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Tag: Queensryche

A Dream Come True

This past Saturday, something very cool happened. 🙂 I got to see my favorite band, Queensryche, up close and personal, from THE FRONT ROW. But let me back up just a bit. Anyone who’s spent any time with me knows that these guys are my passion, my life, my happy. I’ve been a fan since the 90s (as a teenager — I’m totally dating myself here, oops!) and I’ve hung in there, mostly, through their “dark ages” album phase and their lead singer change (for the better!) — I mean, Todd La Torre saved them from oblivion in 2012, but that’s another story. They respect and love their fans, and make a point of connecting with them on social media. They care. Not just because we’re paying for albums, merch, or to see them live, but because we are real people and we matter to them. How often do you find a band like that? Or a lead singer who randomly tweets you (and he isn’t following you) on Twitter/X three minutes after you tweet that you are devastated about having to (TW: pet death) euthanize your elderly cat in an hour and he’s giving you his condolences? Yeah. Okay, so I love these guys, and every time they tour and come to my state, I literally drop everything and move heaven and Earth to go. Seriously. I missed a few of Todd’s first tours with the band, due to some unavoidable circumstances, and I will forever never forgive myself…

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It’s Alive!!

…And no, I’m not talking about Frankenstein. Although I could draw some very interesting parallels — stay with me, here. Okay, so let me start from the beginning. Every January (or in the case of this year, February because reasons), I pick a languishing novel out of my pile to start the new year off with. I don’t actually continue working on it, but I give it a bit of time, just to keep it in the background of my mind, refill the well, remind myself that it still exists, and experience the magic again. It’s tradition. Currently, I have three such novels. So I wanted to work on a different one from last year, so I chose Survivor, my oldest work to date. For those of you just joining the madness, Survivor is a psychological thriller/horror novel I started way back in 2004 for a two-year novel writing class I was taking at the time. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. It ended up being one of the best books I’ve ever written — and the most maddening, for a variety of reasons. But I love it, believe in it, and this book haunts me. YES. So the goal is to get it published, naturally…except…um…it needs a major rewrite because 2004!Erin just wasn’t as good a writer as 2023!Erin. And well, the book’s in pieces, and — (Frankenstein reference, anyone?) well, it’s been majorly intimidating me for years, but…in 2019 or so, I decided that…

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Gratitude

Sometimes, in the hustle and bustle of daily life, we forget to stop and give thanks for our blessings. I know I do. Frequently. It’s easy to take for granted that we’re healthy, or that we’ve got food to eat, or a roof over our heads. We forget that there are people out there who don’t have those things. And then it’s like, whoa, I am so lucky. I need to thank God/the Universe/whomever for this. Every Thanksgiving I try my best to practice gratitude. At our table, we list our blessings and what we are thankful for. It’s a small but very powerful thing. It reminds us that we should never take anything for granted. As you know, my health has never been perfect. But I am very lucky in that I’ve never had cancer or any other serious or life-threatening illness. I’ve never had to think about what happens after I’m gone in a very real way (versus abstractly right now) or actually make preparations for that possibility or say goodbyes or be faced with options that will either give me three great months or seven horrible ones. I thank God for that all the time. Yeah, I get frustrated with things — the severe fatigue, the sleep issues, the little stuff that pops up…but nothing’s killing me. I’m lucky. So damn lucky. I’m also grateful for my business, my job, which allows me to work from home and not jeopardize my health worse by having to work…

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