Category Archives: Soundtracks

Music to write by
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Arrival to Earth from the album Transformers: The Score by Steve Jablonsky

I’d recommend every piece on the album, actually. I just got my copy. I sat in the movie (all five times) trying to capture the score in my head, because from the moment I heard it, I thought, “I can write to that.” It had passion, movement, beauty, heart.

I bought the Soundtrack album the second it came out—and it was such a hideous disappointment. The Linkin Park track was good, but It didn’t have any of the music from the score.

I contemplated hunting the composer down and begging him for a bootleg—something I’ve never even considered before. It’s pretty nuts. Instead, I started searching around the internet, and discovered a petition to have the score released as an album. Signed that in lieu of throwing myself at Steve Jablonsky’s feet and begging for his music. And when the good guys won one and the Score album became a reality, I put my order in to Amazon because I couldn’t find a copy locally—every single one had sold out the same day it was released.

This album is everything the Soundtrack album wasn’t. It’s perfect. I hear it, it moves me, and the words flow. If you haven’t seen the movie, if you haven’t heard the music, find any of the snippets available on sites like Amazon or iTunes and immerse yourself.

I don’t recommend music often, but if you’re writing, I really think you’ll love this.

Sunrise: Moonrise
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I got a great sunrise this morning. I’m in the middle of words—just about exactly in the middle, in fact, and oddly, am writing about Genna’s first moonrise in reach of the moon in three months. Genna never had an issue with moonrises until she found herself on a moonroad.

Now, she’s discovering she has a bit of a problem.

Not me, though. The sunrise is a beautiful mix of purple clouds and orange-y-pink sky that has turned the white fur on the throat and paws of the cat in the window a radiant peach. Fresh night air, a fan, the music from the BioShock orchestral score going—you can legally download the orchestral score (.zip file — 23 MB) for free from 2K Games, the producer—and the words are finding me.

I love mornings.

Soundtrack for MPII
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This proposal needed music; rather I needed to find my way through some of the complexities to the core. Music is good for that. This is the music that I’ll listen to while writing the books, the songtrack for the first story at least, and maybe the other three.

Assuming the project sells. Always have to put that in there.

MPII Soundtrack

Shoot The Moon Norah Jones Come Away With Me
Simple Kind of Life No Doubt Return Of Saturn
In Your Eyes Peter Gabriel So
Hot Night Laura Branigan Ghostbusters
Ghost Dance Cusco Essential Cusco: The Journey
Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) Eurythmics Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)
Falling Up Natasha’s Ghost Shimmer
How You Remind Me Nickelback Silver Side Up
I Don’t Want to Wait Paula Cole This Fire
Credidi Ars Cantica Consort Vincenzo Ruffo: Psalms & Chants of Meditation
The Briar And The Rose Niamh Parsons And Loose Connections Her Infinite Variety: Celtic Women In Music & Song (Disc 1)
The Unforgiven II Metallica ReLoad
Whale & Wasp Alice In Chains Jar Of Flies
This Shirt Mary Chapin Carpenter Party Doll and Other Favorites
It’s All Been Done Barenaked Ladies Come On Elieen
An Fharraige Máire Brennan The Celtic Circle 2 (Disc 1)
Walking in Memphis Marc Cohn Marc Cohn
A Thousand Beautiful Things Annie Lennox Bare

Zenning Sheila Mode
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I want a day off betwen now and June 1st. To get it, I’m going to have to write a shitload of extra words some days. So today I’m going to see if I can channel Sheila, and buy myself a morning to sleep in and an afternoon to do something with watercolors and colored pencils, or maybe break out the oils. Or just keep my calluses healthy on the guitar.

Soundtrack for this morning — Classical Gas, Clapton; Für Elise, Beethoven (guitar version); Bridge of Khazad Dum, Lord of the Rings soundtrack; Moonlight Sonata, Beethoven (guitar version); Concerning Hobbits, Lord of the Ring soundtrack.

Zen Playlist #1
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When I haven’t put together a soundtrack for a particular project yet, I have a fallback writing soundtrack I’ve titled Zen Playlist #1. This is it. Content on it shifts a little from time to time, (Wide Open Spaces is gone, the Johnny Cash song is new), but it’s the collection of songs I can write to anytime.

Bring Me To Life, Evanescence
Acoustic #3, Goo Goo Dolls
Don’t Fear the Reaper, Blue Oyster Cult
Hurt , Johnny Cash
Classical Gas, Eric Clapton
Iris, Goo Goo Dolls
Bravado, Rush
Name, Goo Goo Dolls
Don’t Wanna Miss a Thing, Aerosmith

The Talyn Soundtrack
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Long book — has taken a long time to shake out my extensive collection to get the following. And it’s a long, long list, so it will be done as a ‘continued on next page’ entry — that way, if you’re interested, you can read the list, and if you’re not, you’re spared a whole bunch of badly formatted music recommendations. Continue reading →

Say You Won’t
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You have these memories — of being sixteen, of the music that was playing, of the magic of the music — and at forty-two that sixteen-year-old is still inside, looking out at you in the mirror with increasing dismay, whispering, “You were much, much cooler when you were me.”

So you try to find doors to let the sixteen-year-old out again; you try to recapture the wonder of those days. Little things — losing weight, tightening up the muscles, digging out old books and old music and finding out that some of them weren’t too bad and that others demonstrate only that you had pretty low standards before you got so damned picky.

Some things have held up so well. Tolkein — you were pretty smart for making the annual trek through The Lord of the Rings. Aerosmith. Mmm. Definitely Aerosmith. Weird guys, smart music. And Fleetwood Mac. Damn. They were so good for so long. Rumors was magic and that magic hasn’t dimmed. Tusk — amazing.

So, standing in the aisle, you are twiddling between the Best Of and an honest-to-God new Fleetwood Mac album, Say You Will, and the sixteen-year-old says “Get the Best Of; we know those” and the forty-two-year-old says, “Arrowsmith has grown and sharpened and repeatedly blown you away, maybe Fleetwood Mac has done the same.”

And the forty-two-year-old owns the checking account. So you go home with Say You Will.

And dreams die, and the sixteen-year-old shudders and hides and whimpers, “Promise me this isn’t what it means to get old.”

Tired, tired, tired. Say You Will is endless Stevie Nicks whinges done with her stunning* half-octave range, with tedious, arrhythmic non-rhyming lyrics and the same tune for every single song. There is a difference between introspection and navel lint-picking, and there isn’t a single Nicks-penned track that rises above the latter. She sounds like she’s doing a bad parody of herself. Interspersed between this lo-o-o-o-ong stretch of autobiographical hell is a bit of Lindesy Buckingham seventies politicking, with the serial numbers rubbed of to make it seem contemporary — but it doesn’t. And a couple of Buckingham songs that struggle to break free of the tedium, and almost get there. Steal Your Heart Away and Bleed to Love Her weren’t bad, but this is Fleetwood Mac, goddammit, and the inner sixteen-year-old and I, we’re looking for something better here than “not bad.” We wanted the next “Landslide,” “Tusk,” every track on the “Rumors” album. Hell, any track on the “Rumors” album. We wanted, and we did not get. And where the hell is Christine McVie? Fleetwood Mac clearly is not the same without her.

So … when you’re standing in the music aisles looking at old Mac and new Mac with a hunger for a taste of what was, this stands as testament to disappointment and a sad little warning from one (or two) who wanted to love. When you get to Say You Will, say you won’t.

*(stunning (STUN-ing) — Sensation of being repeatedly whacked between the eyes with a meat mallet.)

Candle in the fog
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Needed 2000 words yesterday. Got 600, and that was an uphill struggle. I’ve reread them now, they’re good words, they’re the right words, but I need to get this book done, and not at a pace of 600 words in three hours. (It was more than that, actually. I didn’t get more than a few words done when I came back to try to catch up at night, either.)

So I’m heading back in. I’m at the point where, in any sane story, everything would now be wrapping up with a happy ending. Instead, my heroes now have the biggest and toughest hell to get through, with no clear path to get there. This is the scene I’ve been writing toward since 1994, and I’m more scared than my characters. Which is saying a lot. I’ve written a big stack of books, but I have never been here before. Not just this book, but here, where everything — my career, this story that has been nine years in the writing, my family’s future — stands at an intersection that depends on these words, this moment, this focus, this vision. My vision is blurred by fog. I’m socked in, zero visibility. Sting is singing Fields of Gold, the card of the day is the Ace of Cups, and I am moving forward on belief. That’s my candle. That this is a good story, a story with heart and passion, worth telling, worth getting on the page. That if I do this right and am true to my vision, readers will find it. That they’ll care. That things will not always be this hard for me and my family.

Considering the past, that’s a tough candle to keep hanging onto.

Onward, blindly, running on faith and two strong characters in a bad place.

Soundtracks for Novels
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There’s a discussion about the music writers listen to while they write. I put together soundtracks that help focus me on the story, but that I think may influence the mood and shape of the books, too.

But I thought this might be of interest to readers as well as writers — to have the same soundtrack running in the background while reading the book that was running while it was written. Maybe not — but in the interest of science … or something like that … I’ve posted the soundtracks for both of the upcoming World Gates books here.

The soundtrack for The Wreck of Heaven (on the shelves in April, which is sneaking closer) changed as I worked on the book. This was the final version.

Stand By Me, Ben E. King
Burning For You, Blue Oyster Cult
Don’t Fear the Reaper, Blue Oyster Cult
Secret Garden, Bruce Springsteen
Let The River Run, Carly Simon, Working Girl Soundtrack
Breathless, The Corrs, Visit For More Hits and Albums
Don’t Dream It’s Over, Crowded House, Crowded House
Time After Time, Cyndi Lauper
Name, Goo Goo Dolls
Overcome, Live, Ecstatic Fanatic
Time of Your Life, Green Day, Nimrod
Lightning Crashes, Live, Throwing Copper
Time Will Tell, Sara Hickman, Necessary Angels
The Fishermen’s Song, Silly Wizard, The Best Of Silly Wizard
Cello Suite No.1, 1. Prelude, Yo-Yo Ma, Bach: 6 Suites for Unac. Cello
Cello Suite No.1, 2. Allemande, Yo-Yo Ma, Bach: 6 Suites for Unac. Cello

Here’s the first soundtrack I did for Gods Old and Dark. I just cut and pasted from iTunes, so this is the order in which the songs were played, including repetitions. You’ll notice heavy rotation on Goo Goo Dolls “Acoustic #3″ which turned into the them song for the first 3/4 of the book. “Don’t Fear the Reaper” is Molly’s theme, “Bad Moon Rising” is Baanraak’s theme, “Don’t Dream It’s Over” is Lauren’s theme, “I’ll Be” is Pete’s theme.

J. S. Bach- Bouree I & II, Andres Segovia & John Williams, The Art of the Guitar
Ferrington Guitars, Albert Lee, Ferrington Guitars
Acoustic #3, Goo Goo Dolls, Dizzy Up The Girl
Stand By Me, Ben E. King
Don’t Fear the Reaper, Blue Oyster Cult
Iris, Goo Goo Dolls
Turn the Page, Bob Seger, Greatest Hits
Bad Moon Rising, Creedence Clearwater Revival
Acoustic #3, Goo Goo Dolls, Dizzy Up The Girl
No Particular Place to Go, Chuck Berry
Johnny Has Gone For A Soldier, Civil War, The Civil War
Name, Goo Goo Dolls
The Fairy Queen, Clannad, Celtic Collection
Fanfare for the Common Man, Copeland
Don’t Dream It’s Over, Crowded House, Crowded House
Turn the Page, Bob Seger, Greatest Hits
Time After Time, Cyndi Lauper
Come Again, Damn Yankees, Damn Yankees
High Enough, Damn Yankees
Acoustic #3, Goo Goo Dolls, Dizzy Up The Girl
Where You Goin’ Now, Damn Yankees
The Dreaming Tree, Dave Matthews Band, Before These Crowded Streets
Acoustic #3, Goo Goo Dolls, Dizzy Up The Girl
Taking You Home Don Henley, Inside Job
Classical Gas, John Williams
Barely Breathing, Duncan Sheik, The Absolute Hits
I’ll Be, Edwin McCain
Iris, Goo Goo Dolls
Epona, Enya, ENYA
Acoustic #3, Goo Goo Dolls, Dizzy Up The Girl
Exile, Enya, Watermark
Storms In Africa, Enya, Watermark
Classical Gas, Eric Clapton
This Kiss, Faith Hill, Faith
Name, Goo Goo Dolls
Iris, Goo Goo Dolls
When I Come Around, Green Day, Dookie
Time of Your Life, Green Day, Nimrod
Acoustic #3, Goo Goo Dolls, Dizzy Up The Girl
Fisherman’s Song, Irish Descendants, Look to the Sea
Name, Goo Goo Dolls
Classical Gas, John Williams
Far and Away, John Williams
Hanging by a Moment – Acoustic, Lifehouse, No Name Face
Concerning Hobbits, Lord Of The Rings OST, The Lord Of The Rings- The Fellowship Of The Ring
Overcome, Live, Ecstatic Fanatic
Lightning Crashes, Live
Prisoner In Disguise, Linda Ronstadt / J.D. Souther
Name, Goo Goo Dolls

My needs changed significantly for the last 3/4 of the book and for the revision, where I suddenly discovered what the whole thing was really about. So I did a second soundtrack. “Acoustic #3″ maintained heavy rotation, but the book picked up a new theme song — “Superman” by Five for Fighting. Baanraak picks up two new theme songs, “Every Breath You Take” and “The Unforgiven II”. Lauren gets “I Will Never Be the Same” and Molly’s new theme is “I Don’t Want to Wait.” June Bug and Heyr get the “Adagio for Strings.”

Acoustic #3, Goo Goo Dolls, Dizzy Up The Girl
Ferrington Guitars, J.D. Souther, Ferrington Guitars
Canon for Three Violins, Pachelbel
Concerning Hobbits, Lord Of The Rings OST, The Lord Of The Rings- The Fellowship Of The Ring
Superman, Five For Fighting, America Town
Like The Way I Do, Melissa Etheridge, Melissa Etheridge
Canon in D, Pachelbel
Acoustic #3, Goo Goo Dolls, Dizzy Up The Girl
Every Breath You Take, Police
Superman, Five For Fighting, America Town
Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Pachelbel, Rachmaninov
Fields Of Gold, Sting, Ten Summoner’s Tales
Ruins, Melissa Etheridge, Yes I Am
Acoustic #3, Goo Goo Dolls, Dizzy Up The Girl
The Bridge Of Khazad Dum, Lord Of The Rings OST, The Lord Of The Rings- The Fellowship Of The Ring
Superman, Five For Fighting, America Town
Yo Yo Ma – Bouree, Bach
I’m The Only One, Melissa Etheridge, Yes I Am
Adagio for Strings, Platoon Soundtrack
Come To My Window, Melissa Etheridge, Yes I Am
Acoustic #3, Goo Goo Dolls, Dizzy Up The Girl
Superman, Five For Fighting, America Town
Downeaster Alexa, Billy Joel, Greatest Hits Volume III
Don’t Fear the Reaper, Blue Oyster Cult
I Will Never Be The Same, Melissa Etheridge, Yes I Am
Superman, Five For Fighting, America Town
Run Around, Blues Traveller
Fields Of Gold (Acoustic Unplugged), Sting
Acoustic #3, Goo Goo Dolls, Dizzy Up The Girl
The Unforgiven II, Metallica, Reload
What A Wonderful World, Paul Simon, James Taylor, & Art Garfunkel
I Don’t Want to Wait, Paula Cole
Superman, Five For Fighting, America Town
Catch The Moments As They Fly, Lifescapes, Celtic River

Late Serendipity
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Had some quiet late tonight, so I’ve been logging extra time on the revisions — and it’s paying off beautifully. I managed to rework and salvage the better part of one scene that I thought earlier today I was going to have to simply delete — I got the direction for the revised scene from a couple of deeply obsessive, disturbed Melissa Etheridge songs (I’m the Only One, Come to My Window, and I Will Never Be the Same) and the equally unnerving I’ll Be Watching You by The Police. In this case, it was just a matter of being in the right place at the right time to hear the music while being hit by a couple of odd coincidences … but no spoilers, so I can’t say what the coincidences are.

And the result is a dark, jaggy, Molly/Lauren/Baanraak scene that I’m pretty pleased with, instead of another three thousand words in the trash. I’ll take it. Done for the night. Back at the keyboard at six AM tomorrow. The stack of unrevised pages is visibly shorter tonight.