‘I look for clever, lyrical music with a twinge of melancholy’ – The Undercover Soundtrack, Catherynne M Valente

‘Music and fairyland go hand in hand’ writes my Undercover Soundtrack guest this week. After cueing up her playlist I can assure you this fairyland is not just rich and strange, but funky, cheeky, cheesy, sassy, riotous, ridiculous and whimsical. It’s hardly surprising then that her novels and poetry have been nominated for numerous awards, including the Mythopoeic, the Lambda, the Hugo, Locus, World Fantasy, and Nebula. Deeply fond of writing to music, she’s also closed the musical circle by inspiring three albums by singer/songwriter S.J. Tucker. She is Catherynne M Valente, and she’s over on the Red Blog talking about The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland In A Ship Of Her Own Making.

‘This wonderful, startling alchemy when music meets the writer’s brain’ – The Undercover Soundtrack, James Scott Bell

My guest this week on The Undercover Soundtrack has perhaps the longest playlist yet. He keeps a collection of mood tunes to feed his muse, categorised as ‘suspense, heart and inspiration’. He’s bestselling suspense author and writing coach James Scott Bell, and he’s sharing his writing playlists, in a very fine hat, on the red blog