I’m neck-deep in grading papers as I give this school year last one last push to end it. (I’d post a picture of my grading stack but everything is online now, so bleecchhh. That takes me three times as long to get it done.)
Please fill in your own commentary on today’s earworm below.
No, seriously. I’m really curious what you think of this video.
Today’s my dear husband’s birthday, and in honor of such, I’m using his favorite Jonathan Coulton song for my earworm. And it really does have a catchy chorus. Aaron first introduced me to Coulton’s work with “Code Monkey” years ago, and now I’m a big fan as well. So much of his music is ridiculously funny (such as this earworm) as well as nerdy, so you know we’re going to be big fans in this house. You’ve heard Coulton’s work on this blog before, too, particularly in the form of his Christmas album, a collaboration with John Roderick; some of those songs often show up in 12 Days of Christmas Music That Doesn’t Suck.
I’m also a fan of Coulton’s because he wrote a new song every week for quite a long time and posted them online. “Skullcrusher Mountain” is one of those songs. If I’m not mistaken, this project (called “Thing A Week”) allowed him to transition from a job in IT to being a full-time musician, and let’s be frank, that kind of creativity, persistence, and dedication are just inspiring.
Have a great week, everyone!
Okay, not gonna lie, this is some very exciting news. The last eighteen hours have been a mild frenzy of posting on my various social media and to my newsletter, because I am finally able to reveal the cover of the new book!
Homecoming is the second book in the Animal Affinities series, and for those of you who are fans of Finis., rejoice, because at long last the next book is coming! I hope you’ll enjoy it. It’s a bit longer than Finis. and focuses on the wolves. I’ll do a first chapter reveal here on the blog in the near future, so stay tuned for that.
But here is the gorgeous cover, designed by Lauren Volness, who also did the incredible cover art for Finis.
The pandemic has delayed the release of this book but not canceled it — so keep an eye out for it late this summer. More details as I’m able to share them!
Also, now might be a great time to remind you that if you’d like to get Finis. or my most recent book of poems, The Sharp Edges of Water, both are available from Blue Willow Bookshop!
I love this song for how much fun it is to sing. It feels particularly fitting right now as I’m finishing up teaching A Tale of Two Cities to my AP seniors and the art direction of this video definitely seems to have a little bit of a French Revolution undertone.
Anyway, happy Monday.
So in case you’d like to see me reading one of my stories online, you can now.
Last year I wrote a flash fiction called “Mother” which placed in the annual Spider Road Press flash fiction contest. They even nominated it for Best Small Fictions. (This year’s contest is going on now, by the way, until June 1st, so do enter a story if you’ve got one that fits their guidelines.)
And this spring they’re posting online readings of flash fiction from their authors, and today my story went up! I hope you’ll take a look.
Have a great weekend!
I hope that you enjoyed this year’s Poem-A-Day series in honor of National Poetry Month. It’s such a popular series — maybe the most popular thing on the blog some years? — I’ll try to put more poetry up here throughout the rest of the year. But otherwise I’m already curating next year’s lineup.
Now that we’re back to Ordinary Time on the blog, though, Monday Earworms will resume. Lately this song keeps popping up on Pandora, and I love it, but also it figures prominently in Casey McQuiston’s Red, White and Royal Blue, which was one of my favorite books I read last year and which I will probably be reading again this summer as a cheer-me-up. It is definitely the alternate timeline I’d rather be living in than this one! Give it a look.
In the meantime, though, how about some Queen?
Sappho's Torque 