Whoops, I overestimated...

After looking over some of the scene note-cards I made for Invisible, I realized that, in all honesty, the novel isn't going to need about 17k words to wrap the whole thing up. I can easily wrap up plot threads in about half of that, maybe even less. As I thought about it, it appeared that there wasn't much else to be said. I have truly written the falling action, now the denouement is upon me.

Looks like I seriously overestimated. Even if I add more scenes to earlier parts, I doubt it will make a huge impact. Not something to the tune of 17k.

But we'll have to see.

I got my holy grail!

What a day Record Store Day turned out to be! Not only did I get the RSD exclusives I wanted, I also received my holy grail of records. Wait, you're probably thinking, what is a holy grail? It is a term used in the record-collecting community to mean a vinyl release that you want and it is going to be very hard to find (hence, "holy grail").

Mine is a rare vinyl pressing of Out of the Cradle by Lindsey Buckingham. It was only released in Europe (mine is from Portugal, so the label has some Portuguese). Yeah, I found it. On eBay. And it cost me some serious money (won't say how much). Yeah, I'm stoked.

The proof.

I have some other "holy grails" lined up, but this was the big one. So, I may not pursue those for a long, long time. And actually, due to some huge events coming up (my best friend's wedding in July, a vacation to NYC, etc.) my record-collecting may come to a brief halt. Gotta save some serious dough.

Got any "holy grail" stories? Share them in the comments!

Record Store Day 2012

Today is every vinyl-holic's favorite holiday. I asked for the day off from work in advance so I can get up bright and early to get a few of the exclusives coming out today. By the time I arrived at the record store, there was a long line leading from the door. I got in and waited until opening, with the line getting much longer behind me. I had never experienced anything like this before (my mom noted that it sounded like Black Friday).

I was going past people to find the exclusives. I went for Arcade Fire and Genesis without much trouble. The seven-inches were more trouble. I didn't get the M83 or Foster the People ones, but I got Karen Elson's (the one on the far right). The one to the left of M. Ward's "Primitive Girl" is Caitlin Rose's "Piledriver Waltz", which wasn't going very quickly.

My big ones were Arcade Fire and Karen Elson, followed by Genesis. The others were random ones that I grabbed up.

After that, I wandered around the store, mostly recovering from being squished for the better part of ten-twenty minutes. I found a few more goodies, including two CDs I've been dying to get.

Top two CDs: THEESatisfaction's awE naturalE (my second favorite album of the year, so far) and Alabama Shakes's Boys & Girls (my favorite album of the year, so far)

Records: In Rainbows by Radiohead, Under the Pine by Toro Y Moi, and The Black Belles's debut album.

Have any Record Store Day stories or finds? Share them in the comments!

Time for a new look!

In lieu of the big switch, Musings... becoming a more personal blog and less of a reviews ones, I got rid of the older template for a newer one. It looks so much better.

If you have any issues with it, like readability and so forth, let me know and I'll fix it (with what limited HTML skills I know, but it will get fixed!).

After some thinking...

I have decided to finally make a second blog, which will be for the reviews. I feel that Musings... should stay as a personal blog and not much more than that. If I want to review anything, it should be more accessible and a little more professional than here. Nothing wrong with what I've done before, but it's time to make a change. I already created it (it's gonna be over at Wordpress) and I haven't done much to it. I'll open it up for business sometime this year.

And yes, I'll transfer all the previous reviews I've done here (and maybe spruce them up a bit). I may not delete them from here but yeah, the pull-down menu will go bye-bye. That and I may look into a new layout for the blog. It's almost its fifth anniversary after all...

So coming soon to a blogosphere near you: Jupiter_Nova's Reviews!

Notes on A Seminar

A few days ago, I went to a writing seminar on science fiction and fantasy novels. The seminar was hosted by the writing organization I recently joined. It was enjoyable, like being back in college, listening to a professor talk about a specialized topic. Also I learned some new stuff about the genres, like how fantasy (at least, the lecturer argued) that it has its roots in medievalism and Arthurian legends. As for science fiction, it is usually seen as the more "realistic" of the two, usually based on real things (y'know, science). For some hardcore sci-fi and fantasy nerds, I am definitely stating the obvious. To be fair, I haven't read enough of each genre to get that idea. So far, from my few readings, I gathered that: that fantasy has magic and dragons; and that science fiction always managed to predict the future. (Of the two, I prefer sci-fi. So says the frustrated lady writer who is penning a fantasy novel on the side. [Said fantasy novel is not Invisible.]) The only thing I didn't like about the seminar was the lecturer didn't go into much detail about magic realism (which some writers and critics have likened to being no more than a snooty term for fantasy), otherwise I liked it. Since it was a class full of writers, we shared some of our novel ideas. I even shared mine, which the lecturer commented on the concept having the "classic ideas". Afterwards, he wished me luck on my writing after I thanked him for the lecture.

I definitely will be attending future classes held by the writing organization. Hopefully, even a retreat in the future. But for now, let's see how things work out with finances...