Closed Hearts Bonus Content: Playlists!

BONUS CONTENT: Closed Hearts Playlist by Susan Kaye Quinn 

[Ed. Note: In celebration of the release of my novel Closed Hearts, I've created bonus content that relates to the Mindjack Trilogy. This bonus content arises from the story time between Open Minds (Bk#1) and Closed Hearts (Bk#2) - it's not terribly spoiler-ish, but you'll enjoy it more if you've read Open Minds already.]

I don't normally listen to music while writing, unless I'm trying to drone out the background noise of my kids. But while drafting Closed Hearts, there were several songs that seemed to speak to the themes (How You Remind Me, Born This Way) and story (Know Your Enemy, Stab My Back). (Click on pop-out player to view and listen to playlist!)

In Closed Hearts, Kira rooks (or masquerades) as a mindreader. She changes her hair and stamps her cheek with a tattoo to disguise her famous face, putting on the "look" of an asynchroner, someone who listens to "asychronous" music to signal her rebellion against the "tyranny of synchronous thought" as she wryly notes in the novel: 

"I checked the mirror on the employee closet door and smoothed a hand over my gelled flat hair, dyed black now with nano-color and trimmed short. The sleek hairstyle and the synth-tattoo that snaked up my throat and cheek pegged me for an asynchroner—a rebel who thought it was somehow mesh to listen to music without a melody. Asynchroners could rail against the tyranny of synchronous thought all they liked, but I knew that being “out of sync” with the world was anything but mesh. However the twisted black vine and blue thorns on my cheek made for excellent camouflage. Too bad it was starting to fade."

It's tidbits like these that are so fun to write! While the world and technology change, I believe that people remain fundamentally the same, with our patterns of behavior repeating themselves again and again. I imagined asynchroners to be the punk rockers of the future, and actually did some research into that movement and what it really meant: anti-establishment messages wrapped in bare, stripped-down music. In Kira's future world, where being mesh (or cool) means being conjoined, uniform, or in "sync" with everyone else's thoughts, an asynchroner would be someone that holds themselves apart in their choice of clothes and music. Are they really poseurs, that don't understand how painful it is to be isolated from society, as Kira seems to think? Or are they true rebels? This question isn't really asked, much less answered, in the book, and asynchroners just get a passing mention, but hopefully snippets like these add depth to Kira's world.

Here's a few pieces that fit my idea of the minimalist style of asynchroner music in the future:

~~*~~ 

Closed Hearts (Mindjack #2) $2.99 at Amazon, Barnes and Noble (ebook and print)

When you control minds, only your heart can be used against you.

Bestselling YA novel Open Minds, Book One of the Mindjack Trilogy, is available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and iTunes. The sequel Closed Hearts has just been released. Susan Kaye Quinn's business card says "Author and Rocket Scientist," but she mostly plays on Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest.

CLICK HERE to join the Closed Hearts Virtual Launch Party (with more bonus Mindjack Trilogy content and guest posts) and/or ENTER TO WIN PRIZES (below).

a Rafflecopter giveaway