Get To Know Me Challenge: My Top Ten Music and Fiction Posts
I’ve been meaning to do this challenge since my sister across the ocean, @soyrosa, nominated me. This idea of collecting some of the best posts you’ve done was the brainchild of @anomadsoul, dubbed Get to Know Me. A worthy title.
These kinds of challenges are the best, because, in my experience, they always deepen my understanding of the person I’m reading about. It continues a friendship that forms online, and maybe one day we get a chance to meet face to face.
Steemfest Dreaming:
@soyrosa is going to Steemfest, and @anomadsoul, and a lot of others I’d like to meet, as well. How nice it would be to magic myself there somehow… Hey, look what @mrprofessor brought to my attention today:
Steemitblog has a contest happening for a free ride to Steemfest3, so get over there and love up some awesome people for a chance at the wild card draw!
Please consider nominating me as one of your music choices if you dig my tunes. I’d love a chance to perform for all the beautiful people who will be at Steemfest3!
If you need suggestions for others to nominate, please consider @soyrosa or @rhondak as an artist, and @enginewitty as spokenword/comedian, as well as @isaria or @yidneth for musician. There are sooooo many content creators to choose from. I want all my friends to be able to go. lol!
Don’t know if you like my music? I’ll include a few music posts in my top ten. Here, I’ll start off with one of my first performances on the blockchain…
Awesome Post #1
Cover: Possession, by Sarah McLachlan
Here’s the video so you don’t even have to click on the post:
That song is one of my alltime faves. But I have a lot of them…
Awesome Post #2
Wanderer’s Retreat – Pirate Fiction
This was a fun short story that I got three chapters into and then abandoned because I have better luck with other types of posts. Not everyone has the attention span for fiction. But below is an excerpt that I enjoyed, between two people who have just met:
The way he said it made me sit up. “That’s not your ship?” I felt sick, I was so tired. Who else was on this island?
“Not mine,” he repeated, shaking his head once, slow. “I deserted a less-than virtuous crew with nothing but a dinghy. Rowed five days before I found this place. Hid the boat in the bushes.”
“Smart,” I said, not sure if it was. “So there’s someone else here. And you’ve made a trail right to my door.” I fell over, unable to be vertical any longer.
“Um… I did my best to keep the trail hidden from the beach.”
I groaned. “Tell me you have a weapon and know how to use it.”
“I have a weapon,” he said in a low voice that held zero doubt. “I know how to use it.”
His tone ran through my blood. My grip tightened on the knife beneath my pillow. I studied his face, mostly in shadow, brooding in the dim glow given off by the woodstove.
Awesome Post #3
Radical Revisions: Weaving some sexy flash-fiction into my novel
More sexy fiction. I took a short story I wrote for the blockchain and wove it into my WIP novel as a flashback with a decent bit of lustful tension. Here’s an excerpt:
His fingers touched the keys. He watched me, but I retreated from his eyes and leaned into the mouth of the piano instead, offering myself to the music. It claimed my blood, took my heart as its own, residing in my ribcage.
The dark resonance built, until the song changed into a dance of shadow and light. I braved his gaze. Another mistake.
His lips twisted up. He knew what he did to me. His fingers kept moving, faster now, with urgency and need reflected beneath his rich mess of hair that shone in the light of the chandelier I’d cleaned that morning.
My feet took me closer to him, until I could see his hands flying across the keys. Such precision, such mastery. I pressed against the polished wood.
My chest felt as if it would burst, breath deep and desperate. The song came like waves, now softer, now building to a crest. When the last wave broke, and his hands came to rest on the keys, the only sound was our breathing.
“Shelta.” He spoke my name. Good Goddess, he made it a song. “Come. Sit. I’ll teach you.”
Awesome Post #4
This was my first #openmic entry.
Awesome Post #5
Sometimes I think I’m the wrong species.
This isn't fiction or music, but seeing as it was recently mental health day, I’ll share this vulnerable piece. It’s a little raw, but also contemplates the importance of being honest and moving forward.
Being human isn’t easy, and with all the discussion around depression lately I figured I’d toss in my two cents, seeing as I have some experience with it. I think mental health is something everyone navigates, and each of us has a different path to walk—but we’re not alone.
Awesome Post #6
Bad Karaoke While Hiking– Janis Joplin
Hiking and singing are two of my favourite things to do, often at the same time. This was my one and only bad karaoke entry (an extinct contest by @snook and @simgirl), but it was a ton of fun!
Awesome Post #7
This was one of the most raw songs I’ve shared, having picked myself up off the floor with the music. But it proves the HEALING POWER of music, and the comments I got on this post (and many others) showcase the amazing encouraging, compassionate people who make this blockchain so special.
It’s one of those days where I feel like
Burning every bridge
In one of those years when I’m not sure
If I’m gonna live
Through this insanity
To a place where I feel okay
So I just keep on taking it
Day by day
And it’s not like joy has left
Me behind
Sometimes I feel so free
Feel so alive
But some days it’s like
Part of me has died
And I’m just tryin’
To survive
Awesome Post #8
Celfchallenge — Fireflies in my Heart, Hands in my Hair (Original Writing and Music)
This is a short piece of fiction plus a song. It was one of the winners in the Celfchallenge. Here’s an excerpt:
A DREAM SPARKS in several places at once, roots like lightning, twining impossibilities together.
The dreamer’s feet waltz over moonlit grass and wet sand, spinning into sky a-twinkle with stars. The dream spans time, space, and spirit.
Rich night, painted with brilliant pricks of light, draws the dreamer, but earth pulls as powerfully as sky. Fireflies lure a willing heart beneath the canopy of trees. Sighs blend with breeze.
Wind tugs eyes closed, arms and mouth open wide, throat exposed in a breath of rapture.
Not to be forgotten, fear tries to bind the dreamer with shark-toothed thoughts and shame-thick lies, its habitual deceit imploring the dreamer not to dream. “Sleep without wonder,” it whispers. “There is nothing real to be found here. Better to hide. Better to be blind.”
Awesome Post #9
Another song? Yep. You know it. I LOVE THIS ONE!!!
This body is my home
This spirit my whole world
And all the paths I roam
Lead me back to myself
Awesome Post #10
This is my favourite song right now. It’s sassy, it’s fun to sing, and it was sparked by a suggestion from an amazing musician whose work I love. Thank you for telling me to write this song, @yidneth!
There are a ton of other posts I wanted to feature, but figured I’d stop at ten. Huge gratitude to @anomadsoul for inspiring us to go back and look at what we’ve done (and @soyrosa for nominating me). I have a collection of content I’m quite proud of, and that’s an amazing feeling!
I nominate @yogajill, @eaglespirit, and @thekittygirl. If you’ve already done this please hit me over the head in a comment. ;)
If you’ve done this challenge, please let me know so I can check out your “best of” compilation!
Thank you for reading, and for being who you are.
Take care of yourself, you are a gift!
Peace. @katrina-ariel
Photos mine unless otherwise credited.
Author bio: Katrina Ariel is an old-soul rebel, musician, tree-hugging yogini, and mama bear to twins. Author of Yoga for Dragon Riders (non-fiction) and Wild Horse Heart (romance), she's another free-spirit swimming in the ocean of Steem.
dragon art: Liiga Smilshkalne
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This is really cool, I get to know you a little more with this post. I can't be farther away to be able to sign, I have tried but it is like it is just something I didn't come to this world with 😚
Is it too hard to sing and to play the guitar simultaneously?
Best regards.
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Damn girl, I love your voice. And you totally nailed that Sarah McLachlan track!!!!
A bit jealous of that 12-string too....
😊🙏🏽☯️
Isn't the 12 string wonderful! Thank you so much. Your encouragement means a lot. :)
Aw! Thank you, my friend. I dearly hope I get to Steemfest so we can laugh and talk and share a few hugs!
I hope you get a ticket to Steemfest, Katrina. Awesome voice- love your songs. 🎶 💕
Beautiful voice lady!! Good wishes & cool vibes from Barcelona city!
Would be super awesome if you won one of the @steemitblog giveaways!!!
I would love that, yes! You’re going to be there, right? Would be amazing to meet you. 💞
Definitely!! Crossing my fingers for you <3