So today I'm thinking about music. Actually TODAY I'm thinking about the fact that my Western Civilization class finally added me back after dropping me the first day because I had a driver's test and didn't show up (yay persistance)and the fact that I just got a novel chapter length e-mail from a friend in China who I haven't talked to in probably a year. (Actually I've never talked to her at all the for real, in person kind of way, but we've been internet friends since we were both in high school seven or eight years ago.) A member of my crit group also just moved to Japan and another friend I've know forever is going to move there in December. Why is everyone suddenly in Asia?

At any rate, YESTERDAY, when I decided what I was going to ramble about today, I was thinking about music and so now I am about to start thinking about that again.

Music. If I were the type to use, music would be my drug of choice. I used to be a music major and sometimes it just felt like a bad addiction. I HATED being on stage. I hadn't decided to learn any kind of instrument until I was sixteen and had no natural aptitude for any of the ones I tried. And yet somehow I couldn't stop. I wanted to know music. I wanted to be music. To control with a twist and weave of my fingers the way my classmates did. I wanted it to obsorb me completely, and take me to whatever majical place it trickled down from. Becuase how could anything so sweet, so perfect, so exciting, come from our world? How could it even be compared with ordinary life?

Maybe that's why it didn't work out for me. Chopin and Motzart and Joplin and the unknown composers of folk tunes were too unreal for me. Too Other. I couldn't think of them with the casual, every day aditude the other musicians had. They played music. That was what they did. There wasn't anything special about it. It was just a part of who they were.

Some people like to say there is no such thing as inner born talent. People who say that have never seen my little brother pick up an instrument he's never touched before and start playing. Talent needs to be nurtured. It sometimes manifests itself later in life or when you least expect it, but it exists.

So my allotment of musical talent is small. That doesn't mean I don't still fiddle around on the piano from time to time. That doesn't mean that my fingers don't twitch when I hear a strain of particularly etherial flute notes and long more than anything to be the one holding that flute. It just means I know where my stronger talent lies. The one that is just a part of who I am. What I do.

Writing.

I wonder sometimes if when those classmates played their finals all they heard were their mistakes. I wonder if they agonized about them afterwards and went over in their heads about what went wrong.

Actually I know they did. I listened to them do it sometimes. "I held those notes too long. Did you notice when I acidently hit a mnor chord instead of a major?" To which I laughed nervously. Manically. I didn't hear their mistakes. What I heard was magic, otherworldly.

So then I look at my drafts. The long ones, and short ones, and finished and unfinished ones. The run on sentances and typos and over use of the word "saids" and wonder if my readers will even see those. That doesn't mean I'll ever stop agonizing over them or trying to find the exact perfect turn of phrase but I wonder if--or maybe hope that --my readers might see past the mechanics. If maybe to them the story itself will seem otherworldly.

What I Haven't Been Doing

Writing. That's what I haven't been doing. Not really. Not in proportion to all the time I've had lately to devote to it. Instead I have been

Going to costume parties


Sitting around the backyard firepit


Exploring Beaches


Going to More costume parties


Exploring more beaches


Having Tea


And generally making a hoolagin of myself.

You may remember a post of summer goals a couple months back. Let's see how I have fared.

1) Query----I sent off six. Does that count?

2) Finish my current WIP --- I'm about thirty pages further along than I was

3) Write short stories with particular magazines in mind for them ---Uh . . . I started one new story but didn't finish it

4) Read --Well this one was a lot easier. I got quite a bit more than usual reading in.

The point is that despite the fact that I am only six days away from returning to a classroom to run my mind through obstacle courses. Despite the fact that my free time will soon be so sparce that every moment of it will be spent before I get to it. Despite the fact that my list of goals and list of accomplishments for this summer look nothing alike. . .

I don't regret the way I've spent my time.

Stillness is a difficult lesson to learn.

Sometimes we need a little quiet, a little inspiration, a little experience. All writing is ultimately about life. What's the point if we don't live as well?

Three is a Magic Number

Eek. Now I have school house rocks stuck in my head.


But on to important things, there are three of them that I should like to pass on to you.

First, I have been accepted into the society of The Secret Archives of the Alliterati! Starting tommorrow I will be blogging there on Thursdays along with L.T. Host on Monddays, Keriann Greaney Martin on Tuesdays, Matthew Delman on Wendsdays, and K. Marie Cridle on Fridays. I am so excited to be in such good company! it is going to be so much fun! Taliesin will still be here though to house my book reviews, character interviews, dabblings in poetry and any other contemplations more vaguely connected to writing.

Second, L.G. Smith over at Bards and Prphets has granted me the honor of the Stylish Blogger Award. Thank you L.G!



Here are the rules:

1. Thank the giver and link back to the blogger who gave it to you.
2. Reveal your top 5 picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.
3. Copy and paste the award on your blog.
4. Have faith that your followers will spread the love to other bloggers.
5. And most of all - have bloggity-blog fun!

And in addition I am meant to reveal seven things about myself. I am going to cheat and call my first anouncement (about the Allitarti. You remember that one don't you?) number one and my last anouncement (still to come) as my seventh. That leaves five in between.

hmmm.

I wear hats. A lot. I'm sort of an addict.

I sometimes (now for example) come into Starbucks and use their wifi without ordering a drink but consider myself justified by remembering how many times I come in to use or not use their wifi and DO order a drink

I cut my hair for the first time in my life last month (apart from trimming or layering) and LOVE it.

I can't dra unless they are stick figures and even then the lines aren't very straight.

At one point I declared myself a music major and took a year of music theory . . . before realiziing I didn't actually play an instrument

And who to pass this deluctable award on to . . .

1) Anita Grace Howard at A Still and Quiet Madness because she is always so generous in passing on awards and I'm stillin love with her blog name

2)Yvonne Ozbourne at The Organic Wirter for her different persectives on writing and other pieces of life

3)Adam Heine at Author's Echo because he lives half way aorund the world and still blogs for us

4)Lydia Kang and The Word is My Oyster for her fantastig drawings at the beginning of her posts and her insightful plot related medical advise.

5)Stephanie Thornton because she makes me love ancient history as much as she does

You seserve it. I love reading your posts!


And now for my final piece of all important information. I have at last joined the collective and am on twitter. Sntill o idea what I'm doing at this point but follow me at taryn_tyler so I can find you!

How's that for a long and undirected post? have a good week friends and happy writing!

What You REALLY Didn't want to know.

I know. I said I would put this up last week after the other meme. There may have been a sojourn to Disneyland that put my inclination to blog on hold. I appologize.

However . . .

What has now been a couple weeks ago Anita Grace Howard tagged me in Greenwoman's Diabolical Panty Meme to end all memes (about underclothes)!

I won't be offended if you click on the back button right about now. I really won't.

Nonetheless:


What do you call your panties / underwear / undergarments? Do you have any commonly used nicknames for them?

Just 'underwear'. Every once in a while I have a boring answer for you. *Grins sheepishly while you all snort at the "once in a while"*

Have you ever had that supposedly common dream of being in a crowded place in only your underwear?

No. But I have had it before without the underwear.


What is the worst thing you can think of to make panties out of?

Iron. What if a feary wanted to wear a pair?

If you were a pair of panties, what color would you be, and WHY?

Black and white stripes. To represent duality. And because black and white is the best possible combination of colors --becuase it is both all of them and none of them and just looks really cool.

Have you ever thrown your panties/underwear at a rock star or other celebrity? If so, which one(s)? If not, which one(s) WOULD you throw your panties/underwear at, given the opportunity?

Not unless I sleepwalk and don't know it, which is, I suppos,e a possibility but you would think at least one memeber of my household would have mentioned that habbit to me. The sleepwalking that is, not the underwear throwing. I would hope they wouldn't find out about that one. If it existed.

You’re out of clean panties. What do you do?

Wash some?

Are you old enough to remember Underoos? If so, did you have any? Which ones?

I don't beleive so. The image that comes to mind is a kangaroo in long johns.

If you could have any message printed on your panties, what would it be?

"To be worn and not seen"

How many bloggers does it take to put panties on a goat?

Three. One to provide the goat, one to provide the panties and one to provide the jokes. I volunteer for the final possition *pauses to a chorus on groans*

Tag Four People and tell them why you are being so cruel to them.
1. L.T. Host because you are foolish enough to invite me to join you at The Secret Archives of the Alliterati and I want to remind you what you are getting into.

2. Erin Kane Spock because you have the word bloomers in your blog tittle and I want to know what you will have to say about sixteenth century underwear.

3. L.G. Smith because this is my sick way of thanking you for the Stylish Blogger Award I have yet to pass along.

4. Laila Knight because you were brave enough to become my newest follower and I figured it would be best to get the embarassing part of our introductions out of the way as soon as possible.

Happy writing and enjoy your underwear!