My Beat

Hi, it’s Jenny Penn again! I must admit that I love music. I can’t hold a tone for more than a second. I’m one of those people who is doomed to blowing out their eardrums because I have to turn the music up so loud I can’t hear myself singing along. It’s amazing that when the radio is loud enough I can sound like any singer, male or female, singing in English or languages I never knew I could speak!

Music and writing have one big thing in common, a beat. A rhythm that if an author goes off beat from it throws the reader right out of the story. Just like many types of music, there are different rhythms to books. Think of the difference in the slow, sensual flow of writers like Anne Rice or Elizabeth Lowell compared to the fast, frivolous tone of a Johanna Lindsey or Janet Evanovich.

I like to listen to all sorts of music and read a wide range of books. That said, in looking at my bookshelf, at all the authors who I bought every book they ever wrote, I realize that I love hip-hop books, fast paced, fun filled, lacking great drama, but not depth of character books.

Strangely enough, that’s what I write too. If you read Deception, keep in mind that it was written while I was listening to songs like “Give it to me” of the “The Way I are” by shock Value. Not that the lyrics or even the theme of the lyrics are in the book, but I think you’ll see the same kind of rhythm.

It’s a little different in tone than Mating Claire, where I listened to songs off of Pharaoh’s Daughter “Haran” album for those mystical scenes or some rock like “Paralyzer” from Finger Eleven and even techno for fight scenes.

Even if there are differences, both books and all the music have a quick beat in common. Listening to music affects the way I write. Incidentally it also effects the way I drive, but that’s better left for a different blog.

Jenny Penn
Deception – coming soon in fall from Siren Publishing
Mating Claire – coming soon in fall from Siren Publishing
Cattleman’s Club: Patton’s Way – coming soon in late fall from Siren Publishing
http://www.jennypenn.com/
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