Emotional Creature, Kevin Hearne talks music and writing

As emotional creatures (unlike, say, the Weeping Angels), we are influenced by music and, to some extent, driven by it. The argument that a single artist or song can make a person commit bunnycide or something else terrible is ridiculous—the capacity to commit bunnycide is a preexisting condition—but it’s probably not so ridiculous to state that some songs might put you “in the mood” to pursue certain behaviors over others. If you are inclined to bang your head, Pantera is far more likely to spark such behavior than the musical stylings of James Taylor.

Looking at it the other way, there are some behaviors I simply cannot consider if certain songs are playing in the background. I cannot wash dishes while listening to “Let’s Get It On,” for example. It would ruin both dishwashing and getting it on for me.

Likewise, my writing is influenced, for good or ill, by whatever music might be playing in the background.

Typically I’m fond of instrumentals because the words of lyrics can and do impinge on my subconsciousness, replacing my normal word choice with those of a wee skinny lad with obscenely tight pants. But once in a while I rock the hell out because I need the aggression to write fight scenes and make all the inside bits go ’splody and become red chunky outside bits.

The best example I can provide is what I do when I need to write a fight scene. I’m not much of a fighter. Like, I can wrestle a marshmallow into submission. Scrambled eggs don’t stand a chance with me. But real dudes? I don’t want to think about it. Unless, of course, I’ve got some heavy metal playing. Speed metal stuff. Megadeth, DragonForce, that kind of thing. Play enough of that with the knob turned up to 11 and you’ll pull out your hand-and-a-half bastard sword and get medieval on someone. And if you don’t have any medieval weapons handy, you’ll find yourself surfing the net looking for double-bladed axes and drinking horns and maybe a nice set of boiled leather armor.

Music helps me tap the emotions I need my characters to feel—and so I play it.

You can purchase Kevins books at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Book Depository.

Kevins website~

.kevinhearne.com 

on twitter

@kevinhearne

Are you ready to be Hexed?

Once I read Kevin Hearne's fantastic book Hounded, it reawakened my love for Arizona and all deserts high and low.( I lived in Northern Arizona for a time)When connecting with Kevin on Twitter we compared notes on where to get the best coffee, ale and fish & chips. Now with Hexed out( book 2) Kevin has introduced us to more of the adventures of Atticus O'Sullivan. Luckily for me, as well as YOU, Kevin has introduced me to Atticus hisself, and he has agreed to do a interview with yours truly.
A little back story if you will allow, Atticus is a 2100 yr old Druid living in the body of a 21 year old man..yeah you heard me! He runs a metaphysical bookstore in Mesa, Arizona, and between drinking the occasional ale or shot of whiskey, he fights off just about everyone. Excitement or trouble is his middle name..

So Atticus thanks for stopping by~

It's my pleasure, Synde. Thanks for the beer.

So tell me, over the ages what Musicians have you really favored?

Well, quite recently I've been enamored with Rodrigo y Gabriela. Before that, there was an underground punk band in California in the 90s called Chewbacca's Sister that I used to dig. I was talking backstage with their drummer after one of their shows, his name was Wauuugh! or something like that, and he told me about this crazy cyberpunk band called Hiro Protagonist and the Nam-Shubs. They came on stage wearing swords and when the show was over they'd hack apart their instruments with them. But you're probably wondering about really old acts, right? I have to say Mozart was probably the best ever. He was a true genius and wanted to party all the time and get stupid because that was the only way he could stand to be around other people. They bored the shit out of him otherwise. He was the only guy who ever beat me at memory games. Before him, well, my own bias runs to individual bards, guys that history has forgotten because performers weren't the celebrities then that they are now. I could tell you their names, but what would be the point? They're unpronounceable to modern English tongues and the Internet doesn't accurately represent the fadas over the vowels anyway. But they still live on in me.

Why a metaphysical bookstore? What do you enjoy most about owning/running one?

It's a way for me to hide my own rare books in plain sight. At night, when everyone's gone, I sometimes take 'em out and pull a Gollum, muttering "Yesssss, Precious," and other terms of endearment. Besides that, I sort of feel it's my duty to give people somewhere to go if they're looking for something outside the mainstream. And people who are willing to think independently, well, those are the kinds of people I'd like to meet anyway, so the store gives me a way to do that.

What God/ Tuatha De Dannan is the biggest pain in the butt?

The universal answer to that, no matter who you ask, is probably going to be Thor. He's let that prophecy about Ragnarok go to his head; if he can only die at the fangs of the world serpent, then nothing else can touch him, and he can do whatever he pleases. I think Leif might have a legitimate beef with him.

It seems you are always getting "entangled" with witches, why?

Well, it might seem that way recently, but that hasn't always been the case. During those witch-hunting years, you know, they stayed out of everyone's hair and let the random burnings and dunkings take out their innocent neighbors. The only reason they're so bold now is because this age of science is so skeptical of their existence.

coffee or tea?

I'm a tea kind of fella. There are some interesting compounds in coffee, mind you, but I was a tea guy for seventeen centuries before I had my first cup of coffee.

cider or ale?

Ale, for sure. But there's a great compromise if you can't decide. In Arizona they call it a Snakebite. It's half Guinness and half cider. The Guinness sits on top and it looks like a potion.

So why Kevin, what made you tell your story to him?

Eh. He's an Irish guy who likes baseball and dogs and comic books, so why not? I met him down at Rula Bula and we got to talking, and I found out he knew how to spell and everything. It's not much more complicated than that.

What's next for Atticus and company..what do you have up your sleeves besides tattoos?

Well, I have an apprentice to train, and that's my number one priority. Granuaile is brilliant and I think she'll be a magnificent Druid if I can just make sure we both live that long.

Thanks so much for stopping by..we all really appreciate it..
say hi to Oberon for us..!

I will give him a belly rub on your behalf. I was grateful to receive your invitation, Synde. May harmony find you.




~You can purchase Hounded and Hexed at the following~
Amazon
Barnes & Noble

and you can find Kevin here and Atticus here~
twitter- @Kevin Hearne
www.kevinhearne.com

Ale, Sausage and a visit from Kevin Hearne

Hey all!
I have found another book I must let you all know about, it's both AWESOME and unusual. Here is a little blurb about it-

Atticus O’Sullivan has been running for two thousand years and he’s a bit tired of it. After he stole a magical sword from the Tuatha Dé Danann (those who became the Sidhe or the Fae) in a first century battle, some of them were furious and gave chase, and some were secretly amused that a Druid had the cheek to defy them. As the centuries passed and Atticus remained an annoyingly long-lived fugitive, those who were furious only grew more so, while others began to aid him in secret.

Now he’s living in Tempe, Arizona, the very last of the Druids, far from where the Fae can easily find him. It’s a place where many paranormals have decided to hide from the troubles of the Old World—from an Icelandic vampire holding a grudge against Thor to a coven of Polish witches who ran from the German Blitzkrieg.

Unfortunately, the very angry Celtic god who wants that sword has tracked him down, and Atticus will need all his power, plus the help of a seductive goddess of death, a sexy bartender possessed by a Hindu witch, and some good, old-fashioned luck of the Irish to kick some arse and deliver himself from evil.

Uh huh...yes.. Kevin doesn't mess around with the Tuatha De' Dannan, no shiny fuzzy warm winged creatures are they, rather the strange, twisted, amoral beings that mythology tells us about. I couldn't read this book fast enough! It's the beginning of a trilogy with the second book Hexed coming out on June 7th and the third book Hammered coming out on July 5th. I asked Kevin to stop by for a quick interview, in between signing books and grading tests.( Kevin teaches high school English.)

Well lets just jump into things-

What triggered the original idea?

It started out as a comic book I was going to call American Druid. It was just supposed to be a project to keep me busy while my epic fantasy was out on submission, and I basically wanted a magic user who could talk to his dog since I've always wished I could talk to mine. After finishing six pages of the comic, I realized it would be better suited to an urban fantasy novel and took a step back to reevaluate everything. The story got bigger from there as I got into the background research.

What kind of research did you do for this book?

I read parts of The Annals of the Four Masters and the Fenian Cycle, as well as a Dictionary of Celtic Mythology by James MacKillop and some old accounts by Julius Caesar. Though of course I took some liberties here n' there, I tried to stick to the myth n' history as much as possible, because I'm tired of seeing the original Irish stuff being watered down and corrupted by other traditions.

Do you have a favorite member of the Tuatha De' Dannan?

Oh, heck yes. Brighid is a tall shot of whiskey. Poetry, Fire & the Forge in one package? That's hotness.

Is some of Atticus' "modern lingo" channeled from your students?

Yeah, a bit of it. But I don't think I'm going to have him start calling things "sick." I don't wish to contribute to that confusion. What a bizarre development in modern slang that is. The other term that's popular right now is to call cool things "legit." Atticus might use that one. Apparently, being legit is even better than being sick. When I was in high school, sick things were rad and legit things were balls rad. Slang was so much simpler back then.

Let's talk play-list, what did you listen to when writing this book?

Depends on what I'm writing at the time. I'm a fan of Rodrigo y Gabriela( THIS BAND IS GREAT FOLKS!) and Six Parts Seven for most things—instrumentals, basically. But when Atticus has to throw down, I put on some heavy stuff. Megadeth, DragonForce, Yngwie Malmsteen, that sort of thing. Angry music that makes you all stabbity, you know, like you want to hunt down all the spiders in your house and mount their heads on toothpicks as a warning to all other creatures with exoskeletons that they'd better not disturb THIS guy while he's writing. That's nothing special, though; I'm sure everybody does that.

Since you love the wolfhounds, what kind of pets do you have?

I live in a rather wee place and don't have enough room for a noble hound, so I have a pug and a Boston Terrier. The pug's name is Manley (after the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins) and the Boston's name is Sophie (after the novel Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder). I also have two cats that my wife adopted.

If you could sit down and dine with 5 deities who would they be and why?

1. Manannan Mac Lir, Irish god o' the sea. I want to know what's lurking in his domain that we haven't seen yet and I want to check out his cloak o' mists.

2. Vainamoinen from Finnish tradition, because I have to hear him play something on his kantele. If you've never heard of it, that's an instrument made from the lower jaw of a pike and the hairs of a blond woman. That has to have a rather unique sound, don't you think?

3. Brighid, for reasons mentioned above. I want to hear a ballad or something from her.

4. Coyote from Native American tradition. He's gotta have some great stories to tell.

5. Athena, Greek goddess o' wisdom. I'd like her advice on how to solve a few of the world's problems.

I love a good pint, actually I am predisposed to cider, so what is your favorite beer?

The Bramble Berry Brew at Beaver Street Brewery in Flagstaff, Arizona. Best beer EVAR. It finishes really clean and has just a hint of raspberry freshness to it. Only "fruit" beer I can stand, actually; all other fruity beers taste artificial or over-sweetened somehow. When I first tried it I wasn't expecting much, so I was astounded by its quality; to my palate it's the most refreshing drink on the planet. But I'm REALLY looking forward to trying this beer called Chocolate Oaked Yeti. It might be crap, but I want to be able to say I tried it.

Yeah I can't wait to try that one either...anything with chocolate and Yeti in it wins in my book..
Thank you so much for stopping by...

you can buy Kevin's book here-
Amazon
Barnes & Noble

You can find Kevin here-
Kevin Hearne website
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