Square Pig in a Round Hole-September 1, 2018

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Square PigNaming a band is an act of concentrated creative expression. Square Pig in a Round Hole exists to reward five favorite band names each week. Winners are (usually) listed alphabetically.

Selection is wholly unscientific and subject to whim, with a bias toward wordplay, humor, and local flavor. In most cases, I won’t know anything about the bands at the time of selection. Thanks to the Seattle Times club listings for abundant source material!

Right on schedule, it’s cool and overcast. But not raining, ironically good news for those attending Bumbershoot. I remember when tickets were $3.50 or $4; my spouse remembers when the event was free. If like us you can’t afford $100ish per day or $200ish for the whole weekend, there are still plenty of cheap shows out there. You might even encounter one of these bands:

Ceramic Animal

20180901_135852Nostalgia hit! As a child I had what we called my “breakable collection”–kitschy decorative ceramic animals (and some people). The only one with a practical use was a piggy bank (not square). When they inevitably fell on the floor and broke, I would glue them back together and restore them to their place of dusty honor. I still have a few.

Grizzly Business

By happy accident of English spelling, this has an ear rhyme with no eye rhyme, as well as a gorier sonic connotation. I prefer to picture bears in suits, doing what they do.

Maximum Mad

The Road Warrior’s full legal name.

Squarecrow

More fun with spelling! Us square critters gotta stick together, but crows are never anything but cool.

What’s Wrong

Where to start? Alternatively, if what is wrong, maybe you meant who. (And they were on a bill with Square Pig faves Mud on My Bra!)

 

Shameless Self-Promotion: On Saturday, October 6 at 2:00 p.m., I will be reading and signing my new fantasy novel Daughter of Magic at The Neverending Bookshop. Joining me will be Mikko Azul, author of The Staff of Fire and Bone. Come say hi!

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Square Pig in a Round Hole-August 25, 2018

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Square PigNaming a band is an act of concentrated creative expression. Square Pig in a Round Hole exists to reward five favorite band names each week. Winners are (usually) listed alphabetically.

Selection is wholly unscientific and subject to whim, with a bias toward wordplay, humor, and local flavor. In most cases, I won’t know anything about the bands at the time of selection. Thanks to the Seattle Times club listings for abundant source material!

It’s been a quiet week of avoiding smoke and reading other people’s books before I dive back into my own work-in-progress. But after several weeks off, Your Mother Should Know is on schedule to begin recording our next two tracks, now that our practice space/studio is tolerably cool. Watch for “’68 Chevelle” and “Jerseyville,” coming soon!

Band names never rest, and these five caught my eye:

Bad Bad Hats

Would these be good hats? Because there are no bad hats, only bad hat owners.

Dead On Cue

Accuracy, or a specialized theatrical talent.

The Done Ones

Points for rhyming and being definite. They’re done. Don’t even start.

Gadgetor

Robot monster! Monster robot! It’s been awhile since I picked up that great B movie vibe.

Infinite Neck

A giraffe the size of the universe. It would still have seven cervical vertebrae, but would each one of them also be infinite?

 

Shameless Self-Promotion: On Saturday, October 6 at 2:00 p.m., I will be reading and signing my new fantasy novel Daughter of Magic at The Neverending Bookshop. Joining me will be Mikko Azul, author of The Staff of Fire and Bone. Come say hi!

Facebook event

Square Pig in a Round Hole-July 28, 2018

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Square PigNaming a band is an act of concentrated creative expression. Square Pig in a Round Hole exists to reward five favorite band names each week. Winners are (usually) listed alphabetically.

Selection is wholly unscientific and subject to whim, with a bias toward wordplay, humor, and local flavor. In most cases, I won’t know anything about the bands at the time of selection. Thanks to the Seattle Times club listings for abundant source material!

My birthday is next Monday, so yesterday I walked home from work (5 miles), a tradition now in its 6th year. Because nothing is  open on Mondays and we also have another commitment, we’re going out to celebrate tonight, voyaging by water taxi to Alki. The Torchlight Parade is tonight, so it’s anyone’s guess how or when we’ll get home. Maybe I’ll accidentally see the parade for the first time, which seems like a pretty good birthday party. As always, I’m celebrating band names, too.

awakebutstillinbed

This could be that delicious feeling on a Saturday morning when you don’t have anything you have to do and just lounge around until you’re hungry; or that horrible feeling when you have tons to do but you’re too depressed to move. Let’s hope for more of the former.

Bath Toys

So many rubber ducks and plastic boats that you don’t notice the toddler has escaped until they’re running naked and giggling through the house.

Big Pig Apocalypse

Uh oh, the pigs object to being launched. It’s all over now.

Cicada Rhythm

I love when a similar-sounding word is swapped in and the phrase still makes sense. Cicadas (AKA Screaming Land Shrimp) make music that can’t be ignored.

Kitty Kat Fan Club

Our feline friends couldn’t care less about our human musics but will still permit us to worship them, preferably with offerings of wet food.

Shameless Self-promotion:

Reading & Book Talk, TOMORROW Sunday, July 29 12:15 p.m. at Prospect UCC, 1919 E Prospect St, Seattle. I will read excerpts from my new fantasy novel Daughter of Magic and talk about how the book came to be, followed by Q&A and prize drawing. Books will be available for purchase at the event. Because the book features a teenage girl and is one of nine books by women authors to be released by Not A Pipe Publishing in 2018, The Year of Publishing Women, donations will be accepted for the Seattle chapter of Days for Girls. This non-profit organization provides durable, reusable feminine hygiene supplies to girls and women in developing countries, allowing them to attend school or work during their periods.

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Square Pig in a Round Hole-July 21, 2018

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Square PigNaming a band is an act of concentrated creative expression. Square Pig in a Round Hole exists to reward five favorite band names each week. Winners are (usually) listed alphabetically.

Selection is wholly unscientific and subject to whim, with a bias toward wordplay, humor, and local flavor. In most cases, I won’t know anything about the bands at the time of selection. Thanks to the Seattle Times club listings for abundant source material!

Nice weekend for Capitol Hill Block Party, if you like that sort of thing. As far as I know, none of these bands are playing it:

Dweller on the Hill

I like the literary vibe, and that it would work in several genres. Is this the wise one the protagonist seeks; a shadowy threat; or the noble to be overthrown?

Earth Groans

Are these death throes or the birth of a new world?

Scorn Dog

Derision, deep-fried on a stick at the punk county fair.

Stacked Like Pancakes

Describes a figure far from the popular ideal. Also far more delicious than a brick outhouse.

Suicide Forest

Moody and dark. You can only enter alone.

Shameless Self-promotion:

Reading & Book Talk, Sunday, July 29 12:15 p.m. at Prospect UCC, 1919 E Prospect St, Seattle. I will read excerpts from my new fantasy novel Daughter of Magic and talk about how the book came to be, followed by Q&A and prize drawing. Books will be available for purchase at the event. Because the book features a teenage girl and is one of nine books by women authors to be released by Not A Pipe Publishing in 2018, The Year of Publishing Women, donations will be accepted for the Seattle chapter of Days for Girls. This non-profit organization provides durable, reusable feminine hygiene supplies to girls and women in developing countries, allowing them to attend school or work during their periods.

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Review: The Supernormal Legacy: Book 2: Root

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RootThe Supernormal Legacy: Book 2: Root (Not A Pipe Publishing, 2018) by LeeAnn McLennan

Book 2: Root picks up 6 months after the events of Book 1: Dormant (read my review here), in which Olivia Woodson developed the supernormal abilities she’d been suppressing since childhood, in time to help defeat a rogue supernormal cousin who had joined a terrorist organization. That cousin is in prison, but the rest of the Brighthall cousins are kept busy by an influx of monsters, many of them rarely if ever found in Portland, OR. And Olivia is having visions of her cousin breaking out of prison, but that’s impossible: supernormals don’t have visions.

Olivia is equal parts appealing and exasperating, for the same reason: she thinks like a teenager. She makes bad decisions for good reasons and continually finds herself in trouble with authority figures, usually because she’s trying to stay out of trouble. For example, she keeps her visions to herself because she’s sure she knows how the adults will react and she’d rather not go there. With good reason: more than one of these super-powered adults is dealing poorly with past trauma and tends to blow up at the nearest target. Young readers might miss that aspect of the story, but I found it compelling and moving. Olivia’s normal father has processed his grief over her mother’s death much better that her supernormal aunts and uncles, who aren’t used to needing help. Olivia’s secret strength may be her connection to the normal world, so I was pleased to see her make an effort to maintain relationships with her normal friends.

Although there’s some “sequel syndrome” here, having to re-introduce characters and situations, it is lessened by the introduction of a host of peculiar, goofy, gross, and/or terrifying monsters, such as a vampire-like thing that feeds on human lymphatic fluid. There were almost too many for me to keep track of, but that may have been the point; I think Olivia felt the same way.

Meanwhile, Olivia harbors warm feelings for another young supernormal, but he’s locked up and in a medically-induced coma to suppress his mindreading ability. When he’s released to help track the escaped prisoners, Olivia makes additional ill-advised but well-intentioned choices that lead to a road trip, a ghost town, grave peril, and a cliffhanger ending. There better be a Book 3!

Square Pig in a Round Hole-July 16, 2018

· Leave a comment ·

Square PigNaming a band is an act of concentrated creative expression. Square Pig in a Round Hole exists to reward five favorite band names each week. Winners are (usually) listed alphabetically.

Selection is wholly unscientific and subject to whim, with a bias toward wordplay, humor, and local flavor. In most cases, I won’t know anything about the bands at the time of selection. Thanks to the Seattle Times club listings for abundant source material!

This is usually a Saturday blog, but I was out of town this past weekend for a group book signing with several of my fellow Not a Pipe Publishing authors. (Although we didn’t sell a lot of books, it was great fun to bond over punctuation as we plotted where to go next. But if you’re ever at a bookstore where an author is signing, at least go over and say hello. It will make their day and you might discover a new favorite.) Meanwhile, I couldn’t let this list of band names go to waste:

Full Vinyl Jacket

Take a pop-culture reference and replace one word. The reference is still there and it still makes sense but in a whole new way that just happens to be perfect for a ’70s cover band.

The Hot McGandhis

It’s a good thing I read with my ears or I might have missed this one. How is it that things that look and mean nothing alike can sound almost identical?

Maension

Many Rooms

Although not on the same bill or in the same genre, these two seem to belong together because what is a mansion (however spelled) if not many rooms? I also hear a biblical reference about what is being prepared for the faithful.

The Viking Surfers

Who but vikings would be tough enough to surf cold northern waters? But how do they carry the plunder home?

 

Shameless Self-promotion:

Reading & Book Talk, Sunday, July 29 12:15 p.m. at Prospect UCC, 1919 E Prospect St, Seattle. I will read excerpts from my new fantasy novel Daughter of Magic and talk about how the book came to be, followed by Q&A. Books will be available for purchase at the event. Because the book features a teenage girl and is one of nine books by women authors to be released by Not A Pipe Publishing in 2018, The Year of Publishing Women, donations will be accepted for the Seattle chapter of Days for Girls. This non-profit organization provides durable, reusable feminine hygiene supplies to girls and women in developing countries, allowing them to attend school or work during their periods.

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