Category Archives: choir

Music – the soundtrack to my life

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P1010066I wonder what songs or pieces of music you would choose to represent the soundtrack to your life? When I wrote my blog on “If music be the food of love …” I was thinking of the music and musicians in my books. I confess I have a ‘thing’ about men’s hands playing the piano, and that comes into Drumbeats, Walking in the Rain, Finding Jess and the new novel A Shape on the Air. In fact, Walking has a song title for each chapter which fits the plot but is also a kind of soundtrack to my own life. It was fun to look back at decades which were significant to me – my teenage years, my student years, first boyfriend and first serious relationship,  getting married, having children. etc, etc. OK, what would my ultimate list be?

First boyfriend: I Wanna Hold Your Hand

Teenage years: Cryin’ (over you)

First serious relationship:: Dedicated (to the One I Love)

Student years: A Whiter Shade of Pale

Getting Married: The Things we do for Love

Breaking up: Everything I Own

Getting over it: I can see clearly now

Second family life: You lift me up

What are yours?

My friend Elaina James has a lovely blog in Mslexia about which she, in her own words, says:

“My blog series has focused on chasing your writing dreams, told from the perspective of a lyricist with stage fright. The final blog focuses on the unexpected chance to turn my words into an actual song with music.”

It’s a great blog series and I do recommend it for a good read. It’s at

http://www.mslexia.co.uk/author/elainajames

and Elaina’s website is

http://www.elainajames.co.uk

Do check them out.

 

 

 

“If music be the food of love, play on …”(Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night)

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My homage to the Bard on the 400th anniversary (last weekend!) of his death, is a quotation which often comes to mind and is very meaningful to me. Just as certain music is the soundtrack to my life (another post on that to come soon!) also music is the sound track to my writing and often works its way into my novels.

In my children’s book, S.C.A.R.S, it’s rap. In Drumbeats it’s (apart from Ghanaian village drums and 1960s pop) the piano pieces which my hero Jim plays for Jess, for example Fauree’s Cantique do Jean Racine and Mozart’s Requiem. And also the LP records he plays her of Mozart’s clarinet concerto in A and of Bach. In my latest, A Shape on the Air, it’s Nella Fantasia, probably made famous by El Divo but played in the novel by mandolins.

Maybe music is the food of love, because my heroines have a habit of falling in love with the men who play this music to them. In Drumbeats, Jess loves to watch Jim’s hands and fingers as he plays the piano and it touches her heart. There is something about a man’s hands playing the keys sensitively that stirs her (and me!). In A Shape on the Air, Viv plays the music on her ipod and the Rev Rory has the same on his voicemail.

As I write, I always listen to music, usually classical but sometimes the songs I’m learning for Rock Choir. If I’m writing music into my words I always listen to those tracks to inspire and set the scene for me – get me in the mood.

Recently, I’ve been interested to read my lovely friend, Elaina James’s blog in Mslexia  about which she, in her own words, says:

“My blog series has focused on chasing your writing dreams, told from the perspective of a lyricist with stage fright. The final blog focuses on the unexpected chance to turn my words into an actual song with music.”

It’s a great blog series and I do recommend it for a good read. It’s at

http://www.mslexia.co.uk/author/elainajames

and Elaina’s website is

http://www.elainajames.co.uk

Do check them out.

New Year, New Me – and keep it up, Julia – after January

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Here I come, 2016! Have you made your resolutions? And are you still keeping them in the second week of January? So many of us (me included. most years) start to give up by the middle of January and have completely forgotten what they were by the end of the month. My main resolution this year is to keep my other resolutions ALL YEAR …

I love food, I love cooking: hot comfort food when it’s cold outside. But then I hate to get a fat tum!

P1010494P1010146OK, so eat but then you need exercise.When it’s rainy, snowy and miserable in January and February,  I don’t feel like going out for a walk, getting soaked and cold. I want to sit by the fire, reading and eating.  So there’s a clear front runner for my resolutions. but will I keep to them?

 If you’re anything like me, you know It’s a lot easier if you choose carefully: ones that are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound. In other words, the good old SMART targets. Anything unrealistic or dependent on chance or fate or someone else, are not going to be achievable.

 “Lose weight” is a no-go. But “lose one stone in weight by July by means of diet and exercise” leads on to three other targets:
(1) use the Mediterranean diet/ reduce my portions by a third/ cut out bread as much as possible
(2) go to the gym three times a week/ take classes in yoga, aqua aerobics, Pilates/ swim 10 lengths all three visits
(3) weigh myself once a week and keep records of weight/body fat/measurements.
I could add “walk in the countryside once a week” or “use my exercise bike/power plate”, or whatever.

 Nobody is saying it will be easy (if it was, there wouldn’t be much point in doing it) but if it’s something that’s possible without changing your whole lifestyle, then it’s do-able. At my gym you have to book classes and if you don’t go, there are (apparently) dire consequences! Aaargh!  I don’t know what, but I daren’t find out! I’m trusted to be responsible and I’m accountable.

I need a reward for all my efforts, apart. of course, from being fitter and healthier. My “new me” is going to be so fit and healthy and slim by July that I will reward myself with a new dress.

I have a couple of others, with regard to choir and writing.

Choir is generalised, but re-join the local community choir and join Rock Choir – those are specific and do-able …I’ve checked my diary and the locations. OK.

Anything BIG like “publish a new book” is vague, generalised, and unspecific. But “complete the second draft of my WIP manuscript by the end of March” hits all the buttons of SMART.

So, there I go! I’m determined. What about you?