Listening to: Mischa Maisky, Cellissimo
Reading: errr… got caught up with the outline of the book
Steps yesterday: about 9k (must try harder but not today)
New month: and as January was dreadful, I know that February will be a lot better. (And not just because I have lots of lovely things lined up for the next two and a bit weeks - London on Monday, lunch out with Jo and Sarah on Tuesday, family up on Sunday, out to dinner on Monday, Tutankhamun on Weds, Madam's godmothers up for the weekend... oh, and have I mentioned my new furniture is due and I have some wonderful books on my TBR pile, including a signed copy of my friend Jane Jackson's new book Devil's Prize?)
Ahem. Getting ahead of myself.
Played with both books yesterday. Drove me crackers in the morning - because the Modern Heat was the one in my head, and the Medical is the one with the first deadline. However, managed to switch books in the evening after a small epiphany: my gorgeous Welsh doctor plays the cello. And he plays my favourite piano music to the heroine… on the cello. (I switch between piano and classical guitar all the time, so I’m very comfortable with having my hero write his own arrangements on the cello.)
Obviously I’m having a ball making my soundtrack for the book. However, I can’t find a version of my favourite Beethoven piano sonata played on the cello (it’s the Pathetique, so if anyone knows a source, particularly for the second movement, please let me know). I did find a lovely cello version of my favourite Chopin piano nocturne on YouTube; this is one that my mum used to play when she was pregnant with me and I still have the actual vinyl. (I sometimes wonder if she learned to play it on the piano herself, as I know we had one when I was very small. However, everyone I could ask is too young to remember, has an unreliable memory, or is no longer with us.) While I was messing about on YouTube, discovered a new-to-me cellist – Maurice Gendron. Really emotive stuff (I think even more so than Casals) so I, ahem, went shopping.
And why am I making an issue about music in a Med? My heroine shares my… disability isn’t the right word, because I refuse to be treated like a second-class citizen. I can do just about anything a 'normal' person does. But she has moderate-to-severe hearing loss. Same cause as mine. So in some respects this is going to be one of the most personal books I’ve ever written. Unlike me, she isn’t a music junkie. But my hero introduces her to the sheer joy of music… and the scene I have in mind is utterly sizzling. (It’s probably going to make me cry. Music – especially when it’s given back to you after you thought you’d have to live without it – is… Words fail me. Just a wonderful, wonderful feeling.)
All righty. Go and win some books before I get soppy. The Modern Heat Authors’ Valentine's treasure hunt starts today. Because I’m nice, I’ll tell you where to start – with Natalie Anderson. (And after Nat, it’s me. I will actually be posting on Sunday this week.) There’s also a chance to win books over at Nicola Marsh’s blog in her ‘Be My Valentine’ competition (first up is by one of my absolute favourite authors). Enjoy!
As for me... I'm off to write. Joy, joy, joy. I love the beginning of a book.
2 comments:
Okay, but I would expect no less from the Queen of the Weepies. I am sure it will be wonderful, particularly as you understand the heroine's difficulties.
Yeah! February is going to be good, good, good...
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