Tag Archives: Music

SAPAHM Guest: Bella Andre

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HI FRIENDS!!! IT’S MAY!!! WHEE!!! Well first of all, I didn’t realize capslock was on but then I left it because it fits. Now, I like May a lot. We’re solidly into spring up here, it’s warmer and beautiful out, summer is just around the corner, and guess what? It’s APAHM! “WTF is APAHM, Lime” do you ask? Asian Pacific American Heritage Month! The “S” is for Smithsonian. At ALBTALBS I’ve taken to celebrating the Smithsonian Heritage Months, and I love doing it. I am also  excited because we’ve got Bella Andre guesting with us to kick off the month. This is what she has to say. 🙂

Confessional Writing

All I Ever Need is YouBefore I began writing romance novels, I was a singer-songwriter who released 4 CDs, toured internationally, and wrote with hit songwriters in Nashville and Los Angeles. Joni Mitchell was my idol, and I know most people would agree that she is one of the best songwriters of all time. Now that my days are completely full writing books, I don’t write songs anymore, but I still listen to music all day long as I write. And the songwriter that I listen to most often is Taylor Swift (although I also often still go back to Joni’s “Midway”, “Amelia” and “The Gallery”). Adam Samberg’s NY city cop character, Jake Peralta, on Brooklyn 99 said it best when he explained why Taylor is his favorite singer: “Her songs makes me feel things.” Continue reading →

Special Guest: Colleen Isolde on Characters and Music

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My darlings! Please bear with me, as we welcome Colleen to ALBTALBS! In fact, we should be seeing more of her, because she’s going to be sharing reviews here as well! Whee! (I just need to, you know, get on that.) Also let’s pretend this puts me on schedule. As you know, the third Saturday of each month I feature a reader from the community. In June, because June is awesome, we have a special reader guest each month! So everyone say hi to Colleen! <3

Characters and Music by Colleen Isolde

For many writers as well as readers, music plays a role either providing background to work or inspiring characters. Recently on twitter, author Pamela Clare requested love songs to help with her writing of a love scene for her next book in her I-Team Series. Author Tina Reber lists her musical playlists on her website for the books in her Love Series. Following authors on twitter and facebook often provide readers with an idea of what music is inspiring particular stories or parts of stories. That being said, not all authors list songs or playlists or even listen to music while the write, however as readers, we can still find music that reminds us of particular characters.

I am a huge Jessica Scott fan. I love her characters and found that two in particular seem to keep popping into my head months after reading Because of You. When I first started listening to Pink’s new album “The Truth About Love” and I first heard her song “Blow Me (One Last Kiss),” I immediately thought of Laura. I even tweeted to Jessica Scott at the time that I could totally see Laura singing this song while driving in her car or while doing housework.

I also ran across a video dub created by some soldiers in Afghanistan mimicking the actions of the Miami Dolphins’ cheerleaders video dub to Carly Rae Jepsen’s song “Call Me Maybe.” In this video, I see Vic Carponti as the ginger soldier with the beard and ringleader behind making this video. Of course now, every time I hear this song, I think of Carponti.

The song “About Today” by The National makes me think of a soundtrack for Ryan’s life in Ranae Rose’s Battered Not Broken. Some of this may have to do with the fact that this song appears on the “Warrior” soundtrack starring the sexy Tom Hardy, but I think it mostly has to do with the struggle that I see Ryan having in terms of adjusting to civilian life.

How about you? Do you find certain music to remind you of particular characters in books you read or do you find yourself thinking of music that certain characters may listen to?