Evolve : Playlist 

Immersive reading experience

The concept for evolve arrived and was developed around 2013. Then it was called Monsters on the bypass, at least that was what I was referring to it as. 

Back then, the story looked very different. There are no spoilers here. And no lengthy back stories. Those are published elsewhere. But, I will use the original story line elsewhere in my universe. Possibly, Agents. 

Anyway, as the concept turned into plots, and those into key points, then characters, the found myself looking for inspiration to pull it all together. Films like:

-behind Enemy lines (2001), story by Jim and John Thomas (the creators of predator). Screenplay by Zak Penn (creator of Alphas & writer for many, many marvel movies) and David Velzo. 

-Battle Los Angeles (2011), story by Christopher Bertolini 

-Edge of tomorrow (2014),  based on the story by Hiroshi Sakuraska, screenplay by Christopher McQuarrie, Jez Butterworth, John-Henry Butterworth

-world war Z (2013), screenplay by Matthew Michael Carnahan, Drew Goddard, Damon Lindelof, Michael Straczynski, based on novel by Max Brooks

-the A-team (2010), written by Joe Carnahan, Brian Bloom, and Skip Woods

-dog soldiers (2002), written by Neil Marshall 

-numerous zombie movies and TV shows helped me develop believability. 

Book series like Arisen, Michael Stephen Fuchs (2013 to 2017) (greatest series ever); the Tide, Anthony J Melchiorri (2015 to 2017); Alien (1,2,3,4), Alan Dean Foster (2014 to 2017); Fear the Sky, Stephen Moss (2014 to 2016); A Long Time Until Now, Michael Z Williams (2016); Mountain Man, Keith C Blackmore (2012 to 2015) were invaluable in helping me develop a voice, style, narrative and format. 

Kudos to you authors, you are inspirational. 

When I finally had my story mapped out, imagine Dragons released their Smoke and Mirrors album (2015). It was epic. I really got into the album during 2016 – the same time that I was actually writing narrative and dialogue. 

I was fascinated by the album – no, I was infatuated by it. 

Then it occurred to me, the songs in this album (almost all of them) were almost prefect for the characters, situation and storyline. 
As always, serendipity played its part. My connection to this album started when I was working on the chapter 7 (which was 4) called Uneasy Truce, then Imagine Dragons’ song Warriors started on my Playlist. From that point, I could, for the first time, really visualise my characters. It was spectacular. 

I listened to the album, over and over and over again. Next, the song called Battle Cry transported me to the battle scene at the depot (chapter 8). The rest fell into place after that. 

I loved listening to those songs whilst mapping and writing the chapters. It made the whole experience atmospheric, transcending, encapsulating. 

Then it occurred to me, prehaps, those who read this book might also want to experience the book in this way. 

I should mention that I’m a huge fan of adventure books that turns a reader into a player. And my quest to merge boardgames with computer games. See, unplugged command. 

So, I was remembered Bryan Lee O’Malley (author of the Scott Pilgrim graphic series, and a genius) has a Playlist for his books. And that gave me the confidence to do this. 

I’m not sure of the legal aspects of making aspects of naming a song, let alone a whole album. It could, prehaps, be seen as trying to prompt the book through the success of popular artists. Not sure. But, in the academic world, this is easily overcome. It’s called… Referencing. And that’s what I’m doing. 

So, here is how I see the songs complementing the chapters. 

Chapter 1 Bypass – radioactive 

chapter 2 – lennox – monster

Chapter 3 – the hideaway – who we are

Chapter 4 – barracks – Gold

Chapter 5 – police station – trouble 

Chapter 6 – the saints are coming – polariod

Chapter 7 – uneasy truce – (Lennox’s rescue) warriors (drake and liam meeting) Friction

chapter 8 – the library – theif 

Chapter 9 – harper residence – shots (maybe one republic’s fingertips or choke) 

chapter 10 – the train line – (at start) I’m so sorry. (end) dream.

Chapter 11 – the depot – release. (end) second chances

Chapter 12 – the battle – battle cry

Chapter 13 – the wall – I bet my life, it comes back to you

Chapter 14 – Mr Red – smoke and mirrors