Hello, once again!

Given the even more relaxed state I've been in of late with regards to writing--and the recent peaceful, if aggravating, snowfall that all but buried me this past week--I thought this week's song should be similarly calming, and a fitting capstone to my recent creative labors. Therefore, I present for your listening pleasure the monastic song O Quanta Qualia, as arranged by Paul Hillier and his group, Theatre of Voices (Usual copyrights apply; I own nothing!)

The story behind this song is simple, but funny; I came across it completely at random during my last year of undergrad, while hanging out with friends in their dorm and watching them play Settlers of Catan. Apparently trying to get the mood right, they were searching out medieval music clips on YouTube, and seemed to like this one so much they looped it for a good portion of the game :) . I couldn't recall the name of the song at that time, but the hauntingly beautiful words and melody stayed in my mind for days, and pushed me to search it out. Now it has pride of place as the final song on my Classical Mix playlist, and has often been exactly the right tune needed to cool down after a frenetic and/or frustrating writing session. Amazing what random moments of beauty can lead to :) .

I haven't had either kind of episode lately, but nor have I been idle. The beta-ready draft of All The Troubles of Home has started going out to readers as of last week, and there're still plenty of spots for anybody who wants to take on this challenge. I've also picked and outlined my short story choices for the creative writing course I'm enrolled in this semester--check out my Wordpress blog for more details--and expect to start them near the end of this week. Closer to home, the hunt for an agent to represent Discarded has resumed; no responses yet, but more queries are going out by the week. Further updates will be posted here, and on my other pages, as ever; share them and the Unbound link far and wide, and don't hesitate to comment or review!