Out into the wasteland.

Today I logged into Twitter to discover that it's Billy Idol's birthday. Why might you ask am I focusing an entire post about Billy Idol? There is much to talk about, but given the amount of time I have at the moment, I will try and summarize. Interestingly enough, earlier this morning I edited a scene that dealt with one of my book characters named 'Kyle Trancer.' I also happened to record a video of me reading a chapter that also dealt with this same character. You see, Kyle Trancer was directly influenced by Billy Idol and his entire album 'Cyberpunk.'

Back in 1999, an ex of mine was throwing out his old cassette tapes. I dug through his collection before he tossed them out. They were all crappy tapes (hence why he is an ex.) All except one: Billy Idol's Cyberpunk. At the time, I had two other albums of Billy's, but never had heard of his Cyberpunk album. I loved his other music and decided to give it a go. And sure enough, I fell in love with the entire album, with it being my favorite Idol album. Let me be brave enough and say that it's one of my top five favorite music albums of all time. Yes, that's how much I love it.

The album itself told me a story every time I hit the play button, one that stuck with me throughout the years. I couldn't let it go; the characters, the story, the world...it became a part of me. It started with six characters: Princess Emerald, Kyle Trancer, Prince Derek, Sorceress Ikaria, Drew, and Telly. Two years later, another character was added: Violette (later split between two current book characters 'Geeta' and 'Auron.') From the start, I had developed the character Emerald in 1997, but she never had a solid story. Soon after listening to Cyberpunk, I saw her and Kyle's entire story in my mind and knew I had to write it down. I envisioned this story to be a manga, since the characters were derived from my art. I had attempted to write and draw the manga twice, but never was satisfied with the outcome. Like many creative projects, real life became priority and my fantasy was set aside.

Time passed as life does. During the pregnancy of my third child, I began having vivid dreams of Princess Emerald, riding on the back of Kyle's motorcycle. In fact, each night for an entire week straight I had these dreams; sometimes the dreams included Prince Derek, other nights the adventures with Kyle continued. After that week, I felt that burning desire to write my story. It became my life project - this story had to be written down at all costs.

The third attempt of writing this story became my first published novel 'Fragments of Light.' Prior to my first book, I had written several WoW fanfiction stories (Arthas and Jaina) and a ton of poetry, but I had never pursued publishing. Let me tell you, I never had worked so hard on a creative project in my life than had I on writing my first book. It was far more difficult than any cosplay that I crafted or artwork that I had inked. I had learned much patience - three years to be exact! But I am proud to say that I now have two books out, and now working on my third in the series.

But Beth! What about Billy's album? How does it all fit into your world? Good question. That is for another time and another post. Regardless, I highly recommend to check out Billy Idol's Cyberpunk album. It's my go-to when I need some 'Kyle' writing inspiration.

If you are interested in learning more about my book series titled 'The Spectrum of Magic,' my book site is here. If you are interested in checking out my book videos, my YouTube channel is here.

#writing #novel #spectrum #spectrumofmagic #kyle #billyidol #cyberpunk