Yesterday, I received my copy of Faery Moon, by PR Frost! It is the second of her books about Tess Noncoiré, speculative fiction author and undercover demon-fighter, and it features my song "My Fairytale"!

I got about 45 pages into the book on my commute to knitting class last night, and so far, I love it. Unfortunately, it has already been stolen from my grasp by filceolire who came out onto the back porch this morning while I was making a Certain Phone Call to Carphone Warehouse with the book in his hand.

"Hey!" I said, I'm reading that!"

"You were reading it," he replied.

So I guess I'll have to wait a day (he's a fast reader) to find out what happens to Tess—but you don't! Go buy this lovely book, right now! I won't spoil you, but for my filky friends, I can tell you that within the first five chapters of the book (they're bite-sized, good train reading!), the protagonist identifies "There's Bimbo on the Cover of My Book" as the Best Filk Song Ever. ;-)

I'm pleased and honoured to announce that my song 'Like Their Feet Have Wings' has once again been nominated for a 'Best Filk Song' Pegasus Award this year.

Here is a recording for you to listen to, if you like.

Last year shortly after I was nominated for this very award and this very song, it was brought to my attention that people had no idea how to cover it in their various local Pegasus Awards Nominees filks and at convention concerts, so I started writing a series of "How to play my songs" posts. The link to the entry for 'Like Their Feet Have Wings' is here. Other songs I transcribed around that time are saved under the transcription tag. I will be doing this again, starting very soon, as I didn't get to all the songs people wanted transcribed. If you want to see one that's not already on the list of songs to be transcribed, please comment here and I'll try to add it over the next few weeks.

( Lyrics beneath cut tag )

See the whole 2008 Pegasus Award Ballot, vote your choices, and realise that over the past ten years or so, the Pegasus Awards have become an international field of quirky, whimsical, magical, funny, off-the-beaten-path-style songwriting. Filk is full of fantastic songwriters and musicians whose efforts are rightly appreciated by this great process of peer community awards. Thanks and kudos, and probably special awards galore, are due to people like Steve Macdonald, Erica Neely, and Seanan McGuire, plus a host of others, who over the years have popularised, administered, and downright evangelised to increase international awareness of these awards. In the 'best filk song' category, this international flavour is really evident, and the rest of the categories are the same. Americans, Brits, Canadians, Germans, and of course the Greek Contingent, are all amply represented. It's an incredible honour to be listed in a field with these folks, and to have the same song nominated two years running? I'm truly grateful for my community and the honour accorded here.

Thanks, y'all.

I'm a guest blogger now! otherdeb asked me to talk a little more about pens and notebooks and the writing process over at her Wordpress blog. You can read it here.

New Song: Yes

After two years of no songwriting, I finally wrote a song for mine and filceolaire's first wedding anniversary. It wasn't easy; it took weeks. I hope it'll get easier from here on out. I don't pretend that this is great art, but it was so nice to write a singable song after such a long time. Aside from that precious real love and support, the most beautiful gift that J has given me has been London itself. So this is as much a London song as a J song, and all the images really are straight from our house in Southeast London.

I'm afraid to say it's good to be back. But it might be.

( Lyrics below for the interested )

Edit: this round is now CLOSED.

Well, OK. It may be jumping on a bandwagon, since cadhla started this and vixyish (and I'm really sorry I got this name wrong originally) has done it with her special talent as well, and just recently peteralway did it too-- but you know what? I haven't written a song in over a year now, and I'm starting to feel a little bit uncreative.

So, in the spirit of those three luminaries named above, and with help from khaosworks who helped me choose a name for this silliness-with-a-purpose, and folkmew who vetted the rules and gave me moral support-- I invite you to challenge me to...

Iron Bard

What's the Objective?

For each person who comments before the round is closed, I will write a complete song, which may or may not be award- or record- worthy, but which will be a song with a melody and words and which I will have the ability to sing at least once. I reserve the right to choose which songs I sing more than once. ;)

Rules:

1. You must leave a comment to participate.
   
2. In your comment, you may give me any or all of the following things:
   
   1. Subject matter, as little as an idea and as much as a complete story-- the single word 'love' probably won't give me much to go on;
      
   2. Should it be a story song (like Song of Fey Cross or Barbara Allen) or a more abstract song (like Love Song For a Friend or Imagine)?
      
   3. Metre-- 2/4, 4/4, 3/4, 6/8 (only these regular metres, please; I think songs work best in simple metres, and you aren't going to change my mind by submitting a more complex one);
      
   4. A format to follow, like verse, chorus, verse, bridge, chorus, verse-- if you're interested in that sort of thing. You can also tell me if it's important to you that the song have a singable refrain or chorus here. Note that I really think songs end up as long as they need to be, but if you have a strong opinion about length, you can note it here. I'm not planning on writing any 26-verse ballads here, but you never know....
      
   5. Would you like the song to have a major feel, a minor feel, or a modal feel, and if modal, which one? (dorian and mixolydian are the two modes most frequently employed in folk music, although you'll see others-- I'm discounting ionian and aeolian modes here because most people think of those as 'major' and 'minor'. lydian and phyrigian are quite rare, and I'd rather not work in lochrian, because it's difficult to handle melodies that don't resolve the way my ears want to resolve them.)
      
   6. Specific words, settings, names, places, or other things that you would like me to include in 'your' song.
      
   7. When and if this song is completed to performance standard, would you like it to be performed: a) a capella; b) with the harp; or c) with the lap dulcimer?
   
   
3. I appreciate the process of collaboration, but this experiment is intended to force me to write songs and d individual songwriting work. While some of the entries may inspire you, please don't helpfully answer challenges. I get to be the bard in my journal.
   
4. No anonymous (unsigned) submissions will be taken, although people not on my friends list (whose replies will at first be screened) will be considered. If you do not have a LJ account, it is fine for you to post an anonymous reply (which will be screened) with your request, but you must sign your submission with a name that can be verified and tell me where you heard about Iron Bard from. An email address (so I can get your song back to you) would also be helpful. :)
   
5. I will decide when the round closes, or if indeed there will be another round.
   
6. And a late amendment, which will be added in to the rules more gracefully at a later time: despite being part of the filk community, I almost never write about books, tv shows, or films, although I do write about myths, fairytales, and ballads. I'm not sure why that is, but remember that I'm not much for TV and unless the characters are real live archetypes, I tend to make them up as I go along. ;)
   
7. Late amendment the second-- for those of you who don't know, I tend not to set other people's words to music (though the one poem that's been suggested already is one I really like, so I'm considering it anyway).

I do not promise results, but I sure hope I get some. I'll do my best, and that is a promise. I'll tear another leaf from cadhla's book and post responses as comments here, then post reminders to people on the journal as to where completed songs can be found. I do not promise that mp3s will be posted, but I will do my best to get that capability eventually, and if I see you in person, I'll do my best to play 'your' song for you. I do not promise that 'your' song will be about you, but it will of course be inspired by the suggestions you gave me in this happy game of Iron Bard. Obviously, in the end this'll be my work and my song and blah-ti-blah author blah-ti-blah copyright, blah-ti-blah carniverous millipedes, etc.

Let the games begin.