Musical Monday: Rachel O'Laughlin

Welcome to another installment of Musical Monday! Every Monday I will feature a book and the music that inspired it! This is an awesome opportunity to showcase your book and also inspire other writers looking for new music. In case you missed it, last week's post can be found here.

This week I was lucky enough to feature the incredible author Rachel O'Laughlin!

Coldness of Marek

by Rachel O'Laughlin

Publish Date: August 6, 2013

Book blurb: Serengard has been under Orion rule for centuries — centuries of insufferable adherence to laws and traditions that its people no longer believe in. Raised by her scholarly grandfather in the fiery southern city of Neroi, Trzl is dedicated to turning the monarchy into a free society where knowledge is king and no one has to be subject to the whims of an Orion.

As the rebellion escalates, her choices have an eerie impact on the revolution at large, elevating her to a position of influence she has only dreamed of attaining. But there are downsides to her new power that entangle her in a dangerous web of emotions, appearances and alliances. Even as she plays to the attractions of Hodran, a rich nobleman who wants to aid her cause, she is drawn to Mikel, a loyalist farmer who hates the rebellion but just might be winning her heart.

By the time Trzl realizes she is in too deep, she has an infant son and a dark mess of betrayal and lies. She runs to the furthest corner of the kingdom in hopes that she will be left alone with her child, but she has created too many demons. A figure she once trusted will take her captive in the chilling Cliffs of Marek, throw her back into the political upheaval she helped create, and leave her at the mercy of a man she never wanted for an enemy.

LINKS

Coldness of Marek on Goodreads

Pre-order Coldess of Marek direct from Author

Rachel O'Laughlin's website

Rachel O'Laughlin on Twitter

Rachel O'Laughlin on Facebook

Writing Playlist

Find this playlist also at Grooveshark

 

Why Rachel Chose These Songs for her Playlist

Dreams by The Cranberries
This song is perfect for the opening -- the excitement, the anticipation, the tension of organizing a rebellion to take over Serengard. Trzl meets Mikel while she is in the midst of plotting treachery against the Orion monarchy... whom he just happens to be loyal to. So the feelings she has for him are scary. Especially because the rich and powerful rebel, Hodran, is in the picture, and he's the obvious choice for her.

Head Over Heels by Switchfoot

This is what Mikel feels for Trzl at first. She's different than any girl he knows. She's ambitious and conniving, maybe even a little sinister to his tame sensibilities. He's hooked, but he has to convince her to love him back. And he's pretty bad at it.

Two Points for Honesty by Guster

This is where things start going sideways. They're both selfishly trying to change the other to fit their own lives, and it's not going to work. At the same time, the rebellion is growing in the city and things are starting to turn bloody and ugly.

The Diary of Jane

Mikel has never been in love, but life has always been black and white to him, and he doesn't know how to deal with Trzl's inverted world. The city is about to explode and she is afraid he'll be killed in the uprising. He's stubborn and he won't defect to her side.

Stand by Jewel

Mikel wants Trzl to admit there are evils to her cause, but she sees the people he is loyal to as far worse. They're at an impasse. If she could shout something at him right now, it would be the words to this song.

The Hardest Part by Coldplay

The rebels finally envelop the city in a riot and start a war. People die, everything stings, hurts, and is overall crappy.

This is How You Remind Me by Nickelback

Apologize by Timbaland

These two songs convey the mood at the midpoint of the novel when Lord Marek takes Trzl captive in the Cliffs. Ten years have passed. The two of them are opposing forces who have both been washed up on the shores of a conflict that didn't go as planned. And neither one is willing to forgive the past. At all.

Paper Tiger by Rosi Golan

This is how Trzl views Marek right now. A little flippantly. She's not really afraid of him, but she's not sure what's going on, either. She does her best to play him and maintain the upper hand.

Never Let Me Go by Florence & The Machine

This is what Trzl's life has been for the past six years. The only person she loves is her son, Malcom, and now his life is being threatened. She's let fear and denial push her to this point where she doesn't really feel anything. Now she's tossed into something that should scare the hell out of her, but it's slowly freeing her.

Another Round by Enter the Haggis

One song to give a moment of screen time to Colstadt. He's a sweetheart, utterly unafraid of danger, and everyone loves him.

Begin You by Kate York

This is it for her. She's in deep. I can't tell you about this scene because SPOILERS.

Fall Away by The Fray

(I freaking love The Fray. You have no idea how hard it was to only include one of their songs.) This song says something that each character in the novel needs. They're all running from something or someone. Marek has kind of made himself the keeper of their troubles... Something Trzl finally realizes and lets him do for her, too.

God's Gonna Cut You Down by Johnny Cash

The lyrics don't line up exactly, but this is Gernan's theme song, and is also the overall mood when Marek finally challenges the jerk that hurt Trzl. It's retribution time.

Everybody by Keith Urban

This is undeniably the theme song of Trzl and Marek's relationship. It's bittersweet...and open-ended.

About Rachel O'Laughlin

Obsessed with all things history, Rachel O'Laughlin grew up writing adventure stories and only recently fell in love with fantasy as a genre. She lives in New England with her husband and children, grows roses and tweets often. She adores lattes, The Fray, long drives in the country, and any dark story with a good twist.

Author Website: http://rachelolaughlin.com

Twitter: http://twitter.com/rachelolaughlin

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/r.k.olaughlin

Musical Monday: Jason Odell Williams

Musical Monday: Jason Odell Williams

Welcome to another installment of Musical Monday! Every Monday I will feature a book and the music that inspired it! This is an awesome opportunity to showcase your book and also inspire other writers looking for new music. In case you missed it, last week's post can be found here.

Today on the blog, we have the fabulous author Jason Odell Williams!

Personal Statement

by Jason Odell Williams

Book blurb: 

Getting into college has never been harder. You can no longer rely on that perfect SAT score or a 5 on your AP Mandarin exam. And field hockey or basketball? Please. The real sport is Volunteering. This year, seniors all over Connecticut are positively euphoric over a natural disaster that's promising Katrina-style opportunities. Let the games begin!

"The Personal Statement is what separates the men from the boys, the ladies from the whiny bitches. Nowadays, everyone applying to top schools has the credentials on paper. But life experience... front line, in the trenches, blood-on-your-shirt and sweat-in-your-eye life experience… that’s the ONLY way to stand out these days. Especially for me. Not only am I competing against thousands of highly qualified candidates. I’m also competing against hundreds of Emily Kims. Not metaphorically. Literally.”

-- Emily Kim, Personal Statement

Links

Goodreads

Jason Odell William's website

Jason Odell Williams on Facebook

Personal Statement's Publisher: In This Together Media
In This Together Media's Facebook
In This Together Media's Kickstarter

Writing Playlist

Below is a playlist of songs I listened to for inspiration and/or I felt like the main characters of the book would listen to. Enjoy!

RANI

“Don’t Get Me Wrong” – The Pretenders

“Who’s Gonna Drive You Home” – The Cars

“Fast As You Can” – Fiona Apple

“Strangers” – The Kinks

Carol King – Tapestry (full album)

Fleetwood Mac – Rumors (full album)

EMILY

“Valerie” – Amy Winehouse

Back to Black (full album) – Amy Winehouse

“Carry On” – Fun.

“Another Saturday Night” – Sam Cooke

“Daylight” – Maroon 5

“Best for Last” – Adele

ROBERT

“Stronger” – Kelly Clarkson

“We Are The Champions” – Queen

“Pictures of You” – The Cure

“Just Like Heaven” – The Cure

“Friday I’m in Love” – The Cure

“Parents Just Don’t Understand” – Will Smith

“Don’t You” – Simple Minds

“If You Leave” – Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark

A Chorus Line – Original Cast Album

ALEXIS

“Vienna” – Billy Joel

“You Learn” – Alanis Morissette

“Linger” – The Cranberries

“Cannonball” – The Breeders

“Smells Like Teen Spirit” (cover) – Tori Amos

“These Are Days” – 10,000 Maniacs

“Sweet Jane” – The Cowboy Junkies

“Whatever” – Oasis

“Silent in the Morning” – Phish

“The World Has Turned and Left Me Here” – Weezer

Liz Phair – Exile in Guyville (full album)

Chapter Excerpt

There are over 100 high school kids here and every last one of them (myself included) is after something. Not one is in Cawdor out of the goodness of their heart. These are highly motivated and successful students (like Emily Kim) with perfect SAT scores and 5’s on their AP exams – exams in obscure and esoteric subjects like Mandarin, Macroeconomics, and Comparative Government & Politics. These kids are the leads in their school plays, speak three languages, play nine instruments and still, still, they come here looking for a leg up – that extra edge that will guarantee a top-tier acceptance letter in the spring. When did it get to be so crazy?

As if he can read my mind, that 15 year old Latino hipster, Duncan Rodriguez, saunters by and says, “Gonna be a lot more heartbreak than triumph after all is said and done.”

“Hunh?” I ask, seriously worried he has mind-reading capabilities.

“Well,” Duncan says, pulling off his thick frames and polishing the lenses with his skinny black tie, “not only are most of these sex-starved teens gonna go home with nothing more to hook up with than their hand, but they all think being here is like some golden Wonka Bar ticket, like it’s gonna seal the deal with their top choice school. But there’s no way you can all get in to your top choices.”

“Why not?” asks Mac innocently.

“Cuz,” Duncan replies, putting on his glasses again. “Numbers don’t add up. Harvard had an acceptance rate last year of 5.9% – the lowest rate in in the history of the school. That means out of the 34K and change applications, just north of two thousand were accepted. There’s like a hundred or so rising seniors here, yeah? And I bet 30 or 40 of them have Harvard as their top choice, right?”

“I know Emily does,” I blurt out without meaning to.  “There ya go. So that means of the, let’s say… 35 that are applying to Harvard, only 2 will get in. Two! That’s 33 disappointed sets of parents back home. And yet all of these posers are positively salivating at the prospect of another Katrina or Sandy hitting their home state and the opportunities they think will come with that – opportunities to pad the resume, give weight to their personal statements, add gravitas to their entrance interview. ‘Oh you were there when Hurricane Calliope hit… what was that like for you?’ It’s the new blood sport, gentleman. Competitive volunteering.”

About the Author Jason Odell Williams

Originally from Columbia, Maryland, and a graduate of The University of Virginia, Jason is an award-winning playwright whose work has been produced at regional theatres across the country (and in Canada, eh!) Jason currently works as a writer and producer on the TV series “Brain Games” which airs on National Geographic. He lives in New York City with his actress-singer-director-producer wife, Charlotte Cohn, and their daughter, Imogen who is working on her hyphenates as we speak. For more please visit jasonodellwilliams.com.

Musical Monday: Helen Boswell and Mythology

Welcome to another installment of Musical Monday! Every Monday I will feature a book and the music that inspired it! This is an awesome opportunity to showcase your book and also inspire other writers looking for new music. In case you missed it, last week's post can be found here.

Today on the blog, we have the fabulous author Helen Boswell!

Mythology

by Helen Boswell

Goodreads blurb: Hope Gentry doesn't believe in Fate. Born with an unusual power to see the dark memories of those around her, Hope just wants to be a normal teenager. But on the first day of her senior year of high school, she finds herself irresistibly drawn to a transfer student named Micah Condie. 

At first glance, Micah seems like a boy that most girls would dream about. But when Hope's powers allow her to discover Micah's darkest secret, she quickly becomes entangled in the lives of mythical entities she never dreamed existed. Was this her destiny all along? And will her powers help her survive the evil of the Demon Impiorum? 

Mythology isn't just for English class anymore.

Where to find Mythology:

Goodreads

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

iTunes Store

Playlist for Mythology 

Song list: (title : artist : album)

Demons : Imagine Dragons : Night Visions

Resistance : Muse : The Resistance 

How to Save a Life: The Fray : How to Save a Life

All the Sand In All The Sea : DeVotchKa : 100 Lovers

When You Were Young : The Killers : Sam's Town

Butterflies & Hurricanes : Muse: Absolution

This Is Your Life : The Killers : Day & Age

Only The Young : Brandon Flowers: Flamingo

For Better...Or Worse? : The Postmarks : Memoirs at The End Of The World

Notes from the Author

...Some of the songs are natural carry-overs into the playlist for MYTHOLOGY: THE WICKED (out Fall 2013).

Why these songs?

Some because they gave me all the FEELS

e.g., Butterflies & Hurricanes gives me the tingles :)

Some because I could picture the songs playing for specific scenes

e.g., Micah riding away on The Triumph to the beginning of Resistance

Some because of their specific lyrics

e.g., Demons fits Micah to perfection.

"When you feel my heat
Look into my eyes
It's where my demons hide
It's where my demons hide

Don't get too close
It's dark inside
It's where my demons hide
It's where my demons hide"

5. Author information (pic is attached)

Mythology Excerpt and Word Cloud

Excerpt from Mythology:

It’s an interesting photograph, the one by Draper. It’s of the crowd at a city train station like the one on Exchange Street. The subjects of the photograph are a man and a woman on opposite ends of the frame. They’re highlighted, but by being transformed to black and white while everything else in the photograph is in true color. There’s almost a tragic feel to it, like they’re forever imprisoned apart from each other in monochrome.

I take a step back to look at the photograph from a distance. But the other person in the gallery must have been standing right behind me, and I crash into him. I step forward and spin around.

He’s wearing all black – a black suit with simple, elegant lines, a black dress shirt, black shoes. He has dark eyes, a dark complexion, jet-black hair. I wonder if he dyed it to match his suit. His eyes are fixed on me. And this is exactly where I stop noticing anything about the rest of his face because there’s an eerie white fire blazing in his pupils." 

“Do you want to know the story behind Fate?” he says suddenly.

“Huh?” I immediately wish I hadn’t said anything. I have no idea what he’s talking about, but that doesn’t mean I have to sound so... inarticulate.

“Fate,” he repeats with an indulgent smile. “The title of the piece you were examining so closely.”

I know the placard doesn’t show the title for the photograph, but I glance over my shoulder anyway. Nope, just the name of the artist.

“Is it yours?” I ask.

“Oh, no,” he says. “But I know its story.”

“Okay,” I say gamely. Maybe he read about it somewhere. Maybe he made up the name himself. Either way, I’m too curious not to ask. “So what’s the story behind ‘Fate’?”

“It’s about finally meeting someone. And never meeting someone.”

About the Helen Boswell

Helen was a complete bookworm from the time she could sound out the words on the page. She'll always be thankful for her mom allowing her to read at the kitchen table during mealtimes. Reading naturally led to writing by the time she was eight or nine - she started with fantasy stories, dabbled in contemporary fiction, and even tried a little romance. MYTHOLOGY is an urban fantasy/love story and in that way reflects some of her earliest writing interests.

Things that inspire Helen to write are bowls of ice cream with lots of Magic Shell, the lack of cats or other things she's allergic to in the vicinity, and plugging into playlists with her Neff headphones - the knit ones with the bear's ears.

Where to find Helen:
Website
Twitter
Facebook

Musical Monday: Cara Elizabeth and Elegantly Wasted

Welcome to another installment of Musical Monday! Every Monday I will feature a book and the music that inspired it! This is an awesome opportunity to showcase your book and also inspire other writers looking for new music. In case you missed it, last week's post can be found here.

Today on the blog, we have the fabulous author Cara Elizabeth!

Elegantly Wasted

by C. Elizabeth Vescio

Genre: Action / New Adult

Goodreads blurb: On the eve of her high school graduation, proper socialite Francesca “Frankie” Fairholm rebelled against her elitist and controlling family to pursue the dark lifestyle of a contract killer for the enigmatic Osiris Corporation. Years later, with her training complete, she believes she's doomed to the life of a sociopathic lone gun until a botched hit brings two unlikely allies, her cousins Addison and Katharine. 

Using Katharine’s etiquette school, Elegance, Inc., as a front, the trio weave through Frankie’s dark underworld, carrying out contracts, drinking too much wine, and trying not to get each other killed. 

Trouble follows the team home when the death of the cruel Fairholm matriarch reveals more than they ever wanted to know about their family. As the funeral preparations play out, the trio begin to realize there is much more to their employer than meets the eye and their family connections run deeper than they ever imagined.

Elegantly Wasted Playlist

"The biggest aspect about the playlist is the presence of INXS. They wrote the song Elegantly Wasted and the main character has a thing for them. Everything else is sort of songs that fit the chapter- and the heavy presence of 80's." -Cara Elizabeth

About Cara Elizabeth

Jack of all trades and stereotypical black sheep, Cara has been writing somewhat dark and morbid since that teen angst hit somewhere in the early 90's- probably because her dad was a mortician. After pursuing a degree in English, she changed gears to photography and design in 2006... although she kept penning stories for fun while reading the works of Edgar Allen Poe, Oscar Wilde and Hemingway (whom she adores even though he was a huge douche canoe).

 In 2009, her life shifted considerably and she found herself writing Elegantly Wasted- helping her sort out a bunch of stupid feelings and other lame stuff.

She enjoys cynical debates, cupcakes, making her mother-in-law sew her aprons that she never wears, zombies, the Fifth Element and Tomb Raider. She gathers her life inspirations from Neil Gaiman, Julia Child and Paul Simon. When she isn't out photographing her next project, she's studying color, concept and design or writing stuff down in hopes it makes sense one day... or she's on Pinterest.

Cara lives in Las Vegas with her husband, John and their three genetically altered dogs all of which have personal vendettas for the guy who cleans the pool.

Follow her Twitter at your own risk.

More Cara Elizabeth:

Website     Facebook    Publisher: Luna Station Press     Goodreads     Amazon     Spotify

Musical Monday: Michelle Smith

Welcome to the second installment of Musical Monday! Every Monday I will feature a book and the music that inspired it! This is an awesome opportunity to showcase your book and also inspire other writers looking for new music. In case you missed it, last week's post can be found here.

Today on the blog, we have the fabulous author Michelle Smith!

Name: Michelle Smith

Book: Kingdom Come
Coming out May 22 2013

Genre: YA Apocalyptic (Sci-fi)

Michelle also provided some brilliant insight to some of the songs she listed on her playlist. Here are her thoughts on why she added some of the songs she did for Kingdom Come:

"Demons" by Imagine Dragons is what I consider to be the theme song for the book. 

"The Ruler and the Killer" just screams Bennett to me. While editing his scenes, I play this and Fall Out Boy on repeat. 

"Your Guardian Angel" and "All We Are": both of these capture the relationship between Kerrigan and Ethan perfectly.

Michelle's a lover of love and all things happy. She laughs way too much (sometimes at things that aren’t even funny), is a complete sap, and will try to convince you that Harry Potter isn’t just a book series, but a way of life. 

After studying at East Carolina University, she ran away to Florida with her Coastie husband. She now lives in North Carolina with the devilishly handsome Coastie, a son who inherited her creative streak, and crazy border collie mix.

Social Media: Blog Twitter Facebook

I hope you guys enjoyed checking out the music that inspired Kingdom Come. Let me know in the comments what your favorite song was. Or if you have any suggestions for Michelle's playlist, let us know!

And if you'd like your book to be featured with your playlist, check out the information I'd need from you and then send an email to jolene.haley(@)(gmail.com) <-without parenthesis. I welcome any traditional published authors, self or indie published authors, and even unpublished authors as long as you have a finished manuscript. All genres are happily accepted!

Happy Musical Monday!