You Got My Heart, You Got My Soul

Hiya. It’s lovely to see you, my friends. Welcome to a special edition of my Substack: Duchess of Rock. After a brief hiatus, to shake off my road dust and settle back into the writing life and its thousand-and-one cups of tea, I’m back! Only, this week, what’s on offer is a little different.

First up, I’m pleased to finally share my Spotify Playlist of the music I turned to for inspiration and company while penning my debut novel, “The Last Days of the Midnight Ramblers.” Since these songs were essentially the muse for a whole book, I’m not going to wax poetic on their individual significance — except to shout out the song I listened to the most during the four years I was writing: “You Got the Silver,” my favorite Rolling Stones number of all-time.

While Keith Richards gets cowriting credit on many of the band’s classics, this is one of the rare tracks credited to him that he also sings. It’s a tender swoon, with a perfect blues lick and lyrics that have a boyish, hat-in-hand charm, capturing how love can make us feel foolish and famished, and when we’re in the throes of its magic glisten, we wouldn’t have it any other way. As I listened and wrote my novel, I saw my character Dante composing it for his great love Anke, evoking in less than three minutes what I required many pages of prose to do. I mean, he compares her eyes to airplane lights — not bad, right?

AND. I’m super excited to invite all of you to join me on Tuesday (4/30) night at 5:30 pm PST for a live Zoom conversation with the lovely Abra McAndrew, whose wonderful Substack, “The Booktender” is a source of juicy reading provocations and virtual gatherings. I had the pleasure of meeting Abra after she attended a panel I was on at the Tucson Festival of Books in March. Since then, we’ve been collaborating to organize a fun, FREE, dishy online hang that’s all about “The Last Days of the Midnight Ramblers.” We promise there will be no spoilers, so please join us, whether you’ve read the book yet or not, to talk about the novel, ghostwriting, and even more late-night tales from my adventures as The Duchess of Rock.

Here’s the track list for my Midnight Ramblers Spotify Playlist:

You Got the Silver – The Rolling Stones

I Ain’t Blue - Bonnie Raitt

Hickory Wind - Gram Parsons

Another Sunday Morning - Robert Lester Folsom

Rambler-Gambler - Odetta

Ramblin’ - Barbara Dane

Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right - Ramblin’ Jack Elliott

Cannock Chase - Labi Siffre

I Love You - Lou Reed

Fire and Brimstone - Link Wray

Don’t Go to Strangers - J.J. Cale

Ghost Writer - Garland Jeffreys

Coming Down Again - The Rolling Stones

The Ballad of Lucy Jordan - Marianne Faithfull

Here’s the link for the conversation. Register in advance and join us on 4/30 at 5:30 pm.

Please sing along to a song that has inspired your creative musings. Love, the Duchess

In book news: 

My debut novel, “The Last Days of the Midnight Ramblers,” is out now from Flatiron Books. The first leg of my tour is in the books — thanks to everyone who turned up in support! Next, come see me at Bouchercon in Nashville in late August.

Do you, your mom, or your mom’s cat have a book club?! Please consider reading “The Last Days of the Midnight Ramblers.” Email me at sarah@sarahtomlinson.com, and I’d be happy to send you some discussion questions or stop by / Zoom in for a conversation about ghostwriting, crime writing, and the book’s musical inspirations.

Many friends have asked what they can do to support me and my book, and here’s a big one: whether you purchased my novel through Amazon, please log on and leave it a rating (I’d recommend 5 stars, but you do you!) and even a one-line review. Without enough reviews, my book won’t come up as a recommended title when readers search for related books. Thank you!