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Do I have a soundtrack or playlist for my novels?
I don’t write to music. I used to, many years ago, but there
came a point where I found the music too distracting in the background, so I
now write surrounded by silence, other than the ambient noises and Jake the Cat’s
occasional demand for attention.
I find music immensely inspiring and I love to go for long
drives on the Southern California freeways with the music turned up loud and
contemplate plot challenges. At various times in the old day job I had long
commutes to make and I got used to doing some of my most complex plot problem
solving during those otherwise boring drives. (I find driving on the freeways
is mostly routine but every now and then there’s a CRISIS and you’d better be
able to respond fast. There was also the time I got trapped on the freeway by a
brushfire, surrounding several other cars and mine, and I was right next to a
gasoline tanker…CHP thankfully got us out of there…and we won’t discuss the
wreck I had in 1982 where I rolled the car three times…thank goodness for seat
belts! I wasn’t worrying over plots when that happened – I’d just decided to
find another job, came around a curve and oh my, all the traffic was stopped
while here I was going ummm perhaps a bit north of the posted speed…)
I also enjoy listening to music on my old ipod. I’ve got
hundreds of my favorite songs on endless replay and I just let the melodies
flow. Pretty soon I’m not really hearing the songs because I’m in the zone and
the ideas are swarming.
My playlist ranges from golden oldies to rock to show tunes
to bagpipes to country, with a lot of stuff in between. Sometimes a certain
song will inspire a plot point or will remind me of a character or a situation.
The connections probably wouldn’t be obvious to anyone but me and my Muse
though! I tried to come up with a good example for this post and the
explanation got very convoluted. Which is the way my creative mind works!
One of my favorite novellas from my backlist is STAR CRUISE: SONGBIRD, which was my scifi rock star romance and even for that one I didn't have a soundtrack. Here's an excerpt from the first concert in the story:
The show was already going on at full volume. Karissa’s was
the final set of the evening and when she ran onstage, her dancers bouncing and
doing acrobatics around her, the roar was astounding. Grant stood in the wings,
as close to the stage as he could, and watched the performance. Karissa
strutted, she danced, she teased, she brought a child on stage for a brief
chat, she sang full throated. The crowd loved it all. He had a hard time
keeping his eye on the audience, watching for problems, because she was so
riveting.
“First time at a show?” asked an older woman standing next
to him. “This is nothing compared to what she’ll do at the big concert on Calillia
next week. There’ll be multiple costume changes and aerial components. And
maybe some new songs, although she’s been quiet about her songwriting lately.
She doesn’t want Ted getting the rights to any more of her stuff if she can
help it. Things are unfixably sour between them now.” She laughed
self-consciously and held out her hand. “I’m
Desdusan, by the way, her chief makeup artist. Chief busybody too. I try
to look out for her as much as I can. Been with Karissa for nine years, ever
since she hit the bigtime with ‘Twisted Comets’. She’ll probably sing that for
the encore.”
“I hate to admit it but I’ve never heard her music before—it’s
all new to me,” he said as they shook.
The woman did a double take. “You’re kidding, right? You’re
probably the only person in the Sectors who hasn’t heard at least one Karissa
song.”
“I have now,” he pointed out, annoyed to feel so defensive.
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