Songs and Writing

I love music, almost as much as I do writing. So today, I thought I’d share a little of what I’ve been listening to as of late.

Below are clips of songs that have inspired three of the books I have coming out in the next few months.

Never Kiss is “Waiting for Superman”

Never Kiss is a short story about Tony Marino. Tony has a hard time opening up to people, particularly anyone who is relationship worthy. No wonder he’s always attracted to straight men. Tony’s waiting for a superhero to come into his life. Maybe he’s found one.

Never Kiss will be available here on April 28th as part of the Juicy Bits anthology.

Marketing Beef with The Pretenders

Marketing Beef is a story about Evan, a thirty-something year old who on the anniversary of the split up from his last boyfriend decides it’s time to make a change.

Evan loves The Pretenders, as do I. Here’s a clip of one of my favorite Pretenders’ songs. When I was a kid, I used to listen to “Lovers of Today” over and over. I couldn’t find a great video of it but the recording is directly from their first—and in my opinion best—album.

Marketing Beef will be out this summer as part of Goodreads’ Dont Read in the Closet campaign. I’ll keep you posted on its release.

Tim on Broadway’s Divas of Today…and Yesteryear

Tim on Broadway will be my first-ever published novel. I’m very excited about it. I had so much fun writing it. I hope you find the characters as adoring as I do. Because of the nature of the story, music was a huge part of it. I could write a whole post just on the songs and artists that fueled its creativity. (Maybe someday I will.)

Timothy Benton loves divas. In fact, his favorite television show is America’s Got Divas. Tim desperately wants to see his favorite singer, Carolyn Sohier, perform a once-in-a-lifetime concert. He’ll do just about anything to go but there are a few obstacles in his way.

Who is Carolyn Sohier? She’s a fictional character I created for not only this novel but for Summerwind—the first book I ever wrote, which will be released later this year.

Carolyn Sohier is described in the Voice as if someone where to…

“Take a cup of Bette Midler, a scoop of Barbra Streisand, add a smidge of Aretha Franklin and a couple tablespoons of Janis Joplin. Stir. Bake for a few decades and you have Carolyn Sohier. If you love powerhouse singers Carolyn is a must-see!”

This clip is of Melissa Etheridge covering a Bette Midler song.The video quality isn’t that good but I just love Melissa’s rendition of it. It reminds me of what it might be to hear Carolyn Sohier sing it.

You can read a clip of Tim on Broadway here. It will be released next month (May 2014).

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