Before I go into my blog for the day I wanted to thank everyone who commented on my ‘Happy Anny & Contest’ blog over the past two weeks. I decided for this contest that everyone is a winner with the grand prize winner being Amy S! Congrats to all!
Let the music move you…
Sunday morning before I went to work I knew I needed to get some uplifting music into my car to listen to on my drive to work. Now for me the music that perks me up and gets me into a good mood is anything by Rush. Those who know me know that’s my favorite music group. So I grabbed Rush in Rio (a recording of a concert) since it has a good mix of songs from their 30+ years of making music, I popped it in my stereo system and off to work I went. This group has seen me through a number of boyfriends and heartbreaks, finding the love of my life, road trips and moves throughout the country, smoke-fests, & European travel. When I hear the group play, it puts me in a good place & it helps me to make it through the day. I arrived to work earlier than I expected to so I sat in my car and grooved to my tunes. The song, The Pass, came on and I realized it still moves me now as it did when I first heard it years and years ago. (http://www.lyricsdepot.com/rush/the-pass.html) Then the song Time Stand Still is the one that moved me when I listened to it in Germany. (http://www.lyricsfreak.com/r/rush/time+stand+still_20119896.html) Then of course Freewill is always good (http://www.elyrics.net/read/r/rush-lyrics/freewill-lyrics.html) But this is not to say that only Rush brings back good memories. When I hear songs by Journey off the Escape album it reminds me of reading Black Beauty as a child because I listened to the tape as I read. Then songs from U2’s Joshua Tree album reminds me of reading Clive Barker’s Weaveworld, meeting him at a book signing and having him sign my book and a magazine article. Every Breath You Take by the Police reminds me of high school and a crush I had. Actually any ‘hair bands’ (aka Glam metal) remind me of high school. Geez, remember that hot dude in Winger? Some Alanis Morissette songs remind me of working at the liquor store and living in Texas.I could go on but I’m sure you get the idea. ;)So what music moves you? What do you remember when you listen to certain songs?
Showing posts with label music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label music. Show all posts
Monday, May 18, 2009
Monday, April 27, 2009
Great Radio Show Tonight!
I've been getting hooked up with some incredible musicians in an effort to market creatively. Well it's all thanks to my buddy John Campbell over at Independents Uncovered. John has a weekly radio show on http://www.wgmuradio.com/ on Monday Nights 7:30pm-10:00pm Eastern time. Well TONIGHT April 27th, John will be having The Strike Nineteens on as his guests. So you get two awesome experiences in one.
Below are all the details for checking out their show right from your own computer. I hope you'll come on by and have a listen. I for one, can't wait to "meet" the boys from the band that wrote the song "Forever in Darkness". These hotties from Scotland wrote it for my vampire series. Pretty cool stuff.
1. Show Broadcasts at 730 PM Eastern Time - 10 PM, TONIGHT.
To listen, type in: http://www.wgmuradio.com/ then click Listen Live3.
Additional Information:Official Myspace Page: www.myspace.com/independentsuncoveredOfficial Blog: http://www.independentsuncovered.blogspot.com/Official Book of Independents Uncovered:
The Amoveo Legacy Official Foto of John Campbell: On the cover of The Amoveo Legacy....clearly Joh
n wrote this part LOL!
n wrote this part LOL! Monday, April 13, 2009
Musical Marketing
Soundtracks for movies and television shows are standard. In fact, a really great movie or show is often instantly associated with kick ass music. Last week, thanks to my old college buddy and DJ John Campbell...I found the soundtrack for Book 2 in my shifter series. Well....soundtrack isn't the right word...more like ...theme song.
Actually, I had been in a major writing rut. Completely blocked. Book 2, The Amoveo Heart was not coming to me as easily as the first book did. At any rate, John wants to interview me on his weekly radio show and had gotten some musicians who were willing to let me use their music as an intro for the interview. He sent me the links and the second song I listened to stopped me dead in my tracks. I couldn't believe it. It was as though this song was written just for the heroine in Book 2. Amazing! The combination of the lyrics and her hauntingly beautiful voice were absolute perfection. I immediately contacted the artist and asked if I could use her song for The Amoveo Heart's book trailer. Gratefully both she and her record label said yes!
Then I had an idea to take it a step further. Luckily, she is located not far from me and as a new musician is looking for new opportunities for exposure. Why not have her play at my book launch/signing? As an author of an ebook, book signings in a bookstore are not feasible without a print version. What to do? What to do?
1. I'll be burning CD's of my book (after it's released of course). It'll be packaged in a DVD case with the front and back of the book cover printed and placed in the case sleeve. I figured a DVD case represents a book better than a CD case. It's the closest thing to a "print" book that I'm getting...at least for now.
2. Fogarty's, an outstanding pub/restaurant here in NY has agreed to host the signing event and let me use their place for no charge...on a Friday or Saturday night of our choice.
3. My musical muse, Amy Petty, has agreed to come and play at my signing.
The song that sparked my creative juices and woke up my muse is called "Honey on the Skin". You can find Amy Petty and her spectacular music on her website http://www.amypetty.com/
Thursday, March 12, 2009
The PAINTINGS
By A.J. Llewellyn
When I was in Honolulu over Christmas, a friend of a friend emailed me. I don't want to use his real name and embarrass him, so let's just call him Joe.
Anyway, Joe emailed me, saying he was excited that his paintings had been snapped up by a Lahaina art gallery in Maui and did I know anything about them because now he was worried. After feting him with meals and cocktails, the proprietors had showered him with praise, filled him with expectations.
Now they weren't even returning emails and he was sure he should have made at least one sale by now.
He said the gallery had his work on display for three weeks and his one conversation with the gallery manager should have, but didn't assure him his work was in the front of the store.
I not only knew the gallery on the main thoroughfare, Front Street, but by a bit of divine luck, I was going to Maui the following morning by Superferry to collect my friends Chris and Tracy and their daughter Eleanna.
I promised Joe we would act like tourists and go check on his work.
Long story short, Eleanna and I - otherwise known as The Superspies - trotted into the gallery and perused the paintings. We kept looking at each other. Joe's work was nowhere to be seen.
The gallery manager pounced on us like white on rice and I casually asked if they carried Joe's work.
"No, I don't think so. But look, we do have this lovely piece here."
I looked at a ten thousand dollar painting of a green apple. Eleanna did better work when she was in diapers.
I started to worry about Joe's work now. I loftily went into a monologue that even Eleanna believed. I described Joe's signature piece, a little girl with flowers and bingo! gallery manager remembered it.
"Oh," he said. "That's in storage."
Storage? We followed him out back and there they were, Joe's lonely, forlorn canvas babies, stacked against the wall with a piece of plastic thrown over them. Beyond this, I could see other stacks of paintings by equally luckless artists.
I suddenly felt very depressed.
It's tough to be an artist, whether you paint, draw, write...whatever.
The cruelest fate for your work is...storage.
Chris and Tracy, wondering what was taking so long, came in and the four of us left the gallery manager a simpering wreck by the time we were done with him.
How could the work sell if he had it hidden in storage? Why wouldn't he tell Joe the truth and just send everything back?
I gave him my business card with my home number in Honolulu. I said he could always use my number as a local contact for Joe. I wanted to help the poor guy.
The upshot is that I emailed Joe and told him the truth. As far as we could tell, the paintings had been in storage for a while. He fought to get his work back, not easy when the pieces went "missing" and the galleryites kept waving his long term contract under his nose, but the last I heard, the paintings are on their way home.
But here is the rub.
Last night, in the middle of watching American Idol, I received a phone call from the manager of the gallery.
I didn't even know who he was at first. He talked to me like we were old friends.
He finally explained who he was and I remembered that I'd given him my business card.
I was stunned. I wanted to provide a local contact number for Joe, nothing more, nothing less.
This idiot had other ideas. He is in Los Angeles promoting his own work and is having a show down at the beach this weekend.
It was an audacious bit of networking to be sure. "I kept your card seeing as you're such an art lover and I remember you like florals. I'd love to see you there."
I was so incensed that he tried to play me that I cut him off. "Dude, please lose my number. The only way I would ever come to your show is if your work is in storage!"
Aloha oe,
A.J.
When I was in Honolulu over Christmas, a friend of a friend emailed me. I don't want to use his real name and embarrass him, so let's just call him Joe.
Anyway, Joe emailed me, saying he was excited that his paintings had been snapped up by a Lahaina art gallery in Maui and did I know anything about them because now he was worried. After feting him with meals and cocktails, the proprietors had showered him with praise, filled him with expectations.
Now they weren't even returning emails and he was sure he should have made at least one sale by now.
He said the gallery had his work on display for three weeks and his one conversation with the gallery manager should have, but didn't assure him his work was in the front of the store.
I not only knew the gallery on the main thoroughfare, Front Street, but by a bit of divine luck, I was going to Maui the following morning by Superferry to collect my friends Chris and Tracy and their daughter Eleanna.
I promised Joe we would act like tourists and go check on his work.
Long story short, Eleanna and I - otherwise known as The Superspies - trotted into the gallery and perused the paintings. We kept looking at each other. Joe's work was nowhere to be seen.
The gallery manager pounced on us like white on rice and I casually asked if they carried Joe's work.
"No, I don't think so. But look, we do have this lovely piece here."
I looked at a ten thousand dollar painting of a green apple. Eleanna did better work when she was in diapers.
I started to worry about Joe's work now. I loftily went into a monologue that even Eleanna believed. I described Joe's signature piece, a little girl with flowers and bingo! gallery manager remembered it.
"Oh," he said. "That's in storage."
Storage? We followed him out back and there they were, Joe's lonely, forlorn canvas babies, stacked against the wall with a piece of plastic thrown over them. Beyond this, I could see other stacks of paintings by equally luckless artists.
I suddenly felt very depressed.
It's tough to be an artist, whether you paint, draw, write...whatever.
The cruelest fate for your work is...storage.
Chris and Tracy, wondering what was taking so long, came in and the four of us left the gallery manager a simpering wreck by the time we were done with him.
How could the work sell if he had it hidden in storage? Why wouldn't he tell Joe the truth and just send everything back?
I gave him my business card with my home number in Honolulu. I said he could always use my number as a local contact for Joe. I wanted to help the poor guy.
The upshot is that I emailed Joe and told him the truth. As far as we could tell, the paintings had been in storage for a while. He fought to get his work back, not easy when the pieces went "missing" and the galleryites kept waving his long term contract under his nose, but the last I heard, the paintings are on their way home.
But here is the rub.
Last night, in the middle of watching American Idol, I received a phone call from the manager of the gallery.
I didn't even know who he was at first. He talked to me like we were old friends.
He finally explained who he was and I remembered that I'd given him my business card.
I was stunned. I wanted to provide a local contact number for Joe, nothing more, nothing less.
This idiot had other ideas. He is in Los Angeles promoting his own work and is having a show down at the beach this weekend.
It was an audacious bit of networking to be sure. "I kept your card seeing as you're such an art lover and I remember you like florals. I'd love to see you there."
I was so incensed that he tried to play me that I cut him off. "Dude, please lose my number. The only way I would ever come to your show is if your work is in storage!"
Aloha oe,
A.J.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Adding Steam to Your Love Scenes – Lesson #1
Last week I told you all that I would be presenting the free online workshop, Adding Steam to Your Love Scenes. Here is the first lesson. There is an exercise at the end of the lesson which I would love you all to do. You can post it here for everyone to see, or you can send it to me privately at lynncrain@cox.net. At the very least, please leave a comment so I know you’ve been here!
Set the mood for both you and your characters
So what do I really mean by setting the mood, you might ask. Most of you do this without even thinking about it. Remember when you took that long bath putting bath salts in the water and lit the candles around the tub to create that ultimate experience? Yeah, I know you do. You wanted something relaxing and at the same time exhilarating. Remember that first date with your loved one? How about that first dinner? Or first night?
No matter what you’re doing you need to set the stage in order to get ‘into the mood’ for writing, especially writing love scenes. There is nothing worse than trying to write a witty, sexy tryst when you can’t get out of the doldrums.
Here are some sure fire ways to get yourself in the mood for writing great love scenes.
1. Read books the day before in the genre for which you’re writing.
Now I realize that this may sound hokey BUT there is nothing more stimulating than reading something that gets the creative juices flowing. Pick up that latest book by your favorite author. Or even get something new and different by some one you haven’t read before. Make sure that whatever you pick up, it is in the genre you are writing at the moment. There is nothing more frustrating than to be writing a romance when that erotic love scene is rolling around in your head.
Some of my favorite authors are Morgan Hawke, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Debbie Macomber, Emilie Richards, Nora Roberts, Melissa Schroeder, Joy Nash, Jennifer Ashley and Nikki Rivers to name a few. All of those people write very different things so it would depend on what I am writing the next day just what I’d be reading.
One other thing, do your best to turn off your internal editor. You know that one where you pick apart the book you are reading. This is for enjoyment and if you find yourself editing or being critical of the book you’re reading, find another book.
2. Watch a romantic movie.
For me, I just love watching a romantic movie. And it doesn’t matter when it is as the day before you write, the day you write or even the day after you write will work. It can be an old classic like An Affair to Remember or a new classic like While You Were Sleeping or Notting Hill and it can even be a brand new movie like Sweet Home Alabama. It can even be an autobiography like I Walk The Line. There’s just something wicked about Johnny Cash when you see him as a young man. But the point is, to lose your self in the romance and the story. It’s easy to write about something when you’re feeling the same emotions.
Oh…almost forgot one for those erotic romance writers…there’s nothing so sexy as the stair scene in The Thomas Crowne Affair. It burned up the screen.
3. Listen to music while you write that all important scene.
It has been said by many, many people, and proven too, that music can set the mood. Every wonder why the Scottish took their bagpipes into battle with them? It’s because just the sound of the pipes could work the men up into a frenzy and I mean frenzy. My husband is Scottish and when we went to Scotland, we stopped to hear the pipes any time we could. When we saw the lone piper at Castle Eileen Donan, we felt lonely, when we saw the bagpipe brigade practice for the Edinburgh Tattoo, we felt invigorated. There is nothing like a good song to put someone in the mood for anything. Think about how music is used to set the scene in a movie. You know exactly what is happening just from the music. Think Jaws, think Somewhere in Time and you’ll understand exactly what I mean.
I always listen to music when I’m writing and I am definitely more productive. If you go to my MySpace, you will find a band called the All American Rejects belting out their latest hit. I saw this music in a Battlestar Galactica announcement and traced it down because I loved the sound so much not to mention the really sexy scenes depicted in the commercial. My daughter in law was so surprised that I like this band she called my son right away and told him. I love music. Any music.
My kids gave me an IPOD for Christmas last year and to be honest, I listen to it a lot but while I’m at my computer, I just turn on Itunes. I frequently spend an hour or so downloading music because I never know just what I’ll find interesting some days.
For me, a day without music is like a day without sunshine.
4. Look at phrase books.
Again, this may seem a little strange but when you are stuck in a scene and nothing seems to work, pick up a phrase book and see if it can jolt you into thinking up something on your own. The two that I use are ‘The Romance Writer’s Phrase Book’ compiled by Jean Kent I believe. This is a really, really old book. It’s from 1984 and I have two copies which are both falling apart. The ISBN 10 is 0399510028 and the ISBN 13 is 978-0399510021. It’s available from Amazon.
A new but similar book, The Millennium Phrase Book by Rebecca Andrews, is done very well.
The author has updated many things and has taken into account the change in the market. This book is published by Highland Press and the ISBN 13 is 978-0-9787139-5-9.
Sometimes, I will just look at either of these books and get lost in the phrases as I roll them around in my mind to see if they will fit the story I’m working on at the moment. And since they are phrase books, you can copy things word for word if you’d like. Me, I just get the general idea and put it into my own words.
5. Look at sexy pictures.
I’m sure that many of you are thinking by this time that I have truly lost my mind. But humans are sense oriented creatures. We have to be able to touch, taste, hear, smell and see something for it to mean anything to us. Most of us tend to be very visual creatures in this day and age with everything being in our face. Why do you think that kids are so zoned into the computer games? A lot of times our visual perceptions supersede any of our other senses. Think of the car accidents because someone is not paying attention to what they are doing. Most of those people are looking the other way because had they really been looking at what they should have been looking at, the accident or incident probably wouldn’t have happened.
Last week when I was uploading something to offsite storage, I couldn’t figure out why the link would not work correctly. I worked with it over an hour before I sent it off to a colleague who immediately fired back, ‘Why is there a CW at the end of the filename?’ I had looked at that name for over an hour and had never noticed the extra letters. Talk about a ‘Duh’ moment. Our eyes tend to see what they want to see and sometimes what they see really isn’t what is there.
So just what do I mean by looking at sexy pictures, you might ask. Well, you can get some reference books like I have, The Better Sex Guide, The Kama Sutra, and Ultimate Sex to see the really erotic sexual positions as well as some great description. These books visually show us just how sexy and erotic sex can be. Now for the tamer side, I look on photo sites like www.istockphoto.com or www.canstockphoto.com. These places have some of the sexiest pictures you will ever see. Some people are fully clothed and others aren’t but you don’t see a thing because most things are rated PG on these sites. Matter of fact, one whole lesson will be on less is more because you don’t have to see everything to know it’s sexy.
Exercise
1. Give me a list of your five favorite authors and tell me why you like to read their books.
2. Give me your five top picks for most romantic movie. Again, give me a little insight as to why you think this movie is great.
3. What is your favorite music and why. Do you listen to any of the current bands? Why or why not?
4. Do you think phrase books would be useful? Why or why not?
5. Do you think as a writer you would find looking at pictures useful to writing a novel?
Hope you all enjoyed this first lesson in the workshop.
Until next week...
Lynn
Set the mood for both you and your characters
So what do I really mean by setting the mood, you might ask. Most of you do this without even thinking about it. Remember when you took that long bath putting bath salts in the water and lit the candles around the tub to create that ultimate experience? Yeah, I know you do. You wanted something relaxing and at the same time exhilarating. Remember that first date with your loved one? How about that first dinner? Or first night?
No matter what you’re doing you need to set the stage in order to get ‘into the mood’ for writing, especially writing love scenes. There is nothing worse than trying to write a witty, sexy tryst when you can’t get out of the doldrums.
Here are some sure fire ways to get yourself in the mood for writing great love scenes.
1. Read books the day before in the genre for which you’re writing.
Now I realize that this may sound hokey BUT there is nothing more stimulating than reading something that gets the creative juices flowing. Pick up that latest book by your favorite author. Or even get something new and different by some one you haven’t read before. Make sure that whatever you pick up, it is in the genre you are writing at the moment. There is nothing more frustrating than to be writing a romance when that erotic love scene is rolling around in your head.
Some of my favorite authors are Morgan Hawke, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Debbie Macomber, Emilie Richards, Nora Roberts, Melissa Schroeder, Joy Nash, Jennifer Ashley and Nikki Rivers to name a few. All of those people write very different things so it would depend on what I am writing the next day just what I’d be reading.
One other thing, do your best to turn off your internal editor. You know that one where you pick apart the book you are reading. This is for enjoyment and if you find yourself editing or being critical of the book you’re reading, find another book.
2. Watch a romantic movie.
For me, I just love watching a romantic movie. And it doesn’t matter when it is as the day before you write, the day you write or even the day after you write will work. It can be an old classic like An Affair to Remember or a new classic like While You Were Sleeping or Notting Hill and it can even be a brand new movie like Sweet Home Alabama. It can even be an autobiography like I Walk The Line. There’s just something wicked about Johnny Cash when you see him as a young man. But the point is, to lose your self in the romance and the story. It’s easy to write about something when you’re feeling the same emotions.
Oh…almost forgot one for those erotic romance writers…there’s nothing so sexy as the stair scene in The Thomas Crowne Affair. It burned up the screen.
3. Listen to music while you write that all important scene.
It has been said by many, many people, and proven too, that music can set the mood. Every wonder why the Scottish took their bagpipes into battle with them? It’s because just the sound of the pipes could work the men up into a frenzy and I mean frenzy. My husband is Scottish and when we went to Scotland, we stopped to hear the pipes any time we could. When we saw the lone piper at Castle Eileen Donan, we felt lonely, when we saw the bagpipe brigade practice for the Edinburgh Tattoo, we felt invigorated. There is nothing like a good song to put someone in the mood for anything. Think about how music is used to set the scene in a movie. You know exactly what is happening just from the music. Think Jaws, think Somewhere in Time and you’ll understand exactly what I mean.
I always listen to music when I’m writing and I am definitely more productive. If you go to my MySpace, you will find a band called the All American Rejects belting out their latest hit. I saw this music in a Battlestar Galactica announcement and traced it down because I loved the sound so much not to mention the really sexy scenes depicted in the commercial. My daughter in law was so surprised that I like this band she called my son right away and told him. I love music. Any music.
My kids gave me an IPOD for Christmas last year and to be honest, I listen to it a lot but while I’m at my computer, I just turn on Itunes. I frequently spend an hour or so downloading music because I never know just what I’ll find interesting some days.
For me, a day without music is like a day without sunshine.
4. Look at phrase books.
Again, this may seem a little strange but when you are stuck in a scene and nothing seems to work, pick up a phrase book and see if it can jolt you into thinking up something on your own. The two that I use are ‘The Romance Writer’s Phrase Book’ compiled by Jean Kent I believe. This is a really, really old book. It’s from 1984 and I have two copies which are both falling apart. The ISBN 10 is 0399510028 and the ISBN 13 is 978-0399510021. It’s available from Amazon.
A new but similar book, The Millennium Phrase Book by Rebecca Andrews, is done very well.
The author has updated many things and has taken into account the change in the market. This book is published by Highland Press and the ISBN 13 is 978-0-9787139-5-9.
Sometimes, I will just look at either of these books and get lost in the phrases as I roll them around in my mind to see if they will fit the story I’m working on at the moment. And since they are phrase books, you can copy things word for word if you’d like. Me, I just get the general idea and put it into my own words.
5. Look at sexy pictures.
I’m sure that many of you are thinking by this time that I have truly lost my mind. But humans are sense oriented creatures. We have to be able to touch, taste, hear, smell and see something for it to mean anything to us. Most of us tend to be very visual creatures in this day and age with everything being in our face. Why do you think that kids are so zoned into the computer games? A lot of times our visual perceptions supersede any of our other senses. Think of the car accidents because someone is not paying attention to what they are doing. Most of those people are looking the other way because had they really been looking at what they should have been looking at, the accident or incident probably wouldn’t have happened.
Last week when I was uploading something to offsite storage, I couldn’t figure out why the link would not work correctly. I worked with it over an hour before I sent it off to a colleague who immediately fired back, ‘Why is there a CW at the end of the filename?’ I had looked at that name for over an hour and had never noticed the extra letters. Talk about a ‘Duh’ moment. Our eyes tend to see what they want to see and sometimes what they see really isn’t what is there.
So just what do I mean by looking at sexy pictures, you might ask. Well, you can get some reference books like I have, The Better Sex Guide, The Kama Sutra, and Ultimate Sex to see the really erotic sexual positions as well as some great description. These books visually show us just how sexy and erotic sex can be. Now for the tamer side, I look on photo sites like www.istockphoto.com or www.canstockphoto.com. These places have some of the sexiest pictures you will ever see. Some people are fully clothed and others aren’t but you don’t see a thing because most things are rated PG on these sites. Matter of fact, one whole lesson will be on less is more because you don’t have to see everything to know it’s sexy.
Exercise
1. Give me a list of your five favorite authors and tell me why you like to read their books.
2. Give me your five top picks for most romantic movie. Again, give me a little insight as to why you think this movie is great.
3. What is your favorite music and why. Do you listen to any of the current bands? Why or why not?
4. Do you think phrase books would be useful? Why or why not?
5. Do you think as a writer you would find looking at pictures useful to writing a novel?
Hope you all enjoyed this first lesson in the workshop.
Until next week...
Lynn
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