Category: Music

July’s 2022 Playlist

August 1, 2022

The last couple of weeks in July, husband and I took a cruise vacation to Costa Maya and Cozumel, Mexico. It was a really nice and relaxing vacation. When we returned, we took a road trip to Silverton, CO, which is 6 hours from where we live. I’ll be sharing photos soon. Right now, let’s check out my playlist.

I’ve been editing a novel for Camp NaNoWriMo for July and am happy to say, I completed it! I was worried I wouldn’t be able to hit my word count because of the vacation and all but I did it. During the editing, I listened to the playlist I made for the novel but I also had Pandora.com on and listened to a lot of Enigma and Sarah Brightman. One song in particular came on and brought back memories of a dance I taught a few students at Catechism some fifteen or twenty years ago. This was the song:

The dance was only about 2 minutes long so the song was cropped just enough to fit. For some reason, I don’t now where that cropped version is. I wouldn’t be able to share it but I wanted to listen to it.

Often I’ll listen to epic compilations as background music and the one below (over an hour and a half long) was really nice. I was editing the sci-fi cyborg novel so the music really didn’t fit but for some reason just having the music low as “white noise” really got me going. I was able to edit over 60K words. My goal was 50K.

If you’re a writer, do you like having music in the background or do you write without any music/noise?

June’s Playlist 2022: Breakup Songs

July 1, 2022

Photo taken 10 years ago this month after a hail storm.

In June, I was listening to breakup songs to get the mood I want for the current story I’m getting ready to edit for this months’ Camp Nano. In a strangely funny way, I found two iconic songs that were extremely well done but are completely opposite of each other.

The first one is “Driver’s License” by Olivia Rodrigo. This song has a naive innocence that I’m pretty sure every teenage girl or young adult who has had their heart broken could relate too. Olivia’s writing skills is something else. She’s very talented.

The second song is “You Oughta Know” by Alanis Morrisette. This is the grown up version of a heartbreak song. You can just feel the betrayal.

I love both of these songs for their differences and similarities. Other breakup favorites I listened to were:

  • “Back to Black” by Amy Winehouse
  • “Apologize” by One Republic
  • “What Goes Around…Comes Around” by Justin Timberlake
  • “Somebody That I Used to Know” by Gotye
  • “It Must Have Been Love” by Roxette
  • “Dancing On My Own” by Robyn
  • “The Scientist” by Coldplay

Do you have a favorite breakup song you listen to?

May’s Playlist 2022 and Ramblings

June 2, 2022

Last weekend, went to grab donuts and coffee and couldn’t resist taking a photo of the clouds. Aren’t they something? If you’re curious as to why the road looks rough and uneven, it’s because they are repaving it. May usually feels like a forever month because of that extra day, but it pretty much flew by this year. I guess I should accept that as I/we get older, time starts to feel as though it’s moving faster. I remember wishing for the time to pass quickly. Now, I’m always aware that I only have so much time in a day to get things done, and there’s never enough time.

I was so busy with writing and trying to get my hands at doing more crafting that I didn’t get a chance to listen to anything different other than my default playlist of Enigma and writing music. Husband and I did go see the movie, Top Gun: Maverick and we both enjoyed it. The soundtrack was nostalgic and excellent. Afterward, I told him that returning to civilian life felt a bit slow and boring, but that I enjoyed it. The speed of those jets was a serious adrenaline rush and I don’t think that kind of life would ever be for me. It’s very different for sure, but you know, maybe it’s just the age thing.

Anyway, the one song I did listen to a few times was Meet Me Halfway but Kenny Loggins. He’s also the singer of the song Danger Zone, which was played in the 1986 Top Gun movie as well as the new movie release. Meet Me Halfway was a song played in the 1987 movie called Over the Top, which I haven’t seen yet.

My daughter is on summer break now. She finished 9th grade and will be starting 10th grade come fall. She’ll be taking classes for her driver’s permit this summer. Once she passes, she’ll be able to drive with me or her dad in the car with her. Then come her 16th birthday next year and she’ll be able to test for her driver’s license. Strangely, she doesn’t want to drive.

Hope you all enjoy your summer.

March 2022 Playlist

April 1, 2022

The movie “Free Guy” came out last year and at first I didn’t have any interest in watching it because I’m not a fan of Ryan Reynolds, but I ended up watching it and it’s become one of my favorite movies. It is soooo good! I loved the storyline and all the great actors. Even though Ryan basically played himself, I think he meant to let all the other talents shine, and they did.

The song “Sweet Fantasy” by Mariah Carey is pretty much the main theme song. However, the version below is so beautiful. I didn’t know this happy and bubbly song could be turned into something so heartfelt. It’s played near the end of the movie when the main character was separated from his friend on the platform going across the water. I learned that the actress who played Milli/Molotov, Jodie Comer, sang it. That made the movie all the more amazing. So, March’s favorite pick from my playlist is the cover of “Sweet Fantasy.”

Other songs from my playlist were:

February 2022 Playlist

February 28, 2022

The photo was taken of my oldest daughter ten years ago. Can you believe that? She’s going to be 20 in a few days here.

February has been a busy month with trying to decide which method of bullet journaling (bujo) to go with. I’ve been trying to get down from about four notebooks to just two. I really enjoy making my own using dotted line notebooks, so I think I’m going to continue doing that, and doing more of it.

These were the main songs I listened to while bujo-ing.

“A Girl Like You” by Edwyn Collins. This song came out in 1994 and I remember listening to it during my college days. I think I heard it on “Lucifer” and it brought back memories.

“To Build a Home,” by The Cinematic Orchestra. First heard this song while watching “So You Think You Can Dance,” some time ago. The lyrics are a bit sad but beautiful, nonetheless.

“Lost Without You,” by Jaci Valesquez. Heard this song sometimes in the later 90’s early 2k’s and had it on repeat for awhile.

January 2022 Playlist

January 31, 2022

I was given this CD Walkman to try out and review and I’m really liking it. The sound is excellent. What I found super cool was that the walkman stores the songs somehow so the CD doesn’t continue spinning like the ones back in the day. It doesn’t store the music permanently. It seems to store just the CD I’m listening to. I haven’t tried the radio but I’ve heard it wasn’t that great. I’m not worried though. I mainly just listen to my CDs. While everyone probably got rid of all their CDs and went digital, I kept most all of mine. They’re in storage though, so I need to get them out. The two in the photo are what I kept out. I have no idea what I did with the Sarah McLauchlan insert/booklit but I’m pretty sure it’s somewhere around the house. It was nostalgic listening to her music and Adele’s first album as well.

Here’s my top three songs for the month:

  1. “Possessions” – Sarah McLauchlan
  2. “Someone Like You” – Adele
  3. “Dirty Laundry” – Don Henly

Currently, on repeat is “Beyond the Moon” by A.M.R. feat. Ai Takekawa while I’m writing.

December 2021 Playlist

January 3, 2022
My backyard on January 1, 2022

Hope everyone had a great start to the new year. We got snow and that felt great! We’ll see how the year goes, but I’m hoping for a lot less sadness. I don’t say much about that side of life because it’s just depressing, but I’d really love a year free of heartbreak and pain.

Let’s move on. In December, I listened to a lot of Christmas songs, but there were moments when I wanted to just feel epic and fuel my imagination with stories of far away worlds and speculative conflicts that are not anything we are familiar with in our world right now. My husband thinks I spend too much time in my “fiction world,” but I can’t help it. I love imagination. He didn’t say it in a mean way. He said it to reaffirm that he gets me.

Anyway, here were the songs on my playlist in December 2021.

“Frozen Motion” by Bob Bradley

“Embers Glow” by Bob Bradley and Thomas Balmforth

“Enchanted” by David Michael Tardy

I wish you all happiness and good health in 2022!

November 2021 Playlist and NaNoWrimo Talk

December 3, 2021

I hope everyone who participated in NaNoWriMo finished and got your certificate and all the cool discounts. I’d love to give away my 50% off code for Scrivener so if you’re interested, let me know in the comments. I have the application and use it every so often, but my go-to is Word. I believe Scrivener is $50 so you’d get it for $25. The most updated version is pretty awesome so I’m going to try my hands at it again.

Also, Scrivener and Vellum work hand-in-hand. They are not related in any way but you can convert a Scrivener file into Vellum and then open it up in Vellum. It’s really cool. As for Vellum, they are having a really good deal right now for 30% off. I believe I got Vellum at a discount but it wasn’t 30% off, and I wish I did. So, you lucky people are truly lucky.

I don’t work for either of these businesses nor do I get anything via affiliation from them. I use them both and I’m all for writers getting the opportunity to write, so that’s why I’m sharing this information.

November’s playlist was a bit bland. I listened to mostly the Christmas music because I wanted to be in the spirit, but I did get a few good songs in during NaNo. I decided to make a digital scrapbooking layout of my playlist.

For some reason “Vienna” by Gregorian was just so beautiful and poignant that I had to have it on repeat.

Can you believe it’s December? Any writing goals this month? I don’t normally write my stories. I usually take a break to work on December Daily. I will have to share a bit more about my process and some of my past layouts, and maybe even current layouts. Having said that, I may write a couple of short stories and continue on my NaNo novel so I could be ahead. I’ve got most of my Christmas shopping done so I’ll have a little bit of extra time to do these things.

Layout credits: Autumn Garden Kit by Et Designs, Hello Autumn Kit by Emeto, Alphas from Digital Scrapbook Ingredients, and number font is Forever Together Sans.

Candlelight: A Haunted Evening

November 8, 2021

A week and a half ago (can you believe we’re already in week two of November?), during the week of Halloween, husband, our youngest daughter, and I went to a strings performance called Candlelight: A Haunted Evening. They played spooky songs as well as some classics like The Adam’s Family theme song and Ghost Busters theme song. They even played the famous tune from the movie Psycho. It was a great evening.

The event took place at Wings Over the Rockies Air & Space Museum. We were allowed to go a little early and tour the museum before the performance started. Our daughter has been to the museum before for a choir performance so she was really happy to see that we were going there again. This was my first time there as well as husband’s. It was really awesome to see these retired military airplanes.

The candlelight setup was very intimate and really enjoyable. I was surprised our daughter enjoyed it as much as we did.

For Halloween, husband and I dressed up as bumble bees and handed out treats. Our oldest daughter worked so didn’t get to enjoy this year’s Halloween. Our youngest was the mad hatter. She went trick-or-treating with her friend for about an hour or so. They came back and chilled out and played some video games. We had a really nice Halloween this year. Last year, because of COVID, we didn’t do anything.

Hope you all had a great Halloween. I had wanted to post sooner but I was just super busy with home life and health-life. I’m behind on my reading as well. I hope the authors I’m reading for can be patient with me. Speaking of reading, I’m not sure what’s going on with Goodreads, but they put two books under currently reading list, so now I show having four books I’m currently reading. I have no idea why those two extra books are there because they were not even under my “to read” list. They suddenly just popped up under my currently reading list. The first time this happened (with just one book), I deleted the book and didn’t think anything of it. But now, it was obvious. I only realized it because I had a couple of friends/followers “liked” those books which triggered me to take a closer look. Really strange.

October 2021 Playlist and NaNoWriMo

November 4, 2021

Anyone doing NaNoWriMo? I try to finish a manuscript every year, and this year is the same. I’m writing the second book to a published novella. I’m hoping to make this book a full novel. The novella had one main character with a primary secondary character. The novel will have at least three main characters and one main secondary character. That’s the plan, but as you know, things will change as usual.

The setting in the novella was on a starship and a planet called Stromnair. The novel will be set on a future earth as well as the alien planet, Pfore. The image above depicts what earth looks like in that future. A couple of wars and a deadly virus has destroyed earth and its people. These instances have lead humans to go above and beyond to build a secured earth and to use genetic engineering to continue the human race.

Anyway, in the novella, there is a scene that I just love. It’s when the main character falls in love with the secondary character as he observes her taking in the first sight of snow. This is the music that I listened to as I described their relationship in that moment.

“Last Light” by Atis Freivalds

I have had to revisit the novella quite a few times with the “soundtrack” I made for the story, just so I remain within the style and mood of the story. However, I’ve also started a new “soundtrack” for the second book. So far, I’ve only got one song (that I found a couple of days ago), which I will share on my writing blog.

If you are doing NaNoWriMo, what are you writing about? What’s your genre? What “soundtrack” do you have for it?

Credit: concept art by Alex Ichim on Deviantart.