Ballads chapter preview and other things of excitement

So Simon & Schuster put the first chapter of Ballads of Suburbia up on their site. It's a little weird since the first chapter isn't *actually* where the book starts. I begin the book with the Epilogue (no, that isn't a typo, I didn't mean Prologue, trust me it will all make sense when you read the book), so yeah, that is odd, but it's a big bonus for you because it means more of a preview of the book is online. I already have the Epilogue/beginning of the book on my website (if you haven't read it yet, you can find that here) and now you can read Chapter 1 (which is really the second chapter in a way) here at S&S.

That's the first 20 pages of the book, available for preview to get you psyched up for the release. And for those of you participating in the Twitter contest, go ahead and tweet about these to tally up more entries!

I'm also thrilled to get the first two reviews for Ballads of Suburbia. One was from the magazine Booklist, which I don't have a link to because it's not out yet, but some of the fabulous things they said include: "....an intensely real and painfully honest novel of high-school anxiety." And "....Kuehnert nails the raw vulnerability of teendom and delivers a hard-hitting and mesmerizing read."

Then blogger Steph Su put up a review calling it "a book you should all read" and apparently it left her pretty speechless, which is a really really good thing. It's the kind of impact I hoped the book would have, so yeah, I'm pretty thrilled about this.

Then here are some other things that I'm excited about:

Liza Graves the badass frontwoman of Civet has started a blog documenting her life and adventures in rock n roll. It is an awesome peek into the thoughts and life of a truly amazing woman and musician. And what I love about her is she totally tells it like it is, uncensored, no bullshit posturing. She's completely honest and not at all afraid to admit her guilty pleasures. That's my kind of woman. So yeah, if you love Civet or even if you are just interested in the real rock n roll life, check out lizagraves.blogspot.com

Speaking of badass women in rock.... NME announced this week that Courtney Love's new record will come out under the name Hole! I have to say I'm excited but a little wary just because it feels like this record, Nobody's Daughter is never ever gonna come out. But then again there was a good four years between Live Through This and Celebrity Skin. Courtney just likes to take her time. Also, Eric Erlandson won't be involved and to me Hole was always Courtney and Eric, so that's a little sad. But since the fabulous and incredibly talented Melissa Auf der Maur is on board, I'm thrilled and have faith in the project. I love both Courtney and Melissa so together = bliss. Being a fan of Courtney Love is a bit of a roller coaster ride because it seems like it's way more about the crazy drama than the music or the acting a lot of the time. But I still think she is supremely talented, so I look forward to new music from her. And she was one of my biggest inspirations in my early teen years. Hearing Pretty on the Inside at age 13 just blew me the fuck away.

So that's my excitement for the week. Also I pretty much blew off doing anything and spent time with friends I hadn't seen in too long this week and that is a good thing to do. I'm hoping this weekend will be peaceful and productive and it will stop raining long enough for me to go outside and reign in my garden which has just gone wild with all the rain. Seriously, the rain this month has been like living in Seattle without the actual happiness that would come along with actually living in Seattle. Though maybe I'm crazy, but I'd rather have rain and lower temperatures than the blistering summer I know is about to come....

Anyway, enough of my babbling. What are you excited about lately?