Monthly Archives: January 2013

Here is the final IF I SHOULD DIE playlist!!!

How I chose: I listened to your whole list of suggestions (only 1st on list) and picked out a couple I liked. Then you voted on your top 5, and I took that vote into account (but still took a couple off that I didn’t love). And then I added the last two songs because I listened to them a lot while I was writing the book.

As you’ll see, I’m little by little adding scenes that go well with the songs.

Coldplay – The Scientist
Evanescence – Bring Me To Life
Sleeping At Last – Turning Page
Coldplay – Fix You
Avril Lavigne – When You’re Gone
Jason Mraz – I Won’t Give Up
Avril Lavigne – Keep Holding On
In The Mourning by Paramore
State of Grace by Taylor Swift
My Darkest Days – Still Worth Fighting For (fight scene in the Passage du Cerf)
Florence + the Machine – Seven Devils (for the walk into the Arenes de Lutece)
Ashes Remain – Everything Good (the walk in Brooklyn)
The Wanted – I found you
Parachute – forever and always
Gorecki – Lamb
Sufjan Stevens – The Dress Looks Nice on You (Jules’s song for Kate)
The XX – Angels

You can listen to most of them on this Spotify list.
Now I have to decide which song best represents the book as the THEME SONG in order to choose the winner of the ARC!

I could have had a love like that with Vincent. I had felt it. There had been something right about us: It was bigger than just two people in love. When we were together, it had been like one of nature’s true and rare beauties; like an impossible beam of sunlight piercing through black clouds, bathing the patch of earth before you in gold. Together, Vincent and I had created something beautiful.
(from page 63).

For the other teasers, go here!

Just a little taste of wintertime Paris for you!

Okay, people…I can’t do it. I can not listen to 154 songs and choose a dozen, 1. because I am doing edits on DIE FOR HER that are supposed to be done today, and 2. on Friday I’m giving a writing workshop for teenagers at the American Library and need to prepare, and 3. I tried and my eardrums exploded. Not literally, thankfully. But…I NEED YOUR HELP.

So this is the deal. Go see the songs in the links, give them a listen if you don’t know them, and then give me your TOP FIVE SUGGESTIONS in the comments below. For your time and effort, I will randomly choose someone in the comments to win a hardback copy of UNTIL I DIE. And then, as I said, whoever suggested the song that becomes the theme song will win an ARC of IF I SHOULD DIE. (I will choose that out of the final list of songs.)

Go here to see the entire suggestion list
If you do not have access to Spotify, here is the list.

This will count as next week’s CONTEST MONDAY, and I will close the voting at noon Paris time on Tuesday, January 29.

Note: I had to remove a few of the songs, including A Thousand Years, since they are already on the UNTIL I DIE playlist.

And just because I hate a blog post with no picture, here is a photo that I took in THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE, Oregon (or was it Idaho?) a few weeks ago.

Me and Mater

And now, people, put your headphones on and…GO!!!

I have something exciting to give away this week. Remember when I told you that my friend Anna Collomore got a starred Kirkus review and we were falling all over ourselves with amazement and respect?

Well that book is coming out in just a couple of weeks (Feb. 7) and Anna very generously offered my readership the chance to win an ARC (advance reader copy). This one is going to be U.S. only since that’s where Anna’s stock of books is being kept (while she is being kept in Paris just across town from me!).

So check the cover:

Isn’t it awesomely creepy? And here’s the description:

Annie Phillips is thrilled to leave her past behind and begin a shiny new life on Belvedere Island, as a nanny for the picture-perfect Cohen family. In no time at all, she falls in love with the Cohens, especially with Libby, the beautiful young matriarch of the family. Life is better than she ever imagined. She even finds romance with the boy next door.

All too soon cracks appear in Annie’s seemingly perfect world. She’s blamed for mistakes she doesn’t remember making. Her bedroom door comes unhinged, and she feels like she’s always being watched. Libby, who once felt like a big sister, is suddenly cold and unforgiving. As she struggles to keep up with the demands of her new life, Annie’s fear gives way to frightening hallucinations. Is she tumbling into madness, or is something sinister at play?

The Ruining is a complex ride through first love, chilling manipulation, and the terrifying depths of insanity.

I can’t wait to read it!!

So: to win the ARC of THE RUINING by Anna Collomore, all you have to do is show her some love.

Follow her on Twitter: @annacollomore

Friend her on FB: https://www.facebook.com/anna.collomore

Follow her on Tumbler: http://annacollomore.com/

Tell me in the comments below how many of those you did, and you’ll have your name put in the hat up to 3 times for a random drawing. Again, this is U.S. only. (But you foreigners could always have the book sent to one of your American friends!)

24 hours, and….GO!

Got a note from Mexico saying they can’t get Spotify. For those of you who aren’t able to access the list of songs suggested for the IF I SHOULD DIE playlist, here it is:

Christina Perri – A Thousand Years
Skillet – Comatose
Florence + The Machine – Seven Devils
Graham Colton – Best Days
Papa Roach – Forever
Coldplay – The Scientist
Ashes Remain – Everything Good
Morgan Page – Addicted feat. Greg Laswell
Ohasis – Wonderwall
Lamb – Gorecki
Radiohead – No Surprises
Von Benzo – Sad dead me
Christina Perri – A Thousand Years – feat. Steve Kazee [Part 2]
Renaud – Mon Bistrot Préféré
We Are The Fallen – Burn
Fun. – Carry On
Evanescence – Hello
The Veronicas – Speechless
The Script – No Words
Florence + The Machine – Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)
Let The Music Play – I Don’t Do Surprises
Dead By Sunrise – Into You
P!nk – Glitter In The Air
Rachel Diggs – Hands of Time
Evanescence – Bring Me To Life
My Darkest Days – Save Me
Breaking Benjamin – Breath
Papa Roach – No Matter What
One Direction – They Don’t Know About Us
Flogging Molly – If I Ever Leave This World Alive
Charlene Soraia – Wherever You Will Go
Deine Lakaien – Love Me To The End
Clap Compagnie – La valse d’amélie – Amélie Poulain
Lana Del Rey – Dark Paradise
Plumb – Hang On
James Morrison – I Won’t Let You Go
The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus – Your Guardian Angel
Jimmy Eat World – The Middle
Jimmy Eat World – Hear You Me
Missy Higgins – All For Believing
Rascal Flatts – Bless The Broken Road
Céline Dion – Because You Loved Me
Sarah McLachlan – Answer
Josh Groban – Remember – From “Troy” Soundtrack Album Version
Mötley Crüe – If I Die Tomorrow
Alex Goot – Lightning
Westlife – Soledad
Foo Fighters – Everlong
Adele – Crazy For You (album)
Secondhand Serenade – Fall for You
Sleeping At Last – Turning Page
Jack Johnson – Angel
Florence + The Machine – Never Let Me Go
OneRepublic – Secrets
Nickelback – Savin’ Me
He Is We – Our July In The Rain
Coldplay – Fix You
The Civil Wars – C’est La Mort
Avril Lavigne – When You’re Gone
Charice – All That I Need To Survive
Christina Perri – arms
Marianas Trench – Beside You
Top 100 Hits – Breath of Life – Florence + the Machine
Coldplay – Paradise
Green Day – Wake Me Up When September Ends
Adam Lambert – Never Close Our Eyes
Kari Kimmel – Black
Jason Mraz – I Won’t Give Up
Bruno Mars – Talking To The Moon
Avril Lavigne – Wish You Were Here
Miley Cyrus – Stay
Digital Daggers – Fear the Fever
Grégoire – Toi + Moi
The Wanted – I Found You
Florence + The Machine – Cosmic Love
Kelly Clarkson – Dark Side
Whitney Houston – I Will Always Love You
Ashes Remain – On My Own
Adam Lambert – Time For Miracles
BarlowGirl – Never Alone – Best Of
Bruno Mars – Locked Out Of Heaven
Band of Horses – The Funeral
3 Doors Down – Here Without You
Plumb – Blush (Only You)
Kate Walsh – Your Song
Florence + The Machine – You’ve Got The Love
Tonight Alive – To Die For
Westlife – I’ll See You Again
Taylor Swift – Eyes Open
Kelly Clarkson – Beautiful Disaster – Live
Red – Faceless
Nickelback – Far Away
Band of Horses – No One’s Gonna Love You
Des’ree – I’m Kissing You
Adele – To Make You Feel My Love
Rihanna – Diamonds
Lifehouse – By Your Side
Kerrie Roberts – Rescue Me (How The Story Ends)
Flyleaf – Arise
Erin McCarley – What I Needed
Regina Spektor – The Call – Live In London
Avril Lavigne – I Love You
Avril Lavigne – Keep Holding On
The Narrative – Castling (Acoustic)
Jason Walker – Echo
Liquid Hits – Stars
Evanescence – Lost in Paradise
Lifehouse – Broken
The Perishers – Sway
Naomi Scott – She’s So Gone
Adele – Set Fire To The Rain
Neko Case – I Wish I Was the Moon
Cider Sky – Northern Lights
Mayday Parade –The Silence
Paul Freeman– Tightrope
Grace Potter and the Nocturnals– Stars
A la Vie a la Mort, Nolwenn Leroy
Forever and always by Parachute
If i should die by Big Krit
“Even If It Breaks Your Heart” by Eli Young Band
Broken Pieces – Apocalyptica ft. Lacey
My Darkest Days – Still Worth Fighting For
The Titantic song by Celine Dion
Kiss Me Slowly by Parachute (this is already the theme for UNTIL I DIE)
Til the Casket Drops by ZZ Ward
Memories That Fade Like Photographs- All Time Low
Don’t You Dare – Alexz Johnson
In The Mourning by Paramore
‘Heart on Fire’ by Jonathan Clay
Better Dig Two by the Band Perry
Real Emotion by Sweetbox
Give Me A Sign de Breaking Benjamin
Rosi Golan featuring William Fitzsimmons – Hazy
Just Perfect by Tracy Bonham
Wherever you will go by Charlene Soraia.
State of Grace by Taylor Swift.
I’ll find you by Kerli