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What is a muse? What is your personal muse? Goddesses? Fairies? A part of your own brain that only seems to have a life of its own? Is the muse simply inspriation? I’ll let you decide for yourself on that part of it, but tonight I’ll write about things I do to coax my muse, or maybe to coax me. I’ve had the muse hot and bothered when I was so tired I could barely keep my eyes open, so my muse and I take turns coercing each other.

My muse runs on caffeine, or at least hot liquids. When I was first starting out it was coca-cola, cold and straight up. But for most of my published career its been hot tea, or hotter coffee. I found that caffeine free coffee and tea works but I prefer caffieneated. Hot liquid seems to be the winner for me and my muse to function. A good straight oolong, or monkey picked oolong, or English breakfast is usually the first choice. I’ll do jasmine in a green, or some of the roasted rice flavored greens, but straight green still tastes like I’m trying to eat fresh lawn clippings. Not my favorite. I honestly don’t drink coffee until the wether gets cold or I’m having trouble staying in the mindset for an Anita book. The very smell of coffee helps me get into her head and her world.

Yesterday I got like 5 pgs in the morning so the majority of the 16 pgs was done in the afternoon. Now, I don’t normally do two sessions on the same project, but the deadline has hit crunch time so its become an evil neceissty. How did I coax more pages out of my muse and me? On days when I don’t feel like writing, at all, I get out the fine bone china tea sets complete with cups and saucers. I will admit that my favorite tea set is based on the Brambly Hedge children’s books. Yes, dressed up mice. The tea pot is beautiful and the cups and matching saucers each do a different season. Favorite seasons autumn and winter. I got out the autumn tea cup and saucer yesterday and it helped me feel better. It simply makes me smile and has for over fifteen years which is how long I’ve had the tea set. I bought it when I could barely afford it, and I’ve never regretted the purchase.

Are you weirded out that my favorite tea set has mice in Victorian clothes painted on it? More so that I can write Merry and Anita while drinking out of fine bone china? I don’t question what helps me work, I just make a note and repeat. It’s all about figuring out what helps you create.

My muse really does run on music. I have never written to silence since I got out of my grandmother’s house and was allowed music and privacy. My first book was written to Motzart. The soundtrack to "Amedueus" to be exact. I think I discovered Depeche Mode next, then U2, and INXS. I wrote my first several Anita books to those three bands. When I first started writing Anita the books averaged 450 to 550 page count and I would play that one album over and over until by the end of the book I wouldn’t be able to stand to hear that music again. It used to take me months, or years, to listen to music I wrote a book to and then the books got longer. Much over 550 and one album begins to grow stale before I’m done, so I’d have to change in the middle of the book, or near the end. The album I finished to was often the same album I would start the next book to, if it was in the same series that is, I try to change music between series. It just helps my muse know we’ve shifted gears.

The iPod has been a wonderful invention for me because I can put hundreds of songs on it and play them in a cycle so that I don’t grow tired of any one band, or singer. So I get to keep my favorite music just to enjoy between books. Favorite bands right now are Drowning Pool, Disturbed, The Fray, Flaw, Drain STH (though its attached to a particular book and I still can’t really enjoy them yet. it’s too soon). I went through a girl singer period at the beginning of writing Merry and for Anita, too. They both write pretty well to Tori Amos, but Merry is more Sarah McLaughlin and Sheryl Crow. Merry seems to really like She Wants Revenge. Though some songs remind me more of Anita, apparently my muse thinks they remind her of Merry. I try not to argue with my Muse, because I will lose.

On days when the writing is going badly I shift to musicals. I will pick a musical for a book, but I usually don’t have to listen to it often enough to grow sick of the musicals, and if I do it means its been a damned hard book to write. Last Anita book I think it was "1776". Last Merry book I believe was "Mary Poppins" but I’m not a hundred percent certain of that. I know that the musical for this Merry book, DIVINE MISDEMEANORS seems to be "Thoroughly Modern Millie" the Broadway cast.  I’ve written to "Hairspray" "Jekyll" "The Secret Garden" "Sunday in the Park with George" "Into the Woods" "Gigi" "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" "Once Upon a Mattress" Rogers and Hammerstien’s "Cinderella" "The Music Man" and more. But you get the idea. I don’t know why musicals will get me past a block in my creative process, but I know that it works for me, and again if it works I don’t question it.

On days when the writing is going really, really badly I do Christmas music. Yes, you read that right. I’ve written to a Dean Martin Christmas Album, Bing Crosby, the entire Rat Pack, Sinatra on his own, but I tend to like Dean Martin best of those. Yes, I know that Bing Crosby is not part of the Rat Pack. I really like the first two Excelsis albums because what goes better together than Goth and the holidays. Mmm-mmm-good. Not as fond of the third Excelsis album though. I love "A Very Scary Solstice" and "An Even Scarier Solstice" from the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society. Traditional carols done with Lovecraft’s world in mind. What’s not to love with songs like, "Have Yourself a Scary Little Solstice" "It’s the Most Horrible Time of the Year" "I Saw Mommy Kissing Yog-Sothoth" or "Little Rare Book Room" "All I Want for Solstice Is My Sanity" "Harley Got Devoured by the Undead". Ahh, the holidays.

I’ll also go on a kick for a particular carol and then Jon gets to score the internet for different versions of it and make me a CD. I’ve done that with "Carol of the Bells" and "Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow."

Weirdest holiday music I’ve ever written a Merry book to has got to be "The Veggie Tales Christmas Album". Yep, that’s what I wrote a Merry book to, so think about that as you’re reading those yummy sex scenes. I wrote some of them to singing and talking vegetables talking about Jesus’ birthday. Yes, I am just that sick.

My Muse and I write better in rooms with pastel blue, or green walls. My bedroom as a child was blue, so that explains it. My first stories were written with walls that color, but why pale green? No idea, but I discovered that when my first husband would take me with him to a hobby store he liked and I didn’t. So I had nothing to do for hours but sit in the corner and scribble in my notebook. For some reason those awful pale green walls just made my Muse explode. I wrote copious pages in that place. People are sensitive to color, so find out what color works for you and paint your room, or at least the wall you stare at when you write that color. Don’t be ashamed if its a pastel, just embrace your muse and paint that wall.

When no music, no color, no hot beverage works, my Muse and I go out to work. I’ve written Anita books at Red Lobster (before my shellfish allergy manifested). I’ve written several books at St. Louis Bread Co. A lot of OBSIDIAN BUTTERFLY, Anita book #9 was written there. I have no idea why I like to write at the Bread Co (Panera in your part of the country) but again don’t question your Muse, just pay attention to her. I will admit when they painted their walls this orangey yellowy color it threw me off but its still a good place to go. You can eat, drink something, stake out a table. I take my Bose sound dampening headphones and my iPod and I write. I haven’t worked out like that in years. I love my new office. Though if I have another day like today I may try it. Though instead of long hand in a notebook I take a portable computer and have since about book 9 of Anita. I love writing on computer. So easy to fix things, so much better than typing which is how I did my first short stories.

In future blogs about writing I’ll talk about other things my Muse and I like. Sticky notes, windows vs walls, what to put on your desk and what to keep away from it, quotes, perfectionism, and my writer’s notebook, but tonight my Muse and I are retiring to a hot bath.  Happy Writing Everyone, be careful out there, or should I say, be careful in there. A writer’s mind can be a very scary place.  Or maybe that’s just mine?