Themes That Rocked! Challenge Participant David Powers King and Soundtracks

The A to Z Challenge produces some amazing themes, and this year was no different.

Today please welcome Challenge participant, Cosmic Knight, and author extraordinaire, David Powers King!

Your theme was highlighting a favorite track from various science fiction and fantasy movies, games, and TV shows. What made you choose soundtracks?

DPK: Pretty much all of my writing had a soundtrack playing in the background, something I started when I did animation as a teen. I had to listen to something as I drew, so I found lots of different tracks so I'd never get bored with any one CD or composer. Needless to say I've amassed quite a collection, and thought I'd share my love of soundtracks by inviting others to listen while browsing other A to Z Challengers. I like taking interactivity and connectivity to the next level.

Which one was your favorite and why?

DPK: That's like asking me which molecule of air I prefer to breath! But if I have to pick one, I'd say my first post, The Reunion from A.I.: Artificial Intelligence. It's a very gentle piece that I adopted as the main theme for my first fantasy novel. I'd listen to it whenever I had a block or needed to de-stress, but more than anything it made me want to keep the story going.


Which letter was the most difficult?

DPK: To be honest: S. Because there's SO MUCH blasted awesome sci fi and fantasy that start with S, so I figured I'd go outside the predictable and choose something no one would expect. S.A.O. saved the day!

Which one got the best response?

DPK: *consults the hall of digital records*

Apparently my Firefly post had the most comments, but my Princess Bride post had the most Google+ shares. I'd say that's a fair illustration of just how popular both of those properties are to this day!


Many were from games – do you think people overlook video game soundtracks?

DPK: It wouldn't surprise me if people do, in general. Game soundtracks are said to be the most difficult to compose since the music has to be fluid with the game play. Not exactly the best driving music during those intense parts. But for writing, I really enjoy game soundtracks, as they tend to wander and be longwinded. Skyrim's soundtrack is almost four hours long, for example.

Do you have a soundtrack in mind for your upcoming book, Woven?

DPK: Like a soundtrack I adopted when writing it? It wasn't until Skyrim and Thor came out that I had the right match (in my head) to mesh with. And then I added Alan Wake for the paranormal angle. Ghosts need the attention, too.

This was your first time participating in the Challenge. Dude! What took so long?

DPK: *hangs head in shame*

Partly intimidated by the blogging everyday for a month, partly not thinking of a cool theme soon enough that I thought people would resonate with (see what I did there?), but mostly stepping out of my comfort zone. I've been in a blog burnout since last October, to be honest, and I saw the A to Z Challenge as a way to get out of my slump and back into the game. Achievement unlocked!

If you participate next year, any ideas what theme you might choose?

DPK: Woven will be out (or should be) before the next challenge, so if I do this again I may center the theme around ghosts or general influences from research or other inspirations that led to the novel's creation. Or something else entirely: Games. Anime. Animation. I still have a year to figure it out.

Yes you do! Thanks, David.


Co-host Ninja Captain Alex J. Cavanaugh is the author of Amazon Best-sellers CassaStar, CassaFire, and CassaStorm, and his blog can be found HERE