PUMP UP THE JAM by Keri Neal

MUSE MONDAY

Please welcome my guest, Keri Neal to Discover Yourself for Muse Monday.

Gone are the days when I can sit in peace and quiet in front of my computer and just write. There’s too much going on around me at any given moment. Even my thoughts are too noisy; I tend to mumble to myself when I write and that creates a further distraction. Every floor creak, every outside noise is like nails on a chalkboard to my internal voice that makes the lovely words on the page. I came upon my solution to this problem quite by accident a few years ago.

When I was writing “Split” back in 2010, I had a very interesting problem: a main character that wouldn’t shut up. Her name was Grace. At 3 a.m. she was bitching about her sister, in the shower she was fighting an inner monologue, during lunch she was insisting she was not crazy. Oh, did I mention this character was a psychopath? She was also a serial killer and suffered from multiple personality disorder. A fun character to write for, but exhausting to have living in your head. I digress…my point is I couldn’t get the words on paper fast enough. A great problem to have, but hard to keep in line.

Grace was particularly loud one afternoon, so I grabbed a pair of headphones and blared the loudest music I could find. Suddenly my thoughts began to ebb and flow with the beat. My fingers tapped silently across the keyboard and alas, I’d found quite peace in the music. As I experimented with different music, I discovered the louder the better. Nothing with a melody to get trapped in, but something with a breath and a heartbeat. Dubstep seems to be the most effective, strangely. But I tend to only bust that out when I’m suffering from writer’s block.

Now all my books have a soundtrack that has been coordinated with each scene, POV, and plot. Sometimes I won’t have any idea what I’m going to write about, but I’ll sit down and slip on those headphones and the words will just flow. Poetic beats set to rhythmic instruments. Pump it up!

THANK YOU FOR LETTING ME GUEST BLOG FOR YOU TODAY, BRENDA! NOW IF I MAY, I’D LIKE TO PROMOTE MY NEW RELEASE. “HOPELESS” IS BOOK TWO IN THE FLIGHTLESS SERIES:

Synopsis

On her seventeenth birthday, Jade is filled with hope for the future. She and her boyfriend Pen are in love, she is finishing her final year of high school, and she is finally safe from the Fallen, who wanted her blood to fulfill an age-old prophesy. Pen is not as comfortable with the truce they made to protect her, so he makes a new deal with the Arches and leaves Jade alone.

But not for long.

A new Guardian is assigned to protect Jade. Blake is rude and offensive, his methods unconventional. Because of his dedication to her she trusts him with her life. Best of all, he knows about the Surge—her telekinetic ability—and is eager to teach her how to control her power. With Blake’s help, Jade learns she can defend herself, with or without the Arches protection, against the evil forces that want her blood.

Then . . . Pen comes back.

He doesn’t like the idea of someone else looking out for Jade, but an army of evil is on its way to destroy her, and Jade needs all the help she can get.

Buy Links

Paperback (Amazon) http://www.amazon.com/dp/1492272221?tag=itstwiate-20

Kindle http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GC3NYN4?tag=itstwiate-20

Smashwords https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/342191

Nook http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/hopeless-keri-neal/1116958200?ean=2940045278843&cm_mmc=AFFILIATES-_-Linkshare-_-W1PQs9y/1/c-_-10:1

Kobo http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/hopeless-5

Apple iBooks https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ibooks/id364709193?mt=8

Goodreads http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18192519-hopeless?from_search=true

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