Cyber Launch Party Day 20: The Ballad of Kay Cassidy

Welcome to Day 20 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.

The latest interviews:

As I have the past couple of days, I'm linking to some interviews that I did on the Girlfriends Cyber Circuit tour. They were fun interviews, so feel free to check them out if you are interested and if you comment on them or spread the word about them, you'll get extra entries in today's contest. And with two of them, you can enter to win Ballads of Suburbia!

GCC Interview with me on Eileen Cook's blog

GCC Interview/Freebie Friday with me on Linda Gerber's blog (enter to win a copy of Ballads!)

Friday Spotlight interview with me on Kay Cassidy's blog (enter to win a copy of Ballads and guess what I'm lying about)

Of course, Kay Cassidy is today's guest, so we will meet her in just a second, first I need to announce...

Today's Winner:

Each day I am announcing the winner of the contest that was posted one week earlier. Today's winner gets Ink Exchange from Melissa Marr! And that winner is Sylsome from LiveJournal! I will msg you for your address shortly! Remember to enter last week's contests! Each contest lasts one week! The weekend is a great time to catch up on them so here's our week in review:

Day 16: Jeri Smith-Ready blogged and up for grabs is your choice of Wicked Game, Bad to the Bone or 20$ of WVMP swag. Deadline Monday 8/10

Day 17: Greg Logsted blogged and up for grabs is his book Alibi Junior High. Deadline Tuesday 8/11

Day 18: Simone Elkeles blogged and up for for grabs is Perfect Chemistry, a t-shirt and a water bottle. Deadline Wednesday 8/12

Day 19: I blogged and up for grabs is Ballads of Suburbia and Ballads of Suburbia taffy! Deadline Thursday 8/13

So enter, enter, enter and win!

Now, today's guest blogger is author Kay Cassidy!
Kay Cassidy is the author of teen fiction she wishes was based on her real life. The Cinderella Society takes readers behind the veil of a secret girl power society dedicated to defeating the mean girls of the world. The Cinderella Society won the 2008 Golden Heart award in the Young Adult category and will be an April 2010 hardcover release from Egmont USA with book two in the series to follow in Spring 2011. Kay is also the founder of the national Great Scavenger Hunt Contest outreach program for teen and youth librarians. Read more about the Cinderella Society series and The Great Scavenger Hunt Contest at www.kaycassidy.com.

Here's Kay's ballad:

MUSIC FOR THE WRITING LIFE

I’m not a musician, but music is a big part of my writing life. There’s nothing more exciting to me--other than writing the book itself--than discovering the perfect song for a scene or the theme song for a hero or heroine. When I’m stuck or looking for inspiration, music is the first place I turn.

Every book has a soundtrack in my mind. The Cinderella Society definitely had one from the very beginning. There are songs for Jess, the heroine... songs for Ryan, the hero... songs that capture pivotal moments in the book. As I sat down to begin book 2 in the series, the soundtrack was already in place. It’s just part of my writerly process now.

When I was writing The Cinderella Society, I can remember listening to a certain song a dozen times in a row trying to nail the emotions of a particular scene. When I had trouble connecting to a character, playing the character’s theme song got me back on track. Immersing myself in the soundtrack was also a great way to chase away the real world, especially when the real world was anything but conducive to writing.

Music does all that and more.

So... which artists are on my soundtracks? It’s a hodge podge, really. There’s some Jessica Andrews (for the feel good moments), Christina Aguilera (for Jess’s angsty moments), some Nickelback and 3 Doors Down (for Ryan’s struggle), even some Rascal Flatts (for that moment when it all comes together).

Most of the time, I don’t go looking for the perfect song. Somehow, it finds me. I’ll hear it on the radio or it’ll pop up when I’ve got my iPod on shuffle and I’ll think “That HAS to be on the soundtrack!” There are even times when a song will give me an idea for a new direction in the story. I’m a big time plotter so I don’t change directions mid-stream very often, but Savin’ Me by Nickelback literally saved the story (and my sanity!) when my first draft of The Cinderella Society hit a road block.

So take my muse on vacation if you must--and she really does deserve it--but don’t take my iPod when you go. As much as I love her, my muse can find her own tunes.

Today's Contest:
Kay has had some absolutely gorgeous special bookmarks made for The Cinderella Society. Two winners will be chosen for today's contest, one for each bookmark. At this time Kay can only ship to the US, but she will be giving away more bookmarks to international folks on her blog soon.

So these are the bookmarks:

To enter just leave a comment about Kay's ballad, maybe talk about what music is your muse (I have lots, but Social Distortion has been a constant for all of my writing) and about what bookmark you'd like, Glass Slipper or Butterfly (I have no idea how I'd choose!)

+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 Friday, August 14th

Tomorrow's Guest:

Monday, Danielle Joseph, author of SHRINKING VIOLET will be guest-blogging. So please come back to see what she has to say!