7/30/26 – I’m using music as inspiration – what’s on your playlist?

Hey there happy reader!

I’m taking a break from writing another research-heavy historical novel and instead am working on a contemporary romance set right now in New York City.

Instead of spending hours in the library (yup, that’s right. I’m old-school that way!) I’m using a bit of a different process to create this work. I’m lucky enough to live near the setting of this novel, so I’m putting myself right in the middle of it all…

My new book, “The Forty-Eight Hour Rule,” takes place in trendy Brooklyn Heights. 

In case you’re not familiar with the neighborhood, it sits on the East River and has a lovely promenade where on a nice day, you’ll find tons of people outdoors taking a stroll.

This tony neighborhood is filled with coffee houses, high-end boutiques, and townhouses, many of them now divided into apartments.

While it is expensive to live there, its proximity to lower Manhattan makes it highly desirable for those who work in the financial district, a short subway ride away.

(My character’s apartment building)

My female protagonist is a speech therapist at a private school there, and she lives close enough to her job to be able to walk to work – an important detail because she is claustrophobic and won’t ride the subway. Her claustrophobia is well-earned, a trait that is revealed over the course of the story, but that’s information for another day…

Right now, to get myself in the proper mindset for writing a book about a thirty-something living and working in this city, I’m using music to help me understand my character.

I listen to these songs in my car or while I’m cooking dinner. It truly helps to put me in the mind of a much younger woman, one who is trying to find her footing in an ever-confusing world.

Interested in listening along? Here it is:

Every writer I know has a process, and that process matters. 

I find that expanding my horizons – whether it’s listening to music or looking at a painting or sculpture, helps to broaden my mind and think differently about what I’m putting on the page.

Sometimes we need to draw our energy from other areas of art; it often ignites the necessary spark that we can then to bring back to our own work.

What do you do to push the limits of your own imagination? Where do you get your creative ideas from? Whatever your outlet – gardening, knitting, or firing up the kiln – how do you put your mind in motion?