Author: Shara

Music Monday: Philip Glass’ Glassworks: “Opening”

~ Shara ~ 1 Comment

And now for something completely different.

Last week, I talked about the evolution of my musical tastes growing up. Truth is, I left a few things out: see, once upon a time ago, I was a musician. A singer, actually: I joined choir in grade school, discovered I had some talent, and followed that singing career to the top choirs in high school, which earned me a scholarship at Hollins University for Vocal Performance.

I was a music major.

As part of my music major, I had to take music theory and music literature courses. But one particular course combined the two: 20th Century Music. Taught by my music theory professor, Dr. Michael Sitton, I was exposed to the wide variety of musical styles and compositions that made up that century. One of my absolute favorites was minimalism, which led to the discovery of Philip Glass.

It’s been a while, but I remember Dr. Sitton describing minimalism utilizing a repeated refrain, with subtle changes during the course of the song or movement, so subtle that you don’t realize the song is changing until the very end. And to demonstrate this, he played for us “Opening” from Philip Glass’ Glassworks.

I fell in love. We’d been given list of musical compositions for our quizzes and exams, and we had to memorize pieces so thoroughly that when Dr. Sitton played just a snippet, we could identify the song immediately. Glassworks “Opening” was on that list, and trust me when I say that memorizing this piece was an absolute pleasure. It makes me wish I’d taken piano lessons long before I turned 19, because I would kill to play this.

I hope you love it as much as I still do.

Like it? Love it? Hate it? Sound off below!

Reminder: Music Monday is about the music, not the videos. Videos are just the medium I’m using to share the music, and some videos aren’t actually videos at all. Enjoy the songs, but if YouTube forces you to watch some sort of advertisement before you can get to the music, please be patient.

Music Monday: Daughtry’s “Tennessee Line”

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So after last week’s Music Monday, I was reminded of one of my favorite songs by rocker Chris Daughtry. I know, odd segue, but his sophomore album featured a song titled “Tennessee Line,” which grabbed my eye immediately, because, hello, Tennessee is my home. But I was even more intrigued by the fact the song features Vince Gill, who was one of my favorite singers growing up, and one of the very first major concerts I attended.

Yes, I listened to country when I was younger. I don’t any longer (I progressed from country to soft rock to pop rock to hard rock to metal), but there are songs that I still enjoy and appreciate, and “Tennessee Line” is a song that grows on me more and more every time I hear it. Vince Gill’s additional tenor makes for a lovely harmony, and the fiddle on this song, especially towards its end, reminds me that one simply doesn’t grow out of country. You can stop listening to it for a while, but when you’ve grown up where I did, melodies like this will always have a foothold on your heart.

“Tennessee Line” isn’t my absolute favorite Daughtry song, but it’s pretty high up there. Those listeners who are more familiar with Daughtry’s hard rock swagger may find themselves surprised to enjoy this (though how can you not enjoy the purity of his vocals?), and before long, you may find yourself singing along.

Like it? Love it? Hate it? Sound off below!

Reminder: Music Monday is about the music, not the videos. Videos are just the medium I’m using to share the music, and some videos aren’t actually videos at all. Enjoy the songs, but if YouTube forces you to watch some sort of advertisement before you can get to the music, please be patient.

Winner: Aubrey Gross Giveaway!

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heavenlybodiesBNThe end of giveaways always come too soon, but at least I remembered to do this before the clock struck midnight. No turning into a pumpkin for me!  Aubrey’s giveaway only encouraged two people to throw their hats in the ring, which means we had one winner. I’ve emailed both Aubrey Gross and that winner, and I’m letting that winner work out the details for her prize!

Thank you to all who entered, and all who spread the word! Aubrey has quite a lot of fiction available, so whether or not you won, or whether or not you even entered, I hope you get a chance to give her fiction a shot!

In the meantime, you may have noticed: there’s no October interview! I’ve got TWO interviews still in progress, and one possible one in the docket, but between my day job, running Speculative Chic, and going on an EPIC vacation this month, I decided to take a break. I hope to be back in November (but with WHO?), so stay tuned and if anything, since there won’t be weekly content on this blog, check out Speculative Chic‘s daily content during the week!

 

Music Monday: Taylor Swift’s “Safe & Sound”

~ Shara ~ 3 Comments

I’ve got to level with you: the reason I chose this song from The Hunger Games soundtrack wasn’t because I was in love with this version. I’m actually utterly enamored of a cover by Halia Meguid, which can be found and downloaded from her tumblr, but tumblr is a tricky beast and I could not, for the life of me, get this post to imbed here in WordPress so that you could click play without having to leave my blog.

So you can listen to Halia’s version, no worries. But I had to ask myself: is the original all that bad? I mean, Taylor Swift is a super-easy target to make fun of, but I shouldn’t overlook the original just because people might think I have a secret cache of her music hidden on my iTunes. Spoiler alert: I don’t. I really, really don’t.

Resigned, I pulled up the video on YouTube and was surprised by two things: 1) this song also features The Civil Wars, which — if you remember Barton Hollow — made me extremely happy, and 2) the video for this song is wonderfully evocative and haunting, which is exactly how I imagined this song in my head. With only a teeny-tiny shout-out to The Hunger Games, the video itself tells a story set in Appalachia that feels just right, and it can mean whatever you want it to. It’s not often videos match what’s in my head, but this works beautifully.

Today you get two songs for the price of one: the original, and a lovely, haunting cover of it. I think my preference is still for the cover because it’s so much softer and sweeter, yet the original has some lovely harmonies that really speak to me.

Enjoy.

Like it? Love it? Hate it? Sound off below!

Reminder: Music Monday is about the music, not the videos. Videos are just the medium I’m using to share the music, and some videos aren’t actually videos at all. Enjoy the songs, but if YouTube forces you to watch some sort of advertisement before you can get to the music, please be patient.

Giveaway with Aubrey Gross

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Do you see ALL of these books? Well, if you like romance at all, step right on up, because Aubrey’s offering an awesome giveaway.

That’s right, GIVEAWAY. Not Scavenger Hunt. You don’t have to do a darn thing except decide which book you want and fill out the form linked below.

Sound awesome?

Here’s how it works:

You can win a copy of ANY of the above books. If you live in the United States, you have your choice between a signed copy from Aubrey OR an e-copy (except Heavenly Bodies, which is only available in e-copy). If you live outside of the United States, you have your choice of an e-copy only of any of the above books.

Clear as mud? I hope so, because now I need to explain how many winners there will be.

If we get 10 or less entries: there will only be ONE winner.

If we get 11 or more entries: there will be TWO winners.

So please, enter below, and boost the signal, because it increases your chances of winning!

CLICK HERE: Aubrey Gross GIVEAWAY!

You have until Tuesday, October 4th to enter. Winner(s) will be selected at random and notified by email on Wednesday, October 5th.

One entry per person, no purchase necessary, void where prohibited, all entrants’ information will be deleted once winners have been confirmed, etc. If you’re unsure as to whether or not your entry came through, please comment here to ask.

Please enter, and encourage your friends who enjoy reading romance to enter as well! Aubrey offers a variety, so definitely give her work a shot!

Music Monday: Of Monster’s and Men’s “I Of the Storm”

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After the past couple of weeks of progressive, hard rock and heavy metal, I wanted to dial it back and bring you back into the fold and attempt to share my favorite song from one of my favorite albums, Beneath the Skin from Of Monsters and Men. There’s just one problem with that. I can’t pick just one.

You have to understand. I absolutely love this entire album. I would share the entire album with you if I could, so picking my favorite song is asking me to pick a favorite child: I can’t. Or I can, but it depends on the mood I’m in on any given day. Usually, sophomore albums aren’t as solid as a band’s debut, because so much blood, sweat, tears, and years goes into the debut that there just isn’t enough time to put the same effort into the second album. That’s not the case here. And I had no idea which song to pick.

I went to YouTube, thinking the videos would decide me. And I noticed there were quite a few lyric videos, each with a funky geometric shape as its preview. I don’t personally care for lyric videos unless they’re cleverly done, but I like the lyrics on this album, and I figured as long as you heard the song, who cares, right?

You guys. YOU GUYS. What they’ve done for these lyric videos is genius. It’s profound. It’s mesmerizing. It’s unsettling at first, until you realize what’s happening. What IS happening, you may wonder?

Each lyric video is actually a performer. It’s a person, filmed from the waist up, in the middle of the screen, lip-syncing the song with the lyrics showing below. But that’s not all: these videos are the most moving pieces of performance art I’ve ever seen. These people (and each video has a different person) aren’t just lip-syncing their songs, no. They’re performing them, as if the songs represent the very music of their souls.

I couldn’t stop watching videos. I had to be awake for work in six hours, and I still couldn’t stop watching. Some videos were better than others, and still, I had to wonder: which song would I share?

I decided on the song that I couldn’t tear my eyes from at all.

Like it? Love it? Hate it? Sound off below!

Reminder: Music Monday is about the music, not the videos. Videos are just the medium I’m using to share the music, and some videos aren’t actually videos at all. Enjoy the songs, but if YouTube forces you to watch some sort of advertisement before you can get to the music, please be patient.

Welcome to the Trip: The Great Orphan Black Rewatch Begins!

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The funny thing about being an editor: the very things you hound your writers into doing are often the very things you forget to do yourself. Or maybe that’s just me. But I tell my writers to promote their posts wherever they can, including their blogs if they have them, and what to do I do?

I utterly forget to do so.

But only for a day.

Over at Speculative Chic, my rewatch of Orphan Black has begun with the very first five episodes of season one. The plan is to do 5 episodes every month, and by time I finish season four, I’ll have the fifth and final season to freak out over. Of course, the best laid plans of mice and men, yada, yada, yada, but so far, so good, and if you’re a fan of Orphan Black and you’ve watched the first five episodes, I’d love to have you join the discussion.

How Many of Us Are There? Orphan Black Rewatch Episodes 1.01 thru 1.05

There will be spoilers, of course, but nothing past episode 1.05. I’ll be discussing episodes 6-10 for October 19th, so you’ve got plenty of time to catch up, especially if you’re watching the show for the first time. Trust me, you won’t be disappointed.

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Second Chances with Aubrey Gross

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Aubrey and MemawWelcome to third and final installment of Calico In Conversation with Aubrey Gross. If you missed Parts One and Two, click below to catch up:

Part One: Hard to Swallow
Part Two: Triumph and Taking Risks

Editor’s Note: this interview was originally conducted in March through August of 2016.

***

Let’s say you’re at a party, and you meet someone whom you learn is an aspiring writer. Really novice and is tinkering with a novel. Quick: what’s the first piece of advice you give them?

Just finish it. The first draft doesn’t have to be the best thing ever — it just has to get done. Lots of people “want” to write. Only a handful of those people actually manage to do it and have a finished product.

Great advice! That’s something every writer needs to hear, and it’s the toughest to follow. So let’s talk about YOUR work. What do you think is the one thing all of your books have in common?

Continue reading →

Music Monday: Dream Theater’s “Panic Attack”

~ Shara ~ Leave a comment

There was a time that my husband and I were into the game Rock Band for the PlayStation, and through Rock Band, I discovered a great many songs and bands that I really enjoyed. The game was a gateway, of sorts, and one of the songs I really enjoyed hearing (I couldn’t play to save my life), was “Panic Attack” by Dream Theater.

Dream Theater is metal, but it’s also progressive rock. There’s a lot of complex instrumentation happening in this song, but what hooked me first and foremost were the vocals and the melody, which I wish we got more of. I’ve since explored more of the band’s music, and I’ve fallen for some of their later stuff, but “Panic Attack” will always be my first and favorite. The video below isn’t a video at all, so you can hit play and do other things on your computer, but go ahead and hit play, and tell me what you think!

Like it? Love it? Hate it? Sound off below!

Reminder: Music Monday is about the music, not the videos. Videos are just the medium I’m using to share the music, and some videos aren’t actually videos at all. Enjoy the songs, but if YouTube forces you to watch some sort of advertisement before you can get to the music, please be patient.

 

Triumph and Taking Risks with Aubrey Gross

~ Shara ~ Leave a comment

Welcome to Part Two of Calico In Conversation with Aubrey Gross. If you missed Part One: Hard to Swallow, feel free to click here to catch up!

Editor’s Note: this interview was originally conducted in March through August of 2016.

book signing

***

I feel like over the years, genre fiction has gotten to be far more accepted by the mainstream, though sometimes you’ll still get a literary snob complaining about things like YA fiction or Game of Thrones. But thanks to the film and television industry, I feel like there’s a boom there that I hadn’t previously seen in my lifetime. EXCEPT: why is romance still the red-headed stepchild of the genre market?

I think it’s a combination of things. There’s the misconception that romance is “mommy porn” or “porn for desperate, single women,” which couldn’t be further from the truth. Romance isn’t pornographic. Romance is about emotions, and a lot of people don’t “get” why anyone would want to read a book that’s primarily character-driven and chock full of all kinds of emotions (and, yes, often sex). My reason for reading romance is that it reaffirms my belief in love despite the odds, whether those odds be a psychotic killer on the loose, a mother determined to see her daughter married off to the duke rather than the earl, the complexity of a long-distance relationship, or a heroine who’s unable to trust after being left at the altar by her first love. Romance is about triumph and taking risks and stepping out of your comfort zone and growing as a person — all in the name of love. A lot of critics say romance novels are unrealistic, to which I say: but are they really? In our relationships, we all have things we have to overcome in order to be happy. Distance. Past experiences. Wariness. Job dynamics. Our own internal fears. The list goes on and on.

And I’ll also be quite frank — I sometimes think part of the derisiveness is simple jealousy. In 2013, $1.08 billion in romance novels were sold according to BookStats. And according to Nielsen and BISAC, romance novels accounted for 13% of adult fiction novels sold (source: RWA). Because those numbers only reflect books with ISBNs, there are a lot of indie books NOT being reported on (the folks over at Author Earnings do an amazing job of explaining this). The July 2014 Author Earnings Report took a look at the genre breakdowns, and at the time 66% of romance novels in the Kindle Store were indie published (my guess is that it’s probably more than that now, just from anecdotal evidence). Basically, what it boils down to is that a lot of people read romance, which means more readers (and yes, more money) for romance authors as a whole. I might be off base with that one, but from personal experience and the experiences of other authors, I don’t think I’m too off the mark on that. 😉

I’ve often wondered, too, about the fact that romance tends to be the ONE genre that’s primarily driven by women, if there isn’t a little bit of institutionalized sexism happening here, intentional or not. And no, I’m not just blaming the men; women can and are just as bad when it comes to criticizing the genre, its tropes, and its readers. I admit to being guilty of it myself, once upon a time ago.

Continue reading →