These past few months my life seems to revolve around words and chords, around writing and music. It made me rethink the name of my blog and my dear friend Jay unwittingly told me what it should be: Writers Rock.

Words come in multiples as I am working on the revision of my thriller Dark Fiber. One day I hit 5,000 words and the next day I don’t even come close to a mere 500. But no matter how many words do find their way from inside my head to my manuscript, music accompanies them all.

Paganini's Caprices on a sax

If I am on a roll, I switch my iTunes controls to repeat and listen to the same song over and over again, until I almost fall in a trance. It may be Gorillaz ‘Rhinestone Eyes’, which gives me a clear view on how my bad guy’s eyes may betray him, or it is Rage Against the Machine’s ‘Freedom’ telling me how badly my bad guy wants to break free.
On other days it is Raaf Hekkema playing Paganini’s Caprici no. 1 on his sax, firing up my fingers and pushing up my typing speed to unknown highs. He’s a wizard on the sax, that Raaf, and he makes me wish that just a teeny-weeny portion of his dedication, his stamina and his creativity rubs off on me by just listening to him.

Frank Portman's King Dork on Booktunes

When I quit the writing and listening for a while, it doesn’t mean that the words and music quit me. To relax… I grab a book and read. But I always grab books with music in them. I read them for Booktunes, compiling the play lists of the music the authors use to get their protagonist through life. I was in total awe of Jennifer Donnelly’s Revolution and Frank Portman’s King Dork made me laugh. He sent me on this superb trip down memory lane with his “Merseyside/British Invasion sort of thing” and his Bubblegum. Now I am reading A Little Wanting Song by Cath Crowley for Booktunes and it makes me happy when her protagonist Charlie says: ‘I’ve got the start of a song in my head that’s warm and full of light. Spattered with chords that move like water.’
My review of that book and yet another great play list will be on Booktunes shortly.

Yes, writers rock. They do!