The Tide Blog Tour!

And so the Tide blog tour bus has rolled into town!  We loved Dreams, book one of the Sarah Midnight trilogy and so were really excited to take part in the promo tour for book two, namely Tide, the cover for which you see on my left next to a lovely picture of the wonderful Daniela Sacerdoti, author of the series.

The Tide blog tour will be stopping at loads of fantastic blogs along the tour, details for which are posted here.  For now however, it's out turn and today Daniela explains the importance of music in her writing process and the songs she listens to that inspire her stories! So, over to Dani!

Those of you who follow me on Twitter know that I’m pretty much obsessed with music – preferably the obscure bands that not many people know about. You might also know that my dream, had I had a scrap of musical talent, would have been to be a songwriter... and that the little poems at the beginning of each chapter are actually bits of imaginary songs.

The credits for both Dreams and Tide are a bit of a Who’s Who of Scottish and Irish folk. I can’t concentrate properly if I don’t have music on – the best for writing is either instrumental or in Gaelic, because otherwise I end up following the English lyrics and they interfere with the words I’m laying on the page. The artist who has had the most ‘air time’ while writing bothDreams and Tide is the lovely Julie Fowlis, a Scottish singer from the Isle of Lewis, whose voice has, in my mind, become Sarah’s. You can check her wonderful music out at Juliefowlis.com – do stop by, it’s worth it!

Because I tend to be obsessive with my music, I listen to the same CDs over and over again – they have to be the right ones for what I’m writing. Dreams’ and Tide’s CDs have been the Celtic Connection 2012 souvenir CD, a compilation of amazing artists from Scotland, Ireland, America, Africa and just about every corner of the world! Celtic Connections is a festival that happens every year in Glasgow and sees the best of the best of folk come from all over the world; I don’t often get to the concerts themselves but it’s great to find out about new artists and keep an eye on what’s happening. The real gems of the souvenir CD have been the Treacherous Orchestra, a folk ensemble with some amazing musicians who wrote a tune called “Sea of Clouds”. “Sea of Clouds” describes, for me, the Islay beach on which many scenes of Tide are set. As for my beloved Winter Shaw, the new character who appears in Tide, her song is “Song of the Mermaid”, sung by Sinead O’Connor in the Music of Ireland CD curated by Maire Brennan of Clannad fame. The chapter “Christmas at Sea” is inspired by a poem by Robert Louis Stevenson of the same name, which Sting has put into music with the splendid Mary McMaster. Sting’s rendition of the poem is woven with a lovely Gaelic song that talks about exile and longing, which I thought was perfect for Sarah’s state of mind.

But the one single song that had the most impact is called “Cruel Sister”, a traditional English folk song I came across a while ago while collecting folk lyrics for a project that is still to see the light. The version I love is sung by Pentangle, with the magical voice of Jacquie McShee. I can’t tell you what the song is about, because there’s a key bit of the plot that I would reveal by doing so...

I hope that you will want to check out some of her musical inspirations. If you want to know more, feel free to drop me a line!

We want to say thanks to Dani for stopping by today. It's always interesting to hear what inspires an author and how it can drive the plot and the characters!  If you're hankering after more information and want a sneak peek of Tide then look no further!  We have a preview of chapters one and two below! It's certainly left me with a few questions! 

Tide will be published by Black and White Publishing on the 21st February 2013.  Until then, enjoy this little teaser! 

Tide preview - Chapters one and two