I’d been publishing for 5 years when I linked soundtracks for my books on my site. I tend to listen to audiobooks or music when I write, but prior to this, I haven’t put any music together for my books, specifically. Toward the end of 2022, I was re-reading some of my books, looking for quotes and things I wanted to use for social media. When I hopped on Spotify, I started thinking that this song works for that scene, or I’d remember listening to a song while writing a particular book. My wife got in on the action, too. I sent her the list of songs that went with each book, and she’d send me a link back to a song to listen to and potentially add. (The last song on The Moments soundtrack was her find.) She’s European and, well, younger than me, so we have very different musical tastes. Sometimes, she was able to find songs I’d never heard of, so I’d listen to them and decide whether or not to add them.
Then, I built each playlist individually for you to listen to and enjoy. I recommend reading or re-reading the book alongside the music for the best experience – or, heck, just listen to the music and see what it makes you feel or think about the book if you want.
How can you find these soundtracks? All the books have them (or will shortly after the book is released since it takes a minute to put all this together). You can hover over the Bookshelf tab on my site and either select the series the book is in or one of the other categories (i.e., stand-alones, YA), and you’ll find the book on one of the tabs. There’s other cool information there, too. I’m working on avatars for all the main characters, but that takes even more time, so that’s a slower process.
You can find a sarcasm (my bread & butter), heat (Wait. Is this my bread and butter?), and angst (I know this isn’t my bread and butter) meter to help you pick the right book, some of the key tropes, and more info about a specific book. If you scroll down, you’ll see Musical Inspiration and the link to a book’s Spotify playlist. You can either listen right there or hit the Spotify logo, and it’ll open in Spotify for you.
For The Writing on the Wall, I went with songs that make me think of Weston & Annie or songs about writing. I’m a big Beatles fan, so I went with Paperback Writer, for obvious reasons, but I also chose 1963 from Rachel Yamagata because Annie and Weston feel like they fit that song as a couple.
For The Block Party, I chose more upbeat songs that made me think of Talon & Emerson and the chemistry between them (and that first sex scene). I also went with songs from The Script (which is one of my favorite bands and my wife’s, too) because they’re Irish and also, amazing.
For No After You, I chose songs that were light and talked about first or forever love because their love is just so sweet to me. For All the Love Songs, though, the songs got deeper, and there was some angst in there. I Know Places by Taylor Swift felt like it was written for this book. I Can’t Let Go from the SMASH Cast (mainly Jennifer Hudson, who is amazing) reminded me of Lennox following Kenzie to London because she couldn’t let go of her. For Midnight Tradition, I went with Pentatonix (an amazing acapella group I’ve seen in concert twice) and their song New Year’s Day because it so captures the feeling around the New Year for me.
That’s just a few examples of songs and why I chose them for certain books. If you listen and you’re wondering what made me pair a song with a particular book, feel free to ask here (or on social media)!
I hope you enjoy listening and reading and that the songs help you join the world of the characters.