Tunes for Tuesday #4





Tunes for Tuesday is a feature which gives us the chance to listen to the songs which influenced authors while writing their books.
As we know, each author is different so this feature has no set rules and it's up to an author how they wish their playlist to be featured.

I'm R.J. Anderson, an author of speculative fiction for older children and teens.

This [playlist] is dedicated to links relating to my forthcoming YA paranormal thriller Ultraviolet, which will be published in the UK by Orchard Books and in the US by Carolrhoda Lab in 2011.

Here’s a sampler of the songs I listened to while writing Ultraviolet, arranged roughly in order of their place in the book’s narrative:

[As usual click song title to listen]

“Ambulance” by Eisley - “I need an ambulance / I took the worst of the blow…” 

“Serotonin” by Nine Horses - “My mind’s hallucinating lucidity / It’s over sensitized / And something’s moving on the periphery…”

“Measuring Cups” by Andrew Bird - “Come to the front of the class / And we’ll measure your brain / We’ll give you a complex and we’ll / give it a name…”

“Another Little Hole” by Aqualung - “No need to tell her / she knows that there’s another little hole in her heart / ‘Cause she feels it happen…”

“Basic Space” by The xx - “I’ve suffered shipwrecks / right from the start…”

“Every Colour You Are” by Rain Tree Crow - “Feel like crying / the joke’s gone too far / you can be anything you want / every colour you are…”

“Fingers of Love” by Crowded House - “Colour is its own reward / the chiming of a perfect chord…”

“X and Y” by Coldplay - “I dive in at the deep end / you’ve become my best friend / I want to love you but I don’t know if I can…”

“Faster than Light” by Neil Finn - “And praise will come to those whose kindness  leaves you without debt / and bends the shape of things that haven’t happened yet…”

“Four Walls” by Charlotte Martin - “Grow accustomed to the darkness / and see what you’re supposed to see…”

“The Big Music” by the Waterboys - “I have heard the big music / and I’ll never be the same…”

“How the Day Sounds” by Greg Laswell - “Thank you for opening the window / The sky is clear as my mind is now / I was a long, long way off / Join me in welcoming the sun in…”


Unfortunately I was unable to include some of the songs that most inspired me at the beginning stages of the novel, most notably Peter Himmelman’s “Synesthesia” and “Name” and Cock Robin’s “I Don’t Want To Save The World” (though the latter can be found via Deezer here).
The songs in the playlist have a lyrical as well as a musical connection to the book, but for simple mood-setting I also listened to a lot of ambient music by Talk Talk/Mark Hollis, David Sylvian, and Kevin McCormick.

Midnight Reads would like to say a massive thank you to R J Anderson for allowing her playlist to be featured this week. We were all ready looking forward to reading the book but this has made us want to read all the more.

Find out more about Ultraviolet here where you can also view the book trailer.

In My Mailbox #12





In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted every Sunday over at The Story Siren. A great meme which allows bloggers to share what they receive/buy/borrow each week.








For Review




Solid
Shelley Workinger
July 2010
Series: Solid#1


Teens who discover they were secretly genetically altered before birth are brought together at a classified site where they forge new friendships, find love, develop "super-abilities," and even unearth a conspiracy.







Prelude to a Hero

Jamie Buckley

May 2011

Wendell is a young man who learns what his potential is while on a strange, enchanted world with a funny old wizard and ugly troll to mentor and guide him. Prelude to a Hero, the debut book about how Wendell came to be the one expected to save an entire world. . . by accident.

Bought





Ultraviolet
R.J. Anderson
May/June 2011

Once upon a time there was a girl who was special. This is not her story. Unless you count the part where I killed her. Sixteen-year-old Alison has been sectioned in a mental institute for teens, having murdered the most perfect and popular girl at school. But the case is a mystery: no body has been found, and Alison's condition is proving difficult to diagnose. Alison herself can't explain what happened: one minute she was fighting with Tori - the next she disintegrated. Into nothing. But that's impossible. Right?





Ininite Days
Rebecca Maizel
August 2010

When Lenah Beaudonte, a 500-year-old vampire queen, wakes up a human teenager at an ultra-cliquey prep school, she must choose between embracing the humanity she’s always craved and saving her new friends from her vicious coven. The first in a sizzling new YA series.

Lenah Beaudonte is, in many ways, your average teen: the new girl at Wickham Boarding School, she struggles to fit in enough to survive and stand out enough to catch the eye of the golden-boy lacrosse captain. But Lenah also just happens to be a recovering five-hundred-year-old vampire queen. After centuries of terrorizing Europe, Lenah is able to realize the dream all vampires have -- to be human again. After performing a dangerous ritual to restore her humanity, Lenah entered a century-long hibernation, leaving behind the wicked coven she ruled over and the eternal love who has helped grant her deep-seated wish.

Until, that is, Lenah draws her first natural breath in centuries at Wickham and rediscovers a human life that bears little resemblance to the one she had known. As if suddenly becoming a teenager weren’t stressful enough, each passing hour brings Lenah closer to the moment when her abandoned coven will open the crypt where she should be sleeping and find her gone. As her borrowed days slip by, Lenah resolves to live her newfound life as fully as she can. But, to do so, she must answer ominous questions: Can an ex-vampire survive in an alien time and place? What can Lenah do to protect her new friends from the bloodthirsty menace about to descend upon them? And how is she ever going to pass her biology midterm?


Gift

 

Tom's first book is due out next week, I hope you are ready to buy!!??!! It's the funniest book I have read this year! Although I have the book, Tom was kind enough to send me this signed copy. I had no idea untill in arrived in the post this week, was so excited!! Massive thank you Tom!!

So that's what I got In My Mailbox this week, what did you get?

Happy Reading :)

On My Wishlist #3

On My Wishlist is a fun weekly event hosted by Book Chick City and runs every Saturday. It is a list of the books I want but don't yet have. The books can be old, new or forthcoming.





The Faerie Ring

Kiki Hamilton

September 2011

   

Debut novelist Kiki Hamilton takes readers from the gritty slums and glittering ballrooms of Victorian London to the beguiling but menacing Otherworld of the Fey in this spellbinding tale of romance, suspense, and danger. 
The year is 1871, and Tiki has been making a home for herself and her family of orphans in a deserted hideaway adjoining Charing Cross Station in central London. Their only means of survival is by picking pockets. One December night, Tiki steals a ring, and sets off a chain of events that could lead to all-out war with the Fey. For the ring belongs to Queen Victoria, and it binds the rulers of England and the realm of Faerie to peace. With the ring missing, a rebel group of faeries hopes to break the treaty with dark magic and blood—Tiki’s blood.
Unbeknownst to Tiki, she is being watched—and protected—by Rieker, a fellow thief who suspects she is involved in the disappearance of the ring. Rieker has secrets of his own, and Tiki is not all that she appears to be. Her very existence haunts Prince Leopold, the Queen’s son, who is driven to know more about the mysterious mark that encircles her wrist.
Prince, pauper, and thief—all must work together to secure the treaty...





Wildefire
Karsten Knight
July 2011

Every flame begins with a spark.

Ashline Wilde is having a rough sophomore year. She’s struggling to find her place as the only Polynesian girl in school, her boyfriend just cheated on her, and now her runaway sister, Eve, has decided to barge back into her life. When Eve’s violent behavior escalates and she does the unthinkable, Ash transfers to a remote private school nestled in California’s redwoods, hoping to put the tragedy behind her. But her fresh start at Blackwood Academy doesn’t go as planned. Just as Ash is beginning to enjoy the perks of her new school—being captain of the tennis team, a steamy romance with a hot, local park ranger—Ash discovers that a group of gods and goddesses have mysteriously enrolled at Blackwood…and she’s one of them. To make matters worse, Eve has resurfaced to haunt Ash, and she’s got some strange abilities of her own. With a war between the gods looming over campus, Ash must master the new fire smoldering within before she clashes with her sister one more time… And when warm and cold fronts collide, there’s guaranteed to be a storm.


Book synopsis taken fro goodreads