Spellshock-Shellshock

My original idea for the title of Book 3 of The Witch of Cheyne Heath was “spellbound,” the title of one of my favorite Siouxsie and the Banshees songs.

I figured at some point in the book I could wrangle someone into being “spellbound,” perhaps one of Gosha’s spells turned against her by the antagonist, but as I got further into it, I couldn’t quite make it fit.

One of my favorite songs by New Order is Shellshock. When I was in college, they released an excellent singles collection called Substance that was re-released while I was writing Book 3, and I was listening to it a lot as I was writing. I find it helpful for my concentration to have a song on repeat in the background when I’m writing, and Shellshock was one of the songs I had on a lot. It worked its way into my subconscious and actually influenced the direction of the plot.

Here’s the track as it appeared on Substance, rather than the single version, which is shorter and doesn’t include some of the great epic production moments.