This post's purpose is to collect my common tags in one place, so readers (and I!) can easily access entries on several subjects.

It was chilly and thus hard to get out of bed this morning. I was glad I went to the gym yesterday morning instead (I skipped Saturday--too stiff and tired from Friday night's dress rehearsal). I do have to get up and go tomorrow, though.

Saturday night's concert audience was fairly small, probably a result of 1) rain; 2) Halloween; and 3) people staying home to watch the Phillies in the World Series. On the drive back with a friend, the roads were scarily deserted, and the restaurant where we stopped to eat was practically empty (and had the game playing on the bar tv).

Am still very excited about my author copies.

I blogged about why NaNoWriMo is a good idea even though I'm not doing it.

And evil, evil Amazon is having a huge sale on sf/f tv DVDs. Most notably on the two Stargate series.

Dress rehearsals are always the worst because you're standing almost the entire time, usually on a marble floor and usually too close together to comfortably stretch out your arms. And then I had to go home late, in the rain. My knees are a little unhappy today, and I didn't get enough sleep.

I did have a Dr. Who dream, though - I was watching an episode that had both Ten and Eleven, though I didn't realize Eleven was going to be in it until the episode was partly over. Also, there was weird splicing with scenes from The Man from U.N.C.L.E. as well as, possibly, I Spy except Robert Culp was the wrong age. I think. I find all this amusing since I haven't watched any television since the weekend of CapClave. Maybe my brain wants some.

Have been corresponding with potential book trailer creator. This is very exciting.

I wrote 1000 words on my lunch hour yesterday. It went so fast because it was virtually all monologue, the big confession of past angst scene. I need to rework it a little because I realized there was a logic error in the story, resulting from me not having figured out all the implications. Writing it down helped with that. And once I've edited, I think it'll be a great scene.

Worked out this morning, and am seeing the trainer Thursday afternoon, the last time for this trainer, as she's a grad student. Will have someone else for my remaining sessions. Then I need to decide if I want more trainer sessions or not. They have been quite valuable. I definitely got my money's worth. I'm also thinking about a pilates class, but next year, as I have enough going on right now.

Rehearsal tonight, and dress rehearsal Friday night. We have two concerts this weekend.

It's concert week, so I predict much sleep-deprivation in my future. I went to the gym on Sunday afternoon after writing, and am hoping to get a little more writing done today during my lunch hour, after which exhaustion and a brain full of music will likely preclude further attempts until the two concerts and all their associated rehearsals are over.

Bought a new necklace this weekend. It is a tiny brass spyglass that opens and closes, and is pleasingly heavy (the chain is robust). Alas, it is not a real spyglass, just clear glass. But Elder Tot was most amused by it and played with it twice in one evening. I probably won't wear it around her too much. It is irresistably tempting, and should be saved for special occasions. I'm wearing it today.

I'm in the very early stages of discussing a book trailer. I am somewhat excited, even though I've never really cared about book trailers before.

Put together a links post for the pro blog: in which I name-check the OTW in response to an article I found about "soon, everyone will publish." Like, duh.

I am a slow starter this morning. I made it to the gym, but not as early as I'd hoped, so I didn't have time to do a circuit of weights; need to figure out how better to organize my workouts to make them most efficient. I did some squats and crunches, plus fifteen minutes of elliptical, which was more intense than the treadmill. I see the trainer on Friday during my usual lunch hour.

Rehearsal was pretty fun, some bits swinging along beautifully, some still sounding scared. We're close to the concert now, so it's getting better at an exponential rate.

And I need to write this week, badly. I wrote around 800 words on the train down to D.C. on Friday, stopping only when the train pulled into Union Station. But I skipped the rest of the weekend, and Monday and Tuesday. Today, I'm going to go write immediately after I leave day job. Hopefully, I can get some lunchtime writing done on Thursday, as well, and after work on Friday. My usual Saturday session is being replaced by workshop this weekend, so I think Sunday will have to be a dedicated writing and gym day.

Blagh, only 300 words written since Saturday. Those words were working in some foreshadowing for a plot element I'd been missing, though, so it's good in the overall sense despite me being disappointed with the wordcount process. The draft is now just past 61K for The Duke and The Pirate Queen, which I think is actually going to be the real title because no one has told me otherwise.

I am eagerly awaiting my October royalty statement, which I think will better reflect how the duchess book did than the April statement, which wasn't really showing returns yet. From the April one, I think I did all right, by the way - I knew that anyway, because they gave me another contract, but I like seeing the actual numbers on paper, kind of like it pleases me to track my wordcount progress.

Last night we ran Macmillan's "Child's Prayer" and spent the rest of the evening on the Dueling O Bone Jesus, one by Macmillan and one by Carver. The Macmillan is tricky at first glance but it has many basic Macmillan molecules in its composition, so it's coming together fast.

The Carver was still an engine that badly needed oil - I forget that it seems easier to me because I listen to a lot (a lot) of Renaissance music, but in fact getting the feel of it is difficult if you're more familiar with more modern music. I recall this happening a bit also when we first started singing a lot of Bach. Some people could feel Baroque style. Some had to learn it. The Carver was starting to smooth out by the end of rehearsal as people got into the feel of it more, and also were worrying less about a few tricky bits. My own weakness is that sometimes I lost the pulse, if I'm not paying attention in a certain highly focused way, and I have to catch up at the next downbeat. This is a very weird feeling, since normally that consciousness of the beat is completely unconscious, if that makes any sense. I think I get those tiny bumps when my (unconscious?) attention gets snagged by a neat bit someone else is singing, or a realization (again, perhaps unconscious) of how some parts fit together that I hadn't noticed before. The Carver "O bone Jesu" has nineteen parts, so there's a lot going on.

Gym blathering:
My muscles were so stiff by the time I got to choir rehearsal last night, from my Monday evening session, that I seriously thought I would have to skip this morning's weights. Also, my thumbs were really stiff and I dropped my music a couple of times. I took ibuprofren at break, borrowed from a fellow alto, since after rooting through my entire choir bag, I concluded I'd removed the bottle at the end of last season. That helped a lot with my hands and a little with the stiffness. However, when I woke up this morning, I felt much better, no real pain, so I went to the gym and lifted and did fifteen minutes of cardio, which wasn't really enough, but I was going to be late for work. Going to try and do the drop-in chair massage this afternoon.

I went to the gym again this morning, despite it being a post-choir day (rehearsal ends at 10 pm, so I'm always short of sleep the day after). I lifted weights and did ten minutes of cardio, and made it to work with ten minutes to spare. Still figuring out how to save time here and there in the non-exercise parts, so I can use my lunch hour for workouts and not be gone for too awfully long. I am slightly stiff, but don't hurt.

Wrote just over 500 words at lunch yesterday. Brought netbook to hopefully get the same at lunch today.

We got the last (and most difficult) of the Macmillan pieces last night, a setting of "O Bone Jesu," to pair with the Carver setting of the same text. Hint: they are nothing alike! I've never sung this piece before, so that makes me happy, too.

Here are two of the pieces we're doing, performed by the Westminster Cathedral Choir. Please comment if you download, and also if you are a Macmillan fan. Or if I have converted you!

Christus Vincit, James Macmillan. Make sure to listen all the way to the end.

Kyrie, Mass, James Macmillan.

This is the recording: MacMillan: Mass and other sacred works.

Choir started up again last night. For this concert, we're singing the work of two Scottish composers, James Macmillan (contemporary) and Robert Carver, a 16th century Scottish monk who wrote insanely complicated pieces.

"O bone Jesu," one of the Carver pieces, is a motet in nineteen parts--according to my conductor, it might have been sung for the private prayers of King James IV. We're divided three and sometimes four to a part. The other piece we're doing by Carver is double choir, but only ten parts. Only. The individual lines aren't difficult, and I'm already starting to feel the shape of what we worked on last night, but putting these together is going to be tough. The pieces take a lot of concentration and listening.

We've done Macmillan before, but not for many years; I am really happy to be revisiting some of his work, which can be absolutely spine-chillingly glorious. As our conductor said last night, "real angels," the kind with lots of eyes and terrifying wings and coals of fire in the mouth. There's a part that's like "angels flying right at you," which is the best description I can think of for how it feels to sing some of this stuff. I feel like I haven't sung enough contemporary music lately, and some of the chords we sang last night just felt bone-deep good.

I am pondering whether or not I should attend the Romantic Times Convention in Columbus, Ohio next year. The cost is less of an issue to me than the fact that if I go, I will miss my choir's final concert of the season unless I skipped half the convention. We'd be doing Bach, the Easter and Ascension Oratorios.

I could, of course, still sing the pieces by preparing with the rest of the choir. I just wouldn't sing them in the final form with orchestra.

By April, I will have two novels out and have turned in the first iteration of the third. Several other authors who write for Spice are attending. I would, hopefully, get to talk to some readers, if not of my own books, then readers who like erotica.

It seems a simple decision, but for me it's really difficult. Writing is very important to me, and I can't stop doing it, even if I'm not getting paid. Singing is very important to me, and I can't stop doing it, and I never get paid (well, sometimes my choir as a whole gets paid).

But...this is a career thing. And I've been thinking, a little, about that "career" thing, and what I might want to do when this contract is finished. I would like to do a different sort of book, if I can find the courage. And...*flails*.

Input welcome.

Okay, so yesterday I got six pages of Bach to prepare for my re-audition for choir, which is tomorrow night. Which means I have very little time to actually prepare it. Luckily, it's Bach, and doesn't look too tricky.

I've been trying to pick an art song for my solo piece and early this morning finally settled on Brahms' "Sonntag" because I realized I couldn't remember all of my Italian pronounciation, it's been so long since I sang in Italian (and also, I never took Italian, whereas I have had some German, so it sticks a lot better).

"Sonntag" is sprightly, and I like it. Also, it's not that long.

Despite loving to sing in choir more than, well, almost anything, I'm not a big fan of singing solo pieces that aren't folk songs or similar. I think it's because I know what a real pro sounds like, and I am not that, and I feel like a failure when I sing a pro sort of song. Yes, I could take lessons, but I don't want to commit the time I would need to become halfway competent. It's too late for that, and I don't even enjoy it that much, and as it stands, I only have to sing solo once a year, for one person who already knows me and doubtless forgives many a vocal sin because I am a kickass sightreader and have a good sense of pitch.

In other news, I had to write down a list of all the people with whom I am making meal appointments at WisCon. Luckily, some of them know each other. Or ought to know each other *evil laughter*. For instance, jonquil, do you know ellen_fremedon? Because you totally should. I want there to be an Old Girls Network of Classic Dr. Who fans, hidden in plain sight as they reverse the polarity of the neutron flow.

I have my re-audition for choir on Friday, which means I need to pick something to sing for it Real Soon Now. Like, today.

I don't want to. I'm in a post-concert letdown funk, and I don't want to do anything. Or rather, everything I try to do is not satisfactory to me. Hopefully, this will pass soon.

Stearns gave us a good review for the concert, by the way. Except he said the chorus "audibly tired" in the second half. I don't know if it was being tired so much as being hot. As in, actually sweating, kept awake mostly by the spikes of pain from sore feet and knees. If it hadn't been for the intermission...well. I always think it's a matter of endurance, but it isn't, really. Concert conditions just aren't as comfortable as rehearsal conditions, ever, unless you get a lot of breaks where you sit down.

It's the adrenaline and joy in the music that carries you through.

This morning, I was dreaming about being in a rehearsal, for which I'd flown to Poland--feklar had gone with me. We were in a living room or something, rehearsing, but not everyone had shown up (lj user="feklar">, you were upstairs in our room, not singing, but apparently you were supposed to be singing. I bet you didn't know you could sing). It looked like we were maybe four on a part, a capella. We were rehearsing Verdi's Requiem.

The joke here is that Verdi's Requiem is best with a large choir, or at least a very robust one. Also, I've never sung it, though jensouschef has.

I was back to Bach on the brain radio again as soon as I woke up.

Last night was my night off! I had written during my lunch hour, as I did for three days in a row--total was almost 2000 words, not bad for a concert week. So that meant I could go home and not write. Instead I washed several days' worth of dishes, not that there were a lot, did laundry, changed bedsheets, that sort of thing, and attempted better memorization of the "Confiteor" because that one movement has little accompaniment and is very, very exposed with some difficult harmonics. I feel solid on it now, which is excellent. Then I slept. Oh, glorious sleep.

Dress rehearsal tonight. It's our first and only time to rehearse with the soloists and orchestra.

Tonight is my one night off from rehearsal and I plan to spend it doing laundry and resting. Dress rehearsal is tomorrow night, performance Sunday afternoon.

Last night in rehearsal, I was sleepy, but kept reminding myself to enjoy every minute, because there's only so much time with this piece left. And we had some great minutes. The music has shape now, and flows light and swift, surge and retreat. It's like flying.

I love Bach and I love singing and I love this piece especially, but a little break is lovely. I think I will try to listen to some non-Bach today, to temporarily push the endless Bach soundtrack out of my head.

Bach Fest To End In B Minor Mass, an article about my choir concert this weekend.

My brain radio is glued onto "Cum sancto spiritu" from Bach's B minor mass, the last thing we sang last night.

We're working "Credo" to the end tonight, so perhaps that will be replaced by something else then.

I am sleep deprived.

The rest of this week will be given to Bach, though I'm going to try and do a little writing at lunch time each day.

The final choir rehearsals are tonight and tomorrow night, dress rehearsal on Friday night. Performance of Bach's B Minor Mass on Saturday. Woo!

Tom Purdom reminded me of this awesome, awesome bit from Patrick O'Brian the other day, from the Aubrey-Maturin series. In this section, Jack Aubrey is speaking to Stephen Maturin about some new music he's acquired.

( Bach had a father. )

I should walk around all the time with a Bach soundtrack. I listened to choruses on my walk home yesterday--the first "Kyrie" lasted all the way from my office to the bridge--and on the bus this morning. I get an amazing uplift from the beginning of "Et expecto," and the segue into "Sanctus" is so glorious, so heavenly, so joyful. Perhaps it's that "Sanctus" is when suddenly the chorus goes into six parts, and to set it off, it's all swirling, soaring, spiraling threes.

I've come to realize that while singing is a somatic experience for me, listening is a somatic experience, too.