Dear Reader

Dear Reader Column 05-16-08

Join my email book club. Over 350,000 people read 5-minutes a day. To see what books I'm featuring this week, go to: http://www.dearreader.com/

Dear Reader,

Like a painter with her easel, I was tucked away underneath an awning observing people by the pool and taking notes. It was a get-a-way weekend for my husband and me. We were staying at a very nice hotel and the pool was definitely the focal point. It was so inviting that I think eventually everyone ended up there.

There was a circular row of chaise lounge chairs surrounding the pool, each one covered with a soft plush light green towel, a graceful decorative fountain sprayed a fine mist over the water, and there was an adjacent children's pool with a built-in slide camouflaged by palm trees and flowering plants. Truly it felt like paradise. Cabana boys (dressed for the part) were bringing ice tea refills to moms and dads in bathing suits relaxing in the sunshine, while the hotel lifeguard kept an eye on their children.

But at three in the afternoon--instantly the canvas in front of me changed. A large auditorium was next to the hotel, the tradeshow shut down for the day and exhibitors were walking through the pool area to get back to their rooms. Men wearing business suits and ties, name badges on their lapels, carrying Mickey Mouse ears in one hand and folders in the other and women in tailored jackets, pencil skirts, heels and hose (who had opted to wear their Mickey Mouse ears) were delicately weaving in-between the sunbathers. A photographer might say a little "tension" had just been added to the picture.

The leisurely chatter by the pool was suddenly all about business. "Make any good connections on this trip yet?"

"Still hunting for a better pricing program," the man replied. A leather case was slung over his shoulder, the sun was beating down and he was starting to sweat in his business attire.

"Well I should probably get back to my room and call the office." But you could tell the little boy in the grown up pants didn't really want to leave.

His colleagues nearby (who had already changed into shorts and T-shirts) were teasing him because he hadn't shed any part of the "uniform." But determined to experience the best of both worlds, instead of heading back to his room, he started circling the pool area, walking and talking on his cell phone.

First pass around the pool--his cell phone was plugged into his ear, suit jacket buttoned up and it looked like he was in the middle of some serious business. I was quite amused the next time he circled by because I noticed his shoes and socks were off...and the next time around his jacket had disappeared...then tie...and finally his shirt was unbuttoned and blowing in the breeze--an executive strip tease on the runway.

Yes, indeed. The little boy had come out to play. There was an ice tea in his hand, a slight wiggle in his walk and the conversation had changed, too. No more words like "heavy-hitter," "stand alone facilities," or "centralized call-in order desk." On his final walk around the runway, he was laughing and it sounded like he was talking to his kids, promising to bring home their own set of Mickey Mouse ears.

Have a playful weekend and thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.

Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com 
http://www.DearReader.com

READ THE CLASSICS: Dangerous Liaisons by Choderlos De Laclos and enter the free Penguin Classic's Drawing. Go to: http://tinyurl.com/575jjp

Dear Reader Column 05-15-08

Join my email book club. Over 350,000 people read 5-minutes a day. To see what books I'm featuring this week, go to: http://www.dearreader.com/

Dear Reader,

* I highly recommend this week's bonus book, The Soloist by Steve Lopez, go to: http://tinyurl.com/4jafpv

Your emails are such an inspiration. Thank you so very much for taking the time to write and share some of your life with me.

From my Email Bag:

'Dear Suzanne, I'm so far behind in writing you and I always have something that I think, 'I have to tell Suzanne!' Like so many of your readers, I think of you as a dear friend. So let me try to catch up by saying how happy I am about selling your book. Congratulations! I'm thrilled for you! I can hardly wait to read it. I hope you come to Little Rock for a book signing. I will be there and I'll bring my bookclub, too. Please let us take you out to dinner. Also, congratulations on getting your cat Rudy back. What a relief!

One of the things I've wanted to tell you is that my Mother passed away on February 24 this year after a four-year-long illness. My parents' home is four hours away and almost every other weekend for the past four years my husband and I went there to help my dad care for Mom. Many times Mother was hospitalized for several days at a time and I went alone and stayed in the hospital with her. The last two months of her life she spent in a nursing home after she suffered a stroke. The reason I'm telling you this, is in part, because you've always written so lovingly of your own mother and about your loss. But also because I want you to know that you were with me and helped keep my life more 'normal' whenever I was away from home and my husband for long periods of time.

Sometimes I was away for a week or two or three. My husband and I talked every evening. We would fill each other in on the events of our day. And he would read me your column every week night. That was very important to me! It became our ritual. He would say, 'I suppose you want to hear what Suzanne has to say!' Always! Thanks, Suzanne! With warm regards,"--Kaye

Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.

Gratefully,
Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com 
http://www.DearReader.com

AUTHORBUZZ: Win free copies of books you'll read and never forget from these terrific authors: Vincent Louis Carrella, Serpent Box; J. L. Miles, Divorcing Dwayne; Pamela Binnings Ewen, The Moon in the Mango Tree; and Tobsha Learner, Soul. Go to: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader

READ THE CLASSICS: Dangerous Liaisons by Choderlos De Laclos and enter the free Penguin Classic's Drawing. Go to: http://tinyurl.com/575jjp

Dear Reader Column 05-14-08

Join my email book club. Over 350,000 people read 5-minutes a day. To see what books I'm featuring this week, go to: http://www.dearreader.com/

Dear Reader,

I've decided that admitting I'm a "mess" every day is my small contribution to humanity, kind of like a PSA (Public Service Announcement). There are other people out there secretly feeling the same way I do, and if I fess up, it just might change the course of their day.

I'm a complicated emotional being, that's nothing new, but with menopause added to the mix it makes me perfect PSA material. Instead of "Smoky the Bear and the Prevention of Forest Fires" it's "Suzanne the Menopausal Mess." And I'm willing to tell just about anything, to anyone who wants to listen.

Suzanne the Menopausal Mess--yes--it has a nice ring to it, don't you think?

Nobody gave me hot flash tips, so I'm ready to lend a hand--or a bag of frozen peas. I could have avoided changing my shirt three times a day if someone would have told me early-on that a bag of frozen peas resting on the back of my neck would cool things down considerably. But carrots, Brussels sprouts, whatever garden variety you choose will do the trick, or you could organically defrost the rump roast you're planning on serving for dinner.

My mother swore she was never a menopausal mess, but not me--one day I'm on top of the world creative beyond my wildest dreams and the next, my mind is fuzzy, my legs have goose bumps and the perspiration is rolling down my face. Where are those peas? Hot then cold, I was even feeling a little dizzy this morning, but come to think of it, the dizzy thing could be attributed to the Grande Starbucks I drank, usually I order a Tall. And in the midst of feeling like I could topple over any minute, I decided a soak in the tub would relax me.

Surrounded by Aloe and Eucalyptus bubbles, a soft spa pillow propped underneath my head, my back resting against the curved slope of my old fashioned claw tub, yes--I'm feeling like my old self again. But 10 minutes into my soak, my serenity is replaced by a down-in-the-dumps feeling on the horizon, so I reach for my hormone cream and apply it to anything that's above water.

So now I'm sitting very quietly in the bath, (for fear of creating waves) reading a book fingerprinted with hormone cream, (The book is about a woman in her 60s, she could probably use a little hormone zap, too.)

But then I started thinking about notes for this column, so I hopped out of the bath, turned the blinds closed and at this very moment, I'm sitting in a chair, looking like a towel-wrapped menopausal mummy, typing up notes about why it's actually a Public Service Announcement to be willing to tell people that "you're"--excuse me--"I'm a menopausal mess!"

How'd I do? I hope Smoky the Bear would be proud!

Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.

Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com 
http://www.DearReader.com

P.S. Don't miss this week's bonus read, The Soloist by Steve Lopez. Sample this wonderful book and enter a drawing to win one of the copies I have to give away. Please email and tell me what you thought of the sample read. I'll be sharing all of your comments with the author. It's a wonderful book, I couldn't stop reading it, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. To sample the read and enter the drawing go to: http://tinyurl.com/4jafpv

READ THE CLASSICS: Dangerous Liaisons by Choderlos De Laclos and enter the free Penguin Classic's Drawing. Go to: http://tinyurl.com/575jjp

Dear Reader Column 05-13-08

Join my email book club. Over 350,000 people read 5-minutes a day. To see what books I'm featuring this week, go to: http://www.dearreader.com/

Dear Reader,

Adrienne Wilson and the students of Room 227 read March's Classic. They were inspired. You'll be inspired to sample this month's Classic after you read their letter.

Dear Mrs. Suzanne,

I always enjoy reading your emails where you share your triumphs, tragedies and upsets. I have always wanted to write to you, but yesterday I realized that I 'had' to write to you. I am an instructional assistant in a Learning Disabled Class in an urban community. Most of our students are socio-economic disadvantaged and all face the reality of gangs and drugs. But Mrs. Suzanne, we are very passionate about their education and despite their struggles, everyday we find something to celebrate.

Take for example our Novel study. As the school year is winding down, I wanted to give them a learning experience they would treasure--that's where it got complicated. What in the world could we read? The choices were vast and the time frame short. Then I remembered the Classics Book Club and March's Classic, The Outsiders. Of course!

I wish you could see their faces as the characters and situations mirror their reality. One boy said, 'This book was written about us!' Plus all the references to Elvis and the Beatles are expanding their musical horizons as well. I asked them to write a five sentence summary and one girl filled the page and spilled over onto the next.

Having grown up in the same neighborhood and a graduate myself of the same school, I know that words on paper can save, understand and compel any student--anywhere--to do wondrous things. So I write to thank you, Mrs. Suzanne because your book club is so much bigger than you. It's the power of literature in a community that has yet to give up on itself.

Thanks for reading with us!

Adrienne Wilson and the students of Room 227

To sample this month's Classic, Dangerous Liaisons by Choderlos De Laclos go to: http://tinyurl.com/575jjp

Thanks for reading with me. (A special thank you to Adrienne and the students of Room 227)
It's so good to read with friends.

Warmest regards,
Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com 
http://www.DearReader.com

READ THE CLASSICS: Dangerous Liaisons by Choderlos De Laclos and enter the free Penguin Classic's Drawing. Go to: http://tinyurl.com/575jjp

Dear Reader Column 05-12-08

Join my email book club. Over 350,000 people read 5-minutes a day. To see what books I'm featuring this week, go to: http://www.dearreader.com/

Dear Reader,

Steve Lopez is a weekly columnist for the L.A. Times. His job is to find a story and write about it. Three years ago he met up with Nathaniel Ayers, a homeless musician who was playing enchanting violin music on the street corner during the day and sleeping near Skid Row at night. After doing a little digging Lopez discovered that Nathaniel was a musical prodigy who developed schizophrenia while he was studying at Julliard. Lopez wrote a 5-part series of columns about Nathaniel and readers fell in love with the story.

"So why did you decide to write a book about Nathaniel?" I asked Lopez when I talked to him on the phone the other day at the Times.

"Because in my columns all I could write about was Nathaniel, the Violin Man, but there was so much more to the story--there was the part about what meeting Nathaniel had done for me."

I highly recommend sampling this week's bonus book, The Soloist by Steve Lopez. And to entice you even more, let's begin right now.

THE SOLOIST...PREFACE

I'm on foot in downtown Los Angeles, hustling back to the office with another deadline looming. That's when I see him. He's dressed in rags on a busy downtown street corner, playing Beethoven on a battered violin that looks like it's been pulled from a dumpster.

"That sounded pretty good," I say when he finishes.

He jumps back three steps, eyeing me with suspicion. I see the name Stevie Wonder carved into the face of the violin, along with felt-pen doodles.

"Oh, thank you very much," he says, obviously flattered. "Are you serious?"

"I'm not a musician," I answer. "But yes. It sounded good to me."

He is black, just beyond fifty, with butterscotch eyes that warm to the compliment. He is standing next to a shopping cart heaped over with all his belongings, and yet despite grubby, soiled clothing, there's a rumpled elegance about him. He speaks with a slight regional accent I can't place. Maybe he's from the Midwest or up near the Great Lakes, and he seems to have been told to always stand up straight, enunciate, carry himself with pride and respect others.

"I'm trying to get back in shape," he says. "But I'm going to get back in there, playing better. I just need to keep practicing."

"So you like Stevie Wonder?" I ask.

"Oh, yes, certainly. 'You Are the Sunshine of My Life.' 'My Cherie Amour.' I guess I shouldn't have written his name on my violin, though."

I write a column for the Los Angeles Times. The job is a little like fishing. You go out and drop a line, cast a net. I'm figuring this vagrant violinist is a column. Has to be.

"I'm in a hurry at the moment," I tell him, "but I'd like to come back and hear you play again."

"Oh, all right," he says, smiling appreciatively but with trepidation. He looks like a man who has learned to trust no one.

"Do you always play in this spot?" I ask.

"Yes," he says, pointing across the street with his bow to Pershing Square, in the heart of downtown Los Angeles. "I like to be near the Beethoven statue for inspiration."

This guy could turn out to be a rare find in a city of undiscovered gems, fiddling away in the company of Beethoven. I would drop everything if I could, and spend a few hours pulling the story out of him, but that will have to wait for another day. I've got another column lined up and not much time to shape it. The deadlines come at you without mercy, even in your dreams.

"I'll be back," I say.

He nods indifferently.

Back at the office I sweat out another column, scan the mail and clear the answering machine. I make a note on the yellow legal pad where I keep a list of possibilities.

Violin Man.

It's got potential. Who knows where it will go?

*To continue the read and to enter a drawing for a copy of the book (I have several to give away to readers) go to: http://tinyurl.com/4jafpv

Please do email and tell me what you thought of the sample read. I'll be sharing all of your comments with the author. It's a wonderful book, I couldn't stop reading it, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. (A movie about the book will be released this November.)

Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.

Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com 
http://www.DearReader.com

AUTHORBUZZ: Win free copies of books you'll read and never forget from these terrific authors: Vincent Louis Carrella, Serpent Box; J. L. Miles, Divorcing Dwayne; Pamela Binnings Ewen, The Moon in the Mango Tree; and Tobsha Learner, Soul. Go to: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader

READ THE CLASSICS: Dangerous Liaisons by Choderlos De Laclos and enter the free Penguin Classic's Drawing. Go to: http://tinyurl.com/575jjp

Dear Reader Column 05-09-08

Join my email book club. Over 350,000 people read 5-minutes a day. To see what books I'm featuring this week, go to: http://www.dearreader.com/

Dear Reader,

One of my goals in life is to be approachable. If someone walked into a room filled with strangers and they needed someone's assistance, I would like to be the person they feel comfortable enough to come over and talk to. Don't get the wrong idea. It's not like I'm out to save the world and I have no desire to solve everyone's problems, but I think it brings people a lot of comfort when they feel like they're not alone.

When I was a kid and felt scared or embarrassed there really wasn't anyone around to listen. And if I did manage to get up the courage to tell someone how I was feeling, they looked at me in a strange way. The message I got was that I shouldn't have admitted such a thing, and that nobody else in the world has ever felt like I was feeling, at that very moment. So I started keeping feelings to myself. But it feels lonely when you think you're the only one.

People don't have to sit by someone's side to make them feel like they're not alone. In fact, sometimes I haven't even known them. When my cat Rudy was missing and my husband and I went to the local pound to post a photo and description, I waited in the car. I couldn't bring myself to walk in, and while I was waiting, I saw a husband and wife holding hands as they were walking out of the shelter. The woman was crying and her husband was holding back tears. Immediately I thought to myself, "There goes another couple who have lost their pet and they look like they're ready to give up hope--just like I was beginning to feel. Seeing them gave me comfort. I wasn't taking comfort in their loss, but they made me realize that I wasn't alone.

Even long distance I try my best to let a friend know they're not alone...

"Thinking about you today. If I were there I'd give you a hug."

It's nice to know you're not alone.

Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.

Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com 
http://www.DearReader.com

SEARCHING FOR YOUR NEXT BIG THRILL? Read an exclusive interview with James Rollins about novelizing the new Indiana Jones movie. Win copies and read about this month's new thrillers from: Wendy Corsi Staub, Chris Grabenstein, Carla Neggers, Jonathan Maberry, Jordan Dane, Steven Wilson, Marc Paoletti, Julie Compton, Robert Liparulo, and Steve Martini. Visit the May issue of the Big Thrill now! http://www.thrillerwriters.org

Dear Reader Column 05-08-08

Join my email book club. Over 350,000 people read 5-minutes a day. To see what books I'm featuring this week, go to: http://www.dearreader.com/

Dear Reader,

It's almost that time of year again, my birthday is a couple of weeks away. Actually I don't spend much time thinking about age, but I have noticed that subconsciously when I see May 1st in my Daytimer it does trigger something in my mind. Twenty five days and counting--until I am one year older.

Friends complain that wrinkles and extra pounds creep up on them, I suppose I have that problem too, haven't looked lately--don't want to check--but instead I have noticed that an uninvited phrase has crept into my thinking.

"Gee, I guess I'm getting old." I caught myself thinking it a few weeks ago when I couldn't stay awake for one of my favorite shows. Why was I so exhausted? Maybe because I'd been working in the garden all day long, bending, planting, digging and hauling huge bags of mulch around. Who wouldn't be tired? (At least that was my excuse.)

Maybe it has nothing to do with age. Maybe I was just multi-tasking when I bent down yesterday to get some scouring powder off the bottom shelf, and while I was bent over, I thought, 'what the heck' and I grabbed a couple rolls of toilet paper because eventually I knew I'd have to retrieve them.

And apparently I'm assuming everyone else is thinking "Gee, she's getting older," too. On my last trip to New York City when I suggested having dinner with a friend, she was all for the idea, but wondered whether or not I'd be exhausted by the end of the day. "You'll be running around to appointments all day long with your agent Suzanne, won't you be ready to just go back to the hotel room and crash, especially since you'll have to get up in the morning and repeat the same routine all over again?"

"I'm not getting old," I quickly replied.

"Suzanne, I never said you were. I was merely pointing out that anybody who was going to be running from one appointment to the other all day long, would look forward to going back to their hotel room, putting on their pjs and ordering room service."

Well, since she put it that way!

Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.

Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com 
http://www.DearReader.com

AUTHORBUZZ: With so many new books out every week, we promise these are five that deserve your attention: Jennie Shortridge, Love and Biology at the Center of the Universe; Joseph Olshan, The Conversion; Christopher Hopkins, Staging Your Comeback: A Complete Beauty Revival for Women Over 45; Wendy Corsi Staub, Lily Dale: Believing; and Carla Neggers, The Angel. Go to: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader

Dear Reader Column 05-07-08

Join my email book club. Over 350,000 people read 5-minutes a day. To see what books I'm featuring this week, go to: http://www.dearreader.com/

Dear Reader,

My friend becomes a Catholic this Saturday evening. I think it's a wonderful thing. I'm not Catholic, not rooting for any particular religion, no propaganda, no underlying meaning in writing that. Gee have I mentioned all the things to quiet anyone's ruffled feathers? So strange that I had to have a little pros and cons discussion with myself before deciding to use that sentence in my column. But that's what things have come to these days and it's a shame. I'm simply happy for my friend because she's discovered something that's important to her and she followed through on it. I remember when being happy for someone and celebrating with them, didn't need an explanation and clarification.

"It's not the good old days when I walked to school in the snow without shoes, uphill for three miles..." Things have definitely changed. The "good old days" phrase has been rewritten. It has new nouns and verbs..."I remember when I could bake cupcakes for my son on his birthday and he could take them to school and share them as a treat with his classmates." But not any more. The new cupcake commandment is, "Thou shalt only bring cupcakes to school that have been bought at a bakery." I don't really understand the logic in that. I think I'd rather eat a cupcake that I know Billy's mom made, rather than some stranger at a bakery.

I remember when I could go to the bank and the teller would give me a cherry, orange or grape lollipop and the man or woman behind the window knew my name. I can still walk to my bank, it's just down the street, and the teller does say, "Hello Suzanne. How are you today?" and yes, there's a jar filled with an assortment of Dum-Dum Pops sitting on top of the counter, but I have to remove my baseball cap and sunglasses before I can get one. There's a sign on the door informing customers about the new dress code before entering the bank. Which doesn't make any sense to me. The reason the sign is posted is for would-be robbers, and I don't imagine they're going to pay any attention to the sign, do you?

Think I'll just keep on pretending that I don't know any better. Makes me want to be mischievous. Go to the grocery store, buy one of the boxes that the baker puts their 24 cupcakes in and instead put my homemade ones in the box and take it to school.

Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.

Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com 
http://www.DearReader.com

P.S. Congratulations to the winners of the vintage aprons: Anne J. Basile, Nancy Danke, Christa Oldsberg and Dianne Huguet

Dear Reader Column 05-06-08

Join my email book club. Over 350,000 people read 5-minutes a day. To see what books I'm featuring this week, go to: http://www.dearreader.com/

Dear Reader,

From my Email Bag:

Dear Suzanne,

In your columns, you write beautiful tales of food and family, loss and redemption--and the magic of serendipity. I've spent the past week in New Orleans, where I was wrapping up an IACP volunteer project helping the local kids chronicle their family recipes and food traditions. One of the aspects of the project that really captivated me is the way children, many of whom lost everything as a result of Hurricane Katrina, have the innate wisdom to realize that family traditions and recipes are something that no one (and no storm, no matter how horrific) can ever take away from them.

One little girl told me about how she loves making barbecue sauce because it reminds her of good times her family had before Katrina, when her parents were still together and used to engage in friendly competition to see who could whip up the best secret sauce. Now, the little girl says, her dad doesn't come around much anymore. But she still makes the sauce, savoring the warm, spicy memories and dreaming of a time when she'll make barbecued ribs for her own kids...

It was a pleasure and a privilege to help these children preserve the culinary legacies of their families -- and during the course of the project, I learned of someone else who needs help with a similar project. Liz Williams, president of the Southern Food & Beverage Museum, told me that they've lost over half of their cookbook collection to the floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina.

An eternal optimist, Liz is working hard to transform tragedy into opportunity by taking on the ambitious project of rebuilding the museum's library to be our country's most complete repository of books, booklets, manuscripts, and documents about Southern food and drink. In order to accomplish this, the museum needs cookbooks -- and lots of them!

The museum is not only seeking cookbooks about the American South, but also volumes from areas that have influenced Southern cooking. This means all new and used cookbooks, in all conditions (food-spattered and beat-up is just fine), from all over the world. Liz told me that they're seeking everything from professionally written cookbooks and culinary histories to community cookbooks, pamphlets and just about anything else you can think of (like your legendary chocolate chip cookie recipe!).

I thought that you might be just the person to help make these culinary dream a reality. Would you please consider devoting part of one of your wonderful columns to this story and asking readers to please donate any of their spare cookbooks to the museum? Just think: If on any given day, every reader sent just one cookbook, the museum would have 367,000 additions to its library!

Just in case you're up for this, I'll give you the address for (fully tax-deductible) donations:

Southern Food & Beverage Museum
attn. Liz Williams
1 Poydras Street, #169
New Orleans, Louisiana 70130

Website: www.southernfood.org

Sorry to talk your ear off, Suzanne--it's just that reading your words every day has made me feel as though I'm emailing a friend I've known for years.

All the best,
Laura Martin Bacon

Thanks for your email Laura and thanks for reading with me every day. It's an honor to know I'm reading with someone like you.

Don't miss today's BIG THRILL, go to: http://www.thrillerwriters.org

Warmest regards,
Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com 
http://www.DearReader.com

SEARCHING FOR YOUR NEXT BIG THRILL? Read an exclusive interview with James Rollins about novelizing the new Indian Jones movie. Win copies and read about this month's new thrillers from: Wendy Corsi Staub, Chris Grabenstein, Carla Neggers, Jonathan Maberry, Jordan Dane, Steven Wilson, Marc Paoletti, Julie Compton, Robert Liparulo, and Steve Martini. Visit the May issue of the Big Thrill now! http://www.thrillerwriters.org

Dear Reader Column 05-05-08

Join my email book club. Over 350,000 people read 5-minutes a day. To see what books I'm featuring this week, go to: http://www.dearreader.com/

Dear Reader,

I need to read in order to write, but I couldn't write without my music either. So I'm constantly listening for my next great "writing" song. I TIVO Jay Leno every night and even if I don't get around to watching the entire show, I jump to the end and listen to the featured music artist, because they might be singing a writing song. Satellite radio streams into my house and another subscription plays in my car. If I hear a song that makes me start writing in my mind, I jot down the name of it and when I get home, I open up iTunes on my computer, do a search, click and I've added another writing song to my collection.

Music helps me get to the place where I need to be when I'm writing and it helps me find courage when I'm facing a big challenge. Preparing for a big meeting that's kind of scaring me--I put in my ear pods and turn on my music. "Go get 'em Suzanne." It's not so much the words in the song that inspire me, it's how the sound of the music resonates in my soul and that's probably why I can listen to a song over and over again and not get tired of hearing it.

When I was preparing my writing samples to send to a prospective agent, I listened to two songs over and over again for a week. I'm not exaggerating...thank heavens my husband has learned how to tune-out my music, (or by necessity developed the same taste in music). I was scared to death to show my writing to an agent. What if he hated it, or worse, what if he laughed, "What was this woman thinking?" I needed a boost of confidence and I found what I needed in Free Fallin by Stevie Nicks and Galileo by the Indigo Girls. Hour after hour, for seven days straight I listened to those two songs. Listened so much that I never really heard them anymore, but the driving beat had settled into my soul and there was no turning back. Kind of like rooting for the underdog in a movie, the music crescendos and I found myself cheering, "Come on, Suzanne, you can do it!" And soon I hit the SEND key.

And music continues to inspire me. I'm in the middle of reworking the Introduction for my book. What I've written is good, but I think I need to dig a little deeper and the song that's helping me find my way is Eye of the Hurricane by David Wilcox. The first time I heard it, instantly I started reworking the Introduction in my mind and the tears began to flow. And that's right where I need to be to do my best work. Guess what I'm listening to right now?

Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.

Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com 
http://www.DearReader.com

AUTHORBUZZ: With so many new books out every week, we promise these are five that deserve your attention: Jennie Shortridge, Love and Biology at the Center of the Universe; Joseph Olshan, The Conversion; Christopher Hopkins, Staging Your Comeback: A Complete Beauty Revival for Women Over 45; Wendy Corsi Staub, Lily Dale: Believing; and Carla Neggers, The Angel. Go to: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader