@MaraValderran #Giveaway and Guest post: Soundtrack Series Part 3 for "Heirs of War" blog tour

Heirs of War

Book One

New Adult/Upper Young Adult Fantasy

October 13, 2013

Blurb:

Seventeen-year-old Zelene doesn't believe in magic or prophecies. When she's told she is part of the prophecy foretelling five powerful girls bringing peace to the war-torn worlds, she scoffs. The idea of other dimensions layered on top of the world she lives in is almost as ludicrous as the idea that she might be able to save them. After she is attacked by magic-wielding assassins, she finds she can't argue with reality.

As their enemies strike, the girls are taken back to their world and discover the ties binding them together. Rhaya has always had an uncanny knack for reading people, but can’t seem to unravel the mystery tying her to Isauria, the new friend she bonded with instantly. For years, Isauria has been dreaming of Terrena, a girl living her life on the run in a magical world ripped apart by the tragedies of war, completely unaware that she is psychically linked to the world she was born in.

Zelene views them all with a distrustful eye, familial bonds or no, and can think of a place or two she’d like to shove the crown she supposedly inherited. When she learns that her long-lost twin Ariana has been captured by the rebels, Zelene’s attitude changes. She doesn’t know how she is supposed to go against an army of magic-wielding rebels when her own ability to manipulate the elements is still locked within her. But can she trust the elders to rescue Ariana when it seems their medieval politics are what brought about the war in the first place? With all that is at stake, the answer becomes clear to Zelene.

Screw the worlds. She’s getting her sister back.

Links:

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Soundtrack Series Part 3: Heartbreak

On any given day, you can find me typing away furiously as my soundtrack blares throughout my house. Sometimes I might even be singing along, or just closing my eyes as I imagine what is happening to my characters during that particular song. Without music, I really don’t think I’d be able to write. I’ve changed entire plots based on what I see when I listen to one song. Last time, I talked about the broken hearts and battered souls I’ve created and the songs that inspired them. But you can’t have broken hearts without having lovebirds, right? Well, here are some of the songs that inspired those pairings.

Within Temptation “Memories”

“In this world you tried, not leaving me alone, behind. There’s no other way. I’ll pray to the gods: Let him stay. The memories ease the pain inside, and now I know why. All of my memories keep you near. In silent moments, imagine you’d be here. All of my memories keep you near, in silent moments, silent tear.”

You know, there’s still part of me that is mad at myself for even creating Garrett. Why? Because I love him, and I love him with Terrena. But the fact is, she knew from the beginning of their relationship that she could never tell him the truth of who she is, and she would one day have to leave him. In some ways, being raised with full knowledge of who she is and what she must one day do makes it worse for her than the other girls, who didn’t have a clue. She loves Garrett, but she only tortures herself by being with him, because she knows she is constantly on the edge of saying goodbye. One day, he will just be a memory, and that thought breaks her heart.

Lifehouse “Whatever It Takes”

“I’ll do whatever it takes to turn this around. I know what’s at stake, I know that I’ve let you down. And if you give me a chance, believe that I can change, I’ll keep us together, whatever it takes. She said ‘If we’re gonna make this work, you’ve gotta let me inside even though it hurts. Don’t hide the broken parts that I need to see.’ She said ‘Like it or not, it’s the way it’s gotta be. You gotta love yourself if you can ever love me.’”

This song is all about Ariana and Alec, with lots of what is to come. I don’t think I make it any secret that these two are drawn to one another, or that Alec has some serious baggage with him. He’s willing to do whatever it takes to keep Ariana safe, but it seems he is always struggling to keep her at arm’s length. He doesn’t want to let her in and doesn’t realize he already has.

Adele “Set Fire to the Rain”

“I let it fall, my heart, and when it fell, you rose to claim it. It was dark, and I was over. But then you kissed my lips, and you saved me. My hands, they’re strong, but knees are far too weak to stand in your arms without falling to your feet. But there’s a side to you that I never knew, never knew. All the things you’d say, they were never true. Never true. And the games you play, you would always win. Always win.”

This song is all about Zelene and Kyle, from Zelene’s perspective. Keep in mind, she has no idea why they broke up. Not really. You, as the clever reader, know that Kyle still has feelings for her that he tries to hide, because he thinks being with her would put her in danger for some reason. But Zelene has no clue. She just knows that the boy she loves—the boy she fell hard for—broke her heart into a million pieces only to sometimes come back and sweep her off her feet once more. It’s a constant roller coaster for her, full of moments where he is an ass and moments where she catches him looking at her like she is the only thing on this planet that matters to him. And every moment with him, regardless of how bipolar they are, is full of intensity and emotion that she doesn’t understand.

Thank you, Katy, for letting me stop by and talk about some of my favorite songs on my soundtrack. And thank you, gentle readers, for spending some time in my writerly world. Now tell me, what are some of your favorite love songs? Keep in mind, they don’t have to be happy! I’d love to hear about what songs inspire you, or what songs come to mind when you are reading about your favorite love stories. 

About the Author:

Mara Valderran has been coming up with stories pretty almost since she could talk, often commandeering her brother's G.I. Joes to play out her fictional tales alongside her Barbies. Once she hit adolescence and realized playing with dolls wasn't cool anymore, she started putting her ideas to paper. And she hasn’t stopped since.

Mara has worn many different artistic hats throughout her life. She has dabbled in screenwriting, plucked guitars and basses, toyed with singing, retired from acting, and drawn some pretty mean stick figures in her time. However, writing books seems to fit her best as she finds nothing more fulfilling than creating worlds and characters she can lose herself in.

Mara is more than just a madwoman with a writing box. She lives in the south with her husband and demanding cat. She hopes to one day meet Daniel Jackson from SG1, or at least the actor who played him. When she’s not writing, you can find her reading, playing video games, or spending time at her favorite local coffee shop.

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Women who rocked: Betty Blowtorch

Betty Blowtorch was a hard-rock band formed in 1998. They had an awesome sound, strongly reminiscent of Joan Jett, especially in her Blackhearts' years. Sadly, they only put out one studio album, Are you Man Enough, before the tragic death of their lead singer in a car crash in 2001. Another album, including rarities and live songs, was released later as Last Call. A movie was made about the band, Betty Blowtorch and her Amazing Adventures. More info here.

Women rockers are few and far between. I've found a few really good ones lately, including In This Moment and Otep, but Betty Blowtorch is one I particularly like, because Joan Jett and the Blackhearts is a classic favorite of mine.

How about you, my readers? Any great women rockers to recommend? Leave your comments!

More Music Talk! David Bowie to release his 30th studio album!

David Bowie, seen to the left in the sexiest role he ever played, in the wonderful movie Labryinth!  Does anyone else wish they would make a more-adult version without all the silly puppets?  I don't mean like porn - get your minds out of the gutter!  I just think there are some interesting and deep ideas expressed in that movie that become lost behind the puppets...  But anyway, that's not what this post it about at any rate!

David Bowie has been rocking for a very, very long time. He started with his first band (the Konrads) in 1962 at age 15. His first hit was in 1969, "Space Oddity." Just today (January 8, 2013), Bowie announced his 30th studio release, The Next Day, scheduled for release in March (8th in Australia, 11th everywhere else BUT the US, where it will be released on the 12th). I don't have anywhere near all of his music in my collection, but according to my Windows Media Players counter, I have 24.3 hours worth of Bowie music in my collection: more than any other single artist! He has done all kinds of crazy things during the course of his career, and I mostly did this post so I can share some of the pictures I found when I did a search earlier today.

While Bowie has been rocking for a very long time, he's a relatively recent addition to my musical favorites. I didn't much care for him when I first heard his stuff in high school (back in his "Blue Jean" and "Modern Love" era in the 1980s), but his music slowly grew on me. According to my husband, who is a huge David Bowie fan, this is normal. Dmitry says he has hated every single Bowie album when he first heard it, and it wasn't until the 3rd time he listened to any given one of them that he started to like them. Heathen had recently been released during our one visit up north to visit my family, and I still remember listening to that album over and over as I drove, with a white-knuckled grip, over the Beartooth mountains from Wyoming into Montana.

I think, historically, David Bowie is best known for his glam era and his alter-ego Ziggy Stardust. What a difference between then and the present!  He is also an acknowledged bisexual, and had tended toward the androgynous over the years, which I really admire.  In fact, I sometimes find myself missing his glam era, because the makeup really accentuated his gorgeous facial bone structure.  But I could say that of most bands; I just love glam rock style.

Because David Bowie has done so much experimentation with styles and music and his own personal lifestyle, there is no single type or style of music that really applies to him, which is part of why I'm finding I enjoy him so much as I listen to more of his music.  Just listening to his music through the ages is a sort of microcosm of all my favorite types and styles of music!

David Bowie, here's to you, to the many decades of terrific music, and to all that is left to come!

Music and my musical obsessions: Styx

I've always loved music(*). I spent 10 years in piano lessons, 8 years in band, 12 years in choir, several years with private voice lessons, and have always loved to listen to music of all sorts. However, I've never really analyzed why I like what I like; have never really critiqued the music and thought about it on a technical level. My husband hasn't had the sorts of intensive lessons I've had, but he's much more critical and knowledgeable about the technical aspects of music, and he's been rubbing off on me, so I've been trying to more critically analyze what music I like and why. I've made short posts in the past about the Crüxshadows and Tommy Shaw, mentioned Tenacious D and GWAR in reviews, linked to songs by Sublime in others... My earliest favorite songs were by the Sweet and Queen ("Fox on the Run" and "Another One Bites the Dust" if you're curious). But my very first true obsession, music-wise, was with Styx.

I was introduced to Styx early by my brother, who along with many other great records, cassettes and 8-track tapes, had the Styx album Cornerstone. I liked it, but didn't think really of music much yet, other than enjoying playing the music my brother had hanging around. (As an aside, my brother later "found religion" and destroyed almost all of them. My niece and nephews were raised in an environment without the benefit of music, other than country, and I think that's just a shame. But that's a story for another day) However, in 7th grade, our English teacher showed us, and played for us, the LP of Paradise Theatre, explaining to us the mythology behind it.   I was interested, especially by the beautiful laser engraving on the LP (you just don't see stuff like that in this modern, digital age). Within the year, Styx released Kilroy was Here, and before I knew it, I couldn't get enough. I begged my mom to buy me every Styx album I could find (and believe me, I managed to find almost all of them), doing odd jobs around the house and ranch to "earn" each of them in turn, and listened to each of them over and over. Styx, Styx II, The Serpent is Rising, Man of Miracles, Crystal Ball, Cornerstone, Pieces of Eight, Equinox, The Grand Illusion, Paradise Theatre, Kilroy was Here... These became my best friends. Those last three became my favorites, their mixture of rebellion and hope being just what I needed to survive the tumultuous waves of junior high. Then disaster! Styx was splitting up! But Tommy Shaw and Dennis DeYoung and James "JY" Young all released solo albums. (Hint: they eventually reformed and are still touring today. I particularly like their album Brave New World, among their newer stuff.)

But what does all this have to do with musical criticism and composition and all that stuff I was talking about earlier? Patience... I'm getting there!


What a lot of people who are only familiar with their later albums might not be aware of is that Styx was considered "progressive" rock, and were way ahead of their time. I've been listening to their albums tonight, and have heard sounds from some of their earlier albums (and while Styx released their first studio album in 1972, they formed in 1961, so they started early on in the rock scene) that are still being used today by such disparate people as Tenacious D and GWAR. My husband commented on one of their songs last night by saying, "That's really 80s," to which I responded, "This song is from the early 1970s." It was off Man of Miracles, I believe, which was released in 1974 (this was prior to Tommy Shaw joining the line-up in 1975; the first album he was involved in was Crystal Ball). Styx was years ahead of its time, and the sounds are still inspiring musicians even today, decades later. That, to me, is pretty impressive, and it has helped me understand why I like the sounds I like, why I become focused on specific bands and certain sounds, and how it all ties in together.

 I like Tenacious D because they use a lot of the same sorts of sounds as early to middle-1970s Styx. I like GWAR because they use some of the same sounds as the harder rock that Styx was known for in the mid to late 1970s. I like the Crüxshadows because they espouse a lot of the same uplifting ideas that many of my favorite Styx albums put into my brain at an early age (even if those ideas were of the "Hey, sit on it and rotate" sort from songs like "I'm OK" on the Pieces of Eight album). I like Dennis DeYoung's solo album Desert Moon because you see in it the reasons he became the driving force behind such a popular band - it was instantly likable, the driving guitar and moody ballads, and every person I played it for fell in love with it. I like Tommy Shaw because he creates intelligent songs in a diverse variety of styles. While they're not always instantly likable, like Dennis' stuff, they grow on you and in the end, I think they are better overall for that. So, for all that, and because they rock, Styx continues to be a strong favorite in my repertoire of music. While Dennis DeYoung no longer tours with them, due to his health issues, and to disagreements with the direction of the band, and while original member and drummer John Panozzo tragically passed away in 1996, they continue to carry on the tradition of rocking. Thanks, guys. You have shaped my life in ways you will probably never know.

(*) PS: "Music Time" by Styx, the only studio song from the otherwise-live album Caught in the Act, was universally panned, but I loved it.  After all... "I love music..."