I could swear I’ve posted before about Kelly Howell’s Brain Sync series, but I’ve searched my archives for fifteen minutes, using every combination of keywords I can think of, and have found nothing. Ergo, if this is repetitive, I apologize, but really I don’t because it’s one of those things worth repeating. I know a lot of writers write to music, certain soundtracks. Barb Ferrer for one. I love reading the playlists she puts together for her stories. I remember hearing (or reading) something Elizabeth Lowell said about playing one sort of music during the morning while writing her historical romances, and another sort of music during the afternoon while writing her thrillers (or vice versa on the morning / afternoon thing). Other authors need complete silence. I know from conversations we’ve had that Lori Wilde uses noise canceling headphones and Leslie Kelly (now aka Leslie Parrish) uses industrial strength earplugs.
When I’m in the zone, the noise doesn’t bother me. The dogs barking. The cars running up and down the street. The chatter of people in the mall food court. The cooing of the doves in the tree who love to drop their business on my backyard writing chair. Over the years, I’ve written while working a reception desk, written while riding a commuter bus to work, written on lunch hours in city parks or Starbucks. I’ve never written at a desk, and always written in noise. 
I have three albums I play repeatedly on my Creative MP3 player, Coil, Adore, and Whatever. But more than anything I love listening to Brain Power, one of the Brain Sync brain wave recordings.
Unlike guided meditation with voices instructing you to visualize a babbling brook, or to breathe deep and relax, and unlike sounds of nature, wind in the trees, the ocean, etc., the Brain Sync series of mind expansion therapies are nothing but sound waves. Like . . . a deep thrumming, I guess. Or a thrumming that then has a higher pitched tone on top of that. I’ve never found anything else that will help me focus the way these do (and having just visited the site, I see they have new ones on self-confidence and stress relief . . . oh, and a PILLOW! With speakers! I WANT!). The thrumming focuses my thoughts on the words I’m typing onto the page, and I don’t hear anything but my characters talking. I’m not a Brain Sync affiliate and am doing this product review solely as a satisfied user – one who would have NO focus if not for headphones and these brain wave therapies.
