Music – EMBRACE
When writing Embrace, music was a constant source of inspiration. Here are some links to some of the songs that helped shape the characters and themes of the book.
Hardest of Hearts – Florence and the Machine
This was one of my absolute favourite songs to listen to when writing Embrace and I still listen to it all the time as I write the next books. I particularly think of Chapter 17 at the charity event.
Kiss with a Fist – Florence and the Machine
Definitely chapter 31 – the Eden residence thunderdome!
Drumming Song – Florence and the Machine
I think this works with a few chapters but I always come back to the drama of Chapter 18.
Falling – Florence and the Machine
A no-brainer. I played this song whenever I was working on Chapter 24.
Lentil – Sia
Again – this was a song that related well to a few sections but, I think it works the best at the start of Chapter 22.
Lullaby – Sia
This song really touches the soul of two chapters. Both the start of chapter 12 and on and off through Chapter 23.
Love Lost – Temper Trap
Definitely the end of Chapter 36!
Citizen – Broken Bells
Chapters 9 & 10. I just love the 80′s vibe their music has. Very cool!
Trap doors – Broken Bells
This song really reminds me of Phoenix in Chapter 34 and the start of Chapter 35.
All The Same To Me – Anya Marina
This one belongs to Phoenix, too. A taste of things to come!
Music – ENTICED
When writing ENTICED there were a lot of songs I found myself listening to. Here are some of my favourites:
Animal – Neon Trees
I listened to this song a lot in the early chapters of Enticed.
Teenage Crime – Adrian Lux
Chapter Eleven!
When I’m Alone – Lissie
Chapters 8 & 9. Linc and Vi.
Horse and I – Bat For Lashes
I love this song. It works through the entire series.
Addicted to Love – Florence and the Machine
I don’t think I will ever write a book in The Violet Eden series that hasn’t at some point been inspired by Florence and the Machine. To date her songs; Falling and Hardest of Hearts are still the two I always find myself going back to. Her music captures Violet so perfectly in my mind. Plus … I am a sucker for a good cover song and this one is GREAT. For me, this song works with both Chapter Three and, of course, Chapter Twenty-Four.
Strawberry – Adrian Lux
Mostly … just because I love this song! And the video!
I’m In Here – Sia
On the plane going home. Chapter Thirty Two. I love this version on the piano.
Wonderful Life – Hurts
I have added this song after a goodreads.com friend, Claudia, recommended it to me. Since she first mentioned it, I keep going back to it. I love the song and the video clip is just cool. Thanks Claudia!
Mythology – EMBRACE
The story of Lilith appears in EMBRACE. One of the earliest references to the female Lilith is in The Alphabet of Ben-Sira.
The Alphabet of Ben-Sira (Alphabetum Siracidis, Othijoth ben Sira) is an anonymous medieval text, attributed to Ben Sira (Sirach), the author of Ecclesiasticus. It is dated to anywhere between AD 700 and 1000.
The text is best known because of its reference to Lilith, and it is the fifth of Ben Sira’s responses to King Nebuchadnezzar. It is reproduced here in its entirety:
Soon afterward the young son of the king took ill. Said Nebuchadnezzar, “Heal my son. If you don’t, I will kill you.” Ben Sira immediately sat down and wrote an amulet with the Holy Name, and he inscribed on it the angels in charge of medicine by their names, forms, and images, and by their wings, hands, and feet. Nebuchadnezzar looked at the amulet. “Who are these?”
“The angels who are in charge of medicine: Snvi, Snsvi, and Smnglof (In English: Senoy, Sansenoy and Semangelof). While God created Adam, who was alone, He said, ‘It is not good for man to be alone’ (Genesis 2:18). He also created a woman, from the earth, as He had created Adam himself, and called her Lilith. Adam and Lilith immediately began to fight. She said, ‘I will not lie below,’ and he said, ‘I will not lie beneath you, but only on top. For you are fit only to be in the bottom position, while I am to be the superior one.’ Lilith responded, ‘We are equal to each other inasmuch as we were both created from the earth.’ But they would not listen to one another. When Lilith saw this, she pronounced the Ineffable Name and flew away into the air. Adam stood in prayer before his Creator: ‘Sovereign of the universe!’ he said, ‘the woman you gave me has run away.’
At once, the Holy One, blessed be He, sent these three angels to bring her back. “Said the Holy One to Adam, ‘If she agrees to come back, what is made is good. If not, she must permit one hundred of her children to die every day.’ The angels left God and pursued Lilith, whom they overtook in the midst of the sea, in the mighty waters wherein the Egyptians were destined to drown. They told her God’s word, but she did not wish to return. The angels said, ‘We shall drown you in the sea.’
“‘Leave me!’ she said. ‘I was created only to cause sickness to infants. If the infant is male, I have dominion over him for eight days after his birth, and if female, for twenty days.’
“When the angels heard Lilith’s words, they insisted she go back. But she swore to them by the name of the living and eternal God: ‘Whenever I see you or your names or your forms in an amulet, I will have no power over that infant.’ She also agreed to have one hundred of her children die every day. Accordingly, every day one hundred demons perish, and for the same reason, we write the angels names on the amulets of young children. When Lilith sees their names, she remembers her oath, and the child recovers.”
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Mythology – ENTICED
The story of St. Francis of Assisi appears in ENTICED. He is considered to be the first account of a person receiving the STIGMATA.
This is a short recount of the Stigmata’s history and those it is believed have received them:
To decide merely the facts without deciding whether or not they may be explained by supernatural causes, history tells us that many ecstatics bear on hands, feet, side, or brow the marks of the Passion of Christ with corresponding and intense sufferings. These are called visible stigmata. Others only have the sufferings, without any outward marks, and these phenomena are called invisible stigmata.
Facts
With many stigmatics these apparitions were periodical, e.g., St. Catherine de’ Ricci, whose ecstasies of the Passion began when she was twenty (1542), and the Bull of her canonization states that for twelve years they recurred with minute regularity. The ecstasy lasted exactly twenty-eight hours, from Thursday noon till Friday afternoon at four o’clock, the only interruption being for the saint to receive Holy Communion. Catherine conversed aloud, as if enacting a drama. This drama was divided into about seventeen scenes. On coming out of the ecstasy the saint’s limbs were covered with wounds produced by whips, cords etc.
1. None are known prior to the thirteenth century. The first mentioned is St. Francis of Assisi, in whom the stigmata were of a character never seen subsequently; in the wounds of feet and hands were excrescences of flesh representing nails, those on one side having round back heads, those on the other having rather long points, which bent back and grasped the skin. The saint’s humility could not prevent a great many of his brethren beholding with their own eyes the existence of these wonderful wounds during his lifetime as well as after his death. The fact is attested by a number of contemporary historians, and the feast of the Stigmata of St. Francis is kept on 17 September.
2. There are 62 saints or blessed of both sexes of whom the best known were:
St. Francis of Assisi (1186-1226)
St. Lutgarde (1182-1246)
St. Margaret of Cortona (1247-97)
St. Gertrude (1256-1302)
St. Clare of Montefalco (1268-1308)
Bl. Angela of Foligno (d. 1309)
St. Catherine of Siena (1347-80)
St. Lidwine (1380-1433)
St. Frances of Rome (1384-1440)
St. Colette (1380-1447)
St. Rita of Cassia (1386-1456)
Bl. Osanna of Mantua (1499-1505)
St. Catherine of Genoa (1447-1510)
Bl. Baptista Varani (1458-1524)
Bl. Lucy of Narni (1476-1547)
Bl. Catherine of Racconigi (1486-1547)
St. John of God (1495-1550)
St. Catherine de’ Ricci (1522-89)
St. Mary Magdalene de’ Pazzi (1566-1607)
Bl. Marie de l’Incarnation (1566-1618)
Bl. Mary Anne of Jesus (1557-1620)
Bl. Carlo of Sezze (d. 1670)
Blessed Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647-90)
St. Veronica Giuliani (1600-1727)
St. Mary Frances of the Five Wounds (1715-91)
Marie-Julie Jahenny (1850-1941)
St. Pio of Pietrelcina (Padre Pio) (1887-1968)3. There were 20 stigmatics in the nineteenth century. The most famous were:
Catherine Emmerich (1774-1824)
Elizabeth Canori Mora (1774-1825)
Anna Maria Taïgi (1769-1837)
Maria Dominica Lazzari (1815-48)
Marie de Moerl (1812-68) and Louise Lateau (1850-83)
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Mythology – EMBLAZE
coming soon.
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