Growing up, Jackie Freimor didn’t realize that music wasn’t “a thing” in other families. “There was so much music in my house and we were always singing,” she says, letting out a laugh. “I didn’t understand other people weren’t like that.”
She taught herself piano at the age of five and started guitar lessons when she was six. So it’s really no surprise that years later, with a small child of her own, Freimor would find herself in class at Music Together, an international music and movement program for kids and their caregivers. “I heard an audible click in my head that said I should be doing this.”
Today, Freimor is a licensee of a Music Together chapter she calls Starlight Starbright Music, based out of Crestwood Music Education Center in Scarsdale, where she also offers private guitar and ukulele lessons for kids and adults.
Along with a good ear and love for learning, Freimor recalls another pivotal moment from her childhood: Learning to read. “When the sentence came together and finally made sense to me, I thought: ‘This is it. Now I can do anything,’” she recalls.
The power of words paired with an innate curiosity to “know everything about everything” struck a defining chord for Freimor, turning her into a voracious reader. And it was mystery novels and psychological thrillers that enthralled her the most.
She took a number of writing courses over the years, and during the 90s, mustered the courage to submit her crime-and-detective musings to mystery magazines — but none of them bit. That tune changed when she entered a contest for unpublished mystery writers and won first prize: publication in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine.
Since then, Freimor’s short stories have appeared in two dozen online and print mystery magazines, and just like her song-filled family and day job, she never stops thinking about her next piece, often following “weird facts” down the rabbit hole. “Something I’ve heard or snatches of dialogue reverberate in my brain. Sometimes it’s the rhythm of what someone’s said,” she explains. “Then there’s that one prompt that pulls all the pieces together.”
She’s been a victim of writer’s block from time to time, but in the space between, she cherishes the moments when the words come easily. “When you’re in the flow, you lose track of time.” Just like music, she notes.
“Something I’ve heard or snatches of dialogue reverberate in my brain… Then there’s that one prompt that pulls all the pieces together.”
—Jackie Freimor
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