So, last week I mentioned Dimash Kudaibergen, and linked a couple of clips. The couple of clips were not, of course, all that I listened to — on his offi­cial channel he has, ummm, a lot. Including full concerts. But I was very curious — as one is — about who did beat him in the Singer 2017 contest. So… I found the full episodes (there are 13 +1 benefit concert) (someone subti­tled them), each about 1 hour and 20 minutes long. Then I had to go to wikipedia because I didn’t under­stand the contest rules. It’s a contest for profes­sional singers. So you have to be invited to go. But you get voted off the island every second episode. The judges are 500 audi­ence members, and at the end of all perfor­mances they list their … Continue reading →

When I was in high school, I took French. In French, the stan­dard curriculum involved the reading of a book – in French, of course – and essays or discus­sions (also in French) about said book. But our French teacher, Bob, decided to go an entirely different route. He brought in a record (yes, record — no CDs existed at that time, and no MP3s – it was a 33 RPM record), and printout of the back cover sleeve, which contained all the lyrics. The record was for a rock musical, Star­mania. We studied specific songs – but of course, we all listened to the entire thing. It is… a younger person’s musical. Also: the French aren’t post-modern in their musi­cals. There are things that work in French that just do not work in English – like Notre Dame … Continue reading →

Last week, I posted a link to music composed by my oldest son. This week, I am posted a link to music composed by my youngest son. They are very different, both as people and as musi­cians. I used to say, when they were much younger, that the only way the could be more different would be if one had been born female. This is Herald of Dragons, my favorite piece. I have been asked to also link to Usurper of Dragons. They’re paired, in theory; one is the first half and one is the second. I admit that it’s not a link I would have made had I not been told. My first response was: But I like Herald better and I’m posting what I like. But… then I real­ized there’s at least one … Continue reading →

Reddit is hosting an on-line conven­tion, the r/fantasy virtual con. If you don’t use reddit, it can be a bit confusing to start. The link above is the mega thread link, and at least on a computer (which is where I’m sitting now), the events are in the sidebar. Links don’t go live until the event starts, but each event is persis­tent (i.e. you can go back and read the various Q&As and the other panels. There are AMAs (ask me anything), which I’ve done one of before; the panel is new, but I believe it just means more people answering ques­tions or riffing off each other’s answers. What happened for me the first time is that they “opened” the AMA, and I went … Continue reading →

In the previous post I said I did not have covers for the short stories I had not yet self-published. Appar­ently what I lack is brain cells. This caused a round of the usual author-arguing-with-herself. It gets loud, in here. Some people have asked for ways to buy the story, or alter­nately, pay me for the story (and I had to look up ko-fi, because I wasn’t aware of it. I am aware of Patreon, but at the moment, do not have one.) So I have done two things. Well, will have done two things. Hope­fully. First: I have uploaded the short story, in the .99 cent cate­gory on Amazon, Kobo and iTunes. They will go live some­time within the next couple of days ummm, now. The link to the … Continue reading →