Normally, I’m a fan of original versions of songs–and the older the song the more that applies. I’m totally going to end up being one of those grumppy old ladies waving a stick around and telling people to get off my lawn.

In this case, though, I’ll make an exception: I think the Max Richter/Shutter Island version of Dinah Washington’s “This Bitter Earth” is gorgeous.

It’s actually one of the songs on my Blink soundtrack. As much as I love a lot of the songs on that soundtrack, I had a month or two just now, at the end of summer, when I couldn’t listen to them. I thought I was at the end of my querying stint and it was time to shelve the book–and every time I listened to a song from the soundtrack, I’d be plunged right back into that world and those characters.

Now that Blink is back into the game, I can put the damn soundtrack on repeat.

And it feels glorious.

… can be delightfully pretty.

A well-known Dutch band called BLØF brought out an album in 2006 filled with collaborations with artists from other countries. The combination of Dutch vocals combined with different musical styles had some lovely results. In some cases, they even had multiple singers, each singing verses in their native language.

Those are so my favorite.

Here, for example, is a duet with Counting Crows, Wennen aan September (Getting Used to September):

(If you dig that, try this other collaboration between them: Holiday in Spain — LOVE IT.)

I suspect I can appreciate those duets in a slightly different way from most of you, given that I speak both languages, but I’m equally in love with the next song, Herinnering Aan Later (Memory of Later), which is part Portuguese–a language I most assuredly don’t speak.

This collab is with Cristina Branco, a well-known fado singer. Unfortunately the official music video on YouTube doesn’t allow embedding.

I have a special fondness for this duet–it’s on my BLINK soundtrack, which means I’ve played it approximately three hundred times by now.

Do share your opinions–do you like the above tracks? Do the different languages add or detract, you think?

So far, so good.

The lovely Beth Cato gave me a heads-up via Twitter that “Eight”, my Strange Horizons story, made this year’s recommended reading list at Tangent Online (though they listed me as Corinne Davis).

Shiny!

I’ve also had this song on my mind for the last couple of days–not even necessarily because of the lyrics or the new year, but just because it’s way stuck in my head.

Schmoopy Dutch music is my Achilles heel.

It’s “Alles Gaat Voorbij” by Acda en de Munnik (studio version here). That translates to “Everything Passes”.

Everything passes
But first, we’ll enjoy it

This is not a post about River Song.

This is a post about Acda en de Munnik, my favorite Dutch band by a wide margin. Specifically, it’s a post about one of their songs, Ze Zegt Steeds Liefje. This band often has really lovely — and sometimes humorous — lyrics, but this one struck me as nicely understated one about verbal/emotional abuse in a marriage.

Then I saw a YouTube commenter laugh at how recognizable it was, and only then did I realize it could also be read as the ‘nagging wife’. Given the way it’s sung, I really struggle to get along with that interpretation. The thing is, if it’s meant to be my version, I love the song. If it’s all about some guy bitching about his wife… notsomuch.

So what’s your take?

I’ll try to translate the lyrics as best as I can. This can be tough as a lot of their lines can be interpreted differently. (In this case, the only ambiguous one is ‘sweet’ or ‘sweetly’. It can be read as either a noun or adverb.

She keeps saying sweetie
She keeps saying sweet(ly)

Sweetie listen to this
Sweetie that’s wrong
She says, sweetie, sometimes I think
I shouldn’t have married you
Sweetie I want
Sweetie you should
Sweetie don’t do that
And sweetie that’s not right

She keeps saying sweetie
She keeps saying sweet(ly)

Sweetie don’t be so dumb
Sweetie stop doing that
She says, sweetie, sometimes I think
Would you finally shut up?
Sweetie I demand
Sweetie I’m going
Sweetie don’t ever, ever do that again
And sweet, sweetie, ahhh

She keeps saying sweetie
She keeps saying sweet(ly)

Um, sorta.

I arrived back in Amsterdam on Sunday afternoon and walked around in a daze for most of that time. Like my brother-in-law put it, it was like my mind had returned to factory settings: I wanted to lug my suitcase into my old bedroom instead of the one I’ve been using for years, and at the airport I was expecting to see a car picking me up that was sold ages ago.

I’m a little better now, but not much. I’ll try to actually talk about Clarion West at some point, but for now, I think link-spamming is better for everyone involved.

• My classmate Eliza Hirsch has a series of posts about the workshop on her blog. Check ‘em out.
• The fab K.V. Taylor’s first book, Scripped, is now up for pre-order. Which is just freaking exciting. It’s got creepy Appalachian fae, y’all–you have to check it out.
• K.V. Taylor’s other incarnation, Katey Hawthorne, also has some sweet news–her superhero romance story Equilibrium now has a cover, and it’s pretty damn shiny.
• You dig music? Check out my classmate Mark Pantoja’s band, Mist Giant. You can listen to three tracks online or just buy ‘em straightaway. It’s name your own price, so even if you don’t have any money, you can still enjoy and spread the word. Sweet deal, right?
• Beth Revis’s A Million Suns got a cover and blurb while I was gone!
• And so did Jodi Meadows’s Incarnate!

I was going to type more, but I have this sneaky suspicion I’m crashing and crashing hard. Ahhh, jetlag. Gotta love it.

Yesterday I was dead tired and easily irritated.

Which meant I really could’ve predicted that I’d wake up like a zombie today. A zombie with a headache. (When you think about it, that’s just plain unfair; being dead should mean we don’t have to suffer such banalities as headaches.)

This may or may not be my body/brain telling me to slow it down, tiger. Fact is, I’ve never been able to spend over a month drafting a book, and I’m currently at the three-and-a-half week mark. I’m trying to push through it, see where my limits are.

We’ll see how that little experiment goes.

Here’s my current word count, by the way:

56000 / 85000 words. 66% done!

Progress isn’t progress until you blog about it. Fact.

Anyhow, I really wanted to embed a video of another one of the tracks on this book’s soundtrack, but YouTube didn’t have it and GrooveShark seems to be acting weird.

So here’s a link, instead: “On” by Bloc Party

Some of the lyrics:

You make my tongue loose
You make my tongue loose
I am hopeful and stutter-free
You make my tongue loose
You make my tongue loose
I am hopeful
I can charm
I can charm them all

Oh, Val. Of course you can.

Yesterday’s plotting left me all excited and ready to go. This book has major problems, but I Can Fix Those!

Yesterday’s plotting also left me with a thought I’ve never had during the writing of a first draft: The realization that this draft will likely be much longer than planned.

Usually, when first-drafting, I worry about it being too short. This is a novel occurrence.

Going over length would be a good thing, because it gives me more room to slice up the first few chapters to get to the main plot events sooner and speed up the pacing. However, it might also mean that my self-imposed deadline might not be feasible. I know I’ll be able to get 75k by mid-May. But if this book turns out to be 90k… well, there goes all my careful scheduling.

I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.

In the meantime, I’m back to work on my words, and I leave you with a link to the Best Website Ever: Get Out of There Cat. I made it to page 33 before I managed to regain control of my mouse hand and kill the tab. So if you were planning on being productive today: DON’T CLICK.

You can still check out this YouTube video though. Book soundtracks FTW. Here’s D is for Dangerous by the Arctic Monkeys.

I kinda failed at keeping yesterday’s post as short as promised, huh?

So here’s a short post for real — I’ve still got 1200+ words to go tonight, so you’re welcome to flog me if I start rambling again.

Most of you reading this are writers. And since I’m insatiably curious about the experiences and processes of other writers, here’s a question that I’d love some answers on:

How good are your first-draft instincts?

By which I mean two things (oh man, here comes another list):

• When rereading your draft after getting some distance, do you at all notice which scenes were difficult to write and which scenes flowed easily?
• When you sense during a first draft that something is off about a scene/character/plot thread but leave it for a later draft, how often were you right on the money?

Back to work. Thanks for indulging me! <3

Wait -- first, here's another song from this book's playlist: Moon Is Up, by the Rolling Stones.

… Okay, enough procrastination for today.

I’d post a bigger update, but it’s a couple of minutes until midnight and I’m still over 600 words away from reaching today’s word count goal.

Here’s my current count:

17330 / 75000 words. 23% done!

One thing I’m realizing is that writing quickly is a lot easier when you’re completely immersed in the book at all hours of the day. Right now, I’m not — I allow myself to watch TV, play the occasional game, socialize, read books.

Not much of the above, mind you, but enough.

On one hand, I think it’s a good thing: It keeps you from getting worn out, it keeps you in touch with the rest of the world, it keeps you healthy. Having less time available also makes it easier to allocate the hours you can dedicate to writing to, er, writing.

On the other hand, I find that it’s making me run into a lot more mental blocks when it comes to the actual getting-words-on-paper part. When I wrote books without (most of) the above distractions, I’d spend every waking minute thinking about the book. About the current scene, about the next scene, about how this plot thread would work out. It meant that when I actually sat down at the computer, I knew exactly what to write.

Now, I find myself going, “Er… what happens next?”

For example, I know my main character has to do X in location Y next, but I don’t have the faintest idea of what location Y looks like, nor have I really considered how the transition between the current scene and that one. So while I had no problem getting through the first 1300 words of my 2000-a-day goal and was very optimistic about hitting the rest early, I screeched to a halt when I realized how clueless I was about the next scene. I know what happens and why it’s necessary for the plot — both of these things are in my outline — but all those tiny details, the exact course of events…

I should’ve brainstormed those in the shower. Or during groceries. Or instead of watching My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic just now. (Tiny ponies! They are the cutest!)

Otherwise, it’s too easy to write, come to a halt, and get distracted again. It pulls you out of the flow.

I think I’m slowly — sloooowly — getting a hang of my process. Given that this is my fifth book, it’s about time, right?

Now, while I’m off to actually go and apply this knowledge, here’s a track from this book’s soundtrack — Weak, by Skunk Anansie:

I started the Always Read the Fae Print sequel today.

Finally.

I’m nearing 1000 words. Here’s how it starts:

Last time I’d turned into a werewolf around Lillian, she’d stabbed me with an antique silver dessert fork from Mom’s cabinets.

This time, Lillian was prepared and brought a knife.

Was that supposed to set me at ease? Because I never felt much at ease, but this was a whole new level of not feeling at ease.  I shuffled my feet on the indecently wide streets of suburban Amsterdam, watching Lillian take her time chaining her bike to the nearest streetlight. Her coat fell open as she reached for the other end on the chain. In the inside pocket, a leather knife sheath gleamed in the afternoon sun.

Oohh yeah. A whole new level.

I checked my watch. Five thirty. “Maybe we should go home.” I shuffled my feet some more. “I shouldn’t be out at this hour. This is a bad plan.”

“It’s your plan.”

“Doesn’t mean it can’t be a bad plan,” I croaked out. “Maybe this woman isn’t even home yet. Yeah.”

Lillian shot me a pointed look as she got to her feet. The chain clattered onto the bike frame. Too loud. Way too loud for my uber-sensitive hearing. “Right,” she said. “Except for the part where you texted me ten minutes ago about her arrival.”

I’d forgotten about that.

I’m still trying to get the hang of Valentijn’s voice; I know how he feels, but not quite how he sounds.

Occasionally he reminds me of Lillian, but I’m still figuring out if that’s because of the voice or the tone–if it’s the former, it needs fixing, if it’s the latter, it should be okay. I’m still figuring out how this whole series thing works with regards to similar plots/voice/etc. but I figure a similar tone is pretty much a must.

I’m also still getting the hang of rough drafting again. It’s okay to make mistakes! It doesn’t have to be clean! Shocking.

Anyway, here’s a song from this book’s soundtrack, which I’m listening to basically non-stop these days: Myself by Kara’s Flowers (better known as Maroon 5).