We’re coming up on the release of Salt-Black Tree, and I am increasingly nervous. Of course I always am when a release day looms; performance anxiety simply won’t let me rest. this is made even weirder by the fact that publishing is such a delayed-gratification game.
The soundtrack for Dead God’s Heart has a lot of classics on it. And how old am I now that Yes’s Owner of a Lonely Heart is also playing on the “classic rock” station?
(Don’t answer that.)
The song popped up during a morning walk while I was ruminating on what, precisely, Dima’s motivations were, and how they changed. Of course there are the ones he doesn’t mind telling all and sundry about, because he likes showing a little bit of his steel. But there are others hiding in his actions, and still more he doesn’t articulate even to himself. Gods, like the rest of us, sometimes prefer to leave things unsaid.
When I got home I realized I’d never seen the music video for this particular track, and of course I had to laugh when I saw the transitions and transformations in it. (And again, how old am I that I thought, “That was the eighties, I’ll bet there’s a crackin’ music viddy“?) Peculiarly apposite for the book, and I should thank synchronicity–one of the Muse’s favourite tools–for serving it up.
So, this is one of Dmitri Konets’s songs; it reliably got him talking inside my head. Especially during the cat-and-mouse game in the second book. I think there was a point where even he wasn’t certain how this would all play out, and what he’d eventually decide to do. Even a thief can surprise himself sometimes.
A week to go before this book hits. I’d best go find something to distract myself, as usual…