Largehearted Boy: Book Notes

"A novel has a musical tone like a film has a soundtrack."

Staci Greason shares the playlist for her debut novel All the Girls in Town at Largehearted Boy.

"When I was young, and getting over yet-another bad breakup with a musician, a wise friend suggested, “Maybe, stop dating the lead singer and start your own band?” I didn’t have the musical chops, but the idea of a woman as a shadow artist stuck around and eventually morphed into my new novel, All the Girls in Town.

Dani, Red, and Sasha are three sexy, smart, slightly-messed up women who gave their love and talents without credit to help Peter and his band, The Disasters, become famous. When the women discover that Peter is more than a plagiarist, they overcome their differences and unite to seek justice.

A novel has a musical tone like a film has a soundtrack. Music is always my doorway into a piece. The first thing I had to do was hear The Disasters. I imagined their sound was a grungy indie pop/rock band with reedy gruff lead male vocals, straight-forward lyrics, a little melancholic, and a little psychedelic.

Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot hits that sweet spot. I’m a Wilco fan. I listened to the album on a loop while writing the novel’s first draft, especially focused on the truth bomb delivered in the first song: I am trying to break your heart.

In the end, Wilco didn’t make the novel’s playlist. I tried to make them fit. That’s when I realized that All the Girls in Town is a story about three women living after the heartache and what heals them."

Read about the songs on the playlist here.

All the Girls in Town Playlist on Spotify and Apple.