Women Who Rock: Laura Wiess and TOUR and NEW CONTEST!!!!!!!

Ah, my release party last night at the Beacon was crazy! We sold out of books before everyone had a chance to buy one!!!! 55 books sold in about 45 minutes!! Very cool, but of course I feel awful for folks that didn't get a chance to buy one. We should have brought more books! It was also so crazy hectic that I forgot to have anyone take pics with my camera :( But I know some friend brought cameras, so I hope to have photos to share with everyone when I get back! I read from behind the bar to a crowd of 60 or so people. Everyone loved it and laughed hard, even my boyfriend's dad, who is a total beer drinking NASCAR dude and I thought might be bored as hell, but as it turns out he loved it best! We also blared the soundtrack on the jukebox and I talked to as many people as humanly possible. Went home around 11:30 totally wiped. Trying to regain strength as I pack and prepare for tour. But I will tell you about tour, a tour-related contest and give you links to other interviews with me on the internet after today's guest since I don't want you to have to read through all the details to get to her interview.

But before I introduce you to Laura Wiess, the winner of Jolene Siana's Go Ask Ogre is The Book Muncher!!!! Book Muncher, since I am headed out on tour, I need you to directly email Jolene at goaskogre at hotmail dot com with your address!

Okay, now meet our final woman who rocks of the week, Laura Wiess, author of SUCH A PRETTY GIRL and LEFTOVERS. Neither of these books are about music, but I think Laura rocks because she takes on such difficult issues and writes about them with such honesty, beauty, and heart in her books. So I invited her to finish off our week. It also seems fitting because her book SUCH A PRETTY GIRL was the first MTV Book I ever read. When I signed my contract with them, my agent told me that my editor had also worked on SUCH A PRETTY GIRL and that I should read it because she thought I would love it. I totally swooned over it. And when I went to meet my editor last fall, she was kind enough to give me an ARC of LEFTOVERS which I devoured on the plane home!
Laura, Leftovers and Such a Pretty Girl are two of my favorite books in the world. Can you tell my readers a little bit about them?

Laura: Sure, Stephanie and thanks so much. In Such a Pretty Girl, a convicted sexual offender is released early from prison and returns home to his family and the daughter he abused. It's a thriller, fast-paced and kind of raw, told from the daughter Meredith's point of view. She was promised nine years of safety but only got three before he was released, and she finds she'll do almost anything to stop him from abusing her again. It's a story of tangled love, strength, survival and, I think, hope in the darkest hour.

Leftovers is the story of Ardith and Blair, two best friends whose social, love and family lives are disintegrating all around them, how their anger manifests and the dark choice they make to regain control when someone they love is threatened.

What you are working on now?

Laura: My next book is a dark and pretty twisted interwoven love story due out with MTV Books in 2009. As of now, it's tentatively titled A Dark Autumn Sky but that may change.

And in the spirit of Women Who Rock week, will you share your most rock 'n' roll memory? This could be anything from a favorite concert to a moment where you felt like you were living like a rock star.

Laura: One of my old school friends Tom does sound around the country for a variety of bands and invited me to hang out with him a couple of times down at The Stone Pony in Asbury Park while he worked. It was a blast and a whole different perspective being up on the side of the stage while the bands were playing and the audience was going wild. I loved it. (And if you're out there, Tom, call me, will you? It's been way too long.)

Thanks so much for inviting me over, Stephanie. I really enjoyed I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone and can't say enough good things about it. It should come with a warning label that says once you start reading, it's impossible to put down!

Aww thanks, Laura! Obviously I felt the same way about Leftovers and lucky for all my readers, Laura is giving out a signed copy of Leftovers! Enter by leaving a comment on this blog. Now unlike the other contests, I am not entirely sure when this will end. I may be able to blog in a couple days, I may not be able to blog until I get back on the 25th. We'll see! (I'm pretty sure I will be able to on the 16th though, that's when I'm in the hotel with the free Wi-Fi!!! So look for an entry then.) But next time I blog, I'll pick a winner.

While I'm gone you'll have time to catch up with all my guest blogs and interviews. Today I've been interviewed by And Another Book Read. Tasha asked some great questions, so be sure to read it! Then don't forgot to read Book Chic's interview with me from yesterday and check his blog tomorrow for my guest blog about why I heart Degrassi*grins* and enter his contest for a signed copy of IWBYJR that runs til the 25th. I've also got a guest blog at Teen Book Review today (this is the one that was gonna post on Weds) about road trips and why I right about running away and I want to definitely clarify that I am not in anyway glamorizing running away. It's a scary, sad thing and both my books address that. My road trip story is a very personal one though, so check it out. You can also win a signed copy of IWBYJR by commenting there! Though of course I won't be able to send it out til after tour....

Now speaking of tour, here is all my tour info. If you already know I'm not touring near you, you skip over the tour details, but you'll want to read the end of the blog where I announce my big tour contest!

July 12th- 5 pm, Book Soup, 8818 Sunset Blvd, West Hollywood, CA

Reading, signing, and discussion with Alexa Young, author of Frenemies.

July 13th- 3 pm ROCK 'N' READ, Virgin Megastore Hollywood and Highland, 6801 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood, CA

A literary lollapalooza with great L.A. bands and authors. Click the banner to find out more!

July 16th- 7 pm, Borders Express, 222 Del Monte Shopping Center, Monterey, CA

July 17th- 6:30 PM, InsideStoryTime Reading Series, Edinburgh Castle Pub, 950 Geary Street, San Francisco, CA

$3-$5 sliding scale
punk-themed readings from local musicians, zinesters, and authors, including
* pop-punk novelist FRANK PORTMAN (King Dork) aka Dr. Frank
* debut novelist STEPHANIE KUEHNERT (I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone)
* zinester-drummer ERICK LYLE (On the Lower Frequencies) aka Iggy Scam
* Dwarves frontman and hardcore novelist BLAG DAHLIA (Nina)
* zinester-literary-luminary AMMI EMERGENCY
* guest MC punk-scene-oral-chronicler JACK BOULWARE

July 18th- 7 PM, Books Inc, Opera Plaza, 601 Van Ness Ave, San Francisco, CA
Reading, Signing and Discussion!

July 22nd- 7 PM, Bailey/Coy Books, 414 Broadway Avenue E. Seattle, WA
Reading, signing, and discussion with me and Corrina Wycoff, author of O Street.

TOUR CONTEST!!!!!

You didn't think I'd leave you hanging without a contest while I'm away did you? Well, since I can't visit everywhere, but I want to see IWBYJR everywhere, the contest is simple. Take a picture of IWBYJR in your neck of the woods and email it to me at stephanie at stephaniekuehnert dot com along with a little note stating one thing that you did to get the word out about the book. "Getting the word out" could mean posting a banner on your myspace or telling your local bookstore or librarian about the book or even just telling your best friend. And the photo could be a shot of you preparing to buy the book in your local bookstore, it could be the book in the middle of your bedroom or even better your band practice, it could be you with the book on vacation, or maybe since I do love animals so much, a picture of the book with your pet. Whatever you do: be creative!!!!! I will choose the most creative photos as my winners! And as for the prize? I will be picking up cool prizes while I'm on tour. Books signed by authors I meet while I'm there, maybe some other interesting things that I come across. There will be at least five prizes, maybe more, and I know for sure that one of those prizes will be a signed ARC of Kelly Parra's upcoming novel INVISIBLE TOUCH!!!! That will likely be the grand prize. Deadline to send in your photos is Friday August 8th!!!!

And if you know what is best about this contest? You can totally double dip and send your photo to the Shooting Stars Magazine contest as well. Because over there they are asking for you to send proof of purchasing IWBYJR (like a photo!) by July 30th and then you are entered to win $130 in gift cards!!!!!!!

So yeah, $130 in gift cards, plus a signed book or something cool from my tour? Are you excited??? Then get creative and enter! (please note, I prolly won't be able to email every person back to confirm receipt of the photo, but as long as it doesn't bounce back, I got it!)

I hope that the Laura Wiess contest plus my new contest gives you plenty to do while I'm off on tour. I promise to blog when I can and you can expect a full recap with photos when I get back on the 25th. And if you can come to any of my readings, please do!!! I'm so scared that I'll go to strange cities and no one will show and the book store people will be mad at me for wasting their time :( So come and bring your friends or send your friends if you can't go and absolutely come up and introduce yourself to me. I want to meet you!

Have fun while I'm gone everyone!