Writer-Talk Tuesday: The Soundtracks of Our Stories
In my years of experience hanging out with both published authors and unpublished writers, it’s not unusual to hear writers talking about the “soundtracks” of their stories—the music they listen to to help them get into the world of their stories.
After all . . . there’s a reason TV shows and movies have music.
Music helps set a mood, evoke emotion, and recall imagery.
It’s no secret that when I was writing Stand-In Groom, I had a very specific soundtrack that I listened to to get “in the mood” to write—and very specific songs I listened to over and over as I crafted certain scenes (most especially Dean Martin’s “That’s Amore” and “Return to Me”—and if you’ve read the book, you know which scenes I’m talking about!) In fact, for my 500th blog post contest, in addition to giving away copies of my very first book, I gave away copies of a CD I burned with the songs mentioned in the book.
Ain’t That a Kick in the Head—Dean MartinMona Lisa—Nat “King” Cole
The Coffee Song—Frank Sinatra
Memories Are Made of This—Dean Martin
Come Fly with Me—Frank Sinatra
Volare—Dean Martin
Unforgettable—Nat “King” Cole
I’ve Got You Under My Skin—Frank Sinatra
I Can’t Give You Anything but Love—Dean Martin
It Had to Be You—Harry Connick Jr.
I Get a Kick out of You—Frank Sinatra
That’s Amore—Dean Martin
Someone to Watch Over Me—Frank Sinatra
Return to Me—Dean Martin
For Menu for Romance, it was less about specific music and more about specific movies—and one specific song from one specific John Wayne movie.
With A Case for Love, it was all about the Waltz—it’s one-two-three, one-two-three, Forbes.
While I was almost always listening to music while writing the Matchmakers series, it was more just to have something in the background that matched the mood of the scenes I was writing—predominantly instrumental, usually movie soundtracks.
When it comes to the Ransome Trilogy, I have very specific movie soundtracks I went to . . . Captain Blood, Pirates of the Caribbean, Sense & Sensibility, Emma, The Sea Hawk, The Pirates of Penzance, Master and Commander, and more. Music that evokes both a certain era and a certain imagery.
For the Great Exhibition series, it’s been a little harder to find soundtrack music that fits. The tracks from the Austen film adaptations are okay—though they do call to mind the empire-waisted white gowns of the early 19th century and not the bell-shaped skirts and long, pointed waistlines of 1851. So these been my go-to soundtracks (click the cover to hear my favorite piece from each album):
What is your favorite music to write by? Do you have a soundtrack for each of your stories—specific music you turn on when you need to get into the world of your story or the heads of your characters?
Reading Chat Monday: What Fictional Character Has Changed Your Life?
A couple of weeks ago, I read a blog post on Jezebel.com that poses the theory that the connection we have with fictional characters can change our lives.
Geoff Kaufman, a post-doctoral researcher at Dartmouth College, and his co-author Lisa Libby, from Ohio State University, suspected that as people read fiction they tend to live vicariously through their favorite character, which involves understanding the character’s emotions, thoughts, and beliefs. This process is called “experience-taking,” and the researchers found that it can lead to actual changes in the real lives of readers.
~“Do Your Favorite Book Characters Change Your Life?” by Cassie Murdoch
Which leads to our Reading Chat question for today:
Is there a fictional character that you’ve connected with on such a deep level that it’s changed you as a person?
Think specifically about a character not an author or a story.
This can mean that you changed the way you view or think about an issue—or even about God. It can mean that you’ve changed the way you do things. It can mean that it’s challenged you to be a better person. It can be major and life-altering changes, or it can be something as simple as picking up a hobby or habit—such as knitting or calling your grandmother every Sunday afternoon because a favorite character did that.
So . . . let’s chat!
Writer-Talk Tuesday: What Are You Writing? (June 2012)
It’s the first Tuesday of the month, so that means it’s time to talk about what we’re working on when it comes to writing. Remember, it doesn’t have to be writing novels or nonfiction. It can be poetry, blogging, book reviews, a daily journal, or even trying to make yourself write in your baby’s baby book once a week.
So . . . what are you writing?
I’m already behind my goal of 1,000 words a day on An Honest Heart for the months of June, July, and August—mostly because my parents were in town for the weekend, which meant no interest in writing. As of today, I should have already written 4,000 words. But I’m not going to pressure myself to get caught up. My goal for this week is at least get 1,000 words a day, whether or not I get can get to “where I’m supposed to be”—I just don’t want to get so far behind that I spend all of September stressing out over getting a first draft finished. I want to be working on revisions at that point. But, how’s this for inspiration to get started writing the book (click to view the full-size image):
Dr. Neal Stradbroke (Chris Hemsworth)
Book-Talk Monday: What Are You Reading? (June 2012)
It’s the first Monday of the month, so you know what that means!
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- What is the most recent book you’ve finished reading? (Please tell us a little about it, and whether or not you enjoyed/would recommend it.)
- What are you currently reading?
- What’s the next book on your To Be Read stack?
Fun Friday–Fun Stuff Seen Around the ’Net This Week
Here are some links and videos I’ve been saving up to share this week. Have fun browsing!
It’s dinnertime for this little dog:
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Think a dog couldn’t really do that? Watch this!
(It gets really good around the 1:15 mark)
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What Makes “Fancy Ketchup” So Fancy?
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12 Signs You Need a Break from the Internet
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What?
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Book Igloo Held Together By Natural Forces And Knowledge
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Which Came First: Orange the Color or Orange the Fruit?
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Most Popular Image I Pinned on Pinterest This Week
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FINALLY: The Difference between Nerd, Dork, and Geek Explained by a Venn Diagram
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And finally . . .
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Trailer for The Bourne Legacy starring Jeremy Renner (August)
Thursday Thought Provoker–A Question of Age
ROMANCE READERS: Do you have a preference for how old you prefer the main characters to be in a romance novel? Does it make a difference if it’s contemporary vs. historical?
ROMANCE WRITERS: Do you have an age range into which your characters normally fall?
Five Golden Rings–Meet the “Ringers”
I don’t know if it’s good or bad that this story idea won’t leave me alone. But since I’m having so much fun with this first new story idea in ages, I thought I’d share what I came up with last night (character casting) and this morning (the “meet” stories). It’s not often that an author shares a story idea from germ of inception through the brainstorming process, so I thought I would keep y’all in the loop as this idea develops.
First, meet our heroine, Kyleigh “Kyle” Bordelon. Kyle’s “large Southern family” mentioned in the idea post are the Bordelons of Bonneterre—the family that owns the largest chain of independently owned grocery stores in Central Louisiana. Kyle was a child prodigy, graduating from high school at age fourteen, finishing her Ph.D. in Microbiology at age twenty-two (she took her time with college and grad school), and going on to get an MBA in Management two years later. Since then, she’s worked in the quality-control/food-safety departments at Bordelon’s, rising through the ranks to become Food Safety Compliance Manager for the company. She spends most of her vacation time traveling to conferences to speak on panels as an expert on food-borne illnesses. Is it any wonder she’s reached the age of forty with the never-been-kissed status? 😉
Ring #1—Todd Farris (template: Misha Collins): Todd, a middle-school science teacher (with two of Kyle’s nephews in one of his classes), brings his sixth graders on a fieldtrip to see the labs and learn about food safety and food-borne illnesses at Bordelon’s corporate offices. Of course, Todd has been emailing with a Dr. Kyle Bordelon, so he’s expecting a man. He was already in awe of Kyle Bordelon’s credentials—a PhD in Microbiology at age twenty-two, an MBA in Management at twenty-four—and once he meets her, he’s pretty sure he’s in love. No matter how many times his heart has been stomped on in the past, he pins it to his sleeve again and, after building up his courage with a few more friendly emails, he asks her out.
Ring #2—Wolfgang “Wolf” Kohler (template: Thomas Kretschmann): Growing up in an industrial East German town, Wolf never thought he’d be allowed to do more with his life than work on the assembly line at the auto-parts plant he was sent to work in at sixteen. Then, in his mid-twenties, the wall fell. He left Germany and came to America to go to college, and he has lived here ever since. He just took the position as chair of the philosophy department at the University of Louisiana–Bonneterre, so is new to town. Weather aside, Bonneterre reminds him of the city where he grew up, and he thinks he’s finally found a place to settle down and stay for the rest of his life. Which also comes with a new sense of urgency to get married. When he sees Kyle as he bikes around his new neighborhood, he is attracted to her. He makes it his goal to meet her and get to know her. Because she looks like the kind of woman he’d like to marry.
Ring #3—Callum McKinnon (template: Kevin McKidd): When Kyle has to take over inspection and lab duties for one of her employees who’s out on maternity leave, she meets (re-meets) Callum at the store where he works as the manager of the meats/butcher department. Divorced for two years from his high school sweetheart (well, the girl he got pregnant after senior prom, anyway), he’s ready to get on with his life and have the fun he hasn’t had for the past twenty years since his “big mistake.” (He and his ex-wife filed for divorce the day they dropped their son off at his college dorm.) Callum has known Kyle since junior high, when he got to be friends with Kyle’s younger brother. But he always assumed she was eight to ten years older, as she was so far ahead of them in school. After several dates, on which he has more fun than she does, she learns that customers are getting sick from the meat they’re buying from Callum’s store, and she must investigate.
Ring #4—Matt Cole (template: Joe Flanigan): Kyle and Matt meet at “the wedding”—the one at which she no longer has to participate in the ring pull because she’s aged out of the tradition. Which allows her to relax and have a really good time and not feel self-conscious. Which catches the attention of the other “older” member of the wedding party, the groom’s brother, Matt Cole. After a twenty-year career in the Air Force as a pilot, Matt has recently retired and started on his second career—as a flight instructor at Beausoleil Parish Community College in Bonneterre, Louisiana. He took the job to be closer to his baby brother, the only family he has left, after their parents’ passing within a few months of each other two years ago. As the two oldest members of the wedding party, Kyle and Matt are paired up for all of the pre-wedding, wedding, and post-wedding events. Kyle is the first “woman over a certain age” he’s met in a very, very long time who doesn’t seem desperate to knock him over the head and drag him to a wedding chapel in Vegas within twenty-four hours. And she’s one of the only women he’s ever met who gets his sense of humor. And his trademark sci-fi TV-show references.
Ring #5—Daniel Godchaux (template: Sasha Roiz): When Kyle accepts an invitation to dinner at the home of her friends Meredith and Major O’Hara, she has no idea that it’s actually an invitation to a blind date. Meredith has invited the head of her Facilities Maintenance department—mechanical engineer Daniel Godchaux—over for dinner as well. After the initial embarrassment and promises she’ll get even with Meredith later, Kyle finds herself enjoying Daniel’s company; and his reserve and the way he deflects questions about his past and his family make her all the more interested in him.
So there they are, the Ringers. Which “team” are you? 😉
Fun Friday Supplemental—“The Ring Pull” Story Idea
So this story idea struck me today, and I thought I’d write it down and share it. Tell me what you think.
Five Golden Rings
The ring pull. A tradition in my big Southern family going back four generations. At every wedding of a female family member, all other unmarried female family members must take part in the ritual. The special cake must look odd to the in-laws and guests unfamiliar with our quirk, what with all of the thin silk ribbons dangling from it (matching the bridesmaids’ dresses, of course). And it seems like overkill, what with the bouquet toss that follows.
But it’s tradition. And it’s never failed.
Each single gal over the age of eighteen and under the age of forty must participate. Take hold of one of the ribbons and, at the tinkle of Great-Great-Grandma O’Connell’s antique Irish crystal bell, pull. At the end of each ribbon, a plain, thin-band ring. All silver except one. One is gold (tone—as if any bride would buy a real gold ring for a poor spinster relative). And the lucky girl who gets the golden ring is guaranteed to be the next one married.
As I said, it’s never failed.
Except with me.
You know the Christmas song “The Twelve Days of Christmas”? Yeah, well Number Five describes me perfectly. I pulled my first golden ring at my oldest cousin’s wedding when I was nineteen. That was back when I still believed in the tradition.
For months, I looked around me at all the boys I knew at my small liberal-arts college—and even a couple of young, single professors—wondering which one would soon be proposing marriage to me.
At my older sister’s wedding two years later, I was the maid of honor. And I had the honor of still being single—as in never-asked-out, never-kissed single. And I pulled another golden ring. At this point, I already knew none of the guys at school were in the running—they’d had two years to pop the question, after all. So I started looking elsewhere. I left the small, family-like church I’d grown up in and started attending a megachurch near downtown, the one with the huge college and singles groups. I gave every guy there the opportunity to ask me out by participating in every outing, every Bible study, every retreat, every service. I even joined the choir, since a few of them sang in it—even though I’ve never been much of a singer and can’t read music worth a lick.
Two more weddings in the next three years—two silver rings and still single and alone.
At twenty-five, having graduated and moved away for grad school, I returned home for another cousin’s wedding—a younger cousin’s wedding. That wasn’t supposed to happen. Not to me. I had two golden rings, after all. No, make that three.
The next year, ring numero quatro. I think at this point my aunts had conspired to make sure I pulled the golden ring. They also made sure to introduce me to every unmarried man between eighteen and eighty in attendance at the reception.
Fortunately, that was the year we ran out of female cousins old enough to get married. Not that I could stop going to family weddings—I had plenty of male cousins tying the knot. But, thank goodness, the ring-pull ceremony never made it into their receptions.
Then, the year I turned thirty-five, the thing I dreaded arrived in the mail. An invitation to another female cousin’s wedding. Not only that, but it was a destination wedding. The beach, the resort, the clubs, the outings. As a member of the wedding party, I was not only expected to attend, but to enjoy it. Or pretend like I enjoyed it. So I did. And, lo and behold, one of the groomsmen, close to my age, seemed to like me. Despite my superpower to intimidate and turn men off just by smiling at them. The problem: He had a girlfriend back home. Off and on, but still. The great news (for him, anyway): Spending the long weekend flirting with me made him decide he wanted to marry her.
And I went home with my fifth golden ring.
A month ago, I received an invitation to my youngest female cousin’s wedding. She’s getting married the day after my birthday. My fortieth birthday. This might be the first family wedding I’ll enjoy since I was seventeen years old.
Fun Friday–A Pocketful of Links
Here are some fun links and websites I ran across this week.
Puppies Venture Outside for the First Time
What’s Up with Those Green Potato Chips?
MIT’s Freaky Non-Stick Coating Keeps Ketchup Flowing
- Watch never-before-seen videos of an amazing new condiment lubricant that makes the inside of bottles so slippery, nothing is left inside. This means no more pounding on the bottom of your ketchup containers–and a lot less wasted food.
How Did King Edward VIII Meet Wallis Simpson?
Chicken Dressed as Historical Figures
And, finally, a trailer for a movie I’m completely surprised that I want to see.
Thought-Provoker Thursday
If you could either be immeasurably wealthy but of low to average intelligence or immeasurably intelligent with low to average income, which would you choose and why?
KayeDacus.com 