I love music.

For people who know me, this is no surprise. I can mouth the lyrics to just about every 80s song whether I liked it or not. Ear worms are an emotional hazard for me, just saying.

Music defines my life- from my early obsession with The Monkees to my latest interest in Mongolian Metal -it’s a thing. Really.

There are songs that continue to define me, the songs I will always pause and listen to- The Pass by Rush, Beethoven’s Ninth, Ozzy’s Diary of a Madman, Carribean Blue by Enya, and most recently A Little Bit Off by Five Finger Death Punch- it pairs like a nice Pinot Grigio with my psyche right now. (Hell hath no fury like a menopausal woman. -TMI, but TRUTH)

It follows that when I write, I typically have something playing through my headphones.

For my first foray into women’s fiction, I tapped into those white, suburban soccer mom classics like Lifehouse, some Taylor Swift, Sara Barellis, Christina Perri- you get the gist.

My fantasy books warranted more Ghost, Pop Evil, Breaking Benjamin (they have so many angel themed songs!), Nightwish and lots of new age symphonic numbers. But I piggybacked all that into my original playlist. Things got weird when A Thousand Years segued into Wolf Totem, but when I’m in the writing zone it all becomes background noise.

For my latest WIP (Working title: ALL THE BRIGHTNESS) I buckled down and dedicated a playlist for it. This one contains another chaotic mix from Kelsea Ballerini (Just Married captures the love arc perfectly) to Three Days Grace (So Called Life and Lifetime to capture the angst of living with addiction) and a healthy dose of Ed Sheeran (because relationships and he has a song for everything).

Of course, I also had to add a favorite: a cover of The Church’s Under the Milky Way by Peter Raeburn and BeBe Bettencourt (the daughter of the amazing Nuno Bettencourt of Extreme – their new song is WOW, but I digress). This song haunts me, and it was worth sitting through the movie The Dry, just to hear it for the first time. Good movie, but, well, dry.

I also added my current theme song for riding. I’ve been working on getting both me and my fancy jumper back in shape for the show ring. Since riding and coming back older and probably not wiser is one of the themes in ALL THE BRIGHTNESS, it’ needed to be there.

My new mantra for life.

And thanks to my friend and riding coach, I literally have the t-shirt.

It’s me. Hi. I’m the problem. It’s me.

Going to take my problem self to the barn now.