Art Imitates Life Imitates Art

Wow. It's been a busy couple of months. I've been working on Galactic Explorers #3 (halfway written now!) and finished my new standalone novel Triton's Destiny. That one will be the next one published this spring. I really can't believe it's April already. A lot has happened this year and there's still much more to come.

One of the things I do with my writing is inject my own life experiences and accumulated knowledge, adjusting details to fit my characters and stories. When I say my books and characters contain a lot of myself, I mean it. My characters all have bits of my personality in them--some more than others--and they like (and dislike) things I do. Writing that way makes my stories personal (as I believe writing inherently should be), and helps me connect to my characters.

A perfect example of this is through my character Ethan Ryker (who is a favorite of mine, but more on that later) and specifically in chapter 13 of Eltanin. Ethan is a huge fan of the British rock group Muse, which is a trait he got directly from me.

I. Love. Muse.

Yep. Certified fangirl here. I've been listening to Muse almost as long as they've been around, and chapter 13 of Eltanin features my memory of the Muse concert I attended at Red Rocks Amphitheater on September 18, 2007.

​It was an absolutely amazing show and still my favorite concert experience to date. While I did take artistic license with it and gave my characters an idyllic version, the joy Ethan got from the event was straight from my own heart. Truly, if anyone has the chance to see a show at Red Rocks, please do yourself a favor and take it. It's a fantastic venue that everyone should experience. I was lucky enough to see my favorite band there.

That was during Muse's Black Holes and Revelations tour, and many of the songs featured are still favorites of mine. If anyone's interested in getting a taste of the show, I compiled the setlist into a Spotify playlist. These are the songs Ethan and Liam heard at Red Rocks in Eltanin. Listen to "Knights of Cydonia" in particular, the first song in the set. I described it in the book because that opening song blew my mind when I heard it live. Amazing.

As I write this, I'm tired, my throat is sore, and I'm still coming down from euphoric exhilaration. Because I saw Muse live for the first time in sixteen years in Denver last night. My wonderful husband tagged along with me, I spent two hours on my feet dancing, and I screamed and sang along with a huge smile on my face. The whole time, I wished it could just keep going because it was so much fun. Damn, those guys put on a hell of a show. Definitely one of the best live bands I've ever heard. I felt transported back to 2007 and experienced the same euphoria I did then. That's probably why I have some nostalgic melancholy right now. I just want to go back to last night and do it all over again.

I spent months avoiding reviews of the Will of the People tour, because I was so excited I didn't want to know which songs were going to be performed. And I wasn't disappointed. Though I didn't get to hear a few of my favorites, I did get to hear a couple I wasn't expecting. I hope the people enjoying the concert around me didn't think I was too annoying because I was unapologetically enthusiastic last night. It was just as amazing as I was hoping it would be.

I created a playlist for last night's set as well. If anyone's seeing one of the shows on this tour, this might not be the exact set you'll hear, but it should be mostly the same. And if you're thinking of going but not sure, just go. If you like Muse at all, you won't regret it.

I think I've rambled through this post long enough. I wanted to share some of the passion I try to put into my writing and also post this up while the memory of last night's show was still fresh in my mind. I hope someone else can be just as inspired as I was.

Stay tuned for more information on upcoming releases and as always, thanks for reading!