Hey there! It’s great to be back on the blog talking about one of my biggest passions, MUSIC! Before I started getting serious about my writing, I was a busy classical singer. I performed in Operas and Musical Theater productions, and my taste in listening is very eclectic.
My hero in BLUE MOON is actually the lead singer of his alternative rock band, Logan and the Howlers, and since the book is on sale this week, I asked him to come by and chat with us.
LOGAN: I don’t do many interviews, but when Lisa said this blog was called Music Monday, how could I say no? Between you and me, it’s worth reading Blue Moon just to see the fire in Anna’s eyes when she tells me to kiss her ass.
Music has always been important to me. I started writing songs in middle school and they saved me when my reason for living walked out of my life. It actually wasn’t Anna’s fault. I was the ass who stood her up for the prom.
See, I’m not only the lead singer of Logan and the Howlers, I’m also a werewolf. My Pack lives in Reno, Nevada, and our world is dangerous. I thought I could protect Anna by letting her go. For the past five years, I took the anger, regret, and loneliness and channeled it into my music. As our songs ran up the iTunes charts, our Facebook page started to explode with notes from fans about how our music saved them.
Music has that power. When you feel most alone, a song can give you a lifeline, a reminder that you’re not the only one hurting. And as a musician, when you share your pain, it lays you bare, and there’s a freedom in that. Maybe cathartic is the word? I don’t know, but here’s a little excerpt from Blue Moon to give you a taste…
Paul jogged onstage with my Gibson. I swapped the electric guitar for the acoustic and slid the strap over my shoulder. Amazing that I could be sitting on a cold stool in the hot lights of a open-air college amphitheater with five thousand screaming fans and still feel so damned alone.
I sucked in a slow breath, my fingers instinctively reaching for that first chord. My Gibson was my focus. With her in my arms, everything else faded away.
“I love you, Logan!”
I peered into the blinding spotlight and leaned into the mic. “Love you, too.”
The crowd went ballistic. Tonight was my twenty-third birthday, and I was spending it with my alt-rock band, Logan and the Howlers. We were finally starting to see some success. Our songs climbed up iTunes charts as fast as we could release them, and our concert venues were getting bigger without the backing of a big record label. We were busy.
Even on my birthday.
Luke, my twin brother, was waiting somewhere in the wings. After the show, we were going to grab a couple of beers to celebrate, and I’d paste on a smile for my brother. For me, it was just another empty year. As my Pack brothers each found their mates, the one woman he would ever love, the ache for mine grew, but unlike the rest of the Pack, there was no hope of me being with her.
I blew my chance years ago.
Pushing the memories away, I leaned on the stool while the rest of the Howlers vanished offstage for a water break. This was my song. The crowd erupted as I strummed the first chord. “Madness in the Moonlight” was still one of our top selling singles, and a favorite at live performances. My pain on display.
She haunts my dreams.
Shadows of the past.
Ripping my heart down the seams.
No one to blame but me.
I’m a lone wolf now, but I still stare up at the moon,
Call her name, and wonder if she’s looking, too…
I sat back, letting the crowd finish the chorus, wailing the anger and rage.
Madness. Madness. Madness.
Wishing won’t change a thing.
Tell that to my fucking heart.
Welcome the pain, feel something.
Got to let her go.
Another verse, another chorus, but as I hit the key change, a familiar scent, clean and spicy like cinnamon ignited my senses. Oh shit. From where?
I was the only member of the Howlers who actually howled. Once a month, the wolf in my soul came forward and I shifted my form, surrendering to the animalistic part of my spirit. And right now the dormant wolf was clawing toward my consciousness, no longer content to rest in the background. Even as a man, my senses were heightened—especially my senses of smell and hearing, but my vision didn’t suck, either.
I’d performed this song hundreds of times. My fingers found the chords instinctively, but I almost missed my vocals, stumbling over the next verse while I scanned the crowd. Finally I turned toward the wings.
In the shadows offstage, my brother Luke waited for me…with a ghost from my past.
Anna.
Fuck.
So yeah, I think music is an expression of emotion when words aren’t enough. And Lisa Kessler, the author who wrote Blue Moon imagined Madness in the Moonlight having the same kind of feel as Love is Blindness by Jack White. She listened to this one for inspiration during the emotional points in the book.
Bottom line. Music heals us, inspires us, and saves us.
Thanks for having me visit.
Logan Reynolds
Be sure to pick up Blue Moon by Lisa Kessler for just 99¢!
Falling for her means losing everything…
She’s his muse, his mate, and she’s completely off-limits.
He’s a jerk, a recluse, and her newest assignment.
Until he broke her heart, Vivianna Lopez loved Logan Reynolds.
Five years later, she’s an aspiring music journalist and he’s the camera-shy lead singer of Logan and the Howlers.
Armed with a backstage pass, Vivi’s back in her hometown of Reno, nestled in the shadows of the Sierra Nevada mountains. She must score an interview with Logan to land her dream job – otherwise it’s back to Boston, with no scoop and no job. It’s just business–at least that’s what she keeps telling herself.
Logan still loves Vivi, his soul mate, but there’s something even she doesn’t know about him: He turns into a werewolf every full moon and a secret organization is hunting down his Pack.
Vivi may not have Logan’s senses, but she can sniff out that he’s hiding something. He knows it’s only a matter of time before the truth about him – and his Pack – is revealed.
And then he really will lose her.
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Lisa Kessler is an Amazon Best Selling and award winning author of dark paranormal fiction. Her debut novel, Night Walker, won a San Diego Book Award for Best Published Fantasy-Sci-fi-Horror as well as the Romance Through the Ages Award for Best Paranormal and Best First Book. Her short stories have been published in print anthologies and magazines, and her vampire story, Immortal Beloved, was a finalist for a Bram Stoker award. When she’s not writing, Lisa is a professional vocalist, performing with the San Diego Opera as well as other musical theater companies in San Diego.
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I so love this moon series and I had no idea you put together some music for it.