"When you wish upon a COUNTERFEIT star..."

As a child of two musicians, a child who used to nap on the inside of her mother’s bass drum, I have attended many, many concerts in a variety of venues and locations in my lifetime. I listen and love almost all types of music. And truly, for me there would be no writing without music.

On May 8th, me and a wicked cool friend hopped into my car, Indigo Montoya, and took a drive up to Nashville, TN on a mission to find a small club called The End. We’d heard nightmares about this club: bad sound, tetanus shot required, etc… but I am a concert champ, and this particular band that we’d loaded up to see meant way more to me than a bunch of rumors of an iffy venue.  So, onward we traversed.

Thanks to the aforementioned brilliant friend we scored VIP tickets, which meant I was finally going to get the chance to meet the guys in the band known as Counterfeit and thank them not only for their rocking tunage but also for inadvertently creating a cd that helped me overcome the closest thing to writer’s block I’ve ever experienced.

This would be an easy thing for me. I know plenty of musicians, and more importantly, I am the daughter of the Rock Goddess. It never occurred to me that me, a girl with more words running around in her brain than can ever come out, might freeze during that one moment I had to tell them thank you. No, not me...I am the epitome of chill.

Somehow among the excitement of the upcoming show and the debating of which songs the band might shred out for us...I forgot one tiny little detail. One of the members of this band, and I am intentionally going to downplay this, is an actor by the name of Jamie Campbell Bower. If you have seen any of his work, particularly his recent intense portrayal of Christopher Marlowe on the show Will, then you probably already suspect what happened to me and my super calm self. I bring this little fact up so that you all can have a good laugh at my expense.

After all, Counterfeit is so much more than Jamie Campbell Bower. Together, these five men are an extraordinary force of sound, pounding an exquisite mix of punk, heavy rock, metal and a zillion others sounds they’ve absorbed, mastered, and perfected into a blend of something amazing into our ears.

But I digress… There I was in line for the meet and greet totally prepared to lay it all out, to let each of them know in two or three swift comments that their music has been important in my life, to say thank you.  Spoiler alert: this mission of mine failed. It failed in epic proportions.

First, I met Bass Guitarist, Roland Johnson and Guitarist, Tristan Marmont. This went okay. The plan, of course, was to say hello to all of them and then give them my group message.  HAHAHAHAHA!!!

Side note to all of you who greatly love the world of creativity and art. If you admire a poet, a musician, actor, or any other sort of creative being, there is a good chance you might actually forget what you planned on saying. You might...in some cases...say something less than intelligent.

Next in line came Jamie Campbell Bower… brace yourselves friends and readers. I know you are expected me to say something cool and snarky here… I am rather known for my smart ass quips. Unfortunately, it went something like this. “Hi, I’m Jamie.” There was a handshake. I started to recall a scene he performed once with Eva Green way back in the Camelot days…and I mumbled and muttered the only thing that came to my mind… "Yes, yes, you are."

Luckily, they are all five gracious men. Guitarist, Sam Bower, and Drummer, Jimmy Craig also introduced themselves to me. I have no idea what I said to them. I pray it was in English. When I lose concentration, I start babbling in other languages. There were a couple of pictures taken while I awaited angels to nab me right there on the spot because my writer’s imagination had me suspended into some sort of reality warp, and my one chance to tell all of them what I really wanted to say melted away beneath the hot Nashville sun.  (Also, no actual angels appeared despite my best imaginings.)

Later on, before the show, there was another unfortunate incident where a pothole attacked me and won. Over a week later, and I still bare those bruises. If anyone has advice on how to walk on flat ground and win in a fight against pavement, please leave a comment below.

So, maybe this wasn’t the night for me to win any awards for being graceful and poised. HOWEVER, it was a night to rock hard and have a stellar time. Counterfeit is no joke. They bring everything they have and lay it out raw for everyone to experience. As a band, they are a tightly gelled unit, and this comes across in their performance.

As I said earlier, I go to many, many concerts, but it has been a long time since I’ve walked out of a venue with that unique and rare feeling of energetic almost spiritual happiness that a really great show with amazing music and the right audience can, every once in awhile, induce.

Counterfeit did this. No, they came out on that tiny stage, in a venue that has a bit of an unfair rep, and slew everyone in the room with their instruments and voices.

If you don’t know this band, check them out. Their album, Together We Are Stronger, is out everywhere.  And if they come to your town, go experience their show.

A few of the things I should  have told Counterfeit:

1. Your record is a hellacious driving album. Put it on, crank it up loud, and drive...fast.
2. Your songs, “Lost Everything” and “You Can’t Rely”, helped resuscitate my character, Zylphia, effectively allowing me to get back to what I love doing, writing. (For those of you who are concerned, Zylphia’s story is flowing nicely now. I just pop on Together We Are Stronger and the words flow. The book title shall be revealed soon.)
3. Thank you. Thank you for doing what you love and sharing it with everyone else.

As this is a rather long blog for me, I’ll cut it off here with a question. Has anyone else ever had a moment where you completely farkled for whatever reason?

Bitten by The Crescent City Muse

 It’s been some time since my last blog entry. So, I thought it was high time I check in to let everyone know what I have been up to in my absence.  Upon releasing Awaken, the first book in my new trilogy, The Priestess and the Warrior, and finishing up Accept, book two of same trilogy, I decided to take a small break and write a fun little short story about vampires.  Tons of research goes into The Priestess and the Warrior series, and I have been overcome with a longing to write a small story for my own entertainment before I finish the final book, Avowal.

St. Louis Cathedral
Right before the rain.
Satisfyingly gloomy and mysterious.

          

   

My original plan involved writing a quick little read which I could share for free on various media sites.  I love vampires. For those of you that know me, you know I have been a closet vampire fiction girl since I was 9 years old.  Naturally, my “just for fun” short story would be about what else but vampires.  On this one topic, no research was needed.  Again, since I was 9 I have consumed every single piece of vampire literature I could grasp with my hands.  I’m practically an expert; I thought.

 Errr…

 326 pages later…

              

No, your eyes are not playing tricks on you.  Short story, hah!  Only this week I finished up the final chapter of the fun little vampire story, and lo and behold, it’s 326 pages and 36 chapters.  That’s right! It’s the longest short story in history.  It’s a freaking novel.  AND I have done more research for this book than any other I have ever written.  The only part that I had right about this entire project is that it has been very fun to write.  The atmosphere is dark and lush.  The vampires are moody and beautiful.  What’s not to love?

Lone Sousaphone
The promise of music to come

Needless to say, I should have known before I put pen to paper that I could not possible write only a few pages about vampires, especially when the entire story takes place in none other than New Orleans, my favorite city in the entire world.  So, now the titled book, Bound by Blood, is a working novel that I shall release sometime in the near future as I continue to finish up the final book of The Priestess and the Warrior trilogy to be titled Avowal.

 

Panoramic of one of the Easter parades we attended.
The corner of Bourbon and St. Philip.

              

In the meantime over Easter weekend, I took a much awaited sabbatical to the beach for a few days, and then crowned the trip with the perfect outing on Easter Sunday to New Orleans for a little lunch and a couple of Easter parades!  It seems that whether I am attempting to write a short story that takes place in that beautiful, vibrant city, or whether I’m stopping by for a little lunch and adventure, I cannot seem to shake New Orleans from my soul. 

        

 If you are interested, available in both paperback and for Kindle, you can purchase a copy of Awaken here: bit.ly/AwakenTPATW.

                

Clearly, I have been bitten by the Crescent City Muse. New Orleans is the spark to my imagination and the song in my heart.  What inspires you?

Elaborate Mardi Gras Indian Costume
We met this man on the corner of Jackson Square.

My Writing Process

Warning! Disaster impending!!

I have been punched, erm, I meant gently nudged by my author twin, Johi Jenkins at http://www.johijenkins.blogspot.com/, the brilliant author of The Thirst Within, Resurgence and Marguerette(Violet) Part 1 to take part in my first ever blog hop.

So here is the deal.  I am going to attempt to answer four questions about my writing, and then tag a few more authors to do the same next week.

1) What are you working on?

The Awakening series.  As of yet, this series, a tale of reincarnation, romance, and magic, is not available, but will be available soon.  Part one entitled The Priestess and the Warrior, is all finished and ready to go, and at the moment, I am deep into the first draft of Part two and have hope of completing it within the next month. 

I am very excited about this series as there is so much going on all at once which come together to tell one story of eternal love and familial bond.

2) How does your work differ from others of its genre?

It’s extremely ambitious.  The Awakening is my aim to tell several different stories, all at different time periods of the past, while at the same time, integrating the main story which occurs in current day.  Pinky, the main character of the series, is a college Freshman when the story begins, and we see her struggling to understand who she is currently while she remembers previous lifetimes with perfect clarity.

I never write in the same genre.  My previous series, The Dark Light Saga, is a dark romantic thriller. 

3) Why do you write what you do?

I always feel like there is another story to tell, and there always seem to be characters whispering almost undetected in the darker recesses of my mind just longing to jump out onto paper so that others can read about them. 

And sometimes I want to share about the things I love, and the easiest way to do that is to create a story around those things.

4) How does your writing process work?

Well, brace yourself.  I still write everything out longhand before my fingers ever begin striking the keys at my laptop.  I wish I could tell you that I’m super organized and have clear concise outlines or at the very least note cards, but actually, I touched with the gift of "scattered organization".  I write outlines and little notes on anything and everything, whatever happens to be in my way at that moment, and then I stuff them into whatever spiraled notebook I’m scribbling in right then.   Also, on the margins of all my notebooks are words or thoughts that I want to incorporate along with indecipherable doodles and song lyrics to whatever I happen to be listening to as I write.   It’s a wonder I ever get anything written and more amazing that I never stop writing.   

Well, there are my four questions!  That wasn’t too terrible.  Did anyone fall asleep?  Need a tissue for the drool?  Bored to tears?

Now, it’s time to tag other amazing authors.  They will be answering the same questions next week.  Make sure to check out their blogs and their works. They are fantastic authors!

1) Victoria Holt at http://vlholt.blogspot.com/, author of the young adult series Rise of the Battle Bred: 97 and the upcoming and greatly anticipated 98. I have spent hours laughing with Victoria as we share our writing woes, namely refusing to allow life to interfere with our writing. 

2) W. L. Wilmot at http://thelifeandtimesofabrokenperformer.blogspot.com/.Writer of dark fiction and haunting poetry. He is working on a super secret project which I’ve had the pleasure of sneak peaking. If you are one of my Dark Light Saga fans, you will love W. L.’s writing.

Check them out next week!!!