Mary often puts up her goals for the week on her blog, so I’m going to give it a try. All of you hold me to them, okay?

1. Finish the first draft of Heartbreak River by Friday
2. Decorate for Christmas
3. Catch up on miscellaneous paperwork
4. Cull e-mail accounts
5. Finish Christmas shopping
6. Begin revisions/additions to Heartbreak River on Sunday
7. Exercise one hour every day

I’ve mentioned here before that 1) I’ve discovered new bands I like by watching fan videos on YouTube, 2) I find I like European bands, and 3) I like vampire shows. Well, here’s a video that combines all three. I discovered the band HIM, a Finnish metal band, while on a fan site for the show Blood Ties, a Lifetime show that is based on the vampire novels by Tanya Huff. The people in the video and show are Detective Vicki Nelson and her partner, vampire Henry Fitzroy. The song is called “Vampire Heart.”

When I was in high school and college, one of my favorite bands was Bon Jovi. Yes, it was the hair band era. The first song I ever heard my hubby play (before we even started dating) was Bon Jovi’s “Wanted Dead or Alive.” After I was married, the hubby and I went to see Bon Jovi in concert at a local outdoor venue. It was one of the best concerts I’ve ever been to. And while most of the bands I liked back in the mid to late ’80s haven’t aged all that well (either physically or musically), may only show up in venues a tiny fraction of the size of the stadiums they used to fill, and haven’t had a hit since Ronald Reagan was president, Bon Jovi has been creatively and business savvy and changed with the times. And it’s paid off as they now have the No. 1 album in the country, Lost Highway, their first No. 1 album since 1988′s New Jersey. (Hubby says they have the No. 1 album because people our age don’t know how to download the songs, and if it’s not round we don’t know how to play it. LOL! Speak for yourself, says I, the proud owner of an iPod.)

I’m sure there’s someone out there who thinks they’ve sold out, but I disagree. I believe artists of all kinds can stretch themselves creatively in new directions to find new audiences and keep their work interesting both to fans and themselves. The option is staying in a rut and fading into oblivion. That’s not to say that you abandon everything your fans enjoy. Even with their new music, Bon Jovi is still Bon Jovi. It’s the same with a writer’s “voice”. It doesn’t matter if she’s writing historicals, contemporaries or paranormals, her voice is still there for readers to enjoy.

Now, shifting gears, I discovered another new-to-me band. DeVotchKa is an indie band from Denver, and I really like their unique mixture of musical styles — a little rock, a little folk, a little Eastern European, and some mariachi thrown in. This is another band I discovered because one of their songs, “How it Ends”, was used on a fan video for Smallville.

Connie Talbot was another of the favorites to win Britain’s Got Talent, though she lost out to Phil Potts, who I blogged about yesterday. Still, I think she’s absolutely adorable and very talented — and only 6 years old!

My good friend Beth sent me this video. It shows that even your average person can achieve his/her dream. This guy went on to win Britain’s Got Talent. Plus, I love this piece of music, “Nessun Dorma” from the Puccini opera Turandot.

http://www.flixxy.com/voice-talent-opera-singer.htm

Here’s his final performance after winning.

http://www.flixxy.com/britain-talent-winner.htm

They’re both worth viewing for inspiration.

I’m blogging over at the Wet Noodle Posse blog today. I’m talking about my love for movie soundtracks and why I think soundtracks are such a wonderful part of the moviegoing experience.

Evidently I’m not the only person who has gone to see Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End during the six days it’s been in theaters. It has smashed all previous records by already raking in a whopping $401 million! Holy macaroni.

The soundtrack by Hans Zimmer is awesome too. I’ve been playing it a lot the past couple of days while I read RWA-related e-mails. I kid you not, I probably spent 12 to 14 hours yesterday reading RWA e-mail. Today, it’s more manageable, and I’m actually working on revisions to Coven too. Yay! And so far, it’s not as onerous a task as I feared. It’s not fast work, but my brain hasn’t cracked yet, so that’s a good sign.

Back to revising…

Okay, so I’m soon to be 37, your average writer living in the suburban South, but sometimes I still feel like I’m either a teenager or in my early 20s. So pardon me while I have a geeky squee moment. I’ve been listening to Lacuna Coil’s Comalies album a lot lately. It’s one of those CDs that I like more every time I listen to it. I bought this CD because I heard “Heaven’s a Lie” on their MySpace site, but “Daylight Dancer”, “Comalies” and “Swamped” have also become favorite songs from this album. (FYI, there was some initial controversy about “Heaven’s a Lie”, but the band explained that it wasn’t a religious reference.)

I’m not familiar with many bands that have two lead singers as Lacuna Coil does. It’s a great mixture of Cristina Scabbia’s female vocals and Andi Ferro’s harder rock male vocals. My opinion of the band is helped by the fact that I’ve heard they are all very nice and meet and greet fans after all their shows. When I hear of a band being snots to fans, that sours my opinion even if I really like their music. Same goes for authors, actors, whatever, so I’m happy LC seems to be such a nice bunch.

So, to the squee moment. Thinking my e-mail would probably end up floating around in outer space somewhere never to be read, I e-mailed Cristina and Andi about how much I was enjoying their music and how I was bummed to miss their Knoxville show (boohoo). Lo and behold, only minutes later Cristina e-mails me back to thank me for the e-mail I’d sent her. That’s classy, folks. Rock on, Lacuna Coil!

Wow, I thought more people would post comments about the Buffy covers. Oh, well, on to the topic of the day — my brand spanking new iPod nano. I know I’ve mentioned it before, but my husband is awesome. He got me an iPod for an early birthday present, and I already love it. I carved a bit of time out of my busy day to download and read the manual, figure out how to upload music from my CDs and make playlists, and sync it all to my iPod. Now I have 20 CDs worth of music to accompany me on walks around the neighborhood that will hopefully help me be thinner by the RWA National Conference a mere two months away.

It’s fun to use the Shuffle function on the iPod where it randomly selects songs to play. I’ve been trying it out while doing online stuff tonight, and it’s wild to have a metal song from the Underworld: Evolution soundtrack followed by something from the Buffy musical episode followed by a Nickelback song followed by “The Riders of Rohan” from the Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers soundtrack.

While on iTunes today, I checked out some of the listings for audiobooks. Good heavens, they’re expensive. I think I’ll be passing on those. An unabridged version of Elizabeth Kostova’s The Historian was more than $65! I know it’s a thick book, but good grief! I’m going to have to stick with books on CD or tape from the library. I may have to check out some of the Harry Potter-related podcasts. I’ve never listened to a podcast, but I believe Natalie listens to the Harry ones. Yo, Natalie, e-mail me and tell me where to start.

Sad news from Hawaii — singer Don Ho has died. He and his song “Tiny Bubbles” will forever be tied in my memory with The Lawrence Welk Show, which I would see when I spent the night with my Mamaw and Papaw, both of who are also gone now.

Tiny bubbles (tiny bubbles)
In the wine (in the wine)
Make me happy (make me happy)
Make me feel fine (make me feel fine)…

Earlier this week, the hubby and I ventured down to our local arena to a concert. I was excited about it. The hubby? Less so. When I first heard Evanescence, one of my favorite bands, was coming to town, I bought two tickets. I asked my friend, Jen, my usual concert buddy, if she wanted to go. Alas, she’s in nursing school and had class that night. Next I asked another friend, Kim, but she’s a teacher, she lives two hours away, and it was a school night. No go there either. Most of my other friends who live anywhere near me aren’t fans of the band. The friends who are fans live in states like Texas, not exactly just down the street. That left the hubby, who thinks Evanescence is only okay. He thinks all their songs sound the same. Gasp! (I might add he thinks the same thing about Nickelback, who I went to see last year.) But being a good sport, he tagged along.

First off, let me just say I’m SO glad I didn’t just wear a T-shirt. Dummy me didn’t even think about how cold the arena would be. I mean, hello, it’s still hockey season and the ice is still on the rink. They just cover it up for other functions on non-game nights. By the end of the night, I was sneezing and keeping Puffs in business.

The opening band, Finger Eleven, was pretty good, despite the poor lead singer being “sick as a dog”. Their guitarist was very entertaining as he bounced and danced around stage. If I had that much energy, I’d bottle it and sell it to moms of little children and long-haul truck drivers and writers on deadline. I didn’t know most of their songs, but I still enjoyed their set, particularly the last song, “Paralyzer”, which I did know.

Next up was Chevelle. They’d opened for Nickelback too. I didn’t like them then, and I don’t like them now. They’re one of those screaming bands, where the singer sounds like he’s going to rip his vocal cords into shreds as he sings. And their music was so loud and bass-heavy that I could feel my internal organs bouncing against my ribcage. I was sincerely glad when their set was over — both because I didn’t like them and the fact that I would know all the songs by Evanescence and could get up and dance to get warm.

When Evanescence came out, the crowd got really loud, me included. I sang to every song, stood and danced the whole time. Poor hubby, the only time he really got excited was when the guitarist started to play the opening to “Highway to Hell” by AC/DC. Granted, the rest of the crowd loved that too. I thought Evanescence’s part of the show was good, even though the sound seemed a bit off a few times. I did notice Amy Lee, the singer, go over to the side of the stage at one point and make a motion to one of the guys running the sound boards, so she must have noticed it too.

I’m in the mood for another concert, so I’ve been watching the touring schedule for Lacuna Coil and Without Temptation, who are touring together in the U.S. Lacuna Coil is an Italian band, and Without Temptation is from the Netherlands. So far, the nearest they’re coming to here is three hours away. Hmm…

Be sure to check out hubby’s humorous post about the concert on his blog.