A Song for Each Story

Posted on August 14, 2016 by Sonya Lano — Leave a comment

Right now I’m sitting in my flat listening to someone in a flat below mine belt out the lyrics to an absolutely unrecognizable song. Which got me to thinking about how some–oh, wait, now there are multiple people who can’t for their life carry a tune bellowing out the same unidentifiable song, and they sound drunk off their freaking keeters. All guys.

Anyway, at least someone’s having fun 🙂

In any case, some songs I listen to (not the mess my neighbor is singing) end up becoming inextricably linked to some of my stories. The lyrics or something about them somehow reflect something in the characters’ lives, so (for anyone interested) I’ve compiled a list here of those that make me think of certain scenes in my books.

The Ever Spirits

“Speeding Cars” by Walking on Cars

This is my current music obsession that makes me think of the dark fantasy I’m working on because in the second half there’s this quite dark character who comes in, and everything gets messed up between the main character, the love interest, and this new guy, and the lyrics just really seem to fit what the dark character would say (aside from the fact that there aren’t any cars in the story…) Especially toward the end when she’s racing through the forest to save her love and the dark character is in her mind and it feels really intense. Well, to me, at least 🙂 No one else has read it yet!

Gorgeous Ruin

“What You Wanted” by One Republic

(Just FYI, the lyrics aren’t correct in the video – instead of “the only thing left in your life” it’s supposed to be “the only thing left that I like”, and it’s not “I’ll run now, cause this time” but “I’ll run out of this town”)

Yeah, I know it’s The Fault in Our Stars‘ song, but the lyrics still work from Lunar’s point of view, because pretty much all of it fits the story, and there are tons of scenes that flash by while I’m listening to it: the first scene where Lunar kills Prof before Prof can kill Cascade, then of Lunar and Cascade lying side by side in bed in the morning, her eyelids opening to Lunar cupping her cheek and slipping closet to her. Them chasing one another in the under-city of Haven, and later the scene with him running and limping in the factory, Cascade screaming at him to hurry, with their enemies right on his heels and gunshots going off around him. Him and Cascade lying entwined under skyscrapers shining with blue bio-luminescence twinkling down like stars. Them kneeling in the fiberglass forest kissing, sunshine spilling around them…

“Something I Need” by One Republic

Pretty much everything Cascade could say to Lunar. Not to mention the chorus fits, too, especially the last line, because she’s pretty reconciled to having a short life until the very end when she decides she’s going to survive all this crap.

“Just Like Jesse James” by Cher

Makes me think of Cascade and Lunar in a scene where she’s plastered as anything and plays this song because Anza used to tease her about ‘Jesse James’ being Lunar with his ‘pearly smile’ (yeah, right 🙂 ), and instead of laughing when Cascade plays it, Lunar stands up, crosses the room, takes hold of her, and eases her into a slow dance.