To celebrate 13 weeks of winter, Hàlön Chronicles will be conducting one interview a week for 13 weeks. We’ve also partnered with additional artists and authors for a few surprises throughout the winter. Join us on the hashtag #13Winterviews, or check out our right-side blog hop for a sneak peek at who’s on the roster in the coming weeks.
Hosted by: K. J. Harrowick
Without further ado, Book Reviewer & Music Therapist: Hilary.
Tell us a little bit about Songs Wrote My Story. What sparked the idea?
I’ve been reading and writing reviews forever. My memory sucks, and writing reviews helped me keep track of what had happened without having to reread the whole book. I’d always kept them in a notebook though, rather than posting them online.
Boredom actually got the site going. I had a long weekend, everyone else was working, and I’d spent an entire morning reading book blogs and reviews. It looked like fun, so I entertained myself one afternoon by throwing one together and typing up some reviews I had written most recently. I didn’t expect to actually stick with it, but here we are.
As far as the combination of books and music goes, those just go hand in hand in my head. I automatically create playlists and find songs to go along with what I’m reading, so it made sense to include that in my reviews. Everything else on there is just a mix of whatever I feel like posting about music- or book-wise.
Do authors reach out to you for reviews, or do you pick and choose based on individual preference?
A bit of both. I get a fair few emails from authors or publishers asking me to review books of theirs, which is awesome. The hardest part is not taking on more than I can reasonably read in a given timeframe (I try to limit it to two a month, but that rarely happens).
I also will just pick up whatever catches my interest or whatever friends have handed me recently.
How do you pick the musical track that complements your reviewed stories?
This might sound strange, but I have music playing in my head constantly (not an ear-worm sort of thing, more like background noise, if that makes sense). Whatever is playing on my mind-radio will change to suit whatever is going on around me, or what I’m reading in a book. So I just use the song that was playing in my head when I finish a book.
You run a music therapy private practice apart from the site. Will you tell us about it? How many instruments do you play?
Music therapy is an allied health profession that uses music and music interventions to help a client achieve physical, mental, spiritual, and community based goals. It’s not about performing or teaching music, though those things do sometimes happen in sessions, and you don’t need to have any musical experience to participate in music therapy.
So that’s what my company does. I work with infants through to seniors, and do everything from song circles to developmental programs for little kids to drum circles to lessons designed for special needs individuals. It’s so much fun.
As far as instruments go, I play… flute, guitar, ukulele, piano (functionally, but not well), voice, djembe, and darbuka. I’m also learning to play trumpet, though still in the strangled animal phase. So that’s… 8? I also play a mean egg shaker, but I don’t think that counts.
How can my readers connect with you online?
I suck at social media and tend to ignore most of the accounts I do have, so through the blog or by email are pretty much the only way to do it. You can find the blog here: Songs Wrote My Story or email me at: songswrotemystory@gmail.com.
Don’t forget to check out Hilary’s site and read about her 2016 books in review.
To kick off the New Year and upcoming 2017 Twitter Pitch Contests, I’m offering a Twitter Pitch Workshop to the first two people who leave a comment on this article and follow me on Twitter. I’ll either work with you on one 35 Word Pitch or two 140 Character Pitches. 🙂
