Hello Friends,
I don’t know about you, but I LOVE MUSIC. I honestly can’t remember a day in my life when I didn’t listen to music. I can’t imagine what that would be like. Like my 6-year-old self, I listen to the same stuff over and over and over, but I also try to branch out. Every night at dinner my wife and I will either turn on a streaming radio station or we listen to the actual radio, the one that plays music for free. By doing that, we hear new artists and, if we like them, we seek them out, give them a try and ultimately, we buy that music. We’ve discovered some great musicians that way.
Before I sat down to write this, I hit play on an album that was first released when I was 3 years old. It would be several years until some late-night TV programming and my childhood insomnia (or attention deficit problems) collided and I “discovered” this band for the first time. On my tiny, 7-inch, black and white TV with rabbit ears, I saw the Roger Corman film Rock and Roll High School. In that film, the lead character Riff Randell tries to meet The Ramones as she has written the titular song for them. At one point there is a 14-minute concert and at the end, The Ramones blow up a school. Not great role models I know, but the music was captivating. Three-minute songs with three chords each and a driving beat just lit up all the joy receptors in my little brain. It was like someone played my beloved Beach Boys at warp speed.
I am writing this down while listening to punk rock. I’m not typing the lyrics even though I occasionally sing along while typing. Not only do I write with music, but I read this way. As I kid, I would read books in my room, or down in the basement with big, over-the-ear headphones on. When I was in college, I used to pick a band per subject and then one album per test. I would listen to that album over and over while studying and if the professor let me, I would listen to that album on repeat while taking the test. That was a little personal tidbit I added to Welcome to Mansfield. Junior does this because I did it. We write what we know and all.
When I want to write some non-fiction, be it an essay or this newsletter, more times than not, I listen to punk. It pushes me to keep going and I lose myself in songs I’ve heard thousands of times. The driving music makes my fingers fly and before I know it, I am 500 words into a newsletter and I wonder how that happened.
Interestingly enough, when I write fiction, there isn’t a standard. Each story has a soundtrack. When I wrote my MFA thesis The Will, I created 7 characters who each “spoke” in first-person present tense. Each one of them had a style of music that got me in the right mood for that person. Some of those musical tastes show up in the book, and when I look back on that project, I can hear those songs.
For The Austen Chronicles, I knew that I wanted music to play a big part because it is important to me because my books are about class, and like education, music is for everyone. There is no wrong way to listen to music. In Austen’s books, there are public balls. Everyone is welcome. People can listen to music, and dance, and be free to love it or hate it as they see fit. Of course, some people have fancy balls and big expensive pianos, but in the right hands, a 50-dollar cast-off piano, or the one someone learns on in the music room at the local public school sounds just as good as a Steinway.
The same is true today. Sure, people of a “higher class” may be able to afford front-row seats to see Taylor Swift, but anyone with a radio they bought for a dollar from Goodwill can hear a Taylor Swift song. If they have a library card and a 5-dollar CD player, they can hear her whole album. If they have a 20-dollar smartphone, they can download Hoopla Digital and use that library card to listen to all of her albums. Music doesn’t discriminate. People who don’t even speak the same language can listen to, and love, the same song. Kids who speak English, or French, or Dutch can all sing along to a BTS song that is in Korean because they learned it by heart. Sure, they may not be totally sure what they are singing, but as they are all screaming the lyrics out to each other, they become connected and will always remember that day, at that show, or at the school dance, or at that party, with those people because of that music.
It is my hope then friends, regardless of who you are, how old you are, or where you come from, that you will take some time to listen to my playlist for Welcome to Mansfield. If you want a sneak peak of Maggie’s personal soundtrack, you can listen to the playlist for That Other Dashwood Girl. I want the readers to connect to my characters and get to know them a bit better and share their sorrow and joy. Maybe one of your favorite songs is on one of these lists and you will have a deeper connection to Junior or Maggie. Maybe you will find a hidden gem on there that will ultimately become one of your favorite songs and then, every time you hear it, you'll think of the character who shared a bit of herself with you and the a writer who connected you to her by sharing the music that we love.
Notes from my Bookshelf
I’ve been geeking out with some non-fiction lately. I read Walt Hickey’s You are what you watch. It is a scientific and statistic-driven view of art and how it affects our bodies and brains. I loved it! He has agreed to sit down with me for a chat in August that I will put out on the feeds of Comics in Motion and The Sonic Salon in October. Watch this space.
On the recommendation from colleague and awesome person, Gail Ryder, I read Rescuing Socrates by Roosevelt Montas. He argues that reading shared books and talking about them using the Socratic method will make us all better connected, and well-rounded humans. I didn’t agree with all of it, but of course, he wouldn’t have wanted me to. That was his point.
Molly Shannon’s memoir Hello Molly! was moving and hilarious. I had to stop reading a few times so that I didn’t sob and sob. I know that doesn’t sound like a big fun time, but I promise, it was worth it.
Notes from my Keyboard
I have a ton of great news in this section this month. I finished That Other Dashwood Girl. It is in the hands of Lea, my first and last reader. She makes all my writing better. I’ve also sent it to a handful of my friends from across the pond. They are making sure I have all my British slang down. I am so grateful.
I am nearing 10K words in book 3 of The Austen Chronicles. It is called Universal Truth. Mary Bennet has a lot to say. I am having a blast.
My collaborator and co-editor Tonya Todd and I put the finishing touches on our collection of essays where we and a group of like-minded comic nerds set out to prove that comic books are high art. That should be on shelves in early 2024.
I saw the cover for the Moon Knight collection where I contributed an essay. It is beautiful. Watch this space for a release date as it will be published by Sequart soon.
Finally, I would like to ask a small favor of you all. If you have read Welcome to Mansfield, would you be so kind as to go to Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Bookshop.org, or any public forum you use, and leave a rating and review? The algorithm, which is obviously HAL from 2001 uses reviews to push books to readers. The more reviews, the more likely the book is to show up in other people’s feeds. I would really appreciate it!
Thank you all for reading this far and supporting my crazy artistic endeavors.
See you in a month,
ARF
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