Lightening Strikes My Hometown...

June 24, 2016.....

"Lightening Leather", Flesh Cauldron's newest album, is finally released.

Troubled Waters holds a celebratory live music show at the Michelin Social and Athletics Club in their hometown of Bridgewater, Nova Scotia. 

It turned out to be a great lineup, despite only TWO bands being able to perform that night. Flesh Cauldron was the featured band, with Whom Gods Destroy opening for them.

Yours truly was there, of course, and right at the front of the small gathering to cheer on her brothers and Tim, and to congratulate Ovie and Chris of Flesh Cauldron on the release of their new album. 

WGD's set didn't start until about 8 or so, but it was a great set. Songs included "She May Be Evil", "Higher Planes" and of course, the hard rock version of their country song, "God Invented Days Like This for Drinkin'". Their next album is due to be released sometime later this year, or maybe sometime next year. I'm not sure on that, I'll have to talk to the guys about how their post production is coming along. Hopefully it's soon. It's been five years since "Signs of Life" was released. We fans need new music, dammit!! LOL 

I am now glad I took my regular camera with me as backup, because the battery on the "small" tablet happened to croak just as WGD's set was wrapping up.

Hence why Flesh Cauldron's set wasn't on video on my end, and their pictures look different than WGD's. 

Anyway, their set was perfect. You couldn't have gotten a better thrash metal performance. 

Before Ovie and Chris can say they weren't perfect, but the "drummer" was, yes, you two *WERE* perfect performance wise that night. 

The damn drummer did mess up because it didn't cue y'all to start playing at one point. 

Which is pretty bad considering it's a bloody iPod. 

Yeah. LOL

I did get a copy of "Lightening Leather" to enjoy at home, even though I've heard most of the songs on the album at previous live shows, and at "Lightening Strikes". It's damn  good. I liked it even if I'm not a huge fan of thrash metal - Flesh Cauldron is my favorite thrash metal band after all. 

There *is* a little surprise at the very end of the last track on the CD, "Face the Destroyer". You get some dead air for a minute or so between the end of the music and the surprise, but do keep going. What's there is more than worth it! 

Photos from Friday night:

Adam Bondarenko, lead singer and drummer for WHOM GODS DESTROY.

Adam and Eli Bondarenko -bassist for Whom Gods Destroy- during their setup.

WHOM GODS DESTROY - Tim Gaudet (guitars, backup vocals, spokesperson), Adam Bondarenko (vocals, drums) and Eli Bondarenko (bass) - during their performance.

FLESH CAULDRON on the RIGHT: Ovie (vocals, guitar) in the foreground, and Chris Kendall (bass, backup vocals) in the background.

WGD Merchandise! I currently have all three versions of their tee shirts, including two of the black logo ones (on the right). 

Flesh Cauldron (Ovie and Chris), during set up.

Adam Bondarenko and Eli Bondarenko of WHOM GODS DESTROY.

FLESH CAULDRON during their performance.

All in all it was a great night, filled with lots of laughs, good times, and of course, great music. I can't wait for the next live show at the MSAC in town. Anything hosted by Troubled Waters is kick ass, they always seem to get the best bands around. 

Here's a link to the video of WGD's performance. It kicked ass as always.

WGD @ MSAC June 24 2016

On a closing note, one of our friends said "Everyone has porn on their phones!"

I don't. I don't have any porn videos or pics on my tablets...

Oh wait, maybe I do.........

Erotic e-books count as porn, right? 

So yeah, I guess I do have porn on my tablets after all. 

Hey, I'm a romance writer... I'm SUPPOSED to have stuff like that on my devices, etc, right?

Right??? *looks innocent*

Have a great week, everyone!

A Night of Pure Talent

Troubled Waters hosted another live music event... It was last night, at the MSAC again. 

First we were treated to some of (Prosthetic) Friends' instrumental riffs.... They're currently looking for a lead singer, but so far, no one has gotten lucky enough to fit the bill yet. No, I didn't try out for it... I can't carry a tune to save my soul, and I think most bands would prefer a lead singer who can actually SING...

Their instrumentals were awesome. It was my first time seeing this group as a whole (I have seen Bill the drummer with another band), and really enjoyed their performance.

(Prosthetic) Friends

Next, we were pleasantly surprised when Dirt Stache make an appearance. They even had - in my opinion - the funniest intro to a song for the night. "Here's something I'd rather  have than watch a Fast and Furious Movie," says Bill, the drummer. "CATHETER!" he yells into the mic.

My husband, who attended the show with me, cracked up on the spot.

I don't think Hubby realized just how silly the guys in Dirt Stache truly are... I always look forward to seeing them because they bring a lot of laughs along with some great instrumental tunes.

Dirt Stache

Flesh Cauldron was next, and their set even included a recording of backup lyrics for one of their songs. Almost the entire crowd - about 20 people, our MSAC's bar is a VERY tiny venue - participated in screaming "FIGHT!" for the guys.

I didn't participate. Like I said to a friend of mine, I don't want the album committing suicide because I was on it.

And as always, Flesh Cauldron kicked ass... Even with a joke about the "f**king drummer" - which happens to be an iPod with the drum tracks recorded on to it. No, they haven't gotten another drummer yet... So it's kind of turned into a running joke about an "invisible drummer".

Flesh Cauldron

And finally, last but not least, Whom Gods Destroy were on for their set. They didn't play "Sea of Tears", "The Traveller" or "Whom Gods Destroy", but they did play "Higher Planes", so they live once again. (Tee hee)

It was the first time Hubby had seen his brothers and Tim play at a live gig, and he liked it.

Their set included "Devil on Your Shoulder", "Higher Planes", "Ready for the Bite", "Tears of My Immortal Soul", "She May Be Evil", and "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich".

Whom Gods Destroy

All in all, it was a great night.

Whom Gods Destroy and Dirt Stache will be playing a set each at RiverFest - Rock the Bush in Pine Grove next month, but I will not be attending. I'm just going to wait until they play at another Troubled Waters event, or somewhere else, that's easier to get to for me.

Have a great week everyone!

A Wild Writing Day, and "Spring Into Metal"....

I look at the clock and see Friday has turned into Saturday without me realizing it...

Writing wise, things are progressing in Eleven faster than I could have hoped for this early on in the writing process. It's been only six weeks since the full idea for the story came to me, and already I'm seeing myself getting deeper and deeper into this new WIP.

This is the first time I've gone from zero to ninety in less than two months and it's a weird feeling... It took me almost 2 years to get really deep into writing what used to be "No Regrets" (Now Vols. 1 and 2 of the Legacies series) and almost 4 months between the initial idea for Family Portraits and getting into writing that one.

I look at Eleven's main file and am shocked at my progress to date. Even with the craziness of a snow day, my son having the flu and being home two additional days, being so tired and other things, I still managed to get another 3100 words added to it today.. Sorry, I mean yesterday... It's past midnight in Atlantic Canada now... Anyway, I met all of my writing goals for the week and then some, so I'm happy. I got over 1000 words, managed to get a few scene ideas for it added to the Ideas file, marked a few ideas off as "DONE" and wrapped up Chapter 5, and started Chapter 6.. Rough draft, of course.

Eleven's main file now is now close to 20K word wise - without me being overly wordy! *BLINK* It needs a lot of editing, but I'm doing my best to wait until after Draft One is finished before I attack it full force. I know, the more I do now, the less I'll have to do later on, but I've been having problems just writing and not going into "edit mode" while I have my writing time.

If I keep going like this, I'm going to be finished draft one of this one long before my self imposed deadline of February 17, 2015... The "full" conception date of this one. I'd like to have it perking before that IF I can do it....

And today was another milestone. For the last week or so, I've been trying to come up with the right title for this one, and it's been driving me nuts... I finally asked some trusted friends, along with my Alpha and Beta readers for suggestions and we may have struck gold, thanks to one of my longtime best pals who is also one of my Beta Readers. I'm not posting it publicly right now, because I'm not sure if it's the working title or will become the permanent one. It's great and fits the story, but if something else comes to mind, I may change it.

Once I know for sure what the final/permanent title of Eleven is, I'll say it on my real name profile... Sometime.

"SPRING INTO METAL"

Last night was Troubled Waters' second event of the year in Bridgewater, NS. I went and had a lot of fun. They had a fantastic lineup of bands - again! - and although there wasn't a lot of people there for the first two sets, the place filled up a little more for the last two.

Flesh Cauldron started off the night. Ovie and Chris rocked the house with their awesome sound and got everyone wanting more.

Whom Gods Destroy played their set second... Eli, Adam and Tim showed off their original classic metal tunes starting off with a medley of "Signs of Life", "Tears of My Immortal Soul" and "The Traveller" and rounded up their set with "Beyond Redemption".

I had threatened to "clock" them if they took "Sea of Tears" out of their set list and well... They did, the goofy buggers. *Rolling eyes* However, I did not do a darn thing to them other than threaten them with retaliation if they didn't play at least one of my other favorite songs by them instead.

They did, they played two... "The Traveller" and "Beyond Redemption", both of which are on their 2011 album, "Signs of Life".

I'm going to let the guys live... For now! *Cackling!*

Try Dying was up third. They were a band I had never seen before and I was pleased with their performance. Normally I don't care for any Rolling Stones songs (sorry to all of their fans but I can't tolerate them at all!), but they did a cover of "Paint it Black" that even I liked! They were good, their sound is more death metal.

Finally, Doom Machine wrapped up the evening with a kick ass performance. I had met the guitarist earlier that night and he is a down to earth and friendly guy... All of the guys in Doom Machine are really nice, as well as great musicians.

I had a lot of fun... Between getting out of the house and listening to a lineup of great metal bands with some wonderful family and friends, it was a great way to wrap up a productive day and to relax.

I'd like to thank Troubled Waters for putting on another great show at the Bridgewater MSAC. They always seem to get the creme de la creme of local metal talent in their lineups. Their Facebook page is in my links area, to the left of my blog entries.

Flesh Cauldron's Facebook Fan Page...

Whom Gods Destroy Facebook Fan Page...

Try Dying Facebook Fan Page...

Doom Machine Facebook Fan Page...

Have a great weekend everyone! I leave you with photos from Spring Into Metal.

Flesh Cauldron:

Whom Gods Destroy:

Try Dying:

Doom Machine:

Chalkboard with the night's lineup... That's Eli from Whom Gods Destroy... His hand anyway...

"The Heart of the Metal" and More...

The Heart of the Metal, February 21, 2014...

Last night was the first Troubled Waters event of the year and they kicked off their 2014 round of shows with a bang.

Michelin Social Club, Bridgewater, NS... It's only a small venue that has less than a 100 person capacity, but it's large enough to host an awesome lineup of bands that rock the place! 

There were four bands in the lineup last night, two of which I had seen before, one that I have wanted to see live for a while, and one that I hadn't seen or heard of at all until Troubled Waters released last night's full lineup.

I've seen Dirt Stache before. This power duo may only be a guitar and drums, but they have the energy of a five member band, and they are very talented guys. The fact they are goofy in nature only adds to their appeal in my opinion. I laughed more at their descriptions of what each song was about than one would do at another live show, and really enjoyed watching them strut their stuff.

Flesh Cauldron is one I have wanted to see for a while but wasn't lucky enough to until last night. They are great! Their material borderlines on death metal and although they didn't have a live drummer last night, they did quite well with an "electronic" one that was programmed with all of the drums for their set.

My favorite local band, Whom Gods Destroy, was up third. As always, the guys KICKED IT and kept their promise of keeping "Sea of Tears" in their shorter set list. (I'm going to let them live - FOR NOW! Muwahahahahahaha....) I do have videos of their performance, but it's ultra dark and you can't see much... Plus I had a lot of interruptions, thanks to a couple of people that refused to listen to proper etiquette for any live show....I did get a couple of photos and I did share them on my personal profile and author's page, so if anyone wants to check them out, the link to my FB author's page is in the links area to the left of my blog posts.

Vicious was the one band in last night's lineup I wasn't familiar with. I had never met any of the guys, seen them live, or even heard any of their music before last night. That said, they now have another fan in this aspiring author! Their energy and showmanship are reminiscent of bands like Iron Maiden, Metallica and Def Leppard, to name only a few. I was blown away by their talent and performance, and I can see why they're popular in the Nova Scotian music circuit. I would not be surprised to see this group win a Juno, ECMA, or even a Grammy in the future, they are that good!

I would like to thank all of the bands in last night's lineup for their outstanding performances, and a special thank you to Troubled Waters for putting on events like The Heart of the Metal, and the Michelin Social Club for hosting the event.

For anyone who likes metal music, I highly recommend you check out all of the bands featured last night...

Dirt Stache Official Facebook Fan Page

Flesh Cauldron Official Facebook Fan Page

Whom Gods Destroy Official Fan Page

Vicious (band) Official Facebook Fan Page

And lastly...

Troubled Waters Official Facebook Page

Whom Gods Destroy at "The Heart of the Metal", February 21, 2014. 

And on a side note... 

If you're at a live show, whether it's a large venue like the Metro Centre or a tiny venue like the Bridgewater Michelin Social Club, PLEASE respect the bands and other patrons! Pushing your way onto the "stage" area to get into the bands' "personal" space, touching their equipment at all, taking the microphones and screaming into them even though you're not a member of any bands, and a lot of other things are just NOT COOL AT ALL.

If you can't behave at something like this, please do the rest of us a favor and STAY THE HELL HOME!

Sheesh. *SIGH*

I'm Out of My Cotton Picking Mind..... (Writing Update!)

A couple of weeks ago, I was trying to get Ten off the ground when an idea for another story hit me. Of course, I wrote it down into my ideas for future stories file and thought I'd get to it sometime after I had finished Ten's first draft.

Wrong!

The darn idea would not leave me alone, no matter what I tried. I would try to think of ideas for Ten and something for the new idea kept popping into my brain! I'd be doing dishes, talking with Peapod about general stuff, and whammo, a scene for that new idea would pop into my head. This has been happening for a couple of weeks, ever since I got the new idea.

This past week, I finally gave in and set up a file for what is now nicknamed "Eleven".

Yes, you read that right. I have another WIP on the go. *SIGH*

The original idea for it was ultra complicated, and it had more than one possible ending, so I streamlined it to make it simpler. Yes, it was another one of the ultra complicated plots with a zillion twists and turns that I seem to love writing. That said, after I trimmed "the fat" into yet another possible future idea, it's still a complicated story, but less so than something like the Legacies series.

So far, an ideas file, character profiles, a rough timeline, and an "Over 18" scene ideas file has been started, as well as the main file itself... And I have a few scenes written up that will be spliced in shortly, after I get past that *censored!* speed bump I hit in the main file, it happens after the initial "blast" and everyone's reaction to it.

At the moment, that's two WIPs I have on the go and I do hope I can get into one of them soon. I haven't had a story that was in the brain 24/7 since I finished draft one of "Legacies: Family Portraits" (book 2) last October, and I'm really feeling it. I'm grumpy and it's really showing sometimes. My apologies to my family and friends, and thank you for putting up with me when I'm like this....

I hope either Ten or Eleven turn out to be my next completed manuscript. I'm going nuts here.....

And the cleanup of the Legacies series continues. No Regrets (Book 1) now has a lot of areas that are color coded highlights so I know where there are passive scenes, where I was too wordy and after a while, I'll be going through to see where I've been repetitive, etc. If I can do it, I'd like to send it off to a beta reader from one of my writing forums by the end of the year so I can get some extra help in finishing its revamp.

Have a great weekend everyone! I'll be back with another update on the writing, hopefully soon!