Blogetary (Weblog + Commentary = Blogetary)

I was just recently introduced to Aoife’s Kiss when a friend of mine had a story accepted for their online edition. They are part of Samsdotpublishing, which seems to sell a host of other small magazines and books.  In my ongoing search for new markets to send stories to and in an attempt to support the genre I am trying to write in, I decided to subscribe to this little zine and do a little research in regards to what it wants and what it offers it’s readers.

The first thing to notice is that they have two separate different quarterly editions – Online vs. Print. Different covers, stories, poems, everything.

Online Edition Cover

Print Edition Cover

In researching this zine online, it’s a little clunky to navigate around because there is no real website for the zine itself.  No easy to click button that says, “Aoife’s Kiss Online Edition Click Here.”  I either get Genre Mall or the selling site for Samsdotpublishing.  Though, when my friend was published, he sent a link and I was able to see things then.  Again, though, the navigation through the online edition even then was clunky.  I enjoyed what I read (specifically a story by Mike Robinson and a poem by Susan Sailors), but it was too much of a bother to try to find it again. SO, I thought I would subscribe.

The hardcopy of this zine is very simple.  11 x 17 folded and stapled, color cover with black and white drawings for some of the stories.  It’s very easy to roll up, carry around and generally trash while you’re reading it (which is what happens to anything I take in my book bag for any length of time).

For such a simple magazine, it packs a whollop though.  It’s full of stories with poems tucked in in little spaces in between.  The writing quality is pretty good.  Some could be better and there were some proofreading errors I caught in the first couple of stories.  Edward McDermott’s The Prize about a king reclaiming his kingdom was entertaining and Dan Manning’s On Foot about being cursed had an elegant solution that I appreciated.  Samara Steele’s A Litany to Blasphemy I was intrigued by, though it got a tiny bit preachy in its message regarding tolerance, but since she goes to my alma mater (Western Washington University), I’ll give her a pass. I know what Bellingham can be like.  Tom Moran’s Sirens had a pretty interesting twist on just who those banshees really are and I really appreciated H.F. Gibbard’s Shopping Demons in regards to our capitalistic Evil Empire.  I wanted to like Lisa Shapter’s Gilvaethwy since she was playing with old English/Welsh myth, but bits were confusing and lost me. I chortled when I read That Time of Month by Melissa Mead because of its play on a particular fairy tale, but wasn’t sure how I felt about Huntswoman by Merrie Haskell, which also turned another fairy tale on its head.

There were other stories and poems in the zine that were certainly worth a read. Like I said, it’s loaded.  But the tales I commented on were the ones that stuck in my head.  If anyone is interested in taking a gander at the print copy of Aoife’s Kiss, I have a coffee stained copy I’m willing to send to the first asker.  Just let me know.

I look forward to next copy  I get in the mail.

In honor of April’s Poetry Month designation, I thought I would blog about poetic devices.  Poetic devices are used frequently in both fiction and nonfiction prose as well as in poetry.  These devices have developed over the centuries and are useful tools in communication of atmosphere, character, setting, dialogue, etc.  They are basic writing tools and include:

• Metaphor
• Simile
• Analogy
• Symbolism
• Meter
• Rhyme

Metaphor is an indirect comparison, in which “is a” is used to connect the two.  One example might be: The automobile is the Iron Horse of the 20th century.  In using metaphor, the two objects compared are equal in status.  The image is equal to what it is being compared to.  Metaphor can even be extended beyond a mere sentence to encompass an entire idea.  Wikipedia used Shakespeare’s As You Like It to show and example of a an extended metaphor. Mixing your metaphors means using two images that would not normally go together and create nonsensical images.   A mixed metaphor might be: Let’s make like a baby and split – confusing a baby with a banana split. The correct metaphor would be “make like a baby and head out.”

A simile is LIKE a metaphor in that it us uses one image to enhance another.  But it differs in that while metaphore basically says x=y,  a simile says x~y or “is like” “is as”.  My love is a red, red rose is a metaphor.  My love is like the red, red rose is a simile.  The comparison of the images is not equal in nature.  “She’s as dumb as a box of hair” is a simile. “She is nothin’ but a box of hair” (implying she actually is a box of hair and not just like it) would be a metaphor. Confused yet?

An Analogy is an identity of relation between two ordered pairs.  Remember the SATs and the analogy pairings? Hand is to Palm as Foot is to (anybody?) – Sole.  “As a parent’s love is for a child so is God’s love for us” might be considered an analogy.  Analogy is used a lot in philosophy and logical processes.

Symbolism is the applied use of iconic representations which carry certain meanings.  In other words, something concrete is used to represent something abstract in nature.  A red pentagon is the symbol for stop.  In a story, a particular doll might be a symbol for a character’s lost childhood and innocence.

Meter is a measure of length.  This applies to language as well as science, however.  How long the lines and what are the beats within those lines?  How many syllables are measured in that line? Iambic Pentameter is a basic meter used in the English language. It represents the beats in a line and usually sounds like da-DUM.  There are 10 beats or 5 da-DUMs in a line of Iambic Pentameter.  Shakespeare, Poe and Frost are all big users Iambic Pentameter.  Although basically kept within the realm of poetry, you can vary where you want the stress to be place so that it comes out DUM-da instead or have several weak stresses together or several strong stresses together, and create stumbling rhythms as well as a kind of syncopated beat to help with the feel of the language in the line.

Rhyme usually reminds people of simple nursery rhymes where it all sounds the same. “I cry cuz I try to fly and die” could be a rhyme written by Icarus, for example.   However, there are several types of ways that words may rhyme depending on which part of the word you would like to focus on.   A masculine rhyme, for example, focuses on the end of the word, while a feminine rhyme on the second to last of the word (or crime/sublime vs. tricky/sticky).  It could be similar consonant sound instead such as her and dark.

We use these devices everyday when we speak with each other.  They are some of the basic tools of the English language and they stem from the discipline of poetry.  Next time you’re writing something, try to figure out how many different types of poetic devices you may have used while writing it.

Okay, in a few days when I have time I’ll do another posting in honor of poetry month, but my head is not there right now. Late yesterday afternoon a second call for submissions went out from All Possible Worlds saying that they needed more stories for the Sight, Vision, Optics Issue. They needed more fantasy and/or spaceship stories. So, I spent the better part of last night and early this morning jamming to Deep Forest and reworking a story I thought I was going to have to abandon. But after gaining a new direction, we (the characters and I) took off and I was able to remake a beautiful dress out something I thought had become a potato sack.

Sometime around 2AM, I’m in bed, body buzzing from adrenaline and cold medicine I realized I had lost track of what I had submitted where and when. This morning, still trying to figure it out in a brain where the sleep had been fuzzy, interrupted with coughing and the coffee hadn’t kicked in yet, it hit me. A spread sheet. That’s right. Over and over again it amazes me how business like the writer really needs to be. SWOT analysis, Goals and Objective, Marketing, and Spreadsheets. Creativity R Us.

But seriously, cobbled one together in a hurry this afternoon and I think it’s going to work out well. Maybe I didn’t really need to use Excel since I didn’t have any formulas to enter and all I needed was a grid in MS Word, but still. It’s done. And it’ll help. Editors everywhere will thank me for not repeating myself.

You know what they say: If at first you don’t succeed, fry fry again!  Oh, wait a minute, I think that was for tanning back in the 80s.

Seriously though.  I have a friend whose daughter is working on getting acting gigs.  And it’s not always about how good you are, though that helps.  And, yes, it does help to develop relationships with people and know the right people.  But what really helps is to just get in there and try over and over and over…..AND OVER……AND OVER again until something breaks loose or someone cuts you a break and either lets you in or offers you sound advice.

Be willing to jump at any opportunity and use what materials are at your disposal.  The story you thought was a wash last week, could end up being exactly what someone needs next month.  You just never know.

And don’t ever give up.

Can’t get anyone to read your stories? Can’t seem to get any timely feedback when you need it? Fugged about it! Just remember that everything has to age.  Just like a good cheese or a fine wine, once your story is finished, put it up for a month.  So, maybe you come by once a week to “turn” it.  But you’re not really going to do anything with it for a month anyway.  After that month is up, look at it again with fresh eyes.  Revise and edit then and if you’re still not sure about it, put it up to age for another month, or as long as you need to.  Only you can tell your story.

In the meantime, work on new stories, read stories from the markets you want to send to. Read really good stories and really bad ones and learn from other’s mistakes. Then, when the opportunity comes up and your story has properly aged, you will have just what the editor ordered.

But a No Thank You with an invitation to try submitting something else.  I guess this particular story just wasn’t their cup of tea.  On the one hand, it’s nice to know they’d like to see more.  On the other hand, it’s a new journal that advertises that it wants all sorts of science fiction and fantasy stories, so why didn’t they like this one?  I’m frustrated for this particular little story.  It doesn’t seem to fit “in” anywhere and no one will take it in and give it a home. And it’s not like it would take up much room. *sigh*  So, I’m trying again somewhere else with it.  Going over it this afternoon to send out again tonight hopefully. 

I don’t like the finished stories to hang out too long with me after they’ve been finished.  If they do, I start wanting to fiddle with them again instead of work on something new.  And I already have three new things I’m working on right now that I need to devote time to.  So, with finished stories I either want them out with a critique partner or out selling themselves (hopefully) to some editor somewhere.  If I don’t hear back from the CPs in a few weeks, then I just get antsy and start fiddling with it again anyway cuz dammit, I want my stories to be done and out there, not molding away in my computer.  I’ve already wasted enough time in my life when it comes to my writing.  I’m not going to waste anymore.

So, the No Thank You was okay actually.  Well, we’ll see how it goes with this next market.  I sure hope this little guy finds a home somewhere soon, though.

I recently had the pleasure of getting two “maybes” to my writing and it started me to thinking how very much like science, math, and magic writing is and how wonderful that is. I passed that thought by a friend of mine and he really couldn’t see it. He’s a very creative person but even say the words “math” or “science” near him and he gets dizzy. It just doesn’t mesh for him. But it really does go together.

Take geometry, for example. In geometry, you’re given a problem to solve, generally called a Geometry Proof. Typically you begin the geometry proof with an “if/then” statement that begins “Given this prove that.” Then the person solving the geometry problem must use the clues given to solve it. For example, GIVEN the length of the two sides of this triangle, solve for the length of the third side. Then the person solving the problem knows the length of those two sides, he or she can measure the angle and then work the calculation that will give them the length of the third side. Each step must be written down to show a logical progression to the answer. The clues given at the beginning vary, so the solver must be creative in figuring out what calculation must be used to solve the problem and find the correct answer. Sometimes this means taking an intuitive leap.

The scientific method (if you remember your Nightmare Before Christmas) also follows a similar path of logic. Given a particular hypothesis, I will prove thus and so is true/not true or that there is need for more study. Then clues are gathered, documentation is made and there is a logical progression to prove or disprove a theory or hypothesis.

Academic writing, writing an essay to debate a point or research and prove a hypothesis is also like a geometry proof. Every Thesis Statement is an “if/then” statement. For example, the underlying thesis statement of this blog essay is that I will prove the connection that writing has to science, math, and magic. Given (if) these specific set of variables (history of nonviolent protests or Poe’s documented medical habits and literary references), I prove (then) that this is the ultimate conclusion (nonviolent protests do/don’t work or Poe was/was not a drug addict). It would be similar for someone on a debate team or in a court of law (both of which require a lot of writing).

However, creative writing also uses the geometry proof, such as the murder mystery, which is very much like solving a geometry proof. The clues at the beginning will vary as well. Sometimes there is a body, sometimes there is not. Sometimes cause of death is known, sometimes not. Sometimes the list of suspects is very long and sometimes very short. Each time, the detective or investigator or lawyer or superhero solving the case must find the clues and prove in a logical succession how the murder was committed and who committed it. Sometimes this takes making an intuitive leap to follow the logic, however, it still follows the method of the geometric proof.

Writing, however, can also supersede the logical and will spiral up into the arcane like magical, sometimes referred to as scientific theory, depending how you look at it. In the world of the mind as documented through writing, leaps and bounds can be made when faced with a problem that seems unsolvable based on mere jumps in perspective. Poets often use this method of writing, taking a phrase or picture and distilling it down to its bare bones until they come up with a meaning or a feeling that becomes universal the more personal it gets. This is both magical and scientific and it’s too bad we don’t have alchemists anymore, because that is what it is: Alchemy.

Yet, in my opinion, one of the most magical scientific theories is that of Schrodinger’s Cat, in which a cat is put in a closed box with a lethal substance. Until the box is actually opened, it cannot be determined whether or not the cat is alive or dead. At the point when the box is closed, in fact, both can be possible. It can be 100% possible that he is alive AND 100% possible that he is dead. It is not until the box is opened and the outcome observed that the final outcome becomes possible. Although it is an illustration of quantum theory, that the outcome is determined by the observation itself, this theory also carries into the very philosophical world of the writer. It, in effect, says that if there is not a living being in the forest, then in fact, there will be no sound when the tree falls down because there will be no one hear it, no ear drums to catch the vibrations and transmit them to a brain. Someone must be there to observe the tree falling. Their very observation influences the outcome. This is why you can believe in 100% Free Will and 100% Predestination. This is why you can believe that someone can be 100% human and 100% divine. This is why you can suspend your disbelief long enough to watch a movie or a show, or read a book and fully believe in it until the end when you come back to the “real” world. This is why you can believe that yes you did sing your best, write your best, draw your best and deserve to be snapped up by that agent and at the same time believe that what you did was absolute crap. Both possibilities can exist at once. It is the magical point called “Maybe.” It is why people by lottery tickets or go out on a Saturday night.
In my life, the magical point of maybe, where the two possibilities exist is contained in time between when I submit a story or poem and when I hear back from the editor for that particular market. Until I actually get something back in the form of a little slip or an email that they do/do not accept my work, I can live in the magical realm of Maybe. Like the cat, I can be both alive AND dead, and the possibilities are infinite. Once I open that box, though, get the note that I my work is either acceptable or not acceptable, the possibilities suddenly diminish down to the one I’ve observed. The magic is over.

Well, this week I got two “maybes” from two different editors – the possibilities were expanded even AFTER the box was opened – so for me the magic continues and all things are possible. And that, dear class, is how science and math and writing can all converge together to create magic.

In ongoing honor of Poetry Month I thought I would post something about Chinese Poetry.  I don’t think it gets enough attention.  People think Asian Poetry is all Japanese Haiku and that’s simply not true.  And I find the philosophy of the Chinese Poem to be fun and a challenge.

While Wikipedia has an interesting entry on Chinese Poetry, it does not tell you what it IS or how to write a Chinese Poem, although it does discuss rhyme, meter, number of characters, etc.  Most interesting, I thought, was the evolution of Chinese Poetry into a more free verse form after the May 4th Movement, probably similar to the evolution in poetry that happened during the late 50s and early 60s here in the US. But the best instruction I have seen on how to write a Chinese Poem is in the little book called Zen Flesh, Zen Bones, a compilation of sayings or koans (mine is so old it looks nothing like what’s on Amazon).

As explained in Zen Flesh, Zen Bones, the typical Chinese Poem has four lines. The first line has the initial phase. The second line continues that phase. The third line introduces something new, and the fourth line ties it all together.  Here is the example that is shown in the book:

Two daughters of a silk merchant live in Kyoto.

The elder is twenty, the younger eighteen.

A soldier may kill with his sword.

But these girls slay men with their eyes (Reps and Senzaki, 1994, p. 133-4).

It’s not as easy to write as you might think, at least, not easy to write well.  Like the Haiku, it looks deceptively simple, until you try it yourself.  I’ve tried before. Here is one I wrote one evening when trying to find a nice, inexpensive, quiet place to wait out the time before an appointment and hopefully write.  Forgive the bitterness.  I was not happy with the choices I had, and it’s not a very good poem, really, just an effort.
The traveler looks for succor at the end of the day.

Will it be Le Quotidien or Urth Caffe?

A dog drops his own bone to grab what he sees in the water.

Neither choice is good (Olivier, 2000 something, her notebook).

So, now you try. What poem can you come up with?

The enclosed picture is one I took at the Summer Palace in Beijing, February 2003.  A man participating in what I think of as a Zen exercise, or at least a particularly Asian exercise.  He is writing poetry on the sidewalk in water.  Fleeting and ephemeral, it reminds us to enjoy the beauty around us, because it is only there for a moment before it is gone.

Yes, sometimes the Universe really is out to get you – er – I think?

So, end of last week I kind of built up momentum in tweaking and finishing off some stories and I was able to find 5 different markets who took online submissions to send 5 of my stories to.  And then I figured I’d go to my writer’s meeting, have a beer, watch a movie and be brain dead for awhile until I dug into my other stories again.

Not gonna happen!  No way.  No. 

Instead, I get this wonderful email from one of the editors I submitted to saying she’d take another look at my piece IF I could cut it in half (from 8875 words to 4000 words), OR she’d look as something else shorter.  This is exciting.  A personal email from the editor say thing they MIGHT take something if I did this or that.  That’s NEWS. At least for me. And it also meant work. Lots and lots of work.  It meant taking a story I had repeatedly added to because of comments here and there (not connecting with character, not connecting with place, not getting the subtle clues, etc, etc, etc) and taking it back down to its original length, but hopefully, making it better in the process.  And it was exhausting.  I only made it down to 4350 before I sent it again.  I suppose I could have waited and tried for some more words to widdle (wittle?) and tweak today, but then I’d just get drawn in again until 2 AM and I wouldn’t be able to proof clearly anymore.  So, with the help of some people who helped me out at the last minute, I got it down and sent it. 

AND, it still might get rejected.  But, I think it was a good exercise, a good effort, and might be a better story because of it.  That’s what good editors do.  They challenge you to write better.  ANd this story could still be better.  I had a completely different person read it today, and it still was off in some bits.   He said by the end he liked it, but he wasn’t interested enough in the beginning.  Which has been the common complaint.  Maybe I should just stay away from Action Adventures and stick with Literary Fantasy – small stories with fantasy bits. Anyway, even if this story is rejected, I think I’m ahead.  Tweak it abit, take any comments I get, and try again somewhere else.  And if I don’t get this story accepted by this market, maybe my next story will be.  You never know. 

What was interesting about this whole thing is it happened over Easter Weekend.  And I got the email from the editor on Saturday.  So, just when I was ready to collapse, suddenly I’m being asked to perform. Just when my friends and family are wanting attention from me, I want to ignore them and work on editing my story.  Just when I’m ready to dig into writing new short stories, suddenly one of my coworkers wants me to write something for her or a friend wants me to critique something for them and again, the pushme-pullyou happens.

The universe really is out to get you.  What I mean when I say that is it’s trying to make you make a choice.  Free will and all that.  It’s trying to get you to make priorities.  IT’s not telling which priorities are right for you, but it is trying to get you to figure it out.  Push you beyond your comfort zone into growth. And the priorities you set may not be comfortable for you or your friends or family. In fact, they could cause more problems because you set those priorities and made those choices.

So, what are your priorities? This last week mine was to try to live up the standards of a much admired editor and story market.  I may not have succeeded, but I tried. I turned off my phone, missed calls from loved ones, and missed Easter dinner so I could at least make the attempt. Chances are that I will end up doing that a lot.  And that’s just a choice I will have to make.

So, again, what are your priorities?

This is a late start to Poetry Month, sorry to say.  I’ve been a bit preoccupied.  But, I would like to do what I can in the time left to help bring poetry into the consciousness of everyone. Poems can be found everywhere, from crass limericks to delicate haikus.
Poetry has been a staple of mankind since language was first formed.  The first stories were often told in poetic form using analogies, metaphors, similes, rhymes, meter and beat as ways to involve the listeners or readers in the tale.  Homer’s Odyssey is an epic poem.  Lyrics are a type of poem put to music which often use poetic devices. A thousand years from now someone like Bob Dylan or Kurt Cobain or Paul Simon could be known as another Homer.  Who knows?

What are you doing for poetry today?

If you’d like to read some of my poetry, I have some posted at SheVibe.  It’s not the most sophisticated, but it is an effort. My effort.  What will be your effort? Share your poetry.

I came home tonight and grabbed Pye and hugged him and as I did, the radio I’ve left on to keep him company while I’m gone plays the great Yawp of the human soul as sung by the Police on their Synchronicity album.

Suddenly I’m transported back in time and I’m standing on the balcony in college with my roommates. Paycheck days came once every two weeks and were meat for dinner days unless we went home for the weekend to do laundry, eat a meal and bring back whatever extra canned stuff (tuna, green beans, tomato paste, etc) our moms had in the cupboard plus a $20 bill pressed into our hands. Making a drink meant finding the roommate who had turned 21 before anyone else to go to the State Board liquor store, stare down the clerks, and get some cheap vodka to slosh in cheap lemonade to fight our cramps but hiding it from the one roommate who disapproved. Stress of classes and boys and decisions and family and religious upbringing all clashing together was relieved as we screamed along with the Police on the Friday afternoon air.

I don’t have a balcony to scream off of these days. For some reason, once you leave college and don’t live around other people who do it, it’s frowned upon. So, instead I might watch certain movies. The kinds of movies where everyone gets blown to bits, shot, hit or otherwise splattered across the screen until there’s one lone character walking away into the sunset. That’s right – the catharsis movie.

Tonight I went to see Grindhouse, the double feature put out by Dimension with Planet Terror by Robert Rodriguez and Death Proof put out by Quentin Tarantino. It was very cathartic. First up was the Rodriguez film with Rose McGowan, Freddie Rodriguez and a cast of others. But before we begin, let’s not forget the faux trailers. Personally, Machete was my favorite. “They messed with the wrong Mexican,” featuring……Cheech and Chong. THEN the movie begins, and as a friend of mine pointed out, who DOESN’T like a good zombie movie? (or a bad one for that matter). Well, I normally go for werewolves and vampires myself, but this was a pretty good zombie movie, complete with hooker/stripper/gogo dancer with a heart of gold, the hero with a hidden past, the ice-queen, the crazy guy, the lesbian affair – and you guessed it, zombies. All on scratchy film with a strategically missing reel just when the sex scene was getting good. It even has bad edits, Texas BBQ, good old boys, severed limbs and all the gore you could want.

It opens with a gogo dancer scene and to-die-for grinding soundtrack that continues throughout the rest of the movie. Personally, it was my favorite. It reminded me of the small town where I grew up smack in the middle of Washington State. Double features on Saturday afternoons included movies like The Car.

And The Swarm

And I had all the time in the world on some Saturday afternoon to watch a movie with a friend from school and be fascinated with and laugh at all the movies about THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT……….. (I loved that REM song and it reminds me of the fact that even in grade school, my friends and I played End of the World in its various guises and we always had fun doing it).

Then there were more faux trailers after Planet Terror. I think Thanksgiving was the crowd favorite. Followed by the Tarantino film, Death Proof. Now, despite the obvious friendship between the two, I notice people either fall into the Tarantino camp or the Rodriguez camp. Usually, I’m a Rodriguez fan and Tarantino, not so much. Love him as an actor, just can’t get myself to really like his films. However, I really liked this film. There’s this one brief take where Kurt Russell’s character looks straight into the camera and gives it a wicked grin and you know we’re all in trouble. The dialogue is superb. That is one thing I really appreciate about Tarantino. He’s a writer’s dream when it comes to dialogue. As part of his story meanders around Austin on a hot summer day, you fall into the meaningless conversation about boys and dating and drinking and pot and it’s as if you never grew up. Presented in Deluxe Technicolor are girls driving around in old beater cars in daisy duke’s and tight rainbow tshirts who stick their bare feet out car windows and lie across the back of the car seat and just be themselves. I’m transported by movie titles and story line that are A-team/MASH late 70s style. I’m back in that small town one summer when I went home to visit my friends after I moved. One of us had turned 16 before anyone else and all we did the week I was there was, every single night, go out to pizza and a movie and cruise up and down Wenatchee Ave listening to the Cars on the radio.

Or go home and listen to Foreigner.

Styx and Boston and Journey and Jefferson Airplane haunted the airwaves and we were just beginning to figure out just how much trouble boys could get us into.

I don’t want to spoil anything for you, but it was a really good movie. And I already told you I don’t normally like Tarantino. I did, however, sit through most of the movie with my hand over my face looking through my fingers so I could miss the bad parts in a hurry.

Now, why did I do that, you’re wondering, when I just saw a zombie movies full of gore? Well, I figured out why it is I like the Rodriguez films better. Rodriguez films are about things that (it’s assumed) do not exist or are “comic book” in nature. Even the El Mariachi/Desperado is a hero that is graphic novel-esque in stature. Tarantino, however, writes about real people who are batshit insane and really do do the stuff you see on the screen. That scares the holy bejeezus out of me. It really could happen!

And now it’s after 2:30 AM. I’ve put Star Trek on and enough time has passed that it’s safe to close my eyes. Maybe. Which makes me think about junior high when my best friend and I would watch Vincent Price movies and then scare each other reading Revelations to each other right before bedtime.

Well – Sweet Dreams.