About five years ago, I was at a birthday party for one of my wife’s colleagues, and was busy circulating around the room, chatting with people, drink in hand. I struck up a conversation with a woman who raised horses for a living.
“So, what do you do for work?” she asked me.
“I’m a writer.”
“Oh. So, you don’t then.”
Rather than purposefully spill my beer on her, I quickly found other people to chat with.
For a society that so voraciously consumes art, we don’t seem to place much value on those that create it. Musicians, painters, screenwriters, anyone who wishes to live a life dedicated to the arts, has heard from someone, “So, you want to flip burgers, then, do you?”
I was fortunate enough to have family who supported my weird pursuits, even if they didn’t understand them. Many writers or musicians, etc., didn’t have that luxury. But I did grow up in a place where everyone was expected to “work for a living,” so I was steeped in those attitudes from birth. It took me a couple decades longer than it should have to embrace the writing life.
In many ways, musicians have it worse than writers, because music, by its nature, is ephemeral. The black marks I put on a page stay there. Until the advent of recording technology, sounds just dissipated in the air. But musicians create something that is incredibly powerful, something that sticks in our brains in ways nothing else can. How many songs can you bring immediately to mind, even if you haven’t heard them for years? (Or worse, advertising jingles. Ugh. It annoys me that a certain portion of my brain space is permanently devoted to the Oscar Mayer bologna song. But I digress…)
Music permeates us. At work. In the car. Television shows and movies. It can jog other memories, like experiences of a high school dance forever associated with the song playing at the time. We all have songs that make us bounce, tap our feet, or cry.
This is where Junk Magic and Guitar Dreams came from. The story of a boy with a guitar and a dream, dealt a bad hand by life. How do you get from being an orphan half a step away from the street to the beginning of a career in the only thing that matters to you?
The Junk Magic and Guitar Dreams audiobook is here.
The Narrators!
Ian Hawkins travels the renaissance festival circuit as a craftsman and a boothie. He is a perpetually beginner mandolin player and loves good stories. After decades of reading to friends and family, he discovered that’s an actual job, and now narrates books professionally.
Najah Johnson is a union actress and singer who has been seen on the NJ and NY stage and screen. Reading as a teen and adult have always brought her joy, and she was so excited to be part of this project. Najah’s rendition of Lika’s scenes are just incredible. Like Ian, she doesn’t just narrate; she acts. Her voice brings an endearing warmth and a thoughtful depth to Lika’s character that I won’t soon forget.
Junk Magic and Guitar Dreams is getting much wider distribution than my other audiobooks, and it’s appearing on new platforms almost every day.
If it’s not yet at your favorite audiobook outlet, don’t despair. It soon will be.
Click the image below for available retailers.
