Thursday, April 27, 2006

Knowing your Muse


Admittedly inspired by a former post here--I am wondering how people would envision their "Muses." Here are some simple questions:

Is your muse Male or Female or Androgynous?

Is your muse solid or vapor?

Is your muse loyal or does he/she/it flee at any given moment, leaving you hanging like the last dead leaf clinging desperately to the tree in the wind?

Does your muse ever kick you in the butt?

Is your muse gentle and kind, or overbearing and prone to chastisement?

What do you do to "invite" the muse? What have you had the most success with?

I know, silly questions, but well worth the hearing. If your muse has temporarily deserted you, knowing him/her/it may help to bring it back.

N'est ce pas?

Sunday, April 16, 2006

The Muses Unleashed

As we know, the spirit of creativity can very often give us its signature "nudge" at any time or anywhere. And as writers, certainly our eyes, ears, and yes -- our emotions-- are the basic implements for making it possible.

So, if you'll be celebrating this Easter Sunday with family, friends and loved ones, use this golden opportunity to take in everything that's happening around you. Needless to say, sometimes you just never know how an assembly of people, as well as their interactions with each other, can shape a terrific as well as innovative story line.

Here's to fresh and new story ideas, emanating from a fantastic holiday gathering.

Celebrate life on this special day... and enjoy it.

Happy Easter.

Sunday, April 09, 2006

Cracking The Code

As an avid reader of Anna Louise's Live Journal blog, I find her candid and in-depth windows into the publishing industry to be both informative and timely -- especially in an age of such code words, catch phrases, and reasons for rejection as: "In today's tight publishing market..." along with many others.

Anna Louise is an editor for Tor Books , whose insightful online journal entries are getting lots of buzz and attention these days -- even from a few top literary agents and editors who are now bloggers themselves.

I found her recent post in which she attempts to decode, and thereby, give her readers a clearly defined," inside look" into the industry, to be a standout among her entries to date. I also highly recommend it as a behind-the-scenes view of the business machine (yes, once again folks, it's a *business* -- just like any other) more commonly known as modern-day publishing.

Read Anna's post here on "Demystifying Publishing."

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

30 Years Of Punk And A New Kind Of Music Journalism

Today, in a mini-celebration to the 30-year anniversary of the start of punk, I'm going to take a look at the role journalists in the UK had during the 70's punk explosion.



On March 30th 1976, the Sex Pistols played the 100 Club in London's Oxford Street. It is an event that 30 years on, is still celebrated as a watershed moment in British musical history. It heralded the start of the punk era, kicked off a revolution in swearing, spitting and self-mutilation, and changed forever the way the press wrote about British popular music.

Up until the face of Johnny Rotten became a household name, reporting on music was largely boring. Bands and artists were clean-cut, or as clean-cut as you could get if you forgot about Pink Floyd and the other 1960's believers. Flares and nostalgia were out; living for now was in.

Post-rotten and Britain found itself in the grip of a hysteria the like had never been seen since The Beatles. There were many similarities; "The Beatles are bad for our children,"; "Rock and roll is the music of the devil," and so on. When Rotten appeared on stage with his vile temperament and matching frown the older generations were disgusted, the youth lapped it up, and the press couldn't believe their luck.

Pretty soon punk bands were sprouting up everywhere. "The attitude was 'anybody can have a go at this' - it gave you the confidence to start a band," remembers Pauline Murray of Penetration. The Damned, The Vibrators, The Clash and The Stranglers all lined up for their piece of the action and pretty soon music magazines were exploding to life with a new kind of edgier reporting.

Stories of fights between the bands were common as the press vied for the best sales. "There was a face-off outside a gig," says Jean-Jacques Burnel of The Stranglers. "It was us against the Pistols, The Clash and Chrissie Hynde. From then on the press were on their side and we were ostracised. Then we started getting accused of misogyny because of the lyrics to Peaches. Misogyny means you hate women - I adore women! It was easy to shock people."

And for many that seemed to be all punk was about; shocking people in both the song lyrics and on stage behaviour. When the violence between the bands escalated outside into the streets, the Mary Whitehouse Brigade used the media to hit back at the roll of the punk rock idols.

"The mood in the country was restless," says Eddie from The Vibrators. "Everyone was fed up with the government interfering in their lives and they wanted a change.
Our first major gig was at the 100 Club in September 1976. Unfortunately it turned ugly when Sid Vicious started throwing glasses from the side of the stage during The Damned's set. One girl lost an eye and a bloke had 10 stitches in his head. I walked on stage and saw blood everywhere. I thought if this is people's idea of punk rock then they can shove it."

Eddie stuck with it but many didn't and slowly the punk era died away as quickly as Sid Vicious himself. The press got bored with it all as things seemed to spiral out of control. Punk eat itself and the media won few friends from either side with their reporting of the lower end of the musical spectrum.

And besides, 2-Tone was about to be launched, so who needed the Pistols? Right?

Sunday, April 02, 2006

Morrell On Writing

Author David Morrell has been writing in the thriller genre for multiple decades, and now, he's sharing the wisdom responsible for such books as First Blood (which introduced the character of John "Rambo" to the world), as well as many others.

Lesson One: Why Do You Want To Be A Writer? is featured here at Backspace The Writer's Place, and excerpted from Morrell's non-fiction writing handbook Lessons From A Lifetime Of Writing.

Check it out whenever you can. It's truly worth the look.