music and writing | K D Grace

I’m very excited to welcome the fabulous and multi-talented Sexy Librarian, Rose Caraway, to A Hopeful Romantic today to talk about something that affects all of our lives — music. Welcome Rose!

Hey everybody! Thank you to KD Grace for having me on! This is fabulous! I have been completely swamped with work for the past couple of months and when KD asked me to write for her blog, I found myself scratching my head and even asked my computer screen what I should write about? Well, it finally dawned on me as I lay on my couch planning out my week.

Music. Everyone listens to it some way or another. Everyone.

Music is powerful. It influences fashion, friendships, pop culture, entire genres, it’s very often the dividing line between social groups we Rose CrarawaySexy Librarian 300x300 identify ourselves with. Can you imagine a world without music? From the time we are in the womb until after we die music touches us.

The simplest catchy/annoying jingle can make you buy something or completely repel you. Music has the power to make you tap your foot, snap your fingers, even lift your spirits so much that you get off your rump and dance. A song can be stuck inside your head for an entire day. It can make you cry. To me, music is more powerful than images, than stories. It doesn’t need words to express emotion, just a few well chosen, timely notes. And it is at its greatest influence over me in movies. When you watch a movie it can make the sappiest story more tearful, the scariest horror flick even more blood curdling, it makes action more exciting, thrillers more suspenseful. There is nothing like music. Let’s not forget that it makes housework less mundane. Anybody play music in the background while reading?

Every time we ever laughed or cried during our favorite classic television shows like MASH, The Twilight Zone and Law & Order essentially becomes encapsulated by a single song. The song becomes the show, right? The movie, Jaws wouldn’t be the same without the slow, fear building theme song by John Williams. Indiana Jones, Star Wars, Friday the 13th, and Harry Potter (obviously the list is endless), wouldn’t be the same without their wonderful and identifying music. No matter how good an actor is, good music will always make the movie better.

Jason Statham’s, Crank for example was absolutely ridiculous! I loved it. I mean what kind of story line uses the necessity to have sex as a means to survive? Ahem, me! Because it is totally fun! Statham is by no means a brilliant actor; however, it was the music that sold me on the absurdity of this actor having to sex up his adrenaline so that he wouldn’t die, again. In my four part series, Succubus and in Outland 1313 I totally use survival-sex to its fullest! Music can give even the most bizarre story line breath or if it’s very, very lucky; an identity.

The Kiss Me Quick’s and The Sexy Librarian Podcasts are my efforts to breathe even more life into my erotic stories, to give them a live heartbeat if you will. I have called upon many musical talents over and over again on my shows and the fans love it. There was a niche needing to be filled in podcasting and the KMQ and SL podcasts are successfully doing just that. It is so exciting to watch them both grow. Every episode gets even better than the last and for me to express my joy in this blog post is impossible. But I owe such a huge part of this success to all the generous musical talent out there. There are so many yet to be discovered artists creating masterpieces and when I stumble upon them, you better believe I snatch them up, quick!

I have been lucky enough to find many musical talents and my hat goes off to each and every one of them. And any opportunity I get to promote them is an honor. To name a handful, here is a list of some of my most favorite finds.

Grapes (Jeff Kendall, who has been featured in most of the KMQ & SL podcasts), Jahzzar, Flex Vector, Chris Zabriskie, Lockerbie, DoKashitero and Good Old Neon. I want to give an extra special tribute to Jan Morgenstern for the musical score for Outland 1313. Of course there are many, many more that can be named but that would take quite a while. So if you are interested in finding a particular artist, just go to my website, thekissmequicks.com and you will see every artist and song title listed for each episode. I encourage any and all to check out these wonderful artists. They put so much of themselves into their art and deserve your listen or you can even send them a small donation or a little love, tell them how good they are. It helps more than you know.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with what I do, here is a sample. Think of it as an interpretation of how I read and write. I have found that I write with audio in mind.

May I present, Outland 1313 Part One. (Headphones recommended)

My very dear friend and fabulous writer of nasty stories, the delicious Kay Jaybee is my guest today, and she’s definitely waxing lyrical.

The question I’m most frequently asked as a writer of erotica is, ‘Where do you get your ideas from?’ The truth is that my creative processes can be sparked off by literally anything; overheard conversations, pictures, locations, even aromas. Another influence has to be music. Or to be more specific; lyrics. No matter how much I like or dislike the tune of a particular piece of music, it is the words that sell a song to me.

A fascination with listening intently to every single word of a song began back in my high school days. Many a fad swept my secondary school; one of which was to select hit songs that summed up the personality of each pupil, and ‘label’ them with that song. My shy persona and general wallflower status, led to me being forever associated with the song Goodie Two Shoes by Adam and the Ants, with particular reference to the line ‘Don’t drink, don’t smoke. What do you do?’ – (oh the irony!!! If they knew me now!!)

I just love the way lyrics can be woven together to tell a story. You only have to pay close attention to the words someone like Adele sings, to hear how beautifully they can be linked to tell short musical stories that we can all relate to.

The first erotic poem I ever wrote, Regrets, illustrates how lyrics can set off my imagination. The opening line of this poem is ‘Regrets, I’ve had a few…’

I’m not sure whether Frank Sinatra would have approved of my borrowing of 5 words from My Way, but then again, as Mr Sinatra wasn’t exactly “Mr Shrinking Violet”, he might have loved my rhyming words of desperate eroticism!!

“Regrets, I’ve had a few.

Most of them to do with you.

I should have shagged you on the floor.

In the kitchen; against a door.

I could have pressed you to a mirror,

And seen your sweat marks shine and shimmer…”

(You can read the rest of this poem by visiting my page on www.oystersandchocolate.com)

Getting more up to date; it was a line from the Snow Patrol song, You’re All I Have, that sowed the seeds of inspirations for the nature of the lead male character, Mark Parker, in the novel I’m currently working on (Fantasy 13). The lyric in question is ‘There is a darkness deep in you; a frightening magic I cling to…’ A sentence which hints at a compelling obsession, a willing coercion that (in this case) Mark weaves over his two female employees, (Bi lovers Anya and Clara). With a character such as Mark, who like many of my leading men and women is into dominance and control games, the possibilities for creating extreme storylines are endless…

So, what music do I play while writing my erotica; which let’s face it, tends to feature the rougher side of sex?

Over the years I have put together a few playlists to urge my work frazzled brain into writing mode. Each is varied, and is fashioned to whether I’m writing down and dirty BDSM, or slightly milder calmer S&M kink. Two songs however, appear on every one of my playlists, for there is something deeply erotic and edgy about each of them.

Despite not being a big fan of David Bowie, the first track is his classic ‘Let’s Dance.’ Just the rasping way he sings the introductory line, (Let’s dance put on your red shoes and dance the blues), is enough to make all the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. The lyrics are both romantic and sexy, and yet hopelessly so. You just know that whoever the song is being aimed at isn’t going to get the happy ending they yearn for. Such is the lot for so many of my poor characters! (Just check out my Fem Dom anthology Yes Ma’am to find some hot sexy encounters, but without the happy ever afters!)

The second song that always features on my playlists is Underwear by Britpop group Pulp. I’ve lost count of how many individual stories that song has kick started. Nearly everything Pulp’s lead singer, Jarvis Cocker, sings has a heady kinky edge to it, but Underwear is the cream on the cake for me. If you’ve never heard it- then you must find it on You Tube or treat yourself to the mega sexy album Different Class! I promise that inspiration will soon follow.

My short story, Underwear (published within Sweet Confession by Cleis Press), was inspired by the title alone, and my entire serial Going Against Type (Oysters and Chocolate), was sparked by the concept the song presents. Why might someone feel compelled to keep meeting someone in secret for sex? Are they really helpless to fight that compulsion, despite the wrestling they do with their conscience?

“Why don’t you close the door and shut the curtains
‘cos you’re not going anywhere.
He’s coming up the stairs and in a moment he’ll want to see your underwear.
You couldn’t stop it now. There’s no way to get out.
He’s standing far too near. How the hell did you get here.
Semi-naked in somebody else’s room.
I’d give my whole life to see it.
Just you stood there only in your underwear…”

Whenever I write an undressing scene, I always hear Pulp’s song in the back of my mind. The tension in both its words and delivery are just perfect.

If I’m really struggling to write, then I always turn to the music of 80’s pop group, Depeche Mode. More or less everything they performed is cut with undertones of submission and dominance. How could they not be with titles such as Master and Servant and Just Can’t Get Enough? My favourite of their works has to be Personal Jesus. The catch line, ‘Reach out and touch me’ was running through my head as I created Jess Saunders, the lead character and unwitting new sub, from my novel The Perfect Submissive. Bless her; no matter how much Jess pleads to be touched, she just has to wait until everyone else has had their fun first, (and even then she is sometimes left wanting),

So, do you see a pattern building in my song choices? Need more clues? Other tracks on my erotica writing playlist include Love is a Stranger by The Eurythmics, Human by The Killers, Big Mistake by Natalie Imbruglia, Everything She Wants, by Tatu, I Want Your Love by Transvision Vamp…and so on…They are compulsion songs. All about power, control, and simmering sexual tension; and if you have never read any of my work, then just a quick listen to that lot would give you a big clue as to what you can expect!!

The Perfect Submissive blurb

Set in the Fables Hotel exclusive adult leisure, the Perfect Submissive centres around the dominatrix Mrs Peters and her booking clerk, Jess Sanders, who she is determined to train as a new submissive attraction. With the help of her barman Lee Philips, Mrs Peters training schedule finds Jess tied to an art table in the hotel’s fake school room…

Excerpt

Jess, her eyes wide, her throat drier than ever, watched as Lee ran the brush’s soft bristles between his fingers. Kneeling before Jess, he placed the tip of the paintbrush on the very end of her right nipple. Gasping with shock at the sensitivity of the touch, Jess began to shiver against the sweeping strokes Lee focused on her breast.

‘I must congratulate you, Master Philips.’ Mrs Peters spoke with approval. ‘You have an excellent technique there, arousing, and stimulating, without being quite enough to make your subject come.’

Jess groaned. Why wouldn’t they let her come? As the deliciously torturous brush moved onto her left tit, tears of desire and frustration gathered at the corner of her eyes. She knew she was minutes away from begging. Begging to be fucked, begging to be allowed to come; begging for a warm mouth to come to her pussy, her chest, her mouth.

Her quivers turned to shakes as her stomach knotted with the build up of a fast approaching climax.

A gesture from Laura and Lee dropped the brush, causing tears of desperation to course down Jess’s cheeks. ‘Now, Miss Sanders, you have to learn to pace yourself. This is as much for our enjoyment as yours, and we are not ready to let you come yet.’

Blinking in disbelief at her superior’s words, Jess felt the tears dry against her face, as once again the brush was employed by Lee, this time along her tethered arms, her unsteady legs and her taut stomach. Concentrating hard on not pleading for more direct attention, Jess tried to ignore the growing ache between her legs, and the increasingly obvious presence of Lee’s erection.

Jess’s persistent moans turned to helpless whimpers as Mrs Peters finally broke the tension, ‘You may remove your clothes, Lee.’

The young man moved with uncaring speed and Jess gulped as she saw the neatly circumcised penis that was pointing at her hungrily, slide into the waiting rubber.

Ordered to sit up straight, Jess obeyed as the barman gratefully sank his length into Jess’s slick snatch. Their mutual sighs of relief made Mrs Peters issue a sharp sneering laugh, ‘So young and so desperate.’

Buy Links:

Regrets – http://www.oystersandchocolate.com/Poetry/799/Regrets.aspx

Yes Ma’am- http://www.erotica-romance-ebooks.com/yes-maam.html?aff_id=3332

The Perfect Submissive- http://www.erotica-romance-ebooks.com/the-perfect-submissive.html?aff_id=3332

Thanks Kay! As always, you are amazing. So glad you stopped by!