Blog Tour: Last Call at the Nightshade Lounge by Paul Krueger | Guest Post

Welcome to the blog tour for
LAST CALL AT THE NIGHTSHADE LOUNGE

Today I’m sharing my blog post for LAST CALL AT THE NIGHTSHADE LOUNGE by Paul Krueger! It’s the perfect book for bookworms who love a good beverage and it’s also billed for adult fans of Harry Potter — so how can you pass that up?? Drinks + magic = my kind of book.

Before we jump into the tour, let’s take a second to check out some details about the book:

Blog Tour: Last Call at the Nightshade Lounge by Paul Krueger | Guest Post

Title: Last Call at the Nightshade Lounge by Paul Krueger
Publishing Info: June 7, 2016 by Quirk Books
Genres: Adult, Fantasy
Find it on the web: Buy from Amazon // GoodreadsDate Completed: June 7, 2016
Related Posts: Last Call at the Nightshade Lounge

A sharp and funny urban fantasy for “new adults” about a secret society of bartenders who fight monsters with alcohol fueled magic.
College grad Bailey Chen has a few demons: no job, no parental support, and a rocky relationship with Zane, the only friend who’s around when she moves back home. But when Zane introduces Bailey to his cadre of monster-fighting bartenders, her demons get a lot more literal. Like, soul-sucking hell-beast literal. Soon, it’s up to Bailey and the ragtag band of magical mixologists to take on whatever—or whoever—is behind the mysterious rash of gruesome deaths in Chicago, and complete the lost recipes of an ancient tome of cocktail lore.

GUEST POST: WHAT’S ON TAP?

I’d just moved to LA, a city where I had zero job prospects and barely knew anyone, when I first got the idea for Last Call at the Nightshade Lounge. I was going through a lot at the time and knew I’d have to be disciplined in its writing, so of course I lost a whole day creating a fifteen-track playlist for it. It was necessary, okay?

I’ve gone through some of the list’s highlights here—though they’re all highlights, aren’t they?—so pour yourself a strong drink and follow along.

“Once Again,” Leftover Cuties
This song and band happened to me right around the time I started writing the very first draft of Last Call. The story’s evolved wildly from draft to draft, but this song has followed it everywhere it’s gone. It’s the perfect combination of sultry, playful, and mournful—like the last whiskey of a good, long night.

“Come On! Feel the Illinoise!” Sufjan Stevens
This song strikes up in my head whenever I land in O’Hare. I love how it starts so upbeat and exciting, then slowly segues into something more relaxed but no less propulsive. The obvious choice from Stevens’ album Illinois would’ve been the radio- and indie movie soundtrack-friendly “Chicago,” but I’m too much of a dirty hipster to go for the low-hanging fruit.

“El Capitan,” Steelwells
Sometimes, you put a song on a playlist so you can look back on it later to remind yourself of what your life was like back when you made it. But sometimes, you put a song on a playlist because it’s just a damn good song. “El Capitan” is a damn good song.

“Alex Chilton,” The Replacements
Paul Westerberg is a raw nerve of a songwriter, and one of the finest to ever come out of the American Midwest. “Alex Chilton” was one of my high school standards, and every time I listen to it my pulse quickens like I’m back in the throes of my first real crush.

“Can’t Face Up,” Sloan
Sloan are the first and last name in Canadian power pop, which is a more competitive category than you’d think. “Can’t Face Up” is, to me, the perfect accompaniment to Bailey and Zane’s relationship: a story of two people who care about each other a lot, and whose respective prides will always stop them from being able to really hear each other.

“Holland, 1945,” Neutral Milk Hotel
Remember earlier when I called myself a dirty hipster? Then this song’s presence on this list probably isn’t that surprising.

“Head Underwater,” Jenny Lewis
Something about the lyric “There’s a little bit of magic//everybody has it” lodged it into my brain from the moment I first heard it. I slipped it into Zane’s dialogue in the book itself, and when I’m absentmindedly humming the song to myself, I’ll still bother to sing that specific lyric, even if I don’t sing any others.

“I Eat Boys Like You For Breakfast,” Ida Maria
Simply put, this is the song I chose for the moment Bailey decides to be 100% over Zane’s bullshit. It’s a little on the nose, but the snarly horns it features throughout more than make a case for it anyway.

“A Dog From Hell (and his good advice),” Damion Suomi & the Minor Prophets
I’ve got more than a few issues with Charles Bukowski as a writer, but I can’t deny his poetry makes for damn fine lyrics when Damion Suomi sets them to music. This is loud and raucous, perfect to throw on when you can get a drunken choir to back you up.

“Stadium Love,” Metric
“Stadium Love” is the ideal capstone to Last Call. It’s big and triumphant as a mascot balloon on parade, and its lyrics are all about animals fighting other animals. It’s just a big, kickass exclamation point of a song, and I knew I wanted it at the end of my sentence.

Paul Krueger is a fantasy writer and cocktail connoisseur whose work has appeared in the Sword & Laser anthology. He lives in Los Angeles.