If music be the food of love, as the Bard said - well, it’s also a heck of a good incentive!
Neil Diamond will be the coach this week on American Idol. I totally admire him as a songwriter. “LA’s fine but it ain’t home. New York’s home but it ain’t mine no more” is the most perfect definition of a transplant’s anguish I’ve ever heard. I’m a third-generation Californian living in Virginia and I love both states - but I still catch myself singing that song at least once a year.
The man just has the knack of catching my feelings and putting them into song. I’ll be fascinated to hear which songs the Idol contestants choose, especially David Cook and Syesha.
Next week is also going to be what one writer friend calls “Diane Whiteside’s Psycho Week.” I prefer to think of as the week when my 60 boxes of books come home. Yes, that’s right - we’ve bought a house and we’re about to move into it, God willing and the creek don’t rise. Of course, unpacking all those books, plus all the ones still living with me - have I mentioned those absolutely necessary for Book dot Now? - is going to take a ton of work. That’s where the need for incentives comes in.
Guess what kind of treats I went for? That’s right - music. You’re looking at the proud possessor of concert tickets. For the first time in I don’t want to think of how long, I’m going to take time off from writing and indulge myself. Of course, I’ll have to get Book dot Now finished and my books put away first.
Then I’ll get to see Neil Diamond live in concert! Yeehaw! He is a marvelous performer.
I also bought tickets for the Young Dubliners and Scythian. I do love me some Celtic rock and as for an entire evening of it? Heaven, absolute heaven.
Next step - find more musical incentives to get the books even faster. Hmm, what shall I choose?
While I was riding the subway the other day, I saw a young couple holding each other. His arms were wrapped around her and he was bent half over her, protecting her from the nasty winds swirling over the platform. She had one arm around his waist but was looking across him, protecting him from seeing the utter desolation on her expression.
They were taking the train to the airport and yet they were the most united couple I’ve seen in years. They were also just outside a major military base.
They haunt and inspire me. I’ll use their incredible emotion in a story one day, just to make sure their love reaches a safe harbor.
CAPTIVE DREAMS finally comes to life - on film! Circle of Seven (aka COS) Productions did another fabulous job of capturing my book.
Okay, fellow authors: If you saw the hero you’ve been writing about - and tormenting - for years coming at you, what are you going to do? Run away from him - or toward him?
Hey, lookee here! BOND OF FIRE made it into a fabulous book trailer from Circle of Seven!
I’m always fascinated by what parts of a book wind up getting emphasized in a book trailer. This one puts the focus squarely on Jean-Marie and Hélène, the hero and heroine, plus their long agonized fight against the demands of duty and honor which keep them apart. Not to mention Celeste, Hélène’s little sister and the story’s villainess.
Film also has a nifty way of summarizing things in a few, rich images, too, that I deeply envy as a writer. I wish I could portray Paris in an instant - or a Texas ranch at sunset! But that’s what I keep working to learn how to do better. And, of course, I get to spend many long hours with my characters writing their stories. Yeehaw!
Hope you enjoy this book trailer as much as I do -
We’re getting ready to sell the house. (Oh joy unforeseen…) As part of this thrill, we get to open up vistas throughout the house, so potential buyers can see how much space actually exists in our little townhouse. (Riiight.)
In other words, everything we can possibly live without gets to go into storage so strangers can traipse through our home. If this works, we get more money. I call this A Big Incentive. What I’m having a really hard time with is watching all my so-called spare books go into storage.
Every piece of fiction - gone. All of my Linda Howard collection, Elizabeth Lowell, Angela Knight, Georgette Heyer, Lora Leigh, volumes of Secrets, and more - vanished into boxes and locked up. Okay, they’re carefully labeled and I do have a key. But can I wander over to my bookshelf and grab one? Can I look up a quick bit of DREAM MAN for a fast bit of inspiration? Or how about THESE OLD SHADES for Vidal’s sublime way of putting pretentious idiots in their place? No, I have to rely upon my memory. Well, I do have these well-loved, well-thumbed keepers memorized but, even so, my friends aren’t with me any more!
I even had to prune my research collection. I pray my editor doesn’t want a detailed explanation of the Texas Ranger history behind BOND OF DARKNESS; most of those books are now sleeping peacefully. My Arab histories of the Crusades - well, I made it through BOND OF BLOOD so I probably don’t need them any more, even if they do help explain Don Rafael’s broad cultural tolerances. I even had to pack up many of my Civil War histories, which is dreadful for somebody who likes to prowl Civil War sites on free weekends.
Still, who’d have thought I could take sixty boxes of books out - and still have so many books left in the house? I still have my basic research library here, more than capable of taking me through the next Devil book and my 1920’s paranormal romance.
Plus I do have a few novels stashed away. My Treo is still stuffed with ebooks, including NY Times bestsellers thanks to eReader. I’ve got a complete collection of JD Robb novels hidden there.
And my copy of Dakota Cassidy’s THE ACCIDENTAL WEREWOLF arrived the day after my other novels went into storage.
Hmm, I seem to hear a novel calling to me. Please excuse me while I go check out Dakota’s book.
