Life Imitating Art?

Coincidence or Something More?

Jamie’s Children follows the paths of brother and sister, Niall and Laura Logan, as they use the music in their souls to deal with life’s challenges. I challenged myself when I chose to make Laura a violin prodigy and Niall a gifted singer-songwriter who was eventually diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

My challenge with Laura was learning more about the instrument, what is required to be a successful performer, and studying violin literature. My good friend Chris Souza, an exceptional violinist himself as well as an outstanding teacher, has been a great help with this. I’ve listened to some wonderful music. I’d heard many of these pieces before but never listened to them quite the way I needed to in order to better understand Laura.

Chris suggested I listen to American violinist Hilary Hahn, and I found her impressive and appealing. Reading her history was kind of astounding, actually. The path Hilary Hahn had followed is much like that of my fictional character. Laura’s genius as a violinist is discovered when she is four – the same age as Hahn. In my book, Laura begins her professional career at nineteen, a few years older than Hahn began hers. Both women complete a college program, Laura at Juilliard and Hahn at Curtis, both venerable musical institutions. How was it that I made choices for my character that parallel the professional life of the real violinist, choices that were made months before I became aware of Hilary Hahn?

Niall’s gift is as a folk singer-songwriter, another genre of music which I knew little about. More opportunities to be introduced not just to fine performances, but an opportunity to revisit some artists I was familiar with and an introduction to some I had not been aware of. Fortunately, I had another guide to help me with this – a former private voice student who is making inroads in his quest for just such a career, Nate Taylor. During the course of the book, Niall writes several songs, or at least the lyrics for songs. Maybe a subject for a future blog post?

Now my friend Ashleigh Evans has sent me a message about a young man currently competing on the television show “American Idol.” Dalton Rappatoni was diagnosed young with bipolar disorder, and apparently what has been his salvation has been the guitar someone gave him and his love of music which followed. My character Niall finds his passion for folk music before he is diagnosed, but that passion is vital to him. Another coincidence? Again, I created Niall well over a year ago when I first began research on bipolar disorder – a terrible chronic disease which has taken many months of study to begin to understand.

How do these things happen? I would think I am not alone in experiencing this – creating a character and inventing their life, only to learn of an actual person who has at least some of the qualities we’ve given our fictional character. Dalton is fortunate that he is living in the twenty-first century and is able to share his journey openly. My character Niall was born in 1969 and when he is diagnosed at the age of twenty-five in 1990, most people are unable to understand his illness and don’t want to hear about it.

Coincidence or something else? Shakespeare commented in Hamlet: “There are more things in heaven and earth than we have dreamed of.”  (Paraphrased; apologies to W.S.) Do we as writers somehow tap into a Muse which provides us with these ideas?

I Read This Book ...

Inspiration, Unexpected   

     It is often said that writing is a solitary endeavor. It is every bit of that and more. It’s withdrawing from the real world, taking yourself into the world you’ve created for your characters and seeing what they are up to and hearing what they are talking about. I write through a first draft ─ changing, deleting, adding as I do. I may write ten chapters and go back to chapter one and rethink it. Eventually, I complete the book, and then the hard part begins. Re-reading, re-writing, tweaking, re-thinking, staring glumly into space and asking myself whatever gave me the notion I could do this.

     Shipping the thing off to kind friends who read what I’ve done (these days “shipping off” means sending an e-mail or uploading to DropBox), and then write back encouragingly. They love it, they love the characters, they love the story. You might think about doing (fill in the blanks). And with much gratitude you accept the suggestions and consider them carefully. My readers are the best; they remind me it’s my book, and they are one reader. Not every reader loves every single thing about any book. But I trust them, and they are knowledgeable readers, and generally what they have to say makes great sense and makes my books stronger.

     Still, as I rewrite, reconsider, retweak, rethink, I wonder if what I’ve put together makes any sense at all or is it too fanciful, too romanticized, too much of a stretch. Is it too long? Too short? (Actually, I think I’ve figured that one out. The book is whatever length it’s supposed to be.) Will anyone read it and actually like it? More, will anyone even read it?

     And then. I take a break from agonizing over my book and look to read the work of another author. Maybe a book I’ve read and loved and admired. Or maybe a brand new book, by an author I never heard of: A Jane Austen Daydream by Scott Southard.

     Now, since I am self-publishing my books, I make a modest attempt to market them. Being in my “golden” years (what a misnomer that is) I have no illusions about becoming a best-seller, but since I write, I appreciate when someone reads my writing. All writers do.

     So I set up a Twitter account because I kept reading on the many “how-to” sites/blogs/etc. about marketing that it was a good idea. I still don’t quite “get” Twitter, but I do post several tweets a day; and I’ve learned to post tweets about my blog (oh, yes, I started a blog, too, having read that was also a good idea) … and it seems people go to my blog from time and time because of a tweet they’ve read. I have a modest number of followers on Twitter, and when Scott Southard “followed” me I looked him up. And loved what I read about him … his great sense of humor and his remarkable talent are all over his website. You get who he is immediately when you learn he has a dog named Bronte and writes a blog entitled “The Musings and Artful Blunders of Scott D. Southard.”

     His book, A Jane Austen Daydream, looked intriguing, so I ordered the e-book and lost myself for many hours in the wonderful world he created. What I read was the most charming mixture of fact and fantasy I believe I’ve ever read and was utterly delightful. More than that, he gave voice to Jane Austen’s deep emotional feelings about writing, and reduced me to tears and inspired me at the same time. When I read this:

Writing is such a personal experience for a writer; the growth and struggle are internal, so when one’s work is acknowledged, it is a vindication of not only mind but also of soul. It says something about one that nothing else can.*

… my eyes filled with tears, and for the final three chapters of the book I kept blinking those tears away. I knew exactly how Jane must have felt.

     And after finishing Scott’s wonderful book, which I will re-read and re-re-read, I went back to my current project feeling much better about what I was doing. After a lifetime of being a musician, a teacher, and a reader, I have become a writer, and it gratifies me as nothing ever has; not all the musical theater productions I’ve directed, not all the songs I’ve sung, not all the wonderful students I’ve been privileged to help unlock their singing voices. All of that has given me experiences I will forever treasure. But nothing, absolutely nothing, gives me the sense of fulfillment that writing does. As a singer, a teacher, a director, I’ve been recreating. As a writer, I am creating.

     And to have just one person say to me “I’ve read your book, and I loved it,” gives me a tremendous thrill. So please read my books. And read Scott’s books. We writers languish without readers. Oh, I have to plug my books here: (you can buy them on Amazon)

How I Grew Up, released October 2013. Eli’s Heart, released June 2014.

You Are My Song, planned release December 2014.

*Southard, Scott D. (2013-04-23). A Jane Austen Daydream (p. 357). Madison Street Publishing. Kindle Edition.