Friday Favourites - new music

It's been a while since I've done a Friday Favourites post, so I figured it was time to get back into the habit. Especially given that it's Friday, I'm a little bored with my 'to do' list and writing a blog post seems far more entertaining than actually doing any work. :)

I've been listening to lots of music recently. Funny, when I'm writing, I prefer silence -- no distractions at all. So given all that hard work on revisions for the past few weeks meant lots of silence, I've been making up for lost time catching up with some new tunes (or old tunes that I missed the first time round).

I know I should probably be all concerned about the privacy implications, but I really like the function in iTunes that says 'if you like that, you might like this'. I've found some awesome music that way. I've also found some great tunes thanks to friends posting clips on Facebook and the like.

So here's a few new fav's of mine I'd like to share with you.

First up, Aussie band The Panics. They've been around a long time but this song, Majesty, is reasonably recent and I adore it. Whenever it pops up on my iTunes shuffle, it's one of those songs that makes me stop and listen (this could be the reason why I don't play music while I'm writing -- I'd purposely have to listen to stuff I didn't like!). It's a story about Australia, with lovely lyrics that evoke key historical events in beautiful poetic images. (To the young eyes across the sea, Who live and return to sanctuary, Of defiant tales in stone, In a higher prayer alone, In the brightest chains of gold, In the furthest place from home.)



Pick number two -- a band I discovered watching the TV show Chuck, which has a pretty awesome soundtrack most of the time. Seriously, I watch that show with my finger hovering over the Shazam app on my iPhone. If the music programmer from Chuck needs someone to inherit their music collection for any reason, I hereby volunteer.

Anyhoo, the band I discovered was The National. I've since bought two or three of their albums and they've been on high rotation in my house and car. I find it incredibly hard to pick just one of their songs to highlight, but I really do love this one Fake Empire and am just a little bit in love with the low, gravelly voice of the lead singer. The song is five years old or so, but new to me.



(NB: Not the official video, but a goodie nonetheless.)

Another band that I discovered watching Chuck is Frightened Rabbit. I adore their song Keep Yourself Warm, but I won't embed it here as the lyrics are, shall we say, adult in nature. Click on the song title link if you want to know more... Don't say I didn't warn you.

Last, but not least, let's give a little airplay to a brand new Aussie band, Underlights. I heard these guys on Triple J and they're an 'unearthed' band, which means they're unsigned and if you're quick you might still be able to download this song for free from the Unearthed website.



They don't seem to have a filmclip (I guess that comes with having a record company) but this is such a happy, bright song, it seems just right for a Friday.

And on that note, I hope you have a great day and get to spend sometime in your own head listening to whatever music it is that does it for you. If you've got a track you think I'd enjoy, please leave a comment and let me know -- I'm not absolutely dependent on iTunes for exposing me to new songs!!

Friday Favourites - Struggling with the WIP and the sexy cowboy

The WIP (that's "Work In Progress" for the non-writerly) is kicking my butt right now. I love this story. Seriously, I love it, I love my characters, I cry for them and for what I'm putting them through, but some days, geez, I hate it too. Does that make sense?

This isn't much of a start for something that's titled Friday Favourite is it? Oops. Meh, it's Friday, I'm blogging, and this is what's on my mind.

So I love this story and I hate it at the same time. That's got to be a good thing creatively, right? Not just something that's going to drive me slowly insane? (Please! Give me an answer! Not a rhetorical question!) Given that where I'm at right now is a place that I hate, I'd try to remind myself what it is that I love about this story.

First off, there's my hero. He's hot. Seriously--if he was real, I'd do him. My CPs agree. I have a photo that inspired him, and it's a little NSFW, sorry, but here you go. I guarantee you'll be pleased I posted it. My friends and I used to call him the sexy cowboy. For obvious reasons.

(No source, sorry. If you know, let me know and I'll credit it. I did try Googling "naked tattooed cowboy" images, and while that was immensely entertaining, it didn't produce any results as such.)

Of course, he doesn't get around naked like that in the book. (Well, not very often, anyway.) And he only has one tattoo, but he does rock the beard.

Pretty much this whole book sprung from that photo. Oh, and some red wine. (It'll make sense when you read it.)

Speaking of wine, the story is set in a fictional version of the Yarra Valley, amongst the grapevines of a vineyard. It's winter, in my story, so there aren't any lush grapes or green leaves, but it's still quite a spectacular spot. In my head, it looks a little like this:

No credit needed here, because this is my photo. I took it on a trip to Coonawarra in South Australia with a dear friend. For one of the days we were there, we hired a driver to drive our car while we tried every wine we could get our mitts on. We bought A LOT of wine on that trip. Seriously, on the drive back, our luggage was on the back seat because the back (a station wagon!) was full.

And my heroine. Oh boy. She's complicated. She's pretty, of course, but a little unique looking too, and she's got an inner wild-child streak a mile-wide. A bit like this.

(Sorry, another photo with no source attribution. I copied this one and the other one before I figured out I'd do things like blog about them and the proper thing to do would be to provide credits.)

She's carrying around the weight of the world and being in her head is almost painful. She's been through so much and I'm just making her go through more. You really should feel sorry for my characters. I torture them unbearably.

I think it's incredibly dull to read about other people's music preferences. Almost as dull as reading about their kids and pets. However this post wouldn't be complete without me mentioning my WIP's soundtrack. Every story I write has one. Sometimes the music has no relevance at all to the story -- it's just about the feeling or the vibe of the song that somehow meshes with the words I'm writing. And sometimes the music itself is incredibly embarrassing. Why, I think to myself, am I listening to that? My musical tastes are usually well outside the top 40, but then suddenly, I'm listening to some classic rock or ridiculous pop and thinking yes, yes, that's it!

Unsurprisingly, this book has been accompanied by many sad songs. But one song that I'm hoping will get me to the end is "We Belong" by Pat Benatar. Because if there's one truth about these two, it's that they Do. Belong. Together.

And on that note, it's time to get back to writing. Take it away Pat. Get us to "The End".

Enjoy your Fridays, all!