I always like to write myself a little mission statement at the beginning of a new blog, so that I can look back years later and say, “Whaa? I said I would do THAT?” It’s like getting a surprise present from myself!

I have a few aspirations for this blog. I often find myself pontificating in my own head whilst walking the dog, explaining to some invisible audience all the myriad odd inspirations for my work – and there are a lot of them. There’s music, of course; the book is deeply concerned with music. There’s neurology, psychology, and philosophy. There’s my Grand Tedious Theories of ART. There’s that feeling I get when I’m walking under the plum trees in March, and I look up and see the first buds, bright as stars, opening against the grey sky.

Inspirations are everywhere, and ideas are not far behind. As I always say, “Ideas are like cockroaches: there’s always more behind the fridge!”

Books are an antique map of the mind, curlicued and elegant, with Zephyrs and grotesquerie all around the margins. Here be the author’s dragons! Here the Mountains of Madness and the Swampland of Piss and Vinegar! Such a map is beautiful, if baroque, but not always an infallible guide to “What was she thinking?”

Sometimes what you want is a GPS. That’s the blog. A crisp, sure voice saying, “In 100 meters, turn right onto Music Theory Road.”

I’m looking back over what I just wrote and trying to decide whether it sounds grand or silly. I’m gonna have to go with silly. Also: nerdy. That sounds like an excellent (and accurate!) start to me.