Todd Morr's Blog

Around six years ago a publisher accepted a novel I wrote and then promptly went out of business. Thinking it was certainly possible I would wait another 20 years or so before I got another publisher since that is what it took the first time around (turns out I was wrong, though the next publisher to take that book also went out of business) I was kind of down on the whole writing thing. With my attitude toward writing taking a turn to the negative I got an idea for a very dark very violent apocalyptic story that reflected my attitude and mood. Though by the time I finished it my attitude had improved it remained the same. Publishers were uniformly unimpressed, so I wrote it again, changed some things (third person changed to first the big one) and the awesome dudes over at Spanking Pulp Press decided to publish it. Hopefully somebody will read it.

I don't have a bucket list, mostly because I'm not organized enough to make a list. but if I did doing a book reading from book I wrote would be on it . Thanks to Eric Beetner inviting me to read at Noir at the Bar the unwritten list gets bit shorter. Getting to share a bit of Captain Cooker with an audience was great, that I was in a lineup that included pros such as Josh Stallings, event founder Steven Blackmore, and Todd Robinson made it even better.
Now somebody needs to let me preside over their wedding, I'm pretty sure that was next on the list.

I’m not the first, nor will I be the last, to think books having soundtracks is a damn fine idea. I’ve long thought it would be cool to actually write and record original songs to go with a book, but it turns out I’m far too lazy. I did make the effort to list a few tunes that might accompany my debut novel Captain Cooker.

1. Bat country – Avenge Sevenfold – Though Captain Cooker has nothing to do with Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas the quote used in this song from Hunter Thompson fits in pretty well, plus it’s just a good song.
2. The Lost Art of Keeping a Secret – Queens of the Stone Age
3. I Put a Spell on You – Screaming Jay Hawkins - closest thing to a love song and I suppose every soundtrack has a love song
4. Fade into you – Mazzy Star – near perfect moody desert song.
5. I Smell a Rat – Buddy Guy – every crime story should have a smoldering slow blues tune
6. Cold, Cold, Ground – Tom Waits – every crime story should have at least one Tom Waits song.
7. Ball and Chain – Social Distortion –maybe cliché but an excellent jail song.
8. Shelter – Corrosion of Conformity - slow and menacing desert song.
9. Hanging Tree – Queens of the Stone Age – the ultimate desert band gets two
10. Post Toastee – Tommy Bolin – the forgotten Deep Purple guitarist rocks out.

Yes, I have invited myself to be judged by my taste in music, let the abuse begin.