Finding the Mood Music

It could be considered a crutch, but without the right music--I mean, the absolute perfect music--my books would never get written. This latest WIP, 167 Seconds, seems to require a certain sound (like all of them do) in order to generate provocative imagery, poignant character introspection, and meaningful dialogue. My books are movies in my head, after all, and every movie needs a score, right? I just wish it were possible to somehow include free 'soundtracks' of the music I've used to write these novels, but there are copyright and distribution snags that prevent such a cool perk. So, I've listed a few of the artists whose works have inspired 167 Seconds and linked the YouTube videos above. I also make audio files to post to my website, which you can find at www.carolewolfauthor.com

If you've listened to any of them, you'll notice the darkness in most of these tracks, which is more than appropriate. A good portion of 167 Seconds takes place in a maximum security women's penitentiary, a fictional facility that I've plunked down right in the middle of rural southern Georgia, just twenty miles north of the Florida state line. The central character, 24 year old Adrian Randal, is a Georgia State University student who has murdered her brother-in-law for reasons I won't spoil for you here, but let's just say they're quite controversial. This act has landed her in one of the worst women's correctional facilities in the state for the next thirty years, essentially destroying her life. The place to which she's been sent is a privately owned prison that rivals such institutions as Sing Sing and Attica with a main housing unit designed in the roundhouse style of Stateville Penitentiary in Illinois (an architectural prison style also found in the Netherlands).

One of the biggest concerns my wife and closest friends have had about this novel is whether the prison theme will end up mimicking Orange is the New Black ::sigh:: No. It will not. I believe I may have touched on that subject in an earlier post and dismissed it there as well, and I can assure you--167 Seconds is about as close to OITNB as the film Gravity is to Spaceballs. So, as a reader, if you're looking forward to some new take on OITNB, you won't find it in 167 Seconds. And if you've been cringing at such a cheesy possibility, don't worry, you'll get the same darkness and grit and tortured characters found in my upcoming novel Everything (formerly self-published as The Months of Moon). I promise. 

*all pictures and music copyrighted to their respective owners*