Drink, Slay, Love Playlists

It is a truth universally acknowledged that vampires love music.

Okay, my vampires love music. When Pearl (my vampire "heroine") hops into a stolen car at the start of Drink, Slay, Love, the first thing she does is switch the radio to "Bohemian Rhapsody."

"I can drive," Jadrien offered.

"I’m sixteen," Pearl said. "By human laws, I’m allowed." She flashed him a grin as he climbed into the passenger seat. It occurred to her that she’d never driven with Jadrien in the car. He was in for a treat. She stuck the key into the ignition and turned the car on.

The radio blared to life, country music.

Pearl winced and flipped the station. She stopped on "Bohemian Rhapsody." Smiling, she cranked up the volume. Shifting into drive, she said, "Seat belts."

"I’m immortal," he said. "Why do I need a seat belt?"

Pearl floored the gas, and they whipped through the parking lot. Jadrien grabbed the door and the dashboard to brace himself.

"Cute," Jadrien said.

"Always," she said.

"Do you know how to drive?" he asked.

"Sure," she said. "This one is the gas."

A bunch of people have asked me about the music in Drink, Slay, Love. So in case you're interested, here's the full list of music in the novel, in the order in which it is heard:

"Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen
"Don't You Forget About Me" by Simple Minds
"Bloodline" by Slayer
"Paint It Black" by the Rolling Stones
"Greensleeves" (traditional)
"People Are Strange" by the Doors
"Celebrate" by Kool and the Gang
"Blood Roses" by Tori Amos
"Bela Lugosi's Dead" by Bauhaus

You can listen to the songs here.

I listened to a longer playlist while I wrote Drink, Slay, Love. (My normal iTunes library just didn't cut it. For instance, "Puff the Magic Dragon" by Peter, Paul, and Mary... not exactly the right mood. So I created a playlist just for working on this novel.) In addition to the songs above, here is my writing playlist, in no particular order since I listened to them on shuffle:

"They" by Jem
"Ramalama (Bang Bang)" by Roisin Murphy
"Walkin' on the Sun" by Smash Mouth
"A Little Less Conversation" by King Junior
"Rockstar" by Nickelback
"Fable (Rave Mix)" by Robert Miles
"Stray Cat Strut" by Stray Cats
"Don't Let Me Get Me" by Pink
"Terra Firma" by Delerium
"Walkaway Joe" by Trisha Yearwood
"Footloose" by Kenny Loggins
"Sweet Sangria" by Tori Amos
"Mesmerizing" by Liz Phair
"Black Horse and the Cherry Tree" by KT Tunstall
"All or Nothing" by Athena Cage
"Calling All Angels" by Train
"Pretty Little Thing" by Fink
"Combat Baby" by Metric
"Somebody to Love" by Queen
"Can't Fight the Moonlight" by Leann Rimes
"Mambo No. 5" by Lou Bega
"Blood Roses" by Tori Amos
"Mad World" by Adam Lambert
"Not Ready to Make Nice" by Dixie Chicks
"Who Will Save Your Soul" by Jewel

You can listen to these songs here. (Note: the rave version of "Fable" wasn't available on Playlist.com so I included the original version. Ditto with "A Little Less Conversation.")

Enjoy!

Writing and Music

I love to listen to music when I write.

I used to be strictly an instrumental writing-music kind of girl: Debussy's Reverie, Ray Lynch's Celestial Soda Pop, Ravel's Bolero. Sometimes I listened to more fantasy-mood type music: Enya, Loreena McKennitt, Neverending Story soundtrack, or the scores from various Cirque du Soleil shows. While I wrote Ice, I listened to "Arctic Echoes" by Dan Gibson. It includes walrus noises. I'm betting there aren't many songs out there that include walrus grunts.

Drink, Slay, Love was the first novel that I wrote with an actual playlist, which I'll share closer to the book's release.

Lately, I am loving starting my writing sessions with "you can do it!" anthems, like Katy Perry's Firework, Athena Cage's All or Nothing, or Eminem's Lose Yourself. But my current favorite is:



I am mildly embarrassed to adore a song by a man who inserts punctuation into his name.

Do you work to music? If so, what kind?