Month: November 2019

Monday Earworm: Dar Williams and Ani diFranco

On By angeliquejamailIn Ani diFranco, Dar Williams, Monday earworm, music, Pink FloydLeave a comment

Since I spent the weekend recovering from a little surgical procedure, this seemed like a good choice for today’s earworm.

To be fair, I eschewed the prescription painkillers for Tylenol (which was just fine for me in this case), and I’ve mostly just rested on the couch the last few days trying to get low-key stuff done, but I’ve wanted to throw this song up as an earworm for a while, so here we are.

I like Pink Floyd okay. I’m not a superfan as some are, but I respect and enjoy a lot of their music. I adore both Dar Williams and Ani diFranco, though, with the passion of a white-hot sun, and so when I ran across this rendition, it made this song so much more interesting for me.

Enjoy, from whatever restful perch you currently have. (And for what it’s worth, I’m still inhabiting mine, with mixed feelings.)

(Oh, and bear in mind that next month will be time for my annual 12 Days of Christmas Music series, so be sure to drop me a line if you have any suggestions. I mean, the Houston radio station that plays Christmas music started with it OVER A WEEK AGO SRSLY WTAF. But I digress.)

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Want to read more of my writing that’s already published? Click here for poetry, click here for urban fantasy, and click here for realistic flash fiction. You can also buy my books in Houston at Blue Willow Bookshop, and I hope you will!  🙂

For Thanksgiving This Year…

On By angeliquejamailIn holidays, Thanksgiving, turkey4 Comments

Those of you who have been reading this blog for quite a while will remember the ridiculous experience I had some years ago with a Heritage/Heirloom Turkey, an experience I will never willingly repeat.

So a little wrinkle happened in my life last week. After Book Fair, which was wonderful and fun, was finally over, I had a teensy medical experience that necessitated a quick surgery on Friday. No worries, everything’s all good here, and I am likely to return to work tomorrow. (I will say my NaNoWriMo project has been derailed, among other things, but ah well, I’ll claw my way back to it.) But resting up this weekend has given me some time to plan my menu for Thanksgiving this year.

I thought I’d go with something a little different. May I present…

…The TurKracken!!!

And here it is all cooked.  *gigglesnort*

This is the Deluxe model.

My kids cannot wait to see their grandmothers’ faces when this roast beast comes out of the oven.

(Just kidding. I’m not doing this. It looks vile. I’m making proper turkey, and it will be awesome.)

N.b. I found these pictures on the Internet — all over the Internet — often with no attribution. Lots of versions of them, too. If these are your pictures, let me know so I can credit you. If they’re yours and you want me to remove them, just ask and I will.  🙂

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Want to read more of my writing that’s already published? Click here for poetry, click here for urban fantasy, and click here for realistic flash fiction. You can also buy my books in Houston at Blue Willow Bookshop, and I hope you will!

 

NaNoWriMo 2019

On By angeliquejamailIn goals, NaNoWriMo, writing2 Comments

I have to admit, it creeps up on me every year.

We spend a good six weeks in Happy Hallowe’en mode around here. We even throw a huge annual bash, usually the Saturday before Hallowe’en (unless the 31st is on a Friday or Saturday, and then it’s the actual day). This year was our 20th annual Masquerade. And when there are several days between the two — as there were this year — it can feel like our party is the big event and it’s just limbo until the 31st after that. It’s a pleasant sort of limbo, though, one in which I can appreciate the other things going on in my life a little better — or get a little more work done — until trick-or-treating time.

So I have to admit my focus isn’t entirely on NaNoWriMo when November 1st rolls around every year. But oh, I do love it when November 1st is here.

If you’ve been following my blog a while you know that I’m not a traditional NaNoWriMo participant. I don’t actually even attempt to write 50,000 words during a month which includes a busy time in the semester and Thanksgiving break. (We host at our house, so no rest for the blissfully weary. Also, every holiday from school is, in one way or another, a working holiday. It just is.) But I do make the commitment to work on my writing in a meaningful way every day or night for the entire month of November. This looks a little different each year and depends significantly on what my current writing projects are.

I like to post about it here on my blog for accountability’s sake, among other reasons. So here we go, my ambitions for 2019’s NaNoWriMo:

*  I’m working on revisions for my next book in the Animal Affinities series, and I need to get it very much finished up in the next few weeks. If you enjoyed Finis., you will also probably love the next story. The working title is Homecoming, although my editor might change that. This story revolves around a girl named Raqia. She’s in eleventh grade, she’s a Lebanese immigrant to Texas, and she’s navigating some very weird stuff. Also, if you were intrigued by the wolf packs in Finis., you should know that Homecoming features the wolves quite prominently. And that’s all I’ll be saying about that for now…

*  Once Homecoming is out the door, I’ll be back to working on my next novel, which at the moment I’m about a fourth to a third of the way through. I put it on hold while I edited another novel (currently on submission) and Homecoming and put together my next collection of poems. (I mean, yes, it’s been a busy year. But honestly, when is it not?) But I have made a promise that I will get back to this novel as soon as possible, and so that’s on the horizon as well.

*  I participated in the August Poetry Postcard Fest again this year, which has been awesome yet again, but I admit I am still a handful of cards behind. (No shame, though. Last year I was still getting cards from other poets all the way into February. So.) Anyway, I need to finish those up. I’m really close to that, so I’m calling it a NaNoWriMo goal and that’s that. (And once those cards are all out the door, I will register for next year’s fest!)

Some people might feel annoyed that I’m using the month this way. I am not concerned about that. One day, I am confident, I will be able to approach the NaNoWriMo the way the creators of it intended. One day. Not today, though. *shrug*

Onward and upward, shall we? Yes!