“Another Bone-Swapping Event tells the story of an unlikely year when I found myself stuck, due to Peru’s draconian lockdown, in the jungles of the upper Amazon.”
“Like my stories, the songs are pulled from a lot of different genres and time periods. But I think (I hope) they work together to make something weird and pleasing, rather the way I think (I hope!) my collection ultimately does.”
“…music is all over my book—from Judy and Liza to Tori Amos and The Verve Pipe.”
“Making a playlist that feels like the book I’m writing is the very first thing I do – even before I’ve started writing the book itself. Getting the playlist right opens the world I’m writing about up to me, and so it’s as much a part of the worldbuilding as sketching out a character or figuring out what the hell happens in act three.”
“My writing playlist for this book was very much dictated by the December-through-February release of Beach House’s Once Twice Melody. They’re my favorite band, and an 18-track, near-90-minute behemoth from them was of course going to take over my life.”
“I like to think I’m directing a story, just on paper and I sadly don’t have a multi-million dollar budget.”
“Wreck is technically a novel but it’s really just a semi-autobiographical collection of feelings:”
“Because the composition of this book spans over 15 years, my choices are less about remembering what song shaped the writing than thinking about what musical analogue the story evokes.”
“These are the songs I would listen to during the crucial sanity walk between drafting sessions to try to invoke the right mood.”
“I wrote this book about a period of upheaval – a major breakup, two big moves, a time-honoured mid-twenties existential scramble – and through it all, I buoyed and understood myself through music.”