Playlist Monday with Meagan Spooner plus G!veaway

It's Monday again so here's another edition of Playlist Monday! Today I'm feature a playlist of a debut author. None other than Meagan Spooner; author of Skylark which comes out August 1st. Make sure to mark your calendars and check out Skylark when it hit the shelves!

So without further ado here is Skylark's Playlist!

I’m not one of those writers who gets inspiration from listening to music while they work. I need silence when I write—I even invested in noise-cancelling headphones and white noise tracks so that I can write in noisy environments if I have to. If I try to listen to music while I write, I end up getting utterly distracted by the lyrics and unable to focus on my own words—and if I listen to movie soundtracks, my brain starts replaying the movies in my head, instead of focusing on what I’m doing. Even if I listen to straight-up classical that has no story associations whatsoever, I end up inventing stories to go with them—and they’re never the stories I’m supposed to be working on!

Still, even though I can’t listen to music while I write, I still get huge amounts of inspiration from music. I almost always listen to story-specific playlists when I’m driving home in my car, because my mind is free to wander and brainstorm and come up with new ideas. So I thought that for this Playlist Monday, I’d share some of my go-to songs that I listened to while working on SKYLARK!

Most of these are instrumental, but a few have lyrics and vocals. For this particular project, soundtrack scores worked better for me than more contemporary/popular music. Lark being so alone meant that I wanted songs that evoked that for me, and vocals tend to disrupt that.

Untitled by Interpol

This song has such a dreamy quality, and I love the repetitive nature of the theme. It’s almost hypnotic, which is one thing I look for in music to inspire me. I like music I can get lost in, music I can hear and react to without thinking about the song itself. It makes me think of wandering, and abandoned things, and melancholy.

Lullaby from Pan’s Labyrinth

Again, an absolutely dreamlike song. When I hear it I’m instantly walking through a dark, beautiful forest all alone. I can imagine Lark humming to herself as she crosses the wilderness, not because she’s musically inclined, but simply to break the silence.

Soundtrack from Mononoke Hime

This is one of the few soundtracks I’d listen to in its entirety while thinking about SKYLARK. Because I’ve seen the movie so many times (it’s one of my favorites) it instantly conjures up this ancient, tangled forest filled with monsters and demons and beauty. I don’t think anyone who’s read SKYLARK will be surprised that this movie is a favorite of mine!

Suite from Hush, Buffy the Vampire Slayer

 Anyone who knows me knows I’m a Whedonite. So it’s unsurprising that something from one of his projects found its way into mine. I’ve always loved the episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer called Hush. It’s an almost entirely silent episode, because these creatures steal everyone’s voices so no one can scream when they rip out their hearts. Yeah. YEAH. Anyway, it was watching this episode years and years ago that made me realize how terrifying silence can be. And while Lark always has her voice, when she’s in the wilderness there’s no one there to help her—no one to hear her scream.

Stay With Me Bright Eyes by Something With Numbers

This isn’t actually a song I listened to while writing SKYLARK. I heard it for the first time after I’d already finished it. A friend of mine, who had read the book, heard this song and was reminded so strongly of SKYLARK that he came and found me and made me listen to it. I think if I’d heard it independently, it wouldn’t have appealed to me quite so much… but the association with the book is SO strong now that I love it!

About the Book

Skylark
by Meagan Spooner
Series: Skylark #1
Published: August 1st 2012
Publisher: Carolrhoda Lab

Synopsis:

Vis in magia, in vita vi. In magic there is power, and in power, life.

For fifteen years, Lark Ainsley waited for the day when her Resource would be harvested and she would finally be an adult. After the harvest she expected a small role in the regular, orderly operation of the City within the Wall. She expected to do her part to maintain the refuge for the last survivors of the Wars. She expected to be a tiny cog in the larger clockwork of the city.

Lark did not expect to become the City's power supply.

For fifteen years, Lark Ainsley believed in a lie. Now she must escape the only world she's ever known...or face a fate more unimaginable than death.

Order it on: Amazon | Book Depository | Barnes and Noble 

About the Author 

Meagan Spooner grew up reading and writing every spare moment of the day, while dreaming about life as an archaeologist, a marine biologist, an astronaut. She graduated from Hamilton College in New York with a degree in playwriting, and has spent several years since then living in Australia. She's traveled with her family all over the world to places like Egypt, South Africa, the Arctic, Greece, Antarctica, and the Galapagos, and there's a bit of every trip in every story she writes.

She currently lives and writes in Northern Virginia, but the siren call of travel is hard to resist, and there's no telling how long she'll stay there.

In her spare time she plays guitar, plays video games, plays with her cat, and reads.

She is the author of SKYLARK, coming out August 1 from Carolrhoda Lab/Lerner Books. She is also the co-author of THESE BROKEN STARS, forthcoming from Disney-Hyperion in Fall 2013.

Connect with Meagan on her: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

Giveaway

Meagan is offering a SKYKARK Swag Pack Giveaway! It includes igned SKYLARK bookmarks, buttons, postcards, bookplates, and custom-designed pixie temporary tattoos! Enter the Rafflecopter: This giveaway is Open International! One person per household please.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

MAKE SURE TO CHECK OUT THE OTHER BLOGS INCLUDED ON THE TOUR

YOU CAN ALSO ENTER THE SKY'S THE LIMIT CONTEST
IT'S OPEN INTERNATIONAL