Posts Tagged arts
‘It began as a buffer to domestic chaos…’ – Jan Ruth
Posted by Roz Morris @Roz_Morris in Undercover Soundtrack on August 27, 2013
My guest this week began using music as a sanctuary in a busy, rumbustious house. But she soon found that the music was having its own inspirational influence. For her unconventional romance novels she finds rich emotions in the music of Enya, Enigma and Clannad, which also complement the settings of her native Snowdonia. A bereaved character was embodied by an album from Sarah Brightman; a male protagonist was found in The Kings of Leon. Wait – a romance novel with a male protagonist? Well, I told you she was unconventional. She is Jan Ruth and she’ll be here tomorrow with her Undercover Soundtrack.
‘The impossible bridge between words and music’ – Philippa Rees
Posted by Roz Morris @Roz_Morris in Undercover Soundtrack on July 30, 2013
My guest this week has frequently noticed how many Undercover Soundtrack authors describe music as a benign, supportive influence; a creative partner, if you will. She says for her it has been more of a gauntlet; a challenge to reach further with her prose, to infuse every syllable with power and nuance. She has two works. The first is a novel, which she describes as a warm-up for the second – a poetic narrative of western culture and science. Well, we love the unusual and unclassifiable here, so she’ll be right at home. She has also been a frequent and incisive commenter on my blogs, so it is all the more pleasure to host her. She is Philippa Rees and she’ll be sharing her Undercover Soundtrack on Wednesday.
‘This song changed my novel’ – Caroline Smailes
Posted by Roz Morris @Roz_Morris in Undercover Soundtrack on May 13, 2013
My guest this week says she always found music a distraction rather than a help in her writing. Until a lyric sneaked into her thought processes – and from then on the novel took its own turn. She started writing about a secret siren world in a derelict swimming baths, and a character who is looking for a home. She is Caroline Smailes, the novel is The Drowning of Arthur Braxton, and she’ll be here on Wednesday with its Undercover Soundtrack.
‘A harsh, frightening and lonely book to write’ – Tabitha Suzuma
Posted by Roz Morris @Roz_Morris in Undercover Soundtrack on March 18, 2013
The most haunting pieces on The Undercover Soundtrack delve far deeper than inspiration. My guest this week shares a very personal story. Her debut novel, about a teenage piano prodigy, didn’t come from a captured track in headphones. It was her own brother learning Rachmaninoff piano concertos in the room above hers. The character struggles with bipolar disorder, as she has in her own life. A later novel tackles an incestuous and doomed love between brother and sister, a harsh and frightening story that she says took a severe toll on her own mental health. Her fiction has won multiple awards and her brother is finishing his studies at the Royal Academy of Music. She is Tabitha Suzuma and she’ll be here on Wednesday with her Undercover Soundtrack.
‘As I listened, I felt Philip Glass had written the novel for me’ – Linda Gillard
Posted by Roz Morris @Roz_Morris in Undercover Soundtrack on October 8, 2012
My guest this week says her novel would never have made it to publication if not for a piece of music. She’d been trying for a long time to weave two narratives together and was about to give up when by chance she listened to Philip Glass’s first violin concerto. In that piece she suddenly saw the rhythms of her characters and how they could harmonise. She is Linda Gillard, the novel is Untying The Knot and she’ll be here on Wednesday talking about its Undercover Soundtrack
‘Their love song is very sweet and sort of ridiculous’ – Lydia Netzer
Posted by Roz Morris @Roz_Morris in Undercover Soundtrack on July 30, 2012
My Undercover Soundtrack guest this week got her novel’s title from a song by Carbon Leaf. She describes it as ‘a love story with a side of robots and maths’ and so far it’s charmed the critics at People magazine and made Spotlight Book of the Month on Amazon. This kooky tale is Shine Shine Shine, its author is Lydia Netzer – and she’ll be here on Wednesday with a soundtrack that ravels together love, sex, death… and robots.
In audiobook
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