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dark energy

Dark Energy – song behind the scenes

May 10, 2022 by addisonbrae

Curious how a song came out of two novels? Here’s how it happened.

Dark Energy album art

Becker Circle and its sequel, Dark Energy: Return to Becker Circle take place in the bar scene around live music. Jon, the adorable guy in one of the bands falls for Gillian, the heroine, who inspires him to write a song called Dark Energy during the Becker Circle story. As Jon told Gillian, “I wrote it about someone who had a streak of bad luck and how they changed it with good karma.” It hit me while writing the sequel. The song had to exist.

The lyrics. The song needed to reflect Jon’s deep-thinking character and his band’s rock sound. My music studies while growing up gave me a foundation, so I studied the structure of several favorite rock tunes to write the lyrics. I considered how many words are in a line, how many lines in a verse and the chorus, and decided to include a bridge. The chorus below represents the strength that helps people push past hardships that hit even the best people like Gillian.

Find someone else to conquer
What does it mean this dark energy
Dark energy won’t control my fate
Why do I deserve dark energy

Joanne Trattoria in Manhattan’s Upper West Side

The music. A Foo Fighters sound is what I heard in my head for this song. I’m lucky enough to know many talented Dallas musicians, including Brian Miller who agreed to write the music. After trying many times to get together in Dallas, we figured out we would be in New York City at the same time. Brian met my friend and me for dinner at the perfect Manhattan spot to inspire music, Joanne Trattoria, an Italian restaurant on the Upper West Side owned by Lady Gaga’s parents. We talked about how the song fit into the story, and I handed him a piece of paper with the lyrics. We walked back to our hotels on the cool, crisp, clear October 2019 evening, past the Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, Central Park, and Carnegie Hall before parting ways. By the end of the night, Brian had a tune in his head. Since he didn’t have a guitar with him, he hummed it into his phone.

Studio session

The recording. Then Covid hit. It felt like the song’s message came true. The vast, empty space in the cosmos called dark energy was trying to disrupt. We had to find our dark matter to draw everyone together and finish the song. When the Covid threat lessened, Brian connected with fellow musician, composer, and producer, Bobby Hoke, to record the music—guitar, bass, keyboards, and drums—in Bobby’s studio. It took a few sessions to get it right. After Bobby handled mixing and mastering, the song was ready to release. The photo is one of the last sessions.

The final song. Listen for the original Dark Energy version toward the end of the book trailer. Find Dark Energy by Brian Miller and Dark Energy .germans mix by Brian Miller and Bobby Hoke on your favorite music retail and streaming sites including Pandora, YouTube, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and these Spotify links:
Dark Energy
Dark Energy .germans mix

Deep thanks to Brian for writing the music and recording both songs, and to Bobby for his vision for the .germans mix and doing such an amazing job producing. Thank you, John Harrell, for the beautiful song art and Katlyn Steele for modeling. If you are a Foo Fighters fan, you will like Dark Energy.

Find your dark matter and create your dream.

Filed Under: Blogs Tagged With: .germans, amazon music, becker circle, bobby hoke, brian miller, dark energy, foo fighters, local music, music, music lover, musician, novel, pandora, playlist, reading, road trip, romantic suspense, songwriter, spotify, spotify playlist, spring break, streaming, texas music, youtube

Fiction writing secrets to grab your readers

March 22, 2022 by addisonbrae

Communicators learned two important things during COVID. First, people spend a lot of time in front of a screen. Second, how difficult it is to keep their attention. We used to have about eight seconds to hook a reader, now I suspect it’s half that.

Including stories helps grab and hold readers’ attention. They add a human element. Stories “show don’t tell,” a major focus in fiction. Would you buy the product if a restaurant spokesperson tells you how great their new sandwich is? Or would a customer eating one who says it’s the tastiest sandwich they’ve ever put in their mouth convince you? This goes beyond telling your organization’s story. I’m talking about using stories in almost all of your written and spoken content.

Telling a story is easy. Telling a story well, not so much. I suspect Hemingway would agree. For many reasons – from lack of time or confidence to not wanting to fight brand standards or executives who don’t get it – many marketing, communication, and PR pros shy away from using stories. I understand because I used to. Then I realized how powerful they are. Storytelling also gets exponentially easier with practice and a few tools.

You need three basics to tell a good story: a relatable character, a simple plot with a story arc, and tension. Even kids’ picture books, which have 500 words or less, have developed characters, follow a story arc, and include tension. This Apple Watch commercial is a good storytelling example with character, plot, and tension to spare in 68 seconds.

Your character in business writing is typically a relatable, real or made-up, member of your target audience. This builds on the persona methods marketers commonly use and communicators are starting to use in internal communications. You can dig very deep in developing characters using methods in these Writer’s Digest articles, “The 9 Ingredients of Character Development,” and “Character Development Worksheets.” For business writing, answer these four basic questions:

  1. What is the character’s vulnerable, relatable situation? What problem are they trying to solve? (e.g., adopt a child)
  2. What is their plot goal? (e.g., take advantage of their employer’s adoption benefits)
  3. What is their heart/emotional goal? (e.g., provide a safe and welcoming environment for their new child)
  4. What is their journey – how does the character change from the beginning to the end of the story? (e.g. quit their job or work with their employer to set up onsite child care)
Freytag’s Plot Pyramid

A simple plot with an arc makes the story. Freytag’s Plot Pyramid is one of the most popular story structure tools authors use. You can follow the same story structure even though your content won’t be as long as a novel.

  • Start your story with brief exposition to help readers understand the story including your character’s goal, what motivates them
  • Rising action is when you cover what works against them
  • The climax is the turning point; the character’s final push to reach their goal
  • The character does or does not get what they want during falling action
  • Resolution is the new normal

Tension keeps readers engaged. In fiction, there should be tension on every page. My favorite quick trick is to think about the character’s plot or heart goal. Whatever keeps them from achieving that goal adds tension. It could be a person, situation, or lack of something. Think of your favorite movie or novel villain. You could add an antagonist to build tension in your story.

Writing mechanics can make or break your written or spoken content. One of the last things I do before handing a manuscript over to an editor is go through a checklist that includes things like:

  • Start with a strong hook. I learned this simple three-step first-line creation process from author Dorian Cirrone. (1) Start the story with a moment of change. (2) Inspire readers to wonder what might happen. (3) Convince readers trouble or disruption will happen. Here’s a fiction example from The Apocalypse of Elena Mendoza by Shaun David Hutchinson, “The apocalypse began at Starbucks. Where else did you expect the end of the world to start?” And a business example I wrote, “One drizzly March 2020 day, Gloria rode the subway to the office as usual. When she got there, she had to send her entire state agency staff home to help keep them safe.”
  • Avoid passive voice, especially important in business writing when it’s critical for the reader to know who does what.
  • Use visual nouns and active verbs. For example, “It was difficult to use” versus “The software was difficult to use” and “The company could have a problem” versus “A problem plagues the company.”
  • Vary sentence and paragraph length. Keep in mind people read on small screens. It’s easy for readers to get lost in a long paragraph that covers multiple screens.
  • Avoid overused action verbs and adjectives. For example, “We should focus on improving the customer experience” versus “We must improve the customer experience.”
  • Avoid overused adverbs (ly), gerunds (ing), and filler words. The fewer the better. Filler word examples: that, of, almost, so, had, rather, while, quite, well, just, really, which, very, but, and
  • Edit for clarity, spelling, grammar, and comma usage.

Don’t be afraid to be a storyteller. If you don’t believe me, here is a timely Ragan article by Ted Kitterman that helps build the case, How to make your writing stand out in the attention economy. The most famous authors continue to develop their craft. No one’s perfect, so don’t hesitate to keep learning and use tools to help. Email me using the contact form if you have questions.

Happy storytelling!

Filed Under: Blogs Tagged With: addison brae, author, barreyre.com, becker circle, business, business content, carol barreyre, character, character development, dark energy, ernest hemingway, fiction, hook, internal communication, mark twain, marketing, persona, plot, public relations, romantic suspsense, story arc, storytelling, tension, writer, writing

Live your fresh start

March 14, 2022 by addisonbrae

Do over. New beginning. Reboot. We’ve all had at least one fresh start. Some people run away from something horrible and have to start over. Many have no choice because they’ve lost a job. Others, like my friend who was a big inspiration for Becker Circle, run to fulfill their dreams and new beginnings. She’s now back home in England studying to become a nurse.

Then there are those who run both away and toward like Gillian, the main character in Becker Circle and Dark Energy. She escaped an abusive boyfriend to seek her dream of being strong and independent for her fresh start. Gillian schemed and worked her butt off to graduate Harvard a semester early and slip out of Boston while her boyfriend was away for the holidays. She wasn’t choosey about her destination as long as it was far away from him, came with a great job offer, and gave her room to breathe. That’s how she ended up in the trendy urban area of Dallas called Becker Circle.

This week marks the 10-year anniversary of my own personal independence of sorts. Shattered confidence. Mistakes to not relive. A new history to create. If anyone is afraid to leave a difficult or abusive relationship, you can do more than you think. Life on the other side is better than you can ever imagine.

Like Gillian, and all of us, fresh starts come with experimentation. Downright screw-ups. Mistakes are how we know we really are starting over. When Gillian moved into Becker Circle, she made many bad choices—some even put her life in danger. She owned up to them, learned from each one, and tried to not repeat the same mistakes. She always knew they were her choices and no one else’s.

Live your fresh start!

Filed Under: Blogs Tagged With: anniversary, becker circle, dark energy, domestic abuse, ebook, emotional abuse, fresh start, independence, mental health, novel, romantic suspense, starting over

How characters find a place to call home

March 30, 2021 by addisonbrae

Sugar Creek, Missouri

Book heroines often mirror what happens in real life and return to their childhood hometowns. Some have a sense of adventure that takes them across the country or to the other side of the world. Just like us, other main characters fight to escape bad memories by moving as far away as possible.

Gillian, the heroine in Dark Energy, Return to Becker Circle, opted to leave her small-town childhood home of Sugar Creek, Missouri behind. Gillian’s world crashed when her mom lost her battle with cancer. Then she watched her father slip into the bottle. Gillian could mix the best martini of any 12-year-old. Luckily the bar where he was a regular was only a block from their house, so he could stumble home safely. Gillian left her hometown as soon as she could with a scholarship to Harvard.

Becker Circle

After graduation, Gillian headed to Dallas for a fresh start. The weather was warmer than Boston or Sugar Creek. It was a great place to find an accounting job. There were tons of young professionals. And Dallas was far away from her past.

Kross Lounge & Restaurant, Sugar Creek

I researched middle-America towns near metropolitan areas to create Gillian’s roots and found Sugar Creek. Visual mapping and websites helped me locate her schools, part-time job, newspaper where her father was the editor, home, and the bar in the next block.

Visiting Sugar Creek confirmed the town was right for Gillian. Sugar Creek has a Moose Lodge, town gazebo, and shady streets lined with pre-WWII homes. Best of all is the Kross Lounge & Restaurant, exactly the place I picture as the local bar where Gillian’s dad was a regular. It’s a place where everyone knows your name. I ate lunch at the bar and chatted with the bartender who had worked there for 19 years. When I told her why I was visiting, she agreed she would likely be the one who made sure Gillian’s dad made it home.

Blending fiction with real settings and situations helps create relatable characters. Most people who’ve worked hard to start over in a fresh place will understand why Gillian might have selected her new Dallas neighborhood home.

How did you find your place to call home?

Filed Under: Blogs Tagged With: accountant, addison, bar, bartender, becker circle, boston, character development, dallas, dallastx, dark energy, gazebo, harvard, heroine, home, kross lounge, manager, martini, missouri, moose lodge, newspaper, restaurant, st. louis, sugar creek

Whistle Bitch’s playlist

March 23, 2021 by addisonbrae

Whistle Bitch can whistle a tune to fit any situation. Her real name is Makinzie. She’s one of my favorite Becker Circle and Dark Energy characters. She earned the nickname from her coworkers because of her amazing talent and ability to brings smiles to any stressful situation with her tunes.

Makinzie is a server and bartender (and cook when they’re in a pinch) in Pinkie’s Too and the George & Dragon, the two bars where these stories take place. A real bartender in an all-night bar/diner near the Space Needle in Seattle inspired Whistle Bitch because she whistles while she works.

Here is Whistle Bitch’s playlist, in the order the songs show up in the two books. Take a listen. This playlist is 45-minutes of music that will make you dance and smile, just like Whistle Bitch does in the book. Curious what situations triggered Makinzie to whistle these songs? Both books are available on most ebook retail sites.

Find Becker Circle & Dark Energy – Whistle Bit*h’s Playlist on Spotify.

You are the Sunshine of my Life by Stevie Wonder
Crazy Little Thing Called Love by Queen
Heartbreak Hotel by Elvis Presley
Holiday by Madonna
You’re Gonna Miss Me by 13th Floor Elevators
Tequila by The Champs
9 to 5 by Dolly Parton
Material Girl by Madonna
Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen
Cheers (Drink to That) by Rihanna
The Twilight Zone Main Theme by Geek Music
Dark Energy by Brian Miller
Dark Energy .germans remix by Brian Miller and Bobby Hoke

The last two songs are bonus tracks I co-wrote to go with the books. Jon, the adorable guy in one of the bands falls for Gillian, the main character, who inspires him to write a song called Dark Energy in the Becker Circle story. As Jon explained the song to Gillian, “I wrote it about someone who had a streak of bad luck and how they changed it with good karma.”

Listen for Track 12 (on Spotify) toward the end of the book trailer. If you are a Foo Fighters fan, you will like Dark Energy.

Find your beat today with a little music.

Filed Under: Blogs Tagged With: 13th Floor Elevators, accountant, band, bar, bartender, bobby hoke, brian miller, CPA, cryptocurrency, cryptojacking, dark energy, dark matter, Dolly Parton, Madonna, music, musician, novel, playlist, Queen, reading, restaurant, Rihanna, romantic suspense, spotify, Stevie Wonder, The Champs, what to read, whistle

Who shoots a book trailer in a bar during a pandemic?

March 16, 2021 by addisonbrae

We do. Sometimes I wonder if it was dark energy that kept creeping in and disrupting our efforts.

The Dark Energy trailer script had been written for months. The talented actors who played Gillian and her boyfriend Jon in the Becker Circle trailer had already agreed to reprise their roles. A friend was the exact Pinkie I envisioned. With a little coaxing, he accepted the offer to play Pinkie. We were looking into bars to use as the location.

Then COVID.

Restaurants and bars closed. People quarantined. The book released in June, and we didn’t give up.

In July, bars had to close again. We took a chance and asked a bar owner we know if we could shoot in his bar while it was closed. He said yes. We jumped on a date when the location and small cast and crew were available. We found some great props and gathered a few extras. We took a late afternoon into the evening to shoot several scenes.  

Editing takes specialized equipment and skills to put the right footage together to tell the story, record voiceover, select music, and add cover art, publisher information, and a purchase link. Do you recognize the green computer code as the trailer begins? A brilliant addition!

This trailer is extra special because of the song Dark Energy you hear toward the end. The song plays a huge role in both novels since the main character inspired the song. Look for Dark Energy by Brian Miller (Amazon, Spotify) and Dark Energy .germans mix by Brian Miller and Bobby Hoke (Amazon, Spotify) on your favorite music retail and streaming sites.

There’s no better way to bring a story to life than with film. That’s why some authors create trailers to help market their books. The experience creating this trailer was completely different than the one for Becker Circle. Book trailers of this quality are possible for me since I’ve assisted with hundreds of videos in my day job, but especially because of my good friend who’s an experienced, talented videographer.

This trailer is surrounded by talent. Dustin Grant, Pink Mouse Blue Mouse Productions, produced, directed, and edited the video. John Harrell of Harrell Creative art directed it and designed the art cards and album art. Katlyn Steele plays Gillian, including voiceover, and Rafeal Villagas plays Jon. This is Vermaine Howard’s acting debut as Pinkie. Numerous amazing friends pitched in as crew and also extras that make the neighborhood really come alive. I’m grateful to everyone who helped make it happen!

The trailer for Dark Energy turned out better than I could have imagined. My favorite words during the process…

That’s a wrap! 

Filed Under: Blogs Tagged With: actor, amazon, bar, bartender, becker circle, book trailer, crew, cryptocurrency, cryptojacking, dark energy, dark matter, encrypt, encryption, film, pinkie, producer, production, restaurant, romantic suspense, scriptwriting, song, songwriter, spotify, tirgearr publishing, trailer

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