Rebecca loves all kinds of music, everything from classical to rock and roll, from pop to heavy metal, but particularly blues and jazz.
Her favorite instruments are the guitar, piano, drums, harmonica, and saxophone --- this last of which she thinks produces just about the most sensual sound around. So to set the mood for romance, she invariably chooses the following types of songs from her extensive and extremely eclectic CD collection, some of which you might like to try:
- "Lily Was Here" (Candy Dulfer, Saxuality)
- "The Seduction" (James Last Band, Seduction)
- "Take Five" (Dave Bruebeck/Paul Desmond,
The Essence of Dave Bruebeck)
- "Forever in Love" (Kenny G., Breathless)
- "You Don't Know Me" (Bob James/
David Sanborn, Double Vision)
Every now and then, despite the fact that its featured instrument is a trumpet, not a saxophone, Rebecca will throw in Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass's rendition of "Love Potion #9" (on Whipped Cream and Other Delights) --- just because it's so very sexy.
For a slightly livelier atmosphere, she adores all the old hits from Motown's heyday, particularly those by the talented Temptations (Greatest Hits of the Temptations). Rebecca thinks the best get-down song of the century is "Love Out Loud" (Daryl Hall & John Oates, Marigold Sky), and one of her all-time favorite tunes is "Smooth" (Santana, Supernatural).
Like Rebecca, many romance authors use music not just for setting a romantic mood for entertaining, but also for setting a romantic mood for writing. They find that the right music can help to make the words flow. Some authors are inspired by only one type of music: classical, opera, rock and roll, pop, jazz, blues, or country-western. But others, like Rebecca, instead choose music that suits the mood of whatever they happen to be writing at the moment.
Either way, music can be as much a part of the creative-writing process as actually getting the words down. Highly energetic music, such as heavy metal or lively rock-and-roll, can serve to energize actions scenes, while, at the opposite end of the scale, ballads can evoke softness and intimacy. Music pertinent to certain time periods, such as the Fifties, Sixties, and Seventies, can work to bring those time periods alive for authors putting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard).
Authors who choose to write to music also often, with their "mental ear," "hear" a "rhythm" to the words they write, as they write them --- because prose, just like poetry, has a music all its own. Such authors instinctively know when a paragraph or a sentence needs more words --- or less --- to make the words flow in a rhythmically pleasing way. This is why the work of some authors can be read for the sheer lyrical beauty of the prose itself, while that of others "sounds" choppy and/or discordant to the reader's own "mental ear."
   
   
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