Best Christmas Music

I was lucky to grow up in a family with great musical tastes. I'm not certain whether it was my mother or step-father (or both) who brought in the great albums of my early life, from Led Zeppelin IV to Fleetwood Mac to Simon & Garfunkel and many more. So I was also lucky that this great musical taste meant that I grew up listening to the best Christmas music. I say this because invariably when I hear Christmas music played in public places or in other peoples' homes, I often shake my head and wonder how they can stand listening to the music they are playing. Tastes vary, of course, but some music is just atrocious.

I think these are the best two Christmas albums of all time: The Carpenters, Christmas Portrait, and John Denver and the Muppets, A Christmas Together. Absolutely gorgeous music, and a blend of brilliantly done classics along with some songs I never hear anywhere else, such as the wonderful Merry Christmas Darling by the Carpenters, and several unique songs by John Denver. The voices of John Denver and Karen Carpenter are perfect for Christmas music.

Nothing New in the World

So I started reading a new book the other day. And it's a really well written, fun read. I highly recommend it. It's called Shovel Ready by Adam Sternbergh. The prose is much cooler than mine, much more edgy in style.

It's a near future thriller set in a New York decimated by a dirty bomb, where about the only sci-fi element is how people spend their time addicted to being in an online virtual reality. And that's the part that struck me funny, because though the author names it something different, this aspect of the story is pretty much the same as in my own book that was published the same year, 2014. I call the online virtual reality addiction 'meshing'.

In both of our stories, people buy souped up beds that feed and take care of them so they can 'live' in their virtual reality for long periods of time without the need to come back to the real world. All throughout the book I keep seeing aspects of this that remind me of what I was doing in my book.

 I'm definitely not saying the author stole my idea (though it is possible, given that I began writing my book in 2009 and posted each chapter online as I wrote it--first on the Authonomy writers website and later on Wattpad). I just think we actually and truly had the same basic idea at around the same time. It's like that when you are extrapolating things you see happening today into the future.

And hey, it's like our two novels are set in the same story 'universe'! I like the book, so give it a try.