Sept 18, 2012 – When it comes to writing, I typically prefer to listen to Pandora’s soundtrack radio–soundtracks offer me the wide variety of action songs with sweeping sections and high intensity. They also offer moody, melancholy movements that summon tears to the eyes. Songs like The Kiss from The Last of the Mohicans soundtrack are wildly distinctive–every time I hear it, I see Daniel Day Lewis racing through the woods, the fight scenes, the passion—it bursts into life in my mind’s eye.
You can’t really beat that.
So when I start a new novel, sometimes I make a playlist for it. These are the songs that bring key sequences to life for me. Some are familiar, some are not. But in no particular order, when I wrote Yesterday’s Heroes, this is what I listened to:
- Black Widow Kicks Ass – Ironman 2 Soundtrack
- Catch Me Now I’m Falling – The Kinks
- Ghost Rider – Henry Rollins
- Jimmy Olsen’s Blues – Spin Doctors
- Superman’s Song- Crash Test Dummies
- Superman – Five for Fighting
- Extreme Ways – Moby
- Iron Man – Black Sabbath
- Don’t Fear the Reaper – Blue Oyster Cult
- Hot Blooded – Foreigner
- A New Day Yesterday – Jethro Tull (And where we got our name)
- Carry on My Wayward Son – Kansas (for all the guys and yes, completely inspired by Supernatural)
- Rock of Ages – Def Leopard
And the song that inspired the whole series:
The Terminator theme—the moody piece that bookended the first movie with the opening credits to the moment Sarah Connor drives off into the desert because a storm is coming…
I get chills just thinking about it.
Music doesn’t tell the whole story, but Yesterday’s Heroes is just the beginning…
About Yesterday’s Heroes
Aurora “Rory” Graystone
Codename: Halo
Abilities: superior reflexes, I.Q. and aptitude for calculating probabilities
Mission: find missing teammates
Rory knows she’s being watched, and she’s not about to let the hunter catch her in his trap. She’ll confront her stalker, a man she suspects is involved in the disappearances of other superheroes–if she can ignore the sensual heat that fills her every time he’s near…
Michael Hunter
Codename: Hard Target
Abilities: expert tracker and sniper
Mission: kill Rory Graystone
One of five desperate men sent back in time to save the future, Michael believes eliminating Rory is the key to his mission. But even as he takes aim, a split second of doubt causes him to miss his shot.
Drawn together by passion, and on a collision course with fate, can Rory and Michael work together to change the future? Or have they set in motion the horrific history the time-travelers are trying to prevent?
Heather Long lives in Texas with her family and their menagerie of animals. As a child, Heather skipped picture books and enjoyed the Harlequin romance novels by Penny Jordan and Nora Roberts that her grandmother read to her. Heather believes that laughter is as important to life as breathing and that the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus are very real. In the meanwhile, she is hard at work on her next novel.
) but country music often does a fantastic job of telling a story, which can lead to making the song more evocative. Garth Brooks’ songs, for instance, told a story more often than not.