Way To Your Heart post #2 - Concert crazy

Less Than Three Press is turning four years old! To commemorate the anniversary, we're having a bloghop called "The Way to Your Heart" from April 1-14.  Each blogger's "assignment" is to talk about the things that mean the most to them, things that make their hearts soar or even soar, in a good way of course.

The masterpost with all the awesome participants is HERE IT IS AT LT3  and many are offering shiny giveaways. So sit back and read what makes my heart do little flip-flops then go check out all the others. 

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This is my second post for the anniversary. I'll be giving away one $20 gift certificate to All Romance Ebooks, plus ebooks from my backlist. If I do three posts that would mean I give away the gift certificate plus 2 books, four posts would be the gift certificate plus 3 books - you get the idea. Every time you comment on a post, your name will go in the overall bucket so comment on two posts = two chances, three posts = three chances - again, I think you get the picture. Now on to the good bits. (beware - you will have to view a couple old pictures of me :P)

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Musical interlude - Great Big Sea

Off to see my second Great Big Sea concert in two nights so I thought I'd share some of their music. They're touring for their 20th anniversary - awesome. Great Canadian Newfy band whose style is hard to define - kitchen party music, jigs, celtic, sea-faring, pop, rock, folk - you name it they've got it. They're high energy and have the best acoustic sound, and when they sing a cappella, they are phenomenal.

Having been to a lot of concerts in my life, they're one of the best bang for your buck gigs - never have an opening band and they sing two one hour sets with a short intermission in between. They are addictive and infectious and live they're a big old comedy show as well as being a must-stand-have-to-dance party. I stood the entire show with the damn crutches last night and I'll do it again tonight - my knee is not thanking me for last night and I'm sure by tomorrow, it won't be talking to me at all (which might be a good thing).

You might recognize Alan Doyle (singer with the long flowing brown hair lol) as Russell Crowe's bff. He's been in Robin Hood, Republic of Doyle (with Russell too) and is in a couple of new Russell movies coming up. Busy guy and one of the best showmen I've ever seen since I have seen him with his solo stuff too. Anyhow, I have to get ready so here's a couple videos spanning the 20 years of Great Big Sea.

Music Wednesday - Kane/Carlson/Smith/Nutter

This was supposed to be for Music Monday then Tune Tuesday but instead it's for today, just plain old Hump Wednesday. You'll know one of the artists (at least from my blog) but maybe not the others, so have a listen. I get razzed at home for my *coughs* obsessions but being interested in one artist or actor or whatever can also broaden the mind to others that you wouldn't have even knew existed without the initial obsession. That's what I tell myself anyhow. ;)

Also, I have a special guest on my blog on Friday - Mell Eight from Less Than Three Press will be making a stop on her blog tour to talk about dragons so make sure you pop by. So here we go - Music Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Enjoy. (PS Damn blogger was being difficult in embedding these vids - took me two days - ugh)

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Random #6 - Anxiety

Today's random subject is anxiety, mainly because I'm anxious as hell right now. I have panic attacks and generalized anxiety disorder which unfortunately means that most times I have no idea why I feel like I'm going to crawl out of my skin.

Nothing is different about my day today yet my heart is pounding hard enough for me to feel it in my ears. My body feels twitchy on the inside more than the outside. I'm a little disoriented and shaky. To put it bluntly, I'm having a bad day.

Peek-a-boo 2013 - I'm still here so please poke me

Happy 2013. I know I'm a little late but real life can be a bitch sometimes. At the moment I have a hairline crack on my wrist which is also sprained. It's not casted, just wrapped and hurts like a bitch. And of course it's my right wrist (my crutch hand) and I'm completely left-hand-challenged so I feel like a flaily newborn kitten being especially flaily. I'm typing this on my iPad with the Blogger app so hopefully it will even work.

Insomnia, a review, random news & music

Not sleeping more than 3 or 4 hrs a night (with sleeping pills) is taking its toll but I'm pressing on to stay productive. I've been dealing with sleep issues for 10 years so it's really nothing new, just a little worse than usual right now. Recently I've been trying to set a goal every day since that at least makes me feel productive. My goal for today is to get to 60k on my cowboys - 2300 written so far and 300 to go and Christian Kane's drawling away on iTunes, offering his usual inspiration. ;)
Happy Insomniac Thursday. ;/

In the good news department, I received a really awesome 5/5 star review for Domestic Relations a couple weeks ago that I thought I'd share. DR hasn't gotten many reviews yet so this one made my day. :) And I swear I don't often post the entire review but today, I'm going to make an exception because it makes me smile and sleepy smiles are always a good thing.

Sunday with Guns N' Roses & Blind Melon...

This weekend has been a mesh of side effects of a med increase, struggling at doing some writing and resurrecting the 80s/early90s chick in me. Guns N' Roses has helped me do the latter and despite the strangeness (stranger than normal) that became Axl Rose, I still love the band, the music, his awesome voice, his plaid shirts and his wiggly hips.
I'm also still crushing on Gilby Clarke again since I saw him on Rockstar Super Nova a few years back. ☺(sorry there's so big - the size down seemed so tiny :/)

Hope y'all are having a good weekend.

Music Monday - Goo Goo Dolls

I'm doing the Goo Goo Dolls for obvious reasons - I saw them on Friday and they were Goo-tacular. Best show I've seen them do in a long time. They were relaxed and John had a couple of giggle fits during a song. Robby was sock-footed as usual, and someone threw him baby shoes for his new baby. He was so happy - they both were just a joy really.

The Goos are working on a new album and have been around for, like, ever. Hard to believe John is 46 and still so damn pretty. That's all I'm gonna say. Goo Goo Dolls are a must buy, must see, top ten on my list. I'm including a couple of pics and vids I shot on Friday - not saying they're good because I'm shaky and keep putting my finger over the mic - but I think they're still cute. :)  Enjoy.

W.I.P. Wednesday & this & that

I definitely have a few WIPs that need to be whipped into shape and I love that little pic. :)

Progress update:

Olympic Football: I finished and subbed my Olympic football story - it came out at 8000 words just between the 5 and 10k parameters. I think it's a sweet story and it shows I may have even learned something during all my Euro Cup watching because I actually used some football words. :) I think I'll hear next week whether it will be accepted for the anthology.

Music Monday - Kill Hannah

Kill Hannah - formed in 1993 in Chicago Illinois - word has it the band name came from Mat Devine's ex-girlfriend. I've seen them described as a band you either love or hate - there's no happy medium. I think they're awesome.

And speaking of awesome and of Mat Devine - yeah, I admit I might have started listening to them because of how freaking cute and adorable and weird and tiny he is (not to mention his awesome hair that just never does what it's supposed to), but I do love his voice as well - it's very unique. He's also freaking funny and you should totally follow his twitter and his blog Raccoon Society. The guy speaks his mind and lets others do the same. He's made of awesome.

But um... back to Kill Hannah. They've grown as men, as a group and in a musical way over the past few years as you can attest to in the videos. I guess you could call them more pop than rock but I personally love Mat's voice and lyrics so that's the hook for me. My kids still claim it has to be a girl singing that high - and yeah, he's tiny and looks like a girl sometimes, too. :D Anyhow - enjoy Kill Hannah.

Flashback Friday - Bryan Adams

 Bryan Adams - born in 1959 (OMG) in Ontario, Canada - is one of Canada's most famous singer/songwriters. He was awarded the Order of Canada and the Order of British Columbia, as well as being on top of Canada and other places in the world's music charts for years. He was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and Canada's Walk of Fame. In the 2000's he received the Alan Waters Humanitarian Award for numerous charities and was given the Governor General's Performing Arts Award. So besides being talented, he's an awesome guy. And yes, he's still around and seems as pleasant and personable as he's always been. Bryan's first album came out when I was in high school and yeah, I totally crushed on him. His music and lyrics are emotional and powerful and that gravelly voice just makes me shiver. Still love the man. Enjoy.

Music Monday - randomly random

So I'm wracking my brain for what group to post and there is just nothing zapping up there. Sooo I'm going to just post a few random songs and groups I've been listening to. If you like let me know and I can post more on said band. Or if you have anything you'd like to see me blog about - just ask. :)

Here we go - starting with Evans Blue - both these songs are on the album "The Melody and the Energetic Nature of Volume". The vids are only lyrics but the songs have been on repeat the past few days. Also, I may have posted some of these songs before or at least the bands.

Music Mondays - Great Big Sea (kitchen party, anyone?)

Great Big Sea is a Canadian treasure, another band on my top 5 list and one I've seen them at least 5 times, as well. They're from Newfoundland, formed in 1993 and are still going strong. They've been described as folk-rock and rock-celtic and are known for their interpretations of traditional Newfie sea shanties... BUT they are so much more than that.

Over the years GBS has explored different kinds of music from folk to rock to more poppier tunes, and of course, beer-drinking kitchen-party music. They're songs inspire fun and hope and just plain inspiration. They are an absolutely awesome band to see live no matter how big the venue but the smaller ones are more suited to some of the a capella songs they like to sing.

Alan Doyle does the main vocals but they all take a turn or two at the mic, especially when it comes to the raucous, teasing banter that always sounds so natural and unforced. These guys have known each other since they were young so there's a lot of stories to be told, a lot of ribbing to be done (lately it's been about Alan's starry-eyed appearance in the movie Robin Hood with his bff Russell Crowe) and a lot of caring in everything they say to each other. And may I mention the amount of instruments involved in a Great Big Sea concert? The norms like drums, acoustic and electric guitars, but also mandolins, fiddles, tin whistles, bouzouki, bodhran, bones, accordions, concertinas and hell, even bagpipes on occasion.

A little ranting and rambling for a Sunday

I've neglected this blog again, so what else is new right? I just can't seem to get the hang of posting every day or even every other day with all the writing I'm trying to do and all of the RL crap that I'm dealing with. And to be perfectly honest, sometimes I don't see a lot of point in taking the time to blog at all.

In whining news ~ I generally have a congregation of one - thank you Lisa - and sometimes two - thank you Diane - and though I guess I write this mostly for myself, it gets discouraging. I know I'm whining, maybe even being a self-righteous bitch, but venting is part of blogging, is it not? Anyhow, my mood is low and RL is busy at the moment, both of which would explain the maudlin tone of this post so far.

In writing news ~ I'm stuck in a world of revising, adding and editing at the moment. My latest manuscript - Domestic Relations - is in the final stages of being completion before being submitted and it's driving me up the freaking wall. It seems when I get to this stage in all my longer stories, I end up wanting to throw my laptop or iPad out the window so I never have to look at those damn words and those stupid characters (that I know I still love) anymore.

It makes it harder to immerse myself in what I'm doing and what I need right now is to just get the damn thing done and out of my hands. One of the issues is not having had anyone look it over for me, except near the beginning, so my insecurity rises sending my confidence crashing to the ground and all I'm left with is what-the-fuck am I writing and who-the-fuck wants to read this anyway. ~~big dramatic sighs~~

In publishing news ~ Countdown to Daddies comes out June 15 (I think) and Lucius' Bite (Family of Misfits 1) on the 22nd from MLR. Both of which I will be away for - great. I'm thinking about doing a give-away but not sure there's a point to that either. Yeah, I'm not what you'd call a sparkling example of an enthusiastic writer at the moment which is really too bad because it's a big jump for me - two releases in one month, one of them my first novel-length and print edition. My free read for LIAW ~Lazy Sundays~ is due out on July 5 and I have a pretty cover courtesy of Megan Derr. Still love characters boys so hard.

In RL news ~ I leave on the 5th for London to board the ship for our 12 day Northern European cruise and unfortunately, I'm not excited yet. I know I will be and maybe getting this book finished and out of my hands for a while, will let me relax enough to freak out and get excited. I also know part of the issue is figuring out what to wear when you're so used to messing around in your pjs and sweats all day, and completely loathe having to put on real clothes everyday, especially when I hate how I look in everything. ~stops whining~

Also in RL, I saw Seether a week and a half ago. Awesome as usual though they never get true credit for what they do. Also went to baby boy's gig this past week ~til 2 in the morning may I add~ watching him always makes me happy.

AND I got to live out a bit of a fangirl moment this week as well.
Not sure how many people outside of Canada know of Great Big Sea but they are an absolute favourite of mine and I got to meet, get a pic and autograph after seeing Alan Doyle (lead singer) on his solo tour. The venue was under 500 people, a theatre actually, and it was the most awesome show ever. His voice is amazing and when he sings without instruments, I get total goosebumps. Wasn't going to post the pic with me in it but what the hell - don't judge, just had my hair did that day and hadn't fixed it my own way though (and it's a horrible as fuck pic of me). Alan is sweeter than pie, called me "love' and even tried out my crutch. Lol. Love him. Check out his album. :)

Finally something else much less appreciative - unfortunately this could be considered a self-righteous rant as well. I was one of the organizers of the Hop Against Homophobia and though it went far better than expected, one incident has put a damper on the whole thing for me. One of the participants, who put themselves out there in their post, received a comment so vile and unnecessary it made my skin crawl. The commenter slammed the blogger's way of life, character, profession and even their family under the guise of religious belief. It was an atrocious mix of words from a person clearly looking for attention, completely delusional in their thinking, someone so homophobic I wanted to crawl through the screen and wrap my hands around their neck. Yes, I know violence will not solve the problem but the over-the-top road rage I feel when I'm stuck in traffic has nothing on what I felt when I read that comment. I'm not looking for answers or advice. I just needed to vent about an issue that despite not being something that personally affects to me, makes me seriously question the thoughts, words and actions of people who claim God guides them. No offence to anyone with religious beliefs or anyone who believes in God, but that boat sailed for me a long time ago and at the moment I'm really glad to not be on it.

 In closing, I'll make myself happy with some Thor (Chris Hemsworth) pics (update - I've seen The Avengers 4 times now - don't judge)
:)

Music Monday - SEETHER!!!

I usually post new music here - try to expand your minds with bands you may not have heard but today has to go to one of my top 5 bands of all time. Seether. Plus my sis and I are seeing them for the 7th or 8th time on Wednesday and I'm stoked.

Seether was formed by lead singer and guitarist Shaun Morgan and his childhood friend Dale Stewart (bass). They started out with the name Saragon Gas in 1999, then changed to Seether in 2002. Current drummer John Humprey signed on is 2004 and the threesome was officially set. They've had other guitarists come and go but in general, it's the three of them that make up the band.

Seether's music has been described as post-grunge/alternative metal but I think that depends on who you talk to and who's listening. I love their harder stuff, Shaun is nothing but awesome when he lets out his killer screams but I also love the slower songs. Their lyrics run from angry to emotional to hopeful, and that's always the most important part of any band for me. I absolutely adore their acoustic songs too. (they did a cover of Careless Whisper that I was afraid to watch - being a *coughs* Wham fan in the 80's - BUT it was made of awesome)

They don't have the reputation as the most exciting or entertaining band on stage, at least not if you're looking for endless banter and special effects. It's just them on stage, and the music says it all. I've seen them in big venues, small venues and intimate acoustic sessions - at a record store in the mall, front and centre. Even stalked Shaun a little in the store and he was gracious and asked me what CDs i thought he should buy.

Flashback Friday - Rocker Chicks

Flashback Friday Rocker chicks you say with a question mark in your mind? Has K-lee lost her own mind perhaps?

Not entirely but if you know me well, you also know I'm not a fan of woman singers or rock bands but today I'm going to share a few that I do like - back from the old days of course. :) There is a trend towards ballads for me and I know there's a lot more I could have included, maybe next time.

Stevie Nicks - the queen herself as far as I'm concerned. 

She had the hair the clothes, the voice and the look 

(plus the once-stunning Lindsey Buckingham). 

I totally wanted to be Stevie Nicks.

Music Monday - HURT

HURT was formed in the early 2000's. They have five albums, the latest released this year called "The Crux". I don't really know a lot about them except they came out of Virginia but their music sounds very European to me. It could just be J. Loren Wince's voice (which I love) but something in their sound reminds me of bands like Apocalyptica. I prefer their slower, more emotional songs, but that's nothing unusual for me. Not a lot of videos out there for these guys and only one so-called official ones but hope you enjoy anyway.

Falls Apart (yeah video has a typo) acoustic
(I love the normal version too - it's actually my fave song of theirs)

Tattoo Tuesday - Adam Gontier & some music

Adam Gontier from Three Days Grace (good Canadian boy :P). He's tall, sexy, tattooed and his voice gives me goosebumps... everywhere. He's tricky to find pics of besides his arms but you make due with what you have, right?

Significant tattoos include
- Grace across the knuckles of his right hand in the exact font from Jeff Buckley's (who drown in 1997) album Grace.
- A solid black band on his right forearm with the lyrics to "Never to Late"
- A photo of his wife tattooed on his left arm and a tribute to his grandmother underneath.
- There are others including 2 on his chest but like I said, the dude rarely takes his shirt off. :) And you know I'm gonna post a couple of my fave songs too, right?

PS if your ever get a chance to see Three Days Grace in concert - DO! - they're awesome.

Music Monday - Anberlin

Anberlin - a Florida-based rock band with a little harder edge to some of their songs. I saw them in concert during The Next Best Thing and they put on an awesome show. Not sure what else to say except I like them. Enjoy.

Music Monday - Thriving Ivory

San Francisco band whose first album came out in 2008. I love the melodies, the lyrics and the lead singer's voice totally draws me in. I find their songs very emotional and that right there, does it for me every time. They remind me a little of Savage Garden. Take a listen.


White lines that never fade
Burn deep with everyday
And I need to know

You live here in a photograph
No sound and no regrets
And I need to know

Heart-stained but never weak
You lay down alone but you don't mind
Questions that never breathe
Your face on a wall that I can't shake

I'm walking on air, close to you
Through a long hallway with a broken light
And I, I need to know
If you're still alive

You hold me like a bag of bones
Wrapped up and underground
Pull me out so I can feel
Make me believe, that one more night's
Not a minute too long when a moment's all I need

I'm walking on air, close to you
Through a long hallway with a broken light
And I, I need to know
If you're still alive

You'll marry the night
Dance with the pain but you don't mind
See the city burn tonight, hearts up in flames
Would you carry me away?

I'm walking on air, close to you
Through a long hallway with a broken light
And I, I need to know
If you're still alive

~~"Long Hallway with a Broken Light", Thriving Ivory