posted on November 15, 2016 by Jeanne Devlin

Make Mine a Musician, Please

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For years the conventional wisdom when it came to romance novels was the author might put a musician in a book, but if she did you’d be safe betting the musician — drummer, lead singer, guitarist — would not get the girl.

Leon RussellYet coming off the deaths of the sultry voiced Leonard Cohen and the rocker troubadour Leon Russell, a lot of women in America sure sound as lovesick as I’ve ever heard them over the passing of these two.

So why not a musician hero?

Few love letters read better than the lyrics to Russell’s poignant “A Song for You.”

I’ve acted out my love on stages
With 10,000 people watching
But we’re alone now and I’m singing this song to you

Whew.

Leonard CohenThe idea of a man who could have 10,000 women at the crook of his finger wanting just you? Powerful. Seductive. Stuff. The makings, one might say, of a good novel.

And then there is the troubled folk singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen who gave us such songs as “Hallelujah” and “Suzanne.”  The latter of which I dare any woman to resist:

 And you want to travel with her, and you want to travel blind
And you know that she will trust you
For you’ve touched her perfect body with your mind

Few poets are more poetic.

Recent years have seen the rocker/musician hero find his way into a few novels.  I’m betting this isn’t a trend but simply a coming of age of readers, who in the year 2016 know there are many ways to make a good life with a man (or woman).  And some of them can be set to music.

—Jeanne Devlin

 

Jeanne Devlin

Jeanne Devlin

Jeanne Devlin is editor of The RoadRunner Press, an award-winning traditional publishing house based in the American West. An editor of newspapers, magazines, and books for more than thirty years, she has also worked on national marketing and publicity campaigns with such publishers as Simon and Schuster and St. Martin's and for a number of New York Times bestselling authors, including Robyn Carr, Sabrina Jeffries, Debbie Macomber, Linda Lael Miller, and Wendy Corsi Staub. A graduate of the Stanford University Publishing Course, Jeanne is a member of the Children's Book Council, the National Book Critics Circle, and the Oklahoma Center for the Book of the Library of Congress. She also consults with boutique publishers.

http://www.theroadrunnerpress.com

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