How Music Helped Author Angela Schroeder

This week we welcome author Angela Schroeder to the blog to share her musical crushes with us as well as the musical influences that got her through some difficult times. I love this essay on how music can help us through those tough times. Read on to learn how music helped her.

In celebration of Krysten’s newest release In Over Her Head; Lights, Camera, Anxiety I’m here to discuss my childhood musical crush. I had several musical crushes. Ranging from Mark Miller (the lead singer of Sawyer Brown) who I saw in concert with my best friend to Joey Lawrence to George Michael; those were all short-lived crushes. My biggest musical crush, I still have today. There is something about his sort of gravelly voice that always makes me smile, that voice is Bryan Adams. *Sigh*
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In my younger years, I was severely depressed. I went through a period in my life when I lost several family members, I felt unwanted, unloved, and alone. I didn’t know how to cope with my grief. I harmed myself, I truly believed that nobody would notice if I wasn’t around. Though I was loved, I didn’t feel like I was.

In that time when I felt like nobody could see me, when I felt nobody loved me. I had Bryan Adams. His music spoke to my soul. I would put his CDs on repeat while I sat in my room and wrote. His words soothed my troubled soul. When songs like “Everything I Do”, “Run To You”, “Heaven”, “Please Forgive Me”, and “Do I Have To Say the Words” came on I felt loved. In those moments it felt like there might be someone who cared. Wouldn’t it have been wonderful to be serenaded by Bryan Adams? To have this incredibly gorgeous man whisk me away.  Declaring “ I don’t wanna let you go so I’m standin in your way. I never needed anyone like I’m needin’ you today.” His songs helped me through such a difficult time in my life. Making me feel loved.

I still listen to his music. Now I listen to it while I’m writing. When one of my characters are feeling lost and alone, I can find a way to help them when I have one of Bryan’s songs playing in the background. It still helps me to find a way out of a dark spot, only these days those dark places belong to my characters and not to me.

Who was your musical crush in your younger years? Do you still listen to their music?
 
About the author

Angela Schroeder is a single mother of three who constantly keep her in stitches, three cats (one who thinks he’s a dog), and several outdoor creatures. She creates young adult fantasy novels, clean contemporary romance, and fun children’s books.

 Being from an Iowa river town known for its pearl buttons she spent a lot of her childhood outdoors in the summer running barefoot whenever she could. While the winter months kept her mostly indoors she spent even more time writing and reading. With four siblings and an active imagination she never lacked for something to do or stories to tell.  As she grew older, she found herself pulled into books and writing more and more. Her parents are her heroes, her siblings her confidants and tormentors, her children a wonderful blessing, and church a sanctuary.

Social Media Links for Angela Schroeder:

FB : https://www.facebook.com/AngelaSchroederAuthor
Amazon author page http://www.amazon.com/Angela-Schroeder/e/B00OVLC1T2
Newsletter  http://eepurl.com/cGS6_v
Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8286447.Angela_Schroeder
Twitter https://twitter.com/A_L_Schroeder
Pinterest https://www.pinterest.com/alschro/
Four Foxes One Hound blog https://fourfoxesonehound.wordpress.com/