Evolution Playlist, Part I: Mara

SO. The book trailer came out yesterday.

Entertainment Weekly has an exclusive, so you need to click through to watch it for now. As soon as it ends, I'll post it here (and there, and everywhere). I hope you will, too. And if you like it, I hope you'll say so in the YouTube comments!

I love everything about it, and I have my brother, Jeremy Hodkin, to thank. Without him, we would never have scored Gi Orman and his incredible crew at BIG Productions, who were beyond amazing. Also, infinite thanks to Justine Cotsonas and Bradley Rose, for blowing all of us away with their talent and their calm in the face of crazy (traffic, freezing water, etc.). Consummate professionals, the both of them. And thanks to Daryl Eisenberg, for finding such phenomenal actors for us last year, and to Aaron Grant, for saving the project more than once.

I am also exceedingly grateful to Christy Romano, for doing the spectacular voiceover (again!) and to Kelli Schaefer and Jeremiah at Amigo/Amiga Productions for allowing us to use Kelli's extraordinary music once again. Black Dog, the song from the Unbecoming trailer, made it onto my writing playlist the second I heard it, and in short order, I bought and listened to Kelli's entire album. City Morgue, the song used in the Evolution trailer, was on repeat as I wrote so many chapters, and I knew right away that it struck the mood we wanted to convey in the trailer.

I get asked a lot whether I write to music, and the short answer is: yes and no. When I'm drafting, I need it; it fuels me, and helps create mood and atmosphere. But when I'm revising, I need silence.

The Evolution is as much about Noah as it is about Mara, and so to help me peel back the skin of both characters, I listened to very different music when I wrote their scenes. These songs were on repeat whenever I wrote Mara. I hope they inspire you, too.

Flagpole Sitta - Harvey Danger
I Don't Like The Drugs (But The Drugs Like Me) - Marilyn Manson
Little Talks - Of Monsters and Men
The Chemicals Between Us - Bush
Ghost of the Beast - Kelli Schaefer
Misery - Soul Asylum
Cumbersome - Seven Mary Three
Fell On Black Days - Soundgarden
Sullen Girl - Fiona Apple
Concrete Wall - Zee Avi
Show Me What I'm Looking For - Carolina Liar
Say Hello to Heaven - Temple of the Dog
I Know - Fiona Apple
Hem Me In - Amy Seely
Naked As We Came - Iron and Wine
Orange Sky - Alexi Murdoch
City Morgue - Kelli Schaefer
Ghost in the Machine - B. o. B.
This Place Is A Prison - The Postal Service
I'm In Here - Sia
Disposable Teens - Marilyn Manson
Head Like A Hole - Nine Inch Nails

Up next: Noah's playlist. Stay tuned!

-M