This is a silly little post. I’m planning to have some more meaty content for you soon, but we’re in finals week at CU Boulder and…mama’s gotta grade!

One of the trends I absolutely love is authors posting playlists for their books. Some of these playlists are so precise that they are geared toward each chapter, which is so freaking impressive to me. That’s not what I have going on here, but here are some songs that remind me of Her Undying Thirst in various ways, whether I listened to them before/during writing or I associate them with my book somehow.

The song that 100% gets me in the dark, erotic, emo mindset (and I listened to it so much while I was working on HUT that I now have an entire imagined film preview that plays in my head whenever I listen to it, which is often):

“Death of Peace of Mind” by Bad Omens

Above: the cover art for The Death of Peace of Mind album, which really just shows you how perfect it is for getting into the right mindset to read a book about vampires.

Other fun getting-in-the-mood songs: “Taste of You” by Dove Cameron (for the sapphic vibes), “What It Cost” by Bad Omens (for the gothic, kinda punk vibes) and “Who Are You?” by Bad Omens (for the falling-in-love-is-like-getting-drunk vibes). Hey, can you tell I like Bad Omens?

OK, now for my writing music:

“Crimson Peak” soundtrack. The whole thing. PERFECT Gothic horror music. Lot of genuine creepiness and jump scares. I scared the shit out of myself writing a few of the scary scenes while listening to this soundtrack.

“The New Four Seasons – Vivaldi Recomposed” by Max Richter. Again, the whole dang album, but “Summer 2,” in particular, had me weeping while writing certain (ahem, no spoilers) scenes toward the end of the book.

“Tree” and “Happiness Does Not Wait” by Olafur Arnalds. These are amazing falling-in-love songs!

“Thrive” by Riopy (melancholy) and “The Vast Indifference of the Sky” (bleak) by Luke Howard.

“La Catedral: I. Preludio Saudade” by Thibaut Garcia, from his “Bach Inspirations” album. Listen, this is the sexiest Bach I’ve ever heard, and that is that.

Speaking of which, how about Bach’s Concerto in C Major (RV 508): II. Largo performed by Giuliano Carmignola and Mario Brunello?

“Hutchings: By Night” and “Rimmer: In the Shining Blackness” by Voces8. Eerie, beautiful, and melancholic.

There are many other songs and albums that motivated me as I worked on this particular novel of mine, but these are the ones coming to mind most prominently. Feel free to comment below!

In Proximum, Regina Vestra