This week saw me FREAKING OUT on both Facebook and Twitter over finding out about the release of two things that make me VERY excited. The first is the release of Brandon Flower’s new solo album. I absolutely adore the Killers, and have been looking forward to their lead singer’s solo release. And I am not disappointed! Here’s the video for “Only the Young”:
And here’s what has to be one of my all time favorite videos, for “Crossfire”:
It’s like an urban fantasy novel, in a lot of ways, and I love what it suggests about female empowerment and the contemporary shift in gender roles. Plus there’s the invocation of the tiny 20′s stache, which is the only kind of stache worth attention.
In the kind of excitement that makes me worry I might need a diaper, Mercedes Lackey–the woman who put the fan in my fantasy–is releasing a set of novellas that are all UF and include a Diane Tregarde story. It’s called Trio of Sorcery:
For those of you new to UF, I’d argue that Diane Tregarde is the grandmother of a majority of the heroines running amok on shelves today. As I’m apparently tapped directly into the zeitgeist, I actually randomly started rereading Diane’s books last week. I reread Burning Water and Jinx HIgh in quick succession. Diving back into those books was like going home, and I see so many ways that Lackey influenced me at a very young age (I was probably around 12 or 13 when I read them). Anyway, if you consider yourself a UF fan and haven’t read Diane Tregarde, you’re missing out. I plan on rereading Children of the Night next.
If you do pick ‘em up, or pick them back up, let me know what you think. 
On another note, I’d like to invite you to my debut as a zombie. I kill a character, who looks my friend and Alpha Team Reader James Clawson, named “Peeler.” It’s all very meta. And, yes, Three Quarter Comics are the team who made my zombie profile picture:
On a final note, I finally finished Carolyn Crane’s Double Cross. Now, I wasn’t dragging my heels finishing it because I didn’t enjoy it… I love this series, and Double Cross is as sensual, intelligent, and original as its predecessor, Mind Games. However, as a TRAINED LITERARY ACADEMIC, I could tell by that title that I was in for a rough ride at the end. And boy, were my highly trained reading skillz correct on that one. I finished the book last night, and I’m still traumatized.
In a good way.
This is another series that, if you haven’t read, you need to get on that. They’re amazing, and totally different from anything you’ve read–but in a good way. How often can that be said, anymore?
