Someone Has To Pay by Joe McCoubrey

It is my pleasure to welcome Joe McCoubrey to my blog today, as part of our Tasha Turner Coaching Virtual Blog Tour. Welcome Joe!

A song to match the mood of my book?

I have to admit to raising my eyebrows, shaking my head, and muttering unprintable things when I was challenged to come up with a song that described my book Someone Has to Pay! Here I am with an action thriller book where the bullets fly and the body count mounts up, and someone is asking me to tie it in with a song!

I wasn’t exactly humming lyrics while my fingers danced across the keyboard during my writing hours. Putting down the bad guys seemed to occupy my attention more than the thought of singing to them! No, this one wasn’t for me…..until I started to think about it some more.  Maybe it wasn’t as crazy as it first sounded?

My first thought was about how the story would set against some well-known film soundtracks such as ‘Where Eagles Dare’ or ‘Mission Impossible.’ They would both suit nicely to ramp up the background drama and the sense of impending action. In the way that soundtracks are supposed to act, these two examples would warn the reader of the different moods within the story. Yeah, they would work.

But hold on……soundtracks are not songs. I had to tell myself to stop prevaricating and make a choice!

In the end it was simple. I fell back on one of my all-time favourites and realised it fitted the bill. Released in 1969 it is the inimitable “There’s A Bad Moon Rising” by Creedence Clearwater Revival.

What about this for an opening?

I see the bad moon arising
I see trouble on the way
I see earthquakes and lightning
I see bad times today.
Don't go around tonight
Well, it's bound to take your life
There's a bad moon on the rise.

The song was written by John Fogerty who claimed it was about "the apocalypse that was going to be visited upon us.”

That’ll do for me, John! My creation of Someone Has To Pay could be interpreted as a hard-hitting tale that visits all sorts of mayhem on people who deserve to have all sorts of mayhem visited upon them!

So there you have it. I’ll leave you with Fogerty’s last verse:

Hope you got your things together.

Hope you are quite prepared to die.

Look's like we're in for nasty weather.

One eye is taken for an eye.

Joe McCoubrey is an Irish thriller writer. His first book is due to be published this year by Tri Destiny Publishing, with a second book already at the editing stage. He has had a short story published in the anthology ‘Action: Pulse Pounding Tales’ and is currently working on his third full length novel.

Joe’s website: http://joemccoubrey1.com/