Do you listen to music while you write?  Or while you read?  Work?  Play? 

Recently, I've seen authors include their Play Lists either in the fronts or backs of their books, presenting the music that inspired them while they wrote.

I'd love to be able to do that, too, but I can't listen to music while I do anything else that requires significant concentration.

A lot of people say that music helps them get in the mood, or helps them focus or concentrate.  For some, it helps to shut out other noises and activities that would divert their attention. For others it dispels a quiet and an emptiness that is a distraction in itself.

But music is itself the distraction for me.  I'm not sure if it's because I had a fair amount of musical training or if it's simply that I have a compulsively analytical mind.  Music never fades into the background for me the way it seems to do for many people.

Even while I try not to pay attention, my mind starts picking up on the rhythm pattern, the key, the musical hooks, any dissonances or other unusual features. If the music has words, I try to sing along, even though damage to my vocal cords from a couple of sinus surgeries has reduced my once almost four-octave range to a croaky octave and a half.

I love to feel the way the words fit into the music and interact with the rhythm. I can't help but analyze the chord changes, the interesting riffs and odd bass runs, the melodic highlights and the mood set by the percussion.

Doesn't matter whether it's classical, rock, pop, hip-hop, jazz, whatever. You play, I'll listen.  And analyze.  The only instrument I play is guitar, but if I'm listening to an orchestral work, that doesn't stop me from picking through the rippling swells of the violins, the rushing force of the lighter woodwinds, the contained bellow of the brass and the romping beat of the percussion.

Sometimes even when there is no music playing, I hear it in my head, and my mind wraps around the notes, picking them out on the fretboard of an air guitar, adding vocals in my mind...

Wait. I'm supposed to be writing a blog entry right now.

There are times when you walk a really strange road as a writer, going down some dark paths and scary, twisty highways. As authors we do things to our characters we'd never dream of doing in real life. We make them suffer in a myriad of ways--from the agony of emotional wringers we hope never to experience ourselves to very physical torments.

 

I kill people…in my books, anyway. I've had my characters kidnapped, beaten, burned, cut, threatened, tortured and just about any and every other horrible thing you can imagine. I make my characters suffer…in the interest of writing an engrossing story.

 

It takes a toll.  I generally regard myself as a pretty nice person, and I think most of those who know me would agree. In real life I'm a wife, a mother, a grandmother, a friend, a neighbor and a co-worker. I've never deliberately harmed anyone that I can remember, and I try to be a positive influence on the world.

 

So where does all this come from?

 

In one of my books I wrote a harrowing battle scene where many friends and acquaintances of the book's heroine were injured in ghastly ways or died, and then I wrote the even more harrowing scene of the aftermath of that battle. It was one of the most difficult scenes I've ever written, and one of the most important.

 

But it left me wrung out and emotionally devastated afterward.

 

Whenever I write a scene where bad things happen, especially when they happen to good people, as they frequently do in my books, I find myself wondering… Where did that come from?

 

All that horrible stuff was inside me?

So, okay, it's not exactly Tuesday.  It was when I started this list, though!

 

After I made this list and read it over it struck me that practically all of them are fantasy or science fiction.  I guess that explains what I write.

 

1. All three of The Lord of the Rings movies – the best fantasy movies EVER

 

2. Star Wars, the very first, the original and still the best, with The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi close behind.  I like to pretend Episodes 1-3 never happened.

 

3. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. It's close between that one and Order of the Phoenix.

 

4. The Princess Bride  "My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die." Utterly unforgettable.

 

5. Pirates of the Caribbean – The first one is still the best.

 

6. High Noon – This is how you do suspense.

 

7. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (The Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch – I almost fell off the chair laughing so hard.)

 

8. Aliens.  Another close one between this one and the first, Alien, but the first one felt a bit too claustrophobic for me and I try to pretend the others didn't happen.

 

9. Terminator – Didn't have so much of the cool CGI effects of the later movies, but a better story more than compensates.

 

10. Serenity – Joss Whedon and Nathan Fillion and some closure to the Firefly stories.  Need I say more?

 

11. The Day the Earth Stood Still – It's vintage 1950s with a heart-rending ending, but still a terrific movie.

 

12. Casablanca – It's a classic.

 

Your turn now.  What are your favorite movies?

I'll be heading over to England this summer for a ten-day stay. My son lives in Oxford with his English wife, so my husband and I will be going to visit them and doing some sight-seeing with them.

On a previous visit when we went over for their Wedding, we spent some time in Edinburgh and London. Not that we did everything we could possibly have done in either of those places (far from it, in fact), but this time I want to see more of the country.

Of course I plan to spend at least one day just exploring Oxford itself.

So far my additional itinerary includes Bath, Salisbury, Blenheim, and Hay on Wye (a small Welsh town that has a lot of booksellers). I have no particular agenda for this. It's research for a future fantasy novel, but that gives me a wide net for types of places to visit.

Aside from Hay on Wye, which will be an overnight trip, the other excursions will be day trips.

What else is within reasonable driving distance of Oxford?

I'm taking part in an incredible contest being sponsored by a group of Cerridwen Press authors.  It takes a bit of work on your part, but we have some great prizes for you.

 

Details about the contest are on my web site (http://www.kmccullough.com) on the "Contest" page.  Check it out and start getting your entry together!

For any of you in the Greensboro-High Point, North Carolina area, I'll be a guest at StellarCon this weekend. I'd love to see anyone who's in the area!

This is the description of the con from their web site: Stellarcon is a general fantasy, science fiction, horror, and comics fiction convention held in High Point, NC. Drawing an average of 500 fans each year, we have an intimate convention setting where you can sit and relax with fans and guests alike. You won't find long lines for events or autographs here.  More information on the con is available at its web site: http://www.stellarcon.org/home

The panels I've been assigned to (with their descriptions) are:

By the Light of the Moon-- Lycanthropes and vampires have a certain draw. This panel will discuss the mysticism, the myths, and the facts.

Battle of Serenity – No description, but when I asked about it I was told that it was indeed a panel to discuss Firefly/Serenity.  WhooHoo!  I get to yammer on about one of my favorite TV series ever.

How to Annoy Your Publisher -- Boot Camp for New Writers: Things you shouldn't do as a new writer.

Artists vs. Authors Pictionary - Artists have the edge for the drawing, authors with the words. Who will win??  Can I admit I'm a bit nervous about this one?  I'm not all that great at the game anyway.  Competing with actual artists?  I'm so dead.

Fear in Fiction -- Horror, suspense, thriller, you name it:people like to be scared. Why? How does one write to induce fear and not disgust and cheese?

There are lots of other great panels, too, and I plan to take in as many as possible.  It should be fun, so why not plan to stop by?

I love writing romantic suspense, romantic mysteries, romantic fantasies, and paranormal romance. 

I've even written straight mysteries.  Sort of.  Even my mysteries still end up with a bit of romance in them.

So, what kind of writer am I?  Am I a romance writer who wanders into the mystery, suspense, and fantasy genres?  Or am I a mystery writer with a romantic streak? 

But all my novels have some element of mystery.  If the reader knew what would happen from the very start, they'd never bother to read the book, right? So am I a mystery writer who likes exploring other worlds and favors happy endings?

And every book has elements of fantasy.  Even my contemporary mystery and suspense novels are fiction. They may be based on a world I know, but the stories they tell never actually happened. Doesn't that make them all fantasy?

Does it matter?  Only if you want to sell your books.

It matters to editors and agents, to reps and to booksellers.  It's all about 'slotting' your novels in the right place, which means making sure they're put on the right shelves in the bookstore.

I wish I could settle down and right in just one genre, or even just one shaded variety of genre.  Crossing genre boundaries so often and in so many directions isn't a great career move.

I'm fortunate that it doesn't matter nearly so much to small presses and epublishers.

I'm just not sure what it would do the creative impulse behind my writing to try to put it in that kind of straitjacket.

The five things I love about being an author:

1. The incredible feeling of satisfaction I get when I write the last sentence of the first draft of a novel.  I'm not done with the story by any means, but for me, getting the first draft down is the hardest part.

2. The way it feels when a book is really flowing and I can barely type fast enough to keep up with my thoughts.

3. Seeing the cover of my book and getting to hold that baby in my hands.

4. Reading, reading, reading and calling it work.

5. Sitting in a rocking chair, daydreaming, and calling it work.

Five things I hate about being an author:

1. Promotion.

2. The way my hands and back feel at the end of a long day of typing.

3. The feeling when I get stuck on a book and can't figure out where it's going next or how I'm going to get my hero from point a to point b.

4. Rejections.

5. Negative reviews.

I took my Christmas tree down this past weekend.  I expected to be melancholy about it, and I was a bit, but I was also excited. More on that shortly, but first I realized I have a somewhat unusual tree.  Some of my ornaments are a bit, well eccentric.

I have a miniature crystal chandelier hanging on my tree, a needlepoint grandfather clock with a tiny mouse running up it, several small birdhouses with minuscule birds perched outside them, a cut-out metal lighthouse, two balls bearing the logo of Duke University, where my husband and I met while we were students, Chinese bells on a fancily knotted silk rope and a beautifully hand-embroidered fan. Perhaps the most unusual thing on the tree, though, is my dragon.

Anyone who's looked at my web site knows I love dragons.  One of my favorite characters I've written is the dragon in my romantic fantasy novel, WIZARD'S BRIDGE You can read his initial meeting with my heroine, Alsa, here: http://www.kmccullough.com/WizardExcerpt.html

Do any of you have unsual Christmas ornaments that relate to characters or situations in your books?

Anyway….

My Christmas was wonderful, pretty much everything I hoped for and looked forward to. We ate too much, drank just enough, laughed a great deal, hugged almost enough and took joy in the time of year, the company, the gifts, the cookies, and all of it.

I hope all of you had a wonderful time as well, whether it involved feasting or visiting or just getting some extra rest.

But now, as a writer, I'm anticipating getting back into my story in progress, finishing it, and moving onto other ideas that are burning in my mind to get down on paper.  I've done very little writing for the last month and a half, as the holidays bring so much extra work and activities.  Those characters in my head are clamoring to get their stories told.