One of the fun parts about writing a soundtrack for a book is focusing more on mood. Writing soundtrack music allows you to be less specific, not referencing direct actions in the text, but capturing the overall feeling or emotion of a section. A key elements of No Tears for Old Scratch is the concept that there is a part of Knob’s End, the town at the center of the story, that most people don’t see or choose to ignore. Every town has those places, the ugly parts underneath. It doesn’t necessarily mean a seedy underbelly — although that is apt in some cases — it just means there are sections of American towns that either are grossly neglected or serve no purpose to the people living there.

The main character of the book spends a lot of time walking through those sections of Knob’s End. And he sees things that the citizens of the town have hidden away, almost as if they didn’t exist. So I wanted a theme that would fit those parts of the story.

The other fun part of creating a soundtrack are those moments of improvisational inspiration. Suddenly realizing that a section needs a beat, but the only thing that will work is that old ceramic drum you picked up in Morocco several years back.

And as always, stellar guitar tone is key (as is a Bigsby). Enjoy.

Listen to “The Parts of Knob’s End You Never Get To See”

What’s this all about? Click here for Part 1 with an explanation.

Knowing that a lot of friends and followers found Part 1 interesting (especially the publishing folks who enjoyed the take from the other side), I thought it would be apt to follow up with this response I received from an agent back in January.

I think I’ve very little in the negative to say about your line by line writing – you do dialogue very well, set the scenes and place the characters in a clearly logistical, orderly, style – a rare thing. But, I think this is a case of us not being a good fit. I’m not as into the stranger arrives in a city, bringing change, type of story as I know a number of other agents are, and I really think it best for both of us to be fully behind a project before sending it out. That is to say, this felt strong, very American Gods (by Neil Gaiman), but American Gods isn’t really the book I read. I hope that makes sense.

In this case, all very positive notes for the most part. The agent actually doesn’t have anything bad to say about the writing, the story, the structure, or the tone (more on that in future installments). In this case, the agent is actually very up front about the fact that they just don’t represent this type of book. I’ll take “No”‘s like that from agents all year. Call me philosophical, but if anyone has nothing bad to say about my writing other than that the book is not their normal style, I’m good.

What makes this one interesting, in reference to the response from Part 1, is the difference in perception. The agent in Part 1 read the novel as a suspense thriller. This agent is reading it as a Gaiman-esque novel with supernatural themes and modern fantasy elements (pub industry folks: notice I didn’t use the word urban there). Same MS, two completely different reads. The first agent read it with an eye to how it will sell as a thriller. This agent latched more on to the supernatural elements that run throughout the novel and thought, “Gaiman’s readers, that’s the audience for this.” And yet, it is still a literary novel. Sure, there is murder, suspense, some events that defy a realistic explanation, and the presence of one character who may or may not be somewhat-supernatural. But there is not enough of any of those elements (well, maybe the murder), to make this a genre novel. As I keep discovering, it’s all in the perception.

Keep checking back. More to come…

Having finished the manuscript for No Tears for Old Scratch, I’ve been hard at work trying to find an agent to represent the novel to publishers. I have already self-published my work, including one collection of short stories and several e-books, with a great distribution network for an independent author, but for this novel, I wanted to take it to a larger audience. I feel it’s a bigger book (and a nice step up for me as a writer). Thanks to a little hard work on a well-crafted query letter and working some connections with publishing industry friends, I’ve actually been getting very good responses from agents. As anyone who has gone through this process knows, the usual response to a query is:

“This is not for me – but thanks for the opportunity!”

I always like when an agent responds with enthusiasm (!) when rejecting a query. Or there is the British version:

“Thank you for your submission, which we have read with interest. Unfortunately we did not feel enthusiastic enough about it to take this further. We are sorry to give you a disappointing response but thank you for thinking of us in connection with your work.”

Or the even shorter:

“Not for me, but thanks.”

Thankfully, I’ve actually been receiving very few of those. What I have been getting are requests to either read a sample or the full manuscript. And the response has been both surprising and interesting. In many ways, a lot of the agents like the manuscript, even going into detail about what they think works in the manuscript. And yet, there are no takers yet. What I find fascinating is the range of reasons that an agent ultimately decides to pass on a manuscript. Sometimes it’s the sell-ability of the novel. Other times, the tone. Or sometimes they feel they are just not the right agent, even if they like the story.

As an exercise in sort of documenting the whole process, I thought I would start posting some of the responses I receive from agents (anonymously of course). I’m not looking to slag them. These are just their opinions and most are actually well thought out. But for fellow writers who know the process and even curious readers, I thought it might be an interesting look at what writers go through in order to sell a manuscript.

So without further ado:

Here’s a response I received yesterday.
Query response: Agent asked to see the manuscript after a query e-mail was forwarded to him by another agent in the same agency
Response time: 49 days. Agent didn’t actually respond back until I e-mailed to see if you had time to read the MS and had any feedback.

You do an excellent job describing Knobs End–I felt totally immersed in this small town. Along the same lines, your writing carefully crafts a feeling that the town is vulnerable to outside corruption. Each horrific event that takes place in the town furthers this haunting atmosphere and, at the same time, creates a sense of thrill. In addition, the way the story touches on religious and political points of contention, like abortion, adds a depth and cultural relevancy that works well and is thought-provoking.

That being said, thrillers are part of an incredibly crowded market, and I worry that the writing lacks a certain narrative cohesion. While the concept is strikingly original, I sometimes felt that the story could unfold more quickly, and that certain aspects of the plot are overwhelmingly detailed to the point of confusion. I also had a difficult time connecting emotionally with the characters. There are some fine moments and gripping twists in this novel, but in the end, I didn’t connect with the material quite viscerally enough to feel that I am the right person to champion this project for you.

I think those are all fair points. After all an agent is not selling on writing ability, but on sell-ability. Your MS is a product. And this agent’s take on the novel is that it would work as a thriller. So they are reading it with that mind set. The interesting part is that the novel is not a thriller. It’s a literary novel, it just has a lot of murder in it, including one particular murder that serves as the eye of the storm for the book. However, agents, especially this one in particular, will read this with an eye to how they think they can sell it. In this case, the thriller aspects are what attracts the agent, but for his/her taste, it’s not thrillery enough. Again, interesting feedback and part of the reason why I’m fascinated by the process.

Keep checking back. More to come…

The good folks over at Emprise Review have just posted a new interview with yours truly, courtesy of Editor Patrick McAllaster. We cover a nice bit of ground in the discussion including lit-minimalism insanity, e-books, podcasting, being cruel to your characters, and what makes female pro-wrestlers so damn interesting.

Here is a small sample. You can read entire interview here.

On our way home, we were debating about the exhibit, and I just couldn’t come around to appreciating what [Ellsworth] Kelly had done, no matter how valiantly my girlfriend tried to explain Kelly’s approach (to have our minds derive certain intrinsic meanings from the shapes on the canvas). This somehow led me to making a joke about how ridiculous the same approach would be in fiction. Out of nowhere I had this idea of a militant minimalist writer, who was getting up at readings and launching into one-word short stories. The ultimate in minimalism! And this writer would hate the audience for not getting it. Over a few glasses of wine the idea expanded. After a while, this writer would even hate words, viewing them as the death of literature. Words were the problem! The sillier the idea became, the more I liked it. And it expanded out from satirizing minimalist art to also mocking a lot of the writers I’ve seen in the past few years who are too focused on experimentation, such as some of the folks who get all jazzed up over the idea of flash fiction revolutionizing literature.

331 pages, 60,643 words. Now comes the hard part: selling the blasted thing.

I first discovered the concept of a “Graveyard of the Innocent” while living in Medina, Ohio. A local Catholic church, St. Francis Xavier, used to put up the display every Halloween (see the photo to the left). The crosses were supposed to represent the total number of fetuses killed in abortions in one week in the city of Akron. Needless to say, I’m glad I don’t live in frickin’ Medina, Ohio anymore.

That image of the mini-tombstones, so like the cover of Metallica’s Master of Puppets, always stuck with me as a symbol of small-town religious lunacy. So when it came time to start writing No Tears for Old Scratch, a novel set in the Holiest Town in America, I had knew there would be a Graveyard of the Innocent in there somewhere.

As I wind down on the final rewrites for No Tears for Old Scratch, as if on cue, another Graveyard of the Innocent jumped into the public eye. This time it was a drawing by Scott Roeder, the man convicted of murdering Dr. George Tiller because he performed abortions. As Bill Hicks said, “Pro-lifers murdering doctors, it’s irony on a base level, but I like it.” Apparently, supporters of Roeder decided to auction off some “drawings” from him on eBay (rendered in that wonderful 5th grade style). One of which showed a biblical David holding the severed head of a Goliath George Tiller (again death obsession). And sure enough, Roeder had drawn a Graveyard of the Innocent. Ironically enough, in a move that Bill Hicks would have cackled at, Roeder included the inscription, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil.” Like convicted murders and their Christian supporters perhaps.

Still cranking away on rewrites for the final chapters of No Tears For Old Scratch.

Sorry for the lack of posts. But I’ve been hard at work on this bastard. First draft is done. I’m in the throes of rewrites now. More details to come soon…

I have officially started on book #2. Without giving away any details, one of the main characters in the book is everyone’s favorite mischief maker and all around swinging guy, Satan. The idea for the book actually came to me one morning while listening to “Up Jumped the Devil” by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Those pounding piano chords, Cave’s voice growling at that low register, the overall vibe of the dark one lurking mischievously up the street — the plot of the book laid itself out instantly in my head.

On the rare occasions when I do finally plop my ass in the chair to tap away at the keyboard, I always listen to music. Some folks find this odd as they usually require peace and quiet when writing. But I prefer to have music blaring, preferably something that gets me in the mood of the story. When I wrote The Love Book, I listened to really heavy Doom: Black Sabbath, Cathedral, The Obsessed, Spirit Caravan, St. Vitus, Grand Magus, Candlemass, Trouble. The music fit the dark stories I was firing out.

For this next book, since Satan is a central character, I decided to make good use of iTunes and put together “The Satan Playlist.” The basic criteria was this: any song that includes Satan or the devil or old scratch as a character. So for example: Robert Johnson’s “Me and the Devil Blues” is in since Johnsons sings, “And I said Hello, Satan, I believe it’s time to go,” but AC/DC’s “Hell Ain’t No Bad Place to Be” doesn’t make it since Bon Scott is merely referring to his rock n’ roll lifestyle. So without further ado, here is the playlist I put together. If you think I’ve grossly overlooked a song, send a suggestion to biffsatan@kenwohlrob.com.

Up Jumped The Devil — Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Satan’s Fall — Mercyful Fate
Devil Do — Holly Golightly & The Brokeoffs
Satan Comes to the East Village — The Black Hand
Me And The Devil Blues — Robert Johnson
Sympathy For The Devil — The Rolling Stones
Lord Of This World — Black Sabbath
Satan Ex-Machina — Nox
The Devil Stole The Beat From The Lord — The Hellacopters
The Dealer — Goatsnake
Satan’s Curse — Possessed
In League With Satan — Venom
Heaven And Hell — Black Sabbath
The Devil’s Chasing Me — Reverend Horton Heat
Bleed For The Devil — Morbid Angel
The Devil And The Damage Done — Witchery
Hells Bells — AC/DC
The Antichrist — Slayer
Shout At The Devil — Mötley Crüe
Chief Rebel Angel — Entombed
Antikrist — Dimmu Borgir
King At The King / Evil Is In — Stormtroopers Of Death
The Tempter — Trouble
King Contrary Man — The Cult
In The Flesh — Entombed
Satan — Entombed
Highway To Hell — AC/DC
Hell Awaits — Slayer