I’ve done it before, but not here in a long time. Turn the iPod on, set it to shuffle, and what comes up:
Weird about The Weepies coming up, but that’s random for you…
I don’t know how long it is since I posted about new music – a long time – and the last new thing I loved was The Weepies Say I Am You. It’s a beautiful record, so when I heard that a new one, Hideaway, was out in the US I got pretty excited. I sampled it on their website and put an order in with Amazon. Now I wait. Am I listening to anything else? Hmm. Because I’ve been feeling stressed and worn down a lot lately, I’ve been looking for something soothing and relaxing. Shelby Lynne’s new cd, Just a Little Lovin, is remarkably civilised. Apart from that, I’ve been turning back to early Van Morrison and John Martyn, both of which always seem to be remarkably restorative.
I’m reading Richard Morgan’s new novel, The Steel Remains, at the moment. I dipped into his first novel, Altered Carbon, but honestly never took to it. Not entirely sure why. Anyway, the galley for Morgan’s book showed up a couple weeks ago and I was ready to toss it on the pile and focus on something else when I thought I’d take a peek. He’s very popular, and given that the book is an honest to goodness swords and sorcery novel, it seemed a big change for him. I read a page, then a chapter, and now I’m completely hooked. What’s it like? Hmm. A little like Poul Anderson’s The Broken Sword re-written by David Morell. It’s a traditional gritty swords and sorcery novel, with a bit of harsh language and graphic description thrown in. It’s strength is its plot engine. Pick it up and you’ll forget about the hype that comes with it (something I always react poorly to) and the silly names that seem native to a lot of fantasy, and will find yourself sucked into a genuinely gripping story. Not sure how it’ll finish or whether the book’s completely successful, but so far so good. Would it make me read his SF? I don’t think know. Would I buy another fantasy from him? Absolutely.
Here’s something that I’ve learnt, late in the game. I am often encouraged, volubly, by friends and family to mark special moments, achievements – to stop and take them in and enjoy them. I agree with this completely, in principle. What I’ve found, though, is that if I have two different things happening at the same time, I can’t help responding to the negative or stressful one instead of the positive on. For example, this past weekend I sold another book. The deal is done but not inked, so no details yet, but it’s one I’m very happy and excited about. At almost exactly the same time another project hit some temporary troubles. Nothing that can’t be fixed, but that was all I could think about. I couldn’t really enjoy the high of the book sale, because of this other thing. Stupid, but there you go. It’s something I need to work on.