Guest Blogger: Alison Tyler

It's hopping around here. The joint is jumping. I had a guest blogger yesterday and now today, too! What can I say, this is a partying kind of blog ;)

Now that I sound like Fonzi from Happy Days, twist your way on down and read AT's guest blog and check out her brand new book Dark Secret Love.

If you were around 'back in the day' (seven years or so) you might remember parts of this book from her blog. She was posting every day and keeping a great many of us on edge with her tales from the past. Now that's all been gathered in book(s) form and the beginning is DSL. Whether you've never read any of it or were reading it in the way back machine, I urge you to grab a copy. It'll grab you right back.

XOXO
Sommer


Turn Up the Volume

I saved this one for Sommer, because she is to 80s music as Iam to 80s music. Yeah, the SAT question writers would fault me for that one. But there can be two right answers every once in awhile, yes?

So picture a jukebox. Not a replica. The real deal. With colorful neon, those gorgeous curves, and records. Not CDs. Not MP-whatever-the-fucks. Slippery vinyl records. Push the buttons. Choose your song.


That’s how jukeboxes usually work.


But when I was writing Dark Secret Love , I let the music choose me. (I know. I know. We’ve wandered into Zen land. Accidentally, of course. Don’t breathe the breath; let the breath breathe you.) But I drive when I’m thinking. And while I was writing the first draft of Dark Secret Love (oh, seven years ago), I would let the radio gods shine on me each day. Almost all of the posts I penned was inspired by a specific song. Not the content of the posts, but the tone.


The Who’s Behind Blue Eyes

Blondie’s Heart of Glass
Squeeze’s Black Coffee in Bed
Guess Who’s She’s Come Undone
The Cure’s Show Me, Show Me, Show Me
Leonard Cohen’s Everybody Knows
Roxy Music’s Love is the Drug
Pink Floyd’s Shine On You Crazy Diamond
I’ve always been musically inspired. One of my very first sales (back in the dark ages) was a story based on a line in Prince’s When Doves Cry. And you all know that many of my BDSM collections are based on song titles: Hurts So Good, Love at First Sting, Slave to Love.
But Dark Secret Love was different. Because I wrote to the atmosphere the songs gave me. I let the rhythms get under my skin. I became obsessed each day with the next post’s song. I couldn’t turn off the radio until I heard the right one.
There’s magic in the music. I’ve always known that.
If you read Dark Secret Love , you may be able to hear the magic for yourself.


Alison Tyler was a deejay back when deejays spun records. She had that coveted 12-3 a.m. shift, interspersed every so often with a 3-6 a.m. shift. She still can’t pass a record store without going inside. Visit alisontyler.blogspot.com for late-night chatter over the airwaves.