Do you like classical music? Do you imagine any particular classical (or otherwise) piece as a suitable soundtrack for Barrayar or any particular character or situation?
LMB) I use music a lot, but very eclectically. I went through a Mannheim Steamroller phase, an Enya phase, Men Without Hats, Bruce Springsteen, Steeleye Span, Paul Simon, Mary Chapin-Carpenter, Tom Petty, Peter Gabriel, Ray Lynch, Loreena McKennitt, this and that over the years…I don’t ever have music on while I actually write, but I often use it to kick up ideas and images in the pre-writing phase of story development. With one exception — “King Henry and the Grisly Ghost” on a Steeleye Span album, which was the source of Taura, in “Labyrinth”. I don’t steal plots so much as sop up emotional patterns or responses. I then write stories which attempt to recreate those feelings in prose. I think a proper novel should have a quasi-symphonic pattern, underneath. For a long time when my kids were small I listened to very little music. You have to be able to hear the dangerous silences.
