Shawn Marie Graybeal-Sellers

The Soundtrack of Anywhere But Here

Every story has a soundtrack. For me, Anywhere But Here has always had music running underneath it. Songs that captured Michelle’s world, her pain, her decade of running, and the long road back to the people she never stopped loving.

I’ve been building this playlist in my head for years, adding songs as they found their way into the story. Some of them are obvious choices. Some surprised me. All of them feel true to Michelle, to the Calderons, and to the world of this book.

I’ve organized it the way the story moves. From Michelle’s early years, through the running, through the darkness, through the longing, and finally home.

Young Michelle (the early years) These are the songs of Michelle’s childhood. The pain of her home life and the warmth she found with the Calderon family. Hope and hurt living side by side.

Running (Michelle on the road) For ten years Michelle builds a life defined by motion. These are her road songs. The ones playing as she follows the rodeo circuit from town to town, building a life that never stays still long enough to trap her.

The darkness underneath Michelle’s life on the road looks like freedom. But underneath it is everything she’s running from. These songs live in that space.

Longing and memory You can put distance between yourself and the people you love. You can’t stop carrying them. These are the songs of that carrying.

Coming home Michelle comes back to Albuquerque because Sylvia needs her. She stays because she finally understands what she left behind. These are the songs of that reckoning.

I built this playlist so you could listen while you read. Or after. Or before. However the music finds you.

Anywhere But Here is available now on Amazon and at my website. I’d love to know which songs speak to you.

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