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Showing posts with label musician. Show all posts
Showing posts with label musician. Show all posts

Sunday, September 27, 2009

The Writing Journey Through Music

By Trina Boice
My eyelids were drooping and every part of my body was aching last weekend as I sat in front of my computer screen for hours, scrambling to make a deadline my publisher had given me to finish my latest manuscript. I felt tired and uninspired, yet determined to finish.

What do you do for inspiration and motivation to keep hacking away at the keyboard? Well, I'm so excited about my latest discovery that I just have to tell you about it! Have you heard of http://www.pandora.com/ ? I absolutely love it and I have it to thank for keeping me on task with my last writing project!
It's like a music radio station online, except without all of the annoying commercial breaks and songs you don't like. You simply tell it what songs you like and it creates a custom station just for you! Best of all, it's free!
To get back some energy I plugged myself into the "Journey" channel and suddenly felt a surge of writing strength overcome me. Yeah, I'm dating myself, but Journey is one of my favorite bands of all time. Thankfully, they're making a come-back with their 2009 tour, so now I won't seem so old, right? I hear their new singer, Arnel, is blowing everyone away. Sure love that Steve Perry...
When I needed to think harder and work on the more spiritual parts of the book I switched to the "Yanni" and "Enya" channels. Perfect. I even created my own "Wicked" and "Dream Girls" channels when I wanted to sing out loud while I continued typing away.
Pandora.com declares itself as a music genome project that began in the year 2000. They've grouped songs together by sound, rather than genre, making for a very nice collection that appears to be able to identify my taste spot on.
I used to be one of those writers who prefers silence as their writing companion, but now I'm converted to Pandora.com! What do YOU do for inspiration?

Sunday, August 2, 2009

LDS Bookseller's Convention

By Trina Boice


When my first LDS book was published, I received an invitation to do a book signing at the annual LDS Booksellers Association Convention in Sandy, Utah. I never even knew that such an event existed. I left feeling excited, rejuvinated and completely inspired.

The good news is that this year's convention starts tomorrow! It takes place August 3-7 at the South Towne Expo Center in Sandy, Utah from 9:00 am - 4:30 pm. The bad news is that it is only open to members of the LDS Booksellers Assocation and their guests. See what you can do to become a guest!

By the way, Cedar Fort has a terrific reputation for consistently having one of the best booths and is always decked out with impressive decor to coordinate with the theme for the year. This year's theme is "Discovering Treasures." As readers, we all know the thrill of finding a hidden treasure in a great book, whether it be a fun character, inspiring word choice, exciting adventure, or a new mind-expanding idea. Great theme. I wonder if there will be lots of pirates holding books, wandering around the convention hall this year?

I'm telling you, this event is fantastic! My friends call me a giggler...that is to say that I get all giggly and groupie when I meet famous people. It's embarrassing, really. The convention hall overflows with LDS "celebrities" you can meet and have sign their books, music CD's, artwork or DVD's. I brought my camera and made a real idiot out of myself....so much fun.

I love meeting people who have worked hard at improving their talents and who are doing amazing things. It energizes me and motivates me to try harder. Zig Ziglar said "Duty makes us do things well, but love makes us do them beautifully." You get the sense that all of these great musicians, artists and authors truly love the gospel and are trying to use their talents to build the kingdom. I love that.

It's also extremely invigorating to see the latest, greatest, and newest LDS merchandise to hit the market. I absolutely thrill to be around people who are creating, dreaming, and contributing something positive to the world.

To see the schedule of events and learn more about the LDS Booksellers Association, check out their web site at http://www.ldsba.com