Music and murder.

If you read my Friday spot here with anything resembling regularity, you know I love music. I've done roundups of songs with crime fiction stories in them, I've talked about how I listen to music while I write, perfecting playlists for larger projects, and using songs to inspire shorter ones. I've even talked about how being involved in the local music scene influenced my writing.

So, it's obvious that when I got asked to do a story for Just To Watch Them Die: Crime Fiction Inspired By The Songs of Johnny Cash I was thrilled. I love Johnny, and I got the killer combo because my song, Thirteen, was actually written by Glen Danzig. I could write about, around, and with music all day. If something I'm writing isn't directly inspired by music, the tone, the pace, and the feel of the whole thing is often inspired by a playlist - even if by accident.

Surprisingly, I'm not the kind of person who has a playlist for everything. I have a "party" playlist that I put on for gatherings, where I dumped a bunch of music that hits different genres and tastes without any blatant obscenity so I wouldn't have to just hit "shuffle" and then blush when "Fuck The Pain Away" comes on in front of the one mom-friend I have from the kid's school. I have a couple playlists of specific artists' music because they've done different projects and I want it all together. I have one I made because I downloaded a bunch of songs from different albums that act as the soundtrack to a movie I like.

But I have two different playlists for my work in progress. I have stand alone songs I bought just because they tickled the story-writing part of my brain. I listen with intent.

I got invited to do Murder-A-Go-Gos to benefit Planned Parenthood by our alum Holly West and was so excited. A chance to do another music anthology story, a chance to honor a killer female band? Hell yes. The song I chose (below) is "The Way You Dance" which may not sound criminal or threatening, but have you ever wondered why she's spending so much time watching someone dance, and analyzing it? Weird.