by Jennifer DeLucy
Omnific Publishing - October 2012
A wonderfully talented writer and friend, Jennifer DeLucy, is stopping by today to chat with us about her latest book, Circle of Light. This is the final book in The Light Series triology. I'm so glad to be able to support her as I've been a fan of her work for years.
But first, here's a summary of the story.
Empath and Pathcrosser to the dead, Lillian Hunt has finally come into her own as a Sentient being. All seems well in her brave new world...that is, until a tragic turn sends her tight knit Sentient group on a rescue mission through lore-infested Europe . Their goal is to save the love of Lily's life—vampire Sentient, William Maddox — from both the prejudice of their own society and the dark intentions of ancient vampires. But how will they keep hope alive, even as time runs out?
Jen, a lovely musician in her own right, weaves music into her work. I've asked her to talk about the importance of music in her writing. I've also asked her (since I'm always curious about how authors face their laptop or pad of paper or what have you each day) about how she goes about the writing process.
Sarah asked me to describe the importance of music to my writing process, and this is a pretty personal thing, because I'm also a musician, so I don't just make up playlists for each novel I write (though I definitely do that, as well). For some reason, from the beginning of the Light Series, I felt compelled to write a song for each book. It started with "Lily's Song" for Seers of Light, then "Free Me" for Whisper of Light, and then "Circe of Light" (for the book with the same name.) It just kind of became a thing where I had to write music for each book trailer that corresponded with the feeling of the novel. I couldn't even help it. It was a compulsion after a while, which doesn't surprise me, because ever since I was a little girl I've loved music and story writing equally and always insisted I wanted to somehow do both. So...how convenient for me! *wink*
You can actually listen to (and download) the Light Series music from my reverbnation musician page here. At the moment, it's free. :)
You can also check out the complete playlists for all three books on the Light Series page of my website:
As for the second part of this post--whether my writing process is more organic or more organized--the answer is definitely organic.
My first novel was written completely unplanned but for a few key points that jumped out at me, like little inspirations to remember for later. Once Seers of Light was finished, I utilized a really generalized outline for Whisper, but everything was always in flux, flexible, changing according to what the books taught me and how they guided me along. I can absolutely go into something believing things are going to happen one way and then learn that, in fact, they are not. And I'm always pleasantly surprised by this. I love it.
Stephen King describes novel writing as something akin to digging up the bones of a dinosaur. He says that you can't dig up the entire thing at once...you have to uncover one bone at a time and the whole thing will reveal itself eventually. It's more exciting for the author, and the reader can sense that, as well.
I hope that gives you an idea of how I write and the ways I use music to express a novel more fully. Thanks to Sarah for hosting!
xo
Jen
Jen's Website: http://www.jenniferdelucy.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Jen_DeLucy