A Friendly Musical Visit Every Day

 I recently cancelled my cable, so I'm waxing nostalgic about TV, these days.  When I was a kid, I loved Ninja Turtles. Raphael was my favourite. I liked the cartoon and I loved this movie. It surprised me when I pulled up the video and found that I could sing along to the first verse in its entirety. I remembered every word. It really is amazing how deeply music plants itself in your brain. If you're wondering how you can support me in bringing you songs and visits every day, the easiest thing you can do is tell your friends about the site. Tell anyone you know--particularly people who are isolated and enjoy music. Readers of adult fiction can also buy my books or check them out from your local library. Supporting my  AudioErotica  endeavour on  Patreon  would also help me hugely! I'm also an  Amazon Influencer,  so hopefully I can make a little pocket change when you buy stuff by clicking through  my affiliate links . But you don't HAVE to do any of that. I'm very

 I woke up this morning with THREE cold sores on my bottom lip. Two sort of merged into a giant cold sore, and the third is right next to the monster one.  Thank god I wear a mask every time I leave the house, because I look like I've been punched in the mouth. My body tells me when I'm stressed.  Cold sores are merely one method by which it communicates. When my partner and I started cohabiting, I developed a pain in my neck.  That was my first experience with chronic pain.  Some days were worse than others. At first I thought maybe I was sleeping on too many pillows.  I changed the pillow arrangement.  I did yoga for neck pain.  The only thing that seemed to help was the daily meditation practice I started this summer. Around Christmas, we watched a movie where one of the characters had the same name as my partner's ex-wife.  Every time another character in the movie said her name, my neck tensed to an excruciating degree.   When I realized what was going on, what that pa

 I'm just about finished writing another book in my Lesbian Diaries series, and it's going strangely well.   My partner's always warning me: "Don't talk a no-hitter"--which is some kind of sports reference, apparently--but I've never written a book that didn't go off the rails at some point.   This one has been smooth sailing all the way through.  I've written dozens (hundreds?) of books over the past fifteen years, and this had never happened to me before. Usually, writing a book goes like this: I start strong. Everything's shiny and new.  I love this book.   Then I hit a wall.  I don't know where to go. If I've plotted the book out in advance, the outline now seems wrong, like it won't work. If I haven't outlined, I just don't know where to take it. This is the point at which I usually put the book aside. I have at least ten half-written books on this particular computer, and I haven't yet owned it for two years. At so

 I just felt like listening to this song today... If you're wondering how you can support me in bringing you songs and visits every day, the easiest thing you can do is tell your friends about the site. Tell anyone you know--particularly people who are isolated and enjoy music. Readers of adult fiction can also buy my books or check them out from your local library. Supporting my  AudioErotica  endeavour on  Patreon  would also help me hugely! I'm also an  Amazon Influencer,  so hopefully I can make a little pocket change when you buy stuff by clicking through  my affiliate links . But you don't HAVE to do any of that. I'm very happy to get a daily visit from you, so just keep coming back. Oh, and I also recommend hitting the "Subscribe" button at the top of the page so you won't miss a song! See you tomorrow! Giselle

 We've been working on a cryptic crossword (cryptics are HARD!) and one of the clues mentioned 90s hip-hop. The rest of the clue turned out to be an anagram for Wu-Tang Clan.  I solved that one, and I'm still pretty proud of it. If you're wondering how you can support me in bringing you songs and visits every day, the easiest thing you can do is tell your friends about the site. Tell anyone you know--particularly people who are isolated and enjoy music. Readers of adult fiction can also buy my books or check them out from your local library. Supporting my  AudioErotica  endeavour on  Patreon  would also help me hugely! I'm also an  Amazon Influencer,  so hopefully I can make a little pocket change when you buy stuff by clicking through  my affiliate links . But you don't HAVE to do any of that. I'm very happy to get a daily visit from you, so just keep coming back. Oh, and I also recommend hitting the "Subscribe" button at the top of the page so you wo

 My partner fell on the ice the other day. He wasn't hurt--don't worry--but it put him in a sour mood and made me feel especially vulnerable.   A couple weeks ago, I told my sister I've been staying indoors more because I'm scared of slipping on the ice.  She said, "Wow. You got old."   Last week, I did happen to be out, cutting across a park whose path had not been cleared.  It was snow over ice underfoot, and I was walking extremely slowly, careful of every step. Then this young person comes jogging past me and all I can think is, "Are you nuts? You're gonna break your neck!" I do sound old.  I feel old.  Slipping on ice can be fatal, when you reach a certain age. My mother's doctor died slipping on ice in his driveway.   Last winter, my partner fell on the ice and hit his head.  He was in excruciating pain and he lost time--didn't know where we were or what day/month/year it was.  That was really scary.  Luckily, the woman approaching

I was eating bread and butter (and jam) and humming this song when my partner said, "That's Bread and Butter."  We started talking about the song and trying to remember the lyrics. My partner said, "I think it's one of those upbeat numbers that's actually sad at the end: no more bread and butter / no more toast and jam." Sure enough, my partner had it right.  Cheery tune, downer ending. If you're wondering how you can support me in bringing you songs and visits every day, the easiest thing you can do is tell your friends about the site. Tell anyone you know--particularly people who are isolated and enjoy music. Readers of adult fiction can also buy my books or check them out from your local library. Supporting my  AudioErotica  endeavour on  Patreon  would also help me hugely! I'm also an  Amazon Influencer,  so hopefully I can make a little pocket change when you buy stuff by clicking through  my affiliate links . But you don't HAVE to do an

 The other night, my partner and I were working on our current jigsaw puzzle when something on the radio mentioned anniversaries.  I said to my partner, "Don't we have an anniversary?" He was like, "Yes, it's February 9th." I was a wee bit mortified because I totally forgot.  Our anniversary is wedged between my birthday and Valentine's Day, so there was a lot going on around that time.  But I still felt awful for forgetting, and I figured my partner had been too polite to mention it at the time.   I apologized and apologized, until my partner said, "Don't worry--I forgot too." So then I didn't feel quite as awful.   We celebrate our relationship every day.  That's my excuse for forgetting.  We make the most of our time together.   I want to say I can't believe I forgot, but I can totally believe.  I forget anniversaries all the time. If you're wondering how you can support me in bringing you songs and visits every day, the

 I never told you about Valentine's Day, did I?   My partner bought me chocolate truffles and a single red rose--very romantic.  Then he cooked steak for dinner and we had chocolate mousse cake for dessert. As soon as I was done eating, I had violent diarrhea. My intestines were noisy, gassy and unsettled for days afterwards.  I think it was the hot and sour soup I'd had for lunch, but who knows? So that made for a memorable Valentine's Day: I spent most of it in the bathroom, and then my partner and I watched Escape to the Country. If you're wondering how you can support me in bringing you songs and visits every day, the easiest thing you can do is tell your friends about the site. Tell anyone you know--particularly people who are isolated and enjoy music. Readers of adult fiction can also buy my books or check them out from your local library. Supporting my  AudioErotica  endeavour on  Patreon  would also help me hugely! I'm also an  Amazon Influencer,  so hopeful

 Even though I'm not a religious person, I really like the idea of Lent. Making a change for 40 days is an interesting way to test the waters of a new life.  The first time I gave Lent a go (which was probably only two or three years ago), I decided to give up meat. It went really well.  It went so well that I thought I might just give it up forever.  I went back pretty fast, after forty days were up, but it was still a worthwhile exercise. I don't remember what I gave up last year, but this year I've decided to take a break from social media during Lent. Should be good for my mental health.  I always end up feeling pretty awful after scrolling through Twitter for hours on end. My big concern was: where am I going to hear about new music?  I follow musicians I enjoy on Twitter, and that's how I hear they've come out with something new. Well, today I hopped over to YouTube to start schedule posts for this site, and one of the first videos suggested to me was... this

 I heard this track on the radio and didn't know it was film music. It reminded me of Camille Saint-Saëns, actually.  It just caught me so hard my partner immediately looked it up online to find out what we were listening to.  I find it magical. If you're wondering how you can support me in bringing you songs and visits every day, the easiest thing you can do is tell your friends about the site. Tell anyone you know--particularly people who are isolated and enjoy music. Readers of adult fiction can also buy my books or check them out from your local library. Supporting my  AudioErotica  endeavour on  Patreon  would also help me hugely! I'm also an  Amazon Influencer,  so hopefully I can make a little pocket change when you buy stuff by clicking through  my affiliate links . But you don't HAVE to do any of that. I'm very happy to get a daily visit from you, so just keep coming back. Oh, and I also recommend hitting the "Subscribe" button at the top of the p

 I'm trying to write a book, but instead I just keep watching hip hop and R&B music videos from the 90s. I can't stop myself.   This song reminds me of my partner, because he's great. He says I'm biased, but that's just because I'm in love with him. If you're wondering how you can support me in bringing you songs and visits every day, the easiest thing you can do is tell your friends about the site. Tell anyone you know--particularly people who are isolated and enjoy music. Readers of adult fiction can also buy my books or check them out from your local library. Supporting my  AudioErotica  endeavour on  Patreon  would also help me hugely! I'm also an  Amazon Influencer,  so hopefully I can make a little pocket change when you buy stuff by clicking through  my affiliate links . But you don't HAVE to do any of that. I'm very happy to get a daily visit from you, so just keep coming back. Oh, and I also recommend hitting the "Subscribe"

This song has been dipping in and out of my head ever since last week, when we listened to a different song also called Poison.  Man, this song was big in the early 90s.  I was showing my partner that I could still do the running man, and this track is certainly one of the many my cousin and I practised our dance moves to, back in the day.  If you're wondering how you can support me in bringing you songs and visits every day, the easiest thing you can do is tell your friends about the site. Tell anyone you know--particularly people who are isolated and enjoy music. Readers of adult fiction can also buy my books or check them out from your local library. Supporting my  AudioErotica  endeavour on  Patreon  would also help me hugely! I'm also an  Amazon Influencer,  so hopefully I can make a little pocket change when you buy stuff by clicking through  my affiliate links . But you don't HAVE to do any of that. I'm very happy to get a daily visit from you, so just keep comin

 Fellow Aquarius Leontyne Price had a birthday last week, turning 94 years old! Rusalka is one of the operas my partner and I were lucky enough to catch before the Canadian Opera Company had to end its 2019/2020 season prematurely due to covid.  It was a stunning production. Going to the opera feels like another lifetime. Strangely, because I'm a naturally anxious person, I'm not aching to go back to attending public events.  Covid has made me extremely cautious, even projecting forward into the future.   The future isn't even here yet and already I'm afraid of it.  If you're wondering how you can support me in bringing you songs and visits every day, the easiest thing you can do is tell your friends about the site. Tell anyone you know--particularly people who are isolated and enjoy music. Readers of adult fiction can also buy my books or check them out from your local library. Supporting my  AudioErotica  endeavour on  Patreon  would also help me hugely! I'm a

 I found myself singing this song while doing my online banking, and I don't know why. Was I singing to my money? Is it the my hero and everything I would like to be? The wing beneath my wings is probably all the people who read my books and support my livelihood.  Have I mentioned lately that I'm a writer? Did you know this about me?  My name is Giselle Renarde and I write books. Adult fiction, queer fiction, a pretty wide range of novels and novellas and short stories and anthologies--ebooks, paperbacks and audiobooks.  You can buy them pretty much anywhere books are sold, and I appreciate every single sale. Book sales are how I earn my living.  It's how I pay my rent and put food on the table, so I genuinely couldn't live without the reading public. If you're a reader of my books, thank you. And if you're reading these words I'm writing right now, thank you also. btw, I remember that record jacket. We had this album--I think a lot of people did. If you

 Black Cloud is a song I can easily listen to for five hours straight. It's been our song of the day in the past. Now there's an entire album of Black Cloud remixes available!  Watching Devi film in a laundry room is seriously stressing me out.  I can count on one hand the number of times I've done laundry in my building's laundry room since the start of covid. I was scared enough, as it was, to be in a confined space with strangers during a pandemic, but to make matters worse, the last time I was there I was harassed so violently security had to be called. So now I'm doubly traumatized around laundry rooms. My clothes were really starting to stink, so my partner was sweet enough to do my laundry for me. Before that, I was just washing socks and underwear in the sink. Sometimes life is not fun. If you're wondering how you can support me in bringing you songs and visits every day, the easiest thing you can do is tell your friends about the site. Tell anyone you

 There should be more songs about Mercury Retrograde, because it's the worst.  Well, this one is the worst--perhaps because it's in my sign of Aquarius. I usually get out unscathed, but this one is raking me over the coals, back and forth, especially where tech, business and finances meet. I spent four days in panic mode because I don't know how to fix the (serious!) problems that are popping up for me. At the moment, I've got my head in the sand because my body just can't handle being in panic mode anymore. It feels toxic on the inside. I don't know what comes next. I've got problems. This is a nice song, though. If you're wondering how you can support me in bringing you songs and visits every day, the easiest thing you can do is tell your friends about the site. Tell anyone you know--particularly people who are isolated and enjoy music. Readers of adult fiction can also buy my books or check them out from your local library. Supporting my  AudioErotica

 As I watched this weekend's Super Bowl halftime show, I thought... gee, it really is time to feature hometown hero The Weeknd on this blog again. (He grew up in Scarborough, just like me.) If you're wondering how you can support me in bringing you songs and visits every day, the easiest thing you can do is tell your friends about the site. Tell anyone you know--particularly people who are isolated and enjoy music. Readers of adult fiction can also buy my books or check them out from your local library. Supporting my  AudioErotica  endeavour on  Patreon  would also help me hugely! I'm also an  Amazon Influencer,  so hopefully I can make a little pocket change when you buy stuff by clicking through  my affiliate links . But you don't HAVE to do any of that. I'm very happy to get a daily visit from you, so just keep coming back. Oh, and I also recommend hitting the "Subscribe" button at the top of the page so you won't miss a song! See you tomorrow! Gise

 I'm currently reading the book Canoe Lake by Roy MacGregor , which is a mystery novel based around the death of Tom Thomson.  I've been working my way through this book for a while (I am a very slow reader), and just today, this song popped into my head. I haven't heart it since it was released 10 years ago, but I'm still not sure why it took so long to come to me. It's got the same name as the book I'm reading and it's about the same topic, from an album called Turpentine Wind, which was all about Tom Thomson. If you're wondering how you can support me in bringing you songs and visits every day, the easiest thing you can do is tell your friends about the site. Tell anyone you know--particularly people who are isolated and enjoy music. Readers of adult fiction can also buy my books or check them out from your local library. Supporting my  AudioErotica  endeavour on  Patreon  would also help me hugely! I'm also an  Amazon Influencer,  so hopefully I

 Gorgeous music today from James Baley, a queer songwriter, performer and artist from right here in Toronto! If you're wondering how you can support me in bringing you songs and visits every day, the easiest thing you can do is tell your friends about the site. Tell anyone you know--particularly people who are isolated and enjoy music. Readers of adult fiction can also buy my books or check them out from your local library. Supporting my  AudioErotica  endeavour on  Patreon  would also help me hugely! I'm also an  Amazon Influencer,  so hopefully I can make a little pocket change when you buy stuff by clicking through  my affiliate links . But you don't HAVE to do any of that. I'm very happy to get a daily visit from you, so just keep coming back. Oh, and I also recommend hitting the "Subscribe" button at the top of the page so you won't miss a song! See you tomorrow! Giselle

If I were to name this post properly, I would call it "Daphne's Earrings."  You'll soon know why. The other day, I watched an online tarot reading that focused on improving your outcomes by telling your story in a positive way.  Now, I do A LOT of storytelling, and not only because I'm a fiction writer.  My brain does not stop.  I tell myself stories all day long: about my life, about my trauma, about the future as it could be and the present as it probably isn't. Meditation, mindfulness, and the methods of cognitive behavioural therapy have helped me to become aware of my rampant thoughts and storytelling.  The more aware I become, the more I notice how negative and fear-driven my stories are: maybe my partner will cheat on me or leave me, maybe he'd be happier without me in his life, maybe some stranger will be a jerk to me when I don't deserve it, maybe my best friend thinks I'm stupid and annoying.  On and on with these stories. The tarot reade

Age never meant anything to me until 40.  To me, 40 signified not only adulthood, but an age by which you should have your shit fully together. All that grown-up stuff like family and financial security should be tied up by the time you reach 40. When 40 popped onto the horizon, I started making sweeping changes in my life. I left a relationship I'd been in for more than a decade without knowing why. Now I realize I ended it because it wasn't going anywhere--my girlfriend already had a permanent partner, and I was really just someone on the side. Even if I was important to her (and I believe I truly was), it wasn't a situation that provided the dignity I was looking for. I wanted to be someone's someone--for the first time in my life.  I wanted to finally be THE ONLY ONE for somebody.  I realized that I'd been doing myself a grave injustice in allowing myself to be hidden from view in the lives of people who were important to me. I believe in poly relationships, but

Tonight is the night--it's the 15th Annual Bob Marley Birthday Tribute in support of the Parkdale Community Food Bank .   Reggaddiction is on the lineup, and when I went to YouTube to pull a video of theirs so we could listen to it today, I couldn't believe my eyes. They did a reggae dub of this Neil Young song--A Man Needs A Maid. Why is that significant? Because I wrote a book called A Man Needs A Maid !  It's about a lonely widower who falls in love with his maid.  Lucky for him, she falls back. But their courting is not without its tribulations, or it wouldn't be much of a book, would it? Find out more on my Donuts and Desires blog .  I really love this song. If you're wondering how you can support me in bringing you songs and visits every day, the easiest thing you can do is tell your friends about the site. Tell anyone you know--particularly people who are isolated and enjoy music. Readers of adult fiction can also buy my books or check them out from your loca

 Tomorrow is Bob Marley's birthday, which means it's time for the 15th Annual Bob Marley Tribute concert to raise funds for the Parkdale Community Food Bank . The concert is online this year, and it looks to be FREE, but you can make a donation on the food bank's website. I did volunteer work in Parkdale for a solid decade, so the area is dear to my heart. Here's more info about tomorrow concert: NuFunk Concerts’ Bob Marley Birthday Tribute is the biggest and longest-running Bob Marley Tribute in Toronto, and one of the hottest local reggae concerts of the year. It showcases the best of Toronto's reggae music scene while raising essential food donations for the Parkdale Food Bank. This year, in a virtual setting, Canadian Reggae artists reflecting on Bob Marley’s influence as well as pre-recorded and live videos of live performance of Marley covers plus DJ sets exploring Marley’s vast catalog and dubs The Parkdale Community Food Bank The Parkdale Community Food Ba

 You've probably heard that 34-year-old trans musician SOPHIE died in an accident last weekend. I encourage you to read this great article about her life and work.   Read also this moving tribute written by Morgan M. Page .  This song is just gorgeous. It's breaking my heart to listen to it right now. If you're wondering how you can support me in bringing you songs and visits every day, the easiest thing you can do is tell your friends about the site. Tell anyone you know--particularly people who are isolated and enjoy music. Readers of adult fiction can also buy my books or check them out from your local library. Supporting my  AudioErotica  endeavour on  Patreon  would also help me hugely! I'm also an  Amazon Influencer,  so hopefully I can make a little pocket change when you buy stuff by clicking through  my affiliate links . But you don't HAVE to do any of that. I'm very happy to get a daily visit from you, so just keep coming back. Oh, and I also recommen

 If you've ever read a novel I wrote called "Anonymous," you probably have a sneaking suspicion that I'm a fan of Astor Piazzolla. My characters attend a symphony concert where his music is being performed and it's pretty much the culmination of the book. Today we're listening to Imani Winds performing an arrangement by Jeff Scott, who is playing French horn in this video. I think I told you my music teacher in middle school was a French horn player. She said it was the hardest instrument. :-) If you're wondering how you can support me in bringing you songs and visits every day, the easiest thing you can do is tell your friends about the site. Tell anyone you know--particularly people who are isolated and enjoy music. Readers of adult fiction can also buy my books or check them out from your local library. Supporting my  AudioErotica  endeavour on  Patreon  would also help me hugely! I'm also an  Amazon Influencer,  so hopefully I can make a little po

I can't remember if I ever told you about being with my grandmother when she died. I'm thinking about it because I just finished watching a documentary about people's experiences as they approach death. When my grandmother was taken off food and water, it wasn't long before she stopped speaking.  Sometimes she opened her eyes, but even then she didn't seem particularly aware of what was going on around her, or who was in the room.  I spent days by her side, reading or knitting or talking with my aunts. One day, the woman who shared my grandmother's hospital room told us that, even though my grandmother no longer spoke during the daytime, at night (when this lady was trying to sleep), my grandmother spoke nonstop.  She repeated the same six names again and again: that of her father, her mother, her sister, her brothers, and her own name as well.  Apparently a lot of people have dreams or visions of deceased relatives before they pass, and these experiences most o

 I woke up with this song in my head and I've been singing it all day.  Well, when I say "singing" I really mean just yelling the words "Where it's at!" and then following that up by saying "I got two turntables and a microphone" in a robot voice. If you're wondering how you can support me in bringing you songs and visits every day, the easiest thing you can do is tell your friends about the site. Tell anyone you know--particularly people who are isolated and enjoy music. Readers of adult fiction can also buy my books or check them out from your local library. Supporting my  AudioErotica  endeavour on  Patreon  would also help me hugely! I'm also an  Amazon Influencer,  so hopefully I can make a little pocket change when you buy stuff by clicking through  my affiliate links . But you don't HAVE to do any of that. I'm very happy to get a daily visit from you, so just keep coming back. Oh, and I also recommend hitting the "Subscr