Sunday Downloads: "Arlandria" by Foo Fighters

I effing LOVE this song!  We all know Dave Grohl kicks major ass, but this takes ass kicking to a whole new level!  The familiar "rain, rain, go away" cadence of his lyrics resonate that sense of childhood simplicity and innocence that fits well with the rock beat. I'm only guessing, but I believe he's saying WTF? to the Arlington/Alexandria (aka Arlandria) part of Virginia he's from.  From the lyrics, it seems like growing up there, Virginia treated him like a loser for being a long haired musician of alternative rock.  Now that he's a famous rock star, they seem to embrace him.  It's the lyric "My sweet Virginia, I'm the same as I was in your arms." that solidifies this notion for me. I think he takes the higher road by saying, "Come now, take the blame. That's okay, I'll play the game." The game of pretending they didn't shun him when he was younger and that they always loved him.



Lyrics "Arlandria" by Foo Fighters

Ain't that the way it always starts.

A simple round of conversation.

Became a shameful equation.

I flipped you station to station.

Hey. Don't go and turn the other way.

Don't say there's nothin’ more to... say.

Com'on here me out.

Hush, hush, settle down.

Button up, don't make a sound.

Shame, shame, go away.

Come again some other day.

You used to say I couldn't save you enough,

So I've been savin it up, I started savin it up.

And when you said I couldn't give you enough,

I started giving you up, I started giving you up.

You are not me, Arlandria, Arlandria.

You and what army, Arlandria, Arlandria?

Oh, God you gotta make it stop.

Chase… all of those memories away,

Save them all for another day.

Don't you remember it was rain that drowned you.

Wait! I wanna see if you can shake.

I wanna keep all I can take.

I feel much better now.

Use me up, spit me out,

Let me be your hand-me-down.

Fame, fame, go away, come again some other day.

You used to say I couldn't save you enough,

So I've been savin it up, I started savin it up.

And when you said I couldn't give you enough,

I started giving you up, I started giving you up.

You are not me, Arlandria, Arlandria.

You and what army, Arlandria, Arlandria?

Oh, God you gotta make stop!

My sweet Virginia, I'm the same as I was in your arms.

My sweet Virginia, I'm the same as I was in your arms.

Shame, shame go away,

Come again some other day.

Memories keep haunting me,

Help me chase them all away.

Hush, now settle down,

Button up, don't make a sound.

Close your eyes, turn around,

Help me burn this to the ground...

Come now, take the blame. That's okay, I'll play the game.

I don't care it's all the same,

Watch you all go up in flames.

Use me up, spit me out,

Let me be your hand-me-down.

Fame, fame, go away, come again some other day!

You used to say I couldn't save you enough,

So I've been savin it up, I started savin it up.

And when you said I couldn't give you enough,

I started giving you up, I started giving you up.

Sunday Downloads - "Turn Me On" by The Grates

Here I go loving another UK song that I can't get in America.  The Grates have a few songs on iTunes, but this is their latest stuff that has not made it over yet.  The video is pretty cool, but the lyrics are even better.

* Update: As of July 10, 2012 this song (and their new album) is now available on iTunes here in America.  Woohoo!

I think the meaning is straight forward, "Turn Me On."

I say "Yes, please. Give me a double."  Hope you enjoy!



Lyrics "Turn Me On" by The Grates

It all started long ago.

We have staples, deep they go,

To a pasture vivid green, 

To a slow moving stream.

I will have you justify,  

Drawing on your baby teeth. 

Swing me lightly. Start my fire, I will roar.

Wrap yourself around me.

Do it, just define me.

Do it to ignite me.

Do it as a friend. 

Any way you want to.

Any way you need to. 

I can hold my breath.

Turn me on, turn me on.

Crawl inside your ancient eyes.

Feel your power, it’s a gift.

Swing me gently. Light my fire, I will grow.

Wrap yourself around me.

Do it, justify me.

Do it to ignite me.

Do it as a friend. 

Any way you want to.

Any way you need to.

I can skew it backwards.

Turn me on, turn me on.

Turn me on…

Sunday Downloads: "You Don't Know How Lucky You Are" by Keaton Henson

This song is wow....yeah, just wow.  It's heartbreakingly beautiful.  Like all songs I tend to gravitate toward, this has a haunting sound and lyrics.  After listening to the lyrics and perusing Keaton Henson's obscure website, I've concluded the song is about his broken heart.  He's been replaced by another guy and he's asking her does this new guy know these things about you that I do?  My favorite line is "does he know where your lips begin."  How achingly beautiful.

But it doesn't matter how intimately he knows her, she didn't have the same attraction for him.  It's right there in his own lyrics. "You don’t like to be touched, let alone kissed."  Two people in love can't seem to get enough of each other.  Not saying she didn't love him, she just didn't find what she needed in him.  Unfortunately for him, he never saw the signs.  So sad.



Lyrics "You Don't Know How Lucky You Are" by Keaton Henson

does he know

who you are

does he laugh

just to know

what he has

does he know

not to talk

about your dad

does he know when your sad

you don’t like to be touched

let alone kissed

does he know where your lips begin

do you know

who you are

do you laugh

just to think

what I lack

do you know

your lip shakes

when you’re mad

do you notice when you sigh

you don’t like to be touched

let alone kissed

does his love make your head spin

does his love make your head spin

does his love make your head spin

Not Fit for Company

Last Thursday night after tucking my little boy into bed, I came downstairs slipped on the next to last step and landed on my left foot...hard.  I knew instantly I had broken something, the pain was immediate. Being home alone (hubby off at a concert) I decided to do nothing 'til morning. Friday morning the ER doc told me I broke my heel spur. What the heck is a heel spur? Apparently my high arch forces the tendons to strain on the bottom of my foot, pulling on the heal bone over time to create a spur on the bottom of my foot. Lovely.

I'm in a shoe-boot thing that's ugly enough to be called a Birkenstock. (For the record, you would never catch me dead in that fashion nightmare.*) My bikini days by the pool are tainted. Boot-foot tan lines are NOT sexy.  High heels will be out of the question. What the heck am I supposed to wear when I go out? Next weekend I'll be at ALA with happy hour and cocktail party.  I cannot NOT wear heels...it goes against my fashion DNA.  But I don't want to look like an ass in heels and crutches. Hmmm, maybe if I adjust the height of my cructches...?

*Okay, right out of the gate I knew I'd offend someone I loved with my aversion to Birkenstocks. (Sorry Kathryn...and anybody else who wears them.) I love all my friend's feet equally and without judgement, to each their own. I just can't do it.

Needless to say, three days of foot propping and sitting on my butt, I'm over this whole broken heel spur thing.  And I've got a minimum of six more weeks of this crap!  People, I need activity.  A social life! Sunshine!  Between June Gloom (the cloudy haze brought in by the ocean in Southern California) and my inactivity, I'm not fit for company.

I did, however, download some amazing songs on Sunday.  So instead of me spreading my depression all over the blogosphere, I'll talk this week about the one thing that makes me the happiest...music. (Though the first piece I'm sharing tomorrow is a sad song, it's breathtakingly beautiful.)

I hate pity, it makes me feel weak so please pass it on to someone else.  I'll do my best to not be grumpy but don't hold your breath.  Hope everyone else is having a fun-filled summer.  At least I get to work on my MS today.

Happy Monday!

Happy Father's Day to the greatest dad!

I love you, Daddy!

#mommyporn: Derogatory or Adoration?

Both.  It’s all about the context.  Recently a fellow writer, Sierra Godfrey, tweeted that she was offended by the term #mommyporn in reference to Fifty Shades of Grey. And frankly, I agree with her… mostly.

The phrase “mommy porn” was coined by the media in reference to the hype and explosion of the Fifty Shades series. If you search the hashtag on Twitter, you will find it used with adoration and in derogatory.   (Adoration i.e.: Can't wait to pour a glass of wine and curl up with my #mommyporn. Wahoo!) It’s the negative, derogatory use of #mommyporn people associate with Fifty Shades (or any erotica/romance book) that offends me.  For the record, I didn’t like Fifty Shades. (I want to be a professional writer and not a reviewer so I will not elaborate.)  But the point remains, why can’t mothers read erotica?  Just because we have kids doesn’t mean we’ve shut down our sexual side. Why does a negative stigma have to be associated with it at all?  It’s kind of like literary book snobs who frown on commercial fiction.  PEOPLE ARE READING FOR GOD’S SAKES!  For a lot of people, it has ignited a passion to read all together!  Note that I said ignited and not reignited.  Some adults were never readers until SOME book lit something on fire inside them.  Who are we to judge what that was? Reading Twilight did that for me.  We all know the love/hate Twilight has.

It also offends me that people associate written erotica/romance with porn.  I've watched porn before (Dear God, please don't let my mother ever read this post.), and majority of them are purely about sex.  And IF there's a "story line" in porn, it's the most horrible cheesy crap I've ever seen. Erotica and porn both have sex, that's about all they have in common.  Men have nipples, doesn't mean they can breast feed.  There are more complicated things going on under the surface that distinguish the difference. Yes, some erotica reads like written porn, but we are talking about majority vs. majority. Not the exceptions to the rule.   

Many times I have lovingly referred to the romance novels I read as “romance smut.”  And I love my smut.  I mean it with the utmost respect and appreciation. I use “romance smut” as a loving term, therefore I feel it is okay to use it…until now.  This is a stretch comparison, but it’s kind of like the “n” word.  (For the record, I think the “n” word is horrifically more offensive than #mommyporn but I’m trying to make a point.) Some people say only black people can use the word because they do so in a playful way to their fellow people. BUT if they use the word, then other people feel like they can too, and the cycle of using an offensive word continues.

Also keep in mind that making blanket, close-minded statements will make you appear ignorant.  Kind of like a woman I met at a wedding a few weeks ago who said to me that people who read that stuff (referring to Fifty Shades) are unhappily married….um, yeah. WOW…yeah, just wow.  I did tell her that though I didn’t like Fifty Shades, I do read other romance/erotica and I’m very happily married.  O_o  *crickets*

Am I making an all-call for people to stop using the term?  No, but I do think people need to be aware that the term itself can be considered offensive.  Does this mean I will never use “romance smut” again?  No, but I will limit when and where I use it, keeping in mind I might be offending someone.  (Not that I have ever heard of anyone being offended by that term but I’m sure it’s happened.)

It’s inevitable that you will offend somebody, even with the most innocent intentions. You can’t make everyone happy.  And just because one person gets their hackles up doesn’t mean everyone will.  Awareness and tact are all I’m asking for, in anything you do.  

Sunday Downloads - "Quiet" by Non Tiq

This song is a mix of that unique Euro sound with a pinch of 1980.  I'm not feeling the video, but the song is good. Usually I have more to say about the music I post but not today.



Lyrics "Quiet" by Non Tiq
Even if I run
i´m never running fast
Even in my dreams
i couldn´t make it there

What about the sounds
that never let me rest
Everything you want
I´m gonna shut it out

If its quiet anywhere x3
Let me hear myself again
If its quiet anywhere x3
Let me hear myself again

Even when I cried
you wouldnt take it back
Even when I broke
you never got a crack

What about the light
that flashes in my head

Everything thats wrong
I´m gonna shut it out

If its quiet anywhere x3
Let me hear myself again
If its quiet anywhere x3
Let me hear myself again

If its quiet anywhere x3
Let me hear myself again
If its quiet anywhere x3
Let me hear myself again

"The Plan"

Sounds ominous, doesn't it?  Here's what "The Plan" looks like:

Or at least what the plan feels like inside my head.  Since I've finished my manuscript, I've had several people ask me what's "the plan."  I have one.  I do.  It's a "Hell, I'm not sure, but I'll wing it" kind of plan.  It's what I do after every manuscript. Don't get me wrong, I have a general idea of what I need to do.  For me, it's start small work big.

First order of business, do a clean sweep for obvious grammatical mistakes, homonyms, and other obvious blunders.  When I write a first draft, I tend to puke the words on the page and do things like ease-drop for eavesdrop...um, yeah.  Not my proudest moment.  But in my defense, when I begin a story, the words tumble out so fast my brain tends to fudge things up.

Once it's clean, I HAD planned on sending it to Ara to read over but she was really eager to read it so I sent it to her, dirt and all.  (Bless her heart.  She's a saint.)  Once she's done reading it, I'll use her comments for the hard edit.  Then maybe to a beta reader and out the door by the first of August...that is, if everything goes smoothly like I want.

Now I know what you are thinking.  I'm making a huge mistake by not sitting on my MS and giving tons of time before looking at it again.  I'm sure you're thinking August is sending it out too early.   Yes, I'm riding the my-MS-is-done-and-the-greatest-masterpiece-of-all-mankind high.  But here's the deal, I wrote this book differently than all the others.  Hear me out.

I've NEVER EVER looked forward to editing.  Previous books, I was a pantser.  Still am, sort of.  But my pantsing has evolved.  Before, I just wrote whatever popped into my pretty little head and was vaguely aware that something should happen here, and something else should happen here and an even bigger something should happen HERE.  Well, that made editing a bitch.  Huge scene cuts, major rewrites, plot threads tweaked and snipped, massive clean-ups that would make Chernobyl look like a Bounty paper towel commercial.

This book, as I wrote, it came so fast and furious in my head that I had to jot down notes.  Quickly those notes became this massive beast of chaos so I organized it.  And what do you know, the dang thing started to look vaguely like an outline.   I've already told this to you guys BUT the reason I bring it up again, is because I feel like plot/character/story wise, THIS manuscript is fairly clean.  Sure I need to tweak stuff, but it's nothing like the massive overhaul I had to do on my previous works. I'm actually looking forward to the editing.  Now, if I can just get my kiddos out of my hair for a half a second, I might could get to work on this thing.  My brain is usually mush by the evenings, so instead of reading in the wee hours of the morning, I'm going to whittle away at my book.  If I'm diligent, I will have something to query by August.

She's Alive!

Contrary to what you guys may believe, I have not crawled under a rock and died. I have however, finished my  LGBT manuscript!

Woot! Woot!
Party time.
Glittery confetti.
Shake your booty!
Aaaaaaand we're spent.

I'd love to say that I've been slaving away these last few weeks getting those final words down, but no.  My freaking kids have been out of school since May 23 (I say freaking with the utmost love. I swear.) and I've been entertaining them. I know your thinking, "What the what!?" Yeah, I know. My momma didn't entertain me when I was a kid, but I like doing cool stuff with my kiddos.  Like make these fleece monster creatures:

With kids home there's no time to write, the house is messier, friends are over every day, more cleaning, and get this, they require FOOD!  Go figure.

Anyway, I'm not going to make broken promises of being a better blogger.  As I've said before, my number one job is mom/wife, then writer. If all the other things in my life get done THEN I'll blog.  It's not that I don't love my followers, it's that I love you enough not to write crappy posts just to fill space.  There are plenty of crap blogs in the world, no sense in adding my to the bunch.

Sunday Downloads - "Civilian" by Wye Oak

There's something about the music I'm loving lately that takes me back to the rawness of the wild west.  Wye Oak has the deep soulful sound that haunts you in your sleep.  I've barely started to explore their other music but they have that fantastic folk/indie rock thing going on.  Love it.  Close to the end of the song she does a guitar riff that sounds like two guitars crashing and moaning in pain (mark 2:40).  Either you'll love that artist clash or you'll hate it.  I tend to love the waling cry of pain it makes. Hope you enjoy.



Lyrics for "Civilian" by Wye Oak


I am nothing without pretend
I know my faults
Can't live with them
I am nothing without a man
I know my thoughts
But I can't hide them

I still keep my baby teeth
In the bedside table with my jewelry
You still sleep in the bed with me,
My jewelry, and my baby teeth

I don't need another friend
When most of them
I can barely keep up with them
Perfectly able to hold my own hand,
But I still can't kiss my own neck

I wanted to give you everything
But I still stand in awe of superficial things
I wanted to love you like my mother's mother's mother did
Civilian.
Civilian.