The One Song That Changed Her Life

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: A THEME! We love themes! Especially when we don't plan them--which can be the very best ones.

Yesterday the fab Lori Rader-Day talked about the soundtracks and playlists for her books.

And today, the equally fab Wendy Walker reveals how music changed her life, too–somehow, magically, as sometimes happens when writers are wise and lucky, how ONE SONG offered her the idea for her incredibly successful audio original AN AMERICAN GIRL–a story so compelling and propulsive that it’s now in print, too!

But I bet you’ll be singing as you read this. And question for you at the end!

A Writer Walks Into a Bar

By Wendy Walker

In the summer of 2019, I was in a bar somewhere in the heart of Pennsylvania. It was a small town which, from what I could tell, had fallen on some difficult financial times. I was there with a friend whose family owned a summer cottage nearby. A group of young men were in a corner of the bar playing darts. Some teenage girls were in the opposite corner, eyeing them, ignoring them, giggling at them – as teenage girls do. A cover band of middle aged dudes with long gray ponytails and ripped jeans played on a small stage in an adjacent room. Seated at the tables in front of the band were about a dozen women of the same age having a mom’s night out.


The bartender was a beautiful, very pregnant, brunette with big brown eyes and bright red lipstick and an attitude that was somehow both intimidating and endearing. She also made a killer Cosmo that had me on the dance floor the moment I heard the first few notes of American Girl by the late Tom Petty.


So there I was, drinking and dancing, images of women at all stages of life surrounding me and a song from my high school days filling my head with memories. And not just memories, but a visceral feeling of what it was like to be a girl on the edge of adult life, nothing but dreams in front of me. 

Those were some rough years. I suppose that’s true for a lot of people, because, let’s face it, coming of age isn’t easy. But I had just given up my dream of being a competitive figure skater after spending three years at a facility in Colorado. That dream had been in my bones since before I could even remember, and I was lost without it. Still, life felt possible, and in so many ways. Independence, love, adventure – it was all right there, but still out of reach.


I closed my eyes and let the feeling sweep through me. It was powerful. I thought about the pain of letting go of dreams; the hunger for new ones; the girls in the corner not thinking about the pregnant bartender or the women at the tables who had once been where they were; the bartender too busy to think about anything but getting through the shift and off her feet; and how it was nothing more than time that separated all of these women.


As a writer, I’m always on the lookout for inspiration. I’ve learned to grab hold of everything that catches my eye or makes me feel something extraordinary. Because if it makes me notice or feel, then it’s very likely it will have the same impact on others. It just has to be captured and spun into fiction.


What moved me that night dancing to American Girl was the reconnection with a feeling I had many years ago, and the perspective that my life had given me to understand it. I went home with a character in my head, and from there her story, and that of women of all ages in a small town.

American Girl (the novel) follows Charlie Hudson and her coworkers at a local sandwich shop after the murder of their ruthless boss. It is a murder mystery about who killed Clay Cooper, and a thriller as Charlie finds herself in the eye of the investigation and in grave danger, but at its heart and soul are the lives of the women living through love and loss, bonded forever by the extraordinary and heartbreaking trajectory of life that they all share.

I had no idea when I walked into that bar that I would leave with a plot for a novel that would become one of my favorite pieces of work. This experience is now in the fabric of my own extraordinary journey.



HANK: So how about you, reds and readers? Has a song ever changed your life?

(And here's a link to the song!)

AMERICAN GIRL

A pulse-pounding novel about a small-town business owner found dead and the teenage girl caught in the crosshairs, American Girl is the latest thriller from international bestselling author Wendy Walker. 

Charlie Hudson, an autistic seventeen-year-old, is determined to leave Sawyer, PA as soon as she graduates high school—in the meantime, she works as many hours as she can at a sandwich shop called The Triple S to save money for college. But when shop owner Clay Cooper—a man who is both respected and feared by many in this economically depressed community—is found dead, each member of his staff becomes a suspect in the perplexing case. Charlie must work to protect herself and her friends, and uncover the danger that may still be at large in their tightknit town.

Bestselling author Wendy Walker returns with another riveting thriller, told through the eyes of an unforgettable protagonist.

Wendy Walker is the international bestselling author of psychological suspense. Her books have been published in over 23 foreign languages and have been optioned for film and television. Her latest novels include Don’t Look for Me, What Remains and American Girl. Wendy is a magna cum laude graduate of Brown University and Georgetown Law School. Prior to writing, she worked as a lawyer, investment banker, and trained for competitive figure skating. She lives in Fairfield County, Connecticut, where she raised three sons.