Katie L. Carroll

Books for kids, teens, & those who are young at heart

Tag: YA dystopia

PODs by Michelle Pickett Playlist

September 26, 2013 /

Michelle Pickett, author of  the YA dystopian PODs, and I are doing a blog swap today and talking our writing playlists. Check out my Elixir Bound playlist over on her blog. Welcome, Michelle!

PODs_cover7HighRES (1)First, thank you for hosting me today and allowing me to share a little about my creative process through music. I have a fairly long playlist for PODs. I’ve listed the songs for you, but I’ve picked a few of my favorite songs/scenes and included some explanation of how the song fit in the scene or the character’s feelings at that time in the story. I hope if you’ve read the book it gives you a little better insight into the workings of the mind of the character, and if you haven’t read the book it’ll make you curious enough to want to. 🙂

PODs Playlist

Theme Song: If Today Was You Last Day, Nickelback

David and Eva’s Song: End of The World, Blake Lewis

  • Burn it Down, Linkin Park
  • Can’t Let You Go, Adam Lambert (David: Chapters 18 & 19)
  • Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You, Muse
  • Catalyst, Linkin Park (Chapter 25)
  • Crawl Through the Fire, Adam Lambert (Chapter 26)
  • Daylight, Maroon5 (Chapters 3 and 14)
  • Dream a Little Dream of Me, Mama Cass (Chapters 17 and 18)
  • First Light, Adam Lambert
  • Get Here, Justin Guarini
  • Here with Me, Dido
  • If I Ain’t Got You, Alicia Keys
  • I Miss You (slipped away), Avril Lavigne (Chapter 4)
  • I’m Only Me When I’m with You, Taylor Swift
  • Kick In The Teeth, Papa Roach (Eva: Chapter 23)
  • Kiss Me, Sixpence None The Richer
  • No Matter What, Papa Roach (David: Chapter 24)
  • Savin’ Me, Nickleback (Eva: Chapter 22)
  • Tangled Up in You, Staind (Chapter 13)
  • The Kids From Yesterday, My Chemical Romance (Chapter 5)
  • The Only Hope for Me is You, My Chemical Romance (Chapter 19)
  • The Truth, David Cook (Chapter 19)
  • This Means War, Nickelback (Eva: Chapter 26)
  • To Make You Feel My Love, Kris Allen (Eva: Chapter 9)
  • Twilight Time, The Platters (Chapters 17 and 18)
  • Until I Find You Again, Richard Marx
  • Want, Adam Lambert
  • When You’re Gone, Avril Lavigne

Music inspires many people. I find that sometimes a certain song has lyrics that describe a scene, or maybe the song evokes a certain feeling that I find moves me as I write. Some songs in the PODs playlist have chapters listed next to them and some don’t. Some fit so well with a scene that every time I hear the song I immediately think of that scene in the book (even now when I hear the song I still think of the book!). Some songs just give me a general feeling of the book or chapter as a whole, or the relationship between David and Eva.

I think the theme song of the book and David and Eva’s song are pretty self-explanatory. So I’ll skip them and share a few of my favorite songs and the scenes they coincide with.

(If you haven’t read the book the following contains mild spoilers).

The first song that really resonates with me is Avril Lavigne’s “Slipped Away” or “I Miss You” (I’ve seen it referred to by both names). I listened to it over and over while I wrote the scenes, especially the flashback scene, when Eva is saying goodbye to her parents. There is also a scene in quarantine when she is lying in bed thinking of them and parts of her life with them—I listened to the song while writing that, too. I have to admit, I cried writing those scenes. I’ve had some readers write to me and say they cried while reading it, which makes me feel like I’ve done my job.

One of my favorite scenes in the book between David and Eva is the picnic scene. I won’t go into too much detail about what happens in case there are people reading this who haven’t read the book yet, but it was a scene I included to show what a sweet, good guy David is and how much he genuinely loved spending time with Eva. The song that goes along with that song is Staind’s “Tangled Up in You.” The song could easily have been their theme song.

A song that I thought conveyed how the fights between the survivors and the Infected might feel is Adam Lambert’s “Crawl Through the Fire.” I listed it as a song for chapter 26, but, actually, it could be applied to any fight scene. The same goes for “Catalyst” by Linkin Park.

Okay, there’s one thing that I keep hearing from readers: “David became so sexist after the PODs.” Okay, well, I can see how one might think so, but the song you need to listen to in order to understand a little about what was going through his head is Papa Roach’s “No Matter What.” Eva had just left the safety of the village to be with him. He felt responsible for putting her in danger, and, therefore, became a little (a lot) obsessive about keeping her safe.  “No matter what, I got your back; I’ll take a bullet for you if it comes to that; I swear to God that in the bitter end; we’re gonna be the last ones standing”(Papa Roach, No Matter What). David felt those lyrics and would have died to keep Eva safe—without question.

The Second thing I hear from readers is that they are glad Eva didn’t put up with David’s sexist crap. Score one for Eva.  And “This Means War” by Nickelback is her song and it shows in Chapter 26 when she screams to the other woman to fight with her and stop cowering behind the men. She started to feel empowered and realized she could take some control of her life back. And even though it freaked David out (because it scared him, not because he’s sexist), she started to bulldoze her way through the Infected.

Lastly, a song that really speaks to how a character was feeling during a time in the book is “Can’t Let You Go” by Adam Lambert. This song belongs to David during chapters 18 and 19. I’ve caught a lot of flak from readers about his “dumping” Eva and then watching her every night when she’d go to the meadow looking for him.  What they’ve seemed to miss was WHY he went to the meadow. And WHY he dumped her. Does someone just break-up with someone and then for kicks tread through zombie filled forests to go sit and watch the person he broke up with? Not unless he has a good reason. And what was David’s reason? Well, listen to the song. I think it explains his pain. He wanted Eva to move on…have a normal life. And he knew he couldn’t give that to her. But, he couldn’t quite let go.

If you’ve read the book you know what happened after the break-up in the meadow…what stunt Eva pulled in chapter 22 (Savin’ Me by Nickelback goes with this scene). Which was exactly what David was afraid she’d do, and that brings everything back to David’s sexist, over protective behavior mentioned above.

Thank you so much for having me today. I appreciate you opening your blog to me. I’ve really enjoyed sharing how music helped shape the characters and story of PODs.

~Michelle

Buy Links for PODs:

Amazon ׀ Barnes&Noble ׀ Books-A-Million  The Book Depository ׀

Buy Links for Milayna:

Amazon ׀ Barnes&Noble ׀ The Book Depository

Buy Links for The Concilium Series

Amazon ׀ Barnes&Noble ׀ MuseItUp

My work includes:

Young adult books in paperback and ebook format:

The Amazon Bestselling young adult novel “PODs”

Milayna, March 2014

Milayna’s Angel (Milayna #2), September 2014

The Infected, a PODs novel, November 2014

The Innocent (Milayna #3), April 2015.

Adult Urban Fantasy in ebook format

Concilium, available now

Concilium: The Departure, available now

I always love to hear from readers, bloggers and other authors!

Find me here:

Website:          www.Michelle-Pickett.com

Email:              Michelle@Michelle-Pickett.com

Blog:               www.Michelle-Pickett.com/blog

Facebook:        www.Facebook.com/michellepickettauthor

Twitter:           http://www.twitter.com/michelle_kp

Goodreads:     http://goodreads.com/michelle-pickett

Snapshot_20130721_16About the Author:

I’m a wife, mother, reader and writer, although not always in that order. Between helping my twin eight year-old daughters with their second grade homework and my twelve year-old son with his sixth grade homework (which I’ve recently learned I am NOT smarter than a fifth (or sixth) grader, thank you very much Jeff Foxworthy), and being a football mom (GO BULLDOGS!) I write young adult urban fantasies, science/fiction and paranormal romances and have recently started dabbling in young adult and new adult contemporary romance.

I was born and raised in Flint, Michigan. I’m now live in a sleepy suburb of Houston, Texas with my extremely supportive, not to mention gorgeous husband, three school-aged kids, a 125 pound labradoodle that thinks he’s a lap dog, and a very persnickety cat.

Welcome RATGIRL: Song of the Viper by Gayle C. Krause

February 27, 2013 /

Today I’d like you to welcome Gayle C. Krause as she talks about the gorgeous-in-a-gritty-way cover of her debut YA novel RATGIRL: Song of the Viper.

RatGirlFinalMedYOU CAN JUDGE A BOOK BY ITS COVER

Katie, thank for having me as a guest blogger on the Observation Desk.  I’m thrilled to see my debut YA novel in print and e-book.  You’ve asked me to talk about the awesome cover art Fiona Jayde created for RATGIRL: Song of the Viper. I don’t know how she captured the essence of the story without reading the whole novel, but she did an excellent job of catching the dark, gritty atmosphere found within the pages of the book.

Let me start with Jax Stone. She’s prominent on the cover, as she should be. Fiona has captured confidence in her amber eyes; the confidence to save her best friend from a fire, to outsmart the diabolical mayor, and to lure the city rats to their death in order to save her little brother, even if it means endangering her own life.

No one messes with Jax Stone once she has her mind set on something. Intelligent, strong-willed and gifted with a hypnotic singing voice, she’s so busy taking care of her makeshift orphan family, it’s not until she meets Colt Conrad, that she discovers she can love someone other than her little brother.

Colt Conrad stands behind her, on the cover and in the story. Global warming has devastated the Earth, and the golden sun Colt wears around his neck is one of the four keys the ECOS, an environmental group, set up generations before to ensure the Earth’s survival. Together, Jax and Colt must find the other three.

The homeless fight to survive, in a dying city, where rats outnumber the citizens, and the deadly daytime sun forces them to live underground. Night is the only time they dare venture to the surface to seek food, or to barter their services. The darkness of the cover portrays the dangerous night and the characters’ treacherous lives perfectly.

The gray and white rat that dots the i in RATGIRL represents the rats in Metro City.

The buildings in the background, against the full moon, the main source of light for the homeless, are the tyrannical mayor’s headquarters. He directs the city’s entire power source to himself, and his corporation. He has no regard for human life, and Jax must outwit him to save her brother.

And lastly, the font Fiona chose is vaguely reminiscent of rattails. 🙂

photoHope our discussion of the stimulating cover for RATGIRL: Song of the Viper inspires your audience to read Jax’s story. It’s available through Noble Romance Publishing, Amazon, and other retail outlets as an e-book and will be out in paperback soon.

Thank you again.

Gayle C. Krause

http://www.gayleckrause.com/HOME.html

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