It's already Back to School time! I have to admit I'm a little bit excited. We are having a great summer in Napa but I'm looking forward to cooler weather and writing. Speaking of writing, every November is National Novel Writing Month or NaNoWriMo. To get young writers ready for NaNoWriMo comes this new book, Brave the Page by Rebecca Stern and Grant Faulkner. This book will help movitate and inspire young writers while also helping them with story, plot, characters and more.
Brave the Page
By Rebecca Stern and Grant Faulkner
Ages: 10-17 years old
Genre: Middle Grade, Non-Fiction
Published by: Viking Children's Books
Hardcover, 304 pages
ISBN-10: 0451480295
Preorder at Penguin Random House (available August 27, 2019)
I am today's stop on the blog tour. I have been writing professionally for more than 20 years and have written four web design and technology books and also have worked as an editor and freelance writer. When I'm writing, I need good background music to get me going, nothing too crazy but I need some good music to keep my fingers tip tapping on the keyboard and for my mind to keep working. For the most part I choose a lot of jazz, soft vocals or songs in French so I can tune out the words and concentrate on my own words.
I'm a huge jazz fan and Stan Getz, an American saxaphonist is one of my favorites. For vocalists, Ella Fitzgerald is one of my favorites and I love the French acoustic sound of Carla Bruni (Her first album is the best! Put that on repeat and you can get a lot of writing done). When I like things a bit more modern, I play up the French DJ mixes from Hotel Costes, my particular favorites are volumes 4 and 5.
Here's my You Tube Playlist for Writers for you to enjoy! I organized it with two of my favorite songs from Hotel Costes vol 4 and 5 (mostly in French but a few in English, Carla Bruni, and then a mix of jazz instrumental from Stan Getz, Chet Baker and vocals from Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong. The last song is a NY Jazz Lounge mix that lasts for around 49 minutes. There's a good chunk of writing you can do with this playlist! You can see the whole playlist by clicking on the top right menu.
Music for Writing
This blog tour is a two-part series. I'll be back again on November 25th to help with the writing process and offer my tips for writing.
Here are the other blogs featured on the Brave the Page Blog Tour for the next two weeks:
August 12 – Picture Books to YA – Journals for creating and keeping ideas
August 13 – Sgraveswrites – Nanowrimo Tracker
August 14 – Lost in Storyland – The Writing Process in 5 – 10 Songs
August 15 – Coquette Maman – Playlist for inspiring writers
August 16 – wildeyesbujo – Nanowrimo Bujo Tracker
Week Two
August 19 – Thoughts from a Highly Caffeinated Mind – Listicle: What you’ll need for your Nanowrimo Space
August 20 – Some the wiser – A Writing Kit
August 21 – Alohamora: Open a Book – Listicle: Best Books with characters that are writers
August 22 – A Peace of Mind – How to enjoy storytelling for those who don’t like writing
August 23 – Mindful journaling – Inspired by the Book: Bujo Content
Review book provided by Penguin Random House
