ABNA...why not?

Has anyone else entered this yet? I know the deadline's not till Feb. 6, but I've already put mine in. I've gone with SUNDOWN. Every now and then I go back and edit what's there, i.e. the pitch.

It's exciting!

In the critiquing circle I'm participating in via AW, I'm the next up for having my chapters ripped apart. Should be fun, and hopefully helpful too!

Meanwhile, I have written a bit more of STORM in the last few days, and I am currently halfway through the 2nd-last chapter. I'm pretty sure there'll only be one more after this one, to tie things up. But who knows what'll happen during revisions.

I've really been looking forward to NaNoEdMo, when I can really get stuck into editing FIRE. I can't wait to see the words slough away under my iron editing thumb. Er, yes, my thumb is iron. Or it will be.

And that's about it for updates. Except I wrote a story this week for Chrysalis which involves my idea of the most pathetic girl on the planet. I feel sorry for her, because her entire life is her jerk-faced boyfriend. And guess what happens? He dumps her.

As my critiquing buddy Jenn put it after reading... "Ouch."

Speaking of both Jenn AND Chrysalis, Jenn's story is up for this week. And I must say that after reading it, I was in a state of shock and awe. It's pretty AWESOME.

The Top 10 Music blogfest - reminiscing

I know it's still kind of going on, i.e. people are still doing the rounds. That list of participants was loooooong! I am one of those who isn't done yet with my rounds. But I just wanted to say it was a lot of fun participating, and also...I've discovered a lot of cool new music! Well, some of it isn't particularly new...but it's new to me! And I've also been reminded of some songs I already knew, but had forgotten about. In short, it was not only fun but very much worth my while participating!

In other fun news, my "murdered darling" is featured on Charlotte Jane Ivory's Murder Your Darlings blog. You can find my deliciously "awkward" young adult fiction excerpt (I started writing this when I was an early teen and it's probably more novella length than anything), and follow along with my commentary, here. I'm glad to have been featured, and I encourage the rest of you guys to give it a go too with any discarded manuscripts (rough drafts) you don't intend to try publishing at any point. It's fun to look back and breathe a sigh of relief for where you are in the present.

And finally, the fourth prompt (from Winter again this week) for The Chrysalis Experiment is up! Once again this time, I had a false start this week and discarded my first attempt for a second. I'm excited about how our little project is going so far! If you're interested in writing short stories this year, you should check us out! There's no pressure to submit, just to keep having fun. You MUST keep having fun, OR ELSE.

Top 10 Music - Blogfest

Today is the "Top 10 Countdown" blogfest, hosted by Alex J. Cavanaugh. Thank you Alex for hosting this 'fest. It was a lot of fun - if challenging!

This is not easy for me, so I am going to have to go with my top 10 favourite songs of the moment. I've decided to go with a different artist for each of the 10 songs, even though some artists are bound to have way more of my favourite songs to their name than others. I like variety, what can I say?

I am also calculating these in part according to my Last.fm charts, the "overall" kind.

Artist & Song Name	Why It Inspires Me
Lacuna Coil - Stars	This is one of the first songs I heard by LC (even if it is a cover!), and I just found it beautiful and haunting and wonderful. It inspires me in so many ways. Mostly it gives me amazing story ideas, not that I've actually written any of those ideas. It just makes me feel...inspired!
Madonna - White Heat	It's probably my favourite Madonna song. As a little girl it definitely inspired me, and I played it over and over again. I love the melody. It's interesting to me that a mere melody can conjure such inspiration. Never mind the lyrics, which for this song are pretty cool too.
Unwritten Law - How You Feel	Gorgeous beautiful song. One of my favourite lurve songs, or I see it as one anyway. It just makes me happy. It's not one of those "sad" love songs. It's uplifting and makes me want to get up and dance.
Catherine Wheel - Black Metallic	I found this song (and therefore this band) by accident one time. I am SO glad for that very happy accident. Catherine Wheel have an amazingly beautiful and inspirational sound. This song is epic, and again I find it inspiring.
Michael Jackson - Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'	Oh, man. This was one of the songs played at my 30th birthday (I devised the 6+ hour playlist myself) and it was an awesome moment when it started over the sound system. This song takes me back to childhood, and NEVER fails to make me want to dance.
Superette - Waves	Pretty, sad song. It definitely inspires in a bleak, grim kind of way. It tells a sad story. But I do so love the song.
Veruca Salt - Sundown	This song is definitely inspiring in a haunting, creepy way. It's not so much creepy as...it gives me chills. I can completely see the line "See the sun...going down" as a bit of a metaphor for all sorts of dramatic, shocking stuff in my writing. And to think this song is a demoey b-side from one of the band's singles!
VNV Nation - Darkangel (Gabriel)	Inspiring, haunting, darkly beautiful. Bleak, yet it strikes awe into my little heart. This is a song I listen to over and over. Then again, the same could be said about all the songs in this list.
The Smashing Pumpkins - Waiting	This song has always, for some odd reason, inspired images of snow-clad winter gardens and a wandering, lonely stranger. I don't know that stranger's story, but I know it's compelling. The kind of story that would make your jaw drop. And the garden itself is stunningly beautiful. Like this magnificent song.
Strapping Young Lad - Detox	Ha. I do love me some metal, but it's not my absolute staple when it comes to music. But this song, and this band, are amongst my favourites. They definitely inspire me with my writing. I picture post-apocalyptic sci-fi scenes when I listen to this band. I don't know why. I also picture some zombie-pocalypse scenarios, for no apparent reason. It's just the sound, and how it makes me feel.

It's ridiculous to have to reduce the immense number of songs I absolutely adore to a mere 10, but the above songs are definitely amongst my all-time favourites. I feel like the list represents pretty well the range of my musical taste, though there are of course plenty of my favourite artists not represented. I love my alternative/alt. rock, my metal, my 80s pop/dance and my more modern electronic music. Mostly it's the rock for me; gotta love a loud guitar. But yeah, you can see that I'm into a range of stuff.

So anyway, this was fun. Difficult, torturous, etc., but fun. :)

Edit: Oops. I forgot to say why they inspire me. :D Tacking that on now.

Followers and blogs...and Piratica

Hey everyone! I just wanted to mention that if you are following my blog here but don't have a public profile, and yet you do have a blog you would like visitors at, you might wanna link me to it so I can come over and say hi. Otherwise I will never be able to reciprocate the way I would like to.

Okay, service announcement is through. Now...

I am reading a new book now (the third one I brought away with me, I've already read 2). It's called PIRATICA and a work colleague gave it to me for a birthday because my name is Patricia, and she thought the story might be about me. Hehe. No, just kidding, she didn't think that. But the book looks like a bit of fun. I've read one other Tanith Lee book before, THE CASTLE OF DARK, which I thought was interesting but didn't really grip me. Now that I'm more actively putting reviews on GoodReads I should probably re-read that one sometime to jog my memory. Anyway, long ago a friend of mine whose taste in music and/or writing I have always greatly admired, recommended Tanith Lee to me. So I guess it's about time I read another of her books. I see now that this book is part of a series.

So anyway, back to the tally: that's four books read so far this year, and a fifth just begun. Well on my way to beating last year's reading record. Though that wouldn't be particularly difficult to accomplish.

Tomorrow I believe we may be visiting Moyie Falls!