An “If You’re Lucky” Mixtape
If you ask Yvonne Prinz, author and co-founder of Amoeba Music, how we met, she will tell you we were in a band together that broke up because she insisted on playing the theremin. She will be lying, but she loves a good scenario. We actually met after I wrote her a mash note about her YA book Vinyl Princess, which remains one of my very favorite reads of any genre. In part I loved it because for a while Yvonne blogged in the voice of its teenage vinyl-loving heroine and gave out astoundingly good music recommendations along the way. Yvonne’s latest YA novel, If You’re Lucky, is a thriller set on the Cali coast, a page turner from the opening paragraph. And as you’d expect from someone who founded the world’s largest independent record store, her book’s playlist is top notch.
If You’re Lucky Mixtape
by Yvonne Prinz
“If You’re Lucky” is the story of Georgia, a paranoid schizophrenic teenager who lives in False Bay, a fictional hamlet on the foggy, moody North coast of California.
On the first page of “If You’re Lucky”, Georgia learns that her only sibling, Lucky, a likeable, easy-going adventurer, has drowned in a surfing accident in Australia. This event sends her reeling. Almost overnight she goes from somewhat stable to fragile to increasingly volatile to believing that her dead brother who starts to appear to her as a ghost, is trying to tell her that he was murdered by the charismatic “Fin” who has arrived in False Bay claiming that he and Lucky were “like brothers” back in Australia. Fin has handily charmed the entire town in much the same way that Lucky did. Georgia, fueled by “messages” from her brother, pursues the notion that there is something more sinister in his intentions.
This novel came to me in fits and false starts and middle-of-the-night epiphanies and endless rewrites. Some days it felt like the book was a beast that was haunting me, bullying the story out of me. Creating this story was a completely different experience from anything else I’d ever written. I believe it transformed my writing, partly because it was my first thriller and partly because the rewrite process was so difficult. I lived in that foggy town for so long that I think I went a little crazy but there’s something to be said for a writing experience that pushes the author to the edge. I think it might bring out your best work.
My playlist is a combination of what I think might be going on in Georgia’s head and my own feelings about the place and what happened there:
“Poison Oak” – Bright Eyes
I love these lyrics. I think that Oberst wrote this song to go with my story. That isn’t true, of course, but the song reminds me of my character, Georgia, and her brother, Lucky. Georgia has always been in awe of Lucky’s ease in his life. He brought the world home to False Bay with him when he returned from his adventures and he made it seem small and friendly. After he’s gone, Georgia doesn’t know how to look at the world anymore. It becomes big and scary. When she starts to lose her grip on things, she knows something very frightening is happening to her but she can’t quite define it or express it in a believable way and then it gets tangled up with her mental illness. She disappears into the woods and wakes up in a hospital with a bad case of poison oak.
“I fell asleep with you still talking to me and you said you weren’t afraid to die”
“In My Sleep” – Austin Hartley and Kendall Jane Meade
This one’s a weeper. Georgia is hanging on to her dead brother too tight and she sees him in her dreams, always in the water, always reaching for her. She wakes up gasping for air. I don’t remember where I found this song but it speaks to what Georgia is experiencing and her loss.
“Sailor Song”- The Felice Brothers
The Felice Brothers are self-proclaimed slouching Hudson River Pirates. They seem to have a song for every occasion. This one speaks to me when I think about what’s going on with Georgia as she starts to lose her grip. Her delusions start to define her life as she slips away from reality. I love the old-timey feel of this tune. The Felice Brothers are fearlessly atmospheric in their compositions and arrangements.
“Shangri-la” – Mark Knopfler
Lots of surf culture in this story. Georgia’s brother Lucky thrived in that life. He worked here and there and then followed the waves around the world. I’ve always loved the way this song speaks to that Gypsy life that Lucky embraced. We get to know Lucky through the backstory Georgia tells throughout the novel. This song goes nicely with that story.
“Minor Swing” – Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grapelli
In Chapter Nine, Sonia (Lucky’s girlfriend) and Georgia take a drive down to a small bar in Bodega (near where Tom Waits now lives, incidentally) to see a Gypsy Swing band. They’re surprised when Fin gets onstage to sit in with the band. He’s obviously an accomplished guitar player and neither of them knew anything about this. Later in the story it’s revealed that Fin is the son of a musician, who was very much like Django Reinhardt. This adds to Fin’s mystique and that night at the bar, Sonia starts to fall in love with him. How could she not? I’m a fan of Gypsy Jazz and I loved building a character with a flourish like this, another dollop of intrigue, another layer to explore.
“Be that Man” – Goran Bregovic featuring Eugene Hutz
I used this video to help me in creating the Fin character, a charmer with Romany roots and a certain worldliness, someone for Georgia to fall for and then start to wonder about. Eugene Hutz (of Gogol Bordello) is much older than Fin but I used him as a guide. Fin has that same swagger and charm to spare.
“Trickster and seductress, we, tap dancing on mine fields every day.”***And here’s one bonus video for you – the hot-off-the-presses book trailer for If You’re Lucky…Want to win your own copy of If You’re Lucky? Leave a comment below with the name of your lucky song (define it however you will.) I’ll pick a winner using Random.org on Tuesday 2/23 at 5 pm PT.
Yvonne Prinz is the award-winning author of “The Vinyl Princess” and “All You Get Is Me”. A Canadian, living in San Francisco Bay Area, she is the co-founder of Amoeba Music, the world’s largest independent record store.
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