Music, much like stories, has always been woven into the fabric of my experiences. Though not for a living, I can sing. I sang in the high school choir. I sang in the church choir, back when it was still one of my hangout places. These days, I try to sing in my poetry and prose.
Anyway, music is my mind’s sanctuary. After a writing session, I put something on and let it do what words, for a moment, cannot — dissolve the residue of the work. There are songs that just keep me going, entertain or make me think. Sometimes a song gets stuck on a loop in my head, and I let it. There’s usually a reason.
In no particular order, here are the top three songs that have been on continuous replay lately:
Mostly, I write in complete silence. But every so often, in the middle of a scene, a song would surface unbidden — rising out of some interior place I hadn’t been consciously tending. That’s when I understood that music wasn’t separate from the writing. It was doing something underneath it.
With DISV, certain songs became almost cinematic for me. I could see the characters move to them, or go still. I could feel how a particular chord change would catch a character off guard, the same way a revelation might. Music didn’t just accompany a moment but unlocked it in my mind as I wrote.
So I built a playlist.
Now, as I ease into summer, I’m slowly working through character and song pairings for specific chapters. I’m letting the music annotate the story in a different register. I’ll be sharing these via the newsletter, where I write earnestly and honestly about both the work and the life around it. In the meantime, check out the playlist — take a listen and take a guess!
In my newsletter, I’ve also written about why I’m not having a formal book launch. Let’s just say my word for 2026, flexible, has been earning its keep in ways I didn’t entirely expect. So I’m having a quiet celebration, and perhaps this feels right too for a book that began in silence.
So, here’s to music, solitude and a little summer wildness. 🙂
Happy Midsummer, in advance, if you celebrate it!
