Good day, everybody!

My apologies once again for the delay this week; most of yesterday and today were spent in orientation for a new, long-awaited job, and thus I was kept away from the keyboard. To (hopefully) make up for this, and to celebrate finishing said orientation, I present an old favorite from my Classical Mix playlist for this week's song, one that's stuck with me since childhood: Aida (March of Triumph), by Giuseppe Verdi as part of his opera Othello based on Shakespeare's play of the same name. (Usual copyrights apply; I own nothing!)

Like so many other songs, I can't recall exactly when I first came across this one. Best I can do is recollect where I found it: on a two-CD album (La Traviata was the second) that I picked up at a (now sadly canceled) annual high school rummage sale. At that time, I was just starting to get a taste for Classical music and was buying every CD I could find in that genre, quite often at random. When I found the album, I didn't know quite what to make of the more obviously operatic pieces, but this song in particular immediately struck a chord, as it were :P , and still does whenever I play it in celebration of finishing a draft, getting through a trying week, or just for simple pleasure.

There's plenty of celebration-worthy stuff coming up very soon, in fact. The new material for All The Troubles of Home is nearly finished as of tonight; looking to have it done by Thursday at the latest. The final version of the cover design for this draft is also taking shape right now; if all goes well, it should be ready for posting on Kindle--along with the draft--by the middle of next week, ahead of schedule! I've also started research for the next workshop draft, and aim to start writing by next Monday, when PhD classes resume; no tease-worthy details yet, other than it's a rewrite of an earlier story that I shelved due to my lack of writing experience and skill. Since both have changed a great deal (or at least I hope, based on how Red Delta, Discarded and my other works have been received :) ), it's finally time to take it all the way to the finish line. More news and details to follow next week; till then, keep reviewing, sharing and commenting!