Cyber Launch Party Day 21: The Ballad of Danielle Joseph

Welcome to Day 21 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. However since this is the last week, there is one slight change to the rules... WINNER FOR ALL PRIZES THIS WEEK AND THE GRAND PRIZE WILL BE DRAWN ON MONDAY AUGUST 17!

Interviews, Guest Blogs, and Contests:

I did a super-fun guest blog over the weekend with Hope from Hope's Bookshelf. Hope is turning 16 on August 22nd (wish her happy early birthday!) and asked authors and other folk to blog about their 16th birthdays. Mine was in the middle of a heat wave, so it was a bit of a doozy. You can read all about here. Then, if you are looking to win a signed copy of Ballads, you can enter the contest here.

Speaking of contests, if you bought BALLADS, don't forget to enter Shooting Stars Mag's HUGE Ballads of Suburbia contest .

There are still some interviews with me popping up on the blogs of my fellow authors in the Girlfriends Cyber Circuit:

Interview with me on Amanda Ashby's blog

Interview with me on Megan Crane's blog (this one is super fun, she asked for a bunch of random facts about me)

Also, today's guest, Danielle Joseph, will be interviewing me on her blog. (It's not up yet when I'm posting this but should be soon.)

Today's Winner:

Each day I am announcing the winner of the contest that was posted one week earlier. Today's winner gets their choice of Wicked Game, Bad to the Bone or WVMP swag from Jeri Smith Ready! And that winner is... Pissenlit 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 Danielle Joseph!
Danielle Joseph was a college DJ for five years on the Gyroscope, a world music show. She also interned at several top Boston radio stations while earning her BFA in Creative Writing and MA in Marketing Communications and Advertising from Emerson College.

Danielle is originally from Cape Town, South Africa, but grew up in the suburbs of Massachusetts. She now lives in Miami, Florida with her husband and children. Her debut YA novel, Shrinking Violet, was published by MTV/Pocket Books in May 2009 and her second novel, Indigo Blues will be released Summer 2010 from Flux. In the meantime, Danielle is hard at work on her next novel, Graveyard Shift. And when she’s not writing, you can find her cruising around with the tunes blaring and her internal DJ hard at work.

Here's Danielle's ballad:
"Girl afraid
where does his intentions lay?
Or does he even have any?..."
--Girl Afraid,The Smiths

In high school some of my friends and I were really into the English rock band, The Smiths. I had just about every tape of theirs and would listen to them over and over again. Whenever I was pissed off at my parents or at the world, I would retreat to my bedroom and crank up the tunes on my Walkman or boom box. I'd mellow out with the Smiths for hours. I felt like somehow they knew me. They can definitely be depressing but to me they were "real" people with "real" problems, none of that bubblegum crap.

I was shy growing up, especially around guys and for some reason the song, Girl Afraid was one of my favorites. My junior year in high school I had a total crush on this guy that I worked with so I made him a mixed tape with the song Girl Afraid on it. It was my way of telling him that I liked him. Very passive-aggressive but that was the only way I was able to communicate my feelings to a guy. Unfortunately, things did not work out, but I still considered that song one of my personal theme songs.

Good news is that once I left suburbia and went of to college, I realized there was a whole different world out there! There were more people like me that embraced people's differences and did not see the world in just black and white. I still love the song Girl Afraid today but I no longer consider it my theme song, it's just on my life album:)!

Today's Contest:
Ahh, The Smiths, I love them so! What a great ballad by Danielle. And it bodes a good question, what's your theme song? Or maybe what is on your life album because I probably don't have a theme song right now, but I definitely have a life album!

So comment away on Danielle's ballad... you'll want to because not only is she giving away a copy of her absolutely amazing book SHRINKING VIOLET, she's doing a whole Shrinking Violet Purple Indulgence pack, which includes the book,an SV bookmark and Victoria's Secret bubble bath and shower gel!

As usual there are ways to rack up a bunch of entries:

+1 for commenting

+1 for blogging/tweeting/etc about this blog
+1 for leaving comments on the interviews and guest blog I told you about above
+1 for blogging/tweeting about those

+1 for spreading the word about Shooting Stars Mag's HUGE Ballads of Suburbia contest
Just note your additional entries in your comment. Winner will be chosen at random on Monday, August 17!

Tomorrow's Guest:

Tomorrow, Daniel Kraus, author of THE MONSTER VARIATIONS will be guest-blogging (and it's release day for that book!). So please come back to see what he has to say!