The responses I’ve gotten to this week’s Roadie Poet entry surprised me. I never would have expected you guys to read the poem as a song. Thank you! That’s high praise and I’ve got much-needed warm fuzzies from what you had to say, especially about that last stanza.

I wanted to pause and talk about where it came from, because to me, the story behind it is sorta cool.

Whenever Roadie Poet tugs on my consciousness and tells me he’s got something to say, I always picture him like my friend Toby, who does his share of roadie work, both on and off the road. He works full-time for a band and gets a lot more interaction with the band than RP does. Toby also has the most incredible speaking voice; I used to love to hear him talk. (and like most men in my life, his e-mails usually consist of a word or two but a phone conversation can last an hour, which is a good thing when you’re speaking with someone who’s got a great voice.)

But there’s another component to RP, and that’s a woman I used to know when I worked in radio. She worked at Metal Blade Records, as a rep to radio stations like mine; I spent a week with her when I was weighing a job offer from Roadrunner Records. Lori’s cool people.

She left the relatively safe world of record labels and went on a wild ride, eventually winding up as a roadie. I believe she’s still there, working for Sesame Street Live, last I heard.

Her name came back up last week, when I had #2 at dance classes. The ballet instructor was talking about how she’d gone to see Sesame Street Live when it was here and how she’d cried as she sat there and watched. It turned out that she’d been part of the company.

A-ha! I thought. I knew there was something about this woman that I had been keying into since I’d met her this year, and that something is our love of the touring life. We’ve both got it in our blood.

She gave it up to have a more stable life. I gave it up because I knew, long-term, I could never sustain it. Not if I wanted to be a writer, too — which is the reason I turned down those job offers at record labels. Being a writer is something I need to be. Yet my passion for music is also something I can’t deny.

Thus, ShapeShifter. And Deadly Metal Hatchet, and Chelle LaFleur, Kermit Ladd, and Roadie Poet.

And, thus, this week’s Roadie Poet.

Hard to believe it’s been three weeks since I turned off the computers and headed west. Seems a lot longer than that.

Thirteen Things from Yellowstone1. There is something about the mountains out there that really tugs at me. Heck, any mountains, even the foothills of the Appalachians that I live in. This was taken in the Lamar Valley, where a new wolf pack is trying to establish itself. They call the pack the Silver Pack. 2. Another shot from the same spot. Yes, I had a hard time concentrating on the wolves in the spotting scopes. After all, the wolves were laying around and there was all this magnificence around me. 3. The final shot from this same area. 4. This was taken on our way back from lunch, when we stopped to see what the Druid Peak Pack was up to. They were hanging out on the hillside; the two who had been playing earlier had stopped for a nap. The pack’s alpha female was wandering around, checking on everyone. A bit earlier, an interloper had shown up and a scuffle had ensued; the interloper was laying in a hollow, wounded. We don’t know how seriously. 5. This is shot from the top of the terraces at Mammoth Hot Springs. Yep, that’s a hot spring in the foreground. 6. Another one from Mammoth. 7. In the foreground is the (snow-covered) famed Minerva Terrace. In the background… mountains. 8. Yup, Mammoth. 9. And more Mammoth. See the boardwalk? Parts of it ended mysteriously where the springs have overtaken the boardwalk. But that’s another TT. 10. …and more. 11. I spent an hour in the lobby of the Mammoth Hot Springs resort with my MP3 player, watching the sun rise over the mountains. Every now and then, I’d run outside with my camera to get a shot. This is my favorite. We won’t speculate if I got it that time I was in such a rush that I jammed my arm into my coat and got outside to find… my coat was upside down. Well, at least only one arm was in it. 12. Crap. I picked this one earlier today and now I don’t remember where it’s from. I took it along the ride from Mammoth down to Canyon, over to the Lake, and off to Old Faithful. That’s the long way around, but it was worth it. 13. Same problem. And you wonder why I am ready to have copies printed and to spend the time putting the pictures into my scrapbooks?

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will try to link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!
View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Photos other than of the Yellowstone Gate in the header are Copyright 2007-2008 by Me, Susan Helene Gottfried. If you want to use them, please do so with proper citation. I’m proud of these puppies!

My buds Lisa Andel and LA Day got all incestuous on me and tagged me repeatedly for the same Seven Things Meme. I did it back in November (on the 24th, to be exact) and was going to blow them off and make some horrid West Virginia joke, but instead, I had a thought. Why not post one over at the Blue Ribbon Bloggers blog? They invited me to join them; it seemed like a good idea. So I did it.

Now, on to some long overdue business:

My good friend L^2, who’s taught me more than she knows, awarded me the Roar for Powerful Words.

“When I set up The Shameless Lions Writing Circle, one of things I had in mind was that we as a group could encourage and celebrate good, powerful writing on the Internet/blogosphere. This is why I’ve come up with a new project to try to do exactly that, while of course at the same time increase exposure for the 48 members and their individual blogs. A Roar For Powerful Words is the chance to scream from the mountains the good news about the powerful posts that are produced every day in the blogosphere, despite what some mainstream columnists and journalists claim. This is also a good chance to examine exactly what it is that makes writing good and powerful.”
And according to Seamus, this award is to be distributed “to those people who have blogs we love, can’t live without, where we think the writing is good and powerful.”

I’ve got to say here that I was asked to claim a lion, but I regretfully turned it down. I’m spread too thin as it is right now. But I’m keeping as much of an eye on that group as I can and I’m pulling for each and every one of them to make something of their writing.

Anyway, back to the award. L^2 said this about me:
She’s striving to create an empire, based upon her fictional rock band ShapeShifter, and I think with her powerful writing she’s well on her way.

Wow. That’s one of the best compliments I can ever hope for. And I hope she’s right!

Etiquette demands that I pass this forward. I’m not sure to who. I tag Lisa and Amy and the whole e-book crowd frequently. But I depend on them, all right. Robin rocks and makes my day whenever she shows up in my reader.

Friends like Breeni, Karen, Joely, Janet, and Thomma Lyn are all candidates, too.

Oh, this isn’t easy.

Or is it? I mean, this is a writing award and while I know a couple hundred good writers, there is one of you whose writing speaks to me as being something that I could have written. Who reads my outtakes and keys in on what I’m trying to convey.

That’s Bunnygirl.

I’ve given her awards before. Hell, I’ve given most of you guys awards before. I’ll keep doing it, but for today, it’s Bunny.

I’ve decided to try something new here: The Sunday Best. Want to join me and highlight something? Sign Linky below!

I’ve been seeing promotion for this carnival all through my reader and after much thought, I’ve begun submitting some of my archived posts. Come join me — carnivals are a great way to meet new people, both on their blogs and on yours.

Here’s the blurb:

Have you ever been to a progressive dinner? You start out at one house or restaurant to have hors d’oeuvres and cocktails, then move on to a different one for appetizers, and continue moving from place to place all the way through dessert.

That’s the idea behind the new Progressive Dinner Blog Carnival…

Soup To Nuts is ONE BLOG CARNIVAL presented in five “courses”, each with a different host.

Entries are being accepted NOW.
Dinner will be served on Wednesday, January 30th.

{You can submit one post, per blog, on any subject – please do not use any post more than once}

You can participate in 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 courses

The Hors d’oeuvres & Cocktails course…
will be served at Fear and Loathing – The Gonzo Papers.
Email your entry for the hors d’oeuvres & cocktails course
to Kilroy {subject line Progressive Dinner} at: kilroy60@gmail.com

The Appetizer course…
will be served at Change Therapy.
Email your entry for the appetizer course
to Isabella {subject line – Progressive Dinner} at: moritherapy@shaw.ca

The First Course…
will be served at Fallen Words.
Email your entry for the first course
to Sara {subject line – First Course} at: ilovetowriteSMP@yahoo.com

The Main Course…
will be served at Anja Merret – Chatting To My Generation.
Email your entry for the main course
to Anja {subject line – Progressive Dinner} at: anja@hqlondon.net

The Dessert Course…
will be served at Fiction Scribe.
Email your entry for the dessert course
to JM {subject line – Progressive Dinner} at: sylver1@tpg.com.au

Your entry should include…

—(-)-> Your name as you want it to appear
—(-)-> The name(s) of your blog(s)
—(-)-> The corresponding URL(s)
—(-)-> The title of your post(s)
—(-)-> The corresponding URL(s)

The Rules are simple…

1. Only English language posts will be accepted.
2. No posts with titles that include profanity or pictures of a sexual nature.

This is a one-of-a-kind blog carnival. The hosts would appreciate your help to promote the event. Let us know if you publish a post promoting the progressive dinner, your effort will be recognized. To make things as easy as possible for all involved, I ask the post more or less follow the structure of this one.

If you haven’t been here since my return from Yellowstone, let me recap for you:

Thirteen Things from Yellowstone 1. I’ve learned the wisdom of wool socks. I’ve vowed to only wear bamboo and wool socks from now on. We’ll see if I can accomplish this; cotton’s cheaper. But not nearly as nice.2. This guy was on the menu every night we were in the Park. Yum. (Well, okay, it was his farm-raised cousin. But you get the idea.) 3. I survived snowshoeing. This elk didn’t. Or maybe he was there as a trophy for my first snowshoeing experience. 4. This guy — we think — along with a friend welcomed me to my first snowshoeing trip. He and his friend stood forty yards apart… on opposite sides of the trail we were taking, and didn’t leave us a way around him. So the eight or so of us had to thread the bull elks. Who had big antlers that could have hurt us. Badly. 5. I put on four layers of pants and stood outside with a small group — ten or twelve of the twenty-seven of us — and watched this beautiful lady erupt for the last time in 2007. 6. This is her last daylight eruption of 2007. 7. This is her in 2008. She’s aging well, isn’t she? 8. She wasn’t the only thermal feature with things to say. 9. Daisy went off. 10. Riverside went off. 11. Castle went off. 12. Seeing all three of these — and the cross-country ski group got to Lonestar just as it erupted too — was pretty darn special. One of our three guides (who live nearby and do research in the park) said he’s been waiting years to see Castle erupt. I decided it was the Park’s way of thanking us, since we were there as part of a National Parks Conservation Association trip. 13. Yep. Saw wolves. From a distance. A great distance. I bet they knew we were there, only able to see them through our spotting scopes.

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will try to link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Photos other than of the Yellowstone Gate in the header are Copyright 2007-2008 by Me, Susan Helene Gottfried. If you want to use them, please do so with proper citation. I’m proud of these puppies!

I have to tell you guys that when the airplane door slammed shut in Bozeman and the plane was pushed back from the jetway, I almost screamed NO and jumped off the plane and called one of the amazing tour guides to come get me ’cause I wasn’t going anywhere ever again…

Believe me, it was tempting.

Pictures of the trip will follow soon, most likely as Thursday Thirteens. The Tour Manager and I took about 500, give or take the deleted ones (ahh, the pleasure of digital photography), and including my 140-some on our final day in the park.

My fiction and rock and roll take up a big part of my soul. I’ve made that abundantly clear on this blog. The other part of my soul is Yellowstone National Park. Really. I would have stayed, if I’d had the option to.

Happy New Year to all of you. May all of our dreams come true in 2008, and may I have news for you of a publication of Trevor’s Song by the end of the year, if not earlier. Keep on visiting and spreading the word about our fun here; the bigger the buzz, the more you inspire me.

Thirteen Things You Need to Know1. Yellowstone National Park became the first national park in the United States in 1872. It was signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant. 2. In 1976, my parents took me to Yellowstone. To say I fell in immediate love is to underestimate the power of the emotion the park evokes in me. 3. In 1988, 1.4 million acres of Yellowstone burned. 4. In 1998, I made a return trip with the Tour Manager. Signs of the fire were still everywhere. The Tour Manager promised we’d return in five years. 5. In 2008, the Tour Manager and I will layer up our winter gear and leave the warmth of the Old Faithful Snow Lodge to see Old Faithful’s first eruption of the new year. (yep, five years became ten. Amazing what happens when you blink.) 6. Because we’ll be spending five of our six nights in the park, we probably won’t have Internet access. Or cell phone coverage. 7. Our first morning there, we’ll go wolf spotting. 8. We’re bringing both digital cameras and the laptop, so we can upload the pictures and have empty memory cards to start each day. 9. I have learned more about long underwear than any rocker chick like me ought to learn. 10. We’re going to be surrounded by bison and yet I’m betting that all that will be on the menu is cow. 11. As a result of this, I probably won’t be able to check in while I’m gone. 12. I’d thought about having a friend post entries for me, but given what Trevor’s done around this joint in the past when I HAVE been here, I didn’t think that was wise. 13. But if I can post from Yellowstone, I will. Keep your eyes peeled, and have a terrific New Year’s.

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will try to link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!
View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Guitar strings are slippery things. They come coiled up in a packet, sort of like a condom, only they don’t like to be stretched out. You have to put one end into your guitar and pull it taut. It bends, it struggles, it sings. But it doesn’t like to be manhandled.

Enter Mitchell Voss, frontman for ShapeShifter and rhythm guitarist extraordinaire (in the minds of many). He’d never thought much about a used guitar string until he went and fell in love with an artist. Kerri is magic, he swears it, and that was before she went and started making art with his broken guitar strings. Thirteen different things, in fact.

Thirteen Things made from Mitchell’s broken guitar strings 1. First, she wound some of Mitchell’s hair around a piece of string. “Look!” she cried, inordinately pleased with herself. “Instant dredlocks!” (he tried to keep from blushing, lest someone discover he’d tried this, himself, once.) 2. Then she took a number of strings, divided them into groups of three, and braided them around a strap of leather, which she turned into a very sexy choker for Mitchell. He wore it. 3. This fueled her ambitions, and she soon figured out a way to make the wire stay when bent. She made a charm for the choker. When Mitchell wore it to a photo shoot, girls everywhere coveted it. 4. Kerri’s next masterpiece was a blob that she designated as a Christmas tree ornament. Since Mitchell is usually on the road this time of year (preferably in Australia, where it’s summer), Kerri gave it to his mom, Sonya, who treasures it. 5. One day, Kerri noticed Eric using a book thong to mark his place in a book he was reading. He admitted it was a gift from one of the many girls he befriended on the road and then kept in touch with. Kerri found some beads and some of Eric’s used strings and voila. Eric had a return gift for that girl. 6. Bored one day on the bus, Kerri pulled out her stash of broken strings — by this point, she was collecting Eric’s as well, although Trevor’s were too thick — and made what she dubbed an abstract sculpture. It got left behind in a dressing room, or was perhaps stolen by a fan. At any rate, it’s gone. 7. One day in October, Kerri figured out how to make the wire form right angles — and stay that way. She got a small piece of wood from one of the roadies and snuck out shopping one day while Mitchell was giving interviews. She came back with a rubber rat that was supposed to be a Halloween decoration. She tucked it under the piece of wire, on top of the wood and, voila. Rat trap. The guys liked it so much, they took to putting it on the catering table in their dressing room. Watching girls encounter the rat right beside their food is a never-ending source of amusement. 8. By now, Kerri had a pretty good idea of things she could get the wires to do. So she fashioned a tiara for herself. It came out great. Problem was, Trevor stole it and wore it onstage a few times — and then gave it to a girl in the front row. 9. She tried making an earring out of the wire, but that was one of her few failures. 10. Thinking it would make the bus homier, she took the demo CDs and cassettes handed to the band by fans eager to have their band discovered, and hung them in the back lounge. Mitchell ripped them down and threw them in the garbage, not sparing the guitar strings Kerri had used as hangers. 11. It took a coffee mug to get the shape right, but Kerri wove the strings into what most people called a Dream Catcher, but what she called a Heavy Metal Nightmare Preventer. Eric stole it and hung it in his bunk. He claimed it worked. 12. Kerri bought a book about how to make chain mail, but gave up that idea as too time-consuming. That didn’t stop Daniel from trying it — and giving up, saying that the wire was just too hard to make behave. Kerri winked and said she knew. 13. At last, fed up with Kerri’s collection and the things she spent her days creating, Mitchell stole the unused strings and gave them to fans. While it was widely agreed that they made the best souvenirs, everyone missed Kerri’s creations. She largely stuck to pencils and paper after that. It was, after all, her preferred medium.

The way cool Malcolm isn’t way cool just because he’s bestowed the Bloggers with Integrity Award upon me way back in November. He’s cool because the pop culture he dishes is my sort of pop culture. The good stuff. If you haven’t checked him out, do so.

He’s got a wicked-cool radio show, too. His playlists rock. Check them out; he returns to the air on 19 January.

Anyway, he’s handed me this award, so now I’ve got to pay it forward, as always. A bit about the award…

This award was started by The Little Aussie Cynic to give props to those bloggers who stay true to themselves. The following paragraph, which explains the basis of the award, is taken from her blog:

“After looking, reading and watching many many Blogs and bloggers I decided to issue some recognition to those fellow bloggers I feel maintain integrity in the Blogs. All these bloggers incorporate within their wonderful sites, an integrity not always seen. They share terrific stories, topics, discussions and images. All Well worth a look.”

There are categories for this award, so here they are, with their winners:
Creativity: Definitely L^2

Social Conscience: Shelley Kneupper Tucker, who is busting her tuchas to put together this amazing Share a Square program. If you haven’t heard of it yet, go check it out. What she’s doing will blow your minds.

Spirit of Giving: This has to go to Breeni Books, who gives all her books away, along with lots of wisdom and guidance in her book reviews.

There are two more categories, but I’ve spent a month trying to figure out who to shoehorn into them. I want to give awards to all of you ’cause you are important to me. Therefore, consider yourself for one of these:
Staying True to their Beliefs
Keeping it Real

And lastly, I really shouldn’t encourage you to be my competition, but Lyric says I should. And who better to listen to than the fictional daughter of a fictional adult film star, who has gone on to open her own boutique for making women and men feel good about themselves? Check out this contest.

In my dreams, someone I know would win it and try it out to some ShapeShifter, all the while dreaming of Mitchell. Or Eric. Or Daniel. Or, yes, even Trevor.

Just joining us? Where have you been the past ten days?

Thirteen Things now that the 2007 Musical Hanukkah Celebration is over. 1. Monday’s Musical Hanukkah Benefit raised $9k, just from the ticket sales. 2. All 200 t-shirts were sold, for $30 each. That makes for another $6k. 3. ShapeShifter matched that money and gave it to a program in Riverview that’s going to keep music in local schools. 4. Then they said they were giving an equal $30k to one of the national music in the schools organization. 5. That’s 60 thousand dollars. $45k of which comes right out of the ShapeShifter boys’ pockets. 6. There was a Chinese auction of stuff donated by local churches and other religious folk. That raised another thousand, and is also going to stay local. 7. Guests included Hammerhead’s Howard the Hammer and Walter Cichewski, as well as a cartoon video featuring the Deadly Metal Hatchet. 8. Our buddy Springer was allowed to jam during ShapeShifter’s famous song, Still Life. That’s the song that almost everyone asked if they could play along with. Only two got to. Springer’s a lucky dude, despite the incident with the cop earlier in the week. 9. He wasn’t able to stick around or sneak back on for a second song. 10. Neither was anyone else who was there. Most tried. Many were shown the door for their rather vigorous and sometimes creative efforts. 11. After the show, Springer hung around the backstage door in the hopes that he’d get to see Eric and have a few words with him. He wasn’t the only one waiting. 12. Eric must have left through another door. Springer never even got on the same side of the stage as his idol. From that angle, the night was a disappointment. Too bad he didn’t think to go to Roach’s. 13. Mitchell got off stage, surprised no one by dragging Kerri into the shower with him, hung with fans for a few hours at Roach’s, and was in bed around four in the morning. Upon getting up on Tuesday, he realized he didn’t have much more to do with himself than he’d had the day before.

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will try to link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Confused? Missed an episode or two? Well. It all started back here, last year. I thought it was such a cool idea that bringing it back this year was a no-brainer. It began here, with the introduction of Springer, a fan who desperately wants ShapeShifter’s lead guitarist, Eric Wallace, to notice him. It continued here, with last week’s Thursday Thirteen. I took us back to Springer, since many had questions about him, but the plot thickened. And since I love the guy, we spent the day of the show with Mitchell. Stay tuned for some final wrap-ups from Springer.

Thirteen things you need to know leading up to this year’s Musical Hanukkah Celebration 1. Our favorite boys in ShapeShifter conceived this idea last year to honor “the religion that was around before Christianity… and [to] celebrate our music scene at the same time,” as ShapeShifter guitarist Eric Wallace said in an interview with Chelle LaFleur. (you can read the whole thing here.) 2. Here are the basics: it’s held on the Monday during Hanukkah, because Monday is traditionally the slowest night in the entertainment business (yes, that explains why restaurants close on Mondays!). Everything from the food to the stage hands to the club itself is donated to the cause. 3. Tickets last year were $10. You could also chip in another $50 and jam onstage with ShapeShifter. Only fifty people were allowed to do that, but 300 tickets were sold. 4. Because it’s a fund-raiser and because of the success, the boys jacked the prices this year. Now, it’s $15 to get in and $75 to jam with the band. Still a bargain considering what a ticket to a ShapeShifter concert costs. 5. If you were here on Monday for the Poetry Train, you are still waiting to find out if our new friend, Springer, raises the money he needs to attend this year. Stay tuned; we’re not done with his story yet. Read the first part of it here. 6. Notice how he’s forgotten to factor in the price of a limited-edition, commemorative t-shirt? 7. I’m still trying to figure out the logistics of having 50 people jam onstage with a rock band. One thing that helps is that this turns into a full two-hour-long ShapeShifter show. I think that means five people on stage for ten songs, and then the band finishes up on their own. Or with surprise friends. 8. Last year, the concert was as fictional as ShapeShifter but the charity that the donations went to wasn’t. Music Lives seems to have … not lived. Thus, the ShapeShifter boys will keep their raised funds closer to home and make sure that the kids of Riverview and the surrounding area have great exposure to music in their schools. 9. Wouldn’t it be great to have real-life t-shirts from this? I think so, too. As soon as that awesome graphic chick comes up with a logo for ShapeShifter, I’ll see what I can do. 10. It ought to go without saying that any net profits from this dream shirt that may or may not happen will go to a charity that supports music in the schools. 11. Last year, Eric had said he and his father were going to work to get more people involved with the event, particularly people within the religious community. This year, a (still fictional!) Chinese auction will be happening at the show, too. At least one of the prizes is tickets to a VIP box at a Riverview Otters game. (that’s the city’s baseball team) 12. Last year, the band managed to talk the club’s chef into making potato pancakes for 300 people. This year, the latkes are being catered. 13. Once again this year, ShapeShifter will match all monies raised from the tickets and the opportunity to jam onstage with the band. They want to see the take before committing to matching the t-shirt sales and the money raised from the Chinese Auction, but they probably will. After all, it’s all for a good cause. Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. (leave your link in comments, I’ll try to add you here!)

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will try to link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Big thanks to Headmeister for this week’s cool header!

It’s been a hectic Wednesday in Chez Susan. That has me longing for some quiet, unassigned moments. Trevor thought he’d pipe up and share some suggestions with me.

Thirteen Ways in Which Trevor Whiles Away the Time Thanks to Casa Sosegad for the awesome header! 1. in strip joints like Moon Shadows 2. reading catalogs from Lyric‘s competitors and deciding what to bug her into ordering for him 3. practicing with Daniel. It’s easier without Mitchell‘s fancy-assed rhythms and attitude. 4. getting stoned, usually with Eric. It’s one of the few times they get along. 5. picking his nose — or so he says, but the pasttime is probably more along the lines of irritating others. 6. tinkering with his Vincent. 7. picking on Mitchell. 8. eating: at Harry’s Hoagies, Roach’s, or conning Val or Sonya Voss into cooking for him. 9. checking out girls and picking them up and bring them to … their homes (for quicker getaways) 10. dreaming of how big ShapeShifter will be 11. crusing town on his Vincent, looking for trouble. 12. Check out the competition playing around town 13. When all else fails, take a nap.

Uhh, I think I’ll only take him up on that last one, although heaven knows I’m itching to hear some live music.

As always, to learn more about a character, click on their name when it’s orange and you’ll be zipped to a cool bio page with links to other outtakes. Or scroll on down for this week’s offerings: Beached Whales and Letter G. Happy reading and may all our days quiet down a bit.

Lesley tagged me for this. Hmmm.

Here are the rules:

Link to the person that tagged you, and post the rules on your blog. Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself. Tag 7 random people at the end of your post, and include links to their blogs. Let each person know that they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Yeah, okay. Maybe.

1. I’ve been hearing an increased clamor for more about the woman behind all the fiction on this blog. Are you for real?

2. I mean, do you care that my idea of a glass of water is to fill the sucker up with ice and pour water into the cracks?

3. Yawn. The very thought makes me need a nap.

4. I’m a shoes-off kind of girl. This is reflected in my writing, as Mitchell, Kerri, and Chelle all hate to wear shoes. (Although the shoes are only the tip of Mitchell’s iceberg… so to speak.) As I develop more characters, I’m sure you’ll see more and more of them with the same issue.

5. A lot of you have asked how I can create such vivid characters. The truth is that I have no life. It’s all about the fiction. Everything I see, I try to translate over to my fictional world. This is because, as I keep insisting, I’m boring as anything. My fictional world isn’t.

6. Besides, translating it all into fiction keeps things properly hidden away from view. Like my kids. After the stalking incident where I wasn’t even the victim but still got a phone call warning me to be careful, I’d just as soon keep most parts of my life private. That was close enough, thank you. And yes, I know that’s the risk when you put yourself out there. Still, putting yourself out there doesn’t mean exposing people you love to danger.

7. From the time I was six, my dream was to be a best-selling author. I got laughed at in grad school for this ambition, and I didn’t care. But lately… the vision has changed. I’d rather be a small industry, with books and a vibrant blog and t-shirts and other merchandise. Yep, all centered around my fiction. I wish people would pop out of the woodwork and volunteer to help and make some of the hard choices I face that much easier, but clearly, my idealistic view of how the world ought to work is best saved for my fiction. Which is why I’d rather bring that to you.

See? You’re really better off knowing me through my fiction. There’s more of me in there than I think you realize you’re seeing, and given that real life and fiction are so closely entwined for me, if you’re clever you can find the real-life inspirations. Or just wait for me to at last publish the outtakes; each one has an intro that explains a bit of it, including inspirations.

I know I’m supposed to tag someone, but… that’s even less fun than talking about myself. If you do it, I’d love a link back and a note so I know to come check it out.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go write some fiction…

Let’s face it. Part of what makes Thanksgiving so much fun is seeing what sort of memories you’ll leave the table with. Our friends in Riverview (and music reporter Chelle LaFleur) have had some memorable meals.

Thanks for the Diasaster! 1. There was the year when Mitchell and Trevor were 20 and they stumbled in to dinner, late, Trevor stoned and Mitchell drunk and stoned, and decided that turkey flambe was the main course. Sonya, who was about to put the cooked bird on the table when this happened, wasn’t amused. 2. The first year that Chelle was living alone, she decided that the best way to celebrate her independence was to make Thanksgiving herself. Not sure how to cook, let alone roast a turkey, she microwaved it. For an hour. What she was left with resembled the shrunken heads she’d seen her elderly relatives use for voodoo ceremonies. Those creepy elderly relatives were all too glad to see her when she showed up for dinner. 3. One year, Pam accepted the invitation of some vegetarian friends for a Tofurkey dinner. She made sure they served fish the next time she ate with them. 4. Inspired by Mitchell and Trevor’s lame attempt at flame, Val decided to try it herself. The apricot brandy glaze was a success. The flambe wasn’t. The bananas foster that was an alternative to the pumpkin pie was. 5. When he was a teenager, Eric and his brothers had a pumpkin pie eating contest. Problem was, their mother had baked the pies for a church dinner. They learned fast how to bake a good pumpkin pie. 6. Amy called it a disaster the year Mitchell was allowed to carve the bird for the first time. Until he did, Amy had visions of herself becoming a surgeon. After Mitchell sliced that baby perfectly, she knew surgery wasn’t going to be her thing. 7. Eric’s family is still traumatized from the year the TV broke and the football game was tied, with two minutes left and the home team set to score. The ball was intercepted, the visitors won the game — and Eric’s family missed it. 8. The year Patterson was called away from the table for work. He didn’t come home until after the kids were in bed. 9. The year Eric’s dad decided to invite the entire congregation to a Turkey Bowl — and broke his leg on the first play. The Turkey Bowl turned into an annual event for about ten years. The broken leg became legend. 10. The year Hank came home in time for dinner, upended the entire contents of dinner into Jenny’s lap, and turned Trevor into a punching bag. Yeah. That’d be a disaster. Trevor couldn’t eat solid food for a few days after that one. This is not the only time Trevor had loose teeth around Thanksgiving, poor guy. (here is the reference to the other time) 11. The second year Chelle tried to cook. Instead of making voodoo turkey breasts, she set the oven on fire. Thankfully, she was quick-witted enough to put it out before it spread and destroyed her apartment — or worse. This was the last time Chelle tried to cook. Anything. 12. Then there was the year the band was on the road. This was before the days of nice hotels. No one was terribly surprised when they came down with food poisoning. 13. Lastly was a disaster only in Val’s eyes. She made a wonderful feast for the band. And I do mean feast. They ate it all, somehow — and ruined her night by having another of their burping fests at the table. The boys, of course, thought it was the best Thanksgiving ever.

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!
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If you’re not sure who Mitchell is, be sure to follow the link in the first mention of his name. That’ll take you to his bio page, and from there, you’ll see a list of outtakes and Thirteens about him.

… or so says the reward bestowed upon me by the wonderful and amazing Rhian a few weeks ago.

This means a lot, because Rhian’s a wicked ass blogger herself, among other things. Being part of her tribe is both frustrating and exhilarating, fun and a lot of work. It’s all worth it in the end, though; Trevor couldn’t have found himself a more staunch ally. If you haven’t joined the tribe yet, now’s the perfect time.

Thanks, Rhi! Happy Blogiversary!!

This is a sticky post; scroll down for the new stuff

I like to tuck a bookmark or two inside of the books I mail out via the various book trading sites. It’s an easy way to promote authors, especially authors who aren’t in the mainstream yet. (yet!)

I’m running low.

Are you an author? Are you friends with an author? Are you a bored reader who’d like to cause trouble by finding authors who have bookmarks to send out?

Get in touch and I’ll give you the famed West of Mars PO Box address (located nowhere near Mars) because I need bookmarks!!!!

Yes, postcards and other promo items are eligible for this offer of free publicity, but I can’t always tuck them inside a mass-market sized book.

And if you’re an author but don’t have bookmarks or other promo materials, why not? Don’t you know I want to help spread your name?????

This week’s Poetry Train/Weekend Wordsmith has Mitchell on my mind.

Thirteen reasons why Mitchell prefers rhythm to lead guitar 1. It’s easier to play a rhythm line and sing at the same time 2. Singing gives you enough glory; someone else can have the guitar god status 3. Easier to cover for Trevor and his mistakes 4. If you want to take your hands off the guitar and gesture at the audience, you’re covered by the rest of the band 5. It’s just cool 6. Guitars are the ultimate chick magnets, but rhythm lets a shy kid hide a little bit. (as if singing doesn’t negate that, but let’s not argue) 7. Rhythm guitarists groove; lead guitarists wail 8. Rhythm gives a band an extra crunch 9. Not every band uses a rhythm guitar 10. Eric plays lead and he’s damn good at it. Why compete? 11. Working together, Daniel, Mitchell, and Trevor create a solid rhythm that Eric can build melodies on. 12. It just feels right 13. He quickly realized once he got started that to most girls, a guitar’s a guitar. They didn’t care if he played rhythm or lead. They just cared that he played. Guitars, apparently, are sexy.

If you’re not sure who Mitchell is, be sure to follow the link in the first mention of his name. That’ll take you to his bio page, and from there, you’ll see a list of outtakes and Thirteens about him.

For more in this occasional series about who plays what they do, check out More About Trevor, and Pound Them Skins.

The prompt this week at Writer’s Island was Friendship. No problem, I thought. I’ll post something with Trevor and Mitchell playing off each other.

My first thought was Smoke Break. Problem was, that’s mostly Trevor and Val, with Mitchell coming in at the end.

No, I thought. I want a real exchange between the boys. After all, I describe them as being as close as brothers.

Maybe Flags? That’s a good one, but maybe… just maybe you had to have some more background on who these guys are and why they are dreaming like this.

Quitting? This was a good one, where Trevor has just quit school and Mitchell comes to find out why. No, I thought. It’s too rant-laden. I wanted something more… gentle, I guess. Some quiet moment between the boys.

That meant that Mitchell’s Ears and Naked were both right out, too. As was The Time Before Dinner.

I didn’t want to resort to the Thursday Thirteen I’d written; that’s a list. A good one, but…

Oh, the choices seemed endless — and endlessly wrong.

I finally went with Eric’s Flu, figuring that at least the guys were trying to show friendship toward Eric, even if they’re sort of clueless about how.

But… what do you guys think? Was that the best choice, or should I have dug around a bit more? Can you think of something better?

And is Camille right? Do I have enough outtakes published here to collect into their own volume and put out there for my groupies to collect?

So many of us, myself included, tend to look toward this part of November as a downward slide. So I turned to our resident artist, Kerri Voss, to see the season through a different set of eyes.

Thirteen Views from Kerri 1. Most people, when the leaves fall from the trees, look at the bare branches. Ever tried looking at the tree’s trunk? Check out those knots and scars. 2. What about the underbrush? Ever think about it? 3. Think about the contrast of an illuminated room on a dark and stormy day. Not evening. Day. You’ve got the grey outside and the warm, welcoming light inside at a time when it should be the opposite. 4. When the weather gets cold, shorts are replaced with jeans. They make a person’s legs look entirely different. We’ve gone from muscles and hair and scars and tats to blue sheaths. It’s sort of boring, but makes for a quick sketch. 5. Being the cool rock star that he is, Trevor wears his leather jacket — and pants — year-round. In Riverview, that’s not such a big deal; it gets cold in the evenings and mornings here. But when we’re somewhere cold, it’s fun to watch Trevor shiver. 6. Ski jackets. Ever noticed how many colors they come in? Especially the really expensive, high-end lines. It seems to me that there’s a group of people who make skiing into a fashion sport. Go for it. 7. Look at the flowers that are done for the season. Brown, shriveled — there’s a poetry in there that’s not the usual ShapeShifter all-about-dead-stuff. 8. This time of year, sunglasses go away and you can see people’s eyes again. Eyes fascinate me. Each pair is so different from any other and so many things go into making the eye area unique. I can always tell when Mitchell is stressed; he shows it around his eyes. Look at the eyes of the people around you. What do you see? 9. Colder weather means colder ears. Hats, headbands, muffs. All sizes, shapes, colors. Headwear speaks volumes about a person. I mean, have you seen Trevor in a hat? 10. I wonder how many calories a person burns by stamping their feet to get warm. Ever try to draw a person stamping their foot? It’s hard to deny the sense of motion that a raised foot inspires. 11. Pets get those lovely, thick winter coats that are just great to bury your hands in. 12. Ever notice how lonely a now-dead patch of grass looks once the leaf pile’s been disturbed? 13. November begins candle season. That’s all there is to it. You see candles in my art, I did it around this time of year.

Since Rhian (and hopefully Lisa) and Jennifer Estep and Colleen Gleason, Tilly Green, and Shane Gericke and everyone else I’ve forgotten (leave your name in the comments and I’ll add you) are coming to my fair city in April for the Romantic Times conference, Rhi thought it would be fun to tag me for the Weekend in (insert your city here) meme. (but feel free to give her some garbage ’cause she’s not supposed to be tagging me for things! she’s supposed to be designing a ShapeShifter logo!)

Since you guys should be able to look cool and sound like you’ve got a clue, here’s a primer, in the form of the meme.

Best Place to Eat: The Carlton in the Mellon Building. Can’t walk there from the hotel, the tablecloths are white and the wine’s famously priced at $10 over cost, but this is my favorite. Hands down. Sure, you’ll spend $25 an entree, but you’ll be in ecstasy with every bite. (DO NOT, I repeat, do NOT look at their dinner menu! Aaugh! Take me there now!)

There’s also the Church Brew Works, in Lawrenceville. This is where we bring out-of-town friends to eat (assuming they don’t keep kosher). Slightly cheaper and instead of wine, go for the beer. They’re not making the Belltower Brown Ale at the moment. It’s my favorite. They serve bison, too, from time to time. And if you can get the rattlesnake and cactus pierogies, you’re set. Don’t forget the ice cream!

Best Shopping Mall: Downtown? Forget it. Try Macy’s or Saks. Otherwise, it’s out to the Burbs with you!

Famous Landmark: Duh… the Point. You’ll be able to see the famed fountain from the ballrooms of Hilton, which is located across the street from another famous landmark: Point State Park. (see a pattern?)

But be sure to spend any free time on the inclines or the Gateway Clipper. I wish the convention was going to be small enough for us to party one night on the Majestic. It’s always fun to cruise the city’s other famed landmark: its three rivers. If your hotel room’s high enough, you’ll be able to see them. Assuming you’re facing the right way.

Take a trip into Oakland and check out the Cathedral of Learning. More famously called the Tower of Ignorance, or the Pittsburgh Phallus, it’s a mastery of gothic architecture. If you have time (which I doubt you will), take a tour of the Nationality Rooms. Classrooms on the first, second, and third floors have been reconfigured to show and celebrate the different countries around the world. I had classes in the Chinese room and the one on the third floor with the lights that took forever to warm up and the chairs we weren’t allowed to move into a circle. That made it hard to hold a really good writer’s workshop, but the professor more than made up for it.

Have I mentioned PNC Park or Heinz Field? This is a sports town, baby. If the Pens are in the playoffs, I’m bailing on you guys for a few hours!

Best Tourism Attraction: Any and all of the above, but don’t forget to add in a Just Ducky tour if you have the time. And remind me to tell you the story of how I managed to get a group of fifteen or so of us bicyclists chased by a Just Ducky boat…

Best Place for the Kids: The Carnegie Science Center. No contest. The Children’s Museum is fun, but it’s nothing compared to the Science Center. And don’t accuse me of being biased; I’ve got memberships at both places. Like you’ll be bringing the kids anyway…

Popular Outdoor Activity: Must be a Pirates game ’cause there’s no other reason why people go when they stink so bad…

Seriously. Biking is gaining a foothold in the city; bike paths are springing up all over the place. Soon, you’ll be able to bike from Pittsburgh to Washington, DC. Not in one day, though.

And if the timing is right, check out the Head of the Ohio. Since it won’t be, come back in October.

Breathtaking Views: I’m partial to the view of the Bayer clock on Mt. Washington, as seen from the banquet rooms in the Hilton, but that’s because I watched the minutes tick away during my wedding to the Tour Manager.

For better ones, be sure you’re watching as your taxi or limo brings you through the Fort Pitt Tunnels and you’ve got the famed panoramic view of the city stretched out before you. Or ride the incline and see the city from Mt. Washington. Keep your eyes open; a tornado’s been known to touch down on Mt. Washington. And keep your hands on your wallets, too. They’ve been known to find new owners while you’re up there.

Riverside, there’s always the Gateway Clipper. You’ll be able to look inside the bowl of Heinz Field, which we know a certain author will be doing, to snap pictures to bring home and hang on her walls. Hallowed ground, Heinz Field.

Only found in Pittsburgh: What? All that’s not enough??

Well, then, let me remind you of this: ME.

If you’ll be joining me in April, be sure to let me know. I’d like to try to take you guys out for the best fries you’ll ever taste. Followed up by even better ice cream.

I’ll bring the Zantac, have no fear.