New Collection and Also Music for Writing

First, the business stuffs or whatever.

I have a new fantasy short story collection out.  Here are the shiny details:

A pregnant witch must decide between protecting her heritage and protecting her unborn child… A man looking for a better life learns there is a permanent price attached to change… Grieving for his lost brother, a man faces the mother of all tornadoes with a little magical assistance… When a social worker threatens to break apart her family, a single mother of two must use all her imagination and courage to escape to a better world.

This is a collection of four fantasy short stories from Annie Bellet.  Included are: River Daughter, La Última Esperanza, Roping the Mother, The Scent of Sunlight.

*Bonus Material*
The first five chapters of “A Heart in Sun and Shadow”, a fantasy novel set in a re-imagined ancient Wales.

You can buy it for Kindle here: http://www.amazon.com/River-Daughter-Other-Stories-ebook/dp/B005SM8372/

And in all other formats via Smashwords here: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/93998

Now, on to what I want to talk about in this post.

Music. Specifically, the music I use when writing.  I’m always curious about what other people listen to while writing (or don’t listen to) but I am not sure I’ve shared some of my favorites.

It often depends on what I’m writing, but generally, I can’t write without music.  I gotta have it.  I prefer music without English or Spanish words (or at least pretty incomprehensible lyrics if they are in a language I understand).  But instead of just waxing on forever about this band or that song or whatever, I figured I’d just post some links so you can listen to things yourself.

For writing SF, lately I’ve been totally hooked on the Halo 3: ODST soundtrack.  Listen to this and tell me it doesn’t make you want to go write something full of spaceships and brave people and guns and stuff:

I’ve also been listening to the Bastion game soundtrack a ton.  You can get the soundtrack (or listen to it) here: http://supergiantgames.bandcamp.com/

For writing fantasy, especially epic-feeling fantasy, Two Steps from Hell is pretty much the winner.  Listen to this and then go write a giant sword fight or sweeping reunion among long-lost companions: 

In general, I’ve been enamored of the Red Sparowes lately:

And for writing romances or fantasy or pretty much anything highly emotional scenes, you can’t go wrong with anime soundtracks.  I really love the work of Yoko Kanno:

So that’s the story with me and writing music.  The right song while writing a scene can help me tap into the emotional core I’m looking for or help me visualize the story I’m telling.  I don’t know how people write without music.  It works for some. Just not for me.

By the way, I’m always on the lookout for more writing music.  So if anyone has suggestions of things I might not have heard of, don’t be afraid to post some links in the comments.

7 Responses to “New Collection and Also Music for Writing”

  1. David Barron

    I’ve had good success with the “Salt” and “Tron: Legacy” movie soundtracks, but there’s always the old stand-by Holst’s “The Planets”, and, for the more leisurely stories/scenes, Rimsy-Korsakov’s “Scheherazade”. Game soundtracks: the “Command and Conquer” themes (original, Red Alert, & the new one) are great…

    but above all, when I want to write an original short story in any genre: “Black Satin” (Miles Davis). Looped. Try it.

  2. Grayson Morris

    Annie, just wanted to let you know I loved the Smashword preview of the river witch story. I’ve got to look at where I can spend moolah to best effect right now, but what an incredibly engaging, well-written story. The collection should sell well. If I thought “fellow writer” reviews would help, I’d be happy to write one, but I fear they only hurt….

    • izanobu

      I’m always happy to get honest reviews of my work and I don’t give a shit if you are a writer or not. You aren’t related to me or anything 🙂 So if you’d like to review it, go ahead. Don’t worry about it.

      And thanks for the compliments. 🙂

  3. Thomas K. Carpenter

    Oh, Red Sparrows is one of my favorites. I can’t remember which book I wrote to them, but it was one of them. Grats again on getting another collection up!

    Tom

    • izanobu

      Yeah, I think it was you who suggested Red Sparowes to me back in Jan when I was desperately writing a novel in a month. It worked!

  4. Brad R. Torgersen

    Two Steps From Hell is excellent stuff! Have you listened to the new album, “Archangel?” More of the same, good, inspiring, operatic kickassitude. And I agree with David Baron, Holst’s, “The Planets,” is quite timeless. Especially for science fiction pieces.

  5. Tom Wells

    I’m not a gamer so it wouldn’t have occured to me to look into game sountracks until I heard this here. I’ll have to go grab a copy. I have always gravitated to movie soundtracks that match the mood of what I’m writing. I have also had songs inspire a story scene, but I suppose that’s another topic.

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