Owlet Blog Tour: Excerpt + Play List + Giveaway

Somewhere between falling and flying… there is a girl.

Iris has a secret. She lost her memory eight years ago and never told a living soul. After an asthma attack one night she finds out that her dreams of a strange house on a snowy island may be a memory resurfacing but the more she learns about the past the more she realizes the life she has been living is a lie. As the façade her father has built starts to crumble around her she will have to decide which means more to her; the truth or her life.

Thanks for stopping in to check out OWLET by Emma Michaels (amazing cover, huh?).  If you're looking for an excerpt, look no further:

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The thought roared loudly in her ears. When her decision was made, Iris felt herself fall forward, letting everything about her life fade away as she began to plummet. Just as the ground came rushing toward her face she felt the wind catch beneath wings she would never have. She leaned into the wind and smiled as the moment between falling and flying consumed her. She was Wendy—with no need for a Peter Pan. She knew the way to her very own Neverland; she called ‘Never-Never.’ She knew how to fly without instruction letting the dreams she held at bay ensnare her soul and push her to new heights.

Only Never-Never was much more aptly named than Peter Pan’s Neverland, because Iris would never get to go there. It simply didn’t exist; it would never be her true Neverland. She wanted the one thing that she could never have, but every night she still trusted the wind to take her there. As she traveled she would feel the chill of the rain turning into snow and freezing her skin through her nightgown. She knew she was close when she passed a towering city and was headed towards the sea.

“The island.
        My island.
                My Never-Never.”

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Okay, now you ready to hear Emma's playlist for the novel?  Check out these songs via Emma's guest post:

When my first two novels in my other series came out, I was always asked if there was a playlist of the songs that inspired me and sadly, there wasn’t. So while going through and writing Owlet I started writing down the songs I was listening to and compiling a list. 

Here is the Owlet playlist!

Human - Ellie Goulding

(I love the song human by Ellie Goulding because it has such a sense of longing for something a person already has and that is something Iris had a hard time coming to terms with. All she wanted to be was the girl she was when she dreamt but she didn’t even realize, she already was, she just wasn’t letting her out while awake.)

Cut – Plumb

(This song is so bittersweet and fragile while being so raw and having a hidden strength. The longing in her voice when she says ‘I do not want to be afraid’ and ‘I am tired of feeling so numb’ but the line that really played a huge part in writing a scene was ‘I feel alone here and cold here, oh, I don’t want to die’. A hint for those who have read Owlet; the scene involves water ;-)  )

Running up that hill – Placebo

(This song always gets me so I can’t listen to it all that often. This is Falcon’s song. It has his raw nature and the pain of what happened to him but it also has that love and the desperate need he feels almost constantly. He would literally do anything to keep Iris from feeling pain she doesn’t remember feeling, but he does and he knows it broke her.)

Gasoline Rainbows - Amy Kuney

The Wolves (cover) - Ellie Goulding

What the water gave me - Florence and the Machine

Wolf & I - Oh Land

(Oh Land’s music is so unique and interesting. It has that indie feel but with popish/electric beats so you can get the emotions while having the pep. I love using songs like this to type to because I can’t help but type to beats, so fast music helps me get the ideas out as they come instead of slowing myself down for my hands to catch up.)

Let's get lost - Beck and Bat for Lashes

Losing your memory - Ryan Star

(This song is part of what decided for me what happened to Iris. I won’t spoil it since it is revealed fully in book two but this song really hit home when writing the scene where I realized just what happened so long ago. What broke Iris.)

Spell - Marie Digby

Cosmic Love - Florence and the Machine

(I just LOVE Florence and the Machine. The main thing that always gets me is that each of her songs has a great beat and a plot. My ultimate fascination, other than my personal beliefs and discovering how true love works with my fiancé, is plots. I love plots and especially character arcs. Something about it will always keep me glued and each of her songs does that to me. Very inspirational.)

Howl - Florence and the Machine

Stripped - Shiny Toy Guns

(This is Caleb’s song. It is how he thinks. You will find out more about him in book two and finally start to understand his actions. Let’s just say, I believe that there are no true villains, just people and there is something that drove him to be what he is.)

Under the stars - Morning Parade

Little Dreams - Ellie Goulding

A thousand years - Christina Perri

Whole wide world - Mindy Gledhill

Everywhere I go - Lissie

All that you give - Kaskade

Like a star - Corinne Bailey Rae

(This song isn’t my normal style but something about Corinne’s voice stops me in my tracks. I was watching Medium at a friend’s house on the tv (I don’t keep a tv in my house, less distractions) when this came on and reminded me of the first time I heard it. I completely forgot what was going on and just wanted to listen to that song over and over again, so I sat down to write and did. :p )

Distance - Christina Perri

Hawk eyes - The Kicks

Echo - Jason Walker

Breath again - Sara Bareillas

Head of heels - Digital daggers

(I used to listen to the original of this song with my mother when I was younger. We both loved eerie songs and I LOVE the Digital Daggers version! )

The man who can't be moved - The Script

I'll hold my breath - Ellie Goulding

Lights - Ellie Goulding

Set fire to the rain - Adele

Don't love - F T Island

(There was a video once posted on YouTube with this song and it featured a few of my favorite scenes from KDramas and JDramas and I am not someone who cries but I did. Of course my fiancé thought I had gotten an e-mail that someone had died with how I was staring at the screen until I showed him the video. Yeah… he didn’t cry. But he understood. Lol. I ended up writing for hours afterwards just to get all of the emotions out.)

I Hope - F T Island

Set fire to the third bar - Snow Patrol

Bizarre love triangle - Frente!

Headlock - Imogen Heap

Pitterpat - Erin McCarley

Beautiful - Mandalay

The call - Regina Spektor

Feel it in my bones - Tiesto featuring Tegan & Sara

(I LOVE this song. I think it will actually end up on three novel playlists since two of my other projects ended up having this be a cross over song. It inspired me during Owlet and then again when working on two of my stand alone novels I was working on as side projects. Eventually I plan on turning to them again and finishing them up. )

Music is a big inspiration for me. I hope you will check out a few of these artists! 

So here is my question for you:

What is your favorite song? What is a song you always wanted to see on an author’s playlist but no one seems to listen to?

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And last but not least, here's how to enter Emma's big giveaway:

a Rafflecopter giveaway
You can find out all you ever wanted to know about Emma and OWLET below.  And once you're done stalking, er, following her, check out the other stops on the OWLET blog tour to continue reading the fabulous excerpts.

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http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14059271-owlet
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http://emmamichaels.com/
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