Cover for THE MANIC PIXIE DREAM BOY IMPROVEMENT PROJECT!

The cover of my forthcoming novel was revealed last week, and I neglected to put it on this neglected blog, so I shall remedy that now!

Isn't it magnificent? The cover designer, Emily Harris, really captures the fun energy of the book. I love how she included the glass-shard hearts as they actually appear in a few scenes.

Here's a short summary:

Riley lives in TropeTown, where everyone plays stock roles in novels. Riley, a Manic Pixie Dream Boy, is sent to group therapy after going off-script. Riley knows that breaking the rules again could get him terminated, yet he feels there must be more to life than recycling the same cliches for readers' entertainment. Then he meets Zelda, a Manic Pixie Dream Girl (Geek Chic subtype), and falls head over heels in love. Zelda's in therapy too, along with several other Manic Pixies. But TropeTown has a dark secret, and if Riley and his fellow Manic Pixies don't get to the bottom of it, they may all be terminated.


Sound good? It comes out on March 5, 2019 from Carolrhoda Lab/Lerner but you can already:

Add to your goodreads
Preorder from indiebound
Preorder from B&N
Preorder from amazon

Let me know what you think! 

When Your Husband Reads Your Books

I have been scarce around bloggerdom, and part of the reason is that I got married (for those of you who didn't know). This was over a year ago, and the husband in question is Michael Eisenhour. He's an excellent physical therapist and he brings with him two lovely children in elementary school. I'm now living in the DC area, and am starting to really feel at home here.

Michael leads an active, busy life, so even though he enjoys reading, he doesn't get much down time to devote to it. That's why it has taken him nearly two years from the time he met me to actually read some of my books. Over the summer he read The Memory of After and Chasing Before, and it was a delight to get to discuss the themes with him while walking on the beach at night during our recent vacation to Hilton Head. He really gets what I was trying to do with the series. And he really gets me.

I hope to be back to blogging more regularly now that I am finally settled somewhere. Hopefully some of you are still reading this blog! 

2017 in Review - Music

I bought about about the same amount of music as last year including the albums Native Invader by Tori Amos and Wonderful, Wonderful by The Killers. 

2017 songs on heavy rotation (* indicates top 7)

*Machine - MisterWives
*Hot Thoughts - Spoon
*I Dare You - the xx (+ On Hold)
*Sorry - Nothing but Thieves
*Guilty Party - The National (+Day I Die)
Everything Now - Arcade Fire
Sugar for the Pill - Slowdive
In Undertow - Alvvays
Only a Child - Gracie and Rachel
Particle - Hundred Waters
*Los Ageless - St. Vincent
SGL - Now, Now
*Bang - Tori Amos (+Wildwood +Climb)
Someone to You - BANNERS
Hurt Like Hell - The Heydaze
Now and Then - Sjowgren
Broken - lovelytheband
Edge of Town - Middle Kids
It's a Trip! - Joywave
Something Just Like This - Coldplay
Shape of You - Ed Sheeran
Feel it Still - Portugal, The Man
Tummy Ache - Diet Cig
Run for Cover - The Killers
Roots - Alice Merton
The Gold - Manchester Orchestra
In Cold Blood - Alt-J
Don't Take the Money - Bleachers
Up All Night - Beck
Two High - Moon Taxi
There's A Honey - Pale Waves

Favorite finds from previous years 

Cleopatra - The Lumineers (2016)
Favorite Liar - The Wrecks (2016)

The Night We Met - Lord Huron (2015)
The Two of Us - Sophie Park (2013)
Can't be Broken - Twin Forks (2013)
Illumination - Secret Garden (1997)

Live Music in 2017

+ Agnes Obel (March 7) in DC

+ Coldplay (August 7) in D.C.

+ Tori Amos (Nov 3) in D.C.

+ Tori Amos (Nov 4) in Philadelphia, PA

+ Tori Amos (Nov. 11) in Durham, NC


I'd love to hear about your favorite music of the year - share with me!! 

My Awesome Reads of 2016

I read over 60 books in 2016, most of them for my MFA program. After I graduated in July, I kind of slacked on reading, but am excited to dive back in during 2017! Here are my top 10:

2016 in Review: Music

I bought --130 new songs this year (only about half as many as last year) including the albums My Woman - Angel Olsen and Currents - Tame Impala,

2016 songs on heavy rotation (* indicates top 7)

*Lucky - AURORA (+ Winter Bird + Murder Song)

Free - Broods (+ Couldn't Believe + Full Blown Love)
*Higher - The Naked and the Famous (+ Laid Low + The Water Beneath You)
2AM - Bear Hands
Big Ideas - The Boxer Rebellion
How - Daughter
Dust - Haelos
Open Your Eyes - School of Seven Bells
Something to Believe In - Young the Giant
Sunday Love - Bat for Lashes
Somebody Else - The 1975 (+ The Sound)
You Don't Get Me High Anymore - Phantogram
*New Song - Warpaint
*Not Gonna Kill You - Angel Olsen (+ Shut Up Kiss Me + Intern)
Brand New Moves - Hey Violet
What Am I Becoming? - POP ETC
Still Breathing - Green Day
Love Me Better - Love Thy Brother
*I Won't Let You Go - Switchfoot
*Your Best American Girl - Mitski
Washed Up Together - Knox Hamilton
I Am Chemistry - Yeasayer (+ Silly Me)
Bad Decisions - Two Door Cinema Club
Sweet Disaster - DREAMERS
*Ladies Don't Play Guitar - Tennis
What We Live For - American Authors
Lose It - Oh Wonder
Live While I Breathe - The Moth & The Flame (+ Red Flag)
Fall Together - The Temper Trap
Past Lives - Local Natives
Love Is A Disease - Honeyblood


Favorite finds from previous years 

Roses - The Chainsmokers (2015)
This Year - Cooper (2015)

Destruction - Joywave (2015)
Queen - MisterWives (2015)
When You Were Mine - Night Terrors of 1927 (Feat. Tegan and Sara) (2015)
High Dive - Andrew McMahon (2014)
You Are Enough - Sleeping at Last (2014)
Here With Me - Susie Suh (2014)
You Ruin Me - The Veronicas (2014) 

Do I Wanna Know? - Arctic Monkeys (2013)
Diamonds - The Boxer Rebellion (2013)
Cigarette Daydreams - Cage the Elephant (2013)
Out of My League - Fitz & The Tantrums (2013)
As It Seems - Lily Kershaw (2013)
It's Real - Real Estate (2011)
Help I'm Alive - Metric (2009)
My Mistakes Were Made for You - The Last Shadow Puppets (2008)
The Middle - Jimmy Eat World (2001) 

Live Music in 2016

+ Metric with Joywave (March 5) in Indianapolis, Indiana

+ Daughter (April 6) in D.C.

+ Florence and the Machine with Of Monsters and Men (June 4) in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio

+ Purity Ring (June 8) in D.C.

+ Angel Olsen (Sept 15) in D.C.

+ Switchfoot (Oct 26) in D.C. 



I'd love to hear about your favorite music of the year - share with me!! 

2016 in Review: Movies and TV

Even though I don't usually blog about movies or tv, I do like my year end list summaries.

2016 Movies I saw this year

Ghostbusters (2016 version)
How to Be Single (plane)
Arrival
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
Finding Dory (video)
Star Trek Beyond (video)
The Secret Life of Pets (video)
Sing


Total of 8 (6 less than last year)


Notable movies I saw in 2016 that were released before 2016

Hunger Games Mockingjay Part 2
Blended
The Croods

2016 movies I still want to see

Zootopia
Rogue One
Kubo and the Two Strings
La La Land

TV series I watched in 2016

Mr Robot - Season 1
The Expanse - Season 1
Colony - Season 1
Don't Trust the B in Apt 23 - Season 1+2
Game of Thrones -Season 5+6
Orphan Black - Season 3+4
The Mindy Project - Season 4
Arrested Development - Season 4
Stranger Things - Season 1
Criminal Minds - Season 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
The Bates Motel - Season 4
Master of None - Season 1



How was your year in movies and TV?

Book Talk: Amy Stacie Chelsea Dee by Mary G. Thompson

The creepy doll cover promises a scary read, but this novel explores the psychological after-effects of a traumatic kidnapping instead of a fright-fest.

Amy comes back to her hometown years after she was kidnapped, but she can't talk about what happened to Dee, her cousin who was kidnapped with her. Over the course of the novel, the reader discovers the heartbreaking reason why.

AMY STACIE CHELSEA DEE is a page turner with a sympathetic main character and a ripped-from-the-headlines plot. Highly recommended for fans of dramatic contemporary YA fiction. Find out more about it at the author's website. 

Guest Post: Intertextuality in Wild Swans by Jessica Spotswood

I had the pleasure of moderating a panel for the Barnes & Noble Teen Fest with the fab authors Jessica Spotwood, Kate Hattemer and Lisa Maxwell. We got to talking about intertextuality and l noted to Jessica that I loved her shout out to Noelle Stevenson's graphic novel NIMONA, which I had just read. Of course, Jessica's main shout out is to a poet - but I'll let her talk about that.

Take it away, Jessica! 

WILD SWANS has changed a lot from its original conception – perhaps the most of any of my books – but the poetry of Edna St. Vincent Millay has always played a role.

Back in the fall of 2013, I’d just read April Tucholke’s brilliant BETWEEN THE DEVIL & THE DEEP BLUE SEA. I loved the creepy-gorgeous atmosphere of it and admired how the Citizen Kane, the family’s crumbling old mansion by the sea, functions almost as another character. I’ve always loved setting-heavy books, and I’d just finished my historical fantasy trilogy and wanted to write something completely different. I set out to write a sort of Gothic-flavored contemporary mystery. I decided that the setting of my new book would be an old white farmhouse on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, with the Chesapeake Bay right in its backyard.

In the book’s early incarnation, the house was haunted. Not – as it is now – figuratively, by the weight of being a Milbourn girl. (Everyone in their small town knows what it is to be a Milbourn girl: Talented. Troubled. Cursed.) Originally, there was the ghost of a famous novelist, Dorothea, who had written one Great American Novel and then, like Harper Lee, become a recluse. Over the course of the summer, as Ivy worked with her granddad’s cute poetry student to archive Dorothea’s journals, they discovered a series of clues that perhaps Dorothea hadn’t written the novel after all. Perhaps she’d stolen it. Perhaps she’d murdered someone to keep that secret. And perhaps her ghost was willing to murder again to make sure it stayed secret. One of the clues that Ivy and Connor would stumble upon was the Millay poem “Dirge without Music.”

Unfortunately, I don’t actually know how to write a mystery. I am constantly surprised by TV whodunnits. I do not have a suspicious, logical, clue-parsing mind. The book, in that incarnation, was clearly not working.

An editor who read the beginning suggested that perhaps I could take the ghost and the mystery out and still have a summery, character-driven novel. And so Dorothea became Ivy’s great-grandmother, who was selfish and talented and troubled, but not murderous. Now the plot revolves around a family legacy of both artistic talent and mental illness. Ivy and Connor still work together to archive Dorothea’s journals, but Dorothea’s a famous poet, not a novelist.

And Connor is a poet, too, with tattoos of poems he loves. Ivy loves his talent and his passionate focus even as she's a bit jealous of it. One of those poems – one that means so much to him that it’s tattooed right over his heart – is “A Dirge Without Music.” (I’ll let you read the book to find out why, but it's a subject of fascination for Ivy - and not just because seeing it means seeing Connor shirtless.) In early days, lines from "A Dirge Without Music" were the epigraph for the book, but unfortunately it is not in the public domain.

My editor, searching for a title, read some Millay and came across “Wild Swans.” She suggested we use that as the title. And when I read it, it felt like a perfect fit:

I looked in my heart while the wild swans went over.
And what did I see I had not seen before?
Only a question less or a question more;
Nothing to match the flight of wild birds flying.
Tiresome heart, forever living and dying,
House without air, I leave you and lock your door.
Wild swans, come over the town, come over
The town again, trailing your legs and crying!

To me, this poem speaks to the yearning that the Milbourn women feel. Ivy, like her mother and grandmother and great-great-grandmother, is ambitious and ambivalent about small-town life. She clings to the comfort of it even as she finds it suffocating. House without air, I leave you and lock your door – this line particularly resonates with me; it is exactly how I think Ivy’s mother feels about the house and the town. Erica is desperate to escape the version of herself that she is there, even if she hurts her own daughters in the process.

I’m so happy that this poem is in the public domain, so I can share it here and as the book’s epigraph.

(NOTE: A variation of this post was originally published on Miss Print's blog and is modified and reprinted here with permission)

Book Talk: Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies by Lindsay Ribar

I love that this novel works on so many levels. On the surface, it is a fun paranormal story with a breezy tone (and a genuinely creepy reveal regarding the source of the magic), but beneath that it is a thoughtful examination of free will with incredibly high stakes.

Aspen has gone through life with a gift of "reaching" - that is, if he touches something that belongs to someone, he can see inside them and take away anything from motivations to aptitudes for math or even physical markers like freckles or burn scars. Because of this, he's quite selfish and entitled. He uses his power for his own gain without much thought of the consequences to others, despite evidence that his magic has caused people serious harm. He doesn't know them personally, so he thinks "so what?" His justification lies in a family secret: they are the protectors of the town, and if they don't perform a ritual to keep a magic cliff satisfied, the cliff will crumble and the town will be crushed. It's the sacrifice of a few for the greater good argument - but is that what is really going on here? Aspen starts to have his doubts after questions arise about the truth of his cousin's death ...

Ribar has a gift for banter and writing complex relationships between flawed, authentic characters. The magic system is imaginative and logical. I loved the parallels between his romance with Brandy and his parents failed marriage, and the examination of how even our negative qualities are necessary to shaping our identities.

Reminded me a lot of Maggie Lehrman's The Cost of all Things, which I also highly recommend.


And guess what? It's out today!

Buy it on Amazon.

Book Talk: The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness

This is the type of novel I love - great, high-concept premise, relatable characters, unique structure and storytelling. And it's SO different than the Chaos Walking series (which I also adored) so plus points for that too.

Let's start with the premise. Basically, Ness pokes fun at the "chosen one" trope by making his protagonist just an ordinary guy who lives in an extraordinary town. Mikey is not an "indie kid" so he doesn't have to worry about being the one who is essential to fighting off demons or vampires. He has his own stuff going on: his sister has an eating disorder, his dad is an alcoholic, his mom is running for office, and he has OCD and is in love with a friend of his.

So structure-wise, there's a short run-down at the start of each chapter telling us what is happening in the "main plot" and then Mikey tells us what's going on in his life for the rest of the chapter - and it's clearly much more interesting and authentic.

I love the underlying theme of being the hero of your own story, and I rooted for Mikey the entire novel.

You'll enjoy this if you like meta-fiction, originality and gentle satire.

Books Read in 2016

YA Fiction

The Emperor of Any Place by Tim Wynne-Jones
Calvin by Martine Leavitt
The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness
Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larsen
The Girl From Everywhere by Heidi Heilig
A Tale Dark and Grimm by Adam Gidwitz
I Crawl Through It by AS King
Juba by Walter Dean Myers
Rocks Fall Everyone Dies by Lindsay Ribar
A Fierce and Subtle Poison by Samantha Mabry

Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson
Rook by Sharon Cameron
Tyrell by Coe Booth
Highly Illogical Behavior by John Corey Whaley
Wild Swans by Jessica Spotswood
Land of 10,000 Madonnas by Kate Hattmer
Places No One Knows by Brenna Yovanoff
Exit, Pursued by a Bear by E.K. Johnston
Tumbling by Caela Carter
Every Hidden Thing by Kenneth Oppel

Where Futures End by Parker Peevyhouse
Delicate Monsters by Stephanie Kuehn
Amy Stacie Chelsea Dee by Mary G. Thompson
The Memory Book by Laura Avery
I'm Not Your Manic Pixie Dream Girl by Gretchen McNeil
Replica by Lauren Oliver



Fiction

Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer

How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu
All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders
You Will Know Me by Megan Abbott
The Secret Place by Tana French

MG Fiction

Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai
Doll Bones by Holly Black
Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko
The New Kid on the Block by Jack Prelutsky

Project Mulberry by Linda Sue Park

Schooled by Gordon Korman
Flora and Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo
Love that Dog by Sharon Creech
The Thief of Always by Clive Barker

Non-Fiction

Year of Yes by Shonda Rhimes

Wonderbook: The Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction by Jeff VanderMeer
Stoned by Aja Raden

Graphic Novels

Prez by Mark Russell
Hereville by Barry Deutsch
Scott Pilgrim Vol #1 by Bryan Lee O'Malley

Lunch Lady and the Author Visit Vendetta (Lunch Lady, #3) by Jarrett J. Krosoczka
Nimona by Noelle Stevenson

2015 in Review: Movies and TV

Even though I don't usually blog about movies or tv, I do like my year end list summaries.

2015 Movies I saw this year

Mad Max: Fury Road
The Avengers: Age of Ultron
Insurgent (DVD)
Spectre
Trainwreck (plane)
Pitch Perfect 2 (DVD)
The Duff (DVD)
Sleeping With Other People (plane)
Paper Towns (plane)
Jupiter Ascending (TV)
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Jurassic World (DVD)
Minions (DVD)
Home (DVD)

Total of 14 (four more than last year)


Notable movies I saw in 2015 that were released before 2015 

Whiplash
Birdman
Stormpiercer
Mockingjay Part 1
If I Stay
Wild
Interstellar


2015 movies I still want to see

Mockingjay Part 2
Joy

TV series I watched in 2015 


Mad Men Final Season

The Bates Motel Season 3
12 Monkeys Season 1
The Last Ship Season 1+2
Camp Cutthroat Kitchen
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver


How was your year in movies and TV?

My Awesome Reads of 2015

I read over 90 books in 2015, and annotated all of them for my MFA program at VCFA, though I didn't talk about many of them here. As you can see by the handy Goodreads graphic below, many of them were backlist. If you click on this link, you can find out more about each of my favorites. Also, see my Awesome Reads of 2014 which I just posted now, one year late!

2015 In Review: Music

I bought 220 new songs this year (way more than last year) including 4 albums, Every Open Eye/Chvrches, Beneath the Skin/Of Monsters and Men, Song Spells #1/Sea Wolf, Art Angels/Grimes

2015 songs on heavy rotation (* indicates top 5)

*Flesh Without Blood - Grimes 

*Leave a Trace - Chvrches 

*Happy - Marina and the Diamonds
*True Confessions - Blondfire
*Breaker - Deerhunter

The Shade - Metric

Lightning Strike - A Silent Film

Grey Days - Chelsea Wolfe

1998 - Chet Faker feat. Banks

Trip Switch - Nothing but Thieves

I of the Storm - Of Monsters and Men

Body Talk - Foxes

Hiding - Florence and the Machine

High - Zella Day

Step Brother City - Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin

Strange Hellos - TORRES

Greek Tragedy - The Wombats

Little Wanderer - Death Cab for Cutie

Begin Again - Purity Ring

The Labyrinth Song - Asaf Avidan

White Lies - Milo Greene

A Beginning Song - The Decemberists 

My Least Favorite Life - Lera Lynn

Empty Gold - Halsey

Blame it on Me - George Ezra
Anything - TOPS
Too Late to Say Goodbye - Cage the Elephant
Water Slides - Mew
Molecules - Atlas Genius
I Feel It - Avid Dancer

Favorite finds from previous years (* indicates top 5)

*Algiers - The Afghan Whigs (2014)

Cecilia and the Satellite - Andrew McMahon (2014)

*Black Soap - Ex Cops (2014)
Go - Grimes (2014)

*Lover - In the Valley Below (2014)

Black Mambo - Glass Animals (2014)

* Lover, Where Do You Live? - Highasakite (2014)

Zigzagging Toward the Light - Conor Oberst (2014)

Lust and Lies - The Ramona Flowers (2013)

*Teen Idle - Marina and the Diamonds (2012)
Sun - Two Door Cinema Club (2012)
Hold On - Alabama Shakes (2012)

My Secret Friend - IAMX (2010)
Christmas Won't Be the Same Without You - Plain White Ts (2009)

I Don't Believe You - The Magnetic Fields (2004)
August - Rilo Kiley (2001)

Live Music in 2015

+ Alt J with Wolf Alice (Feb 7) in Offenbach, Germany

+ Rachael Yamagata (Feb 20) in Frankfurt, Germany

+ Sea Wolf (May 21) in Frankfurt, Germany

+ Of Monsters and Men with Highasakite (July 1) in Frankfurt, Germany

+ Death Cab for Cutie with Twin Shadow (Sept 19) in Columbus, Ohio

+ Landmark Festival in DC (Sept 27) with Chvrches, George Ezra, TV on the Radio, Lord Huron, Houndmouth, In the Valley Below

+ Deerhunter (December 17) in Columbus, Ohio


I'd love to hear about your favorite music of the year - share with me!!

Book Talk: Spoils by Tammar Stein

It's not too often I come across a character in a novel named Lenore, so this was a nice surprise. I asked Tammar how she came up with the name, and this is what she said:

About Lenore...Well, it's a gorgeous name, of course. You know this already. My main character's names always pop into my mind rather mysteriously. I never have to sit and think about it. It's usually names that kind of surprise me, never the name of someone I know with that name. With Leni, I just knew it was Leni. And then I thought, who names their kid Leni? It's probably a nickname...and it went from there. I liked the thought of her taking ownership of her name, changing it to something she felt comfortable with. I feel like Lenore is a name you have to grow into (though I suppose you would know better than I would.) Maybe a young person wouldn't feel comfortable with such a majestic name. I bet by the time Leni finished college, she'll reclaim her full name.

Interesting! Lenore is indeed a pretty majestic name, though I suppose I grew into it early.

So - the book itself. Lenore is the youngest daughter of a family who won the lottery and then spent the money wildly over the years until there's nothing left. Lenore's parents expect her to give up her part of the money when she turns 18 (it has been in a trust) to keep them afloat, and she is ready to do this until her older sister confesses that the money is dirty and that whatever Lenore does, she needs to get rid of it completely.

So that's the mystery - what's wrong with the money? Turns out, a lot. Lenore is visited by an angel who also warns her to get rid of it - and she only has a week until her birthday to figure out what to with it.

The novel explores the idea of the universe having checks and balances on good and evil - when evil is thwarted by good, it seeks out weaker targets.

I really enjoyed this one! Find out more at Tammar's website.  

First Draft Pod!

This summer, the fabulous Sarah Enni was in Paris and asked me and Amy Plum to be guests on her podcast series called First Draft in which she interviews writers about books and life. The episode is now live (we discuss travel and how writing letters and blogging got us into publishing) and I'm excited to go back and listen to the other 59 episodes.

Playlist October featuring The Summer After You & Me by Jennifer Doktorski

I love music and I love books, which means I really love book playlists. So all through October I'm going to be posting book playlists. I've invited a bunch of authors to contribute, so hopefully we'll all discover some great new music and good reads.

Jennifer Doktorski is here today to share some of the resonant lyrics from her playlist for her new novel THE SUMMER AFTER YOU & ME.

Here's the book summary:

When Superstorm Sandy sweeps up the New Jersey coast, local shore girl Lucy Giordano is brought together for a few intense hours with her longtime crush/part-time summer neighbor, Connor Malloy. Lucy believes their connection is real, but in the hurricane’s devastating aftermath, nothing is the same and Lucy is left to pick up the pieces of her broken heart and home.

 And Jennifer's playlist!



“Crazy For You” Stars on 45

Every single word that you say
Every little thing that you do
Hits like a hurricane
When I'm secretly crazy for you


“Absolutely Still” Val Emmich

We were running from the same noise
We were stuck in the same pursuit
Now the door's locked
And I find that this dizzy madness is bleeding through
Promise me you'll never leave this room


“Every Breaking Wave” U2

Are we ready to be swept off our feet
And stop chasing
Every breaking wave


“Riptide” Vance Joy

Lady, running down to the riptide
Taken away to the dark side
I wanna be your left hand man


“Come to Me” Goo Goo Dolls

Fortune teller said I'd be free
And that's the day you came to me
Came to me

Find out more about Jennifer and her novels at her website: www.jendoktorski.com

Playlist October featuring IF YOU'RE LUCKY by Yvonne Prinz

I love music and I love books, which means I really love book playlists. So all through October I'm going to be posting book playlists. I've invited a bunch of authors to contribute, so hopefully we'll all discover some great new music and good reads.

Today, I have Yvonne Prinz talking about her playlist picks for her new novel, IF YOU'RE LUCKY.

First, the book summary:

When seventeen-year-old Georgia’s brother drowns while surfing halfway around the world in Australia, she refuses to believe Lucky’s death was just bad luck. Lucky was smart. He wouldn’t have surfed in waters more dangerous than he could handle. Then a stranger named Fin arrives in False Bay, claiming to have been Lucky’s best friend. Soon Fin is working for Lucky’s father, charming Lucky’s mother, dating his girlfriend. Georgia begins to wonder: did Fin murder Lucky in order to take over his whole life?

Determined to clear the fog from her mind in order to uncover the truth about Lucky’s death, Georgia secretly stops taking the medication that keeps away the voices in her head. Georgia is certain she’s getting closer and closer to the truth about Fin, but as she does, her mental state becomes more and more precarious, and no one seems to trust what she’s saying. 

As the chilling narrative unfolds, the reader must decide whether Georgia’s descent into madness is causing her to see things that don’t exist–or to see a deadly truth that no one else can.

And now, Yvonne's song picks!

1. Somewhere Down The Road- Feist

A sad, pretty song for Georgia and how I imagine she yearns for her dead brother, Lucky.


2. Poison Oak- Bright Eyes. 

I love these lyrics. I think that Oberst wrote this song to go with my story. That isn’t true, of course, but the song reminds me of my character, Georgia, and her brother, Lucky. Georgia has always been in awe of Lucky’s ease in his life. He brought the world home to False Bay with him when he returned from his adventures and he made it seem small and friendly. After he’s gone, Georgia doesn’t know how to look at the world anymore.

“I fell asleep with you still talking to me and you said you weren’t afraid to die”

3. Dearly Departed- Shakey Graves 

If You’re Lucky is part ghost story and this song seemed appropriate. I adore Shakey Graves.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkDycke-u6M



4. Wild is the Wind- Cat Powers

This is a beautiful cover of a David Bowie hit. I played it a lot while I wrote about Georgia losing touch with what’s real.



5. Sailor Song- The Felice Brothers

The Felice Brothers are self-proclaimed slouching Hudson River Pirates. I think this song speaks to Georgia’s slide downward. Her delusions start to define her life as she slips away from reality. I love the sea shanty feel of this tune.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFFI_VZT6to


6. Shangri-la-Mark Knopfler

Lots of surf culture in this story. Lucky thrived in that life. He worked here and there and then followed the waves around the world. I’ve always loved the way this song speaks to that Gypsy life that Lucky embraced.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsO-O8SG7yc


7. Oh, Lonesome Me- M. Ward featuring Lucinda Williams 

The coastline where I set the book in Northern California is one I’m very familiar with and this track is just how I feel when I drive that lonesome highway along the edge of the western world, overlooking the Pacific. There are lots of versions of this Neil Young song but nothing quite touches the soulfulness of this one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MRysO58leA


8. The Riptide-Beirut

Georgia fears the water though it’s all around her while she’s awake and in her dreams. Beirut is a big favorite of mine. I love their rich multi-instrumental arrangements. I like this video too. It’s reminiscent of the scene where Georgia’s family scatters Lucky’s ashes into the ocean.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sX7fd8uQle


9. Minor Swing- Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grapelli

Sonia (Lucky’s girlfriend) and Georgia take a drive down to a small bar in Bodega (near where Tom Waits now lives, incidentally) to see a Gypsy Swing band. They’re surprised when Fin gets onstage to sit in with the band. He’s obviously an accomplished guitar player and neither of them knew anything about this. I loved building a character with a flourish like this, another dollop of intrigue, another layer to explore.


10. In My Sleep- Austin Hartley and Kendall Jane Meade

This one’s a weeper. I see Georgia is hanging on to her dead brother too tight and she sees him in her dreams, always in the water, always reaching for her.

11. Jayne’s Blue Wish- Tom Waits- A nice poetic note to end on. A touch of hope for Georgia.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-hYKy62DZM

 Thanks, Yvonne - all these songs are new to me. How fun!

Find out more about IF YOU'RE LUCKY at Yvonne's website and look for it in stores starting October 20th!