I've been experimenting with using speech recognition technology for my writing. 

Theoretically, it's great that I can move around declaiming all of my beautiful words, instead of being tied to the keyboard. In reality, the software does not yet know my voice perfectly, especially character names (Janice is almost always Genesis.) And I'm having to learn to speak the sentences exactly as I want them written. though normally I am quite the 'go back and edit as I type' kind of person. And have you tried excising all of the 'um's from your speech? It's not easy! 

Still, it's good for taking notes, and brainstorming, and also for being very silly.

Today my son played piano while I had the microphone on. This is the transcription of the song he played:

Or or or or or or her her her her her her her mom COM or call him 000 or or or or or or or add her her her her her her her her her her A call around I don’t know how how how how how how how how far as… Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha or ha ha ha ha ha ha hello


Is that dynamic, or what? 

I've been talking incessantly about my debut, ROCKET MAN (in stores now!), so I've been looking for new ways to convey what the reading experience will be. 

Today I'll let you experience it via word frequency. My writing program (Scrivener, which is pretty darn cool, y'all) has a 'word frequency' function designed, probably, to alert me when I overuse conjunctions and so forth. I've used it to create lists that will give you a little taste of ROCKET MAN. 12 is my favorite number, so here (in the order that Scrivener generated them) are 3 lists of 12 words used often, sometimes, and occasionally:

12 words I use about 120 times in ROCKET MAN:

1. Herself
2. Enough
3. Room
4. Oh
5. Why
6. That's
7. Hand
8. Around
9. Put
10. While
11. Make
12. Door

12 words I use about 60 times in ROCKET MAN:

1. Night
2. Blue
3. Another
4. Yes
5. Coffee
6. Funny
7. Hey
8. Shoulder
9. Plan
10. Kiss
11. Finally
12. Breath

12 words I use exactly 12 times in ROCKET MAN:

1. Refused
2. Freaking
3. Forever
4. Touching
5. Bite
6. Eventually
7. Paused
8. Mint
9. Wet
10. Erection
11. Tension
12. Lists

So, if you haven't read it, can you guess what my book's about? If you have, do you think these lists capture the flavor? Let me know in the comments!