My mum tells a story about me as a baby that before I could talk, I used to lie in my cot and sing to myself. They weren’t cooing baby sounds, they were actual little melodies. Right then, she knew I was going to be a singer. Music was in my blood, in my soul. It was in me.
Music has always been a huge part of my life. I am a classically trained singer and play the piano; have written music for theatre and cabaret shows and performed for many years, from plays to quartets, solos and choirs. But it’s not just about being a singer or musician that makes music special. It’s the way it touches us and brings us together. And that’s what I set about expressing when I wrote rockstar-thriller romance, Need You Tonight.
But I think music is in everyone. Songs connect people to memories, feelings, thoughts. The Jackson Five’s Can you Feel It takes me back to my first trip overseas with my family when I was thirteen. All the sights, sounds and smells of Italy come back to me, filling me with the wonder I felt there and the sense of love I still feel now for that ancient land. Jane Oliver’s version of One Enchanted Evening makes me cry happy tears because it reminds me of times spent singing with my mum, our voices blended together with songs that touched both our souls. Shania Twain’s From this Moment, takes me to my wedding and singing it (with tonsillitis) to my husband and him not caring that it was a bit rough because the words were for us. The Little Mermaid’s, A Part of That World takes me to the time I spent in the hospital when my son was born 9 weeks premature. There wasn’t much I could do for him, but singing to him used to calm him down, especially that song. And I will always remember the little songs and ditties my poppy used to sing to me in his glorious tenor, because even though he never said the words, ‘I love you’, the love was in his voice for everyone to hear.
Lexi and Daemon are two people damaged by their pasts, and yet their way out of the darkness of emotions too painful to deal with is through their music. At first it brings them together professionally, but very soon it brings them together emotionally, because in their music, they hear each other; the sounds of their hearts, the things they can’t say, the selves they wished they could be. It makes them face truths.
When Daemon plays Lexi’s music for the first time she remembers the song, Killing Me Softly. This scene is a pivotal one between them, because in listening to Daemon play her music, Lexi doesn’t just hear the pain, but hears for the first time the strength in herself she never sees, and it changes the way she views her past, her present, and in the end, her future. Daemon feels understood for the first time because Lexi hears the truth in his music and brings it out in her arrangements and production. It is through music that my characters connect. To misquote Barry Manilow, they don’t just ‘write the songs that make the whole world sing.’ Music makes Lexi and Daemon’s love sing to them and makes them willing to create a new soundtrack of memories for a life together.
I hope readers connect to this aspect of Need You Tonight as much as I do.
About Need You Tonight
Not even fame will protect him from her violent past.
Reclusive music producer, Lexi Deningham, has worked hard to escape a violent past, building her reputation so world famous rock stars come to her at her isolated recording studio in the Victorian High Country. That includes the wildly talented Daemon Flagherty who has just arrived to discuss his band’s next album. After a messy divorce, all Daemon wants is to focus on his music, even if that means going to the end of the world to work with the best, albeit mysterious, music producer there is.
When Lexi gets a call from her twin sister’s secure mental health hospital telling her Cat has been attacked, Lexi has no choice but to bring her twin home. Lexi isn’t ready to deal with both Cat and Daemon at the same time but if she wants to work with Daemon – and she does, desperately – she has no choice.
Romance should be the last thing on their minds, but it seems that neither Lexi nor Daemon can ignore the passion between them. Until the threat from Lexi’s past comes crashing into the present, determined to make her pay and with no care for who might get in the way.
Lexi is used to going it alone, but will she realise she needs help before it’s too late?
Rock star romance meets small town thriller. If you love hot, creative heroes, stubborn and talented heroines, romance against the odds, a suspenseful mystery to sink your teeth into, a rural setting mixed with music, concerts and sexy scenes on the spicy side, then you’ll love Need You Tonight.
Need You Tonight is due out 5th April.
