Since finishing the edits for The Northumbrian Saga, I have thrown myself into writing the sequel (which I am still calling TNS2 at the moment).
It’s strange being at this stage of the writing process again. The setting is still similar and a few of the characters from the first book make an appearance, but other than that I feel as though I am starting all over again. A slightly new time period, some new settings and a bevy of new characters have to be researched and written down.
Other than burying my nose into the books again, I often find that music is a huge help. I have been having heaps of fun, going through my song lists and creating a new TNS2 themed list. It’s a far cry from the editing process I had gone through with TNS1, which was done in almost silence. I don’t know how other writers edit, but I can’t edit with music. It’s too distracting. But when you are trying to fabricate feelings and atmospheres for love scenes, fight scenes, or even times of sorrow, I use music playing in the background on an almost continuous loop.
Anyway, I thought it would be fun to share my top 15 songs that I am using at the moment for Book 2, as well as 15 songs that influenced Book 1, The Northumbrian Saga (15 was as close to 10 as i could narrow it down to).
TNS 2
(192 songs. This will get culled once I get into the rhythm of writing)
• Run– Kill it Kid
• Can’t Hold us– Macklemore& Ryan Lewis feat. Ray Dalton
• I’m shipping up to Boston– Dropkick Murpheys (very pirate sounding but I love it)
• My songs know what you did in the dark– Fall out Boy
• Saturday Night’s Alright (for fighting)– Nickleback feat. Kid Rock
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• Rock n Roll Queen– The Subways (For Heledd, the Welsh shield maiden)
• 7 nation army– The White Stripes
• The boys are back in town– Thin Lizzy
• Ho Hey– Lumineers
• River– Emeli Sande (for Sibbe, Swein and Aelswith’s friend)
• You don’t know me– Jac Stone (another one for Sibbe)(Jac Stone sang on the Australian The Voice. She is the one with dark hair in the video clip)
• Broken Strings– Nelly Furtado and James Morrison (For Swein, can be used in a number of contexts)
• Heard it through the grape vine– Birds of Tokyo Acoustic version (For Swein and Aerinndis)(Not the best quality but it’s all I could find on Youtube)
• Misguided Ghosts– Paramore
• Shadow of the Day– Linkin Park (this song i use for a couple of deaths )
And because I really, really wanted to include this in the list as well without going over 15, I am going to give an honourable mention to ‘We are the champions’ by Queen.
(99 songs)
• Broken Bones– Birds of Tokyo (There is also a very beautiful acoustic version of this song which I used for some scenes. However, this fast paced version I used for the invasion of York scenes.)
• Kings and Queens– 30 Seconds to Mars
• Breath of Life– Florence + the Machine
• The Pretender– Foo Fighters
• Snakeskin– Gyroscope
• Downfall– Matchbox 20
• Best of You– Foo Fighters
• Battle Scars– Guy Sebastian (feat. Lupe fiasco)
• Rolling in the Deep– Adele
• Revolution– The John Butler Trio
• So Beautiful– Pete Murray (I can just imagine Thorstein thinking this about Aethelwin)
• Frozen– Madonna (for the background music as much as the lyrics)
• Turning Tables– Adele
• Stay– Rihanna feat. Mikky Ekko
• Disease– Matchbox 20 (acoustic version)
As a side note: ‘Little Wing’ by The Corrs (or Jimi Hendrix if you prefer the original) was the inspiration behind the name of Aethelwin’s ship, the Lytel Fedra. The closest I could find to ‘little wing’ in Old English was ‘Little Feather’. I chose the name not so much because I like the song particularly, but when I saw the title I thought it would make a nice name for a ship, which was not masculine sounding or relating in some way to violence like most Viking ships.
A H Gray 