Author Interview with Music Lyric Responses: Shirley Reva Vernick (The Blood Lie)

The Blood Lie author interview with music lyric responses

Shirley Reva Vernick

What’s your favorite time of year?

Exotic cars scream down the sunset of dreams

On a hot sunny afternoon

I'm in a hot dog stand…

It's the summer of love

It's the summer of love, baby

It's the summer of love

Leastways, I'm hopin' it is

            –“Summer of Love,” John Mellencamp

What is a typical day like in your life?

It's just another manic Monday

I wish it was Sunday

That's my fun day

My I don't have to run day

It's just another manic Monday

            –“Manic Monday,” The Bangles

If you could travel anywhere, where would you go?

Let's sail away

Find our own country

We'll build a house and beds out of palm trees

Let's get away

            –“Island,” The Starting Line

Tell us a little bit about The Blood Lie.

Can you hear them?

They talk about us

Telling lies

Well, that's no surprise…

Careless talk

Through paper walls

We can't stop them…

Spreading rumors

So far from true

Dragged up from the underworld

Just like some precious pear.

            –“Our Lips Are Sealed,” The Go-Go’s

 Where do you like to write?

Here we go singing in the kitchen

All together singing in the kitchen

Everybody singing in the kitchen

Banging on the pots and pans

            “Singing in the Kitchen,” Shel Silverstein and Bobby Bare

What is your favorite food?

Spaghetti cat cat cat cat cat cat

Spaghetti cat cat cat cat cat cat…

Oh yeah, when I first saw you on that daytime TV show, sittin' behind that plate of Spaghetti, I knew that you where no ordinary cat.

           

–“Spaghetti Cat,” Parry Gripp

What is your music preference?

Still like that old time rock and roll

The kinda music just soothes the soul

I reminisce about the days of old

With that old time rock and roll.

            –“Old Time Rock & Roll,” Bob Seger

Thank you Shirley that was a lot of fun!

About The Blood Lie by Shirley Reva Vernick

September 22, 1928, Massena, New York. Jack Pool's sixteenth birthday. He's been restless lately, especially during this season of more-times-at-the-synagogue than you can shake a stick at. If it wasn't Rosh Hashanah, then it was Yom Kippur, and if it wasn't Yom Kippur, it was the Sabbath. But temple's good for some things. It gives him lots of time to daydream about a beautiful but inaccessible Gentile girl named Emaline. And if she isn't on his mind, then he's thinking about his music and imagining himself playing the cello with the New York Philharmonic. Yup, music is definitely his ticket out of this remote whistle-stop town—he doesn't want to be stuck here one more minute. But he doesn't realize exactly how stuck he is until Emaline's little sister Daisy goes missing and he and his family are accused of killing her for a blood sacrifice.
Blood Lie was inspired by a real blood libel that took place when a small girl disappeared from Massena, New York, in 1928, and an innocent Jewish boy was called a murderer.