The Music of Songbird – Hunters – Part 2

Did you try and click on the Part 2 link on Part 1?

Yeah, sorry I couldn’t resist!  LOL

If you came here directly, then this is a link back to Part 1 if you missed it.  Promise this is a genuine link!  LINKY!

But you’re here now, so, without further ado let’s continue the run down. The last six of the musical dozen!

As I said before, some of those chapter names are titled after the songs I was listening to when I was writing. So…

Chapter 56 – Photograph

Okay, so I like Nickelback. There I admitted it.

This chapter is the flashback chapter, where Lana takes the young kids and shows them an old training video of the 137^th Hunters. She’s keen to show the kids who Gayle Knightley really and truly is. And it works…

But it also brings up a surge of emotion for lost teammates. A snapshot of the past and her friends in a past she can never get back. She then also realizes that Gayle is watching too from the back of the room.

Nickelback’s Photograph plays out like a wistful look back on old times. Better times.

I miss that town, I miss the faces
You can’t erase, you can’t replace it
I miss it now, I can’t believe it
So hard to stay, too hard to leave it

If I could relive those days
I know the one thing that would never change
Every memory of looking out the back door
I had the photo album spread out on my bedroom floor

It’s hard to say it, time to say it
Goodbye, goodbye

In some ways this chapter feels like Gayle and Lana saying a goodbye to their old teammates and finally moving forward. It immediately precedes the chapter where Gayle talks frankly and openly to Michael for the first time about how she feels she is to blame for what happened.

The moment when she finally calmly admits it. Not out of rage or bitterness, but out of acceptance.

Chapter 60 – Sharing The Night Together

Allyson and Lyssa. Two lonely souls find each other in the unlikeliest of circumstances…

You’re looking kinda lonely girl
Would you like someone new to talk to
Ah-yeah, alright
I’m feeling kinda lonely too
If you don’t mind, can I sit down here beside you
Ah-yeah, alright

If I seem to come on too strong
I hope that you will understand
I say these things ’cause I’d like to know
If you’re as lonely as I am and if you mind

This beautiful 1978 Doctor Hook song seemed to fit the moment perfectly.

Nuff said.

Chapter 69 – Tequila

Well, Gayle and Michael go out to drink shots at the bar… there is only one song that could go with this chapter…

You can take your pick of which particular Tequila song you want, but I am partial to this one…

Chapter 70 – This Kiss

So, in the previous chapter shenanigans occur and it leads to a moment between Michael and Gayle.

Their FIRST KISS.

It’s a moment that’s loaded with emotion, especially for Gayle. I thought this song by Faith Hill was the perfect accompaniment to that moment.

It’s the way you love me
It’s a feeling like this
It’s centrifugal motion
It’s perpetual bliss
It’s that pivotal moment
It’s, ah, impossible

I won’t go into any more detail than that, you’ll just have to read the book to find out what happens next!  LOL

Chapter 70 – Beautiful Stranger

Okay, so there’s an interesting story behind this one. Bit of a little behind-the-scenes easter egg for you.

This is the chapter where Mercy visits Nexus City for the first time and meets Jaymes Knightley. Originally in the VERY early manuscript, I was going to have them get tangled in an affair. Eeeek!

But as I wrote the HUNTERS, I found myself really getting to love both Jaymes and Mercy, and an affair just didn’t seem in character for them. So I didn’t write it in. Of course, there was something else in store for Jaymes and Mercy (if you’ve read the book, you know what happens next!) and so I decided to leave them as honorable friends.

I think I made the right choice. 🙂

But the chapter name stayed.

Chapter 72 – Ladies Night

Oh, yes, it’s Ladies’ Night
And the feeling’s right
Oh, yes, it’s Ladies’ Night
Oh, what a night (oh, what a night)

Chapter 72 is when we get all three of the Knightley sisters in the same place at the same time for the first time in the book. It’s a night on the town with drinking and girl talk.

The chapter was always intended as a sort of ‘state of the nation’ chapter near the end of the book to recap what had happened in the life of teh sisters before the final bombshell of the finale changes everything. One last hoorah, before shit gets serious.

Who else could soundtrack this chapter but Kool and the Gang, with their classic 1979 hit.

On a Final Note…

Hehe. That joke never gets old…

I’ll do another one of these in a few months time maybe, when Blood to Earth has been out for a while. I’ll revisit the chapters in there and give another rundown of which chapters had which songs for inspiration. Bur for now, I hope you enjoyed a peek under the hood of how my brain works when I’m writing

Love & Books