When a Song Finds You

Sometimes a song arrives exactly when you need it.

Not one you went looking for. Not one you intentionally queued up. But one that somehow finds its way into your day at the precise moment a certain memory, feeling, or realization is meant to surface.

Music has always had that power.

A few notes, a familiar melody, and suddenly you’re somewhere else entirely - a different room, a different year, sometimes even a different version of yourself. It’s remarkable how quickly music can collapse time. One moment you’re standing in your kitchen or driving down the road, and the next you’re remembering a conversation, a place, a person, or even a feeling you had long forgotten.

Occasionally, a song does something even stranger. It stirs something you can’t quite place. A sense of recognition without a clear memory. A feeling of longing, nostalgia, or knowing that doesn’t seem attached to any obvious moment in your life.

Those are the moments that intrigue me most.

Because music, like storytelling, speaks a language that moves beyond logic. It bypasses the analytical mind and goes straight to the part of us that feels first and understands later.

When I write, music often becomes part of that process. Not necessarily as background noise, but as atmosphere; a way of tuning into the emotional frequency of a scene or a character. Sometimes a song will capture the exact tone I’m trying to convey before I’ve even found the words for it. Other times, it opens a door.

A lyric might spark a connection I hadn’t considered. A melody might pull forward an emotion that changes how a scene unfolds. Occassionally, an entire thread of the story begins to reveal itself because a particular song unlocked the mood of the moment.

Readers often assume writing a novel is a very controlled process; that the author is guiding every moment with careful precision. But the truth is, creativity rarely works that way. More often, it feels like listening. Listening for the tone of the story. Listening for the voice of the characters. Listening for those subtle signals that something deeper is trying to surface. And sometimes, music is what helps you hear it.

When I released The Harbinger, A Triquetra Chronicle, one of the things I shared alongside the story was a playlist of songs that helped shape the emotional landscape of the book. Some reflect specific scenes. Others simply capture the mood of the world the characters inhabit. Together, they form a kind of atmospheric companion to the story.

Because in many ways, music and storytelling do the same thing.

They remind us of things we didn’t realize we remembered. They help us feel things we didn’t know we needed to feel. And every once in a while, a song shows up at exactly the right moment; not because we were searching for it, but because something within us was ready to hear it.

If you’ve read The Harbinger, you can find the playlist on my website…and perhaps discover a song or two that finds you exactly when you need it.