Amber Royer, author of Something Borrowed, Something 90% Dark, a Bean to Bar mystery, is visiting Ascroft, eh? today to tell us about the part music plays in her writing.
Welcome, Amber. I’ll turn the floor over to you –
In addition to writing mysteries and Sci-Fi, I am also a writing instructor and writing coach. I often tell students that it is fine – even inspiring – to write to music. After all, hard rock or high energy classical music may be just what you need to get an action scene moving quickly, bringing you close to keeping tempo with the tension you’re putting on the page. Figuring out a character’s favorite artist can help you build a playlist that gets you into her head when you write. But what you don’t want to do: edit to music. Because those same emotions that you feel sweeping you away when you write may seem to be on the page because of how the music is making you remember how you felt while writing, rather than what you actually said. So it can seem like the writing has emotions that will touch the reader, even if, when read with a more critical eye, it falls flat.
To me, music can also transport me to a place. On one level, there’s that location’s music scene – bands that were born there, venues that are iconic. When you think of Nashville, there’s automatically a soundtrack in your head. When you think of New Orleans, it gives you a completely different feel and sound. But what kind of soundtrack hits your brain when you think of Galveston? (Which is the place where my Bean to Bar Mysteries are set.) Of course, there’s the song by Glen Campbell.
But Galveston’s music scene – and musical history – is so much more vibrant than that. If I had to think of one word to describe it, it would be eclectic. We’re talking about a place that built an opera house in 1894. The Grand has survived through numerous hurricanes, and numerous tastes in art (including a Vaudeville phase, and a stint as a movie house). A few months ago, we saw a musical there. But it has also hosted on its stage everyone from Willie Nelson to the Beach Boys.
Then there was the (somewhat infamous) Balinese Room, situated on a pier out past the Seawall. The spot drew big-name singers to the island. In the 1930s and 40s, headliners included Frank Sinatra and Bob Hope. According to Lost Treasure: the Balinese Room, “During this period it also became Balinese Room lore that head bartender Santos Cruz “invented” the Margarita for singer Peggy Lee in 1948. He supposedly named it after the Spanish version of her name, Margarita, and it’s been a hit ever since.” Of course, this is likely apocryphal, as there are recorded versions of the cocktail mentioned as early as 1936. By the 1970s, the spot had become a disco. In 2008, Hurricane Ike destroyed not only the Balinese Room, but the entire pier it was built on.
Of course, there are smaller, more modern music venues all over the island. You can often hear music wafting out of open doorways in the Strand area, or see performers playing outside. (We recently caught part of a concert by a local Cajun band playing in the courtyard behind Sugarbean coffee shop.) There’s even a Live Jazz on the Seawall concert hosted annually by the San Luis Resort.
I touch a bit on Galveston’s music scene in Something Borrowed, Something 90% Dark. My characters likewise have eclectic taste in music, especially Felicity who grew up with Cajun and country music, but also went to jazz concerts with her best friend, and is learning about European techno music from one of her two love interests. So it is only natural that, having expanded her shop’s café area into the space next door, she should look at hosting a few music events. (This is partly inspired by the real-world Jazz nights at Dallas-area chocolatier Chocolate Secrets. If you ever get to try their chocolate mousse cake – I highly recommend.) This all gets rolling because of the live jazz band coming into town for the wedding Felicity is helping plan. Felicity has been doing pre-wedding matron of honor duties for her best friend, Autumn, for several books now. Finally, the big event has arrived – if Felicity can prevent it from being spoiled by the inevitable murder that falls into every cozy mystery. The jazz group is friends with Autumn’s brother, who lives down in Padre. They’ve come into town a few days early and wind up meeting in Greetings and Felicitations, Felicity’s chocolate shop. They offer to do a little jam session – which turns onto an actual concert.
I love getting to play with music in this way, writing my first-person character listening to people play, feeling her emotions as she gets caught up in the live performance. It’s bringing full circle that idea of music inspiring me as a writer to get into character emotions in the first place.
Thank you for sharing this with us, Amber, and good luck with Something Borrowed, Something 90% Dark, the latest book in the Bean to Bar mystery series.
Readers can learn more about Amber Royer by visiting the author’s website and her Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Goodreads pages. Readers can also follow her on Twitter.
The book is available online at Amazon
About Amber Royer: Amber writes the CHOCOVERSE comic telenovela-style foodie-inspired space opera series, and the BEAN TO BAR MYSTERIES. She is also the author of STORY LIKE A JOURNALIST: A WORKBOOK FOR NOVELISTS, which boils down her writing knowledge into an actionable plan involving over 100 worksheets to build a comprehensive story plan for your novel. She blogs about creative writing techniques and all things chocolate at www.amberroyer.com. She also teaches creative writing and is an author coach. If you are very nice to her, she might make you cupcakes. Chocolate cupcakes, of course.
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