Guest post: Series Playlist by Jus Acardo, author of ALPHA, Book 3 in The Infinity Division Series

If there was a soundtrack for my life, it’d be diverse. Everything from Elvis – I can’t help falling in love with you to Five Finger Death Punch – Battle Born. Other than books—and food—music is my thing. Oh. And animals. And the outdoors…

I have a lot of things.

When I think about my husband, it’s Vain – Without You. He played it for me one of the first few times we hung out. When I hear Loudon Wainwright – Dead Skunk—yes, I have this on my phone—I think of the trip Hershey Park when I was a kid. There was a skunk, a Nun, and some candy bars. Don’t ask.

When I hear Muse – Supermassive Black Hole, I think about vampires. Playing baseball.

You know you do, too. No one’s judging.

But music is more than inspirational for me—it’s essential, an integral part of my writing process. Scenes play out in my head like a movie. And everyone knows all good movies need a killer soundtrack. The right song can help set the appropriate mood and put me in the headspace that I need for a particular scene. Anything from a high-octane chase scene or blood pumping epic battle, to those tragic backstory moments or heartwarming, awe inspiring declarations of love.

I have playlists for each book, many scenes, and most characters. Usually I start off with a few general songs. Ones that fit the overall mood of the book and the picture I have of it all in my head. From there, I add as I go along. As relationships develop, the list continues to grow.

Each of the three main couples in the Infinity Division series have their own song. Usually it takes me most of the first draft of a book to pick the perfect one, but when it came to this series, I had songs chosen for all three couples right after the first draft of the first book!

Infinity – Kori and Cade: Hozier – Take me To Church

Omega – Noah and Ash: Hailee Steinfeld Ft Zedd – Starving

Alpha – G and Sera: Stone Sour – Song #3

Each character had their own playlist, but also a key song. Something that, to me, embodied their personality, situation, and/or struggles. Since the books are all told from different points of view, these songs helped me get inside the head of each narrator.

Kori: Raise Hell – Dorothy

Cade: Dangerous – Shaman’s Harvest

Noah: Do I Wanna Know – Arctic Monkeys

Ash: Roots – In This Moment

G: Bury Me With My Guns – Bobaflex

Sera: Supposed to be – Icon For Hire

Dylan: Bad Man – Bobaflex

I can’t fathom living—or working—without music. I’d be utterly lost. What about you? Do you have a particular artist or song that’s your go-to? What’s your current fave?

**You can view the entire playlist for the Infinity Division series here!**

Sera has no memory of her life before. Before captivity, before experiments, before the only lifeline she had was the voice of a boy in the cell next to hers. Before G.

G wishes he could forget everything before Sera brought him back to life. Forget his memories as a ruthless mercenary on an alternate version of Earth. Forget that he was part of an experiment simply known as Alpha.

Now on the run from their captors and in need of an antidote to save his life, G and Sera’s clock is ticking. And they’ll have to gamble everything on the bond they forged in captivity if they want to survive.

Jus Accardo spent her childhood reading and learning to cook. Determined to follow in her grandfather’s footsteps as a chef, she applied and was accepted to the Culinary Institute of America. But at the last minute, she realized her true path lay with fiction, not food. Jus is the bestselling author of the popular Denazen series from Entangled publishing, as well as the Darker Agency series, and the New Adult series, The Eternal Balance. A native New Yorker, she lives in the middle of nowhere with her husband, three dogs, and sometimes guard bear, Oswald.