Love, Longing, and Music: A Guest Post by Amy Jo Burns

The author of Mercury weaves a lyrical tale of two folk singers, decades apart, and the ambitions that burn bright in their music and memories. Read on for an exclusive essay from author Amy Jo Burns on writing Wait for Me.

I love to write books about big-hearted, ambitious women. I have so many of them in my own life, and I love challenging the notion that romantic relationships are the most important ones we can build. Life is rich and complex enough for romance and friendship! I’ve received a mountain of love, mercy, support, and truth from the women I know, and I can’t help but put them on the page.

My third novel, Wait for Me, is about all the possibilities that ignite when you welcome a meteoric woman into your life—and it has two of the most loveable, flawed, determined characters I’ve ever created. At first when Elle Harlow and Marijohn Shaw appeared in my mind, I thought my brain was broken. Usually during a first draft I’ll hear a character telling me a story, or I’ll see a compelling landscape through their eyes. This time, all I got were distinct words and phrases, like:

Try to heal everything and you’ll heal nothing at all.

Those we can’t save tell us who we are.

Run from where you came from, baby.

You can love someone and miss them, even as they stand right in front of you.

I wrote every single word in my notebook, convinced they were useless, until I had so many that I realized I’d created two songwriters. Much of the music that appears in the novel was written before I grew to understand the story itself. Looking back now, that feels just right. I wanted Wait for Me to reveal the life a favorite song lives before anyone ever hears it. I wanted to pinpoint the original notes of individual longing—for Elle, the epic love story she thinks she doesn’t deserve, for Marijohn, her deepest desire for a mother—and show how these intrepid women give those feelings the kind of universal tone and shape that has the power to connect hearts across generations.

This is why I chose to set part of the story in 1970s Nashville. For decades so many women in Music City and beyond have been putting their heartache to music. Loretta Lynn, Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton, Odetta, Bonnie Raitt, Linda Ronstadt, Joan Baez, Brandi Carlile, Linda Martell, Sara Carter—Elle and Marijohn have glimmers of them all, and more.

As these characters came to life through their lyrics, I discovered that writing a song often feels like falling in love: with a person, with a dream, with yourself. It starts with a spark and ends with something that feels earned, permanent, timeless. I hope for these characters what I hope for all the women in my life, and what I hope for you, reader, as you open Wait for Me. That you find adventure, then love right where you left it. That you find the best version of yourself right where you left it.

All it takes is your favorite song.