My Favorite Post -- Jay

This is the news I’ve been hoping to share since I was only halfway into the first draft of Thirteen Reasons Why. There are two poems in that book attributed to Hannah Baker, my main female character. The first poem is called If My Love… It’s a sappy/cheesy poem I originally wrote many years ago for an ex-girlfriend. The second poem, Soul Alone, is absolutely beautiful…and I’m not being cocky by saying that.

My wife just happens to be my favorite songwriter. And that works out real well, because I’m her favorite novelist…so long as Johnny Depp never gets a literary itch (because my wife would love to scratch it). When it came time to write Hannah’s “good” poem, the lyrics to one of my wife’s songs would not get out of my head. Then, one of those lightbulbs ignited over my head and I ran to our stereo. For a songwriting contest, my wife had recorded a bare-bones version of three of her songs…one of them being Soul Alone. And talk about eerie! The lyrics could have been written by Hannah Baker. In fact, I knew that if I tweaked the chapter in which the poem was supposed to appear, it would be an exact match (I wouldn’t dare ask my wife to change her lyrics). Then the lightbulb clicked itself one setting brighter. I knew, because of its premise, Thirteen Reasons Why was a natural for an audiobook. And if that happened, I told my wife, I would fight hard to get her song included as a bonus track…with her singing.

It turns out, I didn’t have to fight hard at all.

After signing the contract, I mentioned to Orli Moscowitz (the producer) that Soul Alone began as a song written by my wife, and that I had a recording of it if she’d like to take a listen. She agreed. I burned her a C.D. and mailed it the next day. She listened. She loved! And now…my wife is an official recording artist.

[We interrupt this blog post so that the author can dry his eyes.]

Below are some photos from the three hours my wife spent at Moon Productions & Recording Studio recording a more polished version of Soul Alone (hey...I’m a blogger…of course I made her document it). Bringing together some local musicians, she recorded a song which will bring Listening Library’s audio production of Thirteen Reasons Why to a perfect ending.

Darrell Voss (drums)

Terry Lawless (keyboards)
-- the dude actually tours with u2! --

Thomas Gingell (audio engineer)

My Honey

I can’t wait for you all to hear Soul Alone…written and sung by JoanMarie Asher.

- Jay