I’m not sleepy yet, so you get another post about writing.

Or in this case, soundtracking.

I’ve had the habit of listening to specific pieces of music while writing since I got seriously going on what turned out to be my first complete novel. But it’s generally been a small number of songs associated with each book: usually about two. (And by “associated” I mean “I listened to them most of the time while writing the book,” which does, yes, lead to a terrifying number of repetitions.)

But since coming to grad school and getting involved in the local gaming community, I’ve picked up a local habit of making soundtracks for games: character soundtracks for the ones I’m playing in, game soundtracks for the one I ran. And I speculated, some time after I started doing so, that one day I might find myself making a proper novel soundtrack.

That day is today. Or rather, that novel is this novel; I knew months ago that Midnight Never Come would be the pioneer in this field.

The reason is obvious: as I’ve mentioned before, the novel grew out of one segment of that game I ran. I made quite a few soundtracks for Memento, and each segment basically ended up getting ten songs, which meant I had ten songs already associated with the seeds of this story. Not all of them are applicable, of course, since the novel is not identical to the game, but it gave me enough of a starting block that it felt quite natural to create a proper soundtrack for this book.

It’s an in-progress thing; I haven’t chosen songs for certain characters yet (like oh, say, Deven), and a lot of the “event” tracks are also undecided. But I thought I’d provide a sampler, so that anybody who recognizes these songs will have an idea of the mood of the book. (Mostly you need a good film score collection for this one; I’m not the sort of writer who can use a lot of modern pop music to inspire a sixteenth-century novel.)

• Midnight Never Come — “Elizabeth – Overture,” David Hirschfelder, Elizabeth
• Queen of the Onyx Court — “Corso and the Girl,” Wojciech Kilar, The Ninth Gate
• The Virgin Queen — “Go Bid the Soldiers Shoot,” Patrick Doyle, Hamlet
• Lady Lune — “Ophelia (Version 1),” Ennio Morricone, Hamlet
• Tiresias — “Poison Milk,” Joe LoDuca, Brotherhood of the Wolf
• Walsingham — “Give Me Up the Truth,” Patrick Doyle, Hamlet
• The Goodemeade Sisters — “Concerning Hobbits,” Howard Shore, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
• The Tower of London — “The Sheriff and His Witch,” Michael Kamen, Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves*
• The Onyx Hall — “All Hallow’s Eve Ball,” Alan Silvestri, Van Helsing*
• Royal Palaces — “Coronation Banquet,” David Hirschfelder, Elizabeth*

(*Songs marked with an asterisk have been edited so I’m only using a selection of the whole. Usually because the other part of the song is radically different in tone.)

The actual ordering of things is undecided. Also, there are other songs I know I’ll be using, but I have to decide how to title them so they won’t constitute spoilers. (The Memento soundtracks were made after the game segments in question.) But this does give a general idea. I also have playlists, from which the soundtrack songs are chosen: one for the Elizabethan Court, one for the Onyx Court, etc. It means I’m not listening to the same two songs ad infinitum, which is probably good for what’s left of my sanity. I may or may not post the entirety of those playlists on my website when all is said and done; I certainly will post the contents of the soundtrack.

Or rather, the titles; I’d love to throw up mp3s and let you all listen along, but I suspect the RIAA would take exception to that.

Okay, sleepy now. Bedtime.