Coffee Talk: Music, Long Weekends, and Writing

Good afternoon and welcome to another edition of Coffee Talk. Normally, I put these up in the mornings, when I'm actually drinking coffee, but I slept in as late as possible today and didn't have any coffee until later. Still, somewhere, somebody is drinking coffee...so, let's begin.

If you've been following my blog for a while, or if you just know me well enough, you already know that I am a music fanatic. The reason for this is two-fold. One, I grew up in a household without television, so music was what we did, and, two, music is amazing! I like a few genres, but, without a doubt, metal is my favorite and has been since I was in junior high. A handful of years ago, all my CDs were stolen, much to my dismay, but two years ago I discovered Bandcamp and I've slowly been building up my music collection again. Granted, I own more digital albums than physical ones, but music is music! I love Bandcamp. You can find music by genre, allowing you to discover new music in your favorite one. You'll get to sample at least some of the songs on any given album, if not the whole thing, and, if you like it, you can put it in your Wishlist for later or straight-up buy it. Pretty great, if you ask me.

This last weekend was a holiday weekend which meant it was a three-day weekend for some of us - like me. I took a trip down to Kansas City to attend Devastation on the Nation. DotN is a tour going on right now that consists of four long-time, killer black and death metal bands. I got right up to the stage as soon as the doors opened, and stayed there the entire show. Of course, that's Rule #1 for attending a metal concert. Get to the stage and don't leave it for anything. Not to pee, not to get a drink...nothing! I met a few cool people but one dude, in particular, was really awesome. Saved me from getting knocked down a few times and prevented another guy from trying to boot me from my stage position. The rest of the weekend, I was mostly lazy. I was tired from the concert and so just relaxed on Sunday. On Monday, I went out for a hike and took a tumble off a patch of mud. I'm stiff and sore from that fall, so I went home and just relaxed again...this time with vodka.

Well, I told you all how I'm writing again. I'm pretty excited about it. I'm approaching this book a bit differently than my previous books. I've made a cool cover for it, and, amazingly, I think it looks killer right from the start. I'll be posting a teaser from it within the next month or so, so stay tuned. And, of course, the cover will be revealed soon as well. I'm thinking of doing another short story series via my newsletter? What do you all think? Comment below.

Have a great week, friends!

-H.A.