Read Hard

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Hey Punk...




Rod - Hey Jack, what's happenin'?

Joe - Oh, I don't know.

Rod - Well, rumor around town says you think you might be heading down to the shore....


Let me start off by saying, I'm so glad to see that "Lists" is in the lead for favorite YA cliché. Lists play a big role in both Undone and in my next book (SuperSecretTitle). So it's good to know they are still enjoyed by at least 4 people.

A slightly adjacent topic to lists—Play Lists. A lot of YA authors have included lists of music that in some way shape or form corresponded to their book. I think this pretty much a YA-thing, but please correct me if I’m wrong.

Anyhoo… I was chatting with fellow July ‘08 debut author Stephanie Kuehnert (I Wanna be Your Joey Ramone, MTV July ‘08) about play lists and I was telling her how when I was writing Undone (Walker Books, July ‘08) I’d come across songs that fit with my book and how they really helped me tap into the characters. Music always reminds me of what it felt like to be a teenager—because back then it seemed like music really could capture everything you couldn't explain or say. Which unfortunately led to some very bad mix tapes... but I digress...

Check out my play list for Undone here. (Update: I added it to the blog!)

Click here to listen to the rockin’ play list for I Wanna be Your Joey Ramone

Back in my teen days, I had a friend who hooked me up with some great punk bands. There were many days when you could hear us screaming out from her convertible, “…BITCHIN’ CAMERO! BITCHIN’ CAMERO! I ran over my neighbor…” (full lyrics here and while we're paused, let me take moment to apologize to my former neighbors). Some of our favorite punk bands were The Dead Kennedys (Classic Punk), The Dead Milkmen (Satirical Punk), Violent Femmes (Folk-Punk or Quirky Rock—you be the judge), and Echo and the Bunnymen (Post Punk).

Hmmm, death and violence... no wonder my mother was so nervous. LOL.

5 comments:

TJ Brown said...

I had a play list for LIPS, but it disappeared. Sigh. Will have to create another one.

And I can't wait to read that book!
Teri

Heather Harper said...

Dang! Um, I'm not getting your updates again. I need to go see whazup at Bloglines!

Anonymous said...

I don't write YA and have posted playlists for Dweller. Kim Harrison has a playlist for her characters. ;)

I don't have one to the side though and haven't taken the time to figure out the one I posted on Myspace.

Anonymous said...

Heather, I don't get updates from this site either. I bet we have a bad feed. I'm going to try and delete and redo.

Brooke Taylor said...

Seems like you guys lost feed from me when I added that poll last week, and then maybe lost me again when I deleted it from the site... if that was it--should be cleared up now. If not, I have no idea what could be causing issues :-(