Blog Tour: Truth by Julia Karr - Author Music Post

Today we have a guest post from Julia Karr, author of XVI and the recently released sequel, Truth. Julia will be telling us a little on how music relates to her newest book, Truth.

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I don’t listen to music when I’m writing, and I don’t have a playlist for Truth. I was about to give up on what I could possibly say that relates music to my writing, Then, I realized, when I’m working on a book (but not during the actual writing of it) I listen to music that was popular when I was the same age as my characters. Because that tunes my brain to the way I felt when I was a teen.

I actually relate various events in my life (and have since forever) to whatever music I was listening to at the time. So, when I wanted sweet, tender romance (like Nina & Sal’s first kiss in XVI) - I could harken back to how I felt listening to “I Should’ve Known Better” or “I’m Happy Just to Dance with You,” both by the Beatles.

In thinking about changing the government, I envisioned Derek and his brother playing music - considered historical at that point in the book - by protest musicians of the sixties, like Bob Dylan, Neil Young, etc. In Truth there is specific mention of For What It’s Worth by Buffalo Springfield.

When I was sixteen the United States was in an uproar over the Vietnam War and protest songs were huge. I drew a lot on what it felt like to listen to that music and consider the injustices happening around me when I was writing certain scenes in Truth. (I don’t want to spoil anything!)

So - even though I didn’t write while listening to music, a lot of the music I’ve listened to over the years is (at least in my mind) in my books.

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Thanks so much for stopping by today, Julia! You all should take a look at the rest of the tour stops, which can be found Truth Tour Details.