U is for unique

I'm doing this one out of order because I couldn't pass up this inspiration.

My dog has an ulcerated cornea. She's a supergenius! Ask her how! She's also one of a kind. I have never met another pit bull/lab/shark/sparkle pony princess mix before, and I doubt I ever will again. I can only assume she was grown in a government lab and escaped, only to be taken in by our local shelter.

If she keeps getting bizarre and expensive injuries, she may also be the only dog to live out the rest of her days in the Cone of Shame. She will be St. Gretchen of the Cone.

S is for soundtracks

A special two-for-one meme day!

I write to music, and all my projects grow soundtracks. Usually songs get picked by theme, or imagery, or because they remind me of characters, or out of some vague sense of this feels like a song for X. Sometimes I pick up bits of plot from the songs. Since my normal habit is to put a project's playlist on repeat while I'm working, the longer it is the better.

Today I worked on Dreams, when I wasn't taking St. Gretchen to the vet or waiting for the AC repair people. (Only the climax and denouement left to revise! Two more chapters!) So here is its soundtrack, all five and a half hours of it.

( Read more... )

And if you read all that, you can probably guess what the book is about.

Because a) I've been writing this book for nine years and b) picking music is easier for contemporary characters, I also have (shorter) playlists for the three main characters. Although after nine years and updating the chronology a bit, what was once the music of their adolescence has become the music of their childhood, or before.

That's right, people. There are now teenagers in this world to whom Marilyn Manson is their parents' music. I will be in the corner keening and rocking.