Midweek inventory

I think all the new or replacement Springsteen CDs* have trickled in from their various sources, and I’ve been listening to them when I have time to write. It’s kind of funny, because as I told Lynne and Tom, the character I’m writing has little interest in contemporary music from any of the decades written so far in the Neverending Saga, so while *I* enjoy Bruce Springsteen (and the E Street Band)’s music, it doesn’t really speak to who and what I’m writing.

HOWEVER, coincidentally, my Hell’s Kitchen musician character was born in March 1949 and grew up in Manhattan, while Bruce was born in September of ’49 and grew up in Freehold, New Jersey. That means these two boys from working class families, one fictional, one real, were roughly an hour apart by car (and separated by the watery Hudson River and a couple of bays). Though their lives are mostly dissimilar and their music is different, they’re both storytellers. As I write, my character’s ears are keenly attuned to and inspired by the music playing, and he keeps wanting to take over the story.

Creatively, it’s not a bad problem to have. I hope my characters keep bugging me for as long as I’m around. Any family or friends who understand me may need to tell any healthcare providers that not everything I say is indicative of dementia. Since my early teens, I’ve had a condition that Lynne and I call “Characters,” common among poets, playwrights, songwriters, and fiction writers.

*From Bruce Springsteen with and without the E Street Band:
Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J./Bruce Springsteen: The Wild, The Innocent, & The E Street Shuffle/The River/Nebraska/Born In The U.S.A./Tunnel of Love/Devils & Dust/Wrecking Ball/High Hopes/Letter To You/Only The Strong Survive

Dedicated to Elle from DFS. (They’ve got me addicted to romance.)