Susanna |
and surprised and thrilled . And I also , right around that time , had connected with Peter Asher . So it was a funny thing that during the pandemic , when we all were in our houses and not really able to commune with others in the way we normally would have , I got a lot of work done , and I was even able to be in a recording studio , bubbled up with some the best musicians on the planet and make an album at the same time . |
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response to music . She claims that even as a baby , she ’ d have the radio on with pop music from the ‘ 60s , and I was reacting to it , cooing along and rocking and rolling in my crib . And it just went from there . So I feel like – though it is a bit of a left turn to have decided to write a novel and started in my |
IE : You had a designated Writing Room . But how was it appointed ? Spartan or totally busy ? SH : Well , at first , I wrote at a little desk in another part of the house , upstairs . And then I kept trying to find the right location , so then I wrote at the kitchen table , and then I wrote at this little island in the kitchen . And it affected my head – I started getting cricks in my neck from how I was sitting . And finally , I ended up in the music room , where we have a |
Ths Bangles , 1986 : Hoffs ( scarf ) |
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fifties , and now I ’ m 64 , which felt like more of a momentous birthday because of The Beatles song – I ’ m very grateful that I can just take the time that I need to sit in a room , at a little desk and to have that many years working on the book that I can now see it come to fruition , and then meet readers . I mean , it was a very solitary experience , having been in a band and collaborating and working with Matthew Sweet . But once the book was bought by Little Brown , and they wanted to put it out , I was stunned |
drum kit and all the guitars that I ’ ve collected over the course of my career in music , and they ’ re hung on the wall so that anyone who comes over if they want , can just grab a guitar and not have to dig through a bunch of cases . They ’ re just all there , and you can be a kid in a candy store and say , “ I wanna pick up that guitar !” And there ’ s amplifiers , there ’ s a drum kit , and I set up a little folding card table in the corner of the music room . And it had a lovely view of the garden , it had a view of all these instruments , |
so writing a protagonist who was a musician , I think there was something to being in a room surrounded by instruments . Although I initially didn ’ t think about it this way , I think it was probably a good vibe . So I wrote in that room , with all those guitars staring at me .
IE : When you scroll down on your website , there ’ s a screenshot of this gorgeous guitar embossed with your name . Do you have your own signature model ? SH : Yeah ! Back in the ‘ 80s , Rickenbacker approached me to do a signature guitar . And they only made a run of , I believe , 300 , and they ’ re all accounted for . And people have asked me if they can get one , so perhaps Rickenbacker would consider doing another run . It never occurred to me to ask them because
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it was such an honor when they initially did it . I have a Rickenbacker book somewhere on the shelf , so I know that Tom Petty might have had a similar one , which is a full-scale neck but a three-quarter body . And I have an old three-quarter neck , three-quarter body guitar like John Lennon played . But I ended up with the full-scale neck because it was more … just what I was used to .
IE : Without spoilers , give me the basic plot line of This Bird Has Flown . SH : Well , to start with , my book has been optioned by Universal Pictures , and I actually wrote the screenplay , and two of my favorite female producers are producing it . No actresses are attached yet , but things are really heating up . So the book is basically the story of a one-hit wonder , Jane Start , and we find
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