‘Battle songs’ – The Undercover Soundtrack, Naomi Elana Zener

My guest this week is writing about a character trying to find her way to happiness. Love and career have not gone as planned, and the protagonist ends up living with her parents in Los Angeles – a cue for a feisty, fighting soundtrack of Guns n Roses and Chumbawumba, and a story where relationships, family and pseudofamilies are key. And it’s the first time AC/DC has appeared on an Undercover Soundtrack, would you believe. She is Huffington Post blogger Naomi Elana Zener and she’s on the Red Blog with her Undercover Soundtrack.

‘Pictures in melody’ – The Undercover Soundtrack, Aaron Sikes

You could divide my Undercover Soundtrack guests into those who aren’t put off by lyrics and those who are. My guest this week is one of the latter. He says that music with lyrics is too domineering when he’s trying to write – but that orchestral or ambient electronic music sets his imagination free to roam. His novel is a quirky noir of dirigibles, automata, back alleys and a hardboiled hack (the bipedal journalistic sort, not an equine), and his central character was honed by long hours simmering with Hans Zimmer’s soundtrack for The Dark Knight. He is Aaron Sikes and he’s on the Red Blog with his Undercover Soundtrack.

‘Whistling past the graveyard’ – The Undercover Soundtrack, Joni Rodgers

My guest this week is another old-timer on The Undercover Soundtrack. She returns with a playful story about a dishonoured cop and a pulp fiction writer who investigate a series of murders. Her soundtrack is sassy, full of fun and energy, but also undershot with an awareness of the tragic and macabre. She is Joni Rodgers and she’s on the Red Blog with the Undercover Soundtrack to her hardboiled mystery homage, Kill Smartie Breedlove.

‘Music dark and soulful; rural and tough’ – Dave Malone, The Undercover Soundtrack

My guest this week is best known for his poetry collections, but has had a weakness for crime fiction ever since he was a 10-year-old, smuggling a radio to bed to catch Mystery Theater. Music – and a few fingers of bourbon – were his close companions when writing his first novelet Not Forgiven, Not Forgotten. The Hank Dogs made the main character a dark angel in a corrupt town. Billie Holiday stopped the romance getting too sweet. He is Dave Malone and he’s on the Red Blog with his Undercover Soundtrack.