Friday Fare: 2/9/18 (The “Still Cold AF” edition)

What is Friday Fare? As a recap, on Fridays I post link love to the various bits of arcane shiz I discover on the Interwebs.  I liken it to a glimpse into my mind, but without the 80s song lyrics or mental cobwebs.

Nearly 40 years ago, this was a Minnesota miracle.

I had the utmost pleasure of meeting Deborah Harkness, author of the “All Souls Trilogy,” a few years back when she was on book tour.  I took PTO when books two and three were released.  It looks like I’ll need to save a day in September for when her next book comes out.  (Think academic vampires in a historical setting.  Excellent!)

Let’s just put this out there:  I will never be as cool as Frances McDormand.  And yeah, I may have something of a girl crush on her.  #LongLiveFrancesMcDormand

On a more serious note, John Gorman’s piece in Medium entitled “You’re Not Lazy: The Last Motivational Blog Post You’ll Ever Need” had me nodding and pulling out pull quotes to feature in my Friday Fare.  (NSFW warning:  Gorman swears.  A lot.)  But as I tend to do, I copied and pasted the most titillating thing I read (“The secret to eternal happiness and boundless success rests in tips that many of us learned in first grade. So … why in the actual fuck are so many of us struggling?” *Inserts giggle* He says the f-word!)  Honestly though – there was a lot more depth here beyond the profanity.  (I’m sure there’s some lesson that somewhere, what it is – I’m not sure.)  But Gorman’s piece made me do some meditation on fear and I’ve bookmarked this piece to read through again.

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Listening: As the music industry prepares to celebrate the 25th anniversary of k.d. lang’s album Ingenue, the predictable influx of articles lauding lang’s her vocal stylings can be found all over the interwebs.  I was too young to appreciate lang when I was younger, but fell under her spell when I was a teenager and MOR Music TV played her collaboration with Roy Orbison on a predictable loop.  I’ve been listening to Hymns of the 49th Parallel lately and just loving her voice.  But if you want a real treat, check out lang with Orbison:

Reading: I’m currently reading a pair of books.  The new Amanda Hocking (“Between the Blade and the Heart“) and a biography about Meryl Streep (“Her Again: Becoming Meryl Streep“).  Hocking has an interesting story as an author (and she lives in southeastern Minnesota, natch!).  She started her career in self-publishing and made a mint, then went to a big publishing house.  #squadgoals

Writing Life: A couple epochs this week … after a holiday of sorts, I got chapters from “Dragonfly” over to my mentor.  (Thank you, Jerry.  The next round’s on me.) I got 10 pages of a short story draft over to my writers group in the Twin Cities.  It was kind of odious, so next Tuesday ought to be a joy. And finally, I’m a member of the Twin Cities Sisters in Crime.  Earlier this week, our chapter basically got to have a master class on suspense taught by William Kent Krueger (who is, probably literally, one of the nicest authors in Minnesota).  It’s classes and experiences like these that make groups like Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America so valuable. 

 

That’s it from me in the effing frigid north.  I’m dreaming of warmer temperatures and a productive weekend of writing!  My best to you!