Why Song Book?

My short story collection is entitled Song Book because of the stories' connection with the lyrics and music of classic rock songs. Some of the stories, including "Bonnie and Clyde" and "The Siren's Call" were inspired by specific songs, the words and music of which created a mood or an idea that translated into the story. In other cases, such as "Speculation" or "Memory," the story came first, but then quickly became indelibly associated with a song in my mind. With this in mind, each of the stories originally had a epigraph from a classic rock song.

Moreover, songs and their lyrics are often central to the dialogue and the songs they reference often reveal much about the characters that inhabit the collection.

Unfortunately, the business of art got in the way of the beauty of art. When I prepared to publish Song Book, I found out that the legal principle of Fair Use did not apply to rock songs and that, if I were to reproduce the short excerpts from the over thirty songs referenced in the book, I would have to pay something in the range of ten thousand dollars. So, in the end, I excised these lyrics and provided an appendix of the epigraphs without using the lyrics. Where lyrics were central to the story, I created my own "classic rock" lyrics sung by fictional groups the Chocolate Bullfrogs and the Melancholy Grapes!

This allowed me to stay true to the initial Song Book concept, keeping the unity of the collection without bankrupting myself.