Cyber Launch Party Day 18: The Ballad of Simone Elkeles

Welcome to Day 18 of the Ballads of Suburbia Cyber Launch Party! For all of the details on the party including guests, the daily contests and the grand prize drawing be sure to read the information at the beginning of Day 1's blog.

GCC Interviews:

I'm doing my Girlfriends Cyber Circuit tour this week so there are a bunch of interviews with me and I'm sharing the links with you if you are interested in checking them out (good questions were asked, it was fun to do) and if you want to spread the word about them, you will earn extra contest entries. So here's today's:

Interview with me on YA Fresh

Today's Winner:

Each day I am announcing the winner of the contest that was posted one week earlier. I would like to thank everyone who responded to that very personal blog entry, some of you sharing intensely personal stories. If I could send stuff to each of you I would. Today's winner gets Ballads of Suburbia and one of my zines! And that winner is... WordVore Prod from Blogger! I will email you for your address shortly! Remember to enter last week's contests! Each contests lasts one week!

Now, today's guest blogger is author Simone Elkeles!

Simone Elkeles (pronounced Elk-uh-lĕss) is the 2008 Author of the Year by the Illinois Association of Teachers of English. Her award-winning books for teens include Perfect Chemistry, Leaving Paradise, and the popular “How to Ruin series” - How to Ruin a Summer Vacation, How to Ruin my Teenage Life, and her newest release coming in November 2009 How to Ruin Your Boyfriend’s Reputation. Visit her website (and rap video book trailer) at www.simoneelkeles.net.

Here's Simone's ballad:

You were so blind to let me go
You had it all but did not know
No one you'll find will ever be
Closer to all your dreams than me
Believing the grass would be greener
You told yourself "I just don't need her now"
But I know you'll soon discover
You're never satisfied with any other

Chorus:
Someday Oo Someday
One you gave away will be the only one you're wishing for
--Someday by Mariah Carey

This is a song I listened to a lot when my boyfriend Andy and I broke up my sophomore year of college. I was totally devastated, especially when I found out right after our breakup he had found someone else. We’d been through a lot together (he was a recovering alcoholic and drug addict), we had an extremely intense romantic relationship, and I couldn’t believe he thought someone else could replace me. This song made me have hope that someday he’d realize nobody could.


Today's Contest:
Simone's ballad was short, but totally bittersweet and relatable. It hit me hard because I went through an eerily similar relationship though it ended in grad school. Of course, I'm not really a Mariah Carey girl... more Distillers. Their whole album Coral Fang was like my break-up album, especially "Hall of Mirrors":

You say you want a revelation,
Well, revel in this my lover.
You're free, at liberty, is this what you want?
Sometimes I wonder.

There's a highway to, to the edge, yeah
Once a night you will drive yourself there
At the end of the road you will find the answer
At the end of the road you will drink the fear

Now Simone has been kind enough to offer up not only a signed copy of Perfect Chemistry, but also a t-shirt and water bottle. To enter just leave a comment about her ballad. What's your heartbreak song? Or your you'll never find someone better than me song?

+1 for blogging/tweeting/etc about this blog

+1 for comments on the GCC interviews

+1 for blogging/tweeting about the GCC interviews

Just note your additional entries in your comment. Winner will be chosen at random on Wednesday, August 12.

Tomorrow's Guest:

Tomorrow, I'll be taking over my own blog once again, so I hope you'll come back to hear my latest confession.