Singing and Editing - My Playlist for Ship Whisperer

In Ship Whisperer, the character has a song that she hums, that helps calm her thoughts and connect her to her psychic ability. What is this song? Well, it hasn’t been written yet.

I have this pet peeve when I’m reading or watching far-future sci-fi—characters that sing songs older than I am, as if a new classic will not have been written in the next however many centuries. It just bothers me.

So when it came to this story, my choices were (1) annoy the crap out of myself by picking an old, familiar song in the public domain, or (2) write a new song. Well, let me tell you, it is no easy task to write a song when it’s the only song in the universe. There’s too much pressure to have the perfect message that encapsulates the novel.

Now there’s an artist I’ve been listening to recently, and in more than one of their songs, there’s a hummed verse or a chorus of “la la la…” I can’t explain why, but it makes me happy. So I thought “what if there are no lyrics to my song? What if it’s a melody of la la-la la-la?”

My brain couldn’t get behind that either. I dug through some of my old poetry and found one piece called Kinesthesis that seemed like it might work, and I considered using those lyrics and making a song. But it was TOO apropos to the bigger picture of the story, and it didn’t really capture the simplicity of the lullaby I wanted to create. Clearly, I fell into the trap of overthinking this. And so I leave it to my dear readers to find the tune.

But in the meantime, here are some songs that were running through my head while I was editing and proof reading. I usually write in silence, and to be fair, I was also editing and proof-reading in silence. It’s just really loud in my head.

(Links are to versions on Bandcamp so you can support these indie artists.)

- Tiny Paper Elephant by The Doubleclicks https://thedoubleclicks.bandcamp.com/track/tiny-paper-elephant

- A Simple Song (in Troubled Times) by Sunday Comes Afterwards https://sundaycomesafterwards.bandcamp.com/track/a-simple-song-in-troubled-times

- The Horse is a Pain by Sunday Comes Afterwards https://sundaycomesafterwards.bandcamp.com/track/the-horse-is-a-pain

- Space Shanty by Misbehavin’ Maidens https://misbehavinmaidens.bandcamp.com/track/space-shanty

- The Alligators by The PDX Broadsides https://thepdxbroadsides.bandcamp.com/track/the-alligators

- Buffalo by The PDX Broadsides https://thepdxbroadsides.bandcamp.com/track/buffalo

- Klingon by The Library Bards https://librarybards.bandcamp.com/track/klingon

- Sky Full of Phoenix by Rhiannon’s Lark https://rhiannonslark.bandcamp.com/track/sky-full-of-phoenix

- Han and Leia by The Chromatics https://thechromatics1.bandcamp.com/track/han-and-leia

- A Lullaby for Mr. Bear by The Doubleclicks https://thedoubleclicks.bandcamp.com/track/a-lullaby-for-mr-bear-adult-version

I’ve actually done covers of The Alligators and A Lullaby for Mr. Bear on my youtube channel. I’m learning Han and Leia for a future video. Yes, I enjoy musical comedy. No, Ship Whisperer is not a comedy. It’s called balance.

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Ship Whisperer comes out October 14, 2021. If you'd like to join my launch team as an Advanced Reviewer, please check out my Book Sprout ARC page. 

I must be an alien (an asexual's perspective)

 

I wrote a song!

I didn't know I was ace growing up. All I really understood was that the people on TV who were most like me were not human. They were missing out on the "core of the human experience." But as a sci-fi fan, I was always sort of okay with my alien identity.

I was once doing a twitter Q&A for queer scientists, and I remember saying something about how asexuality defines something I'm not. Sure it's an identity label, but it's a label that has ruled out all other labels in its category. The same with aromantic and agender. It doesn't describe something I feel, but rather the absence of a feeling that seems pervasive in others.

I can honestly say that it was only in the past few years, when I started to embrace nerdy music about fandom, anxiety, cats, dinosaurs, and soda addiction that I started to realize that I share so much more of the human experience than my childhood led me to believe. I can be human. (I'm working on a song about that, too, but music is not my main writing.)

So in the last verse of this song, I talk about all that I am and what defines me as a human being. And if all that isn't enough, then I want to be an alien. So take a listen!

On the Road Again (ukulele cover)

Sometimes, I make music.