Music seems to be the one thing that can bring people together. I think that it doesn’t matter who you are- when you listen to a song, hundreds and thousands of people are probably listening to that song too at more or less the same moment you are, and that’s quite an awesome thought. Who you are, where you live, what your beliefs are, or who you love - nothing matters. All that is important is the sound of that tune throbbing in your ears and the tapping of your fingers as you try and write that next scene in your masterpiece.
Music enthuses us, gives us inspiration, and entertains us while thoughts of angst, passion, sexy antics, men in love and family life all spiral out of our fingertips, down onto a keyboard and hopefully create a story woven by music that others will want to read. Probably while they listen to music too. It’s the gift that keeps on giving.
Plato said - Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything.
I rather liked John Lennon’s quote - Music is everybody's possession. It's only publishers who think that people own it.
When I was writing Double Alchemy, I had a yen to listen to some Celtic music so I could get a feel for the Welsh sorcerer Taliesin featured in the book. You can hear one particular rather haunting song, called Dragon Land, on the book trailer. So my playlist for Double Alchemy includes some instrumental folk music. I also love Indie Rock and some alternative rock- I’m all for loud, brash music when I write. So I’ve got Kasabian, Muse, The Killers and IAMX, a real favourite of mine. Alex Clare is on there too, along with the great band, Imagine Dragons. And with titles like ‘Human’, ‘Kiss and Swallow’, ‘Hear Me’ and ‘Demons’ I thought them very fitting for this book *grins* Especially the Kiss and Swallow bit.
There’s a little bit of a couple of my all time loved composers - Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky . There’s nothing Quinn likes better than relaxing to some classical music when he’s in the study saving the world and deciding what tough decision he has to make today. So he relaxes to violin concertos, the music of Swan Lake and some beautiful jazz suites.
Cade tends to enjoy the music of the moment and he’s a great fan of Nickleback and Foo Fighters so there are a couple of tunes in the mix especially for him. He also loves himself a bit of Ben Howard (if truth be told I think he’d like a little more of Ben Howard that Quinn would like him to have) so he’s on the playlist too. I think Cade feels a bit of an affinity with Ben because as a surfer, he spends so much time in the water. My son Jason had the privilege of attending a very intimate gig with Ben (about twelve people in all) at a local venue but that was before Mr Howard became as big as he is now. But apparently he was amazing even then.
You can check out all the songs here on my Soundcloud account in the playlist for Double Alchemy.
Double Alchemy
Susan MacNicol
Genre: m/m paranormal romance
Publisher: Boroughs Publishing Group
ASIN: B00J7FVYRC
Book Description:
Powerful yet tormented modern warlock Quinn Fairmont must initiate the silver-eyed Cade Mairston into the world of witchfinders, Withinners, and what can happen when two men fall truly, madly, deeply in love.
THE WORLD IN SHADOW
In modern London there lurks a warlock, Quinn Fairmont. Dangerous, powerful, tortured, sharing his body with the soul of an ancient Welsh sorcerer, Quinn is never alone—and never wholly himself. He fights against all those who would exploit his kind. He takes pleasure where he can find it.
In the forest of Hampstead Heath, Quinn’s hometown, Cade Mairston appears to him like a waking dream. Lithe, lean and silver-eyed, he evokes feelings in Quinn unlike any other: lust with true affection, immediate and shocking. Cade is clearly more than he seems. And yet, if a man of the world, Cade is innocent. He knows nothing of warlocks, witchfinders or Withinners. He knows nothing of what he is, what he might be, or what he might feel. For him, the story is just beginning. Magyck, peril and passion await.
About the Author:
Sue Mac Nicol was born in Leeds, Yorkshire, in the United Kingdom. At the age of eight, her family moved to Johannesburg, South Africa where she stayed for nearly thirty years before arriving back in the UK in December 2000. She has written ten novels, two novellas and a screenplay since February 2012 and clearly believes in keeping herself busy. She has found herself wanting to stay in the genre that is M/M Romance so more can definitely be expected.
Sue is a member of Romance Writers of America and Romantic Novelists Association in the UK. She is also a member of a rather unique writing group, called the Talliston Writer’s Circle, which in itself has a story all of its own to tell and lives in the rural village of Bocking, in Essex, with her family. Her plan is to keep writing as long as her muse sits upon her shoulder. Her dream is to one day make enough money to give up the day job and get that big old house in the English countryside overlooking a river, where she can write all day and continue to indulge her passion for telling stories.
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