Summer has come!
I am LOVING the weather at the moment. Bright, warm sun edging into hot, the sunglasses and summer dresses are getting some use, finally! We had a very wet spring, I am glad to get to do some basking.
lc2l wrote a really good Avengers fic, When I Say Jump which I betaed. It is massively spoilery for the movie, and it is Loki/Clint, and so there are consent issues, and it is really rather excellent, so you should all go read it and tell her how awesome she is.
A couple of weeks ago I got Adam Lambert's new album, Trespassing, and oh my god it is so freaking good, I love it. It is definitely better than FYE. (I still love you FYE, just, this is exactly the kind of progress you hope for from a sophomore album that had a lot more time devoted to it!) Somehow I had convinced myself, probably due to the album being pushed back again and again, that it would be disappointing and I was so so wrong. I loved the first track after like, 20 seconds, and forced myself to listen to all of it before saying it was amazing on Twitter just in case I only liked the first song or something. But really - I love this album.
And I have really missed Adam's incredibly voice. It all comes back to that really. Like, I would never *forget* that Adam has this amazing voice, but actually sitting down to listen to it, and to listen to it do new things, and having that reaction to it all over again, it's like jumping into a swimming pool or waking up or something, I am so so happy to experience it again. There are so many artists whose music I like but who don't have a voice anywhere near touching what Adam can do. It's like he's working with a completely different instrument to everyone else in the music industry. Even if you don't like what he uses it for, you can't deny that that voice is just stunning.
I am very happy with the music he is using it to make. The only tracks I sometimes skip over are the singles and sometimes Naked Love, but even that has been growing on me. I have a lot - A LOT - of love for everything else, so much that it really doesn't make sense to pick favourites. But I've probably played Kickin In most, just because it's been on repeat a couple of times :P But seriously, I really love this album as a whole.
I also got Marina and the Diamonds second album, Electra Heart. Also a sophomore album, also approached with a mixture of glee constrained with fear. Because I love The Family Jewels so much, it means a lot to me, like it is really important to me, and the concept that this one might not be as good is a scary concept. Good news! It's great! I don't feel comfortable saying Electra Heart is better than The Family Jewels, because it doesn't have that clear sense of progress and improvement that Adam has displayed, but that's more to do with The Family Jewels being really good than with Electra Heart being bad. But yeah - it's very recognisably Marina, which is obviously very good for me, that mixture of sweet and ethereal with cutting home truthy lyrics that I adore. I am very happy with it indeed.
Eurovision was last night. Embarrassed by how many songs I genuinely liked and how into it I got haha. Sweden were fair winners. I have a list of my top ten, but I'll spare you. Suffice to say my favourite was Turkey, with the boat. Inexplicably addicted to it. Creys for Slovakia not getting through to the final.
*
Writing is slow at the moment, but happening. It's weird being in this kinda half inspired state, but I think it's a good thing. I can't write for long periods of time without that fire of inspiration, but I'm definitely doing more than sitting around waiting for it to strike again. In the weeks since Easter it has struck twice - and both times to give me entirely new stories. Which is lovely and exciting, but not exactly helpful, lol.
Lately I've been having a lot of thoughts about the difference between writing YA high fantasy and YA urban fantasy. Mainly because what I'm writing started out as high fantasy but I've noticed that if I struggle with a detail I'm developing a bit of a why-don't-I-just-make-it-urban-fantasy-it-doesn't-really-matter response to frustration with myself. I love urban fantasy, but it is easier than high fantasy, precisely because you don't have to spend hours wondering about physics and history and politics and geography which will never be mentioned in the actual story but you need to know it, inside and out. And I'm good with the actual fantasy bits - the witches world, I have down - but it's the plain world I'm having difficult with. And yeah, I don't know. I'm starting to think, what would it lose if I made it alternate reality instead of alternate world. Not a huge amount.
Also, I have another story idea which is tethered in high fantasy, so comparing that one to this one really makes it seem like it would be fine to just switch it over. But maybe it would be weird, I don't know.
lc2l wrote a really good Avengers fic, When I Say Jump which I betaed. It is massively spoilery for the movie, and it is Loki/Clint, and so there are consent issues, and it is really rather excellent, so you should all go read it and tell her how awesome she is.
A couple of weeks ago I got Adam Lambert's new album, Trespassing, and oh my god it is so freaking good, I love it. It is definitely better than FYE. (I still love you FYE, just, this is exactly the kind of progress you hope for from a sophomore album that had a lot more time devoted to it!) Somehow I had convinced myself, probably due to the album being pushed back again and again, that it would be disappointing and I was so so wrong. I loved the first track after like, 20 seconds, and forced myself to listen to all of it before saying it was amazing on Twitter just in case I only liked the first song or something. But really - I love this album.
And I have really missed Adam's incredibly voice. It all comes back to that really. Like, I would never *forget* that Adam has this amazing voice, but actually sitting down to listen to it, and to listen to it do new things, and having that reaction to it all over again, it's like jumping into a swimming pool or waking up or something, I am so so happy to experience it again. There are so many artists whose music I like but who don't have a voice anywhere near touching what Adam can do. It's like he's working with a completely different instrument to everyone else in the music industry. Even if you don't like what he uses it for, you can't deny that that voice is just stunning.
I am very happy with the music he is using it to make. The only tracks I sometimes skip over are the singles and sometimes Naked Love, but even that has been growing on me. I have a lot - A LOT - of love for everything else, so much that it really doesn't make sense to pick favourites. But I've probably played Kickin In most, just because it's been on repeat a couple of times :P But seriously, I really love this album as a whole.
I also got Marina and the Diamonds second album, Electra Heart. Also a sophomore album, also approached with a mixture of glee constrained with fear. Because I love The Family Jewels so much, it means a lot to me, like it is really important to me, and the concept that this one might not be as good is a scary concept. Good news! It's great! I don't feel comfortable saying Electra Heart is better than The Family Jewels, because it doesn't have that clear sense of progress and improvement that Adam has displayed, but that's more to do with The Family Jewels being really good than with Electra Heart being bad. But yeah - it's very recognisably Marina, which is obviously very good for me, that mixture of sweet and ethereal with cutting home truthy lyrics that I adore. I am very happy with it indeed.
Eurovision was last night. Embarrassed by how many songs I genuinely liked and how into it I got haha. Sweden were fair winners. I have a list of my top ten, but I'll spare you. Suffice to say my favourite was Turkey, with the boat. Inexplicably addicted to it. Creys for Slovakia not getting through to the final.
*
Writing is slow at the moment, but happening. It's weird being in this kinda half inspired state, but I think it's a good thing. I can't write for long periods of time without that fire of inspiration, but I'm definitely doing more than sitting around waiting for it to strike again. In the weeks since Easter it has struck twice - and both times to give me entirely new stories. Which is lovely and exciting, but not exactly helpful, lol.
Lately I've been having a lot of thoughts about the difference between writing YA high fantasy and YA urban fantasy. Mainly because what I'm writing started out as high fantasy but I've noticed that if I struggle with a detail I'm developing a bit of a why-don't-I-just-make-it-urban-fantasy-it-doesn't-really-matter response to frustration with myself. I love urban fantasy, but it is easier than high fantasy, precisely because you don't have to spend hours wondering about physics and history and politics and geography which will never be mentioned in the actual story but you need to know it, inside and out. And I'm good with the actual fantasy bits - the witches world, I have down - but it's the plain world I'm having difficult with. And yeah, I don't know. I'm starting to think, what would it lose if I made it alternate reality instead of alternate world. Not a huge amount.
Also, I have another story idea which is tethered in high fantasy, so comparing that one to this one really makes it seem like it would be fine to just switch it over. But maybe it would be weird, I don't know.