Cyber Launch Party Day 22: The Ballad of Daniel Kraus

Welcome to Day 22 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!

More Interviews and Guest Blogs:

In addition to posting these blogs, I've been doing interviews and guest blogs around the web. Here are some more of them if you are interested in checking them out. As usual, commenting on them/linking to them will lead to extra contest entries here.

Interview with me on Jennifer Echols' blog

Interview with me on April Henry's blog

Interview with me on Stacy DeKeyser's blog

Guest blog about the inspiration behind my characters on Reading Keeps You Sane

And if you missed the interview yesterday's guest Danielle Joseph did with me on her blog, you can read that here.

Today's Winner:

Each day I am announcing the winner of the contest that was posted one week earlier. Today's winner gets Alibi Junior High from Greg Logsted! And that winner is... lovelessangel93 from LiveJournal! I will email you for your address shortly! Remember to enter last week's contests!

Now, today's guest blogger is author Daniel Kraus
DANIEL KRAUS is a Chicago-based writer and filmmaker. He is the director of six feature films, including Sheriff (2006 season premiere of PBS's Emmy-winning "Independent Lens") and Musician (2007 New York Times Critics' Pick). His first novel, The Monster Variations, comes out in August from Random House/Delacorte. His second novel, Rotters, will come out from Random House/Delacorte in 2011. He has written regularly for such magazines as Cosmopolitan, Playboy, Maxim, and Salon.com. Visit him at www.danielkraus.com and www.workseries.com.

Note: The Monster Variations came out today, so go get it!!!

Here's Daniel's ballad:
When Guns 'n' Roses' first album hit the small Iowa town where I grew up, it completely took over. Guys drew the logo on their arms and even girls wore concert shirts featuring images of robot rape. Despite the unsavory nature of much that surrounded GnR, they were, oddly, something everyone could agree on: jocks, dorks, cheerleaders, burnouts, geeks. GnR literally ruled.

But this isn't about GnR. Appetite for Destruction came out in 1987, when I was 12 years old, and to fill up the years before that glorious bomb dropped, I listened to metal. Quality was not a concern. As long as the lyrics made frequent use of imagery like "bullets," "bone," and "nights on the run," that was good enough for me and my friends. Our poison of choice was Dokken, a mostly forgotten hair metal foursome who reached their pinnacle of popularity after recording the title track to Nightmare on Elm Street 3: the Dream Warriors. I was also obsessed with that movie, but that's another, even longer story.

Then, the strangest thing. It was 1986 and MTV started airing a video by a mild, dad-like fellow named Paul Simon called "You Can Call Me Al." Certainly I mocked this song. We were merciless when anything remotely sensitive came on. Motley Crue and Skid Row were ace. U2 and REM were shit. But this Simon guy, I couldn't discount him. I began to dig the tune. I sang it when I was alone. Finally I surreptitiously bought the cassette. It was called Graceland.

I had to hide it when friends came over. There were incidents where I fumbled for the stereo's "stop" button when someone barged in unexpected. But I kept listening. Even as GnR took over and then all the way through grunge and post-grunge and whatever it is I dutifully listened to after that, I have still not quit Graceland. A few years back I bought it on vinyl. Last year I bought it again online.

These days my music taste stretches to everything from avant-garde jazz to black metal to the latest pop trifle, but in a way it all comes back to "You Can Call me Al." Most people's first illicit album was something raw and dirty. Mine was something squeaky clean and G-rated. But it was still rebellion. And every time I embrace something that isolates me, I still feel it: the urge to hide, the sense not to.

Today's Contest:
I think those discoveries of music that is outside your usual realm are some of the best discoveries. In hopes of helping a few people discover new music today, I will choose 3--- yes 3!-- winners to get a copy of a comp of San Francisco bands, called The Bay Bridged. My friend Mike, who is in one of the bands, the brilliant Social Studies donated these CDs to me. So comment away about your musical discoveries to enter.

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, we're doing things a little differently since I want those of you who are new to my blog via this party to have the opportunity to check out one of my regular features: Women Who Rock Wednesday. So Gwendolyn Glover, author of Cast The First Stone, will be here to do a WWRW interview. Of course there will still be prizes, so please come back to see what she has to say!

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!

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!

Cyber Launch Party Day 19: The Ballad of a High School Friendship

Welcome to Day 19 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 Sara Hantz's blog

Interview with me on Shanna Swendson's blog

Today's Winner:

Each day I am announcing the winner of the contest that was posted one week earlier. Today's winner gets Ballads of Suburbia Taffy! And that winner is... Kristen from blogger! I will email you for your address shortly! Remember to enter last week's contests! Each contests lasts one week!

So today I'm going to reclaim my blog and tell you/sing you another little ballad...

My past two ballads, a little bit on the dark and sad side. They were Truth and they needed to be sung. They also both gave insight into some aspects of the book I wanted to speak publicly about. But there is another part to the story--to both of the stories I've written actually--that is very worthy of discussion: the friendships. In Ballads of Suburbia, Kara and her friends basically are a family. In I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone, Emily is nothing without her best friend Regan. So today, I want to tell you

The Ballad of a High School Friendship

All I want is you to stand by my side
We've been through everything
We'll be sisters 'til the end,
What's broken we will mend
Boys will come and boys will go,
just like street cars...

-"All I Want" by Civet

There is a picture that has hung on my wall or sat on my nightstand for fourteen years now. Since my friends may not want themselves plastered on the internet, I've opted not to scan it, but I'll describe it to you. On the far left is Katie. She is fifteen. Her hair is half black and half blond. The look on her face is the look you always get when you take a picture of her: you can't tell if she is smiling or preparing to punch you. I am beside her. My arm flung over her shoulder. I'm wearing the pink and blue striped gloves I wore all the time back then, with the fingers cut off so I can easily light cigarettes or scrawl something down in my notebook. Katie is reaching back to touch my shoulder and squeeze Polly's hand. Polly's on my other side. She's 17. She's wearing a black wool cap and has long black hair. She's smiling in that truly genuine, effusive Polly way. Smiling so wide, she will laugh any second. When I write about real smiles, I always think of hers. Thea is on the far right. She is 15. She has a brown bob and her smile is reflected in her eyes. Thea has the kindest eyes of anyone I know. You can tell she gives the best hugs on the planet just by looking at her.

I'm 16 and it is the fall of my junior year. I know this because of our hairstyles. Soon we will all cut our hair shorter. Katie will go so far as to shave everything but her bangs. Polly will cut off all the black. Sometimes her hair will be brown, sometimes blue. My hair in the photo is long and brown with a blonde streak in it. Soon it will be short and all platinum. I know it is late fall because Katie is in the picture. She got sent to boarding school briefly. But now she is back. This is probably why all of us are smiling under a bright blue sky on what looks to be the perfect fall day. When we were together, we were able to smile despite the Terrible Things that each of us was dealing with on our own.

Katie is, was, and will always be my best friend. I met her for the first time when I was in eighth grade and she was in seventh. We went to different junior highs, but had common friends. We spent one Saturday afternoon at North Riverside Mall together, shoplifting. Yes, I put that in BALLADS OF SUBURBIA. One of very few real life details I fictionalized, but a friendship that starts with shoplifting is just too perfect not to use. Of course I changed a lot about it. She never stole me a necklace for example, but I never forgot her because she was this badass twelve year old Korean girl in an Anthrax t-shirt.

We didn't become close until two years later, when I would meet up with her again; she was the lone tough chick hanging out with a group of boys I'd started hanging with. I can't pinpoint the moment when we became best friends.... Wait maybe I can. Maybe it was when my abusive boyfriend decided I couldn't be friends with her anymore and to rip us apart, he made me give her a stuffed animal of hers that he'd had (they'd dated before) and he'd completely mutilated. There was this look in her eyes when I gave it to her, a look that overshadowed any anger or hurt she might feel, a look that said, "I know you're stuck and I'll back off, but I will be here. I will always be here."

And she was. I don't even remember talking about it, but after Asshole and I broke up, there she was. And she helped me put the pieces together. She was there all the way through my madness, at my absolute craziest when I was talking to fireflies in plastic playground tunnels. And I was there for all her stuff too. Which I won't go into because it's her ballad, not mine, but I'll just say it was capital B Bad. We were the kind of girls who walled off and pushed everyone away... except for each other. Left to our own devices, we probably would have self destructed, but together we put out each other's fires. We survived. More boys would try to come between us, as well as gossip and lies, but we put that bullshit aside.

"Boys will come and boys will go,
Just like street cars..."

I met Thea next. She was in my gym class the semester of the abusive relationship. She was incredibly softspoken. You had to listen closely, you had to listen hard, and that was good because Thea always had wise things to say. She was also quite the artist. She drew me a picture that semester, of a girl on a bridge and below it she wrote, "Build bridges not walls." The drawing broke my heart and pieced it back together again. I was a girl who'd spend her whole life building walls. Thea's soft voice broke through. She reached out her hand. She was my bridge out of darkness.

Last summer, I saw her for the first time in years at the funeral of a very dear friend. I was afraid to go up to the coffin and say goodbye to him. After I did, I turned around so blinded by pain I couldn't see anything. Except Thea. She hurried toward me and embraced me. She's smaller than me, but I've never felt such strength in a hug as I did in Thea's that day. That's always how her hugs were, propping me up. And she could always make me smile at even my darkest hour, like she did that day, leading me outside to the lawn of the funeral home and offering a flask. "Bourbon?" she asked in her sweet little voice and we all giggled despite our great grief. And we passed the flask and the cigarettes around.

"We'll be sisters 'til the end,
What's broken we will mend"

I don't remember how I met Polly. Most likely through Thea, since Thea and Polly were counterparts in much the same way Katie and I were. Probably at a park, but really it's not important. Once I got to know Polly, I began to fall in love with her like you do with a favorite band or someone you just admire and respect so much. She became my big sister. I'd always wanted an older sister, but never had one. She filled that void. She inspired me to write, to learn, to dream. She was often the only one who could stop me from doing something stupid. She always listened. She always had wisdom. And she was just Polly. She'd chosen her own name. She was completely her own person. In the teenage world where everyone tried to mold themselves to fit, she didn't. She exuded self-confidence (even if she didn't feel like she did).

She went away from us first because she was the oldest. And it hurt really bad. There are raw journal entries about how I miss her and how she's changing and how I just don't understand... But then six months later when I went out on my own, I totally did. Polly was the trailblazer. She still is. She's the only one of us who is a mom and she's amazing at it. In addition, she has an important and often difficult job, working to help the disenfranchised. Her devotion to books, to making the world a better place still inspires me. And when I'm feeling sorry for myself, she still has this keen ability to kick me in the butt and remind me about all the I have going for me. She's every bit the incredible woman I knew she'd grow up to be.

"All I want is you to stand by my side
We've been through everything"

Back in high school, I think we all wondered if we'd ever grow up. I know I did. We went through so much together. Broken homes. Broken hearts. We fell in and out of love. We dated each other's boyfriends (and somehow it was only a little weird). We discovered what it was to be a teenage girl together. We discovered feminism and our own voices. We did 'zines together. Polly and I were the more political ones; like what Lisa Simpson would be if they ever let her be a teenager, riot grrrl Lisa Simpson. Thea was the artist. Katie wrote poems and short pieces thick with imagery, full of hidden meaning. We drank tons of coffee at Denny's. We spent endless hours in parks or on the phone or passing notes that asked for or offered advice. We exposed each other to new music. We planned to start a band but never did. We had those moments where we were so unbelievably close, you couldn't see where one girl ended and another began.

We grew apart. The end of high school/beginning of college time brings growing pains. You don't want to be one with anyone, you want to be you, you, you. I was wild and angry. I drowned myself in the bottom of a bottle. I made mistakes, I lied even to the ones I loved most because I couldn't bear their disapproval. We grew apart, but we found our way back.

Ultimately I think this bit from a poem I wrote about my girls back when I was 16 still rings true:

Each time one of us falls, the others grasp her hand
And nurses her back to life again.
My sweet sisters, separate wounded hearts,
Together they beat loud and strong.
I am girl, I will rebuild, and I am not alone.

Good friendship will help you survive anything. So this ballad is for my girls, all of them, not just my high school girls. Thank you.

Today's Contest:

Today I'm giving out a signed copy of BALLADS OF SUBURBIA and Ballads taffy! Share the candy with your friends.

To enter just leave a comment about today's ballad, maybe talk a bit about your dearest friends.

+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 Thursday August 13.

Tomorrow's Guest:

Tomorrow, Kay Cassidy, author of The Cinderella Society will be guest-blogging. So please come back to see what she has to say!

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.

Cyber Launch Party Day 17: The Ballad of Greg Logsted

Welcome to Day 17 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 and other Interviews:

As I mentioned yesterday, I'm doing my Girlfriends Cyber Circuit tour this week so there are a bunch of interviews with me posting. 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 they are:

Interview with me on Megan Kelley Hall's blog

Interview with me on Diana Rodriguez Wallach's blog

Last but certainly not least, last year I visited the Not Your Mother's Book Club at Books Inc in San Francisco, an amazing indie store. Since I can't make it out to the West Coast at least for awhile, they did a blog interview with me this time, so check that out here and if you haven't bought Ballads yet, please consider going through the link at the bottom of the interview and buying it from an amazing indie bookstore :)

Today's Winner:

Each day I am announcing the winner of the contest that was posted one week earlier. Today's winner gets music and swag from the Aussie band The Model School from Vanessa Barneveld! And that winner is... Annie West 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 Greg Logsted!

Greg Logsted has written two books for teens - Alibi Junior High and Something Happened. He has also co-written a series of kids’ books with his wife Lauren Baratz-Logsted and their daughter Jackie - The Sisters 8 series. You can find out more about Greg on his website, greglogsted.com.

Here's Greg's ballad:

ENJOY YOURSELF.

“You work and work for years and years, you're always on the go
You never take a minute off, too busy makin' dough
Someday, you say, you'll have your fun, when you're a millionaire
Imagine all the fun you'll have in your old rockin' chair

Enjoy yourself, it's later than you think
Enjoy yourself, while you're still in the pink
The years go by, as quickly as a wink
Enjoy yourself, enjoy yourself, it's later than you think”

Stephanie, thanks for letting me be part of the Ballads Of Suburbia celebration! This is fantastic. What a great idea. I LOVE music! Rock, jazz, blues, punk, metal, alt country, hip-hop – you name it, I’ll find something I like. So I thought this blog would be simple, a real piece of cake. but it’s not. The choices are way too abundant, so many fantastic songs, so many memories.

It took me a while before I realized what my problem was. I was just getting too bogged down in the past. There are so many periods of my life that are so intertwined with music that I just can’t separate them for the type of retrospective inspection they deserve. So what I decided to do was to set the way-back machine to a time way before mine. I placed the dial to 1950 and a fun little song titled “Enjoy Yourself” by Guy Lumbardo. It’s been a constant on my iPod for years, swimming behind Greenday, Grinderman and Greyboy, and it’s never failed to make me smile.

When I was in high school I was a member of the track team. My event was the 100-yard dash. Looking back there’s a couple things I realize now that I didn’t realize then. The true excitement of the event wasn’t so much crossing the finish line; it was everything that led up to that moment. Finding what track you were going to be on, the nervous energy pulsating through your body, setting your blocks, avoiding eye contact with the other runners, sizing them up, trying to keep calm and focused.

Soon you’d enter into the most exciting few seconds of the run. That’s when someone would stand and bellow the all-familiar shout: Runners, take your mark! I’d plant my toes firmly into the blocks, rising up on my fingers, gazing down at the track. All the outside distractions would begin to fade away. I’d take deep calming breaths.

Get set! Arching my back upward, head up, gazing towards the finish line, every muscle in my body tense in anticipation. Taking one deep final breath like I’m about to plunge into a bottomless pool of water. Waiting for it…waiting…waiting, each half-second stretching outwards to its own separate eternity.

BANG! Exploding forward with force and energy, moving with one goal and nothing more, to be the first one across the finish line. Everything else would disappear. I wouldn’t hear anyone cheering. There were no thoughts in my head except the running of the race, my arms and legs pumping, breathing hard, my eyes and will focused. I would be completely in the moment. The more complete I was able to push myself into the moment the faster I’d run. It wasn’t until I’d cross the finish line that the outside world would come crashing back into my head and I’d hear the cheers and the other runners.

That’s how it is with so many different things in life. Like skiing, if I’m coming down a difficult run. I’m there; I’m in that moment. I have to be. If I let my thoughts wander I’m tumbling instead of skiing. When I’m writing I’m hunting for that same moment when everything else disappears and I slip into my story completely and become one with it. Think of a really good movie that you’ve seen or a great book you’ve read – part of the enjoyment, the joy of the experience was that you gave yourself up to it and lived in its moment, you merged into it, becoming one.

Life when it’s at its best is when we’re entirely in the present tense, living in the moment; that’s when we’re most alive, that’s when we’re truly free. Yes, we have to plan and work for the future BUT don’t forget to ENJOY YOURSELF. The years go by as quickly as a wink and it’s later than you think.

Today's Contest:
Wow, Greg's ballad rings so true for me. Living in the moment and enjoying myself is certainly advice I need to follow.

For today's contest, Greg is offering up a copy of his book, Alibi Junior High. To enter just leave a comment about Greg's ballad. Maybe tell us about the moment where you felt most alive. And of course you can gain extra entries for this contest (cause I know you want this fabulous book!) by doing the following:

+1 for blogging/tweeting/etc about this blog
+1 for blogging/tweeting about the Ballads related contests I mentioned above.
+1 for comments on the GCC interviews or NYMBC interview
+1 for blogging/tweeting about the GCC interviews or NYMBC interview
And you'll earn additional entries by blogging/tweeting/etc about this blog or the cyber launch party. Just note your additional entries in your comment. Winner will be chosen at random on Tuesday August 11.

Tomorrow's Guest:

Tomorrow, Simone Elkeles, author of PERFECT CHEMISTRY among other fabulous books will be guest-blogging. So please come back to see what she has to say!

Cyber Launch Party Day 16: Jeri Smith-Ready

Welcome to Day 16 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.

Before we meet today's guest, I have a few things to tell you about.

Ballads of Suburbia-related contests:

On Saturday, Free Book Friday posted an interview with me and a contest. Three lucky winners will be drawn on Friday and receive signed copies of Ballads. So read the interview and enter here.

Shooting Stars mag is running a huge contest somewhat similar to the Ballads Blitz. So if you bought Ballads (or buy it anytime between now and the end of the month), you are eligible to enter for a ton of cool prizes! All the details are here!

Girlfriends Cyber Circuit Tour!

My regular blog readers will recall the interviews I do from time to time with my fellow authors who are members of the Girlfriends Cyber Circuit. Now it is my turn to be interviewed! Each day this week, I will be posting links to my interviews. You'll get extra contest entries for the Cyber Launch Party contest of the day by posting a comment on the interview and/or posting links to the interviews! You'll find out all sorts of things about my writing process in general, particulars about writing Ballads, books and other things I love, and fun little details like what kind of car I drive.

Here are some of the interviews that are up so far:

Interview with me on Karin Gillespie's blog

Interview with me on Wendy Toliver's blog

Interview with me on Lucienne Diver's blog

Today's Winner:

Each day I am announcing the winner of the contest that was posted one week earlier. Today's winner gets LOVESTRUCK SUMMER from Melissa Walker! And that winner is... What a Girl Reads 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 Jeri Smith-Ready!

Jeri Smith-Ready has been writing fiction since the night she had her first double espresso. A constant stream of caffeine has resulted in six published novels, including Wicked Game and Eyes of Crow, which have each won multiple awards in the fields of fantasy and romance.

Jeri will have her teen fiction debut in May 2010 with the Simon Pulse release of Shade, a paranormal love story featuring a world of spirits only the young can see. Shade’s sequel, Shift, will follow in 2011. The next two years will also see the continuation of Jeri’s fun and sexy WVMP Radio urban fantasy series from Pocket Books.

Jeri holds a master’s degree in environmental policy and lives in Maryland with her husband, cat, and the world’s goofiest greyhound. When not writing, she can usually be found—well, thinking about writing, or on Twitter. Her website is jerismithready.com

Here's Jeri's ballad... or really Jeri's character Shane's Ballad:

Hey everyone, Jeri here first. I’m way too chicken to reveal my own defining moments, so I’m going to throw the vampire DJ hero of my WVMP Radio urban fantasy series, Shane McAllister, under the ballad bus.

This ballad springs off of a moment in Wicked Game, when he and Ciara are in the record store and he picks up the soundtrack to Purple Rain. He says he took his first girlfriend to see it, then gets a faraway look in his eyes. Ciara fills in the raunchy remainder of the story in her imagination. Turns out the truth, as usual, is a little more complicated.

The Ballad of Shane McAllister

Dig if you will a picture
Of you and I engaged in a kiss.
The sweat of your body covers me.
Can you, my darling,
Can you picture this?
--“When Doves Cry,” Prince & the Revolution

Hell yeah, I could picture it. I couldn’t picture much else when I was sixteen, much else but my girlfriend Tracy and me—naked, sweaty, and making the kinds of high-pitched ecstatic noises Prince would make between that song’s verses. My imagination skipped the courtyard and the oceans of violets and the animal voyeurs, and went straight to the important parts.

But I was clueless as to how to make it happen. My friends and I weren’t exactly innocent—most of us had been picked up for vandalism or fighting or drugs, or all of the above. Our part of Youngstown was rough. (Scratch that—every part of Youngstown was rough in those days.)

And then along came PURPLE RAIN. We’d seen the smokin’ previews and heard it was three seconds of cut footage from an X rating. Every girl I knew was turned on by the video for “When Doves Cry,” when Prince gets out of the bathtub and crawls naked across the floor.

So my best friend Steve and I figured that movie was our key to the kingdom. Let Prince get our girlfriends on base, and then we would bat cleanup (the mere fact that we still used baseball analogies says worlds about our sexual sophistication).

We even had the site: an abandoned row home that everyone thought was haunted. Even the addicts would rather sleep in an alley than set foot in that house, so it was safe, clean, and private (among the living). We called it the Ghost House, because we were not creative.

It was all set. Everyone told their parents we were staying at each other’s places. First, the Friday night football game, which we only caught glimpses of from under the bleachers where we all had a few beers to get our nerves up. Then, the movie.

Seven minutes in, I was lost. If you glanced at me right then, you’d see a big, brawny dude (I was a boxer, and how that happened is the subject of the ballad I didn’t write because I didn’t want to depress you) with one arm around his girlfriend’s shoulders, and his other hand in her, um, bag of popcorn.

Frozen. Slack-jawed. Transported.

Seven minutes in, I’d forgotten all about Tracy, despite her teased-up hair tickling my nose and her knee “accidentally” rubbing mine again and again.

Because seven minutes in, Prince played the closing guitar solo to “Let’s Go Crazy.” Standing on the piano. Holding life in his hands.

He poured all the rage and confusion he felt—all the rage and confusion I felt—into those strings, until they sang and screamed his emotions in perfect pitch. Until the world understood, if only for forty-five seconds, what it meant to be him. Beyond the costumes and the lights and the fake smoke, straight into his soul.

I wanted that. I needed that, more than sex and power and attention, all the things that playing a guitar could bring me. I needed a way to speak.

Afterwards, we left the theater and headed for the Ghost House. Steve was hoping to find a liquor store on the way that would sell to us. Our girlfriends talked about the clothes in the movie, where they could get them and how much they might cost.

Halfway there, we passed a music store, closed for the night. I stopped to gawk at the gleaming electric guitars in the window display. The price tags seemed to reach through the glass and rip my heart out of my chest. I leaned my forehead against the window and tried to catch my breath as my brief, bright future dimmed before it even began.

“Look,” Tracy said. “That one over there’s only thirty bucks.”

I cupped my hands around my eyes to see into the dark depths of the store. Hanging on the side wall was a battered old acoustic with a handwritten sign that said USED $30. I suddenly remembered why I loved Tracy so much, and why I, the King of Self-Absorption, totally didn’t deserve her.

The next morning I bought that guitar, with money I borrowed from my sister. Since I’m left-handed, I learned to play all the chords upside down.

As for the night’s original objective? When we got to the Ghost House, it was still smoldering, surrounded by fire trucks. Turns out it had been hit by lightning, and an attic full of old newspapers had gone up in flames. Some things just weren’t meant to be.

But other things were. A year later I had a music scholarship to Ohio University, a few hours’ drive but a world away from Youngstown. The road I traveled for the next ten years was riddled with sinkholes, doubled back several times, and even went off a cliff or two, but at least I was on a road.

One that led me here, to this radio station, and this immortal life.

Electric word, life.

It means forever and that’s a mighty long time.

--Let’s Go Crazy

Prince and the Revolution - Let’s Go Crazy - Watch more Music Videos at Vodpod.

“Last Request”: Shane’s origin story: http://www.jerismithready.com/books/wicked-game/shane1.htm

Shane’s page on the WVMP Radio website: http://www.wvmpradio.com/page.cfm/dj-s/shane

Shane on Twitter: http://twitter.com/ShaneMcAllister

Today's Contest:

It's no secret that I love Jeri Smith-Ready and her books. Shane is one of my all time favorite literary characters so I was really excited to have him here today. Jeri, super cool chick that she is, is offering the winner of today's contest their choice of prizes: You can go for a signed copy of Wicked Game, a signed copy of Bad To The Bone, or if you already have both books, up to 20$ worth of merch from the WVMP store.

To enter just leave a comment on Jeri/Shane's ballad and...

+1 for blogging/tweeting/etc about this blog

+1 for blogging/tweeting about the Ballads related contests I mentioned above.

+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 Monday, August 10!

Tomorrow's Guest:

Tomorrow, Greg Logsted, author of Alibi Junior High will be guest-blogging. So please come back to see what he has to say!