Category: Blog

Insipid Liner Notes – Commander Annie and Other Adventures

I wrote my ultra short story, “Greatest of Them All,” at a conference about women in fantasy called Sirens. It seemed like the perfect intro to COMMANDER ANNIE AND OTHER ADVENTURES to tie the whole book together.

And now it makes a pretty little song.

My novella, “Commander Annie,” is very strongly inspired by a friendship breakup I went through in middle school. It was fully my first heartbreak. And there’s something just so healing about the catchy 80s-style song I’ve made to go with the story. Continue reading “Insipid Liner Notes – Commander Annie and Other Adventures”

Pluribus, Christmas Movies, and Other Tidbits

I’m watching episode three of Pluribus and the fleet of trucks and people that roll up to the Sprouts right after Carol insists she’s a really independent person is quite the sharp commentary on the concept of independence.

Well, I won the game of random Christmas movie roulette tonight with two unusually excellent finds: Continue reading “Pluribus, Christmas Movies, and Other Tidbits”

Insipid Liner Notes – Animal Voices, Unicorn Whispers: Disc 2

My story, “Hide the Honey,” was inspired by my first experience drinking caffeine when I was a kid. It was such a giddy high, and the song absolutely captures the bubbly, fizzy nature of it.

My kid had to write a research essay a few years ago with the title “Jellyfish for Dinner,” so I promised to work on a short story by the same name while he worked on the essay… anyway, this means there’s now a song by that title too. Continue reading “Insipid Liner Notes – Animal Voices, Unicorn Whispers: Disc 2”

An Avalanche of Music

Being able to make my own music with Suno these last few weeks has been such a massively seismic shift in my life. Famine to feast literally overnight, and it’s been taking everything in my brain to process it. I’ve never had enough of the kind of music I want ever before.

There’s just really not quite any other feeling like having whole albums of music perfectly, carefully tailored to my own tastes, filled with messages that mean something to me.

Insipid Liner Notes – Animal Voices, Unicorn Whispers: Disc 1

My story, “Stranger Than a Swan,” is about bonding deeply with something… scarce… when you’re too young to realize, leaving you looking for it for the rest of your life. For me, it was Brian Wilson’s music.

And now, I can make my own music…

The song version of “Gerty and the Doesn’t-Smell-Like-a-Melon” turned out so well that I ended up making the style into a persona and using it for the entire first half of The Necromouser. Continue reading “Insipid Liner Notes – Animal Voices, Unicorn Whispers: Disc 1”

Working Over Posting

Alright, I’ve posted links with blandly positive comments to all of the songs from my soundtrack album for THE OPPOSITE OF MEMORY. I think people should go listen to it! I’ve found it to be a very fun album to play on repeat, and if people want to bug me about individual songs…

It might be possible to unlock more interesting comments from me about the behind the scenes of it all. But otherwise, I have things to make, and so I’ll keep just posting in this way and mostly not engaging a lot. Shrug.

Insipid Liner Notes – The Opposite of Memory, Disc 3

Sometimes when I put a song into Suno, what I get back is pure magic. My Flowers for Algernon-esque story, “Techno Babel” (co-written with Daniel) is one of those cases…

Also, new wave as a genre of music can be kind of amazing.

I just love the part in “The City in My Toaster Oven” where the lead sings “and I’m oblivious and cruel.” This was a fun one to make.

I wasn’t sure how it would go converting such a weird sci-fi story as “The Hand-Havers” into song… but I’ve gotten the “mother of children I didn’t ask for” refrain from this one stuck in my head soooo many times. So, I think it went well!

A lot of people in my writing group have told me that they think “Foreknowledge” is my best story. It was originally written to submit to the Machine of Death anthologies but actually landed in Apex. And now there’s a song inspired by it.

I love, love, love how “Heaven is the Best Moment of Your Life, Infinitely Remixed and Played on Loop” turned out as a song. The story itself was originally inspired by the song “Yeah Sure Whatever” on The Afterparty, make of that what you will.

Translating my story, “Two Roads Diverge,” into song was tricky, because unlike a lot of the others I’ve done, it’s not driven by either plot or place… it’s absolutely about capturing a very specific idea.

I wrote “Where Have All the Mousies Gone” after the 2020 election about how I wished my grandma could’ve been there. Then it won an Ursa Major Award. It was really meaningful getting acknowledgment like that for such a personal story. And now it’s a song!