Would you like to be paid in cake?

March 20, 2017 • No Comments

Cross-posted from the Corsair’s Cove Series bog here.

This happened to the composer Franz Josef Haydn. Lucky for him, the cake was filled with gold coins! I’d really like to know why this happened, and if it had anything to do with his famous sense of humor. If anyone knows, please tell me!

This curious tidbit was just one of the anecdotes offered by the conductor of this afternoon’s concert by the VSO. The program featured Haydn and Mozart, who were friends in life despite the fact that Haydn was established and Mozart the new kid on the block. Along with a couple of other composers, they had their own string quartet, so putting the two together in a programme is a natural fit.

I was at the concert because it was a Christmas present for my mother. This has become something of a tradition—rather than giving her things, I give her tickets and we enjoy them over a matter of months, usually on Sunday afternoons. It’s good mother-daughter time and she doesn’t have another object to store, wash, or otherwise take care of.

Both my parents were musicians, Mom a professional and my father an amateur. As a result, I grew up listening to orchestras. It’s interesting to see how much more the performers speak to the audience, even in the most formal settings. Conductors have always been personalities, but now they need some storytelling skills to keep the audience engaged. Since classical music is filled with love stories, bitter feuds, and—apparently—cake, I can’t think of a more delightful way to make an enjoyable experience even better.

I wonder whether the cake was chocolate?

We have a winner!

March 5, 2017 • 1 Comment

Congrats to Susan J. for winning my newsletter prize, which is now winging its way to her mailbox. Here is a look at the earrings, which are tiny books. The actual color is a little more blue-green that it shows here. And, since she requested a copy of A Study in Silks as her free book, here is the whole prize pack shebang:

Newsletter contest update

March 1, 2017 • No Comments

Well, my first winner did not respond by the deadline, so I’ve sent out another email to a commenter. Check your email for a message promising to reveal what’s inside the Celtic treasure box!

Goodreads Giveaway for Enchanted Warrior!

Sharon Ashwood
January 24, 2016 • No Comments

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Enchanted Warrior

by Sharon Ashwood

Giveaway ends January 30, 2016.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

Today’s obsession – headphones

Sharon Ashwood
January 13, 2016 • No Comments

This has nothing to do with anything to do with writing or books, but it’s my blog and I can blither if I want to.

So I grew up with audio geeks and my mother, who is a musician, still claims that vinyl sounds better than anything else. Playing a record is a ceremony requiring the exact positioning of furniture, cleaning of the needle with special elixirs and sitting with uninterrupted focus to listen. I’m not quite that picky, but I finally coughed up money for a decent set of Sennheiser headphones and realized just how good digital CAN be if the proper equipment is available. My iTunes playlist suddenly has new life and–wait a moment–instruments I hadn’t even noticed! Lyrics I can understand! A sense of space and distance between sounds! Seriously, the average earbuds just don’t do justice to good music.

I’m not sure why it’s taken me this long to get some good headphones, but I think it has something to do with a beloved white pussycat of yore who used to chew through the wires of anything he could find. I loved him dearly, but one month he went through 3 sets of headphones. The sight of him with spaghetti wire dangling from his mouth discouraged any serious investment . . . I’d have him back in a heartbeat though.