Cottage, MySpace, Mr. Twilight and Hula Girls

Just got back from the cottage, where leaves are just starting to turn colour. The lake water has chilled to the point where leisurely swims are no longer possible; it's more of a quick dip and muffled shriek (ok, the shriek is more from me than Jeff) and a hurried scrub with Campsuds before rinsing and fleeing back into the sauna.

The photo below was taken Saturday morning, when a mist lay heavy on the lake, muffling all sound:



I love this sort of mist, a mysterious shroud that hints of magic and the unknown behind the silver. I sat for about an hour on the dock, watching the mist slowly melt into morning.

Later we saw merganser ducklings speed by in pursuit of fish. There were at least 15 ducklings earlier in the summer; they swam by the dock regularly. I don't want to speculate about what happened to the missing ducklings. :-(



I'm currently working on two different articles for Writer's Digest. If you count Market Watch, this means I'm working with three different editors at the company.

Thanks so much for the feedback to my M-Audio disappointment! I'll respond soon.

I've posted a MySpace page, mainly for PR/marketing and networking; I've noticed more and more authors establishing MySpace pages, especially now that MySpace has launched a separate Books section. I'm also working on an Urban Tapestry page.

If you send me a friend request thru MySpace and you've never met me, please also send me a message letting me know so I know you have SOME idea of who I am (I'm already getting way too many "friend" requests from people with a zillion friends on their list, who either want to sell me something or just add me to their Friends trophy-list).

My MySpace header graphic:



From what I can tell, MySpace seems mainly geared towards young people right now. In general, customised user template designs are pretty cluttered and difficult to read, and many users seem obsessed with adding as many people as they can to their Friends list, whether or not they have any real connection with those on the list. I used a nice template by Mike D. and made a few modifications. Like me, Mike also noticed the whole "I have more Friends than you" trend in MySpace, and wryly added the word "billion" to the Friends count template. I changed this to "bazillion." :-)

If you click on the "Alien Jellyfish" soundclip I have on the left side of my MySpace page, by the way, you can hear me playing flute on Chris Conway's fabulous "Alien Salad Abduction" CD. My Urban Tapestry music partners, Allison & Jodi, also participate on this track.

MySpace seems to be pretty good at helping to promote indie musicians. Through a soundclip on John O's MySpace page, I discovered that Alex Bohnhoff (Jeff's and Maya's son) has a musician's page with soundclips. I met Alex while staying with Jeff and Maya some years ago, and he was just learning guitar back then. Holy cow, he's so good now! I'm even more excited about attending Consonance next year, where Maya, Jeff AND Alex will be Guests of Honour. I'm a huge fan of Jeff's & Maya's, and now Alex's. :-) You can find more info about their CDs and listen to soundclips on CDBaby. Their music AND writing news can be found at the Mystic Fig Studios Web site.



Speaking of Maya, I just pre-ordered her new Del Rey book from Amazon, Mr. Twilight (by Maya Bohnhoff and Michael Reaves). More on this in an upcoming Blathering, but it's a dark fantasy with a healthy dose of humour. Please do support Maya by pre-ordering, or buying the book when it comes out! If this title sells well enough, Del Rey is going to turn this into a series.



Jeff and I had fun seeing Hula Girls at the Toronto Film Festival with Craig. Here is Craig's review. The movie was predictable and sappy...but I adored it. It pushed all my buttons in the right way, and I ran out of tissues by the end of the movie (Craig offered me the napkins that came with his popcorn). I want to own this movie, and hope the subtitled version comes out in North America.

Allison, Jodi and I are getting together tonight for GAfilk prep. We're already pretty hyped about GAfilk, where we'll be Guests of Honor. Toastmistress: Linda Melnick, Interfilk Guests: Summer & Fall. Less than four months to go!





Livejournal comments