Oct
Saturday Salon – Ghostwriters of the Soul
I don’t write to music. I prefer quiet (or rather, my dogs’ snores).
Atlas, snoring on the couch in my office
But for every book I write I create a playlist that I listen to while busy with other tasks—driving, running, gardening. This music keeps me in the story, where I most love to be.
Each playlist is unique to each couple, each love story. The songs reflect the characters’ personalities, or the tone of a scene or a whole book. Sometimes the lyrics draw me, at other times a musical phrase, and often a singer’s voice. Mostly it’s the intensity of emotion that grabs me. So I think of the songwriters and singers on my playlists as ghostwriters, inspiration that speaks to the soul of each book.
Le Chevalier de Saint-George
I draw from many different types of music for my playlists. First and foremost, music particular to the culture or period that I’m writing about is essential. When I was writing Swept Away by a Kiss, I lingered over symphonies and concerti written by the “Mozart Noir”, Joseph Boulogne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, a Frenchman born in the Caribbean to a white plantation owner and a former slave, who became a celebrated composer, master fencer, and dashing ladies’ man in Paris before the Revolution.
Orlando as Buckingham. Breathy sigh or ROTFL?
To help you place Boulogne, he was a contemporary of Alexandre Dumas Sr., father of the Alexandre Dumas who wrote The Three Musketeers. (Who else is excited to see the new movie?!)
Because of the different nature of the characters and story, Captured by a Rogue Lord got quite another sort of musical treatment. While writing that book I learned sea chanteys like “My Son John” and “Haul Away Joe”, and sang them to friends and strangers alike whenever anybody would listen. (I actually sang one of these sailor songs at a book signing once. If any of you lovelies are ever crazy enough to ask, I will be happy to sing one for you too.)
For my research trip to Scotland while writing When a Scot Loves a Lady, I stuffed my iPod with Scottish folk songs. I plugged them into the stereo of my 6-cylinder black Mercedes Benz while I drove through the green, rolling hills of the Lothians, filling my head and heart with the music of that land while I explored.
The Benz in front of my B&B, a Georgian Manor House
(I’d rented a compact car, by the way, but the Mercedes was the only automatic transmission available at the rental car agency. I’m intrepid, but not enough to drive a stick with my left hand, and I’m so glad. It was like Christmas on top of Christmas!)
My playlists have plenty of today’s popular music in them too. The rough male vocals, rich guitar, and heart-pounding rhythms of a few testosterone laden super bands—Nickelback, Breaking Benjamin, Linkin Park—often reflect my heroes on my playlists, driving all that tortured-soul-with-unswerving-purpose I like to write. The moment I first heard Eddie Vedder’s “Hard Sun”, it gave me chills and I knew it was Steven Ashford’s song. The emotion and lyrics are so powerful and aching, heartbreak and injustice mounting to a haunting pitch, it put me in Steven’s head and heart every time I listened to it. (I love this YouTube version. The banner of Steven’s ship is a black hawk on a yellow backing.)
Of course it’s not all torture and pain! While Alex Savege’s first song is Radiohead’s darkly aggressive “Talk Show Host”, Alex’s heroine Serena turned that right around and the next song on that playlist is Faith Hill’s “This Kiss”. I adore sweet, joyful girl bands, like Rosi Golan and her “Shine”, which anchored my playlist for In the Arms of a Marquess. All-out sexy fun works for me too, like Hey Monday’s “Obvious” that perfectly describes Lady Kitty Savege’s need to get very close very quickly to a certain Scottish lord in my next book.
My heroines also often call for the sensual tones of slightly more mature women singers. When Serena first climbed aboard Alex’s ship, Norah Jones’s “Turn Me On” accompanied her. And at one moment in Octavia Pierce’s reunion with Ben Doreé, Sarah McLachlan’s “Fear” said everything.
It’s all about the deep emotion.
And so last but far from least… the love songs. I consider all the songs on my playlists love songs, even if they’re not technically defined as such. But some songs are unquestionably about lovers. 
I listen to these delicious, heart-rendingly romantic songs again and again when I’m writing a story.
Want to know the core songs for the lovers in my Rogues of the Sea trilogy?
Steven and Valerie – Des’ree’s “Kissing You”
Alex and Serena – Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes”
Ben and Tavy – Lifehouse’s “You and Me”
What is your favorite love song of all time? If that’s too hard to choose, how about your top three? If enough of you lovelies tell me yours, I’ll tell you mine, and it might not be what you’d expect!
Oct 22, 2011
2:58 am
That picture of Atlas is just too cute!
I’ll have to think a bit more about my favorite love songs, but I do think Eddie Vedder’s voice is incredible and devastating. Just one of those sounds that turns me inside out.
Oct 22, 2011
10:11 am
Thanks! Right now my little girl, Idaho, is sleeping in the sunshine on the floor behind me, her soft breaths happy with the satisfaction of a good Saturday morning walk.
Vedder’s voice does the same for me, Sabrina. Fantastic.
Oct 22, 2011
3:25 am
Hi Katherine,
I was just heading off to bed when I saw you had posted the Saturday show in the Ballroom and since I never know when I might get in on a Saturday, I thought what’s a few more minutes & I’m glad I did! I love that you have the score worked out in your head for your stories. I like working in complete silence except for the sound of the puter fan and MY dog’s snores. Love the pic of Atlas, dogs really do know how to be comfortable, don’t they?
My favorite love song is ONLY YOU by the Platters (it was our 1st dance song at our wedding) but I was torn between that one and Eric Clapton’s YOU LOOK WONDERFUL TONIGHT [swooning] (it was our closing dance song) BUT had Josh Turner been out of diapers then, I probably would have chosen YOUR MAN instead. Those are my top 3 but I will tell you a secret, the one that gets my blood racing and makes me feel absolutely crazy is JESSICA by the Allman Brothers. I have absolutely no idea why … it just does. Good night and have fun during regular ballroom hours. I’ll try to visit.
Oct 22, 2011
10:17 am
Hi, Amy. I’m so glad you dropped in before bedtime last night.
Josh Turner is new to me (thank you!). His voice reminds me a little of James Otto’s in “Just Got Started Lovin’ You” (which happens to be a song on another book’s playlist). Deep and sexy. Yum!
Isn’t it funny how songs can make us wild and we don’t even know why? That happens to me all the time.
Oct 22, 2011
10:44 am
I’m so glad that I could introduce Josh Turner to you, Katherine, he’s worth a listen. His voice is so dreamy, deep and mellow. I was shocked the first time I saw what he looked like – he looks like a kid and the last thing you expect is that deep melodious voice coming out of him. : )
You should check out some of his other songs – the first one I ever heard was a gospel song and his rendition blew me away. “The Long Black Train” Enjoy! : )
Oct 22, 2011
11:41 am
Wow, he does look young! And what a cutie.
Thanks!
Oct 22, 2011
3:38 am
Wow, that’s a hard question for so late at night! I must think on it.
When I work, I like upbeat songs to keep me going. What I listen to the most is the soundtrack for “Jeeves and Wooster”. Hugh Laurie’s vocals is so fun!
Oct 22, 2011
10:19 am
I love show soundtracks, infinitieh. Actually, I probably listen to them more than anything else, especially when I’m doing housework or cleaning. I think it’s because I love stories, and listening to a show soundtrack makes me feel like I’m in a story while I’m working. It sure makes the work go by faster!
Oct 22, 2011
4:43 am
Hi Katharine
This is a tough one, I’m not a huge fan of the slow and smoochy and the power ballads of the 80′s drove me absolutely crazy.
Other than that, it tends to be a mix of all kinds of music, I love Amy Winehouse’s album ‘Back to Black’ (all of it), Guns ‘n’ Roses ‘November Rain’ and Robbie Williams ‘Angels’.
I also tend to like old songs and soul, I absolutely adore Nina Simone’s ‘My Baby Just Cares For Me’. Something for everyone in that list I think, *g* I’ll probably think of more later, that could end up a very long list.
Oct 22, 2011
10:29 am
Something there for everyone indeed! I don’t know what a “power ballad” is, but if it’s what I’m guessing then I’m surely a sucker for some of them, but the more recent bad-boy-band versions rather than the 80′s ballads. I too have my own not-with-a-ten-foot-pole musical category, though I’ll always try out a new song or band if a friend recommends it. I never would have listened to a song by Eddie Vedder (I didn’t care for Pearl Jam’s music) if my sister hadn’t recommended “Hard Sun” to me. But I love the huge variety of music available to us all now via iTunes and Pandora and the like. It’s so exciting to discover new bands. Thanks for sharing some of your faves.
Oct 22, 2011
7:31 pm
Power ballads are probably what you’re thinking, Katharine.
Example, Jennifer Rush ‘The Power of Love’ or Chris de Burgh ‘Lady in Red’. I don’t think my problem was with the songs as such, more that they were played over and over and this being in the days before the iPod, (I feel so old saying that)I had to listen to what everyone else was listening to.
I will listen to pretty much anything but I like a bit of variety. So yeah, it’s great that there’s so much variety available now and in so many different formats. *g*
Oct 22, 2011
11:18 pm
Oh, Beebs, if those are the power ballads you were talking about, I’m all in with you, lol.
I remember working at the local mom-and-pop grocery market my senior year in high school and having to hear “Every Time You Go Away” approximately ten times each shift. One day I nearly vandalized the radio. And don’t get me started on “Every Breath You Take”. I loved loved loved that song… until I heard it a hundred and twenty times a day. I swear it took me 20 years to be able to actually enjoy it again. :}
Oct 22, 2011
8:47 am
Great blog, Katharine! Here are my top three (for right now)
Dave Matthews- Crash (Mine and the husband’s song)
Adele- Someone Like You (Thank God for this woman’s talent!)
Paula Cole- Feelin’ Love (OMG, this is one hawt song!)
And just for fun: Robin Thicke- When I Get You Alone
Oct 22, 2011
10:32 am
Marquita, I just watched the pilot to Roswell last night, with the Dave Matthews song so incredibly perfect in that last scene. Wow, what a great song and a great use of it. I’ll have to check out Paula Cole–she’s new to me, thanks!
Oct 22, 2011
9:00 am
Miss Ashe, once again you have dragged impropriety into my ballroom. That Miss Monday is a scandalously loose canon, and if she truly speaks for Lady Katherine Savege, I may be tempted to invite them both to my party much sooner than planned.
Oct 22, 2011
10:33 am
Fabulous! I’m sure Kitty will be happy to visit any time. She loves a good scandal-laden ballroom.
Oct 22, 2011
9:09 am
hi kat,
Don’t know if this is coincidence but now i’m reading your book “Swept Away by a kiss” and now i’m listening the song “kissing you”
I love all the song you’d choiced againts your book
i think my top three music will be :
Tell Him by Celine Dion ft Barbra Streisand
You Got Me by Colbie Caillat
I’ll Stand By You by Pretenders
Oct 22, 2011
10:35 am
Hi, Eli. Wonderful!
You know, every single time I listen to Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On”, I get teary. She has a fantastic voice, and it’s so right that she sang with Barbara, two amazing divas.
Oct 22, 2011
9:12 am
Amazing blog Katharine! I adore all your song choices and the thought process that goes into how you listen to each song! I love that you mix it up with old and new, classical and rock. It show how open minded you are!
My favorite love song is Amazed by Lonestar, which is my husband and I’s song. We danced our first dance as husband and wife to that song.
. No matter what I’m doing when it comes on, I stop and listen, always with a huge smile on my face and more often than not a tear or two of happiness in my eyes. 
~Rebecca
Oct 22, 2011
10:39 am
Thanks, Rebecca. I love “Amazed”. It’s just so darn romantic, and how completely lovely that it’s your song with your dh. Sigh! Songs totally make me teary all the time (see my comment to Eli above). I’m pretty much a romantic watering pot. I’m not at all surprised that you are too.
Oct 22, 2011
9:20 am
sorry i meant choose ^^
Oct 22, 2011
1:18 pm
Oct 22, 2011
10:26 am
Wonderful blog, Katharine!
Thank you for sharing the songs that inspire your books. And the next time I see you, you are so singing a sea chanty for me. 
I love listening to love songs, especially late at night. It just calms and mellows me out.
One of my favorite love songs is Love Changes Everything from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Aspects of Love. I think the lyrics are beautiful, and the music just sweeps me away everytime. I found this version with Michael Ball singing it, who originated the role in Aspects of Love, and I think it’s become his signature song of sorts.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43KfEb1mY8E&feature=fvst
I also love You Can’t Hide Beautiful by Aaron Lines What’s more romantic than a man who sees past your percieved imperfections?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FIvIHTWedw
Celine Dion and Luciano Pavarotti also did a great duet, I Hate You Then I Love You-the epitome of the battle of the sexes song. Always reminds me Kate and Anthony in JQ’s The Viscount Who Loved Me
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xixX75qksjc
And I’m also a sucker for All I Ask of You from Phantom of the Opera too.
Oct 22, 2011
10:55 am
Wonderful blog, Katharine! Thank you for sharing the songs that inspire your books. And the next time I see you, you are so singing a sea chanty for me. I love listening to love songs, especially late at night. It just calms and mellows me out.
One of my favorite love songs is Love Changes Everything from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Aspects of Love. I think the lyrics are beautiful, and the music just sweeps me away everytime. I found this version with Michael Ball singing it, who originated the role in Aspects of Love, and I think it’s become his signature song of sorts.
I also love You Can’t Hide Beautiful by Aaron Lines What’s more romantic than a man who sees past your percieved imperfections?
![]()
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FIvIHTWedw
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Celine Dion and Luciano Pavarotti also did a great duet, I Hate You Then I Love You-the epitome of the battle of the sexes song. Always reminds me Kate and Anthony in JQ’s The Viscount Who Loved Me
And I’m also a sucker for All I Ask of You from Phantom of the Opera too.
Oct 22, 2011
10:57 am
Sorry-was trying to get the videos to show up in the post!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43KfEb1mY8E&feature=fvst
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FIvIHTWedw
Oct 22, 2011
11:47 am
Oh, Lisa, that Aaron Lines song is so incredibly romantic. I just finished writing something quite like the sentiment in those lyrics for one of my couples, in fact. Big breathy sigh!
I’m a huge fan of showtune love songs, too. It may not come as a big surprise to you that I am very fond of the love song in Tangled lately.
Thanks for sharing your faves today too!
Oct 22, 2011
12:13 pm
Really enjoyed this blog, as music has always been a catalyst for me in either writing or moving forward from a place in life where I was stuck, or just getting motivated to do housework. Hard to pick three.
Total Eclipse Of The Heart by Bonnie Tyler and just about anyone who sings it even Ellen and Josh Groban.
Joey by Concrete Blonde”Joey if you are hurting so am I.”
Please Remember Me-Tim McGraw “When all our tears have reached the sea.”
I can’t seem to get past the sad loves song this morning .
Oct 22, 2011
1:19 pm
Gayle, I’m completely with you on the pull of the sad love songs. So many of the songs on my playlists (especially for In the Arms of a Marquess) are achy songs of love lost or not quite yet met. They pull at my heart and I just can’t resist them!
Oct 22, 2011
12:31 pm
Great salon topic, Katharine!
I also build playlists for each book. My current one features artists from The Pretenders to Pearl Jam to the cast of Glee.
But one of my most frequently-played tracks on it lately is Ray Lamontagne’s Trouble. A soulful, deep-voiced guy singing “I’ve been saved by a woman; she won’t let me go”…romance inspiration doesn’t get much better than that. 
Oct 22, 2011
1:22 pm
Oh, yum, Tessa! I love it. And it’s so terrific that you make playlists too. I love to see the music that inspires other writers, especially specific characters and scenes.
Oct 22, 2011
1:16 pm
I absolutely love Josh Ritter. He writes some amazing lyrics. One of my favorite love songs by him is “You Don’t Make It Easy, Babe”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63LUzyrPV4Q
My next favorite song by him is “Kathleen” . Those first two lines of the song…
“All the other girls here are stars
You are the Northern Lights
They try to shine in through your curtains
You’re too close and too bright”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bm3lWq4s5-U
And then my third song is by Josh Ritter too, “The Temptation of Adam”.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvCeCVmJAUA
I really do love Josh Ritter’s music. I find his lyrics inspiring.
Oct 24, 2011
8:28 pm
Oh, wow, Elizabeth. I think I could easily come to be a big Josh Ritter fan. Thank you for introducing him to me! Those lines from “Kathleen” are fabulous, and of course now I’m listening to him on iTunes as I write this.
Oct 25, 2011
2:15 am
Josh Ritter is a true poet and he could certainly serenade me with his music. I’m so happy you like him.
Kathleen is a great song and it’s not hard imagining it in a historical romance setting.
Being a lover of literature and poetry it wasn’t hard to fall in love with Josh Ritter’s music. If you like analyzing poems a great song by him is This Blue Flame. Lots of symbolism in it (though nothing to do romance).
Oct 25, 2011
2:16 am
Typo!
*Thin Blue Flame
Oct 22, 2011
5:45 pm
Oooh, so hard! When I start thinking about it, there’s so many that it’s really very hard to choose! But, decision for today at least:
- Groovy Kind of Love (Phil Collins)
- On My Own (from Les Miserables)
- Halo (Beyonce)
- For You I’ll Die (Marion Raven)
(and then I remember that I haven’t chosen Dido’s White Flag or Duffy’s Warwick Avenue or Avril Lavigne’s When You’re Gone… *sighs*)
But, all the above goes out the window when I can get a certain guy (who’s unfortunately just a friend…) behind a piano – then it’s all about the classic Scottish love songs like Ye Banks and Braes, or a set of waltzes, or tunes like The Lea Rig (by Robert Burns – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYMrt_PBBrA) – unfortunately I’ve never yet managed to record him playing a love song (I’m usually a bit distracted…), but if you asked him what my favourite tune is, he would probably point you to this recording of him playing a couple of years ago:
)
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKHaW8hoy40&w=420&h=315
(I hope that works – I’m pretty useless at this posting malarky!
Oct 24, 2011
8:32 pm
Amy, “On My Own” is one of my all-time sing-weeping-at-the-top-of-my-lungs songs. I lovvve it! I also adore Dido and Avril Lavigne (I have several Avril Lavigne songs on a few of my playlists).
As for your Scottish dancing, piano playing man… we really do have to find a way to turn his head in your direction in a more-than-good-friend way. He sounds dreamy. Distraction is all good.
Oct 22, 2011
5:49 pm
Sign me up for the Eddie Vedder’s Voice Makes Me Melt Club please! I fell in love with “Without You” from his Ukulele Songs album the very first time I heard it . Link to live performance on David Letterman earlier this year:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=857m8CBhxmg
Alejandro Escovedo is one of my absolute favorite artists. Not as well-known as he should be (IMHO) but his song “Rosalie” is beautiful and haunting – especially performed live. This link is to the album version but it’s worth hunting down the version from his album “Room of Songs” to hear a slower, more romantic take.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuhHg7AVwXQ&feature=related
“Into My Arms” by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds is the song I want played at my wedding if I should ever take the plunge. Not some sappy, over-the-top emo song but a spare, achingly honest song about love.
Oct 24, 2011
8:45 pm
Fabulous songs, Tanya! These men really know how to write lyrics. Wonderful love poetry.
I’m all for atypical wedding songs. Mine was Georges Moustaki’s “Le temps de vivre”. Makes me smile, makes me remember really vividly why and how I fell in love with my dh.
Oct 22, 2011
6:39 pm
My favorite is “In My Life” by the Beatles. I also love “I Will” by (yep, you guessed it) the Beatles, which I used to sing frequently to my kids and then to their kids.
Oct 22, 2011
11:21 pm
How totally wonderful! I love it that you sang it to your kids and theirs.
Yesterday, as I often do, I woke up my little guy with “You Are My Sunshine” as I kissed his warm, sleepy cheek. During breakfast he said, “Mommy, doesn’t that song end tragically?” LOL. I’m definitely going to have to find an alternative.
Oct 23, 2011
8:26 am
Oh! I saw “The Three Musketeers” a couple of days ago with some friends and enjoyed it tremendously. Orlando Bloom was one of the best things about the movie, together with his clothes lol. It wasn’t a movie with a lot of depth, but then again I didn’t go there expecting to watch something like “The King’s Speech” lol.
As for songs, whenever I hear the word “ballad,” I think of “More Than Words” by Extreme. It’s such an amazing song.
Right now I’m completely obsessed with a South Korean band called SHINee. They have some really catchy songs (I don’t speak the language lol) and their ballads are also really great. One of their ballads is called “Quasimodo,” and it’s the type of song that emotinally crosses all kinds of language barriers. It’s simply beautiful.
Oct 24, 2011
8:49 pm
So glad to hear this about TTM, Antonia. I can’t wait to see it. Calling the babysitter for this weekend now!
This band is SO CUTE. They’re so young, with that adorable Justin Bieber youthful, sincere heart quality that makes his songs and performances so romantic. I love JB, btw. I know this makes me a pariah among everybody I know over 10, but I can’t help it. I’m a sucker for romance in pretty much all forms.