Yesterday morning when I was sitting outside having my coffee, I saw three ravens fly overhead. Shortly after, they started raising a real ruckus north of the house. I dashed inside to get my camera and made the movies below.

There's nothing much to see - I only caught sight of one of the ravens once, and he isn't visible at all on my sad little movie. But you can hear the incredible sounds the birds made — plaintive cries as well as a throaty croak. Turn up your volume to get the full effect.

I made the movies traipsing around in my nightgown. I should have put on real clothing, but I kept thinking the ravens would stop their calling, and I didn't want to waste time.

So. All this got me thinking about sound and music and writing.

I kept literary talismans around me as I wrote Swimming Sweet Arrow, but I also had one musical talisman: Steve Earle's "Devil's Right Hand." I didn't play it from the start, but once I found the song I played it often, over and over in my car. I especially liked these lines from the start:

I saw my first pistol in the general store, general store
I was thirteen
I thought it was the finest thing I ever had seen

The song helped me think through and understand the characters of Del Pardee and Ray and Luke Sparrow.

Right now I'm listening to one CD whenever I get into my car or Jeff's Ford Ranger. I can't say what it is — I don't want to jinx myself. I don't know if it's just an obsession or if it has something to do with the new novel. I think the music is somehow leading me toward understanding something about the narrator. Which is all I can say for now.