Happy Christmas Eve Eve, if that’s how you get down. This post is going to kick off a few days of fun, easy-to-read, easy-to-write posts in preparation for the holiday. I’m going to be busy with work, baking, and general merriment, and hopefully you’re busy having fun, too.

Music! Like many writers, I couldn’t have finished my books without music, specifically a few bands and a few songs. Songs with asterisks, I couldn’t have written my books without. And songs with links? Check them out, and forgive me for sending you to YouTube to do it. 🙂

The Radiometry Conspiracy Soundtrack (by artist importance)
“All I Need”* Within Temptation
“What Have You Done”* Within Temptation
“Where is the Edge”* Within Temptation
“Somewhere” Within Temptation
“Forgiven”* Within Temptation
“Lost”* Within Temptation (Erm… ignore the images in the YouTube video.)
“Iron” Within Temptation
“The Ghost Woman and the Hunter” Lacuna Coil
“Falling Again”* Lacuna Coil
“I Like It” Lacuna Coil
“Cold Heritage”* Lacuna Coil
“Endlessly”* Muse
“I Belong to You” Muse
“Exogenesis: Symphony Part I [Overture]”* Muse
“Unintended” Muse
“For The Heart I Once Had”* Nightwish
“The Islander” Nightwish
“Walking In The Air” Nightwish
“Sleeping Sun” Nightwish
“Sleepwalker [Eurovision Version]”* Nightwish (Link is to live version. Eh.)
“Missing” Evanescence
“Lacrymosa” Evanescence
“The Only One” Evanescence
“Your Star” Evanescence
“Good Enough” Evancescence
“Getaway Car” Audioslave
“Girl” The Beatles
miscellaneous filler tracks that don’t merit mention

If I could choose a band to write the soundtrack for Conspiracy, it would be Within Temptation. Love, love, love them. “What Have You Done” and “All I Need” probably received more listen-time than anything else in my collection for the three years I was working on the book, and “Where Is The Edge” carried me through the final days of writing it. And I absolutely couldn’t have written some of Albert’s scenes without “Exogenesis: Symphony Part I” by Muse.

Shaken Soundtrack (again by artist importance)
“Rehab”* Amy Winehouse
“You Know I’m No Good”* Amy Winehouse
“Back to Black” Amy Winehouse
“What You Want”* Evanescence
“Erase This”* Evanescence
“Call Me When You’re Sober” Evanescence
“To Myself I Turned”* Lacuna Coil (Again with the weird YouTube video images.)
“I Like It” Lacuna Coil
“Neutron star Collision [Love is Forever]” Muse
“Feeling Good” Muse
“Unnatural Selection” Muse
“Muscle Museum” Muse
“Stepping Stone”* Duffy
“The Pretender” Foo Fighters
“What Lies Beneath” Breaking Benjamin
“Into the Nothing” Breaking Benjamin
“Narcissist” The Libertines
“Sunday Morning” Maroon 6
“Steady As She Goes” The Raconteurs

Oddly, “To Myself I Turned” was the first song I chose when setting the mood for Shaken, but I didn’t use it much once I started writing. The music more than the words put me in the perfect mental place when I was starting. I transitioned to Amy Winehouse pretty early on, probably for obvious reasons. Then the newest Evanescence album came out this fall, and it totally swept me up.

So there you have it. Another little glimpse into my writing life. What bands have changed your writing? Any recommendations for me?