Sophie B. Hawkins has always been a great personal inspiration to me. I came across her music during a time when nothing in my life made sense to me, but she made sense to me. Her music touched me and inspired me.

Walking In Her Blue Jeans
Acrylic Painting On Canvas Board

“I hardly recognize myself it’s such a strange thing
To find another woman walking in my blue jeans
I’ve come so far and I’ve been so long away from home
I’m like a photograph who’s image is still changing
The letter that I never sent to you explaining
All I want is a place for my heart to belong”
- Sophie B. Hawkins, Walking In My Blue Jeans

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I include this performance of Sophie B. Hawkins’ SweetSexyWoman here not for the performance itself so much as for something she says during the adlib.

I better not get on this piano. This is a brand new piano and it’s just been tuned so I’ll just stay right here. ‘Cause I don’t wanna be sued or something even worse – I don’t want to be criticized.

I’m sure Sophie is being more than a little tongue-in-cheek here, but who hasn’t at least once stumbled at a creative challenge thinking “What will they think of me if I do this?”

Sophie is a great example too. Many of her creative decisions have been criticised over the years. The original video to her biggest hit Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover was deemed too provocative and banned. When she decided to write a song to be played on a banjo – the instrument being a gift given to the singer-songwriter – her record company decided the banjo should be replaced by guitars. This tension ultimately saw her part ways with Sony Music/Columbia Records and saw her re-release the album independently.

Infact she literally woke up the day after being fired as a percussionist for Bryan Ferry and wrote that song Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover. She admitted that when she shared the song Big Beautiful Bottom In My Face (only released as a B-side) with the person it was inspired by they were less than thrilled.

I really think creative expression is all about taking risks, doing things in ways they aren’t normally done and posing questions that no one is prepared to ask. Just think, whenever you are worried you might be criticised realise you might also be on the verge of creating something powerful.

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• Do Authors Frequent Secondhand Bookstores?

After completing my first 2047 words of NaNoWriMo yesterday, I headed off to a local book fete (a fundraiser for a rural firefighter service). I scanned all the titles haphazardly scattered across tables. There was a piece of non-fiction among the ‘fifty cent novels.’ Sections bled into each other. I noticed another fifty cent novel from a very prolific and successful Australian author (who I know is on Twitter). And in light of this and NaNoWriMo, a new thought occurred to me…

Do published authors frequent secondhand bookstores and fetes and sales?

Even leaving the ethical implications of book resales (second hand books don’t result in any income for authors, or count towards recouperation of an advance) aside, how would you react if you saw your book at such a sale? Be grateful that somebody bought it in the first place and decided to share it with the world? Wonder why they didn’t think it was worth keeping? Do you buy it, or leave it there in the hope you make a new fan? Do you offer to autograph it (after all this might be for charity)?

And what, heaven forbid, if your blood, sweat and tears has a 50 cent sticker on it?

Like most ‘entertainment products’ (if you’ll forgive the expression), books tend to exist both as individual artistic expressions and mass produced, mass marketed products. Sometimes the value of the work can be confused with the cost of the raw materials – the paper, the binding. Certainly when it comes to digitilised product consumers expect the work to be available to them more cheaply, even though the experience of the story (or movie or music) it could be argued is essentially the same. But talk to many Kindle authors who offer their books for a couple of dollars and you soon discover that a cheaper price point has it’s own benefits. The barrier to entry is smaller so more people take a chance on your book. If they enjoy it, there’s a good chance they’ll enjoy your other work. They may buy from you again.

This, I suppose, is the case I’d make for secondhand bookstores, free content online, and even traditional brick-and-mortar libraries!

I first heard singer-songwriter Sophie B. Hawkins on the radio. Then I discovered her album Whaler at the local library. Did this hurt her bank balance? I severely doubt it. Because after I discovered it there, I bought it somewhere else. Plus her other albums, and a lot of singles, compilations, movie soundtracks on which she appeared. She toured Australia two consecutive years and I followed her around from gig-to-gig for weeks at a time. The work is the introduction to the artist. An individual may connect with the work, and by extension, the artist, or they may not. But the point is they were more comfortable in trying something new because the cost was reduced or, in the case of libraries and free content, removed entirely.

Don’t forget also that secondhand bookstores are the last refuge for out-of-print books. When I discovered my favourite author John A. Keel, for example, all his work was out-of-print. It was only through diligent searching of secondhand bookstores across the world – Australia, New Zealand, America, England, Scotland – that I was able to get my hands on these treasures. eBay, Abebooks and Books and Collectibles were particularly helpful in this regard.

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I spent much of the afternoon writing and remembering, as part of the Heartbroken and Grieving project. It surprised me how vividly certain memories came flooding back. This paragraph from a blog entry from Sophie B. Hawkins seems particularly fitting.

Sophie B. Hawkins:

Memories, all of them used to be painful, I’m sure many of you can relate to this. There are some sad moments on the new album, for sure, loss and longing for the reasons things happen the way they do when the feelings are unbearable, but also there are new strengths and completely unsuspected perspectives and desires borne out of the grieving process. We don’t get people back, we can’t relive a more innocent time, but we can create circumstances to enrich new relationships that vibrate who we are now, and we can let innocence safely flourish within others, and live it in our art, and make time for our own innocence to erupt.

Sophie B. Hawkins, John Lacey and Gigi Gaston

Sophie B. Hawkins has been one of the greatest sources of inspiration on this planet for me. Her music helped me survive a difficult time in my youth and her Australian tour in 2005 spurred on my interest in photography. When she returned to the country the following year, she complimented me on my photography and her team used many of the photographs I took on her official website and in email promotions.

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