The days of patiently waiting for the muse to arrive are over, or I would never get anything done! In lieu of the muse, the essentials are: my computer, of course (the one luxury I would take onto a desert island); a soundtrack chosen from several ‘writing’ CDs: something dreamy — Liszt or Satie; haunting and beautiful — Madeleine Peyroux or Jane Birkin; or mesmeric — the Gotan Project, chillout or Deva Premal; and my ultimate, the Henry and June soundtrack. I have only five or six CDs which allow me to concentrate on writing at the same time. The music has to have a fairly constant volume (no pounding beats or dramatic sonatas), and be something I can drift in and out of, as opposed to actually listen to. I save Joan Armatrading (her new album is fab), Natasha Atlas and ‘the L word’ compilations for when I’m doing the washing up!
I also need a large thermos of green tea and a generous supply of sugar-free chewing gum or Polo mints from Cool Britannica, the UK import shop. I sometimes feel as though I should be smoking those fancy French cigarettes with the white filter, especially when I’m writing descriptions of Paris, or naughty bits, but seeing as I don’t smoke, I need to do something with my mouth so I don’t grind my teeth to powder in an adrenaline-fueled writing frenzy!
from Rachel – Thank you for sending the Anais story – it’s magnificent, I felt quite hot and bothered as I read it. I love the photo of the stockings that went with the version in the paper – very saucy…Rach.