Music to Write Books By – Suzanna Williams

Today on Crimepieces, I have Suzanna Williams. Originally from the gritty Northern ex-steel town of Warrington, Suz now live amongst the wild, wet Welsh mountains. She has published two YA fiction books, ShockWaves and Ninetyfive percent Human and also several picture books for young children under the name of Suzie W.

Musically, she plays/teaches the piano, used to play cornet in a Brass Band and spent several years playing keyboard on the club circuits. She loves many styles of music, from Meatloaf to Carrie Underwood, Chopin to Blondie … but they need to be turned up loud.

Suzanna, do you have particular pieces of music you write to?

I don’t usually write to any music with lyrics, as I get distracted and start singing along but I love writing to movie soundtracks. My absolute favourite is the Transformers soundtrack which was composed by Steve Jablonsky. It’s really atmospheric and magically seems to fit to whatever I’m writing.

Has a particular piece of music ever inspired you to write something?

When I was writing Ninetyfive percent Human I had Fear by Sarah McLachlan on repeat. It’s perfect for how you would feel if you were abandoned on a strange planet.

I also thought that, if the book ever got made into a film or series, Taking Chances by Celine Dion would be an excellent choice for the title music.

Could you recommend any particular pieces of music for a specific mood?

How about listening to Hans Zimmer’s Chevalier de Sangreal for those moments when your hero or heroine must pick themselves up, dust themselves off and come out fighting?

Are there any longer pieces you can recommend? If you need to write for an hour, for example, is there a particular composer/artist you’d chose?

Movie soundtracks are pretty long anyhow but if I want something a bit different without having to think about it I go to http://www.cinemix.us/ Cinemix is an online radio station which only plays film music. It’s great if you haven’t got anything in particular in mind to write to and I’ve discovered some great music there.

What are you working on at the moment?

I’m still working on the sequel to Ninetyfive percent Human. It’s turned into a rather problem book and I’m considering splitting it into two. I’ve also published some picture books for children under the pen name of SuzieW so that’s been keeping me busy too.

Thanks, Suz for coming on the blog. All the pieces chosen for this series can by found on the YouTube channel here. Suz’s links on social media are below.

Website: www.suzannawilliams.com and www.suziew.com

Twitter: @suzannawriter