Tuesday Tea with Ann Narcisian Videan ~ Writing and Music: My Dreams Come True ( #SO )

Hi all! Grab a cup of tea – or whatever it is you like to drink – and join in the discussion. Today we have Ann Narcisian Videan visiting and giving us a look into her work, music, and stories. Like Brenda, who visited last week, she is also on the Arizona Dreamin' panel.

About Ann: Ann realized her life-long dream to become an author and singer/songwriter with the publishing of her Rhythms & Muse novel and music CD in 2011. Supporting the publications’ pursuit-of-happiness theme, she offers Catch Your Dream workshops to help women work toward accomplishing their own life goals. Her next fiction-writing project is a trilogy of fantasy/adventure novels for young adults.
   Ann is also an award-winning nonfiction writer and editor, handling communication for companies ranging from small businesses in the Phoenix suburbs to national Fortune 500 and international firms. She started her own home-based marketing firm vIDEAn Unlimited, LLC in 1996, with a PR job enticing “extras” to the football-scenes filming of the movie Jerry Maguire. Now, she writes and leads business tribes for independent professionals, word-of-mouth marketing enthusiasts, and other writers. vIDEAn Unlimited was selected by a national panel of Crown Jewel Award judges in 2005 as the top home-based business in America.
   A Colorado native, Ann now lives in Mesa, Arizona, with her delightful husband and nearly grown-up children.
   Welcome Ann!

Writing and Music: My Dreams Come True
By Ann Narcisian Videan
author/singer/songwriter of Rhythms & Muse

I’ve loved words and music and the way they tell beautiful stories since I was a young girl growing up in Colorado and Idaho. I actually started writing my first novel when I was in elementary school. It was about college students. But, since I didn’t know anything about the world of college, I quit after one chapter. But, it didn’t stop me from writing: stories, poems, lyrics …
   As I grew up, I took up piano, guitar and singing. Rarely did I go anywhere in my junior high through college years without a guitar in hand. I did plenty of performing in school concerts, with the Idaho State and All Northwest choirs, even toured with the Arizona State University choir at Disneyland, and in Poland and Russia. Sometimes I actually put my words and music together and wrote some tunes, which I sang with friends, family, and around campfires as a member of ASU’s Outing Club. I even had a short stint as a duo singing around the Phoenix area for a couple of years. I always thought it would be amazing to record a CD of my own music, too, but never really did much about it.
   When I became a public relations professional, writing proved to be one of my favorite aspects of work. For a period of about 20 years I wrote, edited and designed thousands of employee and client articles and publications. Even won a couple of awards. Since 1996, I’ve worked as an independent marketing consultant specializing in building business tribes through word-of-mouth strategies. I now write for vIDEAn Unlimited clients primarily via e-newsletters, Web sites and blogging and other marketing and social media.
   During all this time, my goal was still to be an author. So, a couple of years after becoming an entrepreneur, I asked a writer/marketing friend of mine to help jump-start that effort by becoming my critique partner. I’d actually put the first words on paper for Rhythms & Muse in 1987, but nearly forgot about it as I married, started and raised my family and focused on marketing and serving clients. Finally, on a consistent meeting schedule with my critique partner, I made progress on my manuscript, learned about writing better fiction, which is FAR different than nonfiction, and explored the publishing process. (That publishing journey is encapsulated in a blog entry, “27 Steps from Book Idea to Published” at http://anvidean.com/2011/04/10/27-steps-from-book-idea-to-published/.)
   As my story took shape, I became inspired to develop a few of the songs my characters created and performed in the book. Using my music background and Apple’s savvy GarageBand software, I composed and recorded five original tunes.
   Publishing my Rhythms & Muse novel and music CD is truly a dream come true. My heroine, Alex, also finds her life’s fulfillment within the pages of the book.
   We both realized our goals by taking three powerful steps:
1. Using our intuition
2. Leveraging available resources
3. Taking step-by-step actions
   This, and my career as a word-of-mouth marketing consultant, has led me to facilitate workshops that help normal folk like you find and follow the steps toward achieving your life dream, too.
   A little story, a little music, and a lot of love – it’s what my novel and songs are all about. And, of course, inspiration as only fiction can deliver it.

Rhythms & Muse Novel

Witnessing a horrific car accident seen many times before in her dreams spurs award-winning singer Alexandra Lauren to reevaluate her glamorous Hollywood lifestyle. With her lofty musical goal now tarnished by reality, and her unfulfilled memories from her senior year in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, haunting her, Alex takes a bold step to change the rhythms of her life. Leveraging her newly acknowledged intuitions, she makes a plan to reconnect not only with her musical touchstone and high-school sweetheart Matthew Roberts, but with her desire to impact lives for the good through the innocence and beauty of music.
   Even though Matt holds Alex in his heart as his only muse, he resolves to ignore her existence. He cannot stay in control with her powerful presence in his life. Besides, how can he ever forgive her? In alliance with their charismatic friend Daniel, her betrayal demolished Matt’s joy in creating their hit single, not to mention their future together.
   Can anything in this world shift Matt’s resolve to distance himself from Alex? And, with Daniel still pursuing Alex even as his wife Kathy looks on, can Alex actually find fulfillment? Will music draw the estranged soul mates together again and guide them to realize their dreams?

Rhythms & Muse Music CD

Song lyrics written by “the characters” in my Rhythms & Muse novel inspired the creation of five original compositions incorporating a distinct mellow 1970s influence.
   The album delivers two rock ballads, two folk tunes and one easy-listening track. I created this approximately 25 minutes of music using GarageBand (GB) to combine software loops with my live vocals and (on three of the songs) my guitar and piano playing.

Find Rhythms & Muse

• AZ Dreamin’ conference, June 2, 2012: http://arizonadreamin.wordpress.com/
• Novel at CreateSpace eStore: https://www.createspace.com/3485275, Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/ –>Ann Narcisian Videan, including the Kindle version.
• Music CD and MP3 files at CreateSpace eStore https://www.createspace.com/1913103 and on http://www.amazon.com/ –>Ann Narcisian Videan, which also provides MP3 audio samples of each track.

Find Ann Narcisian Videan

Find out more about Ann at her http://videanunlimited.com/ Website. You may also explore blog posts about Rhythms & Muse, plus information about writing, music and dream-making villages at @WordsMusicTribe https://twitter.com/#!/WordsMusicTribe (Twitter) or at http://anvidean.com/ (blog).