When I was planning the pre-order campaign for Hard Wired, I wracked my brain to come up with something really cool to offer readers. My first thought was to build an actual sentient artificial intelligence. Three weeks, six rolls of duct tape, and a whole lot of coax cable later, and I realized I might have been out of my depth. Apparently advanced degrees in computer science, engineering, and neurobiology are the price of admission. Who knew?
Since tinkering wasn’t going to work, I turned to my old mistress, my first and one true love: Music.
In case you haven’t read them, my first two novels — The Scar Boys and Scar Girl — are punk rock coming of age stories inspired by my own experiences playing in bands in the 1980s. I brought my guitar on the The Scar Boys book tour, played songs from the book, and encouraged the students to sing and play for their classmates.
But I didn’t want to write my own song for Hard Wired. No, I needed really something special.
Enter The Bookshop Band.
Their website says this: The Bookshop Band – the offspring of an artistic love-affair between a duo of English folk singer-songwriters and a multi-award winning independent bookshop in the UK, Mr B’s Emporium of Reading Delights. They write and perform songs inspired by books, inspired by hundreds of authors from Shakespeare to Philip Pullman, and have released 13 studio albums featuring many of the authors they have worked with.
The duo in question, Ben and Beth, toured the U.S. two years ago, and I had the good fortune to see them at Tattered Cover. It was love at first listen. Their song, A Shop with Books In, instantly became one of my all-time favorites.
I contacted Ben and Beth to see if they would be interested in writing a song inspired by Hard Wired, and lo and behold, they said yes! Not only did the write and record a song, they recorded a video, too. The song, Awake, was only available to those who pre-ordered the book…until today. The song and video have now both been released for all to enjoy.
Thank you Ben and Beth!!!