Write Anyway

Today on Musical Monday I would like to pay tribute to the man who has inspired me along through much of my writing since I was a teen. His music has always helped me to inspire writing in myself and get to where I needed to be to get things down on paper.

Billy Joel

William Joseph Martin Joel (born May 9, 1949) is an American pianist and singer-songwriter. He released his first hit song, “Piano Man”, in 1973. According to the RIAA, he is the sixth best-selling recording artist in the United States.

Joel had Top 10 hits in the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s; is a six-time Grammy Award winner, and has sold in excess of 150 million albums worldwide.

He was inducted into the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame (Class of 1992), the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (Class of 1999), and the Long Island Music Hall of Fame (Class of 2006). Joel “retired” from recording pop music in 1993 but continued to tour (sometimes with Elton John). In 2001 he subsequently released Fantasies & Delusions, a CD of classical compositions for piano. In 2007 he returned to recording with a single entitled “All My Life,” followed by an extensive “World Tour” from 2006-2008, covering many of the major world cities.

Here are two of my favourites. Enjoy and have a great day.

And So It Goes

This is the extremely talented Tommy Emmanuel playing And So It Goes. This is like the perfect combination for me – two of my all time favourite musicians combining their talents. (We just need Billy singing along.)

Piano Man

Today I have a cold.

Today I’m not feeling very musical.

Today is one of those days I would like to just crawl back into bed and sleep the day away until I’m feeling back to normal. I have to admit that I can get a bit whiny when I don’t feel well. My husband tolerates it pretty well, but I reckon that’s because he gets to work. Plus, he’s just getting over this particular cold and knows exactly how crummy I feel.

But as much as I would like to skip work and just sleep (or watch crappy television until I fall asleep), I have a lot to do and a huge project that I need to get done ASAP. So, given that and given the fact I’m not at all keen on straight black coffee, I need to find things that will pick up my mood and help me wake up.

So, today, I bring you some perky songs that will hopefully help you to wake up as much as they are helping me get through the day. That’s right. Here at Write Anyway, we do stimulants the natural way. Or… wait… I said that wrong…

The first is Sara Bareilles’ Love Song which has really taken off here in Australia. It’s one of the few songs I haven’t minded hearing over and over on the radio. I hope you like it.

The next is Colbie Caillat’s Bubbly which isn’t quite as perky but still keeps me going.

What songs help you perk up and get going? Let me know in the comments!

A couple weeks ago, my husband had to do some travelling for work. He flew down to Tasmania early Friday morning and few back on Monday night. While that’s not exactly a spectacular event for many couples, it was the first time since I moved to Australia that we were separated.

I was quite nervous about him being away, but once I knew he was safe and sound in Tasmania, I began to adjust to being alone. Even before I moved to Australia, I had been living with other people for nearly half a year. So for someone who hadn’t spent the night alone in a home for over two years, I think I did pretty well.

Reflecting back on that time, I think it was good for both me and my husband. However, being alone certainly isn’t always fun and we can all remember a time when being alone inspired strong feelings, be them positive or negative.

That’s why I would like you to reflect on being alone today and write about it. To help you with your inspiration, here are a couple songs about being alone.

Enjoy, and happy Musical Monday.

On My Own – Reba McEntire

This is actually the song that inspired this prompt. It’s one of Reba’s older songs, but I’ve enjoyed listening to her music growing up.

All By Myself – Celine Dion

Of course I had to include this classic with a theme like ‘alone’. I’m not actually particularly fond of the song, but I figured I would include it anyway.

Writing prompts come in many shapes, types and sizes. I try to provide a good assortment here on site, but I’m not always sure I’m doing the right thing. However, I have decided to spread out and try a few different things.

There are a couple weekly memes that I participate in on other sites that I will be including here from now on. I’ll also be continuing on with random work banks, Thursday thirteen writing prompts and Friday Feasts as well, but I’ll try to spice it up in coming weeks. If you read my other sites, I apologize for the doubles, but it’s the only way I can get more variety here on WA.

I have not lost my passion for music, however, so you don’t need to worry there. Today is still Musical Monday and, while I don’t really have a theme for this week, I would like you present you with a few of the music videos that have been inspiring my writing lately.

I hope they inspire you as much as they do me, and I hope you have a great Monday and rest of the week.

Maroon 5 - I Won’t Go Home Without You

Maroon 5 has long been one of my big inspiration bands. While I can’t claim to like all of their songs, there is a soft spot in me for many of them.

How Can I Not Love You (From Anna and the King)

This is a very sweet and romantic song that I have loved since I first saw Anna and the King. Very appropriate if you have any characters going through romantic strife.

Hello and happy Musical Monday everyone!

First off, I would just like to apologize once more for my rather sporadic posting of late. Thankfully, things in my life have been calming down and I’m getting caught up with everything. Once again, I am back at it here presenting you with another week of prompts!

As always, you are welcome to suggest new and different prompts for me to put up here. I’m always on the lookout for better inspiration for you.

Today we are starting off with a fresh new theme: Family!

Family means many things to many people. For some, it’s something negative that they would rather forget. For others, they are part of a true clan they are more than proud to take part in. Others yet feel like they haven’t ever had a true family.

Today I’m presenting you with a few music videos that talk about family in all their forms. I hope you enjoy them and have a wonderful Monday!

We Are Family – Sister Sledge

You had to know I was going to put up this video, right? I mean, you say song about family and you think about…

Family Portrait – Pink

This is one of those not so great pictures of what a family can be. This is the second song I thought of when I was thinking about family. It’s not my pick for this week, but it certainly has a good beat and a haunting message.

Ode to My Family – The Cranberries

This is my new find for this week. It’s a very interesting song…

And a little bit of a story for me to share with you.

Today I’d like you to write about a wish you’ve made that came true. I know I don’t often share my responses to these prompts, so here you go…

Inspired by “One Day I’ll Fly Away” from Moulin Rouge (below)

All my life, I wanted to fly away. Leave everything and become my own woman in a place I had never been. I’d set out to run away several times, but I’d always get a short distance away and realize a child could in no way be safe in this world without any protection.

Not to mention I had no money.

I didn’t find anything particularly bad about my family then because I didn’t know anything better, but I knew I had this urge in me to leave. The strongest urge I had ever known then.

I finally got my chance to fly away - as much as I could - in my second year of college. I moved four hours away from the life I knew, and it was glorious. I met many new friends, including three people I grew very close to. One person was troubled, though, by the past. His accounts of his past helped him as a way of therapy, but unfortunately made me start having flashbacks.

Flashbacks to bad, bad things in my childhood.

Another one of those friends turned into my boyfriend not long after we’d met; the connection was an instant one. He helped me through the flashbacks. He also helped me to realize the things I considered normal in my family life weren’t normal. I started asking around, as subtly as I could, and found he was completely right.

I was afraid to go home, but I knew that someday - hopefully someday soon, I could leave and join my boyfriend where he lived.

It didn’t take long for me to go into a deep depression. I had to hide it though, because I was threatened with being put in a psychiatric ward.

[The rest of that is too hard to write right now and is upsetting me, so I hope you don't mind if I skip over things.]

My then fiancé (now husband) had been putting money away to get me a plane ticket, though, so when it became possible my life was in danger, I flew out to Australia to be with him. We got married almost five months ago, and life has been good.

One Day I’ll Fly Away

Hello everyone and welcome back to Write Anyway.

This week’s Musical Monday is going up a little late because I have been so BUSY lately. Unbelievable busy, which I suppose serves me right for taking a weekend off to celebrate my first wedding anniversary with my husband.

Between road trips and readying job applications, I’m still just as tired as I was last Wednesday, but what can you do? (Yes, I know, sleep.)

Anyway, better late than never, right? We’re back to it this week with a new theme and some lovely songs for you to listen to on this very musical Monday we have today. This week we will be talking about memory, which might just be a bit more interesting than you think.

So sit back, enjoy the music, and start writing…

Memory – Elaine Paige – CATS performance

Ah, we must have this little touch of Broadway when it comes to talking about memory, don’t we?

Memory – Sugarcult

Sugarcult has been one of my favourites since I first discovered back while I was at university. Memory is one of my true favourites from this group (along with “champagne” and “bouncing off the walls”). I hope you like it as much as I do.

You Want to (Make a Memory)

This video is this week’s new discovery. I had never heard the song before going searching on YouTube for some songs with the memory theme. Unfortunately I couldn’t get the original, official video, but I hope you like the song enough to forgive me for putting up a fan made video.

Today is my first wedding anniversary, and because of that, I am putting up the love theme week again. Be sure to check out my other sites like Fiction Scribe to see where I’m spreading the love with fun contests to celebrate the occasion.

I wish you all a wonderful Monday and a wonderful week as well.

I have picked a nice, feel good theme. And what better feel good theme than love?

(Unless you have gone/are going through some even that would put you against love and the whole ‘love’ thing. If you are, I apologize. You might want to come back next week.)

I have mentioned love before, but this week I’m going to talk about the lovey-dovey, squishy, butterflies in your stomach kind of love. Long relationship kind of love.

I’m lucky enough to have a wonderful love in my life. I try not to talk about him too much because I still remember what it was like being single and having happily coupled/married people talk about how happy they are, but I do think my husband is one of the best guys around.

So occasionally I gush a bit about how much I love him.

In honour of the theme (and my husband), here are a few of my favourite love songs:

(more…)

Hello and welcome to another wonderful Musical Monday here on Write Anyway. I hope you are having a lovely Monday so far and aren’t suffering under a case of the Monday blahs.

This week I am putting up a theme I think we can all relate to in one way or another. (Even guys, despite the fact that the word ‘beauty’ definitely has female connotations in our society.)

Beauty.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, or so they say. Beauty can be found everywhere and nowhere. Beauty is a mysterious and wonderful thing original to and derived from each person’s reality…

Beauty and the Beast – Beauty and the Beast

Okay, this might not completely appropriate, but when I thought of beauty, I immediately thought of Beauty and the Beast.

Beautiful – Christina Aguilera

This isn’t one of my favourite songs musically, but I do like the message in the song – that you are beautiful if you truly believe you are beautiful.

Reflection – Mulan

I believe a lot of what makes someone beautiful is self-confidence and believing in yourself enough to truly be who you are and not what everyone else wants you to be. That’s why I picked this song to go along with this week’s theme.

Dove True Beauty Project

This isn’t a song, but it is a stunning video of where the ‘beauty’ from our magazine models comes from. I think as many girls and women (and men) as possible should watch this video and realize that going for the magazine looks and style just plain isn’t healthy.

Hello and welcome to the last full week of April Musical Monday!

This week has certainly not gone as planned in my life and I am eager for a theme for the week that will make me feel good and remind me of things I like and find comfort in.

This week, the theme is: Night

Now before you ask me about this choice, I am a night owl. I used to be much more so, but even after my college days, I like the night. The moon, the stars… I have always been able to work well at night and have always found peace at night.

Night and everything related to it has been inspirational to many writers, poets, and even painters. While it does not always have the colour and light of day, it has mystery and music all its own.

This week I have chosen some favourites and some random songs for your listening pleasure. I hope they help you with your writing and you find music as inspirational as I do.

Have a happy and productive Monday.

We Belong to the Night – Pat Benetar

This is an old but good favourite of mine.

Music of the Night – David Cook

I can’t often resist putting in a song from Phantom of the Opera.

Into the Night – Santana Featuring Chad Kroeger

This is one of my must have songs. I have loved it since I first heard it, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Because the Night – Patti Smith

It is Musical Monday once again because I have had enough of random prompts for a little bit. That, and I have a prompt I like a lot for this week with a song to share with you that I absolutely love. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

This week’s theme is none other than the title of my favourite song this week: daughters.

Aw, our little girls. Our tomboys, princesses, businesswomen, mothers, lovers, sisters and so much more. Women everywhere, no matter what their background, beliefs, career, marital status, location or whatever else all have one thing in common – they are all daughters.

This week we will be talking about (and hopefully writing about) the wonderful daughters of the world.

And now, for your listening pleasure…

Daughters of Bluegrass – Daughters

Honestly? I chose this video because it is something I would not usually listen to. I thought I would mix it up and throw in something a bit strange.

In My Daughter’s Eyes – Martina McBride

Does it get any better than a heartfelt song from a mother to her daughter?

Daughters – John Mayer (The Grammys performance)

This is my ‘must have’ video for this week. I have loved this song since I first heard it. It is sweet, slow but moving, and has a sentimental message I can appreciate even though I am not a mother. (I am a daughter, so that helps things along.)

I hope you enjoy the musical selection for this week and find it inspirational for your writing.

No, I’m not talking about the television show. Though, from what I have seen, it’s a decently cool show.

Not everyone has a hero in their life, but those who do swear by the people they hold in such high esteem.

My husband had a childhood hero. He was someone my husband admired so much that he later wrote poetry about him. (Can you tell I can’t remember the man’s name at the moment? That’s so bad. I really should know.) I always liked the look in my husband’s eyes when he talked about the man. It was as if he finally had something he could truly believe in.

And that is what it is like for many people and their heroes. Your hero can be someone you don’t even know. Someone who passed on the street. Or your hero can be the person you see every day.

That’s the wonderful thing about heroes. They can be anyone and they can be a hero to you for anything. If it meant something to you, then s/he is your hero.

My hero is my husband, that’s for sure. He has literally saved me many times and many ways.

I’ve picked out a few videos for you this week that I hope you enjoy, all with the theme of heroes. (All with the same title, too, which amuses me for some reason.)

Enjoy!

Hero – Mariah Carey

Hero – Enrique Iglesias

Hero – Nickelback (This is my ‘must have’ song pick for this week. I love Nickelback and this song.)

Today is a royally lovely day…

Okay, I just had to get that out of my system. Welcome to another Musical Monday here on

I decided to try a theme of a slightly different type this week in picking ‘royalty’. But then again, it’s not so strange when you think of how many fairy tales are out there and how many little girls dream of being real princesses while little boys declare they are king of this or that.

There’s something magical about royalty and being royal. Perhaps it’s the power or perhaps it’s the thought that when you are a king, queen, prince, or princess, all your worries suddenly go away. You have enough money, you don’t have to worry about where your next meal comes.

In today’s world, that certainly is a widespread dream.

So this week I will try to touch on everything from the real royalty we still have in the world today to the childhood dreams almost all of us had about being a royal from a land far away. I especially hope to tap into that childhood dream.

There’s no better time for your imagination than childhood. If only we could carry that into adulthood.

Today I bring you only one song because it’s stunningly hard to find songs related to royalty, funnily enough. I thought there would be more. But the one I am putting up pretty much hits the button right on, so I hope you’ll forgive me.

I Just Can’t Wait to be King – Lion King

Hello and welcome to another Musical Monday here on Write Anyway.

Weeks ago I used the theme of lying. Lying has such a spectrum of levels that it’s quite interesting. From the little white lie to lying through omission to the continued outright lie.

This week I am going to touch on something that is related and equally as powerful: truth
Like lies have destroyed many relationships, so has truth. Truth that eventually comes out, truth that is recognized from the outset, truth in all its forms.

Like lies, truth is often not always quite as simple as it seems. There are many levels.

I hope you enjoy the music to go along with this week’s theme. It takes a little explaining, though…

When I first thought of truth as a theme, one song came to mind as my ‘must have’ song for Musical Monday.

Aida is the story of a love triangle set in the ancient times of Egypt (originally appearing as an opera and then later as a Broadway musical). Aida, Radames, and Amneris are caught in a love triangle that affects the highest levels of Egyptian society and their Nubian slaves.

This mournful song, sung by Amneris, is about realizing not only the truth about the love of her love but also about the life she has been leading up to this point. (Her life up to now has been about fashion, luxury, hiding her intelligence, and being the grand hostess.)

It’s very powerful and one of my favourite songs. I hope you enjoy it.

I Know the Truth - Aida

Well, well! Welcome to a new and wonderful week here on Write Anyway. We have just spent two weeks exploring the male and female influences in our lives, so I reckon it’s time we slow down, relax, and have a bit of fun.

(Not that the last two weeks weren’t fun, but it’s certainly an experience to try not to get into really bad jokes when dealing with the themes of ‘men’ and ‘women’.)

This week we are going to loosen up and talk about something that is very, very close to my heart: Music

Perhaps a simple concept upon first look, music can be delightfully complicated, scientifically broken down, or as simple as someone whistling while taking a stroll down the street.

Music is a wonderful thing that has been a part of my life for many years. I am more than happy to have it as a theme on this site.

Music of the Night – Phantom of the Opera (This is one of my favourites. I have been in love with Phantom of the Opera for many years now and this song spoke to me the most.)

Don’t Stop the Music – Rhianna (This is a new find for me, but I rather like it for an upbeat funky song. I hope you like it as well.)

You Are the Music in Me – High School Musical 2 (I completely forgot about this song until I was cruising around YouTube looking for videos. I haven’t actually seen the second movie, but I do remember looking up the videos when it seemed like all everyone could talk about was this movie. It’s not a bad song.)