Mimi Sebastian

Guest Blog Post and Excerpt by Mimi Sebastian...

Songs in My Characters’ Heads

I love a good movie sound track. How a good song complements a scene, sets the mood, tone, brings on the tears or makes you want to rock out.

A favorite example of putting music to work is from American Werewolf in London when David, played by David Naughton, changes into a wolf. That scene is a horror movie classic and still highly praised for its special effects considering they did not use CGI. It’s here in case you want to see it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFLQS12z8K4

When David transforms, we see his agony, hear it in his screams and the crunching of his bones. We don’t need creepy or dramatic music, in fact, we need something to lighten the tragedy and the Director, John Landis, got that. As David sits around the apartment during the day, we hear Bad Moon Rising by Creedence Clearwater Revival. Then as he begins to transform, they play Blue Moon, because we don’t need more terror. We need relief! John Landis directed Blues Brothers and Animal House, and probably understood the need to interject a bit of humor for that transformation.

I often write listening to music, from rock to the Lord of the Rings or Transformers soundtracks, I let the music set the mood and help me find the right words. Some of my characters even have their own song.

The song for my demon hero, Ewan, is Burden in My Hand by Soundgarden. Burden in my Hand is exactly what Ewan carries, keeps him from getting what he wants. Here are some of the lyrics that especially inspire his character:

Close your eyes and bow your head, I need a little sympathy.

‘Cause fear is strong and love’s for everyone who isn’t me…

It's just a burden in my hand

It's just an anchor on my heart

It's just a tumor in my head and I'm in the dark. (From Burden in My Hand, written by Chris Cornell)

My revenant (zombie) Adam also has a song, born from lost love, and a life he’ll never relive. For him, the song I Walked by Sufjan Stevens.

Lover, will you look at me now?

I'm already dead to you

But I'm inclined to explain

To you what I could not before

Whatever you didn't do, what you couldn't say

I am sorry that the worst has arrived

For I deserve more

For at least I deserve the respect of a kiss goodbye (From I Walked, lyrics by Sufjan Stevens)

The song Black Water by Timber Timbre. This is such an awesome song, and I love it for my heroine. The singer has such a Leonard Cohen, Nick Cage thing going on. I almost think of his voice as the voice of her power, seducing, calling to her from that deep, dark place within her …all I need is some sunshine.

The siren called beyond the treeline

with another one for the caves

and in the tarn beyond those birches

there's a spirit that I crave

I found empathy from madness

deliverance from malaise

my heart is filled with gladness

at the only spirit that I crave

All I need is some sunshine…(From Black Water, written by Taylor Kirk, Mika Posen, Simon Trottier)

Necromancer’s Seduction contains a night club scene where we meet the lovely vampire Lysander. At times, I have a hard time choosing between him and Ewan. (Hmmm. Maybe Ruby does too ;) When Ruby meets Lysander, the song Tired of Being Sorry by Ringside, floated in my head:

Chandler and Van Nuys

With all the vampires and their brides

We're all bloodless and blind

And longing for a life

Beyond the silver moon

And maybe you were right

But baby I was lonely

I don't want to fight

I'm tired of being sorry

I'm standing in the street yeah

Crying out for you

No one sees me

But the silver moon (From Tired of being Sorry, written by Scott Thomas)

Other songs in the Necromancer’s Seduction soundtrack include: This Woman’s Work by Kate Bush, Out of the Blue by Roxy Music, She’s Made of Chalk by Kashmir, and Ain’t No Love in the Heart of the City by the Bobby ‘Blue’ Band.

I’m currently editing my second book in the Necromancer Books, and new songs are playing in my head, urging my characters on while they face new challenges and heartbreak. All I need now is my own Bad Moon Rising, or maybe the song should be Bad Zombie Rising.

Ewan waved me over to an empty expanse of the porch circled with candles of various shapes and colors, casting an ominous glow that barely chased off the shadows skulking around the room. I walked over, steering clear of the screen.

“Will this do?” he asked.

I nodded. “Where’s Adam’s body?”

“In the basement. Do you want it brought up now?”

“No.” Achieve inner calm while peeking at the dead body, worried it’ll pop up and jump on me? Not likely.

“All right then, I’ll leave you alone.” He didn’t move. The lines around his mouth softened. “I want to apologize for last night. I wasn’t acting very gentlemanly.”

“Gentlemanly?” I smiled. The tension eased from my shoulders. “I’d never use gentleman in the same breath as demon.”

“Now I’m offended.” The crinkle of his eyes told me the opposite. “We demons are quite chivalrous.”

“Chivalrous? I suppose you have a white horse hidden away somewhere?”

He’d somehow moved closer during our exchange and grazed my cheek with his finger. “White horse,” he whispered close to my ear, “boring.”

He lowered his lips to mine but stopped short of touching them, tracing my back with his hand, gliding it up my neck to wrap his fingers in my hair. Our bodies were close but not touching; only our breaths met in a hot exchange. He gazed at my lips before possessing them with his own.

I swayed and caught his shoulders to steady myself. I moaned at the electric shock searing a path from my lips to my core. Feeling, tasting him was better than I ever allowed myself to imagine.

Ewan consumed me.

I wasn’t ready to be consumed.

The Necromancer’s Seduction 
The Necromancer Series, Book One
Mimi Sebastian


Genre: Urban Fantasy
Publisher: ImaJinn Books




Cover Artist: Patricia Lazarus








Book Trailer: http://youtu.be/sCnfq9Se7bU


Book Description:

She has never feared the walking dead. It’s the power required to reanimate the dead that startles her, seduces her. The power that dwells inside her…and is growing.

For Professor Ruby Montagne, being a necromancer has brought her nothing but heartache, and she walked away from that part of her life long ago. However, her quiet existence in San Francisco is shattered when she stumbles upon the body of a slain witch, and the supernatural community insists she transform him into a revenant to track the killer. But his murder was just the beginning, and Ruby soon realizes that the stakes are higher than anyone can imagine—and that revenants have nasty minds of their own.

Now demonic creatures have escaped into the human world, and zombies once again walk the streets. For humanity’s sake, Ruby forms an unlikely alliance with a witch, a zombie, and Ewan March, a demon warrior who sets her senses on fire.

About the Author:

Noemi Ghirghi writes as Mimi Sebastian and raised herself on books and the strange and unusual with an unhealthy dose of comics and Scooby Doo. Loving angst-filled romance thrown in the mix, she decided to blend all those elements in a steamy mix in her first Urban Fantasy series, the Necromancer Books. The first book, The Necromancer’s Seduction, debuts July 15, 2013, with ImaJinn Books.

Noemi spent two years in the Ivory Coast with the Peace Corps and loves to introduce tid-bits from her experiences in her writing. She’s a member of Romance Writers of America and the Fantasy, Futuristic and Paranormal chapter of RWA. A transplant from the beaches of Florida, Noemi now wanders the desert in Phoenix, AZ, and attempts to balance writing with a day career, fantastic family, and household diva: her Amazon parrot.

www.mimisebastian.com

http://mimisebastian.wordpress.com/

https://www.facebook.com/NecromancerSeriesMimiSebastianAuthor

https://twitter.com/SebastianMimi

http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/13508578-mimi-sebastian



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