Reader Extras

Olivia Twist Playlist

For Olivia Twist I listen to a wide variety of music.

Gilt Hollow Playlist

Music is one of the things that inspires me most while I write. I can hear a song and it catapults me into a scene, a relationship, or an entire story. Gilt Hollow was no exception. Ashton in particular is emotionally moved by music. One of his favorite hangouts in the village is a record store called Twisted Beauty that specializes in vinyl albums. His musical tastes are influenced by the classic rocker who owns that store.

The actual playlist is long…over fifty songs! You can listen to it in its glorious entirety on YouTube.

I’m going to highlight the top twenty songs that shaped this story. I agonized way too long on which twenty to choose…

*Bonus: Disney’s Haunted Mansion – Otherworldly Concerto – I originally got the idea to write a thriller with a creepy vibe while in line for The Haunted Mansion ride at Disney World. It was a dark, rainy day and when I glanced up at the mansion, I saw a shadow move across one of the windows. I knew it wasn’t real, and yet, it gave me a chill that started my creative juices flowing. What if I wrote a novel about a creepy, old house that held secrets? And a girl that lived there and wasn’t quite sure if it was really haunted…This was the original spark for Gilt Hollow, even before I realized I wanted to write about a boy who’s a convicted felon.

Top 10 Quotes from GILT HOLLOW

Here are some of my favorite quotes from my YA romantic thriller, Gilt Hollow…in no particular order.

1. Everyone in town believed Keller House was haunted, and for Willow it was true. But the specters that disturbed her were not of the ethereal variety.
2. Something clicked behind his gaze and turned hot like a gas flame igniting. Willow sucked in a sharp breath as the planes of his face hardened into a mask of rage. And for the first time in four years, she believed Ashton Keller was capable of murder.
3. Willow scooted over to make room on the edge of the bed, her pulse accelerating as his large body sank the side of the mattress. He smelled like the night—open air and freedom.
4. The dark paneled walls and twelve-foot ceilings loomed, stretching and contracting in the shadows as if they had a life of their own. She should go downstairs and make some warm milk or peppermint tea, but the thought of walking through the spook factory of a house in the dead of night kept her glued to the mattress.
5. The monotonous tick of the antique clock on the mantel filled the silence as Ashton stared at her, unmoving. Time seemed to reverse and they were once again connected, their friendship the biggest thing in their world.
6. Piano, haunting and sweet, wove through the shop before it melded into a throbbing rhythm that seeped into Ashton’s blood and pulled him back into that closet with Willow—the curves of her face, the taste of her lips, the feel of her skin.
7. His father used to say that if the people of Gilt Hollow got any more open-minded, their brains would fall out. Ashton didn’t know if he agreed—he just hoped their open mindedness extended to him.
8. “What are friends for, if not to make you feel less weird?”
9. Silence loomed like a specter, stretching to fill the round two-story room and sucking the air from Ashton’s lungs. This man, this stranger, held countless words in his hands that summed up the life of a juvenile delinquent. But those words didn’t define him—his past or his future.
10. The hood muffled Willow’s hearing against the night—against the warning of someone approaching. A finger of panic traced down her spine and she picked up her pace. She never used to be afraid to walk the streets of Gilt Hollow alone. How quickly that had changed.