Tag: Ray LaMontagne

Friday Fare, Internet Articles, Random, Uncategorized

Friday Fare: 9/9/16

Michelle Kubitz

Friday Fare is where I post links to the random articles that have resonated with me during the week. Sometimes they make me smarter, sometimes they make me hungry … sometimes they have to do with writing and sometimes they are just plain random.

Like so many of my fellow Minnesotans (and probably most Midwesterners, parental-types in general), I’ve been riveted by the news that after 27 years, Jacob Wetterling has been found.  To say my thoughts are with his family seems awfully twee, but they are.  This week has been an emotional one.

I’d also be remiss if I didn’t mention the loss of Anna Dewdney in the children’s book industry.  The “Llama Llama” books are in heavy rotation at bedtime and we’ve learned a lot from her work.

I read lighter things this week.  Was thrilled to see that Freddie Mercury was honored with an asteroid named after him.  And even after all these years, Chekov is still my favorite character from the original Star Trek shows.

I made these cookies.  Then I bagged them up and gave them away.  Because they were waaaaaay too good.

I’ve discovered GIFs and short videos on Instagram that shows people frosting cakes or making Thai ice cream rolls.  I’m telling you, there’s something oddly theraputic about it.  And perfect for my frazzled attention span.

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Listening to: I’ve been working on my story “Dragonfly” lately, so I’ve been listening to the playlist that I built for that particular story.  I’ll build that up on Spotify so you all can take a listen, but in the meantime – this song is a key to a lot of the feeling that I have when I think about Dragonfly Lake.

Reading:  I’ve had a ridiculous amount of books pile up lately and I’m making a clean slate of my library books.  In the meantime, I’m awaiting the arrival of Jess Lourey’s new book “Salem’s Cipher.”

Fiction Update: I have some pretty ambitious plans for September – stay tuned and I’ll share next week! <— Yeah … I have a blog post drafted and I need to finish it.  But trust me … good things happening.

Enjoy the weekend!

Friday Fare, Internet Articles, Random

Friday Fare: Woo! Friday!

Michelle Kubitz

Friday FareFriday Fare is my “best of” when it comes to Internet links that I’ve read this week.  Here are the articles that caught my attention and maybe made me a smarter person this week:

I have yet to get on the Sara Paretsky bandwagon (which is kind of pathetic … she lives in Chicago, is a member of Mystery Writers of America – Midwest chapter, and is the mother behind the Sisters in Crime organization).  But for the reasons I’ve parenthesized and because of this article, I’m looking forward to getting caught up in her backlog of V.I. Warshawski books.

I have a lot of love for Dave Grohl.  My high school gym teacher had posted this on his Facebook wall – it’s worth the eight minutes of your life.

So – who didn’t read the New York Times’ account of Amazon’s cutthroat / “bruising” work environment?  (My parents don’t count …)  Since then, I’ve read that the government is wading into the fray (that oughta be good …) and then I read this piece from Forbes where the writer says: “Journalists enjoy the right to be selective, conducting long interviews and then using only short segments in an article. They enjoy the right to interview wide ranges of people and then to build the final story around a small subset.”  That line resonated with me because of my former career as a journalist – the challenge to take all of that information and drill it down to something publishable, accurate, and palatable … it was a challenge that I relished.  But it’s also a good warning to take everything that you read in the media with a salt shaker … you never know what ends up on the cutting room floor.

Finally, I recently wrote about how much I loved the movie “Real Genius.”  This time around, we’re celebrating the 20th anniversary of “The Usual Suspects.”  There are not enough words for me to accurately describe how that movie made my mind explode the first time I saw it.  Kevin Spacey, Gabriel Byrne, the late and amazing Pete Postlethwaithe … every member of that cast was just so spot on in their roles.  It is funny to hear the director’s memories of the movie and to read the reviews – some scathing – that were published 20 years ago.

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Listening to:  John Prine and Bonnie Raitt’s duet of “Angel of Montgomery.”  Discovered a new band last weekend – Lucius.  Right now as I’m writing, I needed some Ray LaMontagne.

Reading:  I reserved “Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Bibliography” by Laura Ingalls Wilder at my local library and picked it up the other night.  I’m only through the acknowledgements and the introductory chapter, but I’m really enjoying the book.  Because I grew up in the Midwest – my entire first grade class was raised on this stuff.

Fiction Update: I made a read through the story that I call “Dragonfly.”  I’m hoping to take some time this weekend to sketch out an outline of what I have written (the story’s basically there – just need to string some lines between the tent poles.)  I have another idea that recently crawled into my head space, but I’ve just been jotting down notes on that, going to let it marinate for awhile before I commit to paper. (PS – Have I ever told you that I love this writing life?)

Happy Friday, friends!