Music and Words

Back in the days when I was naive enough to believe that my first novel would be picked up by a major publisher and distributed throughout the world, I entertained this wacky idea of teaming up with a musician--more than likely one who was relatively unknown to the general public--to sell their album with my book. Since I always listen to music while I write, I figured it wasn't too much of a leap to assume that people might want to listen to it while they are reading the story...especially since the music I listen to usually sounds like the soundtrack to whatever I'm writing, anyway. I thought it would be interesting to pair up a CD with my book so that readers could feel the emotions I felt while putting those words to the page. It wouldn't have to be structured, such as having certain songs tied to certain chapters; my idea was for the music and the writing to basically flow so well that it didn't matter how fast or slow the reader was, he would still get it.

I still think it's a good idea. Maybe not very practical, but music and writing are not about practicality. They are about emotion. And if I could bring this idea into being with an album, it would be Jeff Zentner's The Dying Days of Summer.

I discovered Jeff on Myspace and was immediately drawn into the world he weaves through music. It only took about six seconds of a particular song ("The Color of Clouds At Night", off his first album Hymns To The Darkness) for me to fall in love with his writing style and the way he plays his guitar (the way some men might touch a woman, with love and reverence). I continue to be amazed at the poetic quality of his lyrics, because they don't walk a fine line between romantic and corny; they are brilliant, weighty words that flow well with the music he spins out of his instrument. It's quite difficult to come up with a way to describe his music, but let me tell you what it makes me think of:

A two-lane road somewhere in the south, glistening with rain as the moon comes up.

The smell of honeysuckle and the way Kudzu looks as it winds around rocky mountainsides.

Secrets.

Loss.

Love.

Despair.

The twinkle of tiny white Christmas lights strung around a gazebo at night.

The smell of rain, and the way the leaves turn up in the wind before a storm to show their pale white underbellies.

A railroad crossing on a cloudy day.

There are so many more, but I don't want to get off track here. The point is, if you haven't heard his music, you need to figure out a way to do so. Both his albums are available through CD Baby and you can find more information on his Myspace page.

Stage Fright

I am a novelist.

There. I said it.

It feels strange, to see those words here. I almost can't believe that I have a book for sale to the public, a book which people I don't even know will read and either adore or abhor. It's exhilarating, to say the least, and exciting and awesome and all those other great adjectives. But at the same time, it makes me a little nervous.

I've worked for a long time to make it to this point; I've had the crappiest of crap retail jobs, worked long hours for minimal pay and less than minimal respect from my superiors, all the while writing under the cover of night like a child reading a comic book under the blanket with a flashlight...and now that I'm here, I have stage fright.

What if I'm not good enough? Sure, I know I have at least a smidge of literary talent, otherwise I wouldn't have had the little bit of success that I've enjoyed. And my husband, mom, sister and friends all tell me that I'm a fantastic writer, that I write engaging stories and believable characters; of course they do. That's what they're here for.
You see my predicament, right?

I can't rely on my own opinion of myself, and although I appreciate all the wonderful things my friends and family say about my work, I don't know that I should take everything they say as gospel. Am I really good enough to battle it out on Amazon.com with the greats in my field? Most published authors have been writing for years, have gone to college to study the elements of writing and language, and have more life experience than I do. Who am I?

I'm a mom, a wife, a writer. I'm a 29 year-old woman from Kentucky trying to break into the writing world on the little bit of talent ingrained in me. Is that good enough?

How does one make it enough?

Stephen King and Me

I've been writing since I was a kid. I used to go around my neighborhood with this little red spiral notebook and write down random things of interest (and I lived in a trailer park, so there were lots of interesting things to see), then make short stories out of what I found. It never amounted to much more than a page or so, but it thrilled me in some nameless way. It was similar to the feeling I got when friends and relatives told me I was a good artist. I was always a quiet child, never athletic or outgoing like most of the kids I knew. Here was something else I was good at, something I could show my mom to make her proud of me.

I wish I had kept that notebook so that I could go back and read the thoughts of a nine year-old me. I do remember a few of my ramblings from those dim days, however: "--Leaves on the ground, dancing in the breeze like confetti thrown on New Year's Eve". You may not believe a kid could put words together in that way, but I wasn't your average kid. I read Stephen King's IT at ten years old and instantly became a fan. It appealed to my creative side, to the aspiring writer in me. Even though I didn't fully understand the more adult parts of the book, I understood what King was saying, and I appreciated that he understood his characters so well.

That may sound weird, but think about it for a moment....ever read The Firm? Grisham is a great writer, don't get me wrong--and The Firm is a hell of a story--but the characters are a bit stale. King really knows the people he writes about. He gets into their heads and hearts and breathes life into them. I'm still impressed with his ability to write from a child's point of view, and not just pre-teens, like in IT or The Body ("Stand By Me", for you movie lovers out there). There is a three year-old character in Bag of Bones named Kyra (my daughter's name, btw) who is totally believeable; so much so, in fact, that I laughed out loud at her adorably innocent one-liners and baby-ish pronounciation.

Stephen King has been a huge influence on me and my writing style. I believe that reading his books has taught me more than any college writing course could (good for me, 'cause I didn't go to college), because I'm able to get so engrossed in his books that I learn about language and style almost by accident. His book On Writing has also been enormously helpful and I recommend it to anyone looking to brush up on their writing skills. He has several insightful things to say about writers, and I happen to strongly agree with pretty much all of them. The two most important, however, are as follows:

* You cannot be a good writer if you are not an avid reader. It is simply not possible.

* Stories are not made up; they are found things, like the edge of a bit of treasure sticking up out of the earth. A writer only has to unearth it and make it his own.