Blog for Mary K. Preston, Siren romance author. Buy books at http://www.bookstrand.com/mary-k-preston
Striking a Chord is also available at Amazon.com: http://tinyurl.com/cssuo7u
and Barnes and Noble: http://tinyurl.com/caf76wd
Things have been rather stressful and fast-changing around these parts, so I haven't been able to update the way I should. I'm sorry!
The good news is that I am getting a bunch of work writing erotic romance short stories--the bad news is that it's ghostwriting work, so I can't really tell you more than that. This turn of events has inspired me to see about putting some snippets of romance stories up on here, or link to some on a hosting service--I'd love to have more content out there that's in my name.
Since it's Monday, of course you know what's next: music time!
I posted about Placebo last week, but I've been listening to a lot of it still, so I'll give you guys another example of a song I love.
This is one of my favorite songs in general--it's got such a great groove, and of course it's got that Brian Molko vocal style I love. The lyrics are also pretty strong. And it's just such a lovely sentiment.
What do you guys think of me putting up some snippets on thishere blog? Let me know!
I occasionally get so wrapped up in what I'm listening to at any given time that I "forget" about other bands I like. I don't forget about them utterly--if you asked me "Hey, Mary, what do you think of (The Strokes) (Yeah Yeah Yeahs) (Silverchair)(what have you)?" I would perk up and go "Oh, I like them a lot!" in that bright and surprised tone of voice. Because it's like coming to the realization that you like a band brand new.
I've been wandering around my normal music habits for a while in the past week, and recently re-discovered Placebo. I'm not entirely sure how they came to mind; probably while I was playing SongPop a Placebo song was one of the answers, but I'm not sure. In any case, I'm glad they did, because while Brian Molko's voice is sort of an acquired taste (which means, as we know, that you either love it or hate it), the songs are wonderful for romantic writing. Full of emotions like angst and obsession and yearning.
This song is called "Taste in Men" and it demonstrates the angst and yearning I'm talking about rather well. The video is also interesting in a sort of cryptic way.
I'm doing a lot of work on just about everything but books, it seems. I'll keep you all posted if there's anything that might be of benefit to you! Also, I am considering inviting some of the other lovely ladies of Siren to post here--hopefully they'll take me up on it.
So since today is Music Monday, I do have a video for you guys, first of all. I have loved Silverchair since I was a tween. I haven't mentioned them on here, just because they haven't come up in my writing playlists--which seems strange, now that I think about it. But I was reminded of how much I love the music, so here's an old-old video of theirs.
It's copyright 2000, but the song predates that. It's a crazy video, but it's interesting, and the song is one of my favorites. As a bonus, I'll also include another favorite, not the video but just the song:
They never did a video for this song, but it's one of my all-time favorites. It has such good composition.
Now for book news! My book is available on Amazon! You can go over there right now, if you want, and buy a copy and hold it in your hands, as opposed to reading it from a screen. It's $13.99, which isn't a bad deal as books go. Find it here: http://www.amazon.com/Striking-Chord-Siren-Publishing-PolyAmour/dp/1622428994/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1365984286&sr=1-1
I am so excited about this, you guys. I am still thinking over how I want to go about running a promotion, and I'll announce it here first once I have all the details for you!
I contributed one of my favorite Italian recipes; you can see it all here: http://romancecooks.com/
It was a lot of fun writing up the recipe, particularly since I don't really "measure" very much when I cook--at least not in the technical sense. I throw in pinches of this and that, eyeball things. So it was an interesting thought exercise to try and translate the dish into something people could follow along to.
Every once in a while, it occurs to me that there must be something in the fact that so many of the bands/acts I've liked have come from Canada. I don't know that I could ever live there--it's too cold for my thin, subtropical blood--but I would like to visit someday.
For proof, I submit the following chronology:
When I was in middle school, I had fairly varied musical tastes. And then in about the end of seventh grade, I got into The Moffatts:
Not too difficult to see why an adolescent girl would be into them, right? They actually had really excellent music together, and went on to make really good music separately.
Then a few years later, I got into Sum 41
And Avril Lavigne:
Yes, this song is later than high school, but it's actually a hilarious video and a really catchy song.
Then, around about the time I graduated high school, I got really into Hot Hot Heat.
I'm still into Hot Hot Heat, and still revisit the others pretty frequently. But if this isn't evidence that I should visit Canada, if only for good music that I'll like, then I don't know what is.
In book news: I will be appearing tomorrow on Romance Cooks, with a delicious recipe for an Italian pasta dish that I love. ALSO! I found out this week that my book will be available in print form! It will be sold through Amazon and Barnes and Noble. I'll update everyone with the links once I have them. I am soooooooo excited. I am actually planning a promotion in my head right now--and of course, I'll post the deets here when I have them all finalized.
I have been listening to a lot of The Strokes recently, since their album came out on the 26th of last month. The alarm on my phone, however, is a Hot Hot Heat song, "Future Breeds." Today when it came on, it shook me out of the long-term Strokes passion I've been in, and that's a good thing.
All kinds of creative juices start flowing when I get out of my musical comfort zone. While it's a good idea (for me anyway) to listen to the same music on repeat when I'm writing, shaking things up and switching tunes is good for starting a new thought process. So here I'll share one of my favorite tunes from the Future Breeds album, which is the title track. It's a pretty awesome video, too.
I'm still waiting to hear back on reviews--it's a long process. I should be guest blogging somewhere soon, if I remember correctly. Stay tuned here for the deets!
I didn't want to miss out Music Mondays two weeks running, so I wanted to make sure I posted before I went to sleep for the night.
There are several acts that if someone asks me "do you like such and such a band?" my answer is generally, "I've never heard of them." And then I hear the band/performer's music, and realize that not only have I heard it, I've heard and liked it.
I'm always really grateful for those moments, because finding a "new" artist is one of the joys in life. On another blog I maintain, I opened up requests for people to suggest bands and acts for me to review, and someone suggested Florence + the Machine, and I started to look up songs--and discovered that I had heard the songs before, and really admired them; but I'd never heard them in a context that made it possible to remember to look them up later.
So in honor of those moments, here's one of the Florence + the Machine songs I really love. I suspect that even if you don't think you've heard of the act before, once you listen you'll realize you have--and enjoyed it.
