Monthly Archives: June 2022
Day 3 of Santa Monica
Posted on June 22, 2022 29 Comments
I find it funny that my father and I are doing “Day X of ___” at the same time. At least his numbers match the actual day of the month. Anyways, Day 3 of lovely Santa Monica! I started this day out right by going to Huckleberry Cafe for breakfast. I’m one of those people […]
A Personal History of Music, Day 22: “Something That You Said,” by The Bangles
Posted on June 22, 2022 11 Comments
There’s a natural progression to the careers of most (successful) bands: The scrappy “new kid” phase, where the band is starting out and struggling, and maybe has a couple of songs passed around by their “first in,” fans; the “rising star” phase, where they get picked up by a major label, get their first Billboard […]
Day 2 of Santa Monica
Posted on June 21, 2022 17 Comments
The first thing I did for my second day in Santa Monica was get a pedicure. I figured if I was going to be wearing sandals everywhere, I should make my toenails purple! So I just popped by the closest nail salon I could find, and while the pedicure itself was totally fine and whatnot, […]
A Personal History of Music, Day 21: “Day After Day,” by The Pretenders
Posted on June 21, 2022 13 Comments
I suspect most people, if you asked them, could tell you who they thought was the coolest person in whatever genre of music they liked the most, or maybe who was the coolest person in all of music. “The Coolest Person” was not necessarily one’s favorite musician, although there was usually a high correlation between […]
Day 1 of Santa Monica
Posted on June 20, 2022 31 Comments
Last week, a family friend asked if I was busy at the end of the month. I said no and was then asked if I could possibly cat sit… 2,000 miles away. I quickly accepted the chance to hang out in LA for a week, and yesterday I boarded a 7am direct flight to LAX. […]
A Personal History of Music, Day 20: “Jennifer,” by Falling Joys
Posted on June 20, 2022 15 Comments
I think everyone has a favorite band that literally no one else they know has ever heard of. Not in the gatekeepery “I’m so unbearably hipster I only listen to bands that broke up even before they recorded their album” sort of way, but in the enthusiastic “I don’t understand why more people haven’t heard […]
A Personal History of Music, Day 19: “Beloved Wife,” by Natalie Merchant
Posted on June 19, 2022 6 Comments
I don’t think most people would make a connection between my military science fiction novel Old Man’s War and the works of the famously earthy-crunchy singer-songwriter Natalie Merchant, but there is one, and it’s pretty significant: her song “Beloved Wife,” which was originally on her 1995 album Tigerlily, but which I first encountered on her […]
A Personal History of Music, Day 18: “Higher,” by The Naked and Famous
Posted on June 18, 2022 3 Comments
My inclusion of this song is pretty simple: Late 2016 was a pretty rough ride, emotionally, and I needed something anthemic to keep my spirits up. “Higher” fit that bill pretty well: Quiet(ish) verses raising up to big fist-pumping choruses, catchy, defiant lyrics, and a spirit of hopefulness that for me acted a bit to […]
New Books and ARCs, 6/17/22
Posted on June 17, 2022 16 Comments
This anniversary edition of new books and ARCs has some excellent limited editions from Subterranean Press along with new work from other publishers. What here is calling to you? Tell us in the comments! — JS
A Personal History of Music, Day 17: “Help Me,” by Concrete Blonde
Posted on June 17, 2022 4 Comments
I decided to highlight Concrete Blonde today because today is my and Krissy’s wedding anniversary, and when we met and for a long time afterward, Concrete Blonde was Krissy’s favorite, and still remains high up in her personal musical pantheon. When Krissy entered my life, the amount of Concrete Blonde I listened to went way, […]
27 Years
Posted on June 17, 2022 31 Comments
I was going to say “sometimes you get lucky,” but I don’t think you get to 27 years of marriage by luck. I got lucky when I met Krissy. We’ve both been working on it since then to stay lucky. It’s worthwhile work. I hope to keep doing that work for at least as long […]
A Personal History of Music, Day 16: “Tear In Your Hand,” by Tori Amos
Posted on June 16, 2022 10 Comments
There are any number of reasons why “Tear In Your Hand” has remained in my mix of Highly Significant Songs, but possibly the most important reason is that it’s rooted into a very specific place and time for me: Fresno, California in the early 90s. This is where I had gotten my first job out […]
The Big Idea: Karen Heuler
Posted on June 16, 2022 3 Comments
Cats and witches are a duo as old as time. But when the cat is a frenemy rather than a familiar? Now that’s a little more unique. Come along in Karen Heuler’s Big Idea to see the dynamic she created between a witch and her most unusual co-worker in The Splendid City. KAREN HEULER: It […]
A Personal History of Music, Day 15: “Coming Up Close,” by Til Tuesday
Posted on June 15, 2022 13 Comments
Specificity is a valuable thing when it comes to popular music, which is a thing that I’m not sure everyone who makes pop music always understands. Popular music, after all, is meant to appeal to a wide number of people, to hit charts and be turned into viral TikToks and so on. One way to […]
Visiting Italianfest
Posted on June 15, 2022 23 Comments
This past Sunday, I ventured down to Cincinnati to visit my friend, and she took me to Italianfest in Newport, Kentucky! Which is right across the river from Cincinnati. I had never heard of Italianfest before, but apparently it’s been going on since 1991. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but it was basically just […]
The Big Idea: Stephen Cox
Posted on June 15, 2022
How do you write a book that reaches past its target audience, to readers that have never tried your genre before? According to author Stephen Cox, you have to lean into the things that make it genre defying in the first place. Follow along in his Big Idea to see how he does this in […]
A Personal History of Music, Day 14: “Extraordinary Thing,” by k.d. lang
Posted on June 14, 2022 13 Comments
I believe I was slightly behind the rest of my generational cohort in coming to k.d. lang. Most of the people who I know admire her work came on board with it in the Ingenue days, with “Constant Craving” being the Canadian singer’s biggest pop hit, now and then. I thought the song was perfectly […]
The Big Idea: Sam J. Miller
Posted on June 14, 2022 1 Comment
It’s been said that you should write what you know, and for author Sam J. Miller, that’s pop culture. Read on to discover how he transformed the pop culture that inspired him growing up into his own story of his own making, Boys, Beasts & Men. SAM J. MILLER: My first stories were fanfic. When […]
A Personal History of Music, Day 13: “The Big Sky,” by Kate Bush
Posted on June 13, 2022 14 Comments
It must be an interesting moment to be Kate Bush. 39 years after her masterwork Hounds of Love came out, it’s back, thanks to a canny placement of its song “Running Up That Hill” in the hit Netflix series Stranger Things. And when I say “it’s back,” it’s actually to say that it’s hitting higher […]
A Personal History of Music, Day 12: “Fast Car,” by Tracy Chapman
Posted on June 12, 2022 22 Comments
A number of years ago, when Hurricane Katrina swamped New Orleans, killing a thousand people who had chosen to stay in the city when the storm hit, there were people who wondered why they didn’t just leave. The answer, I knew, was: because they were poor, and they couldn’t just go. But if I had […]
Whatever Everyone Else is Saying