How Music Won the War in Jingle Boys by Herb Williams-Dalgart

My guest today is Herb Williams-Dalgart, author of Jingle Boys listed in the Music category on Art In Fiction.

View the video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/azuaBStafaI

• Herb's personal origin story behind the novel: named after his grandfather who died in WWII, a man he never knew, which sparked a lifelong fascination with the era.
• How the role of music in wartime, harmony versus the disharmony of war, became the central thematic engine of the novel.
• The surprising historical truth behind the jingle-as-secret-code premise, including Herb's research into declassified military records at the New York Public Library.
• Writing all the jingles and song lyrics himself and what he learned about the craft of songwriting in the process.
• His protagonist Walter Lipkin's anxiety neurosis (stress-triggered fainting) and why a hero whose greatest enemy is his own brain felt both authentic and timely, written as it was during COVID.
• The recurring theme across Herb's work: finding courage in unlikely places, and why that feels both personal and hopeful.
• His screenwriting background (UCLA certificate) and what it gives him as a novelist: cinematic pacing, three-act structure, and crisp, character-revealing dialogue.
• The fascinating true story of the Steinway Victory Vertical, the olive-drab piano the US government authorized for every theater of war, and how it found its way dramatically into the novel.
• Reading from Jingle Boys.
• Herb's take on plotting versus pantsing, and why he calls himself a "paraglider."
• His next project: Everything the Sea Brings, Book 1 of a trilogy set in Northern Ireland, told from the dual perspectives of a lighthouse keeper's wife and a German sailor who washes ashore with secrets.

Read more about Herb Williams-Dalgart on his website: https://www.herbthewriter.com

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Also, check out Art In Fiction at https://www.artinfiction.com and explore 2300+ novels inspired by the arts in 11 categories: Architecture, Dance, Decorative Arts, Film, Literature, Music, Textile Arts, Theater, Visual Arts, & Other.

Want to learn more about Carol Cram, the host of The Art In Fiction Podcast? She's the author of several award-winning novels, including The Towers of Tuscany, A Woman of Note, The Muse of Fire, and The Choir. Find out more on her website.

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