Most of this post was originally published on Derek Hawkins’ blog Brain Drippings.
When I first started writing Nemesis, and pretty much any book before it, I didn’t listen to music like most writers do. I have ADD, so I’m distracted quite easily. I needed total solitude and mostly silence, so I sat outside on my back porch in a place I used to call my Sanctuary, and the only sounds I would hear were those of the neighborhood and city surrounding me.
Over the past two years, I’ve learned to write/edit with larger distractions, such as music or television, if absolutely unavoidable. You see, I don’t have kids, so I didn’t know how to block out the sounds before. It takes a lot of practice to get to that point without children running rampant through the house. I did have a teenage foster-daughter for a couple of years, but she knew not to disturb me during my writing time. And with my Sanctuary now gone, it was a much-needed skill I had to learn.
What I’m going to share with you today is the playlist I made up while working on the book. Some of these are the songs I listened to during edits, while others are merely perfect subtitles, so I made them all subtitles for each chapter. Most songs fit the chapter they’re assigned to, such as Another Hole in the Head for chapter 10. The credit for finding that little gem goes to my dear friend H.C. Palmquist, who also helped me shape that chapter, as it was part of the major overhaul I did on the book.
Here’s the actual list of songs, in order by chapter:
Nemesis Playlist
1. The Creeps – Social Distortion
2. Little by Little – Robert Plant
3. Wake Me in the Morning – The Bollox
4. Nemesis – Shriekback
5. No Man’s Woman – Sinead O’Connor
6. Devil’s Dance Floor – Flogging Molly
7. Next Contestant – Nickelback
8. Lick – Joi
9. I Will Possess Your Heart – Death Cab for Cutie
10. Another Hole in the Head – Nickelback
11. 3 Libras – A Perfect Circle
12. How You Remind Me – Nickelback
13. Something I Can Never Have – Nine Inch Nails
14. Not in Rivers, But in Drops – ISIS
15. Baby Did a Bad Bad Thing – Chris Isaak
16. Let It Die – Foo Fighters
17. King of Fools – Social Distortion
18. Foxy, Foxy – Rob Zombie
19. Winter Solstice – The Tea Party
20. You Do Something to Me – Sinead O’Connor
21. Head Like a Hole – Nine Inch Nails
22. We’re in This Together – Nine Inch Nails
23. Feelin’ Love – Paula Cole
24. You Know I’m No Good – Amy Winehouse
25. Tura’ Lu – The Bollox
26. You Know What You Are? – Nine Inch Nails
27. Just a Girl – No Doubt
28. Weak and Powerless – A Perfect Circle
29. No, You Don’t – Nine Inch Nails
30. Hour of Darkness – Social Distortion
31. Headstrong – Trapt
32. Feel Alive – U.P.O.
As you can see from this list, I’m a huge Nine Inch Nails fan and an old punk. Be glad I didn’t throw a bunch of 80s punk songs in there, although that’d be kind of cool. Oh, and by the way, I always call the Death Cab for Cutie song I Will Possess Your Heart the stalker song of the year decade. Seriously, listen to the lyrics!
My reason for not listening to music before wasn’t that music didn’t inspire me—it does on many levels. In fact, there’s a Celtic song titled A Thousand Curses on Love by Richard Searles that inspired my first paranormal novel, The Vampyre Prophecy. It’s not available at this time, but will be as soon as I dive into the edits to revamp it. I wasn’t happy with the final product, so I retired the book and it’s no longer in print. It should be out by this fall.
Nemesis has her own blog: Foxy’s Den
Nemy can also be found on Twitter: Nemy_girl
You can find Nemesis on the Just Ink Press website, which will direct you to the purchase points and desired e-formats. The book is not yet available in print form.
jinxiesworld.com 