Last night, I hit a really bad existential low.
The clock ran out. Too late for any of my friends or family.
So, I fired up my Kindle app, since I wasn’t sure if my tablet had any juice, and dug through my VAST assortment of e-books, from the many Stuff Your Kindle days I’ve taken full advantage of.
I found one that had a disclaimer at the outset, about the MMC’s mental health struggles. A note of caution, in case anything like that might prove triggering. But I wasn’t about to let that stop me. Figured maybe I would find his issues relatable.
Turns out he has bipolar disorder, and a sizeable drinking problem. And he uses cigarettes as a lifeline of stress release. History of attempts at unaliving himself.
But he’s also pretty dang charming. And fortunately, I think I’m past the point where reading about or seeing characters smoking, makes me crave a cigarette.
Dual POV, him and the FMC.
He’s the lyricist, guitarist, and lead singer for a rock band that’s in the midst of really hitting it big, and she’s a struggling, classically-trained violinist. They met because his people stole her concert venue out from under her; she stormed into the auditorium to retrieve her case, as an excuse to lay into Rey about it all.
He’d had no idea that was how they booked the hall, and pulled some strings so she could open for them, instead. Thus, their story begins!
Down Beat, by Max Henry.
It’s been a good distraction, and I haven’t yet found any of it upsetting in the least.
Rey’s moods are more chaotic than mine at this point, but I’ve mostly been just fending off depression, lately. With varying degrees of success, day by day.
Actually wearing my tie-dye Fender guitar t-shirt to work today.
This book has given me some insights into ways I can work more technical music-stuff into Rock is Undead. I think they should resurrect the band in the next one, if not by the end of this one.
I guess the problem was, another birthday came and went, and nothing has really changed. Or improved, in any noticeable way.
But that’s a whole snarled mess to be unravelled in therapy this week.
This one’s acoustic, and watermarked, but I still really dug the photo.
Rock your week, my peeps!
All the Bright and Sparkly Things 
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