Tune in Tuesday – Revival Playlist

Tune in Tuesday is a weekly music feature that was originally hosted by the fabulous Ginger at GReads. However, for the time being, Katelyn of Kate's Tales of Books and Bands will be hosting. It's probably obvious by now that I love music almost as much as I love books! When I found out about Tune in Tuesday, I couldn't resist getting in on the action! Be sure to check back every week for new music and if you'd like to join us, just drop by Katelyn's blog and link up your post!


 
Happy Tuesday!

Today I decided to post a (partial) playlist of the music I listened to while writing Revival. These were the tunes I cranked in my headphones in order to tune out this world and lose myself in theirs... The songs I played when I needed lyrical inspiration, character insights or just a catchy beat that matched the mood of the scene I was writing.

Two things about the list...

First up, it's only a partial playlist. There's a lot more where this came from. The songs I picked for the list were (for the most part) the ones that occasionally wound up on repeat while I wrote.

Second, not all of the lyrics will fit the book. So if you're listening to, say, The Decemberists song Down by the Water and wondering what the heck that has to do with the story... Well, you're right. The lyrics have nothing to do with anything. That song was special to me just because the tone (for whatever reason) made me think of Declan.

Same with the Jay-Z and Kanye song No Church in the Wild and Burn it Down by AWOLNATION. I blasted those songs, on repeat, while writing the end of the parking garage scene and the ensuing car chase—all because the driving beat of both songs perfectly matched the scenes I was writing.

With that out of the way, I present the (partial) Revival playlist! Hope you enjoy these songs as much as I do!

An Update on Revival

A proper post about writing!

I know what you're thinking.

You're saying to yourself, "But... But I thought she only ever posted about music?"

And, okay.

Yes.

I'm guilty of avoiding proper posts in favor of music memes. But, to be fair, I did warn you at the outset that I've an unhealthy attachment to music. Music and the written word are the glue that holds my crazy life together!

But seeing as how this is—technically—an author blog, and since I am in the process of writing Revival's sequel... Well, it might be good if I at least mentioned what's been happening lately on the writing front.

And that is... A whole lot of nuthin'.

Y'see, what nobody tells you about this self-publishing gig is that (if you want to succeed) you have to spend every waking moment focused on promoting your work.

Oh, they warned me that it was a hard road... And I was prepared for that!

What I wasn't prepared for was the endless hours of correspondence, author interviews, guest posts, research, participation in different Goodreads communities, endless preparation for Revival's wide release on February 14th, and all the time spent monitoring my sales and Amazon ranking.

I think I've forgotten how to take a day off.

But I'll tell you a secret—I'm loving every glorious minute of it.

The muse, however... She's not exactly a fan of my new full-time job.

Finding words for Revival's sequel is like pulling teeth. My muse's teeth. And she's armed and putting up one heck of a fight.

I still have every intention of having the second book ready by late spring of this year, but to make it happen, I'll be going offline for a week in February. From February 6th through the 13th I will be incommunicado.

I've missed writing creatively and I can't wait to get back to it! (I do write creatively on a semi-regular basis, but it's only a few hundred words here and there as I find the time—what I really miss is the day-long writing sprees that fly by with me curled up in my writing chair and end with thousands of new words on the page!)

As for an update on Revival's reception thus far... It's been wonderful! The novel has been in the top 5,000 on Amazon for a few weeks now and is rated at 4.8 out of 5 stars after ten reviews. I still can't believe it. The sales (and the amazing reviews) could drop off tomorrow, but these first couple of months have been absolutely phenomenal. I feel truly blessed to have had such a wonderful introduction to the world of self-publishing! It's been a dream come true!

That said... my work is far from over.

Starting on Valentine's Day of this year (2013) Revival will be made available on a host of other platforms! (Barnes and Noble, the iTunes store, etc.)

I'll be talking more about this closer to the launch day, but mark your calenders! Starting February 14th, you'll be able to read Revival on your Nook and your Sony eReader!

Until then, Revival will still be available as an eBook and in paperback through Amazon.com. If you'd like to pick up your own copy of the book, just click the image below! The eBook version is only $2.99! :)

And if you're looking to purchase the book from elsewhere in the world, Revival can also be found on the Amazon sites in other countries. It's currently listed at £1.94 on Amazon UK!

Hope you're all enjoying the new year so far! :)

Of Returns, Tune in Tuesdays, and Nothing in Particular

It's Tuesday! Yay, Tuesday!

I'm finally home from my holiday travels... Virginia and North Carolina were beautiful as always and I had an amazing time with family and friends! How about all of you? Did you enjoy your holidays?

It's wonderful to be back in Florida where it's 70 degrees and sunny and... and... What on Earth is that incessant humming noise? *looks around in confusion*

Oh, right.

I forgot.

It's Florida where it's 70 degrees and sunny—and it stays warm enough (and wet enough) that grass grows year-round. *peels back a curtain and glares out the window*

The mowers have arrived.

*sigh*

These mowers are very efficient.

Of the six of them, each one has a different job to preform. One uses the BIG lawn mower, one uses the tiny lawn mower, one trims the hedges and one runs the edger. The last two guys seem to have no purpose other than to stand around smoking and cheering the other four on. (I want their job. I'd just need to replace the cigarettes with coffee.)

With the exception of the two cheerleaders, the whole team is in constant motion. The only real problem, here, is that none of the four men seem to be aware of what the others are doing.

The edger will come by my window and, y'know, edge something... Only to have the dude on the big mower drive by five minutes later and cut the grass. When the edger comes by the next time, he realizes something is different and edges again. As soon as he leaves, the tiny mower shows up and re-mows what the big mower has just mowed.

They go on in this fashion for at least three hours.

Also, I think they're using the strip of grass behind my apartment this afternoon to race the big and little mowers. It's the only explanation for why they keep flying by my window at Mach 8.

If the cheerleaders are taking bets, I totally need to get in on that action.

This all adds up to a very noisy afternoon for yours truly and a strange, rambling blog post about fresh-cut greenery and lawnmower races.

But all is not lost! As I said earlier—It's Tuesday! And you know what that means....

It's time for Tune in Tuesday!!! Yay!

 Tune in Tuesday is a weekly music feature that was originally hosted by the fabulous Ginger at GReads. However, for the time being, Katelyn of Kate's Tales of Books and Bands will be hosting. It's probably obvious by now that I love music almost as much as I love books! When I found out about Tune in Tuesday, I couldn't resist getting in on the action! Be sure to check back every week for new music and if you'd like to join us, just drop by Katelyn's blog and link up your post!


Only two videos this week... The first is a song that's been stuck in my head for days and is probably responsible for some of the hearing loss I experienced during my drive home from the mountains. (And I don't regret it in the slightest.) It's Churchill with their song Change. (The song starts around 0:38, in case you want to skip to it.)

And up next is a song that YA author Jackson Pearce recommended one day on Twitter and has been in my driving playlist ever since. It's the song Heart Attack by Low vs Diamond. Love it!

Hope you all have a wonderful week!

I'll be back with more Variant Series–related news in a few days, so be sure to check back!

Happy New Year!