YA author playlist

I came across this Buzzfeed article where YA authors chose their favourite summer songs. There's loads of really excellent authors contained in it and some fantastic songs. I especially love Boys of Summer (both the Don Henley version and the Ataris' cover) and think it's one of those songs that has novels contained within it. Novels about escaping small town America with your friends and having friends as chosen family and stuff like that. A good example of that type of novel would be The Perks of Being a Wallflower which I first read aged 24, I wish I'd been 15 when I read it.

I recently started work on a new manuscript, inspired in part by the song I'm going to share below. My main character is from a small seaside town and has just dropped out of university, so she decides to go to New York to meet her dad, who she's never known. He's been living in the punk squats and playing in punk bands, but he's no longer there. She is loaned a Lincoln Continental to drive to where he's supposed to be living. On the way she meets a girl with sailor tattoos, and falls in love.

I love the potential in a new manuscript, all the words yet to be written. I've been working on editing something, which is boring and painful when I have to cut things, but I'm about ready to move to something new... A roadtrip novel. Enjoy the song!