Elana Johnson Listens to Music! WIN YA Books!

Music that Inspired the Writing—Waiting For the End by Linkin Park 

by Elana Johnson 

Okay, so there’s nothing I love more than putting on my headphones and really sinking into the emotion of a song. I take those feelings and pour them into my writing. One such song that really hits home for a particular character is “Waiting for the End” by Linkin Park.


Can you guess which POSSESSION/SURRENDER character this song personifies?


 


So many things were left unsaid 
It’s hard to let you go 


I know what it takes to move on 
I know how it feels to lie 
All I want to do Is trade this life for something new 
Holding on to what I haven’t got. 

And then
The hardest part of ending is starting again. 

Did you guess Zenn Bower? You totally should have. If you’ve read POSSESSION or my free short story INSIDER INFORMATION, you know Zenn will do anything for Vi. He knows what it feels like to lie, what it takes to move on. It’s so hard for him to let Vi go.

And in SURRENDER, we get to see a lot more of Zenn. I listened to this Linkin Park song on repeat (no lie, I’ve listened to it 468 times, according to iTunes…) as well as blasted it in the car as I sang yelled along.

I’m hoping the emotion of the following lines really come through in the book.
All I want to do 
Is trade this life for something new 
Holding on to what I haven’t got 


The hardest part of ending is starting again 

Because Zenn really wants a new life in Freedom. Will he get it? Is he still holding on to what he hasn’t got? Will he be able to find a way to start again?

You’ll have to read SURRENDER to find out… You can order your copy here.

About SURRENDER: Raine has always been a good girl. She lives by the rules in Freedom. After all, they are her father’s rules: He’s the Director. It’s because of him that Raine is willing to use her talent—a power so dangerous, no one else is allowed to know about it. Not even her roommate, Vi.

All of that changes when Raine falls for Gunner. Raine’s got every reason in the world to stay away from Gunn, but she just can’t. Especially when she discovers his connection to Vi’s boyfriend, Zenn.

Raine has never known anyone as heavily brainwashed as Vi. Raine’s father expects her to spy on Vi and report back to him. But Raine is beginning to wonder what Vi knows that her father is so anxious to keep hidden, and what might happen if she helps Vi remember it. She’s even starting to suspect Vi’s secrets might involve Freedom’s newest prisoner, the rebel Jag Barque…. 

Elana's work including POSSESSION, REGRET, and SURRENDER is available from Simon & Schuster wherever books are sold. She is the author of From the Query to the Call, an ebook that every writer needs to read before they query, which can be downloaded for free on her website. She runs a personal blog on publishing and is a founding author of the QueryTracker blog. She blogs regularly at The League of Extraordinary Writers, co-organizes WriteOnCon, and is a member of SCBWI, ANWA and LDStorymakers. Find her on her Blog, Facebook, and Twitter.

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