Music Review: Artpop by Lady Gaga

It took me a while to get into Lady Gaga. I think it was six months or so after her last album, Born This Way, released that I actually bought it. After loving songs like "Born This Way", "Judas", "Fashion of His Love", "You and I" and "Electric Chapel" I was ready to see what Gaga's new album would have in store.

For the most part, Artpop does not disappoint.

Unlike Born This Way, which had an underlying religious theme which Gaga toyed with in some way during pretty much every song, Artpop's most standout feature, right at first listen, is definitely sexuality. But to simply say that and walk away would be to sell this album short. I can't speak for everyone--music is a really subjective thing--but this is either as good as Born This Way, or even better, as far as I am concerned.

My favorite tracks on the album are "G.U.Y.", "Mancure" and "Swine".

"G.U.Y." had me at it's opening. I initially thought it was "Greetings from Eros..." but the lyrics are actually "Greetings, Himeros / God of sexual desire / son of Aphrodite..." . How can you knock a song where, rather than being about or from a God or Goddess, the piece actually addresses the deity point blank? I don't actually care that I, who have done my fair share of Greek myth studies, didn't recognize him. When I'm working on Sealer's Promise, where many of my ladies are mortal and my guys aren't, this song becomes a pretty much add to playlist instant choice.

"Mancure" was the song that immediately made me decide to buy the album. It's not an extremely deep piece of music, but it's high energy and within ten seconds it produced a scene in my head that ended up leading me to write the entire outline of one of my novellas. Some people might be annoyed by lyrics such as "put your hands all over my bodyparts", but if you can try not to take it too seriously, the song is catchy and a lot of fun.

As for "Swine", what makes it great is the strong beat going on underneath it and the way that it works with the lyrics to put forth a really angry but energetic aura--both anger at a person *and* self anger. Not every time we are attracted to someone, or have someone be attracted to us, is a good thing and while Swine doesn't go too into that, it captures a raw and honest reaction very well.

The rest of the album isn't a slouch, either. "Aura", "Venus", "Do What You Want", "Artpop", "Donatella", "Dope", "Gypsy" and "Applause" are all varying levels of great and for the most part I can listen to this whole album without needing to skip...too much.

What songs bring it down? "Jewels and Drugs" is Gaga with some rappers in a trainwreck of a piece where she sounds like she is guesting on her own album. It doesn't go with anything else. Pass. "Sex Dreams" isn't entirely horrible. I think it's kinda clever how it could be interpreted as being two bi women attracted to each other because of how she does the song in two pitches making it sound like they are singing to each other. But it's not my kinda thing. As for "Fashion"? A beautiful intro leads to a song that does absolutely nothing for me. And the same goes for "Mary Jane Holland"--even a reference to Apollo can't save this one, folks. :p

Overall, I'm extremely pleased with my purchase of Artpop and I',m really glad that I bought it. If you like Lady Gaga and have her other albums, I can see no reason why you wouldn't want to add this to your collection.

Stacking The Shelves / What's Up This Week?

Stacking The Shelves is a weekly event hosted by Tynga's Reviews where we share the books we bought, borrowed or received this week.

Well, this week has certainly been "unique". My parents went to Cuba, and I stayed here with my brother Shawn and his girlfriend Kate. On Wednesday night we went into Kingston for shopping and some dinner at 5 Guys Burgers and Fries. While there I picked up these two lovelies at Target.

I've been a huge fan of the House of Night series for several years now, so picking up Revealed, the latest book in the series, was just a matter of time. Most of them I've just grabbed around town but for some reason the amount of YA in Napanee has been on the decline. So when I saw this I grabbed it purely for convenience.

I don't have the same history with Rainbow Rowell, but Fangirl has been on my radar for a while now. It seemed quite popular at this year's Blogger Meetup. As someone who is releasing her first novel next year, and someone who was both a wannabe author and rather awkward during college (University) I think I can relate to this one. I hope I love it as much as I *think* I will. :)

My Kindle also got some love:

So I finally started reading the Night Huntress series. I'm pretty sure the fact that there are two books here from it makes it pretty obvious I'm liking it quite a bit. It's by far one of the most action oriented series I've ever read with a female lead and romance. Most of the stuff I've read in the past that blends paranormal, action and romance tends to either have the heroine in a less active role, have less "action" in general, or have people freaking out that the heroine is being heroic. I wouldn't want ALL the books I read to be this way, but right now? It's refreshing.

As for Everneath, I was sold when I read the words "Underworld" and "bring her back as his queen". Um, yeah. I don't think any further explanation is needed for anyone who knows me. :D It also doesn't hurt that it was on for $2. Again, you guys know how much I love a sale. Anyone read this? I'd love your thoughts. :)

So, yeah. This was suppose to be the perfect week to get Sealer's Promise revised and ready for betas. And I'll be totally up front, people: that totally didn't happen. For most of my life I've been one of those people who can get into a total slump when the sun starts to hide itself for the majority of the day, and this year that crap hit me hard. I'm talking I slept for 10-14 hours a day hard. I had absolutely no drive. Zip. Zilch. Nada. And I was freakin' weepy to boot. Not fun.

Fortunately, a bit of retail therapy and drag-your-butt-outta-the-house therapy on the part of Kate and Shawn has me feeling much more normal. Aside from the two pretties above and the yummy food at 5 Guys, I also found the Skylanders bargain to top all Skylanders bargains:

This is Granite Crusher. He's a series 2 (Giants) figure that was exclusive to Target before there were target stores in Canada, and before Jay and I got into Skylanders. We figured we'd never get this figure because it sells for $45--$70 online. ...Until I found two at Target and bought them for retail price ($15). I even got the 2nd one for 5% off because there's some wear on the packaging. Like we care: these bad boys will get taken outta their packaging the next time Jay visits and I can't wait to see them light up. I hear they glow blue and they're one of the figures that actually looks different in-game.

It's also been a good week for music. I bought Lady Gaga's new album, Artpop, just before my parents left for their vacation and I'm quite impressed with it. More shocking is my reaction to the two CDs Kate bought. I really didn't have any intention of listening to "Wild Life" by Hedley--it wound up on my iPod by accident. But the Sealers have claimed a couple songs. (Might as well give it a listen--it was already there anyway.). As for "Pure Heroine" by Lorde we listened to it on the way to Kingston and I'm very eager to sit down with it and get more time with the music. My initial takeaway was extremely positive. Odds are high I'm going to start doing some album reviews on here (I love music.) and these will likely be among the first albums I talk about.

Something new is happening in the Coleman household this holiday season: we're doing Christmas "secret Santa" style. So with only Shawn, Jay, Merissa and my Grandma to shop for, I needed to find a way to fill the gap because I *love* Christmas shopping. I have found the solution in adding two bookish Secret Santa events to my holiday plans (thanks Mom for agreeing to help me mail the package for the Broke & Bookish one!). I've done RAK before and I'm excited about that too. I already have my Broke and Bookish person and I need to send in my response for the RAK Secret Santa because it's due Monday. But I wanted to be sure and list both of these events because I think they're really neat.

I Just Finished...

In Short: Loved.

Longer: Bones is hot and Bones and Cat together kick ass.

Want to know more? Check out my full review later this week.

If it tells you anything, I'm already 15% of the way through the next book.

What's Up Next...

Two words: That Ending!

A bit more: I had to jump right into the next one. And I plan to do that a lot more often. It's how I read before I started reviewing.

Thoughts so far: Where the hell is Bones?

And if I finish this...

Fangirl was the most popular pick from this week's What's Next post. (I tried Cinder, guys, and it wasn't for me. Rather annoying since I also have Scarlet.)

I wanted this book enough that I bought it in print. Lets not have it sit for a year like oh, say, Prodigy and Unravel Me. (Sorry, books! I will get to you!)

I really hope this is good. I am not in a patient and 'forgiving' mood toward books that don't grab me right now. Fortunately, I did love the sample.

I haven't been focusing well on the task of writing. Which is one of the reasons that I am focusing so much on blogging and reading. It's clear to me that my brain needs to untangle the two yarns I'm working on--editing / revising Sealer's Promise, and outlining / planning Sealed With A Kiss. (No, we're not going to talk about how I blew NaNoWriMo. I wrote 60k of my Sealer's Promise rewrite in August.)

I really, really hate to say this but I may end up having to delay the Sealer's Promise launch. Why? Because (1) It's not ready for betas yet. And (2) I'm not a soulless yeti who would try and get people to beta my work while they're trying to get ready for Christmas. They're doing *me* a favor. Meaning that as it stands SP won't be with betas until at least January (I am finally starting to get some energy back, thank goodness.) and I probably won't get it back from them until February. (If I do great, but I'm not one to expect things.) I set up the date I did to get myself to write a draft I was really freaked out about writing and that worked. But ultimately the most important thing for me, as a (future) author, is making sure that I release the absolute best book I can. I owe it to myself, my readers and my characters.

I think the time away has done some good. I understand a few things both inside this book and inside the overall Sealer Saga that I didn't a few weeks ago. While it might be frustrating now, I believe that it will pay off in the end.

So, did you get any fabulous bookish goodies this week? Did anything exciting happen? Feel free to link me to your Stacking the Shelves / In My Mailbox / Book Haul, or whatever you're calling it so I can find out. :) Have a great day!

Kat Sings Poker Face

As some of you know, tonight I was a finalist in a singing contest at the Portsmouth Tavern in Kingston. I don't normally use my blog to promote my music, but I promised a few of you I'd try to get some video footage and that I'd tell you all how it went. Well... I have some good news, some bad news and some more good news.

The first piece of good news is that we got me on video singing Poker Face by Lady GaGa. Want to hear it? Here you go: 

The bad news is that we did not get footage for I Will Always Love You. (Another competitor had already claimed Unchained Melody by the time that my family arrived.) 

My last piece of good news is that I won first place, winning the $500 grand prize. I am still extremely shocked (and very excited!) about this. :) 

Anyway, thanks so much for checking this post out. :) Have a great evening! 

Moon Dance Monday (Nov. 21st)

Hello! Welcome to my first in a set of articles I'm going to start doing every Monday. I'm calling these Moon Dance Mondays, and I'm hoping to use them to share a bit more about my book, how my writing is going, or any other random writing related stuff with you guys. Why am I doing this? Well, my blog is called I Write, I Read, I Review and I feel that I don't really show enough of the writing part of that. So it's time I did something about it!

This week's topic is...

Q: What inspired Moon Dance?

 If I gave a full list I think we'd be here all day. So I'm going to narrow it down to a top five list instead. When I say that something inspired Moon Dance, what I'm talking about are games, movies, TV shows, music, etc. that have given me some kind of "Eurika!" moment that has either stuck with me or which solved a problem I was having. Here we go!

My dad risked life and limb to get this.

1. Final Fantasy II (Proper Name: FFIV)

If I hadn't played this, there is no guarantee that I would have ever become a writer. This was actually what made storytelling seem thrilling to me. Possibly because of it's interesting yet simple formatted story, Final Fantasy II made my twelve year old self want to change the way the story went.

Why didn't Kain get a girlfriend? What happened after Cecil and Rosa got married? Did Edge and Rydia ever go on a date? And what if a new character entered the story and ended up with Cecil so Kain could have Rosa? In primitive, (Name: text) format, and later in more normally formatted writing, I explored these things and discovered the joys of taking a world and manipulating it so that it worked the way that I wanted to. I discovered how fun it was to see the ideas in my head get turned into words on paper that anyone could see. And thus a writer was born.

Left to right: Milon, Kainazzo, Valvalis, and Rubicant
(<3 Rubicant! You made me question the nature of evil!)

By far the most noticeable influence from Final Fantasy II when looking at Moon Dance is the four fiends, who in my story are known as the Dark Prophets. This is a concept that appeared in FF1 and FF2 and that Square eventually abandoned. What I really loved about the fiends in II was that each had his or her own distinct personality and way of doing things.

My Dark Prophets only started there, though. There are a lot of huge differences between FF's fiends and my prophets. First up: my prophets are totally hot guys. :D And while they have some "OMG Holy Crap!" powers and can cause a lot of trouble, they are not inherently bad. (Which I must credit to Rubicant, the fire devil on the right of that picture.)

Another key difference between the fiends and my prophets is that while each prophet does have an element, each also has an area of suffering that he oversees -- famine, death, plague and war respectively. They also have an elaborate mythology explaining how they became the Dark Prophets and their attempts to get rid of their jobs are what gets Moon Dance started.

2. Mortal Kombat (the movie)

I think I was in 7th grade when this released? Anyway, I really liked the games, but it was the first movie that made an impression on me as a writer. Now I'm sure that you're wondering how a movie about a video game could get someone writing...

Well, on a humorous note, I seem to recall writing a piece with my friends and I as sailor scouts (I was hugely into Sailor Moon around this time too.) who had to go to Mortal Kombat to stop Shang Tsung. I also seem to recall that my best friend and I had crushes on Sub Zero and Scorpion. *cough*

Way too old for Sarena.

On a more serious note, the idea for Kesyl actually came from seeing Shang Tsung in the Mortal Kombat movie. I thought that his powers were incredibly interesting and started thinking about what kind of powers I thought someone would have if they could consume people's souls. I also considered how someone might feel about having the power to do that if he was an eighteen year old teenage boy. Yes, I have had a lot of fun writing Kesyl.

One key difference between Shang Tsung and Kesyl is that unlike Shang Tsung, Kesyl is suppose to have morals. While he does not always live up to being the super powerful, all mighty source of justice that he is meant to be as the God of Judgement (how boring would that be?) when push comes to shove Kess has a good heart and wants to do the right thing. Most of the time. If you don't piss him off.

Thank you Ms. Davey

3. Mythology by Edith Hamilton

I got really into Greek Mythology early in my teens and it has been a huge influence on my writing ever since. (Okay, technically I've studied Greek, Norse, Celtic, Egyptian and Japanese myth... I love mythology in general.) Anyone who knows me knows two things: my favorite Greek God is Apollo, and my favorite myth is the story of Persephone and Hades. Both of these things influenced Moon Dance. How?

Kyden has some Apollo qualities. He has visions occasionally, he is a healing deity who fell from heaven and became the God of Plagues. (Prophecy, healing and plagues are all domains of Apollo). I decided to go with a snake twined staff as his weapon (which would more suitably represent Hermes or Aesclipius (I probably butchered that name, I admit.) On the other hand, though, Kyden is good natured, kind, generally very patient, and funny. Of all of my Gods, he's the one who acts the most human.

I love Kyden. Can you tell?
(Alas, the image's eyes aren't violet.)

Hades and Persephone play an important roll in Moon Dance, too. The Underworld in my story is a much more friendly (and modern!) place, but it is definitely inspired by the Greek version. I had a lot of fun trying to flesh it out and give it its own personality, style and culture. I don't get to go into this as much in Moon Dance, but in Cait & Avish's book there will be a lot more going on in the Underworld and I am excited to let people really check it out. I must admit, I am just a little bit proud of it. :)

In Greek myth, the Underworld has three parts. There are fields for average people, there are the Elysian Fields and Isle of Heroes (may have that wrong -- been a while and need to look it up) for heroes and virtuous people, and there is Tartarus for people who have committed crimes. In my Underworld each of the Prophets has a domain, as do Lucian (the main ruler of the Underworld) and Kesyl (the Judge of the Dead).

I love these books. 

4. The House of Night series

This is the series that got me into YA. It is also responsible for solving a huge problem that I was having when I was planning to make Moon Dance a modern fantasy. I've read a lot of paranormal books and the paranormal element is always hidden from the average world. These books go "Nope". People know vampires exist. I liked this so much that I decided that people should know my Kindred exist, too.

And that's how the whole Millenium / Y2K mythology entered the picture. I must also give credit to a fantastic documentary that I watched on String Theory, too. I wanted to make sure that my Kindred were established before the story began, because what's going on is crazy enough on its own, and this let me do it.

The other things I learnt from the House of Night books are that it's okay to have multiple characters progressing in the same story (or rather, that *I* feel it's okay. There are those who would disagree with this.) and that having multiple POV can enhance a story when it is done properly. (Yet again, something that is strictly in my opinion.)

*sigh* All I'm sayin'. ;)

5. Music!

Awake by Josh Groban

This whole album is awesome, but there are a few songs that had a major impact on Moon Dance and I'd like to give them a moment of thanks. "Mai" is Kesyl's theme. It's what I listened to when I was working on a really tense scene between Kess and Sara in the middle of the book and it really helped me to get a feel for what Kess is like when someone lets him down.

"In Her Eyes" is about Avish and Cait. The fact that Avish can be so awful and yet I want to show that there is a person there is one of the biggest challenges that I have faced in writing Moon Dance. There are four major scenes between these two and they all need to be revisited and strengthened during revisions because their bond is extremely important to the book.

I love the line 'Rest your wings my butterfly' in "Lullaby" and that's where Kyden's nickname for Sara came from.

And of course the album has what I view as the Sara and Kess theme (the other being "She's Everything" by Brad Paisley), "So She Dances".

Mom got me to listen to
"Edge of Glory". Thanks!

Born This Way by Lady GaGa

There are three songs on here that are really important. One for each of my heroines.

"Edge of Glory" is Sara's. Considering that she is working toward becoming a Goddess and destined to be with the God of Judgement, I felt that it was fitting at the point they are at right now.

"Electric Chapel" is Cait's. I knew this song was hers the moment I heard the line "My body is sanctuary / My blood is pure / You want me back / I think you're cool / But I'm not sure." (I've seen some lyrics say "You want me bad"; works fine either way.)

"Fashion of his Love" is Isabelle's. So glad I got the deluxe version! I love both versions of this song. I actually didn't realize there were two until recently and I actually like the alternate one even more, especially the "He's loving imperfection" part at the beginning since Kyden and Isabelle have such different personalities and one day my boyfriend flat out asked me "What the hell does he see in her?". There's way more to Isabelle then meets the eye, but since she's the book three heroine it's going to be a while before that is proven.

Anyway, that concludes my first edition of Moon Dance Mondays! Please let me know if this was of interest to you so that I can figure out whether to continue these or not. I probably will for a few weeks regardless, but when I test out a new article or feature I try to see whether it's working or not so that I know if I should invest my energy there.

Is there anything about Moon Dance, or writing in general, that you are curious about? If you have a question about my book or writing that you'd like me to tackle please let me know. :)