Every story has a soundtrack, or should have. The best music is the stuff which is closest to writing, the tracks which set a scene, tell a story or transport you to another place. Not just by offering an emotional bump but by sending you out on the other side with the outside world looking like a different place. That musicians can do that with an audience of thousands screaming before them has long made me view them with suspicion and no small amount of jealousy. Like the faith healers to the writers’ doctor they seem to get the same results quicker, louder and with more adulation even if we, of course, are the ones who’ll really cure the sick and heal the maimed. But envy for the ideal aside music is up there with booze when it comes to fuelling the craft bit of writing and whenever you look up from the story, finding yourself caught in a brief moment of lucidity it’s the sounds that can wrap you up and remind you of where you are and what you’re doing.
When I write anything I quickly develop an accompanying playlist to see me along the way. Some songs tell their own story, some just set the tone and others offer the release you need when you find yourself trapped in an inescapable thought or idea. And I figured I’d share some of them with y’all…
And of course Laikanist Times is available at your nearest Amazon website…