll - Led Zeppelin