Penelope Price and Music

My guest blogger today is Penelope Price! I would like to welcome her, and encourage you participate in the conversation below!

More Than Words

by Penelope Price

Music is just about as necessary to my process as you know, words, ideas, and uh... breathing. It is very rare that I choose silence when I'm writing. However, the best mojo comes when I am able to turn on a playlist, hit shuffle, and tune out all the lyrics and drums and screaming dinosaur rockers and just hit THE ZONE. 

When I was a tween, writing my first novel, I had a cassette tape of Bryan Adams' "So Far, So Good" a greatest hits compilation. I could hit play on that album and start typing. Then I'd blink and the whole side would be over and I'd have vomited a few thousand more words onto the page. Hours might have passed and I was none the wiser, so wrapped up in THE ZONE was I. 

I literally wore that tape out. One night, right in the middle of a climactic fight sequence, the ribbon snapped and I cried. I cried like my grandmother had died all over again. I was afraid I would never be able to write again. Well, I have written many thousands of words since I was twelve, but I am sad to say I have never quite reached that level of instant ZONE-ness. Even after I finally got a disc man and a copy of "So Far, So Good" on CD.

Alas.

When I think of a song that seems to fit my WIP, Incandescence, the first thing that came to mind was "Sympathy for the Devil" by the Rolling Stones for the antagonist, Alexander. Then "Mommy, Can I Go Out & Kill Tonight" by the Misfits for his cousin-slash-cohort, Isaac. But those don't really apply to the story as a whole...

So I turned to Jack and asked, "Jack, what song would you say describes my book?" 

He quirked a brow, opened a browser to Youtube.com and played this:

(link to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVmB3lRjCmc)

 And I laughed. I guess I talk too much about how the setting is - the near future, as the world we know crumbles.

C'est la vie. That isn't part of my standard writing soundtrack, but it sure works for me.

So - have you read anything lately that brings to mind a specific song or genre? What and why? C'mon - tell me all about it!

Love & Rainbows,

P.P.

Penelope Price: author, gamer, nerd. Though she has been writing since she learned to read, P.P. did not emerge from her coccoon to join the writing circuit until the year of Tangerine Tango. She is the crazy chick behind this summer's Incandescence and its sequel, Inferno and can usually be found plotting projects with her partner-in-crime, Jack Morgan of PunchJackMorgan.com. Get updates, gossip and geekery by following P.P. on Facebook (http://facebook.com/PP_TheWriter), Twitter (http://twitter.com/#!/PP_TheWriter), and at her blog (http://www.penelopeprice.net).