“Some lullabies are written especially to sing to children, and others are just songs, sung low, sung slow. When the lyrics are dark, they hint at a world where a tired adult croons alone in the dead of night, and lets their own fears and anxieties roam over things they wouldn’t admit to in the daylit hours.”
“Music plays a part in the story, but for this playlist I wanted to gather songs that trace the coming-of-age of my main character, a small-town misfit who grows into a spirited, self-possessed young woman. They’re songs about innocence, longing, connection, grief, hope, and the messy process of growing up.”
“First off, Upstate New York people rock together and you’re going to get that vibe throughout this playlist. We all came from those same woods where no one could see us.”
“When I was writing Furious Violet, I made two different playlists—one with instrumental music that I would often listen to as I worked (I usually find vocals to be too distracting while I’m writing), and then another playlist of songs with vocals that helped me channel a certain mood or era, which I would listen to when I was just thinking about the novel.”
“I write to explore the texture of different emotions, and listening to music is another way to access those textures.”
“My novel The Flayed Man is a monster story in a literal sense—the main character will turn into a gruesome, violent creature if she fails to regularly consume blood—but also in the way the trauma-driven, codependent relationship she has with her mother turns their interactions monstrous.”
“I make playlists for friends, family, moods, parties, road trips, and of course, I make them for my books. Nothing gets me into the world of a project faster than music.”
“Included in this playlist are songs I was listening to while drafting The Moon Papers, as well as some lunar summer tunes the book evokes….”
“As I fashioned these documents into a book, the music of that era played nonstop in my head, often intruding on the narrative.”
“I wrote much of Whole, Holy, Hot to full albums set to play on repeat. Once I’d worn out one album’s spell, I’d move to another. I wanted to stay inside a single artistic world for a while—to let its atmosphere shape the space I was writing from.”