Okay, so you may have seen yesterday’s post about the audio excerpt music thingie I did on YouTube for my short story “Viva Las Vegas.”
Well, guess what? The entire Viva Las Vegas short story is available for free this weekend only (Kindle only). I hope you’ll get the free download and a review would be even more awesome. Everybody needs a lift and reviews seem to be the thing.
As a writer, sometimes you have those moments when a story takes on a life of its own and you’re wondering “Where did that come from?” That’s my short story “Viva Las Vegas,” published in A Shaker of Margaritas: Hot Flash Mommas by Mozark Press. Also in my anthology, Cougars in Cabo.
So, I thought I’d do an audio excerpt along with a play on the song “Viva Las Vegas” as background music in my Screamie Birds fashion. I hope you enjoy.
Counting down to the next 50/90 (the 50 songs in 90 days songwriting challenge), which starts July 4, I’m revisiting some of my favorite songs I discovered through FAWM and 50/90. And this is certainly one of my top favorite songs and I thought I would break it down as to why. Hey, I might make this a regular thing.
Go ahead, take a listen while I break it down.
The Breakdown:
Okay, so right away, your ears notice this delicious guitar.
Then you notice the driving beat of the drums kicking in at the same time.
Those sexy, smoky vocals break your trance capturing your imagination with the “What’s there to do, sweet Mary Lou?” line. Especially if you’re a Ricky Nelson fan. 🙂
That guitar comes in even stronger, taking center stage once again.
Then “Let me hold your hand, let me reach over and kiss ya” yanks you back into the story where you’re the star. Aren’t surprise kisses the best? Followed by the “see where it leads” line.
Then the drum roll smoothly transitions you to the next verse.
We don’t even need to discuss the next verse, but as a Highly Sensitive, Introverted, Empath Artist, I’m feelin’ it – lol!
There’s gotta be a thousand good reasons why
We shouldn’t do this, shouldn’t even try
There’s gotta be a thousand more reasons why
We’re both thinking this, yeah we’re both thinking this…
Let’s rip the ceiling off the bedroom baby
Lie here and look up at the stars
Wow! What a day! Sitting around waiting for the release of Logic Pro on the iPad (1 pm Miami time), I discover Push 3 for Ableton Live is a thing. Today.
It looks fabulous, of course, but the standalone model is $2K! And I thought Push2 was expensive. And why I feel so guilty that I haven’t been able to really learn Push2.
It was more alluring before Logic Pro 10 came out with a drum sequencer, which came out soon after I bought Push2. Yikes! Will the competition ever stop? lol!
You can find out more about Push 3 here and here and here and here and a whole bunch of other places – lol!
GarageBand Weekly discusses Logic 3 for the iPad. I’ll be on the lookout for more info on this one.
Thank you to all my readers of Letters on Balboa Island, a mid-century historical novel and my new bestseller. The response to this book has encouraged me to continue writing two more midcentury historical novels, now in progress.
In case you haven’t heard the audio excerpt or know nothing of this book, keep reading.
LETTERS ON BALBOA ISLAND, AUDIO EXCERPT
“When I was seventeen, I knew two things that were true: (1) You couldn’t help but meet a man in a military uniform in southern California in the 1950s, and (2) Sooner or later, men would leave. ” – Rosalie
When Rosalie Martin chooses to spend her life with a military man in the post Korean War era of the 1950s, she can’t forget another she met during the war. And when letters surface on Balboa Island years later, she realizes she may have chosen the wrong man. So when fate offers her the chance to make a different choice, will she? Or has she lived a life of lies for too long?
You may or may not remember this song from 50/90 during last summer. The one where we moved our whole household from Las Vegas to Florida only to discover our new house was not finished as promised. But nobody thought to tell us. What we thought was going to be 2 weeks in an AirBnb ended up being 2 months. Anyway, 50/90 was going on during that time and I just threw myself into it.
“Gin in the Afternoon” was one of those songs I wrote during that time, so after our recent trip to Disney World, visiting Oga’s at Disney World (I just had to compare it to Oga’s at Disneyland – lol), and the Enchanted Rose Lounge at the Grand Floridian, well, I just had to put them all together for this video.