Nancy E. Dunne's Blog, page 5

Halsey - I Walk The Line [Lyrics]

So today continues the tradition, apparently of the remnants of cancer treatment keeping me from remembering to do a Music Monday. At least I remembered while it was still Monday...
Today's choice is a song I came across by accident while looking up a song from a commercial. I have long been a fan of Halsey but hadn't realised she did this cover of the Johnny Cash classic, I Walk the Line. Once again, the MC from my current WIP popped her head out of the ether and mentioned that this song would be a good choice when she is contemplating the pull toward her wicked past... including a glass of wine and a picture window overlooking a rainy night in Atlanta. Well...if that doesn't scream ADD ME TO THE PLAYLIST I don't know what does. Enjoy - lyrics in the video. 

Music Monday: The Air I Breathe

Miss me last week? What I am not so lovingly calling The She Hulking (radiation) has come to an end and I can sort of think straight. This song spoke to me about many of my MCs and the found family vibes that permeate my writing. Enjoy. 

Music Monday: Well, hiya, Lark. Long time no see...

So I'm working on a writing project with one of my (adopted) older brothers and it has stalled out for me, probably because of all that's on my agenda these days that isn't writing related. And when I can't hear from the character I'm writing, Lark, he tells me to just listen - put on some music she likes and listen. 

Those of you that are plotters rather than pantsers can just look away now.

This song is one of her favorites and speaks to a lot of the plot and her as a character that I can't talk about yet. But it works, every time. Enjoy. 

Music Monday: Calling All Friends...?

It's been a week, y'all, and it's only Monday morning! Here's my list of wants and needs for now - how about you? Just hang on, it will be Tuesday soon, I hope.  

Music Monday: Are you strong enough?

As I said last week, I ran across a song that blends two of the most perfect female voices in modern music, Stevie Nicks and Sheryl Crow. This is that song. 

One thing that I do every time I start on a new story is to find my characters through music, hence the Music Monday section of this blog. When my writing partner and I first embarked on telling Connor and Lark's story, I set up a playlist called Connor and Lark that was basically the music I listened to while writing. But that was really MY playlist, and didn't help me get to know Lark at all. So I made a playlist for her with samplings of music I think she would have listened to over her very long life (200+ years...she's a vampire, y'all), trying to imagine what these songs would mean to her.

As soon as I heard this one I added it. Enjoy.

Strong Enoughby Sheryl Crow
God, I feel like hell tonightTears of rage I cannot lieI'd be the last to help you understandAre you strong enough to be my man?My man
Nothing's true and nothing's rightSo let me be alone tonight'Cause you can't change the way I amAre you strong enough to be my man?
Lie to meI promise I'll believeLie to meBut please don't leaveDon't leave
I have a face I cannot showI make the rules up as I goJust try and love me if you canAre you strong enough to be my man?My man
to be my man?(Are you strong enough) to be my man?(Are you strong enough) my manWhen I've shown you that I just don't careWhen I'm throwing punches in the airWhen I'm broken down and I can't standWould you be man enough to be my man?
Lie to meI promise I'll believeLie to meBut please, don't leave

Music Monday: In the crystalline knowledge of the Baskervilles

[So, I am very sorry that this video doesn't have Mama Stevie actually on the screen singing, but I wanted to find one that included the lyrics so here we are.]
I heard a Sheryl Crow song this past weekend that was being performed live in a duet with Stevie Nicks and I just stopped what I was doing to listen. Love her or hate her, think she was better in Fleetwood Mac than solo, it is my humble and often correct opinion that Stevie Nicks is an American treasure as far as music goes...and that made me think of the soundtrack to the movie, Practical Magic, which has some of her best work on it.
(It didn't hurt that I have been thinking a lot about my novel Strid, which I've always said is kind of Practical Magic meets Clash of the Titans.)
So please enjoy this, the first of several songs that always make my summer playlist as well as remind me of Lucy and Annie Boyd...I think that they need another mystery to solve, eh?

May 2024 Newsletter

It's gonna be...May. I really couldn't help myself with that...as I write this, it's the end of April, so I'm not wrong.
Moving on! I hit my target in that Camp NaNoWriMo project about a week ago, and the cringe won out - it's going back to the deep freeze of my Google Drive.

But a new month leaves me looking forward to summer and fandom con appearances so that soothes the sting of how truly BAD that manuscript was. Mercy. You're welcome for me not springing that on the world!

Since there was no author event at GARF this year, my next outing will be Mountain Hounds at the end of May. I will have copies of Proud Racer: An American Greyhound in Yorkshire, The Complete Clobberpaws (and maybe a few of the individual volumes), The Complete Proud Racer, and Strid (since it has hounds in it) to sell and sign. I can't wait to get back to those mountains...that's my happy place.

What are your summer plans? Any fun vacations? I'd love to hear about them since I'm living vicariously these days. But I have a vampire novel I'm collaborating on and another Camp Nano in July, so I have plenty to keep me busy.

Thanks again for all the support, y'all. It really means the world to me. Now, the next novel in the Guardians of Orana series...


A NEW HERO FACES A FORGOTTEN DANGER.
Created with the help of a meddling goddess, she is the daughter of the Nature Walker and the Rajah of Qatu’anari. Meet Kazhka Clawsharp, Rajahk’mere of the Qatu and apprentice druid of Aynamaede. But what is her true purpose, beyond palace politics and Guardian diplomacy? Why did Sephine, the All-Mother Goddess, step in to assure her birth?

Dark forces, biding time in the shadows, have chosen this time to seek revenge against Qa Sathlir - is his daughter the key to saving him and Qatu'anari from a forgotten enemy seeking to finish the plot that was begun against Sath's father? Welcome the newest hero to Orana in this next novel in the Guardians of Orana series. Pre-orders open soon! Watch this space for more info.

Music Monday: Skid Row

It isn't that unusual for me to post musical theatre numbers for Music Monday. But this one is extra cool because I got the chance to see my niece in her high school production of this show yesterday and I was just stupidly proud. Since she was a member of the ensemble, here's one number she was in (followed by a photo of the same number from yesterday that I got from the audience because let's face it...I am THAT AUNTSIE.) Lyrics are on the video.

Music Monday: Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow...

No, I'm not going to quote the Scottish play. But I am going to recommend a singer that I'd never heard before tonight, as I was watching a rerun of a Law and Order: Special Victims Unit episode that had this song in one of the scenes. I closed my eyes while I was listening and the voice of one of my MCs that has been ignoring me lately (I'm spending this Camp Nano session on something other than her) came through in the music. It's lovely, and I'm going to listen to more of Madi Diaz's work thanks to this one.

Tomorrowby Madi Diaz
So loudThe sound of my blood is rushingToo highI'm making myself keep climbingYou keep calling, you keep callingYou keep calling, so I'll turn aroundStill aching, you keep shakingBut I don't hear you nowOoh, never look back, never look backTomorrow, tomorrowOoh, never look back, never look backTomorrow, tomorrowTomorrow, tomorrow, ohSlow downI'm miles away from crashingIt's all over nowI still see your green eyes flashingYou keep calling, you keep callingYou keep calling, so I'll turn aroundStill aching, you keep shakingBut I don't hear you nowOoh, never look back, never look backTomorrow, tomorrowOoh, never look back, never look backTomorrow, tomorrowOoh, I'm over this feelingOoh, I gotta believe itOoh, never look back, never look backTomorrow, tomorrowOoh, never look back, never look backOoh, never look back, never look backTomorrow, tomorrow, ohTomorrow, tomorrow, ohTomorrow, tomorrow, ohTomorrow, tomorrow, ohTomorrow, tomorrow, ohTomorrow, tomorrow, ohTomorrow, tomorrow, oh

Music Monday: Road Trips, Camp Friends, and Philosophy Of Loss

[From a post on the Book of Faces] I want to tell you about my good friend Brina. She was able to get some tickets to see the Indigo Girls last night at App State and had a plan to have former camp folk come up to share what is absolutely a core memory for those of us in the Bob Lanford/Jimmy Moor/Bob Cagle eras of Camp Glisson.
Sadly, as is the case when you try to get as many of us as you can together - even those who live fairly close to each other, life gets in the way. But a few of us battled rain and snow to get there and as always, Amy and Emily did not disappoint. 
I needed to be with those people and hear that music. I needed to laugh at a memory of Robby shrieking at the line, "are you on fire?" in the middle of Kid Fears. I needed to get big, happy tears in my eyes as Brina and I sang along to The Wood Song. I needed to be overly amazed with Malinda's gracious and wonderful son Harper, whom I hadn't met other than in Facebook photos. And I needed a non-camp friend like Amanda to go along because sometimes I'm not at back to normal as I think I am AND she loves the Indigo Girls with a Glisson-adjacent fervor. 
All of us Glisson alums have busy, vibrant lives...and yet, we can come together in a moment and I'm 18 again and standing outside the Chapel, hearing that bell ring.  Then, we depart to serve until the next time. 
To quote the Girls..."Thanks, y'all."

The song that I've chosen is one of my favorites but it is a little hard to find because it was released as a part of another song on the album Come on Now, Social. Just go to the reprise of Faye Tucker/Sister at the end of the album and after your soul has been wrung out over and over and you've just nearly gotten it back from the edge...you'll hear this song. It speaks to me on a preacher's kid level - that's the best way I can describe it. Friday night they sang Faye Tucker and Sister and afterward I was hoping for this one, but it wasn't the time, I suppose...so I just remained wrung out. Enjoy.

Philosophy of Lossby the Indigo Girls
Welcome to why the church has diedIn the heart of the exiled in the kingdom of hateWho owns the land & keeps the commandsAnd marries itself to the state
Modern scribes write in Jesus ChristEveryone is freeAnd the doors open wide to all straight men & womenBut they are not open to me
And who is teaching kids to be soldiersTo be marked by a plain white crossAnd we kill just a little to save a lot moreThe philosophy of loss
There are a few who would be true out of loveAnd love is hardAnd don't think that our hands haven't shoveled the dirtOver their central American graveyards
Doctors & witch hunters stripped you bareLeft you nothing for your earthly sinsYeah but who made this noise just a bunch of boysAnd the one with the most toys wins
Who is teaching kids to be gamblersLife is a coin tossAnd of course what you give up is what you gainThe philosophy of loss
Whatever has happened to anyone elseCould happen to you & to meAnd the end of my youth was the possible truthThat it all happens randomly
Who is teaching kids to be leadersand the way that it is meant to bethe philosophy of loss