Not all "Flooding" is Bad

So I've mentioned briefly the struggles in making any sort of significant progress on the second novel in the new BryonySeries Limbo trilogy Call of the Siren.

We just recently released the first book in the series. It's called The Phoenix and you can buy it in the BryonySeries store and also on Amazon in print and Kindle.

But words for this second book just weren't flowing. 

I have a detailed outline and plenty of ideas. I've done character sketches and mentally wrote quote a few scenes. I see the story, I know the story. Heck, I even have the cover art!

But the words wouldn't come easily.

Until this past weekend.

You know the fairy tale about the little boy who stops a flood by placing his finger inside a whole in the dam?

Well, in this case, it was as if the boy had removed it.

And all the ideas and words spilled out.

I may not get much done this weekend (second COVID shot is Thursday).

But I feel confident that the muse is active and ready to write, once I have the time and ability.

Bring on the story!

Sue Bass is haunted by dreams of her father, who died in a boating accident before she was born, alluring dreams of water and song. But then a soft-spoken outside man with an inside plan comes to town, and Sue's sleepwalking stops, only to resurface with greater magnetism when he leaves. Two voices beckon. Which one will she heed?

Taking a Break from the Coronavirus

COVID-19 has been on my mind a lot this past week especially.

Not only am I one of those borderline high risk people (almost sixty, I have asthma, and my insurance just refused to pay for my medicine - but no worries, I paid full price and will continue to take it), I work for a daily publication where updating the community about the pandemic feel near-constant.

Top that with some family emergencies, and it's been an interesting two weeks.

So Saturday, I stopped most of life and "hunkered down" with one of the two novels I've been first drafting and found I'd made some real genuine process.

Last weekend, I'd experienced a slight return of the muse, but not until I re-read last week's work (apparently manuscript distancing slows the spread of the infection "author self-doubt") did I fully realize the progress I'd made.

Part of that is due to a new method of approaching this particular novel (The Phoenix, the first in the Limbo trilogy, yes, part of the BryonySeries).

For my first novel (Bryony), I wrote scenes as they came to me and used them to help structure the novel. It was fun seeing them come together, too. I call this the "Golden Spike" approach.

For the rest of my novels, I used outlines for the book and each chapter. In most cases, I had the first and last sentences of the books and chapters written before I "painted by number with words," working in order of each chapter in a linear progression.

Neither approach was working with The Phoenix.

Over Christmas break, I did outline the novel and each chapter. 

I do have the first and last sentences written.

But I remained disconnected with the characters and overall story line. I started, and then abandoned, character questionnaires because they weren't helping.

So last weekend, I reread through everything and added a little to each chapter. That helped.

I didn't know how much it helped until I re-read everything this past weekend.

So this weekend, I did the same. I added to each chapter in both linear and non-linear ways.

I call this "macro to micro writing."

And I will continue in this fashion until this half of the novel is done.

Not sure if that will work with the other half (the novel is two parallel story lines).

But I will cross that time zone when I reach it.

Where Do You Struggle? (And Seeking Some Advice Here)

Accompanying any project or pursuit, including writing, are parts that are easy, difficult, boring, exciting.

As a beginning novelist not having any clue of the process, I found the drafting part most exciting. I was finally writing the story that had lived in my head for decades. I was finally writing an entire book, hooray!

The thrill of putting those scenes to Word document, developing those characters, creating structure, all of these produced an exhilaration that I can't seem to match today.

I mistakenly thought that was my favorite part of creating a book.

Now that I'm a few books into the thing, I'm finding I really enjoy editing. By now, the story has form and shaping and polishing is easier and more rewarding than the early, messy stages.

I have forgotten how to do "early" and "messy" over the nine years it took me to write Before The Blood, the sequel the BryonySeries "drop of blood" trilogy (Bryony, Visage, and Staked!).

And I'm really struggling with this.

I have two novels going at once, two very different novels in terms of characters, plotting, and structure.

I know how the stories should look (overall) and where the stories are going.

I'm in touch with the characters.

I spent about three years outlining BTB.

I then spent about five years writing it (a year per installment).

In the final year, I edited and released all five installments (and one book with all the installments beneath one cover).

So for most of that time, I worked from a well-developed outline.

During this time, I also write six books for The Adventures of Cornell Dyer series.

But I also worked from outlines that Timothy Baran had created. I was simply the ghostwriter.

So I'm not certain if I need to step back and create more detailed outlines or step up and just do some free flowing writing with these stories and let them develop themselves.

Help!

The "Myth" of Writer's Block

I think anyone who engages in creative work has felt that block: we have the time, but the ideas don't flow.

We can call it "writers block" or "painters block" or whatever, but a recent article I read made the point that "bloc" ought not be a thing if writers, even hobbyist writers (of which I am on the fiction side of writing), take their craft seriously.

For instance, the article said, there's no such thing as "nurse's block."

Now I'm certain some nurses have their days when they don't want to go into work. But that's not the same thing as a "block."

Likewise, there's probably no garbage truck driver block, accountant block, informational technology block, firefighter block, etc.

I do get the point of "block." It's hard to be stunningly creative on a whim.

And yet, on my professional end of writing, that's why I get paid.

A bunch of years ago, probably 10 or more, I was stuck in a preview story for the former Waterway Days in Joliet. I had written similar stories over the years and couldn't think of the umpteenth, brilliant way to write it.

I was tired (too many nights of not enough sleep before delivery newspapers in the middle of the night), and I had to leave in 45 minutes to run a small Vacation Bible School 40 miles away.

But I was on deadline. I had no choice but to do it. OK, I guess I did have a choice. I could not make deadline and never write for the publication again. I could not write the story and lose the income I needed to support my family.

Yeah, no.

So, I reviewed my notes for words or phrases that jumped out (or ones I could make jump out). And I wrote that story.

The result wasn't Pulitzer quality, sure. But enjoyable, readable, and "payable."

On my hobby end side of writing, I enjoy the freedom of not writing on deadline. I have time to explore creative ideas, concepts, world-building, and character development without feeling the crunch of the clock.

But that sense of "all the time in the world" is a fallacy.

Because the clock continues to tick away. And so do days, months, and years.

Without any sort of goal or deadline ("I will write that novel this year." I will not stop for dinner until I have a solid outline for chapter eight." Saturday will not slip away until I finish chapter five." "I only have 30 minutes today, but I WILL write the opening scene."), the odds are 2020 will arrive with little writing to show for it.

And BTW, coffee helps. ;)

Illustration by Christopher Gleason for "Staked!" Follow him at artworkbytopher.com.

Does It Count as Writing if You Don't Write a Word?

So this weekend I did "real" work, babysat one of my granddaughters, went to dinner a week late with Rebekah for our shared feast day, and caught up on some marketing.

I did not actively work on Before the Blood in terms of actual writing, not because I was busy (although I was), but because I was agonizing over a major plot element that didn't quite line up while I did the other stuff. And it took me most of the weekend to figure it out.

What do you think? Does that count as writing?

BryonySeries Throwback Thursday: In the Throes of the Writing Desert

Sunday, November 28, 2010

In the Throes of the Writing Desert

Most days, except Sundays when I'm too busy rolling newspapers for delivery, the daily Bryonyis written and posted by two a.m. Today, however, I am coming up dry.

I've talked to friends, read some material, perused the internet, and listened to music, but inspiration is far away.

Now, I'm not completely dry. While waiting for the trucks, I wrote a piece on bull mastiffs for the newspaper and a press release about doulas for a hospital. However, there's a world of difference between an assigned piece and one I dream up as I go.

While sitting here staring at the blank "new post" when I should be grocery shopping, my publicist unexpectedly calls, and she's very excited about some ideas she's been developing. "I have sticky notes everywhere," she said.

We talk for half an hour or so, but I'm still dry. Nevertheless, I'm cheered by her excitement over the Bryony project and the possiblities it is creating for me and other artists. Tomorrow, I probably won't be dry, but for today, I take heart that my past creativity is opening up opportunities and remain confident that my muse is simply taking a nap and will rejoin me later.

Three Paragraph Tip

We writers have seen those posts, the authors that write 1,000 to 3,500 words a day before breakfast, etc.

Such words haunt when we stare at a blank screen, our minds totally devoid of words and thoughts. Aimlessly clicking onto sites isn't working. Neither is coffee, a walk, music, etc. 

In those times, write three paragraphs.

Just three.

When the muse is sluggish, an entire chapter, even 500 words, is daunting. But three paragraphs is like hitting snoze on an alarm. Eventually, the body gives up and does what it's supposed to do. The mind is like that, too.

Three paragraphs of something is totally doable. And when you write them, one of two things will happen.

Creativity will spark and ideas will overflow faster than you can type them.

Or you will be three paragraphs ahead.

It's totally a win-win.

Writer's Block Unblocked: It Was a Productive Saturday

Yes, vampire fans, it was indeed a productive Saturday, and far too short for the ideas spilling out of my head. I feel like weekends are too short anway, and that I could use one more day for writing.

Sundays are spent at a church forty miles away, so by the time we get there and back, and I take one ninety minute power walk and get yoga done, it's time to do the health pages, and voila! Sunday is gone. (It's a very nice Sunday; just would like one more full day for fiction).

For me, the character questionnaires were the trick to unblocking the block, although I didn't realize when I began them for this chapter just how well they actually would work. As I answered random questions for each character, and the characters took on dimension, vague ideas for scenes swirled in my head.

But then, as I moved deeper into each character, I found my responses sounded like the character. By the time I neared the end, I had actual dialogue I could use, and the murky scenes  grew crisp and clear.

So on Saturday, after social media, coffee and a stroll with Rebekah, and some dawdling time listening to random music, I was ready.

Because several weeks had passed since I'd written any drafts for Before the Blood, I felt a little rusty at the keyboard, so I rolled with the slow warmup. But as I got writing, the words tumbled out, and the chapter took shape. It's several weeks from being done, but it's a great beginning.

I ran out of time to reread anything I'd written (if I wanted to get any decent sleep, that is), so this morning will be the first opportunity. Honestly, I had a hard time cutting off the time on Saturday, so frustrating, as I won't have a block of many hours again until next Saturday.

Yes, I still take a little time to work on the novel each day. The hour I planned to commit to fiction each day is only half an hour. But it's a dedicated thirty minutes at least four work mornings a week, and it's now a habit of many months. The goal, of course, is to stretch it.

In the meantime, I'm thrilled with the progress on Henry's chapter. Going to take a peek at it now...

Getting There, Not Quite

I've learned a lot abot my characters through working on the Q&A's, and shadowy ideas are flitting through my mind, nothing too developed, but certainly there.

The muse is in better shape than it was several weeks ago, but something is lacking before I can begin.

I know what this chapter will show. I have a previously written strong ending, which is also a good inciting incident. The characters are becoming three-dimensional.

But I think it needs more tension.

Now maybe those ideas will come when I start actually writing this draft. However, since I'm suffering from a case of stopped-up ideas, I'm thinking the tension needs to come first.

Drawing a blank...

Getting To Know My Characters: It's Making All The Difference, Part Two

Write what you know. How many times we, as writers, have heard this maxim?

And yet, in our impatience to get our story down, we so often forget to do just that.

Now writing what you know doesn't mean limiting your prose to memoirs and personal experiences. But it does mean gaining an understanding of the subject you're attempting to convey.

The prequel of the BryonySeries, Before the Blood, is an experiement in writing for me, a series of unfinished novels that propel the story forward. I began outling the Before the Blood in 2011 and began writing it in earnest in 2014. Three novels are completed, two remain. The last is the longest.

Along the way, I've encountered dry spells and tackled them in different ways: finding a song that represented the mood of a particular scene; chapter; or character; writing randomly and following the trail; taking a walk and envisioning the action; finding photos online that look like my characters or scenes.

Then I hit Henry's Story and hit a wall, very puzzling. In Bryony, Henry, after Melissa, was the easiest character to write and, so, I wrote most of his scenes first. Since then, I've looked forward to depicting Henry once again.

So why is he remaining in the shadows?

The first chapter in Henry's section was easy to write. Well, okay, most of it was previously written. Chapter One was strenuous, and Chapter Two is eluding me altogether, despite the outline.

Finally two weekends ago, as I was out walking the track in the dark with my headphones, searching for a melody that would unblock the muse, I realized I was trying to write what I did not know. The other characters were like stand-up paper dolls in my mind, artfully arranged, but without depth and personality.

Who were these other people?

I wasn't quite sure.

So I began asking them questions, minute details that may or may not ever be used in the story. This goes beyond basic traits like hair color and hobbies. The questions read more like this:

• What makes your character laugh out loud?

• Your character is doing intense spring cleaning. What is easy for her to throw out? What is difficult for her to part with? Why?

• What does your character regard as the lowest depth of misery?

• If your character could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

• If your character were to die and come back as a person or thing, what do you think it would be?

• Who are your character’s friends and family? Who does she surround herself with? Who are the people your character is closest to? Who does he wish he were closest to?

• What is one strong memory that has stuck with your character from childhood? Why is it so powerful and lasting?

• Where does your character go when he’s angry?

I have a list of approximately thirty questions for each character. Like a time-elapsed video, they are plumping out and taking form. As they begin to move and breathe, so does the chapter.

Yes, this is time-consuming. But the result will be natural, layered, and rich.

Three Maneuvers That's Helping the Muse

Slowly, slowly, slowly, but somewhat surely, my muse is starting to spark. I think it's a combination of three things.

One: I gave it a rest. It's true I don't have great amounts of time for writing fiction, but I do spend the majority of my day writing and editing. Even the most active brain (mine, which continues to fire at night while my body struggles to sleep) needs time to recuperate. Since 2008, I've written, edited, and published three novels and a cookbook, as well as outlined a long experimental novel consisting of five unfinished novels. Since 2014, I've written three of them. See what I mean? That's enough to shut down even the most enthusiastic muse.

Two: Last week, I began spending some time with my newest characters. Relationships take time to grow, even imaginary ones, and I can't properly tell their tale if I don't know them.

Three: I set aside the character Q&As this weekend in favor of slow, serene walks, time spent with extended family, and the rereading of various parts of Before the Blood already written. This gave me encouragement for the next journey and pure enjoyment in what's already accomplished.

I'll incontinue in this mode for a couple of weeks. On Saturday I'm working the spaghetti dinner at our church and next weekend I'm on call. By the time I get to that third weekend, I anticipate my muse will be bursting with ideas and nudging me to the computer.

Happy Monday, vampire vans. ;)

Unblocking the Writer's Block

Scattered among editorial duties this past was a series of short walks, accompanied by music and headphones, as I gently tried to nudge my muse into cooperation.

As bits of scenes sparked and vanished, I realized part of the trouble is lack of development. Well, duh?

By that, I mean the characters in Henry's early chapters of Before the Blood are flat, their interactions are hidden, and the overall premise of the chapter is thin.

First step, spend some time with the characters and get to know them. Back to the character questionnaires!

I'll let you know how it goes.

BTB Henry's Story: Bad Case of Writer's Block

This is what chapter three looks like. I think my mind needs a rest. This morning, I have some work to do, so I'm letting the fiction slide. For the rest of the week, I'll probably troll around the internet reading and looking at elements I want in that chapter and see if I can spark ye olde muse.

One Certain Way to Fix Writer's Block

I actually posted this quote above my computer at work.

“Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on.” ― Louis L'Amour

One Way I Broke Writer's Block

I simply started writing.

Literally.

I tried this during one of Kellen's chapters in Before the Blood. Here I was, a free weekend and the words and ideas weren't coming. So I just put him in a barn and started writing. I just made him do stuff and say stuff. Some of it didn't work, but most of it did.

Try it.

Shorten Your Research: Ask An "Expert"

Is your novel stuck because you need time to research a particular topic, era, item, etc.?

Shorten the info-gathering time by asking a friend, colleague, acquaintance, or even posting your request on social media.

For instance:

About half of Ed Calkins' dialogue in the BryonySeries came from Ed Calkins himself: bits of conversation I noted or actual question and answer interviews with the sole purpose of developing his character, adding to the plot, and making his dialogue sound like Ed. I mean, who better to consult regarding a certain character than the real character himself?

The police questioning of the girls in Bryony following Kimberly's disappearance came from interviewing a relative who liked police dramas.

When I couldn't drum up a basic plot for the first book in my Cornell Dyer series, I asked my younger sons to do it, as they had grown up reading similiar books.

I can't envision battle scenes, especially battle scenes from another era, but I need them for chapter two in Kellen's Story. So I asked a friend, who wrote a great fight scene in his novel-in-progress, to do it for me. I left that part blank in the novel until he could get to it and kept moving.

My writer's block for the last chapter in Kellen's section of Before the Blood became unblocked when I realized the reason for the blocking (My mind couldn't invent a sci-fi-ish 19th century-ish medical machine), stopped looking online for ideas, and simply asked Timothy to invent one. It took ten minutes while driving to church last Sunday, with Timothy talking off the top of his head and me taking notes. And thus ended weeks of frustration.

Sometimes, a book or the internet is the best place to get the data you need. At other times, one need look nno further than the guy playing video games in the next room.

It can be that simple.

Modest Success with the Writer's Block

Skipping over a few passages and returning later to fill in the blanks, in a paint-by-word fashion, seemed to help, at least for this particular "Kellen Wechsler" chapter in Before the Blood.

It also meant I could make progress while not getting too drawn into the story, since I was the editor-on-call this past weekend.

What's now remaining in chapter seven is several scenes that go together (where inspiration is still slow to materialize), and several smaller exposition sections that I broke down into a couple paragraphs each, and then assigned each grouping to a night, Sunday through Wednesday.

And then I didn't get Sunday's section written, LOL.

However, I also sifted through nearly one thousand backed-up emails on my AOL account. including some very important ones that were overlooked amongst social media notifications, doubles I had ignored, items that needed to go into community calendars, etc.

While doing so, I'd handed off the fabrication of last night's dinner to Daniel, who didn't fabricate nearly as quickly as I could, so I wound up helping out, and suddenly, POOF! It got late.

Still, despite missing church again, it was a rather productive weekend, overall. I'm also getting a little more confident "minding the shop," as it were. Some things that would have rattled me just a few months ago, I now handled with ease.

Of course, I still have much to learn, and I'm eager to learn it. In addition, from a writer's block point of view, I learned several things.

One: It's okay to procrastinate in front of the computer if your brain is simmering at the same time.

Two: Just like insomniacs are told to get out of bed if they can't fall asleep, I now try to walk away from the computer if ideas are just not generating and find something else (i.e. a non-writing activity, and yes, they do exist) to do.

Three: Skipping over details that need research and coming back to them later serves two purposes. It doesn't stall the muse when it's working at warp speed, and it gives you something to do when the muse is taking an extended nap.

Four: Breaking up troublesome passages into smaller, easier-to-manage scenes helps to coax a reluctant muse into action.

So, overall, the view over the top of the coffee mug (a white one with blue letters saying "The Herald-News," a gift from our marketing manager) on this brisk and chilly Monday morning is a sunny one, and I'm joyfully anticipating a new week.

Hope you are, too. (Raising coffee mug). Happy Monday! :)

How I Addressed Last Weekend's Writer's Block

A huge part of writing fiction for me is immersing myself in another time, place, character's head, etc. When writing fiction with strong historical and paranormal elements, that flow of ideas is constantly being interrupted by researching facts, which considerably slows down the process. Obviously, any idea I wish to develop must first be checked for plausibility.

So having been stuck on Kellen's chapter seven for several weeks (which is a long chapter, and it's not like I haven't made any progress, I have) and getting more frustrated by the day, here's what I've done/been doing. Now I'm not really sure if any of it works or will work, but staring at a blank screen isn't helpful either.

1) Surfing the internet looking for visual or written cues to spark inspiration.

    Wasn't effective this time, but I did try.

2) Music breaks.

    Usually works like a charm. Not this time. Although Timothy and Daniel did turn me on to some new songs that I enjoyed.

3) Rereading all the previous Kellen chapters.

    Did this on Friday night. Didn't help the writer's block, but I was extremely happy with what I've already written. I reminded myself all these other chapters were also slow in the making, which did encourage me, even if it didn't get the imagination flowing.

4)  Stepping away to watch "Futurama" with Daniel.

     Could have enjoyed it more, if I hadn't kept thinking, "Damn it, I'm losing the weekend."

5) Breaking down the chapter into manageable scenes and then into more manageable paragraphs, with ap promise to myself that I'd peck at it during the week.

    That is where most of the production happened and subsequent writing happened, this past weekend and the two previous weekends. However, my brain is usually too soft at night for any fiction writing once I get back to Ellis Island. In short, I end up getting pissed off because I know I'm lying to myself even as I'm making the promise.

6) Giving some love to other creative endeavors that have little or nothing to do with writing.

    That is the plan for this weekend. I'm on call, which can be an unpredicably light or heavy work weekend. So Sarah and I are planning to catch up on a visual project I began for a non-profit. Amongst these activities, I'm going to check out those paragraph breakdowns, give myself a deadline (I will write this section in the next hour) and then just DO IT.

If anything, maybe one of these ideas will work for YOUR writer's block.

The Horrible Agony of Writer's Block this Weekend

Meet James Onohan, The Musical Sound of John Simons

By Denise M. Baran-Unland

Self-taught pianist and composer James Onohan produces music that sounds like John Simons played it, but his resemblance to Bryony’s fictional lead vampire doesn’t stop there.

Not only is Onohan close in age to Bryony’s main vampire, but he’s a perfectionist whose happiest moments are onstage performing and whose best creative moments are alone, in a nearly dark room.

“I just close my eyes and play what I’m feeling,” Onohan, 30, of Indiana, said. “That’s how the best pieces come out, from somewhere inside me. It’s something I have to do. It’s like I’m in a whole other world. I wait until everyone is sleeping, put down the lights really low, close my eyes and just play. When I listen to some of the recordings I’ve made, I don’t think I could ever duplicate them.”

Onohan is creating 10 new songs for a CD called The Best-Loved Compositions of John Simons. This CD is mentioned in Bryony when Melissa borrows it from the Munsonville Library.

Included on those tracks is, Bryony. the piece Simons created as wedding present for his young bride and played at the conclusion of every practice and concert. Onohan has already composed that piece and is working on the rest.

Bryony’s web administrator, Sarah Stegall, of North Carolina, found Onohan and his music on YouTube when she was seeking classical piano music for the Bryony website (http://www.bryonseries.com/).

Stegall felt the site needed “samples” of Simons’ work, but the only non-copyrighted music she found was organ music. She heard Onohan’s most popular selection, One Last Time, on YouTube and loved it, so she immediately located Onohan’s website and sent him a message.

“I had sat for hours on YouTube and various websites listening to out of copyright classical piano that we could use for Bryony. Nothing fit,” Stegall said. “I was listening to Debussy and I was clicking randomly on the side links. I almost clicked out when I heard James and realized, ‘Oh wow, he's what we are looking for!’

“The enchanting sounds he was plinking out were so captivating, I could see why Melissa played her music box over and over. I immediately found his website and listened over and over. He became my John Simons that night. However, I had quite a few problems. The biggest was that he wasn't out of copyright. I sent him a brief email wondering if maybe, just maybe, he would let us market his songs under the book.”

To her surprise, Onohan responded almost as quickly. Stegall explained her project and quickly summarized the novel for him. Her original request was permission to reproduce some of his musical clips on the website, but Onohan had a better idea. Why couldn’t he write the book’s theme song and create the CD Melissa checked out from the Munsonville Library?

“When Sarah called me about the book deal, I was very surprised, very flattered and very happy for the opportunity,” Onohan said. “I had been finding it hard to get the inspiration to write new music, so doing the songs for this book has gotten me past the writer’s block.”

Onohan and music go so far back in time, he can’t remember when his love for the medium began. His earliest musical memory was sitting near his father while he played organ and picking up one of the music books and flipping to the back. Depicted there was a keyboard marked with the notes. Intrigued, Onohan used that tool to teach himself how to read music.

“Reading music helped me in band and, when I was able to play the piano, in learning more complex pieces,” Onohan said. “When it comes to playing by ear, I’m not that good. I can’t hear something and reproduce it like some people can, except when I’m creating my own music. I just hear it in my head and play it from there.”

At age 8, Onohan learned clarinet for the school band. He later swapped instruments—flute for clarinet--with his best friend. “My voice has a nice vibrato, so it gives the flute a beautiful sound,” Onohan said. “I really liked the music I produced with it.

Each weekend, Onohan and his father traveled to Chicago for sheet music. During one of those times Onohan, now 12, picked up a book of Mozart selections and began learning them. He played one of those pieces to several thousand people as part of a city festival and liked it.

“It was the best day of my life,” Onohan said. “I was overwhelmed by that performance and have wanted to relive it ever since. Just to get onstage and play my music for an audience has been my dream.”

Onohan continued with the flute and band during high school, although he did play piano for the high school jazz band. He also participated in all-city competitions and talent shows.

Eventually, the piano became Onohan’s primary instrument, although he does still play flute. “I’m not a guy who works well with words; I don’t talk a lot,” he said. “The piano lets me express my feelings without speaking. The ideal is for me to feel what I’m playing, so I can pour out my emotions through my fingers.”

After high school, Onohan enrolled in general education courses at a local community college, but his heart gravitated toward a fulltime music career. Eventually, he convinced his parents to let him attend VanderCook Music College in Chicago. He lasted three months.

Once there, Onohan realized the program was slanted toward those that wanted to teach music, not perform it. “It was no the environment I wanted to be in,” Onohan said. “I didn’t want to play music anymore and when I don’t play music for awhile, I’m not at peace with myself. I’ve never regretted leaving.”

Instead, Onohan joined the police force and recently celebrated his ninth anniversary with it. Onohan then bought a fancy keyboard, continued to compose and play—he compares his style to Yanni—and began recording his music and creating sheet music, which helped him recreate his own music. Within eight years, Onohan wrote and recorded over 35 original compositions—many of which are found on his three CDs-- and recorded a Christmas CD.

Although his CDs and sheet music are now selling modestly well online—One Last Time and Only You are his top sellers—Onohan’s first audience was his family, friends, and fellow police officers.

“I sold CDs by hand and passed out CDs to everybody in my academy classes,” Onohan said. “Talk about a bunch of grown men getting copies of romantic piano music! But I got really great reviews from these men about how great my piano music was. That was really flattering.”

Although getting married and starting a family were personal high points in Onohan’s life, it was a dark time for his music, he said, due to lack of free time. “I didn’t even think about playing,” Onohan said, “and then one day, a couple of years ago, I met a producer who had her own little studio. That inspired me to build mine.”

In addition to composing music for Bryony, Onohan’s current projects including writing original music for vocalists and other new artists. He plays only his original music for weddings and other events. Onohan still dreams of the day he becomes a fulltime concert pianist. For now, he is content that others are enjoying his music.

“My biggest fulfillment is when people respond and I read how my music is affecting other people’s lives,” Onohan said. “I know it sounds corny, but that, to me, is priceless.”

For more information and to purchase Onohan’s music visit http://www.jamesonohan.com/. Onohan is also featured on the Bryony website at http://www.bryonyseries.com/.