I’m guilty of indulging in all of the above. And if I’m going to be honest, I enjoyed all three. ^_~ Some more than others.
I’m a child of the 70’s and while many of my contemporaries at the time were experimenting heavily with LSD, I was quite content to smoke the occasional joint. I dabbled in a few other things, but never did the hard stuff for two reasons, the first being; I was a big fat chicken. Being under the influence of something so potent scared me. Secondly, my fear of liking it too much was a concern. I knew as a teenager I had an addictive personality, I wasn’t about to become addicted to something that would control me.
Rock and roll was as much a part of my daily life as sitting down to dinner with my family every night. If the radio wasn’t blaring, Led Zepplin, Bad Company, Clapton or Peter Frampton, I was playing it on my record player or better yet singing along with my favorite bands in concert. Heart, Zep, Rod Stewart, Fleetwood Mac, The Eagles, I rocked out to them all in concert as a teenager and some again as an adult.
My iPod playlist is top heavy with classic rock. I come by it honestly. As an impressionable teen, my heart beat to the same angst of those ballads. Love found. Love blossoms. Love grows. Love is snatched away by a scheming opportunist or tragically torn from our arms by the grim reaper. Oh, how I could relate to it all!
I found my true love my freshman year of high school. Our love blossomed and grew throughout high school and after, only to be torn asunder by scheming bitches and smarmy opportunists. Oh, the heartache of it all. But wait! We are reunited! Once more, so happy and in love, only to–what? Be torn apart again! this time because I wanted freedom and he wanted to tighten my leash! Nevah! But oh how lonely I was without him. Wait! You don’t want me back? Hah, of course you do, you just don’t know it. Take that! See? I told you, you wanted me back! And there we were, once again united, the couple everyone knew would live happily ever after. But alas, as much as I do love you, there is someone else now… (I married that guy).
My life then was a rock and roll ballad. Is it any wonder I write rock and roll ballad love stories? I not only write the angst, I write the angst to the angsty music. Rarely do I write without my earbuds in and my iPod cranking out one woeful ballad after another. The more heartbreaking the better. There’s some good contemporary angst on the airwaves too. My new obsession is love songs about lovers who are so totally wrong for each other, and who know they are totally wrong for each other but because their lethal attraction defies logic, they dive head first into a relationship knowing it’s going to end badly. Maybe I’m watching too much reality television, but I really love this stuff!
I’m currently allowing two unnamed characters in my head, two people who are so not mean to be but who cannot resist the other, feed me lines while giving me glimpses of themselves, not as individuals, but who they are when they’re together. It’s decidedly dark and stormy, and someone is going to get hurt. I just don’t know who, how or when. I can’t wait to write this story. But if it weren’t for the sex, drugs and rock and roll of my teenage years, I’d be writing Gidget Got Married stories.
Who knew sex, drugs and rock and roll all those years ago would still be serving me so well all these years later?
What about you? What influenced you in your teens that still influences you today?
National Best selling author of romantic contemporary fiction.
I first read Atlas Shrugged when I was in my teens and I’d say that’s had a pretty strong influence in my life ever since. I guess a lot of those books I read in high school do to a certain extent – The Stand, The World According to Garp, The Mists of Avalon… For me, music was the background for my reading – which was my biggest influence. I still think of The Elfstones of Shannara every time I hear King of Pain. =o)
Atlas Shrugged for me as well….however, all the things I DIDN’T do in high school have probably had profound effects….some good, some bad:)
Atlas Shrugged for me as well….however, all the things I DIDN’T do in high school have probably had profound effects….some good, some bad:)
Hmm, when I was a kid I read a lot of sci-fi and Stephen King-type horror. I really don’t write that stuff much, but I have an idea that’s still gestating that was sparked when one of my favorite pen-and-paper role-playing games, Cyberpunk, was announced as a video game in the next few years. I was never the D&D kid, but definitely liked the process of creating a different version of yourself to live in and interact with a completely different world. That carried over to the story-based video games I still love to play now, at almost 40. So I guess that (plus movies like Aliens, Blade Runner, and The Terminator) shaped the kind of dark, gritty, and empathic characters I like to write, whether in a dystopian future or right here and now . Does that make sense?
Great post, Karin! I was influenced by (don’t laugh) “Gone with the Wind,” sixteen times by the time I was thirteen (!!!) In fact, today I can open any page in the book, read a phrase, and the rest of the line — the rest of the scene — comes back to me.
I. Love. Sagas.
xx Josie
Hi Karin,
For me the music was a big influence. I still have a lot of those songs on my playlist. Funny how the lyrics change meaning as you get older!
I love it, K-Tab…the post; I was referring to the post 😉 I love all these elements and when sewn together in a story, they are quite potent. I think you would have rocked the Gudget Got Married stories, btw 🙂
The influences in my life as a child and a teenager are so different from what it read here. I used many of my experiences to shape me into the person I am today. I used many others as a model for what I would never do. My history of abuse still continues to steer/guide my path in manyofthe decisions. Make. I know that sometimes, allow them to hold me back; that’s something I’m working though.
Growing up in a poor neighbourhood, and watching my friends take the path of drugs, sex and early motherhood, served as a catalyst for me to get out while I can. I never tested the waters with drugs, but alcohol played a huge role in a phase of my life, I constantly try to forget, hence the reason why I don’t indulge as much as an adult. Thise experiences are a large part of the reason why I am in constant search for peace and love. Lessons learned, while young, definitely shape you and how you carry yourself in your life.
Peace and love,
Paula R.
That sounds like my husband’s playlist. Mine is much more Air Supply, REO Speedwagon and Journey. I was very romantic, head in the clouds even back then. But I definitely listened to AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, and Black Sabbath because I only dated ‘bad’ boys.
I can remember the summer around the early 80’s, I had Rush’s Moving Pictures playing loud. On the car radio- AM, of course was The Mighty 690, a station out of Tijuana Mexico. The had these triple plays where they would play the same song 3 times in a row. Every time I hear Joan Jett screaming out her love for rock and roll, I think of those days.