Guest Blogger–Sandra D Bricker

The noun MUSE is characterized at dictionary.reference.com as the power regarded as inspiring a poet, artist, or thinker.

The power that inspires me as a writer is the Holy Spirit. My prayer life plays a huge part in my life as a writer, and I always give God credit for inspiring the really killer ideas that just work. I’ll hear that still, small voice speaking to me at the oddest and most inconvenient times. In the middle of the night? Of course. In the shower? Quite often. While driving, shopping, reading, eating or cooking? You get the idea.

Often, while I’m fleshing out one of those God-inspired ideas that came to me in the bathroom (from where, I am convinced, all truly great ideas come), my fuel evolves from music. I started out as a writer by going to film school and writing screenplays. I think this might have something to do with my visual storytelling style, but it recently occurred to me that this might also be the quality that impacts me with musical “soundtracks” to my novels. Perhaps I watched too much television or saw too many movies as a child, but it’s not unusual for me to hear a song on the radio and immediately lay the track behind my WIP.

When I was writing Love Finds You in Holiday, Florida, for instance, I regressed back to my disco days. I listened to Gloria Gaynor, Kool & the Gang, and of course the disco king, KC and his Sunshine Band. The spirit of disco really made it into that book, and every time I read over particular passages, my head fills with the music that went with them. I wonder if that’s why the songwriter penned, “I got the music in me. I got the music in me. I got the music in meeeeeee.”

The Big 5-OH! and Always the Baker, Never the Bride were both fortified by Michael Buble. I can’t tell you why, really. My characters just seemed to fit with his music and, as I was writing, I would just find myself humming one of his songs. In both cases, I finally just gave up and threw in his CDs and went to town.

I’ve always had a visceral response to music. From a very young age, there was a soundtrack to my life. There were certain songs that just grabbed me somehow, and I’d listen to them again and again. In my teenage years, before the age of electronics that took care of it for me, I would often create cassette tapes that consisted of just one song that played a dozen times back to back. My mother used to say, “Other kids are into drugs. My daughter gets her highs and lows from music.” She was so much happier when The Osmonds were my musical muses than when Queen stepped up.

Sandra D. Bricker has been publishing in both the Christian and general markets for years with novels for women and teens, magazine articles and short stories. With 8 novels in print and 5 more slated for publication through 2010, Sandie has carved out a niche for herself as an author of laugh-out-loud comedy for the inspirational market, and last year’s Love Finds You in Snowball, Arkansas garnered her three different readers’ choice award nods. Sandie was an entertainment publicist in Hollywood for 15+ years and excels at promoting her books with flare and creativity, making her a frequent reader favorite.