Today was a really important day for me. For one thing, it's my husband's birthday. We had a great night out in the city with friends and enjoyed some delicious Senegalese cuisine. But we had more than one reason to celebrate: my book REVENGE OF A BAND GEEK GONE BAD is now available on Amazon Kindle.
I've been working on this novel for quite a long time. I began in 2002, got an agent, made some major edits, almost sold it ... and then nothing happened. I then put it away for a few years, but often thought about it. I finally decided to go the independent publishing route and once again made some major edits. All in all, I'd say that I edited this book about 20 times. Writing is fun, but it certainly isn't easy when you take it seriously!
I chose to write Young Adult fiction because that genre has always appealed to me. Teens are interesting to write about because they're not kids, but aren't yet adults -- and they're still going through many changes and many "firsts" in life. I wanted to write a story that captured that confusing time that we've all been through -- or will go through eventually.
In a nutshell, BAND GEEK is about a 15-year-old girl named Melinda who sees herself as a loser in school. She's chubby, she doesn't have a boyfriend, she doesn't have many friends and her own mom makes fun of her weight. Mel's content to be in the background and hide from life. The one thing she is confident about, though, is that she's first chair flute in band. But even that gets taken from her when her enemy, Kathy Meadows, wins the seat in the next round of auditions.
Mel then teams up with Josh Kowalski, a rebellious trumpet player. He persuades Mel to help him take down Kathy and as they scheme together, they fall in love. Only Mel begin to question just how far she's willing to go to get what she wants and hang onto Josh.
Music, love and revenge are major themes in my book, but the story goes much deeper than that. It explores various friendships, Melinda's relationship with her family, high school dynamics and Melinda's relationship with well, herself. It has some funny moments, but like any coming-of-age stories, a lot of sad portions, too.
While this novel is a YA story, there is some harsh language. Let's be real: teens swear and often say some disgusting things. I wanted my teens to be real, not sugar-coated versions of youth. So my characters screw up and make mistakes, and are sometimes rude. But I tried not to overdo it. I also tried to show how my characters have goals and passions.
As for the cover, it was made by a great e-book design company called Damonza. I gave them my book's summary and they came up with this awesome concept. I love it! It's gotten many compliments from friends, too, which is always a good sign.
So welcome to my blog! I hope you'll check out REVENGE OF A BAND GEEK GONE BAD on Amazon and will continue to check in with me as I write about my literary journey. Happy reading!
No comments:
Post a Comment