Title: WHILE YOU WERE GONE
Author: Amy K. Nichols
Pub. Date: August 4, 2015
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young
Readers
Pages: 304
Formats: Hardcover, eBook
Find it: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Goodreads
An artist without a cause meets a rebel without a clue.
Eevee is a promising young artist and the governor’s daughter in a city where censorship is everywhere and security is everything. When a fire devastates her exhibition—years in the making—her dreams of attending an elite art institute are dashed. She’s struggling to find inspiration when she meets Danny, a boy from a different world. Literally.
Raised in a foster home, Danny has led a life full of hurt and hardship until a glitch in the universe changes everything. Suddenly Danny is living in a home he’s never seen, with parents who miraculously survived the car crash that should have killed them. It’s like he’s a new Danny. But this alternate self has secrets—ties to an underground anarchist group that have already landed him in hot water. When he starts to develop feelings for Eevee, he’s even more disturbed to learn that he might have started the fire that ruined her work.
As Danny sifts through clues from his past and Eevee attempts to piece together her future, they uncover a secret that’s bigger than both of them. . . . And together, they must correct the breach between the worlds before it’s too late.
Now on to the playlist!
No Light, No Light – Florence + The Machine
Come A Little Closer – Cage the Elephant
Club Foot – Kasabian
Map of the Problematique – Muse
Renegades – X Ambassadors
CRAWLING IN THE DARK: The Music that Influenced
WHILE YOU WERE GONE
Music is a huge part of my life. There are
always songs playing in my house, in my car, in my head. So it’s no surprise
that it plays a big role in my writing as well. Part of my process is finding
music that captures the tone of the chapter or scene I’m currently working on
and listening to it on repeat as I write. While writing Now That You’re Here, the first book in the Duplexity series, I
built a playlist that corresponded with the chapters, characters and overall
feel of the book. Writing the follow-up book, While You Were Gone, was no different. By the time I completed the
first draft, I’d also completed a playlist that conveyed the feeling and arc of
the story.
Comparing the two playlists is interesting. The
songs that influenced Now That You’re
Here strike me as somewhat dreamy and love-centric. While there are love
songs on the While You Were Gone
playlist, overall the tone is grittier, the tempos are faster, and there’s a lot more angst. Which is fitting. Now That You’re Here is an emotional
journey centered around two people’s discovery of each other, set in a world
that is for the most part benevolent. While
You Were Gone is also the story of two people’s discovery of each other,
but the journey is more external and the world is pretty much out to get them. Thus
the grit and the angst.
There was one cool coincidence with the books that
involved music. Back when I was working on Now
That You’re Here, I was driving in my car and a song came on the radio I’d
never heard before. It started out simple, just a repeated piano chord
progression. Then Rihanna began singing, and I was struck by how perfectly the
words matched up to the story I was writing. The song was “Stay” and it quickly
became my go-to theme song for the book. A year or so later, I was driving in
the car and a song came on the radio that caught my ear. It started out simple,
just a repeated guitar progression. Then the verse began and I was struck by
how perfectly the words matched up with the story I was writing. The song was
“Renegades” by X Ambassadors, and it quickly became the theme song of While You Were Gone.
Danny and Eevee also have their own theme
songs. In Now That You’re Here,
Danny’s song is “Starlight” by Muse. Eevee’s is “Satellite” by Guster. In While You Were Gone, Danny’s song started
out as “Vicarious” by Tool but changed to “Map of the Problematique” by Muse. Eevee’s
is both “No Light, No Light” by Florence + The Machine and “She” by Edie
Brickell & New Bohemians.
The funny thing about linking music and story
is that that connection doesn’t end just because the book is finished.
Sometimes I’ll be out somewhere, standing in line for a coffee or something,
and a song will come over the sound system that triggers a scene or chapter in
my mind. Suddenly my writing brain turns on and I’ll kind of forget where I am,
that I’m supposed to be standing in line for that coffee. My mind is a million
miles away, in a parallel universe of sorts.
Here are some of the songs that influenced While You Were Gone. You can find the
complete playlist on my website, at http://amyknichols.com/?page_id=758. I hope you enjoy listening, and I
really hope you enjoy reading the books! Also Jaime *cutting in* I hosted the playlist for Now That You're Here last year for the blog tour so if you want to check that out click on this link :)
Crawling in the Dark – Hoobastank
No Light, No Light – Florence + The Machine
Come A Little Closer – Cage the Elephant
Club Foot – Kasabian
Map of the Problematique – Muse
Renegades – X Ambassadors
Amy K. Nichols has been crafting stories for as long as she can
remember. She is the author of YA science fiction novel Now That You're Here,
to be published by Knopf December 9, 2014. The follow-up, While You Were Gone,
will be published in 2015. She is mentored by award-winning crime novelist
James Sallis and lives on the edge of the Sonoran desert with her husband and
children. Amy is a member of SCBWI and SFWA, as well as the Class of 2K14 debut
authors. Visit her online at http://www.amyknichols.com.
Giveaway
Details:
10 winners will receive finished copies of WHILE YOU WERE GONE.
US Only.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Check out the Tour Schedule!
Week One:
7/27/2015- Bookhounds ya- Interview
7/28/2015- The Best Books Ever- Review
7/29/2015- Two Chicks on Books- Guest Post
7/30/2015- The Cover Contessa- Review
7/31/2015- Me, My Shelf and I- Interview
Week Two:
8/3/2015- A
Dream Within A Dream- Review
8/4/2015- Fiktshun- Guest Post
8/5/2015- Fiction Fare- Review
8/6/2015- Fire and Ice- Interview
8/7/2015- The Young Folks- Review
