Les Semaines

Right now 2012 feels remarkably hopeful to me, and I'm optimistic about things, both personal and professional. I hope all of you feel the same way, and that our optimism proves to be warranted. A healthy, productive, prosperous, fun, and adventurous year full of love, friends, and dreams come true to you.

Happy New Year!

Listening

• Beirut, The Rip Tide
  (his best album yet)

• Kate Bush, 50 Words for Snow
  (a little uneven, but mostly gorgeous and brilliant)

• Claire Diterzi, Rosa la Rouge
  (powerful and evocative)

• Feist, Metals
  (up to the mark of her previous releases)

• PJ Harvey, Let England Shake
  (took me a while to appreciate her vocal style here, but the power of her songwriting was never in question)

• Lia Ices, Grown Unknown
  (wonderful quirky pop)

• lamb, 5
  (a brilliant relaunch of the band)

• Inga Liljeström, Black Crow Jane
  (perhaps even more powerful and evoative than her previous work)

• Agnes Obel, Philharmonics
  (a charming discovery)

• Oy, First Box Then Walk
  (so inventive and so much fun)

• tUnE-yArDs, WHOKILL
  (bigger and better all the time)

• The Unthanks, Last
  (as always, dark and haunted)

Also enjoyed:

• Jenny Hval, viscera (not sure how much I love this yet; it's certainly intriguing)

• Björk's Biophilia (I would say only half of it is that memorable—I certainly haven't been drawn to listen to it much)

• Fallulah, Black Cat Neighborhood (enjoyed its pop energy for a while, but it didn't stick with me other than the weirdly timed "Bridges")

• Jorane's Une Sorcière Comme Les Autres (covers, most of which I just didn't find as compelling as her own songwriting)

• Emma McKenna (She has an odd voice that may be an acquired taste, but I loved it from the start. It's so expressive, and a match for her incredibly powerful and evocative songwriting.)

• Pylons! (How come Jim knew about them but I didn't?)

• Eliza Rickman (charming and promising quirky pop)

• Lia Ices, Oy, Agnes Obel (see above)

• That Natural History Museum has more tracks available at Carol Keogh's set on Soundcloud. This made me SO happy.

Reading

• Kate Beaton, Hark! A Vagrant
• Franny Billingsley, Chime
• Sarah Rees Brennan, The Demon's Surrender
• Stephanie Burgis, A Tangle of Magicks
• Annie Dillard, The Living (can't believe I waited so long to read this one!)
• Jennifer Donnelly, Revolution
• N.K. Jemisin, Kingdom of Gods
• Erin Morgenstern, The Night Circus
• Maggie Stiefvater, The Scorpio Races
• Jo Walton, Among Others

• Gayle Forman, where she went
• Alison Goodman, Eona
• Seanan McGuire, One Salt Sea (love this seris!)
• Nnedi Okorafor, Akata Witch
• Janet Paisley, Warrior Daughter
• Tansy Rayner Roberts, Power and Majesty
• Patrick Rothfuss, The Wise Man's Fear
• Rebecca Skloot, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (wow, nonfiction!)
• Laini Taylor, Daughter of Smoke and Bones

last week's reading § next week's reading

Writing

First off, two specially cool things:

• I was featured poet for Goblin Fruit's Fall 2011 issue
• A grad from this year's Clarion West Writers Workshop set a poem I wrote inspired by their class to music. This is a first for me, and I was delighted personally, professionally, and as a music lover

• made some edits to novel #1 that I'm really happy with and will shortly complete
• am ready to start submitting poetry manuscript again
• revised many poems
• sent out 11 batches of poems (out of which 2 acceptances [2 from 2010 submissions], 7 rejections, 2 still no word)

• In Goblin Fruit's Feature:
  • "Learning My Way Around"
  • "The Bean-Sidhe Calls in Owl-Light"
  • "The Ones Outside Your Door"
  • "The Old Woman of the Moors Returns the Call"
  • "Westron Wind"
• Queen's Quarterly 118:2 (Summer 2011): "3 St. Ronan's Drive"
• Prairie Fire 32:1 (Spring 2011): "Put Out The Light"
• Goblin Fruit (Winter 2011): "Nightfall on Orkney: A Glosa"

last week's writing § next week's writing

Retrospective: old journal