Yes, I know I write about [title of show] a lot lately. But it’s a favorite thing and when I found this awesome clip of Heidi Blickenstaff singing my favorite song from the show it had to become a Geek Out. This song is the crux of the show for me as it distills the desire/need to follow a dream. Best of all, it does it in just over two and a half minutes.
Here’s a lyric that I’m sure everyone relates to in some way: “But the mundane sets in / we play by the rules and plow through the days / the years take us miles away”
How does that happen? When I was in high school and college, my goal was to work for, and be editor of, Billboard magazine. These days, I don’t even write for a living. The need for a paycheck sent me down a different path after I’d been in journalism for a decade. Heck, for a while I wasn’t even writing much fiction, even if I was editing other people’s for The First Line. The days were (and are) filled working on website projects. With that, I really wasn’t interested in being in front of the computer for hours more a day to write. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy working on web projects, but, especially as I crossed 40 this year, it was troubling to me that I wasn’t writing more.
Another lyric: “And when you least expect / opportunity walks through the door / you suddenly connect with the thing that you forgot / that you’d been looking for.”
This happened in 2006 when Will suggested I take up the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) challenge. At the time, it was a lark. But it was fun and I felt like I had something when I was done with that month. As regular readers know, I’m still working on that novel. Work has slowed way down the past few weeks. I haven’t touched the manuscript since we’ve been back from Ptown because work is in full-tilt mode. I miss the writing a lot (I was spending at least an hour a day on it and tried for more). I miss working on the world of Simon and Alex. But I know work will calm down soon and I can get back and finish what I started.
It will happen.
Every time I hear this song, it stokes the fire I have for working on Neutral Zone. It makes me think of scenes I want to fix, bits of dialog that need to be tweaked… and how lucky I am to have a husband who helped me reconnect with my writing self.
Go now… listen to Heidi belt out this great song and see what it rekindles in you. (And, hey, go see [tos] it’s one kick-ass time!)
UPDATE: Oh nooooooooo! [title of show] posted its closing notice today. They close October 12. We just bought tickets to the final show. We were there its first weekend of previews and we’ll be there for the end too. Much sadness…
