Tag: The Foll Stones

Music To Write By – The Foll Stones

Brigid Huey

Music is so important to my writing process. In fact, many of my stories have been directly inspired by a song; Fidelity blossomed from Biplane by Andrew Lockington, a wonderful piece of music from the soundtrack to The Space Between Us.

My novel The Foll Stones was recently accepted by Meryton Press (!!) and I’m currently in the editing stage. Folx, I’ve had The Foll Stones in my head since before 2010, but when I listen to a track from my playlist, I’m instantly transported to Terratalam; I can see Brian and Cleona as if they were in the room with me. That’s how magical music is.

The list of songs I’ve added to The Foll Stones playlist is long, but I wanted to share some standouts. First up is Injection by the magnificent Hans Zimmer. This piece is from Mission Impossible 2, which I guess makes it vintage at this point. The combination of vocal music and strings in this piece is dramatic and mysterious, and I just love it. It inspired a very important scene in The Foll Stones, and so deserves a place here. Listen and imagine!

Next up we have Heavy Rain from the score to the Heavy Rain video game from Quantic Dream. The music was composed by Normand Corbeil. It’s a haunting, sad piece of music that has served as the underscore for all of Terratalam. You’ll understand more once you read it, but for now, listen and be entranced.

Time Flies When You’re Having Kids

Brigid Huey
An hourglass sits on a table surrounded by clocks.
Photo by Jordan Benton on Pexels.com

I have a theory that as soon as you start having children, time moves twice as fast. Remember when you were small and stretches of time seemed to last forever? You wanted to grow up, be finished with school, do what you wanted to do.

Then you graduate high school, and time gets a little faster, but not much. You graduate and get a job. The days drag on and you seem to have time to spare.

Then you have kids. Zoom! Time goes by at twice it’s normal rate, and with every passing year it seems to get faster still.

I started writing The Foll Stones before my daughter was born. She’ll be thirteen in a few short months. (Pause for deep, calming breaths.)

My publisher has shown interest in a sequel to The Foll Stones, so I have returned to Terratalam (the land in which The Foll Stones takes place) and begun again. I’m seeing it all with different eyes now. These eyes have seen much more than those of thirteen years ago. I am hoping it brings more depth to my work (and not stodginess!), but time – ahem – will tell.

As life speeds by me, through me, around me, I try to stop and breath it all in. As someone once said, the days are long, but the years are short.

Take care, dear reader. XX

Music to Write By – The Foll Stones

Brigid Huey

I’ve been working on The Foll Stones for over 10 years. I started it before my daughter was born, took a long hiatus until after the birth of my son, and finished the first draft during my first attempt at NaNoWriMo. So you can imagine that the playlist for this work is long and varied!

Before I share my favorite pieces from the playlist, here is a bit about The Foll Stones:

When 19-year-old Cleona Willow and her childhood friend Brian are magically pulled from their sleepy Vermont town and thrust into the ancient land of Terratalam, they must join the quest to unite the mythical Foll Stones, or risk being trapped in the strange world forever.

The Music

One of the first scenes that I envisioned is quite dramatic. There’s a swamp, a challenge, and a life-threatening drop. The music that plays is Injection by Hans Zimmer. It’s from Mission Impossible II, of all things. It doesn’t really get good until minute 1:30 (sorry Hans).

The next of many favorites is “Ron Leaves” by Alexandre Desplat. It’s from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, although I’ve forgotten which one. It’s so beautiful and sad and simply perfect for The Foll Stones. There’s a fair amount of bittersweet moments in this novel, and this music is perfection.

Okay more bittersweet coming at you. This piece is called “Remembering Jenny” by Christophe Beck. It’s from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer soundtrack. It’s sooo good. It’s short, but man the feels it evokes. Incidentally, Christophe Beck composed the score for Frozen. Not the songs or anything, but the beautiful music that plays when the parents are lost at sea? Christophe. Also, when the animated Christophe is running across the ice? Christophe. Okay, enough. On to the beauty.

There are many more songs on my list for this novel. As it comes closer to completion, I’ll be sharing more. I hope you enjoyed this peek inside my musical inspiration!

50,000 Words

Brigid Huey
Another pseudo-version of me – typing.

It’s November, which means it’s NaNoWriMo! What is NaNoWriMo you ask? It’s National Novel Writing Month, when a bunch of writers the world over try to write 50,000 words in one month. Check out their official website here.

I am not doing NaNoWriMo this year, because, life. But I love keeping up with other writers’ progress all the same. It gives me a creative boost just to think about all my fellow writers out there, working so hard this month to realize their dreams.

It’s also got me thinking about 50,000 words. I am not sure I have ever reached that goal. A Chance Encounter in Pemberley Woods is a novella, around 35,000 words. The current draft of Fidelity is 49,500 words. The Foll Stones is stalling out at 49,000. It seems I have trouble hitting that magical number – 50,000.

Why 50,000? Because that’s the average novel length. And to be honest, that’s pretty short. I’ll give you an example. One of my all time favorite books, A Wrinkle in Time, is about 50,000 words. I would not consider that to be a long book.

It’s really got me thinking. Maybe my style is just succinct. In fact, this is not a new thing for me. In college, my papers would rarely reach the requested number of pages. I would fall short by half a page or so, almost every time! I remember worrying about it, and speaking to my professor and advisor, Dr. Germaine Murray. She reassured me that I said what I needed to say and supported my ideas with fewer words, which was perfectly fine.

Now, a novel is not the same as a research paper. However, I’ve started to think about the possibility that I may not write long novels. Maybe shorter work is just my style. As a new writer, it’s hard to know when something is my style, and when something is happening because I’m a novice. For now, I’ll keep working on my 45,000 average. Perhaps I’ll hit that magic number this month, during the amazing creative juju of NaNoWriMo.