Blog Tour: The Neverland Wars by Audrey Greathouse - The Playlist

If you haven't already read The Neverland Wars, you really really should.  In fact, I have a review of it that you can check out right HERE!

Oh and Audrey Greathouse has been fabulous and has given us her playlist that she listened to while she wrote The Neverland Wars!  So now you can listen to it too and see where her inspiration has come from!

Check it out!

The Neverland Wars Playlist

I listened to a lot of music while writing The Neverland Wars, but there were a few I kept coming back to as if they had the secrets of my unwritten story hidden inside them. Some of my favorite artists are my favorites because they deal with the same existential issues I wanted to dive into with The Neverland Wars. If I had to pick a dozen songs to sum up the book, it would be these:

Beter When We're Older, Snowapple

We will be happy when we're older...

Let us worship the wind the beach and the morning sun,

It will get better when we're older

Snowapple is one of my all-time favorite bands, and have been ever since they came over from Amsterdam for their first US tour. This song mocks the thought that things will “get better” just because we grow up, but it is so upbeat you can't help but smile (if not laugh) while listening.

Even Though I'm a Woman, Seeker Lover Keeper

I love you more when I'm missing you
It's why I am always away...
I think I was born to be in a state of longing
Born to be wanting wanting

This would be Gwen's theme song if she had one. She's a character riddled with conflict because she's so bad at determining what her own desires are, let alone finding the will to act on them.

Under the Rainbow, The Jane Austen Arguement

Oh – and everything is black and white
Except these choices I am making
About the coloured boxes I could fit in.

Another one of my favorite bands, this one a cabaret duo from Australia, have so many songs that deserve a spot on this playlist. The best one to mention is this Wizard of Oz themed examination of how your own life can get away and leave you behind. I think it perfectly hits on aspects of Gwen's disillusionment with reality.

Ways to Love, Jason Webley

We learned to see through many glasses,
How to sink and how to fly,
We learned to watch each other die...

Adults have a habit of remembering childhood as a time of total carefree bliss, but songs like Ways To Love are brutally honest about the way life (and sometimes loved ones) force you to come to terms with reality even as a child. You'll never realize how comforting it can be to hear a man with an accordion scream at you until you listen to Jason Webley.

Vicious Cycle, Rachel Rose Mitchell

I give up! I give in! I was always on the fringe
Looking into your little circle.
If I stay here, there's no way for me to win

A great song from the little known “fairy goth” singer-songwriter. The frustration in this song about being an outsider within your own relationship with someone reminds me both of Gwen's friendship with immature Peter as well as her view of high school society.

Wednesday's Child, Vermillion Lies

Thought I could change the story
Didn't like how the way it looked
So I took my pencil

And I rewrote that whole storybook

There's an old nursery rhyme that assigns virtues to children based on what day of the week they're born on. Sunday's child is the happiest of all, and Wednesday's child is “full of woe.” Surrounded by the innocent nativey of the lost children, I always imagined Gwen as a Wednesday's child once she was in Neverland.

The Comedians, Kabalevsky

One of the most whimsical pieces of classical music in existence, this is what I imagine playing as Gwen lands in Neverland for the first time and gets swarmed by the lost children

Station Waggin, Pretty Balanced

Far away from home she will be
By the weekend's end
Lost without her mental map
Or couch, or car, or friend

The best song I've ever heard about moving out and going to college. Pretty Balanced has a knack for making weird music about ordinary things, and when I listen to this I can't help but think about the reality that awaits Gwen if she makes the decision to keep on growing up in this world.

Somewhere In Neverland, All Time Low

I can be your lost boy, your last chance
Your "everything better" plan
Oh, somewhere in Neverland

I've got a soft spot in my heart for pop-punk, and what does internal adolescent angst sound like if not four chords on an electric guitar and whiny vocals?

Take Me Away, Globus

Take me away from time and season
Far, far away we'll sing with reason...

I stumbled onto Globus one night and had the idea for The Neverland Wars while listening to them for the first time. I scribbled down an outline that night, almost two years before I began drafting the book.

Fariy Dance, James Newton Howard

Entire chapters book were written while this track was looping in the background. I listened to a lot of James Newton Howard's film scores, and still do. The feeling I got from the fairy dance scene in the 2003 Peter Pan movie was something I wanted to put down into words and share with others.

Teenage Dream, Katy Perry

I'ma get your heart racing in my skin-tight jeans
Be your teenage dream tonight...

I have to put The Neverland Wars antithesis song in the playlist... it is the only song referenced in the book. I would listen to this song any time I had writer's block or was discouraged, because it reminded me how passionately I wanted to paint a picture of what my teenage dream was. (Hint: it had nothing to do with drunken sex or skinny jeans)

The Piper's Price

Oh my goodness guys. Do you see how gorgeous the cover for book 2 is? Just look at it! And check out the blurb! I need to read this ASAP!!!!

THE PIPER'S PRICE BOOK BLURB:

Peter is plotting his retaliation against the latest bombing. Neverland needs an army, and Peter Pan is certain children will join him once they know what is at stake. The lost boys and girls are planning an invasion in suburbia to recruit, but in order to deliver their message, they will need the help of an old and dangerous associate—the infamous Pied Piper.

Hunting him down will require a spy in in the real world, and Gwen soon finds herself in charge of locating the Piper and cutting an uncertain deal with him. She isn’t sure if Peter trusts her that much, or if he’s just trying to keep her away from him in Neverland. Are they friends, or just allies? But Peter might not even matter now that she's nearly home and meeting with Jay again.

The Piper isn't the only one hiding from the adults' war on magic though, and when Gwen goes back to reality, she'll have to confront one of Peter's oldest friends… and one of his earliest enemies.

And don't forget to check out the Twitter Q&A!!!!