Tunesday: Volume 4 — Answers Revealed!
A little while back, I hosted the fourth edition of my musical blog contest called “Tunesday,” which is essentially just Name That Tune with me playing riffs on the guitar and piano for writers to guess. We had a winner to the contest, and the winner’s interview answers are finally in, so it’s time to reveal the answers to Volume 4 and meet J.D. Abbas, the writer who won the latest contest. To revisit the 4th edition of Tunesday, click on this video in the blog post and watch it again. Or skip below to meet winner J.D. and see the 17 correct answers.
A little while back, I hosted the fourth edition of my musical blog contest called "Tunesday," which is essentially just Name That Tune with me playing riffs on the guitar and piano for writers to guess. We had a winner to the contest, and the winner's interview answers are finally in, so it's time to reveal the answers to Volume 4 and meet J.D. Abbas, the writer who won the latest contest. To revisit the 4th edition of Tunesday, click on this video and watch it again. Or skip below to meet winner J.D. and see the 17 correct answers.
MEET CONTEST WINNER J.D. ABBAS
Tell us a little bit about yourself and your writing.
I have been writing since the fourth grade when I penned a poem that set the stage for my future works: In the land of make believe all the trees can sing, in the land of make believe blue bells can ring, in the land of make believe people never die… you get the idea. I read widely, but my favorite genre to write is fantasy, medieval fantasy in particular. I also like the fairy tale subgenre and have done some tampering with mythology. I find creating worlds and magical creatures enlivening, freeing. It’s an inexpensive form of therapy, I suppose. I’ve been told my mind is rather expansive (some might say bizarre) as is reflected in my writings. I don’t argue.
What are you working on right now? Are you writing something or promoting something that’s available?
I am ready to query Shattered by Shadows, a medieval fantasy about a rescued sex slave who discovers she is a unique kind of shape-shifter. What she exposes turns a utopian realm upside-down, ending a long period of tranquility. (And while the trees don’t actually sing in this realm, they do make music.) Shattered is the first novel in the five-part Innocence Cycle, four of which are completed. I also have an urban fantasy short story, “When Walls Talk,” coming out in an anthology next year. In addition, I’ve started a mythological novel, Faceless, that came about as a result of an off-the-cuff line in my Shattered by Shadows novel. Faceless tweaks the Greek mythos surrounding Hestia, the lesser-known Olympic goddess of hearth and home.
Favorite book(s)?
Oh, so many. Winnie the Pooh has been and will always be my first love. The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, C. S. Lewis’ Till We Have Faces and The Chronicles of Narnia, Juliet Marillier’s Sevenwaters Series, Robin Hobb's Farseer and Tawny Man Trilogies, Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice, Francine Rivers’ Redeeming Love, Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere, Brent Weeks’ Night Angel Trilogy, Beauty by Robin McKinnley, A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, The Kingkiller Chronicles by Patrick Rothfuss (but that may change if he doesn't hurry up with book 3), the whole Wool, Shift, Dust series by Huge Howey, and most recently, The Book of Joby by Mark Ferrari.
You won the Tunesday contest. You’re obviously a musical whiz. What’s your musical background?
I am a closet guitar player and singer with little talent or training. I am, however, a gifted and well-trained listener, married to an acoustic guitar virtuoso. It took three generations of our family and a few friends to come up with all the answers for the contest, including our eight-year-old granddaughter, Madison, who got the Michael Jackson song the rest of us couldn’t identify.
Favorite band?
Again, I’m eclectic. Jars of Clay, Tenth Avenue North, Josh Groban, James Taylor, Chicago, Enya, Shawn McDonald, Matt Maher, Mercy Me, and Simon and Garfunkel, to name a few.
Websites where people can learn more about you and connect? Twitter? Pinterest? Facebook?
Jdabbas.com is my main website where I focus on my passion for the modern-day abolitionist movement as well as my journey as a writer. I’m also on Twitter @jdabbas7 and JD Abbas on Facebook. I’m sorry, but for personal safety reasons, I do not publish pictures of myself or other identifying information.
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VOLUME 4 ANSWERS REVEALED
First of all, feel free to revisit the 4th contest here. If you did not listen to the music when the contest was live, you can hear it here.
The answers: (click on any song to hear it on YouTube)
I was pretty amazed so many people got this. All I was looking for was "new Star Trek theme," yet almost everyone who guessed this right actually even wrote out the exact track name from the soundtrack. Impressive, people!
This was probably the most difficult song for people.
For whatever reason, it seems like the entire Internet attributes this music to Mozart. But that's not correct. This song is by composer Clint Mansell. However, because it seems like more of the Internet attributes this incorrectly than correctly, I gave credit to anyone who guessed anything that could be correct. I was liberal with this one.
PAST EDITIONS OF TUNESDAY
- See Volume 1 of Tunesday here (guitar).
- See the answers revealed for Volume 1.
- See Volume 2 of Tunesday here (guitar again).
- See the answers revealed for Volume 2.
- See Volume 3 of Tunesday here (piano).
- See the answers revealed for Volume 3.
You can see all posts related to past editions of Tunesday (including the interviews with past winners) on my Music category page of the blog here.
Chuck Sambuchino is a former editor with the Writer's Digest writing community and author of several books, including How to Survive a Garden Gnome Attack and Create Your Writer Platform.
