How do you get "in the mood"?

Music? A little visual stimulation? Maybe read something special? I do all of those and one big one. I'm a daydreamer. If I can find a quiet place, maybe with a warm breeze and the right scent, I drift off to a whole new world. I can work out a scene in my head much like watching a movie. But background helps, as long as it isn't words. The right music does put me in the mood. Jeff Bridges makes me happy. When he sings "I Don't Know," it makes me smile. Good for a happy scene, maybe where people are meeting. Then there's Mussorgsky's "Night on Bald Mountain" for the flight from danger. It changes the rhythm of the scene and the pace of my writing with it. Sometimes, for something sensual, there's "Sanctus" by Anúna or Carl Orff's Carmina Burana, or Debussy's "Afternoon of a Faun." 


Sometimes music is good for cooking too. Pavarotti for pasta, Dolly for chicken and dumplings, and Appalachian Spring for Thanksgiving. If you haven't tried some of these, you should. Music has charms, you know, and I'm convinced it enhances the flavor of the dish.



Let's not leave out the visual. I like to have pictures of my characters, their homes, the setting, their cars—I used to cut them out and pin them to a bulletin board by my computer, but now I have them in the computer and switch to them for a refresher now and then. This is the inspiration for Claire Spencer's shop in Cold Comfort. I have hundreds of pictures. I love looking at them.

How do you do it? What works for you? Is there anything special that helps put you in the mood? Do tell—you may help the rest of us.