Guest Post: Author Playlist by Megan Bostic (Never Eighteen Blog Tour)

Today we have Megan Bostic here for a guest post on the music that played an important role in her debut novel, Never Eighteen! This post is part of The Teen Book Scene's blog tour for Never Eighteen by Megan Bostic. You can find out more about the tour here. Make sure to visit all the other stops of the blog tour if you'd like to know more about Never Eighteen!

Music is a big part of my life, and usually plays a supporting role in the stories I write. Austin, my protagonist, is a big fan of indie music. I think I chose indie, because it’s evocative and always gets me in a writing mood. Also, Austin, to me at least, is an intellectual character with moments of profound reflection, and it just seemed to be a good fit.

I originally had song lyrics in the novel, but it was too hard to get permissions. Some songs in the novel I name by title, but some I just allude to. Here is the playlist for Never Eighteen:

* I Will Follow You Into the Dark by Death Cab for Cutie: This is the song that upsets Kaylee that is played on their way to Seattle.

* New Slang by The Shins: Austin mentions this song as one he’d like as a musical doorbell.

* Bull’s on Parade by Rage Against the Machine: Jake’s favorite song.

These next four songs I wanted to use lyrics from to start each section of the book:

* Soul Meets Body by Death Cab for Cutie

“I want to live where soul meets body

And let the sun wrap its arms around me

And bathe my skin in water cool and cleansing

And feel, feel what it’s like to be new”

* All Possibilities by Badly Drawn Boy

“All the colours are changing in my eyes

Your hopes are all fading, that will never do

You're seeing the world through cynical eyes

I'm seeing the world through the eyes of somebody new”

* Where the Moss Slowly Grows by Tiger Army

“Embrace this joy, this pain

Don't miss this chance, it will not come again

You mean more than you may ever know

Don't linger where the moss slowly grows”

* Sometime After Midnight by The Airborne Toxic Event

“And so there's a change...

in your emotions

and all of these memories come rushing

like feral waves to your mind

of the curl of your bodies

like two perfect circles entwined”

* Love’s Labour Lost by The Less Deceived: I found this song while making a video trailer as a contest entry. I wasn’t supposed to use it after the contest ended, but I loved it so much, I found the band and asked their permission. Watch my trailer to hear it.

* Weighty Ghost by Wintersleep: This comes in toward the end of the book. Austin asks Kaylee to listen to it. It’s a beautiful song.

If reading this post made you curious about the trailer (like it made me), you can watch it here:

Make sure to check out all the other stops of the tour, and keep your eye out for Never Eighteen, which will be released January 17th 2012.

Never Eighteen by Megan Bostic

(Amazon / Goodreads)

I had the dream again. The one where I’m running. I don’t know what from or where to, but I’m scared, terrified really.
Austin Parker is never going to see his eighteenth birthday. At the rate he’s going, he probably won’t even see the end of the year. But in the short time he has left there’s one thing he can do: He can try to help the people he loves live—even though he never will.
It’s probably hopeless.
But he has to try.