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So, my beta reader is working through Pawn Storm, Book 6 in the Metatron’s Army Series. The central theme for this book was created in the winter of 1998, in Michigan, while I was running on a treadmill.
Though I loved to hike at Kensington in the winter – trudging around a sub in the ice and snow isn’t the same, nor as efficient during a Michigan winter as running on a treadmill.
I was listening to the Soundtrack from Riverdance. I LOVE Reel Around the Sun.
I also played Vangelis’ Themes and bit of Robert Miles.
This was back in the day when portable music was either a Walkman or the portable CD players that had to be flat and skipped repeatedly when jarred.
I had the CD player which was just so fun on a treadmill.
We had a ½ bath in the basement where I was running. Though I’d done my best to decorate the small space, it was still a basement and therefore, cold.
This is Michigan, we’re talking about.
As I let the music carry me to Ceative-Land, I slipped into my favorite past-time, weaving the story that would become Metatron’s Army.
Beat the hell out of thinking about an irritating senior manager who was – to the good fortune of all – let go not long after.
In particular, I imagined a heroine – a student in the military academy – alone in a tiny space in the bowels of a ship, studying.
Think governess in a Jane Austen novel.
I further imagined her surrounded by soldiers either on short term transport, who had no need of luxurious state rooms, or those who needed to have distractions removed because they needed to bring up their grades.
Of course, she was there because some jerkweed commander had it out for her.
The book evolves far beyond that as only the skeleton plot events were in place before I put fingers to keyboard in summer, 2016.
Action scene to action scene to action scene, necessitating I develop characters and subplots, and add descriptors – what does the stateroom look like/contain, what is the deal with the jerkweed and why does he have it out for her, etc.
Titles Too. I was on the treadmill in my basement in Fort Collins in the winter of 2011 when I again received inspiration, though not for Metatron’s Army.
Talk about cold! It was minus 18 actual the day we moved into our house. Yeah, sure Michigan – with its “wet winters”- is colder. Um –no.
I needed a title for a nonfiction book I was writing. As I ran, listening to Good Lovin by the Rascals, it came to me.
This is an AWESOME SONG to run to!
After Here: The Celestial Plane and What Happens When We Die was published that year.
Ironically, not long after that, the movie Hereafter – which I’d never heard of before – came out, Interestingly, I identify far more with the psychic played by Matt Damon than the woman who had the NDE. Either they cut corners or her experience was a blip compared to what I lived through.
Get Moving! Walking, running, and hiking, are all therapeutic, and can really stir the creative juices.
Pawn Storm will be available June 2018.