♪ A love of music ♪

Hello Readers!!!

Long time no see right? Sorry...I have a million different things I've been trying to accomplish all at the same time lately. Okay, so maybe not a million, but a few too many for sure. And most of the time I can't even decide which project I should start first, so instead I end up staring off into space rather than being productive. Silly, right?

I digress.

So recently I've been asked what exactly "Echelon Out" means-the little thing I always use as my outro for every blog. Of course some things are better left unanswered, but in this case it's a perfect opportunity for me to explain how music helped me write my novel Born in Flames.

My most favorite band is 30 Seconds to Mars! They continue to inspire the epicosity of the magic and suspenseful action that makes up the Born in Flames Trilogy. Heck, they are the definition of epicosity! (In my mind at least). The Echelon are the fans that follow them (and I am a HUGE fan), so it's only fitting that I end my blogs as "Echelon out"-a disguised thank you to them. And if my novel ever hits the big screen, they are the band that I envision playing the theme song for the movie. But that's just a dream of mine and I only give myself one dream at a time to achieve. My current dream is to go from e-book to paperback...:) I can achieve that by getting as many good reviews as possible, so I'm crossing my fingers that when my novel is finally released, people will fall in love with it and want to leave an awesome review. One can hope.

Any who, so aside from 30 Seconds to Mars being a huge part of what inspires me while writing, I wanted to name a few other bands that I listened to while writing Born in Flames. Paramore was a huge influence. Actually, the singer Hayley Williams, played a part in inspiring my main character Aurora Megalos, from the ruby-red hair down to the feisty personality. A few of their songs that played in my rotation while writing were: Adore, Breathe, Conspiracy, Crushcrushcrush, and Never Let This Go. I was always able to find the perfect song to fit the mood of the scene I was trying to write around Aurora and her feelings in that moment from their albums.

Another band that was a constant go-to was Mutemath. The voice of the lead singer Paul Meany, helped inspire my other main character Fenn Lovick-Aurora's best friend and roommate. Whenever their songs played in my rotation, Fenn became easy to visualize. The love songs written by Mutemath such as: You are Mine, Noticed, Clipping, and Pins and Needles, helped evolve Fenn's love for Aurora from just friends, to someone he could see himself with forever. I wonder if these bands realized when writing these songs, how much of an impact they would have on people. For me it is a blessing. A tiny bud of an idea grew into a hearty tree of a story all thanks to their genius.

On a weird note though, the last main character of Born in Flames is Zordon-the arch-enemy of Aurora. He is the only character that I did not use music to inspire me for. I don't really know why. Maybe it's because he is so dark and demented and for him I had to tap into a place that music could never take me. Music lifts me up, makes me feel better even in my darkest mood, and I couldn't very well accomplish Zordon's twisted actions with a lovely song playing in the back ground. Actually, I don't think there's a song out there that could sum up his evil mind.

And on that happy note (lol), that about sums up the bands that helped inspire me while trying to get out what was swarming inside my mind. There were many other songs that I listened to while writing, but mostly these bands were the few that stuck out and helped me focus. So I leave you with a question: What big thing were you trying to do and what band helped you do it?

That being said, Echelon out ;)