Happy Saturday and thanks for stopping by today. I’ve got some of my favorite links of the week for you, but I’ve given the hubs the week of from his music picks. He’s been working hard all week so I guess that’s okay 😉 Instead I’ve picked an audition from this years So You Think You Can Dance.
Love learning from folks who have been there and done that
Lots of memorable auditions this year. This one stands out because she’s a mommy who has not given up on her dream. Listen to her story, watch her beautiful moves, and stay till the end, because her daughter dances too.
Back to my regular patterns this week. I have writing links for you and a music pick from Jeff. The video is a funny clip from Fred Armisen’s show “Portlandia”
The coolest thing: Kristen Lamb you are awesome! She has created a place for writers to not be alone 😉 you can chat with other writers in your genre and it’s a place to learn from WRITERS. Hurry, click away, come back to my list later I Bring You…A Gift–A New Era for the Digital Age Artist
“Laughing With A Mouth Of Blood” by St. Vincent, from the album “Actor”
St. Vincent is actually Annie Clark. I think she got her break playing with the Polyphonic Spree. She’s a wonderful singer/songwriter/guitarist.
Her music is so interesting to me. I can hear the influences, but the way in which she stirs them up and spits them out is very unique to her. I think it starts with her guitar style and musical knowledge. She’s not the average singer/songwriter nor is she the average guitarist.
I’ve heard that she writes the tunes on the guitar and then deconstructs them in the studio. I really like that idea and the end result. Sometimes it can be a little too out there for me but then, after a few listens, I’m back in again. That’s the point, it seems – draw the listener in right away but also give us something to discover over time. I think all truly great music does this.
I’ve also seen some clips of her playing her songs stripped down to just voice and acoustic guitar. It’s clear that all the studio production is merely a means to create interesting layers to already great tunes.
Plus, she has Matt Johnson (Jeff Buckley’s drummer) on drums. Musically, you can’t go wrong with that guy in your band!
My list is a little short this week, but the links are prime grade A stuff. I’m changing things up this week as well and giving my hubs a break. Please let me know what kind of inspiration the video at the bottom gives you.
There is a theme this week and it’s hitting home with me. How are you sitting in your writing life? Do you need to be reminded of a few of these things too?
Jeff will be back next week with a new music pick. This week I wanted to celebrate the start of So You Think You Can Dance season 9. It’s going to be another tremendous season, but I wanted to share one of my all time favorites from the show. Chelsie and Mark from season 4 performing NappyTabs “Bleeding Love,” this is their finale performance. Chelsie is now on Dancing with the Stars and Mark is the head dancer for Lady Gaga.
I love many things about dance, but the best part has got to be the story telling. The cross over link for me between my dancing and my writing is the story. NappyTab’s choreography here is superb, but it’s the way Chelsie and Mark feel the story through every cell in their body. The title is Bleeding Love and that’s exactly how I feel by the end.
I hope you enjoy their performance AND I hope it inspires you to write.
Happy Saturday! What? It’s Memorial weekend? OMG, what am I doing inside. I have weeding to do, plants to put in the garden, roses to train, books to read, a MS to edit…and more blogs to read 🙂 I have a pretty collection for you today and don’t forget to listen to Jeff’s music selection today. You won’t regret this listen, it’s powerful.
Alan Chin posted this week Writing Tip #36 Story Starter Questions. Very interesting collection of 12-questions. A quick test to see if your plot is missing something.
Janice Hardy at The Other Side of the Story had a brilliant line at the beginning of her post on plots this week: “The house is story. Decorating is plot.” Loved the rest of the post too Author, We Have a Problem: 4 Tips on Plotting Your Novel
Dialogue
Writers It The Storm had Tiffany Lawson Inman yesterday!! Dialogue is King
Vickie Motter from Navigating the Slush Pile described the points of the pitch and how it’s different from your query: May Conferences: The Verbal Pitch. Don’t miss her next post either for help with the twitter pitch Speaking of pitching…
Social Media
Ashley Barron added another post in a series and this one includes hashtag strategy #helpful 🙂 Blogging: Twitter & The Hashtag
This is a tune called “Surely” from the group Black Dub. It’s Daniel Lanois’ passion project. He’s a super famous producer (U2, Bob Dylan, the list goes on and on) known for his warm and unique sounds. He’s also a great guitarist, songwriter, and singer.
He formed this group after he heard the singer, Trixie Whitley, during a recording session. Her father was a famous singer/guitarist/songwriter named Chris Whitley who, sadly, passed away several years ago. It’s clear that she has music in her blood – an incredible talent.
The drummer is one of my absolute faves, Brian Blade. He became known as a jazz player but has since played with quite a vast array of artists (Seal, Joni Mitchell, etc…). He has his own groups – a jazz group where he plays drums and a solo outfit where he sings, writes the tunes and plays guitar. He’s an unbelievable musician!
So, you can see that with this sort of line up the music is going to be amazing, and it really is! With all of these unique voices they still have such a great group sound. I think they record live together most of time which is very cool and a bit of a lost art. I think it really comes through on the record – a live vibe, real musicians reacting and playing together in the moment.
It’s Saturday, so again I have collected a bunch of wonderful posts from this past week. Enjoy and don’t forget to see, at the bottom, what Jeff has selected for us to listen to this week.
Barton Hollow by The Civil Wars. Even though they are only a duo, they have a collective group sound.You may remember seeing them on the grammy’s this past year. I think they won a bunch of ‘em.
They’re a great songwriting duo whose voices blend perfectly. What’s very cool about this group is that, while they have a great vocal blend, their individual voices are fairly distinct. With a unique voice it can often be difficult to blend with anyone else, let alone another unique voice. It’s a rare and special thing when this happens and I think they realized it right away. Plus, they seem to write songs well together…another tricky skill.
The whole album is quite a bit more mellow than this tune but I’ve been enjoying. They also have a really cool version of ‘I want you back’ by the Jackson 5. They contributed a few tunes, including one with Taylor Swift (that certainly adds to her lacking credibility), for the hunger games movie. Those tunes (even the one with Taylor Swift) are very good as well.
p.s. they are not a couple. They are each married to other people. I think they get that question a lot because of how close they seem to be.
Hope you enjoyed the links this week. Did you miss my Flash Fiction from yesterday? And last, don’t forget to come back tomorrow for my six sentences from my WIP.
All kinds of good stuff this week, a whole truck full. I even got some funny at the end. Lastly, please, oh please, don’t forget about Mother’s Day tomorrow.
When Margie Lawson is at Writers in the Storm I get excited and yesterday is a perfect example of why: Smart Writers Expand Time – From Margie Lawson! Power words, visceral responses and time. Oh, my! Fantastic post.
Laura Drake posted at Writers in The Story this week regarding 10 Tips for a DIY Author Website. If you haven’t created your site yet check out this post and get to it. If you have a site I still suggest checking it out. You might pick-up something new.
Yeah, yeah, it’s May, hooray. Okay, I get it. I’m working on my sourpuss, do you see it? Oh! I know what will help: some good writing links and some music from Jeff. Say no more…
“Death of Communication” by Company of Thieves from the album, “Running From a Gamble”.
Company of Thieves is a band from Chicago. My sound man is pals with them and we went and saw a bit of their set at the metro last month. I also heard one of their tunes during the credits of “Entourage.” I immediately searched the net to find out the name of the artist and song and have been hooked ever since.
The creative nucleus of the band seems to be the singer and guitarist. The singer has a fairly clear bjork influence in terms of her sound. I think her voice may be one of those, you either love or hate it, scenarios. Sometimes it sounds a bit “put on” for me but the music overall more than makes up for it. I like her lyrics as well…sometimes a bit melodramatic but I enjoy a little melodrama every now and again. For instance, the chorus of this tune speaks to me as an artist:
Almost fooled me when you said to
Sell your soul for someone’s gold
Maybe then you’ll have a friend
Go on, sell your soul to be controlled
Maybe then you’ll have a friend
The guitarist makes some interesting choices with the types of chords he uses. This enables the singer more room for interesting melodic ideas. Their songs don’t really have the typical “hooks” of pop/rock outfit but I think that’s why I like it. It’s not too crazy but not too “easy” at the same time…somewhere in the middle. After having seen them live, it’s clear that they can really play. Seems silly to even have to mention this but, in this day and age, it’s rare.
This is a band who creates an overall “sound”. As I think of further artists for this little project of ours, I can already see that “sound” is going to be a somewhat constant factor in my picks.
Lots of things to share this week and I even have a treat at the end, so stick with me
Conferences
Jeaniene Frost posted a series of videos from the panel she was on at the C2E2 (Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo), quite the line-up on authors: Video snippets from C2E2
Writer Business
The lovely J.A. Saare shared some sad facts of the business this week in her post Support Authors and she has a new release which is a must read in my opinion
It must have been the week for favs coming together, because Margie Lawson was at Jenny Hansen’s this week with Uber-Cool, Unboring Writing! by Margie Lawson<– I’m going to be studying this post for a while
I just finished Angela James’ Before You Hit Send workshop and loved it!! I have so much to re-read and soak in, but I’ve got a plan of action now. YEAH!! This week Rachelle Gardner had a 3-part series entitled: Strategies for Writers. The last post is entitled How to Cut Thousands of Words Without Shedding a Tear. It was a great post and hit on several ideas I’ve been digesting.
Act 1
Roni Loren provides several excellent nuggets in her post this week entitled: Testing Your Opening Scene – 5 Steps #atozchallenge she provides a test for your opening scene, a warning and a craft book suggestion
I can’t tell you how many times I come across a song, fell completely in love, mention it to my DH (a musician), and he responds: “yeah, they’re great, you’d like their last album too.” If he thought I’d like them why, oh why doesn’t he mention it?!?!…lightbulb idea…I gave the DH (Jeffrey) an ongoing assignment: each week he will send me a video or clip of music that he is currently loving AND I will share it with all of you. He’s even explaining in his own words why he loves it 🙂
Music from Jeffrey #1
This a band called, Punch Brothers. The leader, Chris Thile, gained popularity by playing in the folk group, Nickel Creek (also an incredible group). He’s considered a mandolin prodigy. He also happens to be a great singer/songwriter and an UNBELIEVABLE musician. He assembled this group of musicians, who match his high level of musicianship, to form the Punch Brothers.
The thing that I love about this group is that, while they are all top-level musicians, their music is not drenched in music “wizardry”. The tunes are fantastic, complex without being exclusionary. Plus, the way they play together is the very definition of the phrase, “this is how it’s done.”
From the album: who’s feeling young now
Did you see my Flash Fiction from yesterday? Be sure to come back tomorrow for two posts: my ROW80 check-in (I’ll have another clip from the Punch Brothers, this clip rocks and gives you a chance to see how different this group can sound) and my Six Sentence Sunday
My list isn’t as long this week. Dear husband is out of town, gigging in Hawaii without me. Bummer. I’m staying home with the kiddos and my mother arrived yesterday…can you say time suck. Anyways, my list is shorter, but each one is a gem.
Kristen Lamb’s post from Monday struck a big cord with me, The Secret to Success–Quitting. As a pre-published writer (love this) I’m working on a million different things: getting words on the page, plotting, editing, character arch, my skills, my organization…and many times over the last few months I feel like I’m hitting a wall. Now, instead of thinking about persistence , I’m going to think about quitting and starting again.
Another week and still a lot going around about the the 50 Shades of Grey (my mom actually mentioned it yesterday :D). Kathy Kulig posted 50 Shades of Grey: Hot Lessons for Authors. Love this post, because there is something to learn here and Kathy gets to it. Oh, and she has the coolest header on her site.
Lots of RT recaps this week and each one deepened my ache from not being there myself. I had to link to Jeaniene Frost’s two posts this week, simply because they were entertaining and funny. RT recap, days 1 and 2 & RT recap, Day 3
Aimee L. Salter over at Seeking the Write Life posted a topic I needed right now and you do too if you have any fears with your writing: Give Yourself Permission
Yesterday Kristen Lamb posted about hashtags and automation with twitter. I’ve actually been a bit worried about my twitter stream lately, ever since I joined tribes on Triberr. I love Triberr! Not only do I have quick access to many blogs I love, but I get to easily share them with my followers too. BUT, now if you look at my twitter stream on any given day, chances are you’ll see a slew of Triberr tweets before you’ll find one of my live tweets. Urgh. Okay, thank you Kristen for this timely post: Hash Tags—The Trouble with Twitter Tribbles
Thanks for stopping by. Come back tomorrow for my SixSunday offering and, if you missed it, don’t forget to check out my Flash Fiction from Friday.
Big thanks to fellow ROW80er Barbara McDowell who provided great links in her check-in this week Ali Luke over at Aliventures posted in January of last year: 7 Habits of Serious Writers, Ali has a great site and I’m having tons of fun there.
Gabrielle Bisset had Ginger Simpson Guest Post this week: Write with Purpose
Leia Shaw was at Nights of Passion this week with a list of characteristics your leading lady will need to, well, please all the picky bitches. The post made me giggle, but it’s some serious stuff. Pleasing Picky Bitches by Leia Shaw
Here at my blog you might have missed Spotlight: Demonically Tempted by Stacey Kennedy you can also click here to go to Stacey’s site, once there you’ll find a Teaser (Chapter 1!) and the Buy links. I’m leaving you with Stacey’s trailer b/c it rocks and not many trailers do. This trailer is totally worth a watch.
S.J. Maylee 