Sneak Peek at the Original Sin Playlist

I've posted more than once about how important music is to my Muse. I hear people describe writer's block in all different ways, but speaking for myself, the only time I struggle with a scene is if my Muse is missing musical inspiration. Music is so important that I feel compelled to include the artists of the two or three most influential songs in the acknowledgements at the back of each book.

Initially, I took a bit of an unconventional approach and wrote a good chunk of my playlist right into Personal Demons. There were 17 songs embedded into the text. My agent and editor helped me see the error in my ways, however, and that got pared down to maybe eight songs in the finished book. The thing is, I fall so in love with my playlist, that I can’t stand not sharing it—because I want you to love the songs and the story as much as me. In Personal Demons, Nickelback, Savin’ Me was the inspiration for Luc. The themes in that song drove all his decisions and everything that happens to him from page one. For Frannie, whose overriding theme was her struggle with her belief, or lack thereof, in God and love, the song was The Fray, You Found Me. For Gabe, who struggles with his role of protector the inspiration was Ryan Star’s Breathe. You can click the characters names for their individual stories and to hear the songs, or you can hear the entire Personal Demons playlist here.

I just built my Original Sin playlist over on Playlist.com so I can eventually share it with all of you. After listening to it for months during the writing and revising of Original Sin, I’d long since moved on to my The Novel Formerly Known as Hellbent playlist. I’d forgotten how totally off-the-scale amazing the Original Sin playlist was until I just listened to it again. In my first draft of Original Sin there were 18 songs embedded in the text (most of which have been edited out). This book has a lot of dark themes (even more so than Personal Demons) and some pretty terrible stuff happens.

 Because I’m obsessing over this playlist and can’t wait to share it, and also because ARCs are starting to go out and theses songs are in the acknowledgements, here are the main songs from Original Sin.

From Luc’s perspective, the song that shapes the story is Three Days Grace, World So Cold. The feel of the song is perfect and every single lyric is spot on.

From Frannie’s perspective it’s The Fray, How to Save a Life. (She’s a Fray girl, what can I say.) And that’s all I can say without spoiling… (I'm so far gone I just started crying watching this O_O)

Gabe is probably the most conflicted character throughout the series. For Original Sin, the song that embodies this is Anthem of the Angels by Breaking Benjamin.

As always, if you love these songs, please visit your chosen mode of music purchase and buy them.

These songs carry over through the entire novel then, within individual scenes, more specific songs apply, and they’re written in where that could be done seamlessly. Full playlist to come...