#theruinsoftropicalia

Because there's no Amends song for this week's episodes of "The Ruins of Tropicalia"—and because TROT's Interlude is a bit darker and stranger than other parts of the story—I've put together a playlist of the songs from other artists that inspired the writing of "An Unknown Compelling Force." Many of these are linked directly within the text of the story. The feel of the songs alternates between dark, sinister, beautiful, and weird as hell--hopefully reflecting the story it soundtracks.

It probably wouldn't hurt to listen to it while reading.Of course you can do that here for free or on the mobile apps. 

(Although impossible to add to this playlist, the entirety of NIN's instrumental Ghosts I-IV albums were also vital to writing An Unknown Compelling Force.)

The first chapter/episode premiered today; the first new Amends song premieres tomorrow. Read/listen online here. 

Or get the free iOS app here, or the Google/Droid app here. 

Although we The Amends provided an actual soundtrack for "The Ruins of Tropicalia," it turns out that there's already a song that perfectly captures many of the themes of the book. "Start A War" by The National.

At least it does if you're in a similar place as me-- where you've lost interest in metaphors and must take everything literally. 

"We expected something, something better than before. We expected something more."

I wrote a guest post on the great blog, Guiltless Reading, about the origins of "The Ruins of Tropicalia". You can read it here. And here's a quote from it: 

"It’s hard to tell people about your book when you don’t want to tell them what it’s about. It’s hard to explain your book when it’s not exactly a book at all. It’s hard to objectively discuss your motivations and inspirations as a writer when an alternate version of yourself is also a character crawling across the pages (or at least lurks within the code of an e-reader). And it’s hard to sell a book when it’s free..." (Read More)

Guiltless Reading is also graciously helping to promote TROT by sponsoring a giveaway of Amends t-shirts and physical albums. If you're interested, scroll to the bottom of the post for details on how to enter the contest.