Hello again and goodbye again

Yikes! Another two weeks have slipped by and I haven't posted anything. Well, I'm afraid you'll probably have to wait another month before I publish any new material, because I'm doing Nanowrimo again! That's right! Yes, I'm crazy. Yes, I am extremely excited about it. Yes, I am writing another Regency romance (of sorts). No, I am most likely not going to let you read it. Ever.

I'm going to be writing Pride and Prejudice. From Jane Bennet's perspective. :-) I CAN'T WAIT TO GET STARTED!! Every literary bone in my body has been tingling with anticipation for days. That sounded weird. . . but that's how I feel!

Fellow Nano-ers, please do add me as a writing buddy.

What else is there to add. . . hmm. . . I'll put a widget on my sidebar so you can keep track of my progress (if you're interested. . .). I still miss all of you. If only I had an extra couple of hours in every day in which to blog and do internet stuff. It's not that I'm super busy, but I can't read books and blog and watch movies all at once during my spare time. . . unfortunately.

Oh, one more thing. If you'd like to do a little something to help me through Nanowrimo. . . I'm looking for some good music to listen to while I write my novel. Have any suggestions? I like classical music, classical crossover (e.g. Hayley Westenra, Katherine Jenkins), Celtic music, instrumental music, world music, film scores. I think a lot of my readers have similar tastes to my own, so shoot me some of your favourites!

Yann Tiersen

I was fortunate enough to discover this guy's music just a few days ago! Yann Tiersen is a French composer and multi-instrumentalist, playing and writing music for: piano, accordion, guitar, violin, xylophone, harpsichord and. . . er. . . pretty much any other musical instrument you can think of. In short he is an extremely talented - genius - musician. He recorded his first album in 1995 (at the ripe old age of 25!), but didn't become widely known until 2001, when his music was featured in the soundtrack for the film Amelie.

I've been featuring several of his compositions on my blog for the last few days. Isn't it gorgeous music?

Well, just wanted to share this "discovery" of mine with all of you. What an amazing musician. :-)

Here are a couple of Youtube vids. In the first one, he plays piano and accordion - at the same time. I get goosebumps every time I watch it. :-)

If you're watching these on my blog, you might want to pause my mixpod playlist first, so they don't clash. . . 

+ There are literally hundreds more Yann Tiersen videos on Youtube, if you want to check them out anytime.

The Dreame

Or scorne, or pity on me take,
I must the true redemption make,
I am undone tonight.
Love, in a subtle dreame disguised,
Hath both my heart and me surprised,
Whom never yet he durst attempt awake;

Nor will he tell me for whose sake
He did me the delight or spight,
But leaves me to inquire,
In all my wild desire
Of sleep again, who was his aid,
And sleep so guiltie and afraid,
And since he dares not come within my sight.

~Ben Jonson (1572-1637)

Included in the soundtrack for Sense and Sensibility (1995), composed by Patrick Doyle.

CLICK HERE to listen.

Lord of the Rings soundtrack

I was getting sick of my old playlist, so I've replaced it with a new one, featuring music from the Lord of the Rings movies.

The tracks are all in chronological order, from The Fellowship of the Ring to The Return of the King.

I took out some of the more intense tracks - I wanted nice background music, not the music from an intense battle sequence. If you want to listen to the complete playlist, featuring pretty much all the LOTR tracks that I could scavenge from playlist.com, click here.

Enjoy!

Current Mood: Blah

Pride & Prejudice soundtrack

I've put together a new P&P playlist. Have a listen! ;-)

Easter

I hope you are all having a blessed and holy Easter. Every year, I am again blown away by the depth of God's love for us. It's so easy for me to get off-track and lose my perspective - I'm so thankful we have this special time of the year to take time out and reflect on God's amazing love and the sacrifice his son Jesus made for us.

Tinkerings on my blog. . .

The Goethe Monument, by Carl Gustav Carus

Hey everyone! I've put together a playlist of a few of my favourite Christmas carols. You can see it on my sidebar, next to the Shoutbox. So, I now have two Playlists - the Christmas one, and the "other" one, which you can see if you scroll down to very bottom of my blog. Oh, and just to warn you - at the beginning of "O Holy Night" there is some loud clapping - so you might want to turn your speakers down just before that track begins, lest you be frightened half out of your wits like I was!

Also, I added to my sidebar my result from a fun quiz I found recently - "What LOTR character are you?" My result was Arwen. I can remember doing another similar quiz a few months ago, and I was told that I was Samwise Gamgee. . . so who knows which LOTR character I am really most like!

I have also *finally* updated my Shelfari widget - have a look to see what I'm reading at the moment.

Last night we all went for a drive through town to see all the Christmas lights. There weren't quite as many as there were last year, and I was feeling rather tired, but we all had a good time. I think I'm finally beginning to get into the Christmas spirit - up until now I just haven't thought about Xmas that much, but now it's starting to sink in that Christmas is just a few days away - and yes, I do believe I am starting to get a little bit excited about it. 

So--have a merry and blessed Christmas! And in the meantime, enjoy the weekend. ;-)

~The Editrix

By the way - no particular meaning is meant to be implied by the painting I included above - I just felt that it seemed to communicate the way I felt while listening to some of the Christmas songs from the that playlist I mentioned. . . silly, I know. :-)

Current Mood: Refreshed

Brooke Fraser's "Albertine" CT's No.1 album

I was browsing through Christianity Today's Top 12 Christian albums for 2008, and to  my surprise and delight, Brooke Fraser's Albertine was No.1!! 

As the article stated, Albertine has been available in Australia and New Zealand  for a couple of years now, but it was only released in the U.S. this year.

I'm so happy for her. . . and so proud! For we Aussies have of course adopted Brooke as our own, just as we do any good thing to come out of New Zealand. . . :P! LOL - how do you Kiwis put up with us?

Anyway, as I was saying, Albertine is a brilliant folk-pop album, and Brooke is a tremendously talented artist - not to mention a wonderful person. She has her heart in the right place. . . read the story behind the title track of Albertine and it will make you cry. . . 

Congratulations, Brooke! You thoroughly deserve every accolade that comes your way. :-) And well done Christianity Today for having the sense to put Albertine at #1! 

Current Mood:  Happy.

New books!

My books from ChristianBook.com arrived today!! I suppose the proper thing to do would be to read the books first and then write what I thought about them, but I was just so excited about it that I had to write about them now. . .

I ordered Stacy McDonald's book Raising Maidens of Virtue. I've read a lot about this book, and I was thrilled to finally have it in my hands. I've had a quick browse through it, and it looks like an excellent book.

I also ordered an L. M. Montgomery book - The Blue Castle. It's meant to be one of her best books, and as someone who has read and loved many  Montgomery books, I know that I'll love it.
And another book from another favourite author of mine.  I've nearly finished A Gown of Spanish Lace already - actually I've had a very difficult time dragging myself away from it to  write this post!

And Mary Mary's self-titled album. I've listened to it already - and it's fabulous! Try listening to the first four songs of this album without smiling and singing along. . . I dare you! It's wonderful, catchy, contemporary gospel/r&b.

Now, back to my book. . .