speaking to our souls

True confession time-- I don't listen to music all the time.  Some songs though totally speak to my soul. Sound of Silence has long been one, and this version by Disturbed inspires me about the challenges we face, about life, the world. I bought the MP3. This is the YouTube version. 

Romance writing  is so about emotions and this song is swallowed by the deepest of those that challenge and reach out to us.

 

from where it comes

Reading one of the places I check now and again, they had put up some western music which led to my remembering my own childhood and how much both western music and movies influenced how I think and who I am today. To make sure I am understood, when I say western music, it's not country-western I am talking about. It is something like this.

I have that 78 RPM of that song as well as my real favorite on the flip side-- Single Saddle. My gosh, I can still sing Single Saddle and haven't heard it for years and years. It was music like that as well as by the Sons of the Pioneers that were what likely formed my values and underlay what I write today.

 I am not embarrassed by it either. Were those westerns realistic? Not usually. Did they always have the good guy triumph over the bad guy? Generally. Some hold up well to today and can still be watched. Some not so much.

Here's the thing-- entertainment, all of it, has a set of values. Whatever we put into our minds feeds something in us. That's not debatable. The question is what will it be? What I got back then fed dreams of romance, adventure, doing right, importance of being strong. My dreams didn't get in the way of my going to college, meeting the right sort of man, having children and living as I do today. Some of my dreams were fulfilled-- others I live out through my characters. Not such a bad deal :)

Big Iron

Inspiration for writing westerns can come from anywhere, but nobody's better at providing it than Marty Robbins. This song always makes me think of my son-in-law. I can't help it but whenever I hear it I see him as that ranger heading out in the street for a showdown against a bad guy.

If you aren't into westerns, give the video a look anyway as it's full of historic photos from that period. Now besides my son-in-law, I can imagine it being the hero of my western romance, Tucson Moon, to come in late November-- U.S. Deputy Marshal Cord O'Brian (before the time of the Arizona Rangers). He's the lawman who later began the Circle O ranch which was in the contemporary western, Desert Inferno.

I have to say that I have a soft spot for men who keep the law. They get a bad rap today but whether they are border patrolmen, cops on the beat, government investigators, or military (that one is currently being written), they are the ones standing between disaster and the rest of us. They walk in when we run out. Yes, there are some bad apples among them but tell me where we'd be without them?

Music and the video

This is about background music and what I have been learning in doing a discussion video with a bit from the Elizabeth Custer book. What I like to do is have music in the background that inspires me toward the subject I am discussing. Naturally this doesn't work for all topics; but when it does, I think it's helpful to creator and viewer. I was going at it the hard way-- not unusual for me.

Music to inspire

After reading Elizabeth Custer's book as she described how music was used so often in her life with him and thinking of all the movies I've seen about the cavalry going into battle with music, I began to look for some of the music for my own inspiration.

She talked of Garryowen where General Custer (what she always called him though his rank had been lowered after the end of the Civil War as it was with all the officers) often used it as he and his men would ride in or out. It was the official song of the Seventh Cavalry.

Where I thought it was romanticized for the films, it wasn't. I read that Custer liked it especially for how it worked with the cadence of the horse. Irish drinking song or not, it has a lot of emotion and you can see how you'd find your energies rising with it if you had to ride into a dangerous situation.

And then there is this one which I have always liked. Romantic and again would seem something that would inspire as the men went on a long march or ride.

When you write, want the feel of a period in history or an emotional truth, music often is the key.

the nature of warriors

Before I begin writing a story, a lot of time is spent mulling over plot and characters in my head. It is when I begin to think about who goes with the two main characters. I work out the difficulties they will face and come up with subplots. For me it all happens before I begin typing. Once in awhile I might write a vignette to help me think about the mood of the piece-- the snippet often won't ever make it into the book.

In the historical story I am currently planning, its two lead characters will be different than any I've written-- both are warriors in different fields. I've written about heroes who had been in the military and about lawmen but never a career military officer. To add to the difference, my heroine will also be in a business that required secrecy and involved danger. She will be able to shoot and react as well as a man when required.

Two warriors. And me not a warrior. Well, I've been listening to documentaries, reading things, to get the feel for what that means. Music is a factor also and the following video is about warriors over a period of generations. There are no images-- just words about a desire for peace while one straps on a gun to do their part to bring that about. I have to get the feel for a world in which I have never lived in order to tell the story that has come to me this time.

innocence and the process

A year ago last December I put out my first book on Kindle.  I was beginning a process that I knew little about even though I'd been writing full length manuscripts nearly all of my life.  I had very few expectations for how ePublishing would go, but I had decided to do it. Now I'd say I was naive and really innocent about the marketing process, about what I'd be doing, about what was required. I can't say I know it all now. I keep learning.

When I watch the video at the bottom linked below, it makes me a little teary as I think of the covers that first depicted my stories. I still love them even though readers did not. They were mine and as mine I never saw them as they would seem to others.

My books and I have come a long way since then. The characters have stayed true to their stories. They still have that same energy that I think these first covers depicted. I am still proud of these stories, the ones that did well and the ones not so well. Each is all I can make them be. I've changed what I can to meet the needs of a buying public but I have held true to what I saw as my reason for writing.

They are stories of love, the kind of love that fights to make it work, that stays the distance. It's about new love and that which has been lost only to be rediscovered. The stories are about lovers, who against all odds, struggle to solve problems that stand in their way. Always there is adventure and danger as a part of the plot.

My original covers are still true to my heart even though they are all gone now to be followed by covers that are good too-- just less innocent perhaps-- as am I.

Covers from August 2011

The water is wide, I can't get oer

Neither have I wings to fly... 

Give me a boat that can carry two...

and both shall row, my love and I

It's what love is all about. It's why I think romances matter. Sometimes these kinds of feelings are pure fantasy for us but dreams that never become reality are not wrong. They become part of the energy that keeps us going.

Last week I watched The Magic of Belle Isle. At one point the hero, who is crippled, imagines in a dream that he is waltzing with the woman he knows he can never have in reality-- certainly not that way. Later the heroine speaks of that waltz that never really was. How did she feel it? It was the energy. I think that kind of waltz is what romance novels are about. 

photo is of one of my sculptures

music and the trailer

Creating trailers is like any other art project-- the ideas never end for what might be done and how I can improve them. In this case it's the music that came along and gave me an option I had missed earlier to make this video closer to the feeling of the book. It came about by chance.

A friend was asking how to make JewelBeat work as she wants to add music to her own videos. As I was verbally trying to walk her through it, I thought it'd be easier if I was looking at music.  In the search box, I wrote Native American (something I thought I had done before but must not have) and came across some wonderful music which could be useful both for extended trailers, the short zippy ones, and slide shows of scenery when the terrain fits.

To me, music is a critical part of creating these trailers and finding the right notes is always a challenge. I think this one is it now. Other than the music, I changed nothing else. See what you think for Hidden Pearl--