New Book Dance Party

Thank you very much to those readers who have already bought my new book and even written reviews or comments. It's been an exciting week; my interview provided a provocative headline for Catholic World Report.

It's not every day anyone asks me about my writing or my influences, and I wrote and rewrote my answer about "most influential authors" a dozen times. But so far nobody has asked me--and if you should ever interview anyone about a novel, you might consider asking them--what I was listening to at the time.

Normally I write in dead silence, but while either writing or reviewing or thinking about (most likely) the chapters of Ceremony of Innocence, I was listening to club music. I wanted a real "rave" vibe for my book and was trying to conjure up memories of feelings and impressions from my time in Germany. After all, my younger characters go to clubs a lot, especially this one. And trance music is called "trance" for a reason.

Here are some of the tracks I listened to repeatedly while writing Ceremony of Innocence:

Scarf: "Odyssey"
Cascada: "Every Time We Touch"
Basshunter: "DotA"
Alice DeeJay: "Will I Ever"
Blumchen: "Heut' ist Mein Tag"
Tune Up: "Raver's Fantasy"
Darude: "Sandstorm"
The Killers: "Mr. Brightside"
The Killers: "Somebody Told Me"
Alice Deejay: "Back in My Life"
Mo-Do: "Einz Dwei Polizei"
and my favourite Canadian song of all time:
Tragically Hip: "Nautical Disaster"

I think I listened to Alice Deejay sing "Back in My Life" a hundred times. You can find all these songs on YouTube, which is where I found them. (The official videos for "Will I Ever", "Sandstorm" and "Einz Dwei Politzei" are Not Safe For Little Brothers.) However, I think I may have to buy them for B.A.'s MP3 player, which I take along to the gym.

Update: Yikes! Did not realize how appropriate "Nautical Disaster" was until now.