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Okay, so A STROKE OF MIDNIGHT is finally put to bed. The last calls from the editors came today. The last e-mails. The copy editors caught something that I had totally missed. It had Rhys simply vanishing from a scene and then using magic to call in and talk to Doyle, as if he was still outside the fairie mounds talking to the police. There’d been two different versions of this scene. One had Rhys there through out the section and one had sent him out and kept him out with the human police. When I glommed them together, well, oops. Thanks again to my copy editors for the save.
I always write to music. But this book takes the prize on how many different albums got used. I thought you guys might find a list of everything that got used interesting. If you aren’t interested, then stop reading now.
Musicals: Jekyll and Hyde The original Broadway cast recording, The Complete Work Jekyll and Hyde the gothic musical thriller, 1776 original Broadway cast with William Daniels, and 1776 with Brent Spiner. A YEAR WITH FROG AND TOAD is also a musical, but it seemed to fit the need that is usually filled by Christmas music. Frog and Toad did have some Christmas music on it, but it was mainly just a very feel-good album for days when the writing was moving slow.
I found Thornley’s album COME AGAIN, first, and loved it. Three Days Grace came that same week. I found both through listening to a local radio station 105.7 KPNT, New rock for St. Louis. They played the singles and I went searching for the album. The two albums came when I’d almost given up on finding any music to write A STROKE OF MIDNIGHT to. I mean I was recycling music from the last Merry book, but it wasn’t satisfying. I find that each book seems to have it’s own personality, and mood, and needs music accordingly. Then when we were on tour a fan gave us two album mock-ups by a group called Breaking Benjamin. He said, “If you like them, please buy the albums.” I promised I would. The mock-ups were not great quality, and it almost sunk them, but by that time I needed a music break, so in desperation I bought one album to see if it was better in higher quality. Oh, my, God! Yes, it was. The first Breaking Benjamin album that I got was SATURATE. I think I went out the next day and got their album WE ARE NOT ALONE. I loved them both. Thanks so much to the gentleman who gave us the dubs on tour. If you hadn’t handed them to me, I might never had discovered this great band. Thank you so much. I am embarrassed to say that I cannot recall your name. Thank you again.
Late in the book I’d exhausted four great albums, nine if you count the musicals, too. Nine wonderful albums, and the book was not done, and I needed new music again. Like I said, a record. Then I heard a truly disturbing version of John Lennon’s of IMAGINE by a band called A Perfect Circle. The album was EMOTIVE, and there were a lot of other great songs on it.
But even A Perfect Circle’s EMOTIVE could not get me through the home stretch of MIDNIGHT. What’s a girl to do when she exhausts great band after great band? Well accident, and my lack of technological no-how was about to come to the rescue. Jon had put Thornley, Three Days Grace, and both the Breaking Benjamin albums on an mp3 player. A Perfect Circle’s EMOTIVE had gone on the player, as well. One day I was trying to find a specific song instead of just playing the play list beginning to end, and I hit the wrong button at the wrong moment. Suddenly the play list was in shuffle mode and I was listening to Thornley’s Falling to Pieces followed immediately by Three Days Grace’s Burn, and A Perfect Circle’s Peace love and Understanding. At first I was horrorified, and a little angry. Damnit, I didn’t need my music to get screwed up. Then I realized that by shuffling all these songs that I liked in a very new, fresh order, it made all the music fresh again. I liked the songs, that hadn’t changed, I just needed a little bit of a change. The accidental shuffling did the trick. These songs on shuffle are what got me through the end of A STROKE OF MIDNIGHT. The music got me through the end game, and all the way through the rewrite, and the return of it from New York. It takes some damned good music to live in my head for that many months, and still make me smile. Or, make me dance. Yes, when I’m thinking really hard sometimes a little dancing around the office, using the body really hard, will shake something loose, and help me get back to work. Any way, that’s it. That’s the play list for A STROKE OF MIDNIGHT, Merry number four.
Thanks to all the bands that kept me going. Thanks to everyone who recommended music to Jon and I.