Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Mood Music

To any writers out there, do you listen to music when you write? Does music distract you, or does it get those brain waves hopping? And what if brain waves really did hop around like fuzzy little bunnies? Inquiring minds want to know!

I find that listening to music helps me settle into a more productive groove when I write--especially if I choose music to suit the fictional setting. The book I'm working on right now takes place in a small midwestern town amidst a family of junk collectors. My playlist for this book so far includes the group Mumford & Sons and the soundtrack from O Brother, Where Art Thou?. Yes, I'm channeling a group from London and a movie from the deep south, but somehow it works. Here's hoping the playlist--and the word count--will keep on growing!

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

In recent weeks I’ve seen several articles around the web about photographers documenting urban decay in Detroit. It’s fascinating stuff!

As someone who dabbles in photography and who also loves a good sprinkling of the eerie and unknown, I find these pictures irresistible. They give me shivers. They’re delicious, drenched in story, a feast for the imagination.

The photographers are Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre, and their site is here.

Love, love, love, love, LOVE this stuff. Cannot get enough.

Oh, and the Phillips 66 pic is one of mine--a humble attempt from the first month of my first photography class. But I had a blast driving around searching for old, tumbledown stuff to shoot.