Funk-N-Fiction

Hi Jennifer! Thank you so much for having me on your Funk-N-Fiction book blog for Words & Music Monday!

I grew up loving classic rock, 80s pop/rock, 90s grunge, and whatever 60s to 80s country music my dad had on the radio, but also a lot of Broadway tunes as well as the music of John Williams which may as well have been another character in many of my favorite movies. That appreciation of a variety of music styles, along with playing trumpet in band from eight grade through my senior year of college, has led to a lifelong love of all things musical. Over the years, I’ve developed a taste for classical and orchestral music as well. On any particularly day, I might be jamming to Freddie Mercury or Tchaikovsky, Rush or Beethoven, Journey or Rachmaninoff, and if there’s one thing that is a common element in almost everything I have written and published, it’s that music in one way or another always ends up either the core idea or at least a vital part of the story.

My first published novel was The Mussorgsky Riddle that eventually grew into a trilogy called Fugue & Fable. This is the story of a thirteen-year-old boy who grew up obsessed with Russian classical music, so much so that when he falls into a coma, my psychic main character becomes Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade and explores the boy’s mind which has become a prison based on Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. Through the rest of the series, we explore the works of Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff, and Tchaikovsky with the music at the center of the action.

In my fantasy chess series, The Pawn Stratagem, music isn’t quite as central, but when I started naming chapters for Book 3, King’s Crisis, I started using the song titles from the 80s Tim Rice musical Chess as chapter titles and these in turn helped me plot the rest of the book. Similarly, in Carol, my YA retelling of A Christmas Carol, the various Spirits show up announced by such tunes as Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy and Carol of the Bells. Even in my April Sullivan Necromancer for Hire short stories, April and her beau hit the symphony one night only to have the flutist turn into a werewolf halfway through Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain.

This brings us to my new ongoing series. Songs of the Ascendant is my love letter to Gen X and 80s music. Instead of filling my fantasy world with vampires and werewolves, I decided to build my mythology from the ground up with 80s pop music as the inspiration for all the major characters. The initial threat? Pat Benatar’s Shadows of the Night. Next level danger? My elementalists who are basically Earth, Wind, and Fire teamed up with Prince’s Purple Rain. The power players? Juice Newton’s Angel of the Morning and U2’s Angel of Harlem. And that’s just book one.

In short, if you are a lover of music and fantasy, and would like heaping helpings of both in your latest word sundae/book, check out my stuff. You won’t be disappointed.