Everyone please welcome Brigit Aine!

Hi there. First and foremost thank you to Jaxx for having me here and allowing me the opportunity to meet all of you. My name is Brigit Aine and my first novella is out May 15th at Absolute XPress. I can be found at Brigit’s World and Where the Paranormal is just Normal. Stop by and see me prior to the release date. I am hoping to post a cover soon… I am in the process of working on book 3 in the Torrent Series, book 2 is already with the editor and will be out soon after book 1 I am hoping. I am also part of a wonderful anthology. You can see what that is about at either the blog or the webpage. There are links there for a wonderful YouTube video about it as well. Okay… on with the topic Music and Writing.
So how many of you listen to music on a regular basis? When you drive your car? When you are doing housework or cleaning your room? When you are home alone and don’t want the TV on? I like music. I have an iPod, a radio in my car, the music channels on my TV service. However, I have discovered that I seem to be a minority in today’s world. I don’t NEED music. I can drive my car from home to work, or anywhere for that matter and I don’t have to have the radio on. Sometimes I even forget it is there. When I got my iPod it was the “newest” one, my oldest son had the version and size before mine. After 6 months, we traded. He had run out of space on his, and I hadn’t even filled mine a quarter of the way. Seemed logical. I still haven’t filled the one that we traded for and I even have movies on it. I update my iTunes software and even buy things when they appeal to me but I don’t have withdrawls like the boys do when they can’t get on or I tell them no. Even my husband got into the craze.
I have even tried to write while listening to music. Now I know this is very common for authors, to have a playlist going in the background, but I find I am distracted by the noise. I can sometimes have a movie or TV show going, if I am not interested in it, but overall I like the silence. When I am writing it is as if I can hear the characters going in my head anyways, so for me the noise created by music or the TV is distracting to what is already going on. If I have to have something on though it is going to be either a musical soundtrack (i.e. Mary Poppins, Mama Mia, Hairspray, etc.), Country Music (yes you can hear the yee haws going) or something soft and New Age. I actually find the New Age to be inspirational if I get stuck when writing. Since I write paranormal I will go looking for new age with interesting titles regarding Faeries or wolves or Vampires and see what others hear when they think of those things.
For me writing is its own form of entertainment and I don’t want to cross my entertainment. When I go to the movies I very rarely hear the soundtrack when the movie is going because I am focused on the movie. Hubby is always listening to the music, that way I at least know when a good soundtrack is coming. I like music, I even listen to it for its own sake on occasion but like I said, I just don’t NEED it. I would say it is a generational thing, as my kids can’t live without their iPods, but I don’t think so. I think it is a brain thing. Everyone is different, and that isn’t to say we aren’t influencing children differently with the ability to take their music everywhere, but prior to the accessibility there were people who had to have music just as much, it was just harder for them to access it all the time.
Okay… I have spouted off my opinion. I am very interested in hearing yours. I want to know what you think about music and writing. Do you read and listen to music? Do you write to music? Do you have music with you all the time? Are you someone who prefers the quiet like me?
Thank you Jaxx for allowing me to be here today.