Guess where I am right now? Those of you who know me personally (lucky you J) have a good guess. For those of you who don’t (yet), I can tell you is starts with a * and ends with a Bux.

Yep, I’m officially a Conference Junkie and right here, right now, I’m proclaiming myself as a Coffee Shop Junkie. It’s gotten out of hand. The barista’s call me their ‘artist-in-residence’. I know all about Tom-the-old-guy’s cruise next month. Shoot, one of the crazy little kids turned up as a villain in my WIP. It’s a wonderful community…and an expensive habit.

How did it get like this?

There’s an absurd number of us writers out there that...hmm, how to put this without OCD…“enjoy routine.” Before writing, we line up our Diet Cokes, arrange our lucky river rocks in order of weight, and scratch our noses fourteen times. While I’ve got a bunch of psychological theories around why (yes, one of them is that we’re all crazy), in the end, getting into that proper writing mind-set is critical. The Writing Cave is what we often call it (see also: Hovel, Shack, etc.). And like true junkies, we will do whatever it takes to get us there. For me, it was this place – the coffee shop – before I discovered my iCave. Allow me to explain.

I started coming here because it was distraction-free. No TV. No WiFi (back then). No wife asking me questions in the middle of a critical scene (come on, you understand). But soon, it transformed from peaceful-place-to-type into my Writing Cave.

I’m fortunate to have found such a space, since I’d probably lose river rocks. Except there are times in life when a coffee shop is more than a block away. Or (ack) closed. Or you just can’t leave home. Or you don’t want to spend $487.59 for a chance to write for an hour. So about six months ago, I decided to take my Cave back. And in the true spirit of my Silicon Valley-ness, I wanted to make it mobile…an iCave.

I turned to music, deciding to construct a virtual cave contained within my iPod. But not blindly. To make it a true iCave, I needed to do some analysis (surprise, my day job is engineering).

I knew myself well enough to know that I couldn’t have words in the music, so borrowing Talia’s Duran Duran was out. My story would just end up being, “Every one is my world, I will learn to survive.” What about classical? Something written by Henry VIII from Katy’s playlist? While, I love myself some Tudor, it might be a little dry. What’s in between? Movie scores. They hit a range of emotions with a consistent tone and without words. Perfecto.

Animals live in caves for lots of reasons, but a big one is because they are easy to protect. Spatially, they’re big enough for living, but small enough to guard. My iCave needed to be the same. I wanted the playlist to be long enough to stay interesting, but not so lengthy to be distracting (translation: “oh, man I LOVE this song, I haven’t heard it in forever” and then 3 minutes 47 seconds of embarrassing head bobbing). My answer: pick one album, hit repeat, and go to town.

In this same vein, I was working on a couple projects. Therefore, another design criteria for my iCave was for it to be project specific. When I plugged in the earbuds and hit PLAY, I wanted to go into that world with those characters. So one playlist per manuscript was ideal.

With only one album for each manuscript, I thought long and hard about the feel I wanted elicit in my writing. I write Middle Grade boy, action-adventure with a dash of superhero, a twist of darkness, and a pinch of humor. Guess what I picked? THE DARK KNIGHT for one project and INCEPTION for the other.

I’m enough of a junkie to know going cold turkey on the *Bux-Cave to the iCave was a bad idea. My addiction required a tender weaning. I still went into the coffee shop to write, but I brought my iPod. I listened to it the entire time I wrote. If I needed to do email or facebook, I turned it off. The soundtracks were only for writing.

Eventually, the music became more than background – it became a place. The opening violin wobble of THE DARK KNIGHT was opening the glass door to the shop and the aroma of coffee washing over me. The cool ticking clock sound somewhere in the middle of INCEPTION was as much of my Writing Cave as the wooden chairs that are so good at making my butt fall asleep.

On a recent business trip, I tried to write on a plane. This has never been easy for me because I feel the big guy next to me reading over my shoulder. But I gave my iCave a whirl without support of my *Bux. I popped in the earbuds, hit TDK. Sound the trumpets, it worked! By the time the cellos kicked in, I was in the zone and had a very productive two hours.

Now, my iCave is contained in a 4GB iPod Nano (the old, square kind and it’s silver, if you care to know). I love it. I can work at home, on planes, and (yes) at the coffee shop. I still log lots of hours and dollars at *Bux. But if I get here and my favorite seats are taken (grrr) or if work takes me to Arizona, I don’t have a HUGE meltdown. With my iCave, I get my writing fix whenever/wherever I need it.

Oops, time for another hit.

From Goodreads:

One hour to rewrite the past . . . 
 
For seventeen-year-old Emerson Cole, life is about seeing what isn’t there: swooning Southern Belles; soldiers long forgotten; a haunting jazz trio that vanishes in an instant. Plagued by phantoms since her parents’ death, she just wants the apparitions to stop so she can be normal. She’s tried everything, but the visions keep coming back.

So when her well-meaning brother brings in a consultant from a secretive organization called the Hourglass, Emerson’s willing to try one last cure. But meeting Michael Weaver may not only change her future, it may change her past.

Who is this dark, mysterious, sympathetic guy, barely older than Emerson herself, who seems to believe every crazy word she says? Why does an electric charge seem to run through the room whenever he’s around? And why is he so insistent that he needs her help to prevent a death that never should have happened?

From me:

Myra McEntire swept me away immediately in this genre-bending tale. Emerson Cole is an engaging protagonist – witty and yet humble, sensitive but totally badass. She was complicated, just as characters should be. I loved so much about her. I loved her relationship with her brother and his wife. I loved that she was an outcast, a girl who struggled to come to terms with a gift that, until the events of the story, were very much a curse. I loved watching her accept and then learn to master her ability.

Hourglass peeled back in enjoyable layers. The spectral story in the earlier part of the book morphed seamlessly into a story about time travel. The romance also developed at a great pace. Michael, the primary love interest, has very likable, but I have to cast my vote for Kaleb, a character who appears later in the story. Kaleb is awesome.

Hourglass is thoroughly enjoyable. And look at that cover. Stunning, isn’t it?

Check out what the rest of the Bookanistas are reading this week:

Elana Johnson adores A Need So Beautiful

LiLa Roecker is gaga for Are You Going to Kiss Me Now?

Christine Fonseca interviews YA Fiction for Dummies author Deborah Halverson – with giveaway

Beth Revis interviews A Scary Scene in a Scary Movie author Matt Blackstone

Carolina Valdez Miller is wowed by Wildfire – with giveaway

Shana Silver gushes over Hourglass

Jen Hayley delves into Divergent

Rosemary Clement-Moore thinks Chime is divine

Stasia Ward Kehoe has applause for Trauma Queen

Bear with me while I catch my breath.

V's gorgeous cover!

Donna's debut book deal!

I'm so thrilled that the four of us, all unpublished when we met during a workshop in December 2009, will all publish together in 2012.  I can't quite believe it.  I don't know whether I would be published or not without the YA Muses, but I know for certain it would not be anywhere near as special.  Bear with me while I try not to cry.

As Bret would say, "Ahem."

So music. All my main characters and relationships have their own song.  Some of my big scenes have their own songs as well.  I don't usually have any songs in mind when I start writing, but as I'm working on a book songs will gradually get added to my playlist.  I'll hear a song, and have one of those OMG moments, where I realize the song evokes exactly the right emotion, tone or character trait.  Then I'll download the song  and have it at the ready.

My character and scene playlist is more than just a soundtrack for my novel. I can be taken back into the character's head, or back into a particular scene through a song.

One of the dangers of starting a new project in between revisions of a contracted book is that just as I'm discovering the voice and really understanding the new character, along comes an edit letter and I have to turn back to the "finished" project.  It's hard to shift gears at first.  Until I put in the playlist.  Then it all comes back to me.  The tone.  The voice. The feeling.
 
Occasionally I find the perfect song after the book is finished.  I still use it.  I think of it as the "soundtrack" for the movie.  Maybe even the song that plays during the credits.  I have one song that evokes a scene in BANDIA so perfectly, that it's replaced the original song altogether.

I thought I'd share some of my favorite writing songs of late:

Simple Math by Manchester Orchestra:

This song perfectly sums up the relationship between Blake and Brianna in BANDIA.  It also exemplifies Brie's internal conflict.  The math analogy is especially fitting for her.  I love the simple production style and how the bare instrumentation evokes raw emotion.  Love this.

He is All You Want by The Audition

This song perfectly fits one of the main characters in a new project I'm working on.  He's insecure about his relationship with his girlfriend and convinced that he has no real future with her.  He becomes convinced that she is in love with someone else.  I love the way the chorus has a crescendo that mirrors the strong emotions.

Inside of You by the Maine

The lyrics of this song aren't a perfect fit (the characters are older and the themes are more mature) but the mood and tone of the song are exactly right for the love-hate relationship that underlies SPIES.   Tanner and Berry dance around each other a lot, and I love that he is constantly rebuffed and still coming back for more, knowing that he's falling for someone he can never really have.

Liar (It Takes One to Know One) by Taking Back Sunday

This song has great conflict and angst.  The guitar riffs are as angry as the vocals.  I love the way builds to a strong finish. Its a great song for climactic revelations!

Ordinary World by Duran Duran

 
In BANDIA, a paranormal romance, Brianna must face the fact that she is far from ordinary.  This song works on several levels, but I especially love that it's about finding a way out of heartbreak.

Vindicated by Dashboard Confessional

This song is perfect for the ending of SPIES.  That is all.

When I was younger, I periodically wished my life had a soundtrack.  The Darth Vader theme when my government teacher entered the room.  A John Hughes-style love trill before my first kiss.  Rocky’s uplifting score while I prepped for the SAT.  (Yes.  I was a geek.)

But as my life continued, I realized that it actually did have a soundtrack.  One dictated by parents, peers and pop culture.  The Mozart and Pete Seeger of my childhood.  My roommate’s rather regrettable taste in college.  The Bonnie Raitt song I still can’t stand because of the boy who sang it to me.  The road trip tapes that got me across Africa.  The BritPop of Radio 1.  Songs like “Little Boxes”, “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, “She Don’t Use Jelly”, and “Wake Me Up (Before You Go-Go)” can conjure images, scents, sensations and emotions more potent than any film.     

I’m sure all of you connect to music in the same way (though I’m willing to bet not with the same songs).  Maybe for you it’s classical music or show tunes or Stevie Ray Vaughan or Adele.  There’s something about music that just grabs us by the throat (or by the collar) and doesn’t let go.

I think that’s why, for me, music is such a powerful tool in my writing toolbox.  Sure, I listen to Renaissance music, and have a CD (or two) of songs written by Henry VIII.  And these help me with period atmospherics (and with plot points in book 2).  But this isn’t the music that helps shape my characters and strengthens the tone of emotional scenes.  I grew up with pop and punk, threw myself head first into the grunge movement and came out the other side (still with a penchant for pop and punk).  This is the music that forms the soundtrack to my writing life.

Inspired by the montage in Sofia Coppola’s MARIE ANTOINETTE set to “I Want Candy” by Bow Wow Wow and I took off with the idea of setting historical characters to the music I love.  I make playlists including artists like Green Day, Snow Patrol, Pearl Jam, the Waterboys, Regina Spektor, Lily Allen and Avril Lavigne.  I prefer silence when I write, so I listen to them in the car, at the gym, while cleaning the bathrooms.  I add and subtract as characters change and grow.  My kids learn to recognize them and love them and start to sing along. 

And suddenly the music morphs into the soundtrack of their childhoods and the story continues.

To me, music is an essential part of the river that shapes my life and my characters.  I couldn’t do without it.  And neither could they.

What about you?  Do you listen to music as you write?  And how do you view the soundtrack of your own life?

Well... I couldn't wait until Thursday. Take a look... Could you have waited?

You can take another gander at the cover here where, for some unknown reason, it's bigger.

I'm in love with this cover.

Ummm. MY cover.

Is that ok to say? Because I really, really love it. It captures the energy and drama of UNDER THE NEVER SKY perfectly.

This is one of those days I never really thought would happen. My manuscript--that collection of words and thoughts--is going to be a book. A book with a stunning cover.

I feel a little nauseous. In the best way.

In the best possible way.

Our theme for this week's blog is music and how it effects our writing. I've talked about that a little bit in an earlier post, so I am interrupting my regularly scheduled Monday post for some VERY EXCITING NEWS!!

Wait for it.

THIS THURSDAY...
It's coming.

ON THE YAMuses blog...
Oh, boy!

VERONICA ROSSI'S...
It's here!

COVER REVEAL FOR UNDER THE NEVER SKY!!!

(YAY! *applause breaks out. Cheers*)




Tell everyone and stop by here on Thursday to see it for yourself

and...

there might be MORE exciting news to come. Hang on to your hats, guys, it's going to be an AMAZING thrill ride this week with the Muses. Promise.