Motivational Monday -- You Are What Your Mind Eats

 

Two Free Holiday Albums from Me to You!

As the sharing of holiday gifts continues, I'm thrilled to be able to share these two albums with you as free digital downloads. Blue Mercy Cafe is my catch-all "band" name for stuff that doesn't fit anywhere else, and Nothing Regal is the band I played with prior to The Bigger Issues and 22FIVE. 

Enjoy and happy holidays!

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Start All Over (The Christmas EP)
Blue Mercy Cafe/Sean Taylor

Featuring:
1. So Long Awaited (Featuring Nothing Regal)
2. Unfit for a King
3. Christmas Must Be Tonight (The Band cover featuring Nothing Regal)
4. O Come All Ye Faithful (featuring Nothing Regal)

Get your free download here:
https://soundclick.com/share?albumID=18456

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All Because of You
Nothing Regal

Featuring:
1. Christmas Time All Year Long
2. Angels We Have Heard on High
3.We Three Kings
4. My Favorite Things
5. What Child Is This?
6. Joy To The World
7. Do You Hear What I Hear?
8. All Because Of You
9. Silent Night
10. So Long Awaited
11, Go Tell It On The Mountain
12. Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home)

Get your free download here:
https://soundclick.com/share?albumID=18454

Free Holiday Music from the Taylorverse!

Merry Christmas and happy holidays from the Taylorverse!

Here's the gift of free music from my solo projects and my days with the band Nothing Regal. 

Sure, they're available for free streaming anytime, but for the next few days, I'm making them available as free downloads -- just for you.

Enjoy!

Unfit for a King
https://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=13667030

Christmas Must Be Tonight
https://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=13269214

So Long Awaited
https://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=13814425

O Come All You Faithful
https://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=13812169

We Three Kings
https://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=7136237

Silent Night
https://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=7136292

What Child Is This?
https://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=7136304

Go Tell It On the Mountain
https://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=7136331

"Crawling" -- a tribute to Chester Bennington

Not writing related, but timely and I think haunting. My friend and bandmate, Ellie Raine, recorded this cover of Linkin Park's "Crawling" as a tribute to the late Chester Bennington.

https://soundcloud.com/ellie-raine-653623383/crawling-tribute-to-chester-bennington

#MotivationalMonday (Hear the Music)

Free Christmas Tunes!

Merry Christmas and happy holidays from the Taylorverse!

Here's the gift of free music from my days with the band Nothing Regal. Sure, they're available for free streaming anytime, but for the next few days, I'm making them available as free downloads -- just for you.

Enjoy!

Christmas Must Be Tonight
http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=8441195

So Long Awaited
http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=8441194

O Come All You Faithful
http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=8441196

We Three Kings
http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=7136237

Silent Night
http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=7136292

What Child Is This?
http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=7136304

Go Tell It On the Mountain
http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=7136331

Free Holiday Tunes!

Merry Christmas and happy holidays from the Taylorverse!

Here's the gift of free music from my days with the band Nothing Regal. Sure, they're available for free streaming anytime, but for the next few days, I'm making them available as free downloads -- just for you.

Enjoy!

Christmas Must Be Tonight
http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=8441195

So Long Awaited
http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=8441194

O Come All You Faithful
http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=8441196

We Three Kings
http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=7136237

Silent Night
http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=7136292

What Child Is This?
http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=7136304

Go Tell It On the Mountain
http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=7136331

The Writer Will Take Your Questions Now (#23) -- Muse-ical

To what extent do you use ambient noise (or the lack thereof) to prompt the muse?

Do certain stories call for silence, or the buzz of people in the background, or a

specific type of music to help the process? -- Erik Burnham

You're the third person to ask me a variation of this question this week. The first was Kevin Williams, and the second was John Morgan Neal.

To respond to all of you, here goes...

I love to work to brown noise more than almost any other noise. It's like silence turned up to 11 (thank you, Nigel) for me. True silence is too distracting for me. I use the Simply Noise website for this. You can listen online or download the noise (white, brown, or pink) of your choice, and they offer some sound effect-enhanced selections as well, but those birds squawking on the beach are annoying to me when I'm trying to write.

Sometimes I will use ambient music, and I've found several really nice ambient, chill and Reiki music stations on iTunes that I enjoy and that are easy to write to.

Ocassionally, and this is rare, I will create a "soundtrack" for a given book or character. For example, for 1930s pulp, I listen to the speakeasy tunes of that time period, or for Turra: Gun Angel for Maw Productions, I created a soundtrack that was equal parts cheesy 80s love songs and industrial metal (because that's who Turra is, soft emotional idealist and hard-edged butt-kicker all at the same time).

But...

When I create these soundtracks, they're not so much (at least for me) something to listen to when I'm actually WRITING, but something to listen while I'm out and about, driving through town, running errands and THINKING about the story. It helps me develop mindset and come up with ideas and plots and events and nuance. It would be too distracting for me to actually try to focus on writing if I was listening to it. My ADD and OCD prevents me from having that luxury.