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The transformation scene three quarters of the way through the dark medieval fairy-tale of an 80s movie, Ladyhawke, is possibly one of the most wrenching thwarted-love scenes in all of cinema.


I believe this movie holds up quite well despite the intervening decades. The cast is is strong (and features an incomparably beautiful young Michelle Pfieffer), the locations stunning, and the story full of action, pathos and humor in nearly equal parts. I've always held an affection for its Alan Parson's produced soundtrack - albeit, so very 80s in feel. The opening credits are still a nice watch - they are designed so beautifully.

I'm re-writing the climactic battle scene of my work-in-progress this morning. Music always inspires me, so I put together a short playlist on repeat. I'll be listening until the last word of the chapter is written. Here are the songs:

1. Mermaids by Hans Zimmer, from the soundtrack for PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: ON STRANGER TIDES

2. The Battle by Harry Gregson-Williams, from the soundtrack for THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE

3. Dragon Battle by John Powell from the soundtrack for HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON

4. Mutiny by Hans Zimmer, from the soundtrack for PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: ON STRANGER TIDES

5. Massive Attack by Nicki Minaj (if my writing pace is slowing, this song will pick it up again, guaranteed...)

I'm realizing that I have tons of energetic songs in iTunes but not a ton of crazy-aggressive fighting ones. I might need to grab a few more if this chapter goes on for awhile...

Here's the video for Massive Attack. I want my mother to know I previewed the whole thing and there is nothing TOO crazy inappropriate with the dancing (sorry if that's what you were hoping for....) :)

I took my son to see the last big-screen-IMAX viewing of Inception last week (he's got 2 years of pop-culture to catch up on!)  Being that it was my second time seeing it, I was more able to pay attention to the amazing soundtrack - the most moving of which is the finale climactic piece, "Time":


It's worth the 4 minutes and 42 seconds of listening time....

I may have mentioned I'm working on a relaunch of zeisgeist.com - it's not up yet, but the first stage will go live on Monday (the day before THE SWEET LIFE OF STELLA MADISON debuts!). Well, since my last web redesign and this one, a little site called Playlist.com came along. Which means that my book soundtracks can now be imbedded directly on my site. This isn't revolutionary - lots of authors do this now - but when I first started creating soundtracks for my books, they were a bit of a novelty, and I'd get lots of reader e-mail asking me to upload the songs. Since that is (cough) illegal, the best I could do was link to an iTunes playlist that they could then purchase, should they desire. But now - NOW - there's Playlist.com. Only, I can't find every song from my original soundtracks on there, especially the one for BRINGING UP THE BONES, which was published in fall 2002.

So there are some substitutions, but the essence of each soundtrack is essentially the same. Tonight I was actually finalizing the one for BONES, and oh my god, suddenly it was like I was 26 all over again. Hence the subject heading "musical time capsule." What strikes me is how incredibly sad the playlist is, and how, even after all of these years, I still tear up whenever I hear Edie Brickell's "He Said," Tori Amos's "China," and the acoustic version of Colin Hay's "Overkill." (Oddly enough, the acoustic version was playing in BJs yesterday, which totally caught me of guard. I mean, hello! One minute I'm picking up a six pack of black beans and the next I'm fighting back the weepies.

Anyway, here it is, in all of its heartbreaking glory:

I need a soundtrack. I always have a soundtrack. I’ve got half a soundtrack, but it isn’t quite there yet. I need the song that will play over the movie trailer (in my dreams, that is). Past trailer-songs have included ‘Who Knew’ by Pink, ‘Run’ by Snow Patrol (everybody’s done that one! Sheesh!), and that theme tune from Gladiator (oh hang on, House of Flying Daggers used that one as well. As did, come to think of it, Gladiator). Oh yes, and for Crossing the Line there was something by Morcheeba. That worked well.

So my latest excuse for the dragging pace of my work in progress is ‘It doesn’t have a song’. Apparently George Lucas and Steven Spielberg always built a sandcastle for each one of their movies. They blamed the failure of ‘1941’ on the fact that they forgot to build a sandcastle for it (rather than, say, on the fact it wasn’t a very good movie, but I digress). I don’t need a sandcastle; I need a theme tune.

As I say, I have half a soundtrack. My protagonist is called Ruby, so that’s easy, then. Lots of people have been kind enough to write songs about Ruby. But none of those is the theme song. I realised out of the blue a few weeks ago that another character’s favourite song was ’24 Hours From Tulsa’ by Gene Pitney – a surprise to say the least, because this is a song that has never registered on my radar before. (But I do love it when that happens.)

Lots of writers have soundtracks. Maybe they all do. Are they all as embarrassing as mine? Oh, I have some cheesy songs on book soundtracks. One includes both Peter Cetera singing ‘The Glory of Love’ and that Phil Collins song from the Disney Tarzan movie, ‘You’ll Be In My Heart’. Really. I have very uncool taste, but what the characters demand the characters have to get. James Blunt! Take That! Celine Dion, for crying out loud! And when I listen to the chords swell, and picture hero/heroine running in slow motion through some urban landscape with beautiful cinematography, I get a wee tear in my eye. Sad.

I was reminded of all of this because last night I was watching Bill Bailey’s Amazing Guide to the Orchestra, which was – well – amazing. He was playing the Doctor Who theme in the style of Jacques Brel. And I thought: now that’s cool. I could listen to that indefinitely, I could. Now I just need to persuade my characters that that’s their song. I don’t think I’m quite there yet.