When Mac showed up on my doorstep, carrying a pink iPod, loaded with happy, mindless one-hit wonders, perfect for tanning by the pool or hanging out with her friends at the lake, I scanned her playlists and cringed. Where was Nine Inch Nails, Disturbed, Marilyn Manson, Rob Zombie, Nickelback? She had no music essentials, no pain, no depth. And I had no desire to write about her.

Four books-about-Mac later (my muse is nothing if not persistent) I find MacKayla Lane fascinating. Watching an untested, unformed young woman evolve into a force of nature is far more compelling to me than watching a perfectly competent person kick perfectly competent ass. Along the way, both our musical tastes have changed. Mac’s gone dark and I’ve learned to appreciate the light gaiety of songs like What a Wonderful World, The Lion Sleeps Tonight and Tubthumping.

While I was busy writing about the Fever world, Neil was busy writing music for it. I had no idea how perfectly he was channeling Mac, until one night he sat down and played the songs he’d composed. He'd captured Mac’s emotions during critical moments, from the pain and shame of Jericho Rain, to the anguish of I Am Not Afraid, the grief and emotional maturity of Rainbow, to the power and triumph of Taking Back the Night. But it wasn’t only from Mac’s point of view: BloodRush is a scene straight out of Chester’s underground club from an Unseelie viewpoint, and Woman Child, well…I’ll leave that one to you to decipher.

Once I heard it, I wanted to share it with you and the CD idea was born. We designed this graphic booklet to complement the themes of the Fever world, from imagery of a woman bound (Barrons cuffed Mac and virtually everyone in Dublin has tried to restrain her in some way, while on a metaphysical level, it’s about the bonds she’s learning to break) to a woman with a gun, who has learned to stand up for herself, and kill; to tattooed men who are playing with fire, and somebody - maybe everybody - is going to get burned.

We hope you’ll find a comfy chair, turn on the music, and lose yourself in Mac’s story.