Inspired: A Summer of Songs Introduction

I'm so excited for all of you to see the event I've been working on for months! I really hope you'll all enjoy it, but even if no one reads these posts, I'm glad to know that some people were able to try their hand at something I love (lyric writing) and that authors got to see and respond to them.

Basically, the seeds of the idea came to me while I was participating in FAWM. After feeling at a loss in terms of song inspiration and ideas, I decided to use a book I had just finished reading, Solving for Ex, to help me finish the song I was then working on. And I told the author, Leigh Ann Kopans, about how I had written a song based on her book. Of course, she was excited, and I shared it with her (they're all posted publicly on my FAWM profile page). And I continued with a similar trend whenever I couldn't think of anything to write a song about--I'd write songs based on and inspired by books I loved and was reading. Some of them are more obviously fitting of the book than others, which was more based on the themes or such from the book.

And seeing how gracious and excited the authors were about the songs, I knew I wanted to be able to write and share more, getting bloggers and other authors involved. However, as you can imagine, very few people felt qualified and/or wanted to try their hand at lyric writing, so most of the songs are written by me. Of course, I will be giving credit to the respective writers though. And basically, I have most of the authors participating (if the author of the book written about couldn't participate, I asked a fellow blogger to write the post), providing their thoughts, feedback, and maybe a bit of fangirling on the lyrics. Many of the songs I wrote during FAWM are being showcased here, mostly due to a lack of more time to write and the small number of bloggers participating.

Anyway, I hope you find this as cool and *ahem* inspiring as I do. I may even turn this into a blog feature if I get a large amount of positive thoughts regarding this event. Please do try to read through the lyrics (particularly those written by other bloggers because they put in so much work), as well as the author's/other blogger's response. I think both sides would greatly appreciate it. And PLEASE let me know what you think of the event! (I hope I'm not the only one that thinks this is really awesome (if I do say so myself).)

Anyway, without further ado, here's the schedule, starting with, of course, a song inspired by Leigh Ann Kopans' Solving for Ex on Wednesday (8/13).

8/13: 

100 Colors (written by Jessica aka me)

Solving for Ex, Leigh Ann Kopans

8/15:

The Definition of Us (written by Jessica)

Open Road Summer, Emery Lord

8/17: 

Break the Gold Cage (written by Jessica)

A Mad, Wicked Folly, Sharon Biggs Waller

8/19:

Once We Were (written by Jessica)

Once We Were, Kat Zhang

8/21:

Winner (written by Jessica)

Fire & Flood, Victoria Scott

8/23:

Stronger and Closer (written by Jessica), Anymore (More Than A Misfit) (written by Jessica)

Something Strange and Deadly (series), Susan Dennard

8/25:

The Flaw (written by Nova @ Out of Time)

The Program, Suzanne Young

8/27:

Come Home (written by Isabel @ Tween 2 Teen Book Reviews)

Pushing the Limits, Katie McGarry

8/29:

Of Dreams (written by Jessica)

The Last Flock, Sonia Fuderer (*sort of)