The Cantina Staring Back At You From The Abyss

Hope everyone is having a great afternoon. Seems I missed some drama. Starting to get a little cabin fever from having too much time--no job currently--went out to hang out with my friend, get lunch.

Here's hoping I can get some writing done this afternoon.

More like re-living drama. If you've ever wanted to waste a good chunk of time, you can look over the locked threads. Some infuriating like this one, but others are just hilarious.

Kitkitdizzi said:

Who else plays instruments? We got Cliff on keyboard and Paddi on the mountain dulcimer. I play tin whistle. We're working on our hurdy gurdy player. The Cantina Band needs to be a THING!

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Filigree said:

On musical instruments, I have a cherrywood Dennis Dorogi mini psaltery from Metropolitan Museum of Art circa 1983. It's lovely, but too quiet for group play. Looks like this. Less than a foot long.
https://www.google.com/search?ei=Iz...i160j33i21.ieBFzwnloRQ=#imgrc=l8yo547wm5UrTM:

I can also hoot myself silly on pennywhistles.

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Dang, all this is reminding me of my late grandfather, who made musical instruments during his retirement. I still have the mountain dulcimer he made me... triangle shaped with cat soundholes. He also once made a hurdy gurdy out of a guitar body because someone told him he couldn't. And at one time he attempted to make small pipes (the Northumbrian kind, IIRC) for my mother, but they never quite worked out - it was toward the end of his instrument-making days, when he was starting to slip away from us, plus he was always better with mountain dulcimer-type things (the wood body with strings - he was more a woodworker than a musician, unfortunately, and had a bit of a tin ear that got worse as he aged.)

I used to play some pennywhistle, but had to stop when I lost my playing place/time. Keep wanting to get back to it, but the only place I can play anymore without bugging anyone is my workshed, and it's not really conducive to music - plus it's that extra step to take, and an extra chance for someone to see me approaching the door, decide they just have to "ride along" to a store (translation: DRIVE ME TO THE STORE NOW!), and there goes that...

Northumbrian pipes. Wow, that's a very pleasant sound and so few views. This guy seems quite talented.

Lots of musical Cantina denizens! Hooray!

And for what it's worth, I play keys, guitar, bass, used to play drums and can occasionally sing in a not-horrible way. But if we were starting a Cantina band, I'd have to be on keys or guitar. Probably keys. Unless we had a practice space big enough for a drum kit. And money for the kit. And a few months for me to level up from "How do I play this again?" to "Let's rock! "

I play guitar.

I actually bought a new one recently. This baby: http://www.gretschguitars.com/gear/...utaway-with-bigsby-broadtron-pickups-golddust

I've never played a semi-hollow, but I've browsed enough on YouTube to know that Gretsch are the go-to for semi-hollows. Hope you enjoy it! I bought a new piece of gear recently myself: here. Not much to look at, but it sounds amazing and can be used for recording/MIDI. Not bad for a cheaper model!

NathanBrazil said:

Psycat and the Ashen Silk? I like the name. Is it the first in a series?

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Thank you! It's actually the third in a superhero novella series. Fevered Highway (which is mentioned in my signature) is the second, and Psycat and the Pie Cutters is the first. All of these novellas go by year, and eventually will end up doing a huge crossover in her eighth year with the rest of my Confessions crew. Third year was her getting her butt handed to her, her guy in the chair stepping up to a more partner-like role, and them finding new purpose. I'm gonna love getting into edit it for all the smoothing out it needs.

Sounds like a fun series. I'm assuming YA for your target audience?

YA to New Adult, as I do the general anime rule of thumb to the MC's age...which is 25 in this case. That and the cursing would probably bump it over the line, since what I do know about YA (which is arguably not much) is publishers of it don't care for it. I do have other stories and supers in the same universe as her up on my blog, but Psycat is my flagship, with Lapis being my foundation for the magic system.

Cliff Face said:

I've never played a semi-hollow, but I've browsed enough on YouTube to know that Gretsch are the go-to for semi-hollows. Hope you enjoy it! I bought a new piece of gear recently myself: here. Not much to look at, but it sounds amazing and can be used for recording/MIDI. Not bad for a cheaper model!

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I wasn't planning on it. I went to the store to browse, very nearly went home with a Telecaster, but this one went home with me in the end. "You don't choose the guitar, the guitar chooses you." Something something.

NathanBrazil said:

More like re-living drama.

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I only got through 2 of the 7 pages before just being done with the whole thing. Nothing frustrates me more than someone who insults others and then claims victim status when they get responses in kind (not that anyone from AW was half as rude as the publisher was being).

joeyc said:

I play guitar.

I actually bought a new one recently. This baby: http://www.gretschguitars.com/gear/...utaway-with-bigsby-broadtron-pickups-golddust

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Oooooh, that's a purty one!

Siwyenbast said:

YA to New Adult, as I do the general anime rule of thumb to the MC's age...which is 25 in this case. That and the cursing would probably bump it over the line, since what I do know about YA (which is arguably not much) is publishers of it don't care for it. I do have other stories and supers in the same universe as her up on my blog, but Psycat is my flagship, with Lapis being my foundation for the magic system.

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Eh...they could have fooled me, but I imagine I have different standards than some. I've read a number of YA books with more frequent swearing than I personally care to read in general, much less coming out of the mouths of teenagers. ("Passenger" by Alexandra Bracken springs to mind as it was the most recent YA read for me that had somewhat frequent swearing.) So, I'd say it probably depends on the publisher. That said, I agree that your MC being 25 would push it into New Adult, though.



Happy St. Patrick's Day! *wears all the green* Man, I wish I could find out where my Irish ancestors lived and actually go see those places in person. The latter is not happening for a long while, but hopefully my ancestry research will get me back to those records eventually. No drinking happening in this house, but we'll have what my mom calls "Irish" stew for supper. Not sure where she got the recipe, but we've had it every year for as long as I can remember. (Edit: My mom says she made the recipe up herself.) It has lamb and assorted vegetables, including carrots and potatoes. No corned beef in this house. My mom hates it, and I think my dad said once he's never even had it and neither have I. Also heard from my aunt that on a morning show she was watching yesterday, they said corned beef isn't even really traditional in Ireland, it's cheap food that the Irish ate once they got over here to America.


In writing news, I did pretty good with the wordage yesterday. Today I'll start into a thoroughly outlined section, so hoping I might get up to 1k words written, which is my super happy place. Better go get on to that before the distraction kicks in and I start endlessly clicking around on the internet...

I read through the whole train wreck. I wanted to scream at her several times. Then I wanted to laugh at her. Then curse, and then laugh some more, with a sufficiently evil cackle. In the end, I just shook my head and resisted the urge to argue.

Wordage goal achieved!

In less good news, my laptop was running really hard and hot towards the end there, in spite of me shutting off all unnecessary things like the internet, and having the fan under it blowing into it. Then, when I tried to shut down I sat here for 10 minutes watching the shut down dots spin but it wasn't cutting off. Finally just held the power button down till it cut off. Great. I hope something isn't wrong with it. Going to pull up some help articles tomorrow and do what they say to do and see if they help. *grumbles about how this laptop had no problems until the Windows 10 Creators update got forced on me a few months ago*

I didn't even realize it was St. Patrick's Day. I am oblivious. I don't have green clothes or any green food to eat, but I still have carrot cake with cream cheese frosting and Nutella. :d

I haven't done that much writing this month. Original plan was to finish the action scenes for my NaNo WIP's second draft, but then I invented an excuse realized that writing the action scenes for my Camp NaNo WIP would be excellent practice. (The joy of planning a story involving five or six vs. two or one where you not only need to make that smaller side a credible threat but also want to show character development through the action scenes.) This morning, I had an excellent idea that would involve a major change in the last third that would drive home the protagonist's character development. Hooray for multiple drafts! (and sticking with something long enough to get to the third draft)

If anyone is free and interested, JA Rama, Dammy, and I are gonna be streaming our first meeting of a Discworld book club at 5 EST (45 minutes). We've read the first 30ish pages of Guards! Guards! (some books it's 33, some 37, up to the words "Bloody hellfire."). If you want to join in on the Discord for future club stuff, that's here, and if you just want to watch and chat on Twitch, that's here. Both are hosted by my friend Scott/Ax, who came up with the idea for the club with me during a twitter fanboy/girl-out.

Maggie Maxwell said:

If anyone is free and interested, JA Rama, Dammy, and I are gonna be streaming our first meeting of a Discworld book club at 5 EST (45 minutes). We've read the first 30ish pages of Guards! Guards! (some books it's 33, some 37, up to the words "Bloody hellfire."). If you want to join in on the Discord for future club stuff, that's here, and if you just want to watch and chat on Twitch, that's here. Both are hosted by my friend Scott/Ax, who came up with the idea for the club with me during a twitter fanboy/girl-out.

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I missed this because editing my Sissyfus but it sounds super fun. I am all for fangirling over Discworld.

:stocks up on food:

:refills fountain pen, sharpens sword:

escends again to do battle with the anxiety monsters that keep growling at her to turn back:

themindstream said:

I missed this because editing my Sissyfus but it sounds super fun. I am all for fangirling over Discworld.

:stocks up on food:

:refills fountain pen, sharpens sword:

escends again to do battle with the anxiety monsters that keep growling at her to turn back:

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Slay those monsters real good! Sword banana will help!

So, I see the Cantina has a new name./.eman wen a sah anitnaC eht ees I ,oS

:comes out of the dungeon, flops, wipes ink off her pen:

:eyes the new Cantina name:

I am not putting on skimpy clothes and a sinister accent. Mustache and goatee are right out.

themindstream said:

:comes out of the dungeon, flops, wipes ink off her pen:

:eyes the new Cantina name:

I am not putting on skimpy clothes and a sinister accent. Mustache and goatee are right out.

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What about a top hat and monocle? Because obviously Mirror Universe Cantina must be a classy place.

So, spent most of the week helping Mr. Aggy build a fence for a client. But, not nearly as sore today as I anticipated despite being barely able to move yesterday. (Thu/Fri were when we did the majority of the work which involved lots of lifting, bending, and hammering.) Today we salvaged some more lumber and beat the nails back out of it, but I smashed my knuckles using a different pry-bar than usual which was not fun.

Also, wrestling with a MS that was about to be released but there were some potential fair use/copyright issues so co-author and I are redoing a few things just to be sure. And, I think I have a rather widespread ringworm outbreak which is disgusting and disheartening. (And means a trip to the doctor's office on Monday to get it checked out and probably a RX written. Blech.

I did finish up the grimdark short story though and my agent liked it so hopefully the editor I wrote it for will as well. (And if he doesn't, hopefully he'll let me know promptly so I can send it off elsewhere.)

Everything else is still pretty stressful, but I am still putting one foot in front of the other right now. And I ate a bunch of corned beef and potato for dinner so my tummy is happy. (Still trying to figure out how to lose these extra pounds, but one thing at a time, I guess.)

Aggy, wearing green because she's Irish Catholic, not Irish Protestant

Hugs, Zanz.

I spent my day learning about restaining the cabin at a workshop 1.5 hours away. Which meant not a lot of sleep was had, since we had to get up super early and I was wide awake until 4am in that eerie can't think but can't sleep state, so I've been exhausted tonight. Movie watching and hoping tomorrow is a productive wording night after my brothers and I take my mom out to celebrate her retirement this week. Another 1.5 hours driving one way tomorrow but it's to spend time with family

Mutters something about Sisyphus and gets all shifty eyed.

ION, I'm very bummed because I found this book that came out last year that I really really want to read, only the author doesn't seem to have an E version available and the paperback is $15. Um. I love supporting fellow authors, but um. And also I want my greedy hands on it "now" even though I'm not going to read it until my road trip with hubby. Sigh. I may ping her online to see if I'm missing it somewhere obvious.

Now to decide on another movie to watch. Just finished Wind River. Thumbs up.

Aggy B. said:

Aggy, wearing green because she's Irish Catholic, not Irish Protestant

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Heh, we did a DNA test recently, turns out we're not as full-blooded Irish as we thought. Big disappointment. Like, it's not good enough we're descended from Norman barons, Mayflower colonists, and Revolutionary War officers. Nooo, if we're not the Irishest, Catholicest Celts ever, it's a let-down.

Kinda feel that way too. Érinn go Brách.