Buddy, the musical about Buddy Holly, is in Seattle. The other night my husband and I went, along with his cousin and wife. Buddy Holly was a bit before my time, but I’ve always loved his music. The show was fabulous! People of all ages were there, and everyone was rockin’ out to the music, which comes as no surprise. Few can resist the lure of Buddy Holly’s music.
The rhythm and the tune and the lyrics get under your skin and into your soul and before you know it, you’re boppin’ in your seat and maybe singing along. You might even belt out the tunes in the shower. Why is that? Because Holly taps universal themes within us. We are rhythmic creatures: our heartbeat and our breathing and the systems within our bodies all create continual rhythms within us. The themes in Holly’s music, love, loneliness, heartache, are themes we all can relate to because we, too, have experienced these things. Did I mention that this stuff is universal?
A good book is much like that—timeless, with a story that gets under your skin and into your soul. You may not physically dance with a book, but your mind does that dance, whether it be slow, fast, or in-between. You think about the characters and the story even when it’s over, and you may go back and read it again. Because it is on your keeper shelf.
As authors, we’d all like to write books like that. I know I do. Buddy has taught me that the things bubbling in my head and touching my heart are probably not so different from what every woman thinks and dreams about—family, love, happiness. My challenge is to connect with the reader the way Buddy connected with anyone listening to him.
Ann Roth
It Happened One Wedding, April, 2007
Another Life, April, 2007
www.annroth.net
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