Another old blog post from a blog tour. If you ever wanted an Ardulum soundtrack, here you go!

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Playlist for the Ardulum series

J.S. Fields

 

I can’t listen to music as I write, but I do often ‘songfic’ my characters in my head when listening to music while exercising (yes yes, I once wrote fanfic and maybe….maybe a songfic or two. Don’t you dare google). Below are the ‘soundtracks’ to each book (in rough order within the book, if applicable), with a short bit of explanation.

 

First Don

 Alice [Extended Version] by Avril Lavigne: This is Neek’s theme. It doesn’t hold to one particular part of the book, but rather I feel like it walks the reader through the entire story. Neek starts out disoriented with the arrival of Emn but gradually gains confidence and courage, and finally finds herself in a place she never imagined.

 

Me and the Majorby Belle & Sebastian: This song is first act Nicholas to a T. He’s joined the crew of the Pledgebut they are nothinglike he expected. Yorden is grumpy and overbearing and Neek is crass. Nicholas feels a huge generational divide but he remains spunky and upbeat… and he can still get his hits in, too.

 

Innocence by Avril Lavigne: This is child Emn’s theme, and the song reminds me of the scene in the docking bay when Neek and Emn are playing ‘duck,’ with Emn in that twirly yellow dress. It’s a very sweet scene that really shows Emn’s youth and Neek’s conflict between her terror at what Emn represents, and her desire to slide back into the mythos of her own youth.

 

A Rush of Blood to the Headby Coldplay: Disenfranchised and looking for a way to find purpose, this is Yorden’s theme. He’s seen too many wars, too many utopian governments, to buy into the Risalian bullshit peace, but he knows better than to just start a war. But, if the opportunity to flip the establishment presented itself…

 

When You’re Goneby Avril Lavigne: everything about this song is the first book. In particular though, I often think of Neek visiting Emn’s cocoon in the docking bay of the Pledge, missing her and wondering just what’s on the other side of the sticky material. I think on some level Neek knows what to expect when Emn emerges, and that terrifies her, because feeling protective of a kid is one thing, but adult Emn will be an entirely different, and terrifying, affair.

 

Second Don

Armsby Christina Perri: if someone were going to make a music video of Second Don, this would be the song. It encompasses the whole feeling of book two on both sides, as Atalant and Emn run towards each other, just to fall away again. They come together in the end (and finally kiss), and the end of this song brings that feeling of YESSS to the forefront.

 

Some Nightsby Fun.: oh first act Neek. So much denial. So many holy books to read. Every times she goes into that cockpit she might as well be going to war. Neek is at her lowest point in these first few chapters, and even though she has two people who deeply care for her, she can’t reconcile the Ardulum of her childhood with the Ardulan woman who wants nothing more than to be with her

 

Walking With A Ghostby Tegan & Sara: Yorden and Atalant have had a long and sometimes complicated friendship. As Yorden comes to grips first with Atalant’s death and then the possibility that she might be alive, he has to do some interesting mental gymnastics. This song reminds me when he finally goes into Atalant’s old room on the Mmnnuggl pod and realizes who used to occupy it.

 

Citizen of the Planet by Alanis Morissette: this song always makes me think of Emn when she arrives to Ardulum. She’s disoriented but sohopeful that she’s finally found her home. She finally gets to see people that look like her, makes ‘friends,’ and really blossoms into an independent person. For this one, perfect moment she has solid confidence and the tone of this song really brings forth that ‘head held high, this is my planet,’ attitude.

 

Radioactiveby Imagine Dragons: Third act Nicholas is pretty badass, and I always hear this song when he bursts through the crowd of Ardulans to make a path for Atalant so she can get to the dais, and save Emn. Nicholas probably makes the biggest evolution in terms of character during the trilogy, though he’s often in the background. He deserves a very I DID A THING! song

 

Viva La Vidaby Coldplay: I really have no rationale for this, but every time I hear this song, I think of Arik and his big aspirations that just crumbled along with the Eld Palace.

 

 Third Don

Distance by Christina Perri: this Emn’s theme for the first act of book three. Emn and Atalant are together, but there’s just no time for romance. Emn feels at a distance, too, from all of Atalant’s commitments and their reversed roles. There’s so much building under the surface for Emn in this book. She so desperately wants Atalant to just say she loves her, to reaffirm that there is a place for Emn on Ardulum, but is too afraid to say those big words, too.

 

Running Scared (Radio Edit)by Eldar Nigar: if the sex scene had a music track, this would be it

 

Sons and Daughters by The Decemberists: this is Yorden’s theme for book three. He’s not going to let a little Nugel kidnapping stop him. With Salice in tow, he’s perfectly capable of starting over, through violence or otherwise.

 

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This is a blog post that went… somewhere, during a blog tour. But it’s really amusing and I think it deserves a more…directed audience. My choices below still stand.

 

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Kill/Fuck/Marry, the Ardulum Edition

J.S. Fields

 

This feels a little incestuous, since these characters did come from my own head, but here we go.

 

Kill

Arik. I mean, I appreciate what he’s been through, but if Nicholas is our starry-eyed teen with a heart of gold and enough innocence to make you gag, then Arik is our starry-eyed teen who sharpens his innocence on his (very legitimate) pain and uses it for Ardulum’s version of a mass shooting. I’m still pretty screwed up over his redemption arc. There’s a reason he didn’t get a lot of page time in book three. Arik and I are not on speaking terms.

 

My weapon of choice for this encounter would be a few of those clay pots in the Talent Chamber filled with synthetic mucous, because they’re gross and I’m also secretly curious what would happen if I got covered in goop, too.

 

 

Fuck

Neek/Atalant. My dating radar hones in on baggage like my toddler to a bag of M&Ms. Five minutes of Neek talking about her exile, or her settee, or her death (she did come back, after all) and we wouldn’t even need foreplay. Pay the bill, call the Uber, take me back to the Luciditybecause I am ready.One night stand or torrid six month affair, I don’t care. The second she brought a moving planet into the picture though, that’d spell commitment, and I’d be out of there.

 

Fun factoid about me: I use to work at Dairy Queen and would pick up women through the drive through window. So I see the Mary Sue fanfic between Neek and I where I’m the server at a Fast Print drive through at some spaceport, she pulls up in the Lucidity(sans Emn, clearly), and I work my short game. After our first encounter I force her to watch old Xena episodes, which she doesn’t get at all, but it’s a Mary Sue fanfic, so we have to really hit it out of the park.

 

 

Marry

Uh…so none of the main characters are particularly marriage material. If being forced to choose maybe…Yorden? But he’d have sexual expectations that I wouldn’t be able to meet. You know what? Screw it. I’d marry the damn planet. Ardulum is sentient, has decent longevity, and has a major ten year plan. It has good communication skills, likes long drives/flights through space, and I assume all those tree roots it controls would be of some use in the bedroom (or I’ve watched too much hentai anime).

 

If you’re rolling your eyes at the tentacle thing, I mean, my main character in these books secretes lubricant from her fingers, and ends up with another woman. While the implications of stuk fingers were not immediately apparent to me (and had to be pointed out by like, five different readers), it’s very clear where my subconscious mind lurks.

Having finished the fourth Ardulum book (TALES FROM ARDULUM releases in June 2019), I’ve been having fun writing very short shorts for friends when they need a little pick me up.

I also realized that I have a host of old blog posts that have been sent out over the years that give great backstory to different characters, that many readers may never have seen.

Hence, every Wednesday from now until the fourth book releases, I’m going to share one of these little snips. It might be a cut scene from a book, a post about why Nicholas hates law, or a little flash fiction meant to cheer up a friend (whether or not it is canon, you can decide).

I hope you find these amusing, if nothing else!

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This was a snip I wrote on the fly for a friend who was feeling down. I sent her the Emn illustration (you’ll see it in book four, and it is GORGEOUS) and wrote a little blurb to go with it. I wouldn’t consider this canon, necessarily, as Mmnnuggls probably have much more sophisticated bathrooms than what is described here, but the idea of the short was more of the Neek/Emn tension addition that start at the beginning of SECOND DON more than anything.

 

Neek kicked the pocked marked recess in the green-tinted wall. Water should have come out. Every being in the known universe used water to wash after using their version of a washroom. And she SWORE the damn thing had made some yesterday. How in the hell did it…

“Neek?”

For absolutely no reason whatsoever, Neek spun around, violently slamming her back into the wall and her head into the too-low ceiling of the stolen Mmnnuggl pod.

Emn stood in the doorway to the washroom, her damn dress hugging her damn curves far too well. “Did you need help? I heard shouting.”

“No I don’t need help using a lavatory,” Neek accidentally snarled. Shit.

Emn took a step back, hands held in front of her. “Okay. Sorry. We uh, we ran out of the wash water though. There’s a gel in the other wall if you want to sanitize.”

Neek closed her eyes, nodded, and, mercifully out of Emn’s field of view, felt around on the wall until she found a soft spot that felt like a, well, a breast, and squeezed it. Something cold and viscous came out that smelled antiseptic. She rubbed it over her hands. Thinking Emn would be gone and she could go back to skulking in her room, Neek turned around to see Emn still there. Still fucking beautiful. Still staring at her.

And the tiny room she was standing in was way too warm.

“I uh, I’m sorry about yelling. At you.” Neek shoved her hands into her flight suit pockets. “I’m going back to my room now.”

Emn canted her head. “I thought you might come to the cockpit for a bit.”

“With… you?”

Emn nodded. “Nicholas is napping. I think I figured out how to access part of the ship log.”

Neek quickly assessed standing next to Emn, in a tight cockpit, when she was wearing…that.

“Um.”

Emn’s eyebrow raised. “Is something wrong?”

“NO,” Neek said quickly. “Why would anything be wrong. Your dress is fine.”

Emn blinked and looked down. “My…dress? What about my dress?”

“Oh fuck. Oh. No. I didn’t mean dress. I meant, fuck. Or NO I DID NOT MEAN THAT EITHER.” Her stuk gelled. The air seemed thinner. That had to be the Mmnnuggl pod, right? Or Nicholas playing with the atmosphere controls?

Emn looked thoroughly confused, and yet, Neek swore she almost saw a smirk playing at the corners of the younger woman’s mouth. Damn it was she… she wasn’t ENJOYING this, was she? Emn? Emn who was a fucking kid what, like a month ago?

Well, either way, Neek had to stop babbling in the bathroom. “Itlooksverypretty I havetogobye,” she rushed out, cinched by Emn (her breasts brushing Emn’s arm–something neither of them failed to notice) and bolted down the hall. Stooped, of course, because fuck Mmnnuggls, and fuck her because if she had to spend another month on the pod with Emn, in that dress, things were going to get a lot stickier.