The sound of the book

I use soundtracks for all my books because I find it’s one of the quickest ways for me to plug into the world and get writing. I generally have either my phone or iPod with me, so I can do just that if I’m out and about and get a chance to write.

I pick songs for atmosphere, songs for characters, songs for mood, songs that have a line of two of lyrics that make the muse go “oooh” even if I don’t always know why. Sometimes I listen to the whole soundtrack, sometimes I listen to one song on repeat, depending on what the scene I’m writing needs. I often pare the soundtrack down to the key songs for the revising part (I have one book where the revision soundtrack is five Dixie Chick songs…over and over and over again) but I didn’t do that with Iron Kin (in fact, the IK soundtrack is quite a long one by my standards). I’ve popped the soundtrack up on the book page on my website but thought I’d put it here too.

Bring Night – Sia

All The Lovers – Kylie Minogue

The Trouble With Me – Robbie Williams

Dance In The Dark – Lady GaGa

Guitar Flute and String – Moby

Catatonic – Hans Zimmer (Sherlock Holmes soundtrack)

Dancing In The Storm – Boom Crash Opera

Set Fire To The Rain – Adele

Bad Romance – Glee cast

Borderline – Chris de Burgh

Mr Brightside – The Killers

Use Somebody – Kings of Leon

Bad – U2

F**kin’ Perfect – P!nk

Take Me Back – Jon stevens

You Stole My Thunder – Mark Seymour

Gloradin – Lisa Gerrard

I Don’t Believe You – P!nk

Crossfire – Brandon Flowers

When The War Is Over – John Farnham

Better – Tom Baxter

Bound To You – Christina Aguilera

Total Eclipse of the Heart – Bonnie Tyler

Throw It All Away – Brandi Carlisle

You Don’t Own Me – The Blow Monkeys

City of Blinding Lights – U2

Impossible – Daniel Merriweather

Do You Mind – Robbie Williams

Man Next Door – Massive Attack

Dog Days – Florence + The Machine

The Only Exception – Glee cast

Flesh Vs Steel – Regenerator

Trust In Me – The Dead Brothers

Living Dolls – Nox Arcana

Breathe (2AM) – Anna Nalick

Love Is A Drug – Eskimo Joe

Come Undone – Robbie Williams

Cursed – Robbie Williams

Make Me Pure – Robbie Williams

She’s The One – Robbie Williams

Yes, it’s a little Robbie heavy…told you he had a touch of the Fens!

PS Five days to go!