I love when our Words & Music Monday posts can do a mashup with our Coastal Magic Convention Featured Author Spotlights! Today we’re getting a sneak peek at the musical inspiration for a new-to-us Romantasy author in 2025, Charli Rahe!!
Music plays such an important part in my writing! I typically choose a “theme song” for my primary protagonist and go from there. I try not to list the songs on page so it doesn’t age the story, though I always have a playlist behind the scenes. Since I wrote Tried & True series a decade ago, you will find quite a few popular songs from the early 2010s, as well as geriatric millennial staples. Now, I can’t listen to these songs without seeing the characters in my mind’s eye. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!
To connect the songs to their respective scenes, I’ve broken them down below.
-Charli
1. During The Brass Ring, Scarlett and the ladies go to Animal Instincts, a nightclub for khorazes and tribal members, where they listen to “Filthy Mind” by Amanda Ghost, “Feel So Numb” by Rob Zombie, and “Freak On a Leash” by Korn.
2. Tawny hums “So This Is Love” from Disney’s Cinderella by Ilene Woods and Mike Douglas in Scarlet Sorrow after she meets Steel.
3. In nearly every book, Scarlett references her favorite song, “Do I Wanna Know?” by Arctic Monkeys.
4. In Jet Black Justice, Scarlett’s Playlist is called Crashing That Course which features, “Radioactive” by Imagine Dragons, “Paralyzer” by Finger Eleven, “You’re All I’ve Got Tonight” by Smashing Pumpkins, and “The Dog Days Are Over” byFlorence + The Machine.
5. Also in Jet Black Justice, Scarlett dances on her birthday at POP to “Do Want You Want To My Body”by Lady Gaga, “Scream & Shout” by Will.i.Am, “Right Now” by Rihanna, Can’t Hold Us by Macklemore, I’ve Kissed a Girl by Katy Perry, I Love It Icona Pop, and “Born This Way” by Lady Gaga.
6. In Indigo Nights, Slate embraces “Up All Night to Get Lucky” by Pharrell while working out with the usual suspects after a night with Scarlett and Jett turns the song off.
Swords and scandals, murder, and mysteries; Charli Rahe is the new name in the “romantasy” genre and kick butt heroines. Her debut Tried and Truth series is lauded as, “Dark, funny, sexy. I found my heart breaking right along with the characters,” by readers. She is a member the Chicago Writers Association and Chicago-North Romance Chapter.
“In 6th grade, I was told by my favorite teacher that I’d found my voice. I began journaling every day. By the end of high school I had filled six books with my day to day. I stopped and started several novels that went unfinished. In 2012, after I’d had my children, I was staying home with a toddler and twin infants devouring books nonstop. I discovered romantasy and things finally clicked. It was then that I decided to get a laptop and tell my own stories again. I haven’t stopped since.”
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I hope you’ve enjoyed this Coastal Magic Convention Featured Author Spotlight post.
Charli will be one of the amazing authors we’ll get to hang out with during the 13th annual reader weekend in Daytona Beach, FL, Feb 20-23, 2025.
For a full list of Featured Authors, info about the weekend, and link to register to attend, visit http://www.CoastalMagicConvention.com.
And be sure to watch for more Featured Author spotlights coming up here each month!
Funk-N-Fiction 