Alfâm Kuduszodikh - A Study on Music Playlists

*alfâm kuduszodikh – "music list" (ahl-faam kuh-duhs-zaw-dike – approximate pronunciation)

~~~

As promised, I bring you a post on music playlists. I would have written "music playlists" or "lists of music" in dwarvish (Khuzdul), but my source (Dwarrow Scholar) didn't have the words for those translations, lol.

Playlists are an easy way to keep track of songs that you like. You can pile all your favourite songs from one genre, or list all the songs that inspire you in your writing (or drawing, or working out, or doing paperwork or house cleaning or –).

You can build playlists almost anywhere – on iTunes, Spotify, Youtube, etc!

For example, here's a playlist from my Spotify (which I just built :P)

{ Fantasy Inspirational }
https://open.spotify.com/user/mikaelaingram/playlist/2q0A3v5f7MdOsKRq175389

The list contains these songs:

Lúthien's Lament by Eurielle
Lost Girls by Lindsey Stirling
Misty Mountains by Peter Hollens
My Dear Frodo by Howard Shore
Viverti by Mattia Cupelli
Victory by Two Steps from Hell/Thomas Bergersen
Forbidden by Eurielle

Creating playlists might just turn out to be extremely addictive.

Here's another playlist:

{ Steampunk Inspirational – incomplete }
Filled With
Euphoria (album) by Revolt Production Music
Cosmos
Breaking Away
Darkness Falls
Contageous
Euphoria
Embrace
Drive
Persecution
Nightmare
Killshot
Beyond the Wall
and
Palladio by Karl Jenkins
The Submarine by James Newton Howard
Starfall by Driftmoon
Die Walkure, Act III: Ride of the Valkyries by Richard Wagner
Schubert: Symphony No. 8 in B Minor, D. 759, 'Unfinished': I. Allegro moderato by Franz Schubert
Time by Hans Zimmerman

Music is a fun platform to mess with. These two playlists are just examples of what I might end up building on Spotify. I encourage you to build your own if you want to - you can get a free account on Spotify, though you'll have to contend with the occasional ad.

iTunes would be the only platform out there, other than Windows Media Player, that wouldn't force you to listen to adds between ever three or four songs, but you'd have to pay for the music before you can put them into playlists.

Spotify is rather easy to manipulate, though, and forces less adds on you than Youtube, which makes you have to sit through an add at the beginning of every video, with most saying your "video will play after add".

All you have to do on Spotify is find your song and click the three dots to the right of it. There, you click "add to playlist", and it will give you the option to choose which playlist. You just need to create the playlists before you go hunting so that it shows up.

Before I end this, though, I would like to give you a word of caution. Spotify doesn't support the artists who make the songs you listen to on it as much as you'd support the artists if you bought their songs on iTunes or on a CD.

I know this might not be such a big deal for artists who are extremely popular and have money rushing in because, no matter what, their fans will buy their stuff and pay to see them live. But many of the artists who have their music hosted by Spotify are more independent than the biggest superstars and rely on the money they receive when people by their songs. The Piano Guys released a message about this at the end of their Youtube music video of "Celloopa", and they have compensated for the pennies they receive for having their songs on Spotify.

So, yeah. Use Spotify to your heart's content, but consider buying the songs as well in order to support your favourite artists. After all, it doesn't hurt to have it on iTunes or on your MP3 player just in case you go camping where you can't get LTE service or you're running low on data and you just have to listen to those particular songs that are on that playlist of yours.

The world's music is at your fingertips, folks!

– Mikaela

Updates | Bookstagram | FYI

Hey guys! I pause in my NaNoWriMo writing in order to come and tell you of a few updates in my life.

I get that I've been rather quiet on here. There haven't been any new book reviews, but there's been a THM recipe (which is totally easy to make and anyone can enjoy it)! I've been a bit busy with writing, and I've been in a bit of reading slump (Not by Sight drove me insane, I find the main woman character rather unlikable), but my latest book haul has come in.

I had to race a severe thunderstorm in order to get them from the mail box!

(haha... eh -_-)

I learned something today: you can ask Indigo - Canada's biggest bookstore - to swap a book you've just got in the mail for another if you were sent a damaged copy. Out of the books I got, The Tropic of Serpents: a Memoir by Lady Trent by Marie Brennan (the sequel to A Natural History of Dragons) was damaged with the cover being scratched up by extensive handling, and the cover was bent in a place. So, with my mom's advice, I called up customer service, and the nice lady on the other side of the line helped me swap it for a pristine copy of the book, and emailed me a tag for the parcel I'm going to send the copy I have now back.

So - when you run into the problem of your book arriving damaged, call, ask for a pristine replacement, ask for a return label, and say that you will return it. I don't know if it works with other book-store chains, but it should. It would be horrible if it didn't.

My book haul consists of five books - which I bought in order to take advantage of Chapters/Indigo's unplug for the summer promotion, which would net me 4,500 points ($10 worth) on top of however many I got for the books through the normal channel (which is awesome since I'm going back to college this fall). I've provided the covers, because they're all beautiful.

I didn't include The Tropic of Serpents since the copy I have is not the copy I'm keeping.

It's kind of funny that three of the books I ordered were blue, and two had green (because the dragon on the cover of Tropic of Serpents is green. I honestly can't wait to crack into these books. I think I'm going to start with True to You, since I had begun reading it when Bethany House Publishers wanted me to review it - but I ran out of time. I think I'm going to review it anyway, because I was so into it.

Another piece of news: I've finally got a Bookstagram (an Instagram focused on reading and books) up and running! My username is 'space.locomotive' - couldn't think of an interesting or witty book-themed one, so I went with the layman's term of a vehicle in my current writing project. 'Space locomotive' is another name for 'star train'.

I'm so looking forward to posting pictures of books! I've only posted one picture so far - of my TBR pile. But I hope to get a picture of my bookshelf and my newest book haul in the coming week - or maybe in the next couple of days.

Of course, my bookstagram won't only be for the books I review or take pictures of (I'll likely post a picture of the book I've just read and provide a link in the post to the review here), it'll also host pictures and updates of the stories I hope will one day publish. They'll be simpler echoes of what I post here n_n

Today was a good day, and it wasn't dampened by the thunderstorm we had this afternoon!

Though having to lower my wordcount goal for Camp NaNoWriMo another 10k was a bit of a bummer. I was hoping to have Murder of Whimsey relatively finished by the end of this month.

10 Random Books to Tell you About me

I found this on the blog Stuck in a Book, and thought I should give it a try. So with a mug of coffee, and a break in the time I've put aside to clean my room, I'm going to use a random number generator to pick out the ten books randomly, since I don't trust my hands, lol.

I might have cheated with the number generator, and I took books from my bookshelf and my Kindle. and I chose only the ones I've read in order for more authentic responses. I also listed them in alphabetical order in order to sate my perfectionist side, which will definitely rear its ugly head once this is posted due to the errors I won't notice until then.

Cinder by Merissa Meyer

I've reviewed this book, and I found it extremely gripping despite the fact that there were a few things I didn't like. I loved the futuristic, cyber-punk take on the Cinderella story, despite the fact it didn't turn out like the fairy tale and that Cinder's story is far from over (there's three other main stories that come after this). I got this book after seeing it floating around the bookworm world, and decided to give it a shot. I bought it at a Chapters in Edmonton over a year ago. I love the simplicity of the cover, despite the fact Cinder didn't wear red glass high heels to the ball, and she ended up losing a cyborg foot instead if a shoe. haha

Dreamlander by K.M. Weiland

This was a treasure. When I think of a good book along the lines of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, Dreamlander pops to mind. Makes me wonder if I should change my penname from 'Mikaela A. Ingram' to 'M. A. Ingram' – because most of my favourite fantasy books are written by those who have more than one initial in their penname X3 I super enjoyed this book because, despite the length of it, it kept me hooked and the pace was lively. The thing I loved most about it was that the man on the cover, the main character, reminds me of Canadian actor Yannick Bisson, and so I imagined him as such throughout the entirety of the book (as he looked in Sue Thomas F.B.Eye). I'm such a nerd. And it only took me a weekend to finish it, despite the fact that it was over 400 pages long! I got it after I found out about K.M. Weiland and started following her writing advice.

Fractured by Rae Elliott

This was another good book I found through my search for writing advice. Up to the point in which I found this novel, I had wondered if someone out there had mashed science fiction and fantasy into a science fantasy that involved an android somehow. I'm so glad I was able to support an indie writer while also finding such a gem.

The Maid of Fairbourne Hall by Julie Klassen

I got this book from Bethany House Publishers' review program a few years ago, back when I still ran my old blog "Pen to Paper". I believe this was the book that ended that review period, because I couldn't get into it when I got it. This last year, I fell into it and was unable to put it down until it was finished. It was so good! I guess I really like reading books where the main character has to stay hidden and experiences nail-biting instances almost constantly. This was so good! She was in love with the lord of the manor, but she couldn't let him know it was her!

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

This book let itself be known when I was in my Sherlock Holmes phase, and was sitting on "Sherlock's Shelf" section of Chapters when it was around. This was the book that introduced me to Hercule Poirot, and I found myself gripped by the happenings in the story – couldn't figure out who the killer was until the end! Through this book I would eventually come across series 7 – 12 on Netflix of Agatha Christie's Poirot, which I enjoy watching every time I have the chance to watch. I love this Mr. Poirot.

A Natural History of Dragons, a Memoir by Lady Trent by Marie Brennan

Such a treat, this one is. This was the first book I've found where a fantasy takes place in a Victorian setting, and not a medieval one (there ought to more, I think). I heard about this book from the bookworm's grapevine as well, and I think I finished it in, like, in a day. When I should have been writing my C.S. Lewis paper at college. This one's a fantasy in the fact that there are dragons, and I absolutely love dragons. I look forward to collecting the rest of the series once I have the money.

The Secret of Pembrooke Park by Julie Klassen

I got this one because I want to, one day, own all of Julie Klassen's novels. She's such a talented writer, and every one of her books sucks me back to the regency era. This one, though, didn't really engage me like I hoped, and seemed to stretch on longer than it should have. The atmosphere was interesting, but there was just too much going on. I'm attempting to read her The Dancing Master, but I'm having trouble, and I could only chalk it up to the fact that I'm not interesting in going to the regency era right now.

The Transformers: All Hail Optimus

Yes, I'm a nerd. A Transformers nerd. With the current storyline going on, with Optimus Prime (the mech on the cover), I was curious to see what was going on when it was said that this volume would cover events in which Optimus would try to annex Earth into the Cybertronian Empire. Poor guy, Optimus is only trying to annex Earth in order to keep it safe from the rest of the galaxy!

I got this when my uncle gave me an Amazon gift card for my birthday. So I can say that my uncle bought this for me :3

Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye Volume 4

Yeah, I'm not going to post the cover here. It's not like it depicts anything overly bad, it just has a bit of violence. So I'm going to spare anyone who's a little sensitive to that, and not post it here. Yeah, having Overlord's fist sticking out through Ultra Magnus' chest is a little violent (out of all covers of the issues contained inside it, they had to pick that one).

I bought this one back in January, but didn't receive it until I got home from college since Indigo deemed it necessary to send me Volume 5 before Volume 4, haha. I haven't really cracked it open yet since I care about most of the characters in the story, and I know they're going to get hurt (I've read a couple of the issues in it). Haha, get over yourself, Mikaela.

Two Renegade Realms by Donita K. Paul

This book left me with so many questions when I finished it. And what's frustrating was that its sequel, the final instalment of the Realm Walkers Trilogy, was slated to be released back in January-February of 2016, but then Donita K. Paul fell ill and Zondervan dropped her. Now we don't know when it'll come out.

I found this book and the first of it's trilogy in an Indigo of all places, which I found rather odd since it contains Christian themes and is written by a Christian authoress. I laugh, since Indigo seemingly doesn't know!



These are the ten books I shared so you guys could learn a bit more about me. This was fun :3

If you'd like to do this for yourself, click on the Stuck in a Book link I've provided at the top of the post.

Writing Update

It's days like to day, ones where I spend the time doing what I want while anxiously dreading the coming week, that I think about my original stories while keeping an eye on Deep Space Nine as it plays on a window seperate from the one I'm writing this blog post on.

Yeah, I can't seem to stop multi-tasking. My mom says I'm a master at it.

Well, it's a skill I got from my mother, so I can only blame Mom, haha.

Usually I don't like to talk about my stories since they usually fall through and fade away like "A Galaxy So Fickle" did (though it's an idea that has been archived. I would like to recycle it again). But, since this is my blog, I should really write something other than book, movie, and TV show reviews. That's all it's been for the last few months, and people read my blog, so...

Yeah, I'll write about something. I want to expand the horizons of this blog (if that makes sense), and in the future I want to write about the differences between Science-Fiction-Steampunk and Fantasy-Steampunk. But right now, I'm going to talk about my latest novel project.

Over the last couple of months, I've been working on the backbone and outline of a novel project I've submitted to Camp Nanowrimo as "The Sceptre of Raja-dûmé" (pronounced: rah-ZHah doom-may). It's about a gentleman thief named Fletcher Broome (one of those characters that have been on reserve, waiting for their story to come along).

I've been following how-to's written by K.M. Weiland (yes, the authoress of Dreamlander!) that can be found on her website www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com, and so far I kind of know where the story is going to go. But I don't exactly know what's going to happen after Fletcher gets to the sands of the Endless Desert on Dekartaal... will he wander the sands for a week before he's found, or will he run into someone right away?

I'll have to keep planning. Camp Nanowrimo April is coming up fast, so the story has to have a better background before April 1st. So, yeah...

Book Review: Dreamlander

Dreamlander. K.M. Weiland. 2012. PenForASword Publishers. Pages: 544. [Source: Bought]

What if it were possible to live two very different lives in two separate worlds? What if the dreams we awaken from are the fading memories of that second life? What if one day we woke up in the wrong world?

~~~

Rating: 

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

This book... man, what a treasure! I am so glad I stumbled upon it. I can only thank K.M. Weiland for her leading me to her story, since I've been reading and trying to follow along with her writing advice.

Immediately, I found myself connecting with Chris Redston, the main character of the story. Usually, it takes me two or more chapters to settle down and decide if I like the main character enough to want to follow them through the rest of the story. My connection with Chris was stronger than with any character than I can remember in recent memory. And that thrilled me.

Due to college, the first 25 to 40% were kind of slow, and it took me longer than I liked to get reading. But then I couldn't put it down, and I ended up eating up the rest of the novel like it was the best of Swiss chocolate. Everything was so well-rounded, and you knew what all the main players were doing when you needed to know what they were going. Usually, writers tend to follow the main character and sometimes the deuteragonist, and other important characters would pop up and strike with their plot-twisting purpose before promptly vanishing again. But not in Dreamlander.

You followed Chris, Allara, and Orias Tarn almost evenly throughout this 60-chapter story.

~~~

So his life was careening toward a dead end.

So he was using work as an excuse to run away. 

At least it was safe. At least it was sane. Mostly.

~~~

I loved the genre of this story so much. I went in thinking it was a high fantasy and wondering exactly what the glowing device was in Chris' hand on the cover. But then it quickly occurred to me, when Chris became more and more immersed in the "dream world" - the world Chris would go to when he fell asleep - that it was high fantasy mixed with steampunk. And I love steampunk just as much as fantasy and science fiction.

K.M. Weiland's writing voice was so smooth that it didn't distract me from the story. The dream world and the countries of Lael and Koraud felt so real that I could see myself navigating the streets as if I was following Chris as he went about. I didn't want to leave when Chris left.

I felt fear and connected with the events of the story when I was introduced to the protesters and eventual terrorists/rebels who joined with the bad guys. Nateros (I think that was how it was spelled) echoed with so many things that are happening today, in reality, and it took my breath away, because she was able to make it believable.

This is definitely a book I would like to get in physical format when and if she makes a sequel for it (because I've heard she's been considering it...). And I definitely want to read it again someday. Great job, K.M.!

There was so much I felt when reading this story, but there's no possible way I would be able to put it all down!