#Reilly Mosswolf

[author-a-holmes]

Find The Word Tag Game

Thank you @oh-no-another-idea for the Tag!

Tagging forward, with no pressure, to: @wordsacrossemptypages @amewinterswriting @talesofsorrowandofruin @talesfromaurea @blind-the-winds @faelanvance @ambiguouspuzuma @sleepyowlwrites @authoralexharvey @ashen-crest and @serialephemera -- Also OPEN TAG to anyone who wants to play.

Your Words Are: Wet, Cold, Grey/Gray, Broken, and Tired.

***

My words were Frost, Dust, Burst, and West. I only had 2 of these in Changeling, and only 1 in Darkling, so I've gone back in time a little and done a "Find The Word" tag game for Stolen.

Stella, my beloved, I have missed you...

Taglist for Stolen: @josephinegerardywrite @strangerays @minamoroz @sleepyowlwrites General Taglist: @noirepersonal @queen-kass-the-writer @athenswrites @bardic-tales @outpost51 @talesfromaurea @minamoroz @faelanvance

Frost Ice (No frost, only ice)

Stella watched a whirlwind of emotions swirl their way across Indre's features at Nilions words. A splash of confusion, a dash of anger, and a wisp of fear. Frustration, annoyance, nervousness, determination, all vying for a place within her eyes, before she tightened her shoulders and the emotions vanished behind the kind of mask that Stella had seen soldiers wear hundreds of times.

"Then if you're heading for the basement, you'd best be on your way, girl," Indre ordered, a bite of ice in her tone that had Stella backing up another step in spite of herself.

Dust

If she hadn’t already known that the building was a base for a guild, the moment that her booted feet sank into a thick plush carpet would have told Stella something wasn’t right.

No dust rose around her as she stepped across the room, and the bed in the corner had fresh sheets. She paused at the door, listening intently for any movement on the other side, and when all she could make out was silence, Stella slipped out of the room and into a wide hallway with various doors scattered along both sides and a flight of stairs at the far end.

Burst

"Time to call the mother hen, then," he grumbled, "get Dara's fussing out of the way sooner rather than later."

"Honestly, you could do with some mother henning," Stella teased, "you look like shit."

He gaped at her for a moment in surprise, until she burst into delighted giggles, and he took a single self indulgent moment to just watch the blonde laugh before he forced a scowl on to his face, despite the ache it sent through his cuts and bruises.

"Thank you, Stella, you really know how to stroke a mans ego," he growled, sending her into fresh peals of laughter as he shook his head...

West

There was a flicker of recognition in his expression before his features settled back into stoic indifference, and Stella snatched her hands away and took a step back, stuttering an apology.

"Ah, you're Reilly's newest project," the elf said, leaning his shoulder against the doorframe, and crossing his arms as he studied her, "I thought he'd have you shut up inside a glass box, protected from even the mere mention of 'Vine'."

[knuttydraws]

Can't remember the last time I drew something unrelated to Dragon Age, but @author-a-holmes broke the spell 😆 So here they are, Reilly and Stella from the unpublished "Stolen" novel. They were absolutely delightful to draw and now I love them ❤

[author-a-holmes]

I hadn't thought about this, but you're right. There's a HUGE emphasis on OTP or "One True Love" that any previous love gets dismissed or removed.

But I like characters with history. Even if a love ended badly, the characters have learnt something from it. Been hurt by it, and figured out how to evolve beyond that point in their life.

Character dynamics are important, even when they're in the past because the past effects how your characters behave in the present moment.

(I realise you're talking about Fandom, OP, but if I can pull an example from my original writing... Stolen Spoilers Beneath the Cut)

Reilly Mosswolf has a past love, that I'm hoping will rear her head in book three. She used his position, and his feelings for her, to advance herself through the guild.

But Reilly truly loved her, and that's left scars. It's part of the reason he panics so hard when he realises what he's beginning to feel for Stella, because there's a definite moment of "Oh shit, I can't go through his again"

And as OP says, watching a character deal with the memories, the history, the fallout, and the scars, from a past relationship, enough to be able to open up to someone new... that's where some real heart-crushing magic can happen!

You know what I think its grossly under-rated in fandom? Second loves.

What it's like to love and lose and then love again. To suffer through either the death of a loved one or the death of a love you used to share. To know that loss, to know that hurt, and to still make yourself vulnerable to someone again. To love scared, to love wounded, to love anyway.

[author-a-holmes]

Hi detective

Your characters go to a hat shop because for plot reasons they need fancy/silly hats to survive a Situation. What do each of them get?

Hello Sleepy, darling. Thank you for the fun ask, and apologies as always for the delay <3

HATS...

Lizzy would hate this so much because she'd feel like everyone was staring at her. And the last thing she wants is to be the centre of attention. So she'd probably pick something that she'd be able to use to hide behind...

For Andric, I'll admit to this one being entirely self indulgent. I don't think it's possible for a man can look bad in a leather fedora with a braided band.

Reilly would absolutely lean into the silly. This is the man who dressed as a female prostitute to complete a pick-pocket job once. He has no shame, and would probably think it's a great, hilarious, game. Something very Mad Hatter-esque. Maybe with a veil of some sort. He'd claim is was for anonymity, but really it would just be because he could.

Stella! Stella wouldn't even know what sort of hat to buy if she was looking for fancy, and for silly she wouldn't know where to shop. She's nothing if not practical, so she'd probably let Dara pick for her... which would end up with a fancy hat. Dara likes nothing more than dressing Stella up in silks and lace and velvets, just to watch Reilly's jaw bounce off the floor.

I've grabbed this image from the 1969 Hello Dolly! with Barbra Striesand specifically for the warm colours since I think it would go with Stella's golden yellow hair, but honestly, any of the hats from the costumes in that film would be something Dara would pick out for Stella.

And now I may have to put the DVD on because I have all the songs stuck in my head lol <3 Thank you for the ask lovely.

[author-a-holmes]

Hi detective love

Pick one (or a few) ocs and describe a typical outfit. And, of you're feeling fancy, a nicer outfit for some event. Reference photos are optional.

Hello Sleepy, darling <3

How. How did you know that I'm actively working on compiling Artist Reference Sheets for my characters right now? :D

I don't actually have any set up for my Fey Touched project (yet!) but I do have some for Stolen, specifically Stella and Reilly.

And, since I know you've expressed an interest in Stella before, lemme share some of her preferred outfits...

Shoving it below a cut because it's image heavy <3

Stella Korazon (Stolen)

By choice, Stella dresses for simplicity and effectiveness. She dresses in muted browns to help her blend in, and likes clothes with pockets to keep her thief tools easily to hand.Her boots are her most expensive item, because she travels across Moryann. They have to be sturdy, hard wearing, comfortable, and also silent when she’s breaking into people's homes.

Her leather trousers are also well worn with travel. Stella’s pants are laced closed, and also have lacing on the lower half of the leg so they can be adjusted around boots, or for riding.

For shirts, Stella is partial to long tunic style shirts. Usually in linen or wool, and still in muted tones although she sometimes departs from brown to other natural dyed colours such as greys, greens, or blues.

Her tunics are usually long enough to hit the pubic bone/half way down the ass. The sleeves will be narrow, or tight. She can’t have loose sleeves when picking pockets. The reference image below has open sections on the sleeves, but they might also be solid fabric. Her shirts are really the area Stella has a variety of styles.

The neckline could be wide, as in the reference image, or it might be close to the neck, or it might be v-neck and laced.

Stella also wears a thin brown leather belt. It’s long, and wraps around her waist twice, before being tied off in a loop-like knot.

Attached to her belt, usually on the left hand side, is one small brown leather pouch. It’s where she keeps her thieves' tools.

Stella's never really had an opportunity to wear a nice outfit to a special event, until Book Two, Takeover.

I send her and Reilly to a ball and have to put my scrappy little thief into a gown so I may or may not have put my Highschool textiles design class to use and drawn her a dress...

The dragonfly brooch is worn on her hip and can be used to hold back the skirts to give her a larger range of movement. Additionally, hiding beneath it's tail and wing segments, this dragon fly is hiding an intricate set of lockpicks.

The lovely Knutty (@knuttydraws) accepted a commission of Stella (And Reilly) based on these details, so I'm just going to show that picture off at the end, because I never get tired of staring at it...

[author-a-holmes]

Happy STS! I'm turning your question back on you cause I really wanna know. What's a line or scene from your works that you're proud of?

Hello hun! Thank you for the ask <3 I hope your weekend's going well!

I'm not gonna lie, I thought this would be an easy one to answer but I've been staring at my screen for ages trying to pick just one line/scene.

Do I share my most recent one? Or the first time I remember reaading back a line and falling in love with my own words? Or something in the middle of all that?

I've finally settled on a scene in book two of my 'Stolen Stories' series, where Stella runs across a creature I've designed called the Krilla-Setika. I really love this scene in part because it was quite fun to write Stella just falling back in base insticts, her fear overiding thought when she's usually very held together, but I also just really loved describing the creature I'd created.

It was great fun adding details for the reader, the longer Stella stared at it, and just upping the creep-factor as it advanced on her...

They retraced their steps back towards the window they'd used to enter the building, moving quickly but not quite falling into a run as Reilly pulled them both to a stop at every corner so he could carefully check the next hallway. It was the soft clicking sound of claws against stone made them both pause, but Stella could already tell it wasn't coming from the hallway Reilly was in the middle of checking, her free hand landing against his shoulder as she glanced behind them and froze. It looked like a weasel, with large bat shaped wings, but it was huge. Almost twice as large as the mountain lions that roamed the peaks to the north and as Stella stared at the creature that seemed to be dripping shadows of smoke, its clawed feet clung to the wall and it skittered up to hang from the ceiling, it's wings spreading wide as the finger-like hooks at the wing tips embedded into the walls, bracing the creature and keeping it in place as Stella backed away. "Don't run," Reilly hissed in her ear and she shivered, eyes transfixed by the creature before her, but the longer she stared the more she saw. Scales covered its body, but it was somehow still translucent. She could see the hall behind through it's smokey form, and she shook her head, her skin crawling with the desire to get as far away as fast as possible. "Stella, don't run," Reilly warned again, his hand still curled around hers, but the creature tipped it's head at Reilly's voice, and she took another step back at the movements of a hunter, a predator, and she wanted nothing more than to flee. "Walk, don't run..." Stella could hear Reilly, knew the man well enough to know that he had to have a reason for the recommendation, but as the mass of dripping shadows began advancing slowly, her control snapped and she turned on her heel, dashing for their exit with Reilly's hand still grasped in hers.

[author-a-holmes]

It's a really powerful tool to put emphasis on something important and/or emotional in a scene.

It's also one of my favourite tools to use so I have to be careful I don't overuse it.

One of my favourite examples of this in my own work was a flash fiction piece I wrote about a character, Reilly Mosswolf. His sister goes missing, and then turns up dead a few weeks later.

But I wrote the scene where Reilly's told that his sister has been found, and he's just a raw open wound full of regrets, so repetition was a really effective way of showing the spiralling of his thoughts.

It's on tumblr, if anyone's curious, and can be read HERE.

you know what trope drives me absolutely feral? Repetition. Just :

"Hey, hey, it's okay"

"Shh, you're safe, you're safe, it's alright "

"Look at me. Hey, look at me"

"Stay with me. Come on, just stay with me"

"It's over. It's over now."

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry"

"I'm here. I'm right here"

[moryann-stolen-stories]

Stolen Stories;

Prequel - The Lost Mosswolf

Book One - Stolen

Book Two - Takeover

Book Three - Origin

Book Four - Loyalty

Book Five - E

Book Six - N

The Stolen Stories are a Romantic Epic Fantasy series. The manuscript for book one, Stolen, is already completed, but I didn't want my first, bumbling, foray into the world of self publishing to be done with this series.

This series, and the characters of Stella and Reilly specifically, are my darlings, and I love them too much to use them as a learning experiance.

A combination of learning, and finances, means that I don't plan to publish Stolen until the first half of 2025. With six books in the series, at two books a year, the Stolen Stories publication should span 2025-2027, with the prequel "The Lost Mosswolf" replacing the Fey Touched Trilogy's free prequel story on my newsletter.

The Lost Mosswolf

Blurb Pending

Stolen

It had been a long couple of weeks for Stella Korazon.

When a simple pickpocket job that goes horribly wrong sends her entire life spinning into chaos, Stella must figure out how to navigate the treacherous world of Moryann alone.

Finding herself in the City of Antillune she is quickly pulled into the middle of a brewing war between two thieves guilds when she finds herself coerced into stealing from Guild Master Mosswolf.

Surrounded on all side by rogues, liars, spies and betrayal, it's a constant struggle to know who she should trust, but standing in the heart of it all, can she find somewhere, or someone, to call home?

Takeover

Blurb Pending

Origin

Blurb Pending

Loyalty

Blurb Pending

E- Currently Unnamed

Blurb Pending

N- Currently Unnamed

Blurb Pending

[author-a-holmes]

Hug! I love you.

Love you too, Sleepy one <3 <3

"Why did you have to knock over the bloody vase?" Stella grumbled as she and Reilly ran through the streets of Antillune, the city guards barely a street behind them, and gaining. "It's not like I knew it was there!" he shot back, but Stella could hear the laughter in his voice and rolled her eyes as the pair of them spun around another corner. Piles of autumn leaves, slick with fresh rain almost sent Stella's feet skidding and only the firm grasp of Reilly's hand on her elbow stopped her from going over entirely. "No," Stella growled at him once she was sure she was going to stay on her feet, "It's not like I said anything like 'Be careful as you clamber in after me, there's a bloody great vase on a side table'!" "Can... can we argue about this later?" Reilly asked, laughing outright as he tried to catch his breath between his chuckles and staying ahead of the guards but as Stella shot him a fresh glare over her shoulder it just sent the guild master into a fresh round of snickers.

[author-a-holmes]

500 days ago was, for me, April 16th 2022 and I'd just taken delivery of my first piece of comissioned artwork.

I got a drawing done of my original characters, Stella Korazon and Reilly Mosswoolf, by the amazing @knuttydraws and it's been my PC Desktop Image ever since.

wait guys im curious— what were you doing 500 days ago? you can use a diary or whatever to check i just think that it'd just be cool to see

[author-a-holmes]

Belated OC Kiss Week

I was sick when Kiss Week was on this year, and I was very VERY much looking forward to those prompts.

So I'm taking advantage of the fact that I need some promotional posts next week across all my socials, and completing the prompts a month late.

And I'm loving some of these prompt fills I've come up with tonight.

My favourite part about OCKissWeek is that I get to play with characters that are either on the back burner, or who don't always have POV scenes of their own within the main books I'm working on.

[author-a-holmes]

Hi detective

In honor of Thanksgiving (for me) what are some things your blorbos are thankful for?

Hello Sleepy, Darling. I hope you're having a lovely holiday with the family etc etc.

As for the characters, and what they're grateful for...

Fey Touched Trilogy

Lizzy's grateful for Booker specifically. Lizzy can count her friends prior to coming to the mortal realm on one hand. On one finger, in fact, and she relies of Booker a lot.

Andric is grateful for a lot of things. His work, his friends, his training. He's grateful that he's settle in a job he can find fulfillment in, that he gets to protect people. He's grateful that he has a handful of good, reliable friends, and that above all of them Nameer will always have hsi back. He's grateful that his training means he's capable of managing complex situations alone, that he doesn't have to rely on his family, but he's also grateful that his family will support him, should he ever need it.

Booker is thankful to Madeline Hail, Lizzy's mother, for taking him in as a child. He was half dead from grief when Maddy came for him, and he absolutely knows he wouldn't have survived without her intervention. Even if he wasn't grateful for it at the time.

Stolen Stories Series

Stella Korazon is a tougher one to answer for. The way she was raised she was specifically taught not to be thankful to anyone except her Da', so early-days-Stella that would be where the answer might stop. Later stages, when she begins to question some of the ways she was brought up, Stella might be inclined to be thankful that some of the choices she made panned out the way they did. And be thankful that Reilly didn't decide to kill her for the way their first meeting went down. So, ultimately, she's probably grateful that the guild master's an inner softie.

Reilly Mosswolf is thankful that he's surrounded by people who care about him. That the guild was left to him by his mentor, and that Stella walked into his life just when he needed a bright ray of sunshin. Reilly tends to live in the moment, so the things he's thankful for are things that actively affect him now, rather than long-term gratefulness.

[author-a-holmes]

Hi detective

It's blorbsday! How tired are your ocs? Are any of them insomniacs? Do they ever get eight hours of sleep? (In this economy? In any economy?) Have they been Questing and therefore are rather bedraggled? Tell me.

My OC's are all tired. Mostly of me, tbh :D

Jokes aside, Reilly Mosswolf is an insomniac. He doesn't sleep well at all, and on the rare instances he does fall asleep, all of the members of his inner circle know to just cover him with a blanket wherever he's curled up, and leave him be.

Most of the time, he has a potion that will knock him out for a few hours, to help him get enough rest to function, but without it he'll wake every hour or so with nightmares.

There is a scene in book two where he's shocked to find that sleeping with Stella beside him seems to ward off his night terrors, but although her presence does help Reilly to relax enough to fall into sleep, Stella's presence isn't a cure-all long-term.

Stella doesn't have nightmares until book 2, Takeover. She has to do something that horrifies her and she avoids sleep for a while until Reilly helps her face what's scaring her so much. In general she sleeps well, but always wakes early. A Lifetime spent travelling on the road has trained her body to wake with the sun, even when she's not had enough hours sleeping.

As for the others, I don't think anyone in the Fey Touched Trilogy struggle with sleep at the moment, that may change in the future and post-the-end-of-the-books in particular. They're going to go through some things that, I think, resulting in nightmares might be a realistic expectation. *evil grin*.

Disclaimer: Answered August 10th. Scheduled for September 12th

[author-a-holmes]

Top 10 Favourite Character Essences

@faelanvance

Faelan heard about my "Favourite Characters" post that went out last night, and after reading it.. well. It's a little repetative, if you know me at all. Some familiar characters on there, so she challenged me to answer it a bit differently.

She challenged me to give my Top 10 favourite characters, based on their ESSENCE.

They have to be favourite characters that also have a deeper literary value, where you enjoy their specific role in the story, and this means that the list also has to exclude characters that would normally go on the list for purely nostalgic reasons.

They can be from Film, TV, or Written media, and this was surprisingly difficult so I've decided to share and also challenge a few other people, because my list of characters based on their essence is so entiely different from my normal "list of favourite characters" that I thought it would be an interesting exercise.

Let's just say I've learnt a LOT about my favourite character roles in fiction by putting together this list for Fae!

Tagging Forward, with no pressure, to: @minamoroz @night-market-if @arigalefantasynovels @sleepyowlwrites @world-of-fire-and-flight-admin @acertainmoshke @falesiacatwrites @ashen-crest and anyone else who wants to hop on the bandwagon <3

Top 10 Characters You Love The Essence Of

1. Niklaus Mikaelson From 'The Originals' and 'Vampire Diaries', TV Series.

Peak Morally Grey Character Energy. I want to find more books with characters like this, honestly. I love everything about this character. He's unapologetically who he is, and soft for exactly one person.

2. Patrick Jane From 'The Mentalist', TV Series.

He's such an intelligent, but inherently damaged, character and I love him. With a backstory that includes a wife and child murdered by a serial killer, Patrick is terrified of anybody getting close to hum and uses his sharp intelligence to deflect constantly. While also being on a path of vengence , the show d oesn't shy away from letting him complete that journey at any cost.

3. Althalus From 'The Redemption of Althalus' by David & Leigh Eddings, Book

This isn't the best of their books, it's quite hard reading, but my love for Althalus, the bastard thief, makes it worthwhile in my humble opinion. Althalus is an unrepentant liar and thief who gets blackmailed into doing good deeds by a Goddess in the form of a cat who adopts him (as cats are wont to do)

I really love him, and there's a lot of vibes that, on reflection, I feel have influenced my character, Reilly Mosswolf.

4. Deucalion From 'Teen Wolf', TV Series

To be fair I think a good 30% of my love for this character is that he's played by Gideon Emery because his voice makes the sheer SASS of Deucalion ratchet up by at least 1000 points.

Deucalion is an alpha of a wolf pack made up entirely of alpha's, and when he sets his sights on the show's main character he casually walks in and kills, threatens or injures about half a dozen people to make a point about how strong he is before casually waltzing out again.

He's fucking epic. Have a Youtube Clip to do that voice justice.

5. Tony Stark / Iron Man The Marvel Cinematic Universe, Films

He's an unapologetic asshole with too much money. Billionaire, Playboy, Philanthropist, who is so intelligent that his rate of sheer thinking is beyond most people's ability to follow.

It makes him difficult to relate to, and even more difficult for characters to trust, but it's the same things I love about his character.

Despite the perception and assholeryness he presents, he's usually doing what he's doing for good reasons, even if no on but he understands those reasons. And really most characters don't look past the fact that he's an asshole to consider that, most of the time, he's right.

He''s an interesting character with a lot of duality that I enjoy.

Bonus; He also has a little bit of Klaus Energy in that there is only a handful of people he truly cares about, and will go out of his way to be kind to.

6. Spike From 'Buffy The Vampire Slayer', TV Series

The essence of this character that I love is that he's really not a good 7. guy. At all.

For the entire show he's the vampire bad guy until he's implanted with a microchip in his brain that makes it impossible for him to attack humans. Like, that's the only reason he starts working with the "good guys".

And yes, in the final episode he saves the world, but when your entire nature and natural inclination to be evil is being curtailed, is that really a huge sacrifice on your part?

7. Dream From 'The Sandman' by Neil Gaiman, Graphic Novel Although, More Specifically, Netflix TV Series

Dream would probably be higher up my list, but I'm very new to the material and have only seen the Netflix show so far, but an eternal creature so far removed from humanity that the moral rules not only don't apply but are foreign to him is so fucking fascinating.

Like, at one point, he hears a man bragging how he's never going to die, so to see just how long this man would take before he begged for death, Dream has his sister, Death, make him immune. She never collects his soul, on the agreement that this man and Dream meet every 100 years so that he can tell Dream all the things he's experianced, and for Dream to see if he's ready to die yet.

Fascinating character 10/10.

8. Eric Draven From 'The Crow', Film

Eric is a man who is murdered and comes back to hand out vengence against the people who killed, not only him, but his wife/fiance as well.

He has one night. He is relentless. Merciless. Violent. And I adore him. You cannot go wrong with a man who'll come back from the dead for the woman he loves.

9. Heathcliff From 'Wuthering Heights' by Emily Bronte, Book

A complete mess of a man. Often described as a morally grey character, but Heathcliff is more of an anti-hero, in my opinion.

It's been a while since I read the book, so some of my details may be off, but the gist is that when the woman he loves determines that his station is too far below her's to marry, he sets out to ruin the life of her new husband, and ultimately her daughter, in an attempt to get her to regret her choice.

Instead, she dies and he spends the rest of the book bitter but stuck to his path of retribution against her ghost.

Wuthering Heights is a tragedy, and yet I freaking adore it, but the chaotic MESS of an energy that Heathcliff brings to the whole narrative really makes it for me.

And Finally...

10. Arya Stark (The Book Version) From 'A Song of Ice and Fire' Series by GRR Martin, Books

Arya almost didn't make my list because I didn't like what they did to her character in the final seasons of the show, but Book Arya is fantastic.

She refuses to fit a mould and she refuses to be saved. She refuses to conform to what's expected of her by society, even when she's trying to join the faceless ones and her father privately supports her by getting her sword fighting lessons.

She carves her own path, and I love that about her.

[moryann-stolen-stories]

There's a special shine that the eyes of a thief gain, that doesn't appear in the eyes of the average person, and I stand by that.

[author-a-holmes]

Shuffle your favorite playlist and post the first five songs that come up. Then copy/paste this ask to your favorite mutuals. 🎶🎧💜💙🤗

Is it sad that, despite being best friends, I read "send this to your favourite mutuals" and my instant reaction was:

*Pleading Face Emoji* I'm a favourite?!

Rofl!

ANYWAYS My defunct brain patterns aside, I fucking love sharing my playlists. I know you know this, so thank you for the ask <3

I've not gone with a Work In Progress Specific playlist, mainly because Changeling doesn't have one, and Darkling doesn't have enough songs on it yet, so instead I've chosen my general playlist for 2023. It includes all my current favourite songs, and any new music I find this year that I want to add to my playlist soup.

If I'm looking for a new song for the next chapter, this is the playlist I shove on shuffle.

So without futher ado, 5 songs beneath the cut...

Taylor Swift - Style

I don't know why, but ther way this one is sung just sounds super flirty, and gives old school, silver screen, holywood love story vibes.

You got that James Dean daydream look in your eye And I got that red lip classic thing that you like And when we go crashing down, we come back every time 'Cause we never go out of style, we never go out of style You got that long hair, slicked back, white t-shirt And I got that good girl faith and a tight little skirt And when we go crashing down, we come back every time 'Cause we never go out of style, we never go out of style

2. Nickelback - Someday

One of my favourites of theirs. Which is saying a lot because there's not many Nickelback songs I DIS-like. But I love how the song lyrics make you think one thing, and then you watch the video and it's even more heartbreaking and tragic than it sounds. It really made my appreciate Chad Kroeger as a lyracist.

Well, I'd hope that since we're here anyway We could end up saying Things we've always needed to say So we could end up staying Now the story's played out like this Just like a paperback novel Let's rewrite an ending that fits Instead of a Hollywood horror

3. Demi Lovato - Heart Attack

I cannot believe this one shuffled onto the list of over 350 songs I'm using. It's my THEME song for Reilly Mosswolf from my book, Stolen. When I need to get back into Reilly or Stella's headspace I'll listen to this song or Stella's Theme "Fight Song" by Rachel Platten.

You make me glow But I cover up, won't let it show So I'm putting my defenses up 'Cause I don't wanna fall in love If I ever did that, I think I'd have a heart attack

4. Blake Shelton - Honey Bee

Bloody Hell. My love of cheesy country music is showing here. I'm a closet romantic and Country Music really touches on that romantic streak in my, particularly Blake Shelton's songs. Plus the music video is cute as fuck.

You'll be my sunny day I'll be your shady tree You'll be my honeysuckle I'll be your honey bee. Yeah, that came out a little country But every word was right on the money And I got you smilin' honey right back at me

5. Kelly Clarkson - Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)

You can't do much better for a power balland than Clarkson, and her lyrics are usually on the empowering side. This isn't one of my favourites from her, but it always manages to put me in a kickass kinda mood.

Thanks to you I got a new thing started Thanks to you I'm not the broken hearted Thanks to you I'm finally thinkin' 'bout me You know in the end the day you left was just my beginning

I've got over 350 songs on this list, so for anyone additionally curious about my music tastes, I'll link the full playlist HERE.