Music to my ears

Hello my lovelies,

I can see the light at the end of the tunnel for the contemporary interracial BDSM erotic romance novel I'm working on for the "Wrapped Up: A Corseted Event with Bridget Midway and Yvette Hines." The novel will be called Licorice Whips, and it will be through Phaze Books in November 2013. People who come out to the event on November 9th will get the book before anyone else. Doesn't that make you feel special?

As I'm writing the novel, I often will pull inspiration from songs. Oftentimes songs will set a mood for me. Or a lot of times, I can use the singer's voice to imagine what the character's voice will sound like. For Licorice Whips, I imagine the hero named Sweet Hawkes to look like Bradley Cooper.

For the heroine, Nikla Dearwood, I imagine her looking like the actress Paula Patton.

Hot couple, right? So for a hot couple like this, I need to listen to the appropriate music, especially since it's a romance, and especially because it's a BDSM novel. Because the hero owns and operates a candy store, I wanted a song that would work to express the sensuality. No, not Bow Wow Wow's "I Want Candy" or Foxy Brown's "I Taste Just Like Candy" or even Cameo's "Candy." No, I went for Suzanne Vega's "Caramel" especially since caramel was used in a crucial scene. I'll just leave it at that.

Of course the hero has to learn to trust the heroine. In the process, I figured my hero would come to a point where he and the heroine are on the same page. For that moment, I like Lenny Kravitz's "I Belong to You."

My heroine has to come to grips about this new lifestyle she's been introduced to thanks to the hero. As you can imagine, she starts to feel more sensual. For her, Beyoncé's "Naughty Girl" comes to mind.

So what do I listen to when I'm writing the BDSM scenes? Mainly it's Nine Inch Nails and early 90's Madonna when she was in her shocking sex phase (think "Human Nature" and "Erotica"). What it comes down to is that anything that can help me craft a great story, I'll use it.

So you authors, what kind of music or what songs do you listen to when you look for inspiration?

Stay sexy,
BridgeT