My Book Chatter...: Blog Tour feat Guest Post ~ Mutilate My Heart by Emily Godwin

November 28, 2013

Blog Tour feat Guest Post ~ Mutilate My Heart by Emily Godwin

Title: Mutilate My Heart (Mutilate #1)

Author: Emily Godwin
Date of Publication: July 9, 2013
Genre: contemporary YA romance with paranormal elements

Punk rock band Mutilated Arteries has been seventeen-year-old Becca's world (aka obsession) for the last year. When the band schedules a concert in her hometown, she and her best friend Carli are the first ones in line to buy tickets. The night is everything she expects it to be and more, especially after making friends with the new super-cute bassist, Sketch.

Becca's mom warns her not to fall for a rock star because rock stars are always on the road - or they die in a plane crash, like her mom's favorite band did twenty-something years ago. But after the band's tour bus breaks down and they're stuck hanging out in Roizen Hills for a week, it's hard for Becca not to fall for Sketch and his caricature drawings and toxic green eyes.

Becca knows Sketch is leaving as soon as the bus is fixed, and she can't be his fan-turned-girlfriend anyway because of the lead singer's "No Girlfriends" rule. Plus, there's something strange about the guys that Becca can't quite decipher... like how they won't reveal their real names, their always-changing odd appearances, and the guitarist's obsession with blood and zombies. Still, Becca wants nothing more than for Sketch to mutilate her heart...but it just might not be in a way she expects.

Goodreads link: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17622850-mutilate-my-heart

Purchase links: Amazon | B&N

Excerpt

The bathroom walls are covered in names, phone numbers, and song lyrics. I scan the walls looking for any Depressed Michael or Mutilated Arteries lyrics, but of course there’s not any.

“This bathroom is disgusting!” Carli calls out from behind the puke-colored stall.

I don’t say anything. I’m trying to think of the perfect lyric to add to the wall of words. I pull the black Sharpie from my bag and pop the lid off.

Come dance with me to the drumming of our once-beating hearts, and stay with me forever at this undead masquerade.

Carli walks out while I’m emphasizing the last two words. I half expect her to say something about vandalism, but instead she grabs the marker from my hand and writes in huge letters We’re Already Dead!

Turning my camera on, I back as far away from the wall as I can, so I can get all of it in one shot. Maybe some random girl will go into the Princess’s bathroom, see the words on the wall, and wonder just what song they’re from, and I’ll have broadened the Mutilated Arteries fan base by one. I give our handiwork one last look before leading the way out of the bathroom.

I turn to tell Carli that we could be unknowingly spreading the love of our favorite band, but it’s not Carli who’s behind me.

So much goes into creating a fictional band for a novel, and more times than not, authors pull inspiration from their own favorite bands. I am definitely not an exception. Mutilated Arteries is made up of different elements of some of my absolute favorite bands of all time, and since you guys can’t actually meet this band, I wanted to share their inspirations with you.

One of my biggest inspirations was rock band Escape the Fate. Many songs from their self-titled album played into Mutilated Arteries’ songs. I listened to this album so much while writing Mutilate My Heart. It really set the tone and gave it the darkness I wanted for the paranormal aspect of the story.

Hawthorne Heights helped inspire a lot more than just Mutilated Arteries’ lyrics and song titles. A few months before I started writing Mutilate My Heart, my sister Nikki and I went to see Hawthorne Heights live. It was my first concert and a lot of the things that happened that night went into the chapter where Becca goes to see Mutilated Arteries perform live. Lyrics on the bathroom wall, the screaming lead guitarist stepping in between us, and talking to the lead singer while he set up his microphone were all awesome things that happened to us that night and have now been immortalized through this book.

If you find yourself wanting to check out Mutilated Arteries’ music, give either of these bands a listen, and it’ll almost be like you’re at an actual Mutilated Arteries show!

Emily Godwin is a Young Adult author. She enjoys writing, painting, and sewing her own line of non-evil voodoo dolls. She's a Slytherin, trying to disguise herself as a Hufflepuff, and wishes she could read herself into books.