by Barbara McLaughlin | Dec 9, 2022 | Sing the Song Videos
Sing Our Hallie-Day! This is the song the Vowellans of Heaven’s Wait sing to celebrate their holiday season. It represents the fusion of the Vowellans’ annual tribute to their historic deity, Hale, and the warm holiday feelings brought to Vowella in years past by some strangers of the familiar variety. The inhabitants co-wrote the song during the more innocent days of Vowella Valley. Now they would like to share it with you.
You’re invited to Sing Our Hallie-Day right from the comfort of your home. Sing the song by following the words while the video plays. Our Hallie-Day was introduced in Book 1 of the Heaven’s Wait! Tales from Vowella series, RJ and the Vowellans. Have fun!
Watch for more Sing-The-Song videos as more songs with lyrics are added to Heaven’s Wait music library. Find them on the Sing-the-Songs page of this website. And receive alerts for new Sing-the-Song videos by subscribing to Heaven’s Wait’s Email List. Find the email form in the footer of each page on this website. Alerts for all new blog articles will be sent to subscribers as they are published from Heaven’s Wait, typically once a week. You may unsubscribe at any time.
by Barbara McLaughlin | Dec 9, 2022 | A Cat's Eyes' View
All I have ever known is sitting on Mom’s lap, behind her on her chair, or on her desk while she escapes into the world of Heaven’s Wait. She leans into terrible posture in her chair while I’m on her lap so as not to disturb my frequent naps. She tolerates a numb butt while sitting on the front edge of her chair, again so as not to disturb me sleeping behind her. She’s doing that right now. She peeks around my proper sitting pose while I sit on her desk and block her view of her computer monitor. I’m such a spoiled kitty.
She’s always been willing to include me in her creative processes, and I greatly appreciate her efforts. I have seen many things as this whole Heaven’s Wait world has come together. I have a front row seat, so I’m the one who can give you a real behind-the-scenes perspective on what building this fantasy world, the books, the music, and the many other processes involved have all been about. Come see what goes on in Mom’s world. By Belle McLaughlin
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by Barbara McLaughlin | Dec 9, 2022 | From Barbara M
Allow me to give you a little introduction. I never intended to be a writer. Once my sons went off to college, I thought it might be fun to write some little life lesson stories to eventually leave for them as remembrances. I had no idea that those little stories and their characters would take on lives of their own and morph into a massive manuscript that would then become the four books of the Tales from Vowella series.
This series has been many years in the making. Thanks to the help and guidance of so many, I’ve learned a tremendous amount about myself, others, and the world of writing. I’ve been able to stretch my potential in ways I never imagined. The opportunity has kept my brain sharp, has fed my soul, and has given my creativity free rein, for which I am very grateful. Years of thought and ideas and hard work went into creating my light fantasy world. A multitude of inspirations from everyday life presented themselves along the way. I grabbed those inspirations whenever they arose and found ways to weave them into the work. They certainly influenced the offerings you see today.
Please join me on my personal journey in creating and living the world of Heaven’s Wait. Follow my blog to learn about the evolution and progress of the World of Heaven’s Wait, its stories, music, and extras as time goes on.
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All the best,
Barbara McLaughlin
by Barbara McLaughlin | Dec 9, 2022 | Music
I admit I’m a creataholic, though I don’t try to be. Ideas are always popping into my head, sometimes simple in nature, sometimes detailed, dumb, or outlandish.
Years ago, I learned to keep a notebook in my nightstand so that, during the night, I could jot down the ideas and thoughts, therefore releasing them from of my overworking mind. If I didn’t, the ideas would nag at me and keep me awake. If there was music my head, however, there was a problem because music notation was not my strong point. I’d sometimes get up in the middle of the night and do enough tinkering on my piano to allow me to do simple notation, so I wouldn’t forget the melody that kept playing in my head. Otherwise, by morning, the melody would be gone when I turned on my music creator app.
As I started writing little tales that would eventually become novel chapters for Heaven’s Wait, situations arose where I thought to myself, if this was a musical, here would be a good place for a song. And some of the characters themselves began to write their own lyrics, based on their storylines. My mind would either concoct lyrics that fit the storylines, or a melody would started formulating in my head. I found myself having to put the brakes on the writing so I could give the songs a chance to become something tangible. I filed them away knowing I would someday find a way to make use of them. Some of those files are 15 years old.
The music, in its elementary form, continues to come to me. I’ll work on a story character or situation and think, a song belongs here. It would add life to that character or situation. The question, however, has always been…how do I integrate these songs into a printed book series? Who does that? I guess Tales of Vowella has always been a movie or musical in my head, so I needed to figure out how to convey that concept to a reading audience.
If you are interested in the reading more about the evolution of the music of Tales of Vowella, and to listen to the music itself, bookmark the main music page – Music of an Imaginary World. Ongoing blog posts will introduce the musical pieces and their history. I invite you to enjoy the music from the Tales from Vowella series. B
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