Ceremonials

I can't listen to music while I write--I need silence to focus--but I love music. I particularly love albums with beautiful lyrics tied together by theme or by story.

One of my favorite albums ever was Lungs by Florence and the Machine.  So last week I bought Ceremonials, their latest work, and I am enjoying it more every time I listen.

Where Lungs seemed to have a fairytale feel, with beasts and blood and wishes gone awry, Ceremonials draws heavily on Christian ideas and myths.  Demons, revelations, light, sacrament--the music is still full of drums, it's still haunting, but I love how the two albums draw on very different sources and come up with magic from both.

Still recovering...

...but I am feeling well enough to post a nerdy joke.  It is something I always thought was strange:

Also, I want these earrings:

If I get them by 3/14 of next year, I will smile all the day long.

Sick

Blah.  I'm sniffly and tired, which isn't essential for you to know at all.  What is important for you to know is that I may use my evenings for the next few days for recovery rather than blogging.  Chicken soup and saltines and sleep.  That sort of thing.

But babies make everything better, right? Well, except for the sleeping stuff...

Five kids

I got to watch five kids today!  Two nieces, one nephew, and two sons.  They play super well together...but I am exhausted, and have nothing but respect for mothers who watch five (or more) kids every day.  I can't imagine a harder job!

Speaking of jobs, I'm currently rewriting key points in the middle of my first manuscript (Swindle Witch) based off of some excellent critiques.  I have had fits with the middle, but I think I've finally figured it out.  It's all about world building and info dumping, and I struggled because--well, it was my first novel, and my first fantasy story in a really, really long time.  I'm excited about the changes I'm making now, though--I think they'll make my middle chapters as strong as my start, and strengthen the ending as well.  Yay for revision!

Kid History!

I've just received some wonderful feedback on my novel, and I must go edit the middle (oh, middle, you coy, tricky beast!).  To entertain you, here is the first of the Kid History clips.  They are funny, and there are six.  Enjoy!

Phone cameras

I never had a cell phone before this summer.  True story.  Now that I have one, I've decided that one of my favorite aspects is the camera.

Here are some pictures I took when I first got the camera.  They summarize the basic awesomeness of my day:

 

Not perfect quality, but who wouldn't want to catch these crazy brothers when they're playing together on the couch?

Versatile Blogger Award

Thanks to Josh over at The Blog that Helps You Diagnose Your Characters, I was nominated for the Versatile Blogger Award! This is exciting, especially since I hop over to his blog every time it updates because it is fascinating.

So.  The rules in accepting this award: thank the person who nominated you (thanks again!). Share 7 things about yourself so that your readers can learn more about you (see below!), and nominate 7 other newly-discovered bloggers and let them know you nominated them (see below, and I will!).

Things About Me:

1. I can wiggle my ears.  Both at once and one at a time.  I can't do it while smiling, though, which makes it tricky when I try to show people.
2. I've got brown hair and brown eyes.  My husband has black hair and green eyes.  My three-year-old has golden-brown hair and hazel eyes.  And my one-year-old has golden-brown hair and blue eyes.  The blondish hair and the blue eyes surprised us--we expected our darker-hair-and-eye-genes to win out!
3. Me and my husband picked up Marilynne Robinson once and drove her from her hotel to a reading at the library.  So I've met one of my favorite authors.  She sat in my car.  She is very, very smart.
4. Apparently I love working with ice cream or writing.  I was a manager at Dairy Queen in high school, worked odd ice cream and editing jobs during my undergrad at BYU, and entered my current job teaching writing at the University of Utah when I started my graduate program. I did work at a plastics company, a hotel, and as a painter during some of the summers, but I didn't like pretending to be busy when I really had nothing to do, so those jobs were somewhat painful. Writing and ice cream rock, though!
5. I'm the oldest of four girls, but now I'm outnumbered by boys in our house.  Unless you count our two female cats...then we're even.
6. I love Portal.  And Portal 2.  And the Half Life games, because Valve is awesome.  I used to play more Blizzard games (never World of Warcraft, but I've beat the others), but I haven't played those as much since I had children.
7. As I child I loved My Little Ponies, and I am glad they now have a TV show that is fun and hilarious.  It's all about the writing (well, the writing is the base, at least, although you still need the animation and the voice acting and the music and the directing and so on...).

Let me know if there's other random stuff you want to learn about me, and I shall share more sometime...

Now to the list of seven bloggers!

1. Monica the Mighty: A blog about a super-amazing mother of seven who happens to be a fantastic writer.  You should read the archives. In fact, you should read everything she writes.  Because she is awesome. (She's my sister-in-law, so I can attest to her awesomeness in person as well!)
2. The Quintessentially Questionable Query Experiment: This one is probably already known to everyone, but I've been enjoying it.  Especially the recent series on monsters! Very useful for writers, and fun, too.
3. C'MERE: Website of K. Marie Criddle.  Pictures of surly unicorns.  Facts about butterflies.  Makes me smile every time.
4. Walking in a Writer's Wonderland: The blog of my romance-writing critique partner of coolness. Personal tidbits about another writer's experience in this big, bad writing world.  Also, mini muffins!
5. Rebecca Mahoney--Writer: She's busy revising right now, but she's got great information, and she's a terrific and supportive writer!
6. Losing Sanity: A new discovery from the recent Pay It Forward blogfest.  I love the happiness project! And I'm enjoying the archives too.
7. Winget Family: I love the photos! This is another sister-in-law blog, and she is a foodie and a mother of three very cute little girls! The Wingets are the best hosts ever, by the way.  Just so you know.

Whew!