They might not be raindrops on roses or whiskers on kittens, but that doesn’t mean that we love them any less. Welcome back to My Favorite Things, the weekly column where we grab someone in speculative circles to gab about the greatest in geek. This week, we sit down with Monica Sanz, whose latest book, Seventh Born, comes out next Tuesday, September 4th, from Entangled Teen!
What does Monica love when she’s not working on her latest book? Spoiler alert: beautiful fight scenes, music to put on repeat, and soundtracks that transcend their films. Interested? Read on to learn more!
Favorite TV Show: I’m incredibly fickle when it comes to TV shows. I have books to write and read, a family to take care of, and sleep to catch up on, so when I miraculously have time to sit down and watch TV, the show has to dig its claws into me and not let go. A show that has pretty much cemented me to my couch is the AMC show Into the Badlands. It’s about a trained assassin/bodyguard named Sunny who takes a boy, M.K. under his wing — only M.K. has a darker side that surfaces whenever he gets cut while fighting. When evil M.K. emerges, he’s pretty unstoppable and his fighting style — bloody and confident — makes my fangirl heart squeal! The show follows Sunny trying to stay alive in this feudal dystopian civilization run by power-hungry land barons.
What makes this show shine for me are the fight scenes. As a writer, I don’t like writing fight scenes; they’re so tedious. However, I will watch them till the cows come home and boy does Into the Badlands deliver. I love how the show’s creators moved away from guns and embraced martial arts and swordsmanship. It makes for beautiful choreography. And even though the show is pretty bloody, the cinematography takes the gruesome edge off and highlights the beauty of the fight sequences.
All of the characters are fleshed out with gripping storylines, but my favorite character is The Widow. She assumed the role of baron after killing her abusive husband and has dreams of liberating every one enslaved by the other barons. She is as badass as they come and I can truly say when I saw her fight for the first time, I was hooked. Seeing her cut a man down — literally — was beautiful to behold.
Into the Badlands has given me everything I love, rolled into one bloody, vicious hour, and I am here for it!
Favorite Band: I can’t possibly talk about my favorite things without mentioning music, and there is NO WAY I can talk about my favorite music without mentioning the Japanese instrumental rock band, Mono.
There’s something spiritual about finding a song that wraps itself around you and moves your soul, unearthing emotions and memories or simply making a crappy day a little better. That’s what every single one of Mono’s songs does for me. Listening to them is an experience and for me, it’s a direct connection to the place where ideas live because the moment I play one of their songs, my mind starts bursting with characters and stories waiting to be told. There is something so otherworldly about their sound, as if each instrument is infused with emotion and their own experiences, and it speaks to the listener.
One of my absolute favorite Mono albums is Palmless Prayer/Mass Murder Refrain featuring World’s End Girlfriend. This album is actually one song, split into parts. How genius and talented can a group of musicians be to create something so beautiful and complex? I actually wrote an entire book to that album alone, playing it on repeat for days at a time. It’s an hour-long journey that takes you from a dark place at song one to a hopeful, beautiful existence by the time you reach the last song.
Favorite Soundtrack: And staying on the music topic, I love film scores because they’re specifically composed to elicit emotional reactions, which makes for songs that are layered and gripping, able to tell a story using only instruments. They’re pretty much all I listen to, so having to choose a favorite soundtrack is one of, if not the hardest, question ever. It’s like asking me to choose my favorite book. I actually think I can pick a favorite book faster than I could a soundtrack.
Since there’s no way I can keep my favorite to one, I’m going to name my top 2 few soundtracks that I think everyone needs on a special playlist titled BEST SOUNDTRACKS EVER with heart emojis and lots of exclamation marks.
The first one is The Fountain soundtrack. The movie is a strange and painful but gorgeous and magical look at love and loss, and the things a man will do to save his dying wife. The soundtrack depicts his desperation and devotion perfectly. It’s a visually striking film, and the music highlighted that beauty.
The second has to be the Jane Eyre (2011) soundtrack. Jane Eyre is one of my favorite books, and while I’ve seen and loved every adaptation, the 2011 version was my favorite BY FAR. To say I’ve seen it over 50 times is not an exaggeration, and again, I think what separated it from the others was the music. Each song captures the gothic nature of the novel as well as Jane’s struggles, pains, and desires, and I’m swept away whenever I listen to it.
Thanks so much for reading about a few of my favorite things! I’m always looking to add new songs to my playlist so what are some of your favorites? Comment and let me know!
Monica Sanz has been writing from the moment she could string together a sentence. Her stories have come a long way from mysterious portals opening in the school cafeteria, transporting classmates to distant worlds. A classic by the name Wuthering Heights is responsible for that. She’s been lost to dark romances and brooding fictional men ever since. Now she writes about grumpy professors, cursed ringmasters, tortured soul collectors, and the girls they fall in love with. Monica’s books have received many accolades on the social writing website Wattpad. She’s accumulated over six million reads, eighty thousand votes, and fifteen thousand comments since posting her books on the website. She is also a member of the Wattpad4, a group of writers who host weekly Twitter chats on the subjects of writing and publishing.
Author photo credit to Clifford Hanley
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