An A-Musing Heartfelt Moment

Though Penchant for Penning as a service has been around for decades, and a formal website resides at its .com space, I've been slow to create a blog presence. Why? Time.

But timing is everything and the time is now to tell some stories and share some insights with other writers and authors who want some company. (I know, using "some" three times in a sentence is poor form.)

And it's appropriate too that this blog begins in the month of February. It's the Valentine month. Full of hearts and flowers ... and chocolate! ... the sustenance that feeds my muse. ...

The rest of this entry was written especially for a friend's blog and published on the first ... in case you haven't yet found Jack D. Wolf's Fox & Quill, please read on and comment as you choose!

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A writer’s muse is a quirky sprite and prone to flashing us with surprises. Sometimes the way a muse brings a book topic to the forefront of our little pea brains is at least, a short story in itself!

Such was the case with my Blast from Your Past! book project. Yep, “project.” One book somehow spiraled into a series of books (the first, just released) and a voluminous outline for branded commercial products (coming soon).

But I wasn’t looking for this idea—in fact I was researching for a completely different book (about fair use tips and techniques for authors, quite boring in comparison)—when I woke up one morning with my muse screaming in my head, “Write the book! Write the book!”

What was her problem?! I was writing the book … or so I thought, until a chance phone call turned my life around. Has that type of epiphany ever happened to you? If not, take heart this Valentine month, because you’re a writer, it will happen, at some point in your life.

You may have a book buried inside you, biting its nails, your muse holding its hand until the time is juuuuust right. And really, in so many areas of our lives, “timing is everything.”

While researching a Rock & Roll memorabilia article for affluent Boomers, “Let’s Rock-N-Roll Down Memory Lane,” (Luxveria Luxury Living magazine 2008), I called Bill Gardner, a DJ-friend in Phoenix, to discuss the collectability of radio promotional items he’d given away at various radio stations over the years.

It was during our chat that we reminisced about a couple of DJs who had recently ascended to Rock & Roll Radio Heaven. We moved into a discussion about alive ‘n’ kickin’ DJs like Cousin Brucie (Morrow, New York) and Casey Kasem, who have written autobiographies. And I mused aloud, about small market DJs who hadn’t made such a huge splash, but might want to leave a written legacy of what really happened behind the microphones.

Splish, splash, while I was takin’ a bath … OK, that was for effect, but really, at that moment, I knew why my muse had been yelling at me. Scrap the fair use book … I’m going to write about Rock & Roll DJs!

I’d been writing profile magazine articles for years, so interviewing a healthy smattering of radio DJs from around the country about their yesteryears, was no stretch of my writing skills. Blended with history, trivia, and just plain fun times, voilà! Blast from Your Past! Rock & Roll Radio DJs: the First Five Years 1954-1959 was born. Do you have specific skills that you have not thought to apply to your writing? Think about it …

With Bill’s networking help, and a query in the HARO media newsletter, I interviewed more than 40 DJs and 3 bands—whose stories span three decades—the best of Rock & Roll Radio, 1954-1979. Though only 15 DJs and 1 band kiss the microphones in BFYP … the First Five Years, I now have a series to encompass the fun antics and angst of all the DJs interviewed, through 25 wild ‘n’ crazy years. Oh, and did I mention I received enough contacts for at least half of the third book?

The moral of this story, is to listen to your muse, or intuition, or gut, or your mother—or on Valentine’s Day, your heart—whatever it is that urges you to take action. If I had ignored that (literal) wake-up call, I’d have finished the fair use book, but that’s one book compared to the series I am planning my retirement around! You can do it, too.

While actively seeking out your “Aha!” moment is still recommended, don’t deny that quirky nagging spirit with the passionate idea … it just might fund your Golden Years, and will do your heart good.

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