M.J. Scott's Blog, page 49

30 Day Song Challenge – Day 3

Day 3 – A song that makes you happy

Okay, so I was a band geek in school and I have always loved music so Glee was pretty much made for me.  I remember watching the first episode and wondering exactly what the show was going to be but when they got to the final number, I knew it didn't really matter, I was going to love it anyway. I'm sucker for stories about people following their passion and I'm a sucker for great voices. Can't claim I was a big Journey fan before Glee but this song now makes me smile whenever I hear it. So here are the Glee folks doing Don't Stop Believing. (Sorry about the ad at the start, couldn't find one without and I figure this way it's probably a legal clip….)

Glee – Don't Stop Believe by Bugabookas

An LA snippet

On Day one of the pre-convention tour, one of the places we went was the Hollywood Forever Cemetery where Rudolph Valentino is buried.  Keri and I didn't find his grave but we did find a few others including:

Johnny Ramone:

Cecil B. DeMille

Mel Blanc

The cemetery is also home to geese. As the sign says, they're cranky….

As Keri discovered…

I can only imagine that some funerals might get interesting in this cemetery as the geese were majorly territorial!

30 Day Song Challenge Day 2

Hopefully there will be an RT post soon but while head is cold riddled, these are short and easier!

Day 2 – Least favourite song

Hmmmm, tricky. And I refuse, on principle, to link to videos of songs I dislike. I'm not sure I have an absolute least favourite, but here's a couple I'd be happy never to hear again:

Baha Men – Who Let The Dogs Out?

Cliff Richards and the Youngs Ones – Living Doll (never did get the Young Ones)

Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine – You Fat Bastard (a band much loved by some of my male flatmates in the late 90′s and far less so by me after the 1000th repetition…I'm sure they feel the same about some of my music)

A challenge

Over on Facebook, someone invented the 30 Day SongChallenge…so I'm jumping in (following the lovely Keziah's example).  I did the first one on Facebook but Nicky brilliantly pointed out that doing it on the blog would make it easier to look back on, so am taking her advice.

30 Day Challenge – Day 1 Favourite song

As I said on FB, not sure I ever have one all time favourite song but this one is often on the top of the list of songs I love.  My irish boys….

 

Back!

Got back yesterday after a relatively uneventful flight (slept a reasonable amount, less bumpy than the trip over).  Given my brain still feels mostly like this:

I shall attempt the more coherent trip wrap up blog in a day or so.  And my Aussie Author Month giveaway.

Hello from LA!

Sorry for the blog silence but the hotel internet has taken a dislike to my computer which means I'm sharing Keri's and quick blogging is trickier. It also means not pics…boo to evil hotel internet.  Keri has cool pics on her blog and facebook pages though.

We arrived early Saturday morning after a somewhat bumpy and sleepless flight (note to self do not take the leaves in the morning flight to LA). I did however finally get to watch Black Swan, Tangled and Red. Air travel is much better with on demand movies!

Sunday and Monday we did the pre-convention early bird tour that the lovely RT ladies organise.  Lots of sightseeing spots, the Chinese Theatre, the Hollywood Bowl, Santa Monica, the La Brea Tar Pits, the Farmer's Market, Madame Tussauds, Rodeo Drive (where there may have been a little shopping) and the San Antonio Winery (good wine!).

Tuesday Keri and Miriam and I went to Disneyland. Which was very cool.  I am not a big scary ride person (I get horribly sick on them) and neither is Keri so we did all the non scary rides.  Splash Mountain was sadly closed, otherwise I would've braved that at least.  But I got to do the Pirates of the Caribbean ride and feed my Captain Jack obsession : )

Yesterday the convention itself started so now soaking up all the fun and knowledge to be had.  Luckily, I seem to have escaped jet lag this time. I'm sure this means it will be hideous when I get home but will deal with that problem when I get to it! Have even managed to write a few pages while over here.  And now, must go hunt down some breakfast before Day 2.

April contest

Normally I have to umm and ahh a bit to decide which of my favourite authors gets to be next in my contest but this month, for sad reasons, I know exactly who is the right person.  You can read about my love of Diana Wynne Jones here. But even though she has gone (still sad here in Oz), her wonderful wonderful stories live on and hopefully will be entertaining and enlightening readers for many many many years to come.

Sadly my all time favourite DWJ book, Fire and Hemlock is out of print (dear publishers, please reprint it!) so instead we move onto another of my favourites (which was a difficult decision!) of hers.

You may have seen the brilliant movie of this book made by Hayao Miyazaki, which is a bit different to the book  or maybe not. But Howl's Moving Castle has a determined heroine, evil witches, a spoilt yet somehow sexy hero and many other Diana Wynne Jones trademarks. Magic and ordinariness and people who are not perfect trying to win the day. I guess it's technically YA but it's a damn good read no matter what the classification.

To be in the running to win a copy of Howl, just comment on any post this month.

As usual, my reasons for the contest are here.

As I said in yesterday's post, I'm off to the RT Booklovers convention tomorrow and will be online as and when I can be but not as much as usual. If you're going to RT, say hi to a nervous newbie author (also a disclaimer in advance that I'll be somewhat jetlagged so if you catch me yawning at any point, it's not that I'm bored lol). For those staying put, I'll try and blog/tweet etc otherwise, I'm back in the middle of the month and there'll be a second contest running this month for Aussie Author Month when I am.

March contest winner

The winner of Witches Abroad by Terry Pratchett is Kim Perry!

Kim, email me (email details are on the website) and we'll organise your prize (I am travelling the next few weeks so may take a little while to get back to you).

On the way

Last post for the month.  Not sure where that went.  In two days I head off to RT with Keri. Tomorrow's post will be the April contest and then blogging will be as I can (depending on whether internet is a reasonable price in the hotel and/or proximity of wireless).  I'll participating in Aussie Author Month when I get back, so there'll be two contests next month!

And to keep this short, because I've been having some blog weirdness tonight and need to try and see if this post works, I'll sign off with that.

 

Saddened

One of my personal writing heroes/goddesses passed away last night after a long illness. Vale Diana Wynne Jones. Thank you for your stories.

Dogsbody and Charmed Life are two spec fiction books I remember reading when I was quite young (I suspect around 8). I don't think I connected them as the same author back then but loved them both for their mix of the everyday with the fantastic and great characters and even then, though I wouldn't have been able to tell you, the sense of depth to her worlds. I may have read others of her children's books back then but those were the two that stuck with me. The star stuck in a dog's body and the enchanter who doesn't know he's got magic.

Diana came back into my reading life when I was a teenager. I had gone to the city for the day on the train from the country town I grew up in which means I must have been fifteen or sixteen, I guess. And I have a very vivid memory of stopping at the little newsagent/book stall at Flinders Street station as I was heading home with about ten dollars left in my purse and seeing a stack of books on sale and picking up one with an interesting orangey cover with a wicked looking lady on a horse (the power of covers) and the intriguing title Fire and Hemlock. The blurb sounded interesting and it was $6 so I bought it. And probably ignored my friends on the way home while I read it and fell in love with a story of magic and mythology with Romance! and a heroine who does the rescuing but still with this very ordinary world feel to it. As though just round the corner from ours was this world she wrote about and that maybe you could find the right doorway and get there.

I still have that very book, re-read many, many times (though I've never seen my particular cover anywhere else) and from that day began to read every DWJ I could get (not so easy back then before the internet).

She's been one of those authors whose every new book I anticipate and devour and I re-read several of her books each year. She has undoubtedly had a huge impact on the way I think about story and fantasy (for a start, all fantasy writers should read The Tough Guide to Fantasyland) and my stories. And I'm very sad she's gone. It feels like losing someone I know and the knowledge that there are no more of her stories to be had is horrible. Fire and Hemlock, I think, is sadly out of print as are some of her other earlier books but hopefully one day it will be re-printed (or released digitally) but there are plenty of wonderful books of hers that aren't…from kids books to YA to adult books, so if you get a chance, read one of her stories and hopefully you'll fall in love like I did.

I wish I'd written to her at some point and told her how much I loved her books.  I think that's one of the best things you can do for an author (besides buying the books and telling others how much you love them)…let them know when you love something they write. It's so much easier now with the internet and I know my writer friends all love to hear that they have written something someone loved. It can be a tough thing, this writing gig, and I think all writers deep down must have that part of them that writes because they want to share their stories and maybe give to somebody else what a beloved story has given to them.  So go forth and tell the writers you love that you do and then tell other people.

And, if you're a writer, then in honor of a wonderful writer and her stories, write hard and make something great.