A Little Aretha Franklin

I’m working on a young adult novel right now, which is part survivalist story and part, oh, I’m not sure what to call the other part. I’ve got my five high school students wandering through the remote woods of Georgia right now, and–a little unexpectedly, I admit–I’m listening to Aretha Franklin belt out “I Never Loved A Man.” It’s on its way to becoming my new favorite song. Also listening to a lot of Etta James…I’ve listened to “Steal Away” more than a dozen times today.

All this great 70s music got in my head when we went to the Sidewalk Film Festival here in Birmingham and watched the new–and wonderful–documentary, Muscle Shoals. Check it out here. If you have a chance to see it, especially if you have any connection to Alabama or just if you love some iconic 70s singers/groups like Aretha and Clarence Carter and Etta James and Lynyrd Skynyrd, I highly recommend it.

None of this has anything to do with my next book, of course. Just saying.

I wanted to show a few glimpses of Stanley Park in Vancouver, too, since I recounted all the travel issues and none of the glories of the city in my last post. We stayed a couple of blocks from the park, and it was a world unto itself.

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I loved the huge leaves below…seeing the boy stand by them made me think of The Little Shop of Horrors.