Review Fix chats with author Tara Dublin about her new book, “The Sound of Settling.
About Tara Dublin:
Tara Dublin is no ordinary writer. Her unique blend of wit, humor, and insightful commentary has garnered attention not only in the realms of journalism but also on social media, where she’s made headlines for being blocked by a certain ex-reality TV star with two impeachments, four arrests (and counting).
As a freelance political writer, Tara has contributed her thought-provoking work to notable platforms like Occupy Democrats, HillReporter.com, DAMEMagazine.com, National Lampoon, HuffPost, Jewcy.com, The Oregonian, and Oregon Music News. Her fearless approach to storytelling sets her apart in a crowded field, making her a rising star in the world of political commentary.
About The Sound of Settling:
The Sound of Settling is a rock and roll love story like no other, Tara Dublin’s latest literary endeavor, “The Sound of Settling,” is an all-access backstage pass to an exhilarating rock and roll love story, inspired by the ultimate meet-cute. This novel redefines the fan-fiction genre with its uniquely awesome origin story.
Review Fix: What inspired this novel?
Tara Dublin: I call The Sound of Settling the ultimate meta-fanfiction, because it’s based on a real-life moment from my life that left me with more questions than answers.
I’ve written the full backstory of The Sound of Settling on my Substack, but it’s inspired by a very unique meet-cool between Dave Grohl and me. You can read the longer version there, but in a nutshell, he knew my name before we ever met at my first Foo Fighters show at the Troubadour in Los Angeles in August 2001, well before social media connected us with celebrities like it does today.
After the second song, Dave Grohl looked down at me and said, “I know who you are!” which of course made my head explode, because at the time, I was just the married mom of a toddler who posted dumb stuff on his band’s postboard. Later in the show, he called me by my name, which made my head explode more. How was it possible? Why me?
I managed to get backstage after the show with some of my friends and boldly went up to Dave, who greeted me by name again. He wouldn’t answer my how and why questions, and in return I had to refuse his offer to go out for a bite because I had to fly home the next morning to my family.
The second time we met, Dave called me his “internet crush,” but then left with the woman who’s now his wife of 20 years and the mother of his three daughters. I had a few other chances to hang out with him, the last being in 2009, but nothing ever happened between us because we were never single at the same time. I’ve lived with a lot of unanswered questions for a very long time.
The Sound of Settling is inspired by a lot of those “what if?” questions from the night I met Grohl–essentially, what if I had been able to accept his offer to go out because I didn’t have the obligation of a family, or at least I wasn’t a mother? Nothing could ever make me leave my kids in real life, but Lila, my protagonist, doesn’t have to make that choice when she finds out she’s won a contest to see her favorite band in LA. When the lead singer, Grady, calls her out by name and then asks her to go out after the show, she happily goes…but eventually reality breaks through their intense romance in ways neither of them could have seen coming.
At its core, The Sound of Settling asks the question: What if you were given a dream life to live, but it was actually someone else’s dream? And when Lila finally faces that question, will she stay with Grady, or will she go?
Review Fix: How have your other roles as a writer prepared you for this?
Dublin: I’ve written my whole life, but mostly in my own voice as myself, expressing my own opinions. I have made a living the last few years almost exclusively writing about politics, and keeping up the stamina to write up to ten original articles a day, seven days a week, definitely helped discipline me when I finally decided to stop thinking about the story and start writing it.
Review Fix: What were some challenges during the writing process?
Dublin: Writing fiction doesn’t come naturally to me, but I’m a lifelong reader of fiction and I could hear the flow of the words in my head before I sat down to write them. I hit a wall at a certain point because I wasn’t sure where to take Grady and Lila after they reached a specific moment in the story, and I also wasn’t sure how I was going to keep Tommy, the lead guitarist, interesting without making him completely unlikable.
That’s when I had sort of an “Aha!” moment where I reminded myself that happy couples are only interesting to read about or watch for a short amount of time. As a writer, I had reached a point where I was like, Okay kids…I love where you’ve been taking me, but you’re kind of making me nauseous with how easily things have been going. So I had to think about a conflict between Grady and Lila that wouldn’t feel forced just to move the plot along. And when I unlocked that, I was also able to figure out Tommy’s arc, and I was so happy with where their stories went.
It was also a personal challenge for me to write the sex scenes, I have to admit. It’s a rock star romance, it’s fan fiction, but it’s not Fifty Shades of Grey. At the same time, I knew I couldn’t write about a fan hooking up with her hot rock star crush without describing their chemistry. My main goal was to not make myself cringe, and I guess I accomplished that because my very first review called it “A fun, sexy, page turner of a book!”
Review Fix: How have you grown as a writer through this book?
Dublin: I felt the most growth during my editing process. Since I was doing all of it on my own, I had to pore through the drafts first for typos–I cannot abide by them–and then to make sure the story flowed and made sense, time-line wise.
Editing the drafts over and over, trimming sections that I knew I could make sharper or flow better, really helped me focus on getting the tone just right. Another compliment I’m getting from my readers is how well-developed the characters are, and that happened when I was editing. I’d ask why Lila would react to a certain thing, so I’d deepen her backstory a little. Or I’d tweak a few passage to make the scene a little more vivid.
Ultimately, I learned how to be patient with myself as a writer. I’m a Taurus, it’s not in my nature to wait for things. But I waited until I knew it was ready before I thought it was good enough for others to read it.
Review Fix: Who do you want this book to affect the most?
Dublin: I’m hoping The Sound Of Settling finds the audience who also loved Almost Famous (I have a fantastic blurb from Cameron Crowe, after all) and Rock Star and Daisy Jones and the Six. But there’s also a new Gen Z fascination with the late 90s and early 2000s, which is the exact time frame of my story. So I’d say it’s cross-generational, from Gen X to younger readers fascinated by flip phones and dial-up internet.
Review Fix: How do you want it to ultimately be remembered?
Dublin: I want it to be name-checked along with those other titles I named, along with The Way We Were, because that was inspo as well. I want people to sigh when they hear the title, because they fell in love with Grady and Lila. I want it to be remembered as one of the best rock and roll love stories of all time.
Review Fix: Anything else you’d like to add about the book?
Dublin: Because I’m currently self-published and without representation at the moment, social media promotion is all I have right now as a promotional tool. So I’d love for everyone reading this to check it out, buy it, or at the very least share with their friends on their socials. Going viral in the good way isn’t as easy as it used to be, and this untapped writing goldmine needs a huge break.
Review Fix: What’s next on the horizon for Tara Dublin?
Dublin: My hope is The Sound of Settling will be optioned and adapted into a streaming series, because I can see and hear it all in my head. I even made a soundtrack playlist on my phone and I’ve started thinking about which actors should play which roles.
As for my next writing project, it’ll most likely be a memoir, non-linear essays about the weird things that have happened to this Jersey Girl from her times in Georgia and in Portland. I went from being a doctor’s wife to a local radio star to unemployed single mom to working in the service industry until the pandemic. I’ve also been single FOREVER and have the worst dating experiences, so there’s a lot of comedy gold to mine from this mess of a life of mine.
Review Fix: Where can people find out more?
Dublin: I’m on Twitter (it is forever Twitter and never “X” and I’ll be there until it’s just Stephen King, Mark Hamill, and me fighting over the last floating door) and TikTok @taradublinrocks. People can follow the saga of me trying to be the Next Big Thing at Age 54 (maybe that should be the title of my memoir) there as well as by signing up for my Substack.
Leave a Reply