Craig Lancaster has a regular feature at his blog, Once More With Feeling, “an occasionally serious, more often comical dissertation on music that strikes a particular chord.” He kindly asked me to contribute a post, which is now live if you want to check it out (and you know you do).

My song-that-struck-a-chord is Troy by Sinead O’Connor, a song I listened to a lot while writing Waiting For Spring. I won’t tell you why here…you’ll have to read the post at Craig’s for that. But working on the post made me think about the other music I wrote to, and I thought I’d share some of it here.

Tougher Than The Rest – Bruce Springsteen

“If you’re rough enough for love, baby I’m tougher than the rest.” People often ask me where Brian came from. The answer: this song.

Diamonds and Rust – Joan Baez

“I need some of that vagueness now, it’s all come back too clearly.” This is the song I listened to while I wrote chapter 18, when Jason visits Tess at her new apartment.

Wheels- Lone Justice

“Sometimes I feel you so close by it takes all my might to keep from trying to track you down.” Any time I wrote for poor, lost Rachel, this was the song I played.

And this is what I would watch to decompress when I wasn’t writing. Because the WFS playlist, while highly effective, was fucking depressing.