Just For Fun Friday!

This week for a fun Friday I thought I would do something a little different. Instead of my latest favorite jam, I'm going to feature a track that I love because of its writerly nature. "Let's Not Talk About Love" is an ancient song, but one for which the lyrics are fast paced,clever and fun. Sure, some of the references are super dated, but maybe that adds to its charm?

At any rate, every time I listen to it I feel inspired to write a poem...or something short but witty.

And because I'm a music nerd, I've included two versions:

So fun! Have a great weekend!

Music that Inspired RoboNomics Chapter 12

Well, here it is: the music that inspired RoboNomics' next chapter.

Chapter 12 is a small chapter, but by no means lacking in action and excitement. There's a big reveal, so I don't know that I want to say much more about the chapter other than that. Instead, I'll let the music do the talking: 



Hope you enjoy it! And don't forget, RoboNomics Chapter 12 comes out on Wattpad this Monday, March 31 at midnight EDT! Can't wait for you to read it! :)

Literature Inspires Music Inspires...

This blog, so far, has been about songs that are inspiring for writers in general, writers of fiction more specifically, and me in particular.

But there are quite a lot of songs out there that have been inspired by literature. From epic fantasy or Western canon novels to poems to characters, these are just a few of my favourite songs that have been inspired by literary works:


And of course, in a full circle manner, I have to admit that I find some of these songs inspiring in their own right. The great thing about human creation, human specificity of situation and the human brain is that each and every one of these creations can inspire us all in different ways: calling up different memories and different associations, rearranging and melting together until something new, and sometimes unexpected, comes to light and reveals itself as a piece of art.

Revolution/Evolution

So the other day I was thinking about my novel, RoboNomics. Sheesh, what else do I think about these days?

But for the longest time I've been constructing this novel with the idea that I want people who read it to be scared. I want them to think about the trials of my main character, Andrea Anderson, and the fact that her intellectual industry job (schoolteacher) has become obsolete because of a robot with advanced artificial intelligence and think, "Geez, that could be me."

I wanted it to be a novel about how dystopias happen. There are no many science fiction narratives out there in the world that are about dystopias after the bad shit has gone down. And a lot of robot and artificial intelligence take overs follow this format. So on top of RoboNomics being a metaphor for the 2008 global economic crisis (something no one could have imagined back in 2006 or so), I wanted it to go from a normal world, familiar to a reader in say, modern Toronto, to a dystopia.

So far, some the comments I've had on the story have been more along the lines of "That would never happen here," than of "oh my god that could so easily happen to me," which is interesting and not all that surprising. But then I think of the thousands of times this sort of thing has happened before: the total breakdown of a political system, a social contract. I think of the 1990s, when Yugoslavia went from having the world's highest rated quality of life to being a war zone. My point is, stranger things happened in reality than could ever occur in my fiction...

But there's a word for that, isn't there? Whenever a social or political system changes, wherever it slides from comfortable apathy to dystopia: Revolution. Upheaval that lasts only a little while or a long while, until a new political agreement is reached (or imposed) and a new normal is established.

And so, here's my playlist for today -- songs for a robotic revolution of a different kind:



And don't mind the bit of music geekery book ending the playlist. I just had to include a song performed what? 50 years apart. Perfect. 

Just for Fun...Thursday?

Okay, so I was going to do this tomorrow...but by then it would be too late.

Because besides being the Vernal Equinox today is my BIRTHDAY!!!!!!

I've always loved my birthday. Ever since I was a kid, I thought it meant something super special that I was born on March 20th, the first day of spring. (No, not March 21 most years you silly Gregorian calendar ninnies....)

When I was turning something like 20 or 21 (so we're talking 2001 or 2002 here), I had some friends in my uni dorm who were as excited as I was to celebrate my bday. So they trotted into my room after classes and one of my buds sat down at my computer, opened Napster (hey, it was 2001!) and downloaded a track for me. Then he hit play and declared that that was my birthday present from him:

It's funny. I've long, long since lost all track of that friend. It's not only that we've fallen out of touch, I just have no idea where he is. I think it was one of those early 20-something things that happen where he dated one of my friends and then they broke up and I was obliged to be on her side and then he starting dating someone else and then....

Well, you've probably been there. But I have never forgotten about that gift or that song. And not a year goes by that I don't listen to it. It's such a great '90s track, such a great '90s video. And it always reminds me how awesome my birthday is! :)

Music that Inspired RoboNomics Chapter 11

So I know that over the past two and a half months (has it really been that long?) I have been posting these 'inspirational' playlists on Thursdays. But this week, two things are happening:

1. I'm super excited about Chapter 11, coming up on wattpad.com this coming Monday, March 24 at midnight.

2. I'm not sure what to write about this week. I wrote about this topic in a really loopy entry on my other blog, but when it comes to that primary blog, I've already got another idea for tomorrow. Woot! But when it comes to inspirational music for authors of fiction, well -- I'm a little short of inspiration today.

And so instead I'll tell you about the upcoming Chapter of RoboNomics:

When we last left our heroine, Andrea Anderson, she had just left her friends in the throes of the protest that was quickly devolving into a riot. She's off to find Chris and the other former garbage collectors, who have been absence for the protest so far.

But in Chapter 11, she catches up to them. And what they're about to do makes Andrea complicit in a criminal plot. But does that mean she'll refuse to help them?

I hope you enjoy this week's playlist! Don't forget to check out RoboNomics Chapter 11 on wattpad when it comes out: Monday, March 24, 2014!
 

Just for Fun Friday!

Oh, man! What a week! I was much, much busier than I thought I would be with the day job, but I managed to get you all your weekly blog posts! But today's, however, I am going to have to dip back in my Fun track files (which I keep very well organized In My Mind filing system) rather than making a new discovery. Hope you don't mind. I really do need to move onto more important things today, like -- oh, I don't know, line editing RoboNomics Chapter 10 (which usually gets done on Wednesdays!)

Alright, enough whining from me, here is your Fun Friday track:

Yay! Makes me happy every time! Enjoy your Friday! :)