Pink Floyd In The Zone

The one thing writers search for when they sit down to write is the Zone. For me, it's that place where I don't really feel like I'm writing. It's more like I'm watching a movie and my fingers are flying across the keyboard, recording what I'm seeing. I lose track of time, I lose connection with the real world. I'm no longer me--I'm the hero and heroine of  my story.

Often, it's not easy to get into the Zone. There are many barriers--telephones, EMail, dirty laundry, dinner, hungry kitties, hungry husbands--. Not to mention that if I only have--say--an hour and a half to write, I've been known to avoid the zone, realizing that almost by the time I'm enmeshed in the Zone, it's time to pop out.

Luckily, I've found a sure-fire way to drop into the Zone immediately and maximize my time. Pink Floyd. My mellow music guys. I've put together a playlist of my favorite Pink Floyd songs. All I have to do is put my headphones on, start the music, and I'm there. Every single time I hear Take It Back, Shine on You Crazy Diamond, Comfortably Numb, or Learning to Fly, my heart hurts and I get chills. I've never found anything more inspirational. Who can listen to lyrics like this and not be moved?

You reached for the secret too soon
You cried for the Moon.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Threatened by shadows at night
And exposed in the light
Well you wore out your welcome
With random precision
Rode on the steel breeze
Come on, you raver, you seer of visions
Come on, you painter, you piper, you prisoner
And shine !

I listened to Pink Floyd while I wrote my May and June, 2012 books, Private Security and Death of a Beauty Queen, as well as my historical romance novella, September Rain on Amazon.

What's your favorite inspiration for your creative efforts? I'll give one commenter a pretty pair of fingerless knit gloves that are great for driving or writing and  lots of other activities.

BTW thanks to Angi. I had no idea we could embed videos! 

Mallory

8 Things I Learned from Doing Community Theater

This weekend was the final weekend of performances for my community theater group's production of the musical GUYS & DOLLS. My hubby had a major supporting role. And though I came to the production late (deadlines kept me from auditioning last November), I was asked to come in to take over a small part and to work backstage after some people had to bow out of the production for medical or job reasons. The music director is a good friend, it gave me some quality time to spend with my hubby at rehearsals.

One of the tenets I try to live by is to learn something new every day (it's a great way to generate story ideas! plus, it keeps the brain cells sharp and rejuvenates the creative energy). So I thought I'd share with you some of the things I've learned by doing theater since I was 5.

1. Theater is a wonderful creative outlet for me. It uses a different kind of creativity than writing does, and the brain, spirit and body need that kind of refresher, I think. Some of my friends knit or quilt--I do theater.

2. I've made some wonderful friends doing theater. Truly, when you spend all that rehearsal and performance time together--when you help each other with quick costume changes backstage or rely on someone to turn on the lights or move your set or have their lines down so you can play off them, it requires trust. Some of our dearest friends have come from our theater family.

3. Romance. The first date I had with my hubby was to view Halley's Comet at the MIZZOU observatory. But we really got to know each other/spend time together/decide we liked each other by doing a couple of shows together.

4. It gives the shy girl inside me a chance to break out of her shell and shine. Julie Miller is a nervous wreck speaking in front of a big group of people. But Annie Sullivan or Maria von Trapp or any number of other characters love to be onstage.

5. Continuing to be involved with community theater helps me keep the skills I learned in college fresh. I was in charge of makeup on GUYS & DOLLS. Loved aging a couple of characters and turning one young woman into a man for the stage. (I said they'd lost some of their original cast and crew, remember?)

6. Doing this show was good therapy for my hubby. He lost 2 brothers last year, and has been dealing with a lot of family responsibilities. Portraying a singing gangster, hanging out with his friends and making new ones, getting the chance to see me away from my computer, were all a much-needed respite and healing process for him.

7. I got story ideas! Suddenly, the previously one-dimensional hero in the proposal I'm currently writing is taking on some of the bad boy hero qualities of the leading men in GUYS & DOLLS. He may not break into song--but he's developing a sarcastic sense of humor. And his defining heroic quality is--like those gangsters in the play--that he's true to his word, no matter what it costs him. My heroine can rely on him (though she doesn't believe that yet ;)

8. It's just plain fun. It wouldn't be much of a hobby if I spent all that time being miserable or stressed. So I got a few bruises--okay, so I got a LOT of bruises moving church pews on and off the stage--but the backstage crew had a blast. We even performed our own rendition of "Sit Down You're Rockin' the Boat" behind the scenes each time to actors did the big number. And like I said before, the people involved with the production are like family. And those friendships are priceless.


So, what's your hobby? What do you do to escape the stresses of everyday life or to reconnect with friends and family? What hobby rejuvenates you?

I'll give away a copy of one of my backlist titles to a lucky someone who posts a question or comment today. And for you ebook readers out there, be sure to check out Amazon.com on Thursday/Friday--I'm celebrating my birthday weekend by giving away free ebook copies of IMMORTAL HEART.

Where do you get your ideas

The other day there was a discussion among writers about titles. One author said she started the book with little more than the title. It was an odd title but she got a book out of it.

Which brings me to where writers get their ideas. Anywhere. Everywhere. In the strangest of places.

For most of us, it's just letting the imagination run wild. That's easy for me. When I get in a car, I always check the back seat. I can scare myself way too easily. I also always keep an eye on the car behind me. In Montana, there is usually only one or two cars behind me for miles on end. That's because I usually drive over the speed limit. :)

But what if one of those cars is following me? I mean really following me. I start thinking about who could be behind the wheel. Why they're after me. What I've done to make them want to kill me. (All logical steps in a writer's crazed mind.)

When I was writing short stories for Woman's World magazine, I would get a lot of my ideas from country western songs -- the sadder ones the better. Now I find myself getting ideas from TV commercials. One the other day involved a house and a porch swing. A short story came to mind and I was tempted to write it even though I need to work on the six books I'm writing this year.

I have dreamed some pretty wild entire plots. I usually wake myself up if I think the plot is too good to waste. Unfortunately the plots often have some major flaws once I'm fully awake.

I've seen cowboys at the rodeo, overheard conversations at the grocery store and read billboards that have inspired entire books. Last year I saw one line: Can you keep a secret? I quickly reached for my AlphaSmart and started writing. I wrote the opening of Big Sky Dynasty, part of the Corbett Brothers, Whitehorse, Montana series that comes out in June.

Next month's book, Hunting Down the Horseman, came from stories about old ghost towns in the area of Montana where I live. Like Stephen King, I'm intrigued by the idea that evil remains in some places -- and invites more evil to stop by.

My September book, Smokin' Six Shooter, started with a woman finding out that she'd inherited some property in Montana that she'd never heard about. What she inherits is far more frightening and mysterious of course than land. Ever thought about what would happen if you found out you aren't the person you thought you were and that your entire life has been a lie?

Probably not. I often ask my husband questions like that. Funny but he doesn't think about those kinds of things. Then again, he writes nonfiction. Now where is the fun in that?

All this talk of spring!

I had to laugh when I saw all the flowers from across the country marking spring in those author's states.

It is spring in Montana. At least technically. Yesterday it was 65 and sunny. Today the weatherman is calling for possible snow showers before the day is over. That's spring in Montana!

I'm working on a book for next April right now. I keep telling myself that by the end of the month things will be greening up. Heck, the ice might even be off the lake. My heroine won't even be getting stuck in her driveway.

That is the fun thing about writing about Montana -- the weather. Need a character trapped in storm? No problem any time of the year. Getting trapped in my part of Montana is a regular occurrence -- especially in the spring when the roads out of town are often impassible.

But even my editor sometimes questions Montana weather. I remember in Crime Scene at Cardwell Ranch she asked me about the January thaw. It can't be THAT warm in January in Montana, she said. Are you kidding? We live for our January thaws when a chinook blows in and we wake up to warm wind and no snow. It never lasts but it's a nice break.

Selling the weather in April even in books though is tough. No one likes gray days with no leaves on the trees, no green grass, nothing but that brown-gray color across the landscape. But by the end of April, there will be some green showing up on the rolling prairie. There will be lilacs about to bloom. There will be that wonderful blinding light green color on the trees along the Milk River.

I love setting books in a Montana spring. There is an excitement in the air, a feeling of hope, a promise that everything is going to turn out just fine -- once this snow shower blows through. :)

Whitehorse, Montana series book The Corbetts: Shotgun Bride, out today (yeah!), is also set in April. Only last April was much warmer so that book reflects that since I try to be true to the weather. :)

What's your favorite season? Also do you notice seasons in the books you read? Does it matter if you read a book and it's the wrong season?
B.J. Daniels

Are you sure you want to be a writer?

Over the years I've encouraged a lot of aspiring writers. I'm pretty sure for most of them that was bad advice.

Not everyone really wants to write. It's true. A lot of people say they want to write a book. Some even write a little. Most would love to be a published author but don't want to spend hours alone at a computer with no guarantee they will ever be published.

Who can blame them. There are a lot of days I feel the same way.

So I understand people who decide to stay with their day jobs and their vacation and sick pay, health insurance, 401 Ks and social network. Those people still get excited about Fridays because they get two days off and don't even have to think about work, let alone spend their weekends and nights writing.

That's why it meant something to me when a friend of mine recently gave me her finished manuscript to read. She has a great idea for a young adult series. I've encouraged her to write it for a long time.

Well, she did. And it's great. I couldn't put it down.

There is nothing more exciting for me than reading her book because I know how hard this was for her. She has a full-time job, other responsibilities and went through a cancer scare. But she made the time and wrote the book. That's monumental.

She FINISHED the book.

Hopefully an editor will love this book as much as I do and my friend will get it published and write many more.

But I hope for a while she just enjoys this personal achievement. She wrote a book. There is nothing cooler than that.

And no matter how many books I write, I still get a little choked up each time I write "The End."

B.J. Daniels
www.bjdaniels.com