Fantasy Author Jodi Perkins |
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Combining mindless chatter with writing updates since 1982. (That might be a slight hyperbole.) |
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HAPPY SUMMER! I love summer and all the festivities, but this month was extra special because my little girl was married just 4 days ago. She's 21 years old, which is really weird because that's my exact age too. Anyway, we did a DIY wedding. If this weren't an author's newsletter I'd torment y'all with like fifty pics, but that seems like cruel and unusual punishment to my readers, so I'll just include this one little collage. |
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You can see me and my twin sister in the tiny picture above (bottom pic, second to right), sticking out our tongues like a proper aunt and mother of the bride. Okay, onto the feature article, which has nothing to do with weddings, summer, or...anything, really. |
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Feature ArticleYou Take a Piece of Meat with You |
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When I was six or seven, my sister and I argued in the car over the 1985 song "Every Time You Go Away." She claimed Paul Young was singing "Every time you go away, you take a piece of me with you." I was appalled, unable to conceive of why my sister viewed the singer's girlfriend as a cannibal who enjoyed walking away with a piece of his flesh every time the two parted ways. |
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I told her it was clear that Young was actually singing "Every time you go away, you take a piece of meat with you." Because, you know, everyone likes a snack for the road. Anyway, we argued our points, both convinced that we were right, but with no way to prove it. The internet didn't yet exist. My sister and I weren't the only ones confusing lyrics. Even though it wasn't our generation of music, my graduating class used to sing Creedence Clearwater's song 'Bad Moon Rising' as: Don't go around tonight,
Well, it's bound to take your life,
There's a bathroom on the right. |
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Such a polite song, right? To stop in the middle of the lyrics to give listeners directions to the bathroom? (In case you're wondering, that last line is supposed to be "There's a bad moon on the rise.") |
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But it wasn't merely songs we debated about. It was any random topic under the sun. And the conclusion was always the same: There was no conclusion. Unless we were willing to go to the library to research answers to our questions (some of them nearly impossible to research, such as song lyrics or pop culture), we would never know--until we were adults--who was right and who was wrong. It got me thinking: I miss those days. I miss the days where people engaged in lively debates without being able to immediately end the discussion with a quick fact-check on Google. I guess it's a funny thing to miss, but there's something I treasure about debating a pointless or silly topic for hours, knowing I'll never truly know who is right and who is wrong. As a kid, that suspension of an answer stretched a |
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debate out for days, weeks, and some-times (as was the case with the meat song), years. And then, ten years later when you finally have the solution to the riddle and you can put the argument to rest, it's that much more satisfying. Having answers right at your fingertips with no waiting, wondering, or work (the original www) has taken away something special. Or maybe I'm just a sore loser because it turns out my sister was right: Paul Young's girlfriend really was taking a piece of him every time she left, and not some roast beef or steak like I thought. By the way, the next time someone says "Dude, you're singing the wrong lyrics," just say "No I'm not, I'm making a remix." 🎵 |
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Have you ever misinterpreted song lyrics? I'd love to hear about it at silverhandpress@gmail.com! |
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My word count did go up. See? A whole 400+ words. But yeah, progress this month was pretty dismal, and I have officially missed my July 1st deadline for finishing the first draft of the novel, unless I miraculously finish it today. Here's where I start rolling out the excuses. I've got some good ones! We remodeled our master bedroom, moved my daughter out and turned her room into a den, installed new floors in my |
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son's room (okay, he did most of the work for that), and spent the month of June planning my daughter's wedding. I'm cracking the whip for July though. Although...I'm kind of a wuss when it comes to self-flogging. Anyone want to volunteer to hold the whip? You don't actually have to use it. Just crack it once in a while and make intimidating growling sounds every time I stop writing. |
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This Month's Easter Egg THE RAT |
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The very first line of Chasing Echoes is "It all started because of a RAT." A while ago an acquaintance and fellow author asked me, "Why did you capitalize the word 'rat' in the first line of Chasing Echoes?" His confusion makes sense, as that line seems to refer to the rodent (later known as Miss B) who's used in a hurtful prank toward Krystal in chapter one...but why write it in all caps? Is it being shouted in the first line? Not quite. RAT is actually a deliberate double entendre. Not only does RAT refer to Miss B, a literal rat, but it's also an acronym that stands for Recusantem Ansa Tempore, the Latin phrase for a dwindling time loop. And, as you probably already know, many acronyms are written in all caps to let readers know that they're not actually a word per se, but a series of letters that represent separate words, like DVR (digital video recorder) or ETA (estimated time of arrival). Or RSVP...which to this day I have no idea what it stands for (some complicated French phrase) but it's an acronym, I swear! Anyway, if you reread the first line of Chasing Echoes knowing what 'RAT' really means, it changes the whole meaning of the intro. Kinda cool, huh? |
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Songwriter Halloween Hopes is at it again! This time he composed a song inspired by Black Lilies. Some of these lyrics are quotes pulled directly from the novel. If you like what you hear, give him a follow on Spotify! |
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Is there a song that reminds you of a scene from the Chasing Echoes series? Email it to me and I'll feature it in a future newsletter. |
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Hope you enjoyed this month's tidbits. See you again next month! |
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Missed last month's newsletter? Click HERE to catch up and learn why I never grocery shop. |
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