Blog Tour: SCENES FROM A SONG

SCENES FROM THE SONG

Susan Sloate

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GENRE: Drama

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BLURB:

On Halloween Eve, 1961, in his dingy Bronx walkup apartment, seventeen-year-old Jimmy Welton hears the opening notes of a song in his head. Jimmy’s still mourning his firefighter father, who taught him to play the guitar but recently died in a house fire, leaving his family destitute. Jimmy takes this song, about all he misses from his life now, to the New York amusement park where he works after school. There, he meets Mark Morgan, a rebellious teen with his own band, who eventually invites Jimmy to join them. And the rest is rock’n roll history…

Their band, The GooseBumps, become a worldwide phenomenon, and the songs they write and sing together become the backbone of rock musical history. And the song Jimmy first heard on Halloween, “Wrapped in Gauze”, becomes the song that not only comforts him in that terrible time but also comforts others: Victoria, recently divorced and dealing with an out-of-nowhere family tragedy; Carolyn, whose final flippant words to someone in pain can’t be taken back; and Jack, battling back from unimaginable loss with the help of his cheeky therapist and a song he thinks he hates.

SCENES FROM A SONG is the story of a song that makes us smile, that breaks our hearts, that stays with us forever, and the very special band that started it all.

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Excerpt One:

“Jimmy Welton, meet my good friend, Mark Morgan.”

“Hi,” Jimmy said, extending his hand to the newcomer.

Mark looked at his hand as though he didn’t know what to do with it, then reached out and pumped it with his own. Jimmy noticed his own hand felt bruised when he let it drop.

Mark looked at him, his eyes narrowing. “So what’s your job here—you’re the handsome prince at the park? So all the girls can swoon over you?” His voice, a normal baritone, escalated suddenly almost to falsetto. He batted his eyelashes girlishly at Jimmy.

Jimmy grimaced. He hated being teased about his costume, and now he liked this guy even less.

Luke went on eagerly. “Mark goes to high school downtown, Jimmy. He came out tonight to scout the park.”

“What for?” Jimmy asked, not really interested in the answer. The guy struck him as a bad imitation of James Dean. Jimmy had met plenty like him, and they were all bad news.

“For my band to play here,” Mark answered, his voice cutting through the windy evening.

Jimmy, who had been ready to walk away, stopped dead. “You have a band?”

“Sure as hell do. I play guitar and sing.”

Jimmy had never met anyone, boy or girl, who was in a band. Suddenly he wasn’t mad about being teased anymore; he was starting to get excited. He tried to seem nonchalant as he asked, “Is it a dance band or country-western, or—”

Mark looked amused. “No, Pretty Boy. It’s rock `n roll. Ever hear of it?”

Rock ‘n roll! Jimmy would kill to hear a live rock ‘n roll band.

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Interview:

Where are you from? Tell us a little about yourself!

I grew up in suburban New York (Westchester County), moved to Los Angeles for college (USC), stayed to work in Hollywood for 12 years, moved back to New York in 1991. Met a guy from Chicago, moved there in 1993 to be with him. We married in 1994 and moved down to Charleston, SC in 2001, been here ever since, love it.

Tell us about your book? How did it get started? 

SCENES FROM A SONG was inspired by a YouTube clip of Paul McCartney performing “Please Please Me” (one of the Beatles first hits) with his band. It was a great clip, because it focused mostly on the audience while the band played, and people were crying, they got so emotional. I couldn’t figure out why—it’s an upbeat song—but it must have stirred deep emotions and memories in them. That really made an impression on me, and when it came time to write my 2018 Nanowrimo novel (National Novel Writing Month—an insane sprint to write 50,000 words of an original novel in 30 days), I decided to write about that experience, and the novel just kind of fell out of my subconscious. It was as though it was in there waiting for me.

How do you create your characters? 

Characters pretty much just come to me—Jimmy, who writes the song of the title, was very easy to write, because his motivations are unambiguous and he’s a great person. Mark wasn’t hard, either—he’s unhappy and rebellious, but I knew where he was coming from. Dary Dover, who has what we think is a small role with the band that turns into a pivotal one, was and is a black mystery to me—I never got very far with him, but I didn’t need to—he did what he did, but so effectively that the band members talked about him for the rest of their lives.

What inspires and what got you started in writing? 

I never really ‘started’ in writing—I was writing bits of stories from the time I was about seven, and I would write them down and have my teachers read them. They always liked them and I always did well in English, but I thought I was going to be an actress till I was 16, when I made the decision I was going to write. It wasn’t that hard, since I was already doing it and had been doing it for years. I just put the acting behind me and focused on the writing.

What do you like to read? 

I’m a big fan of certain authors and I tend to re-read books many times, so I go back to my favorites often. I’ve lost count of how often I’ve read Daphne du Maurier (REBECCA, FRENCHMAN’S CREEK, JAMAICA INN, THE BIRDS, MY COUSIN RACHEL), but I adore her ability to set scenes and create moods—the morning room scene in REBECCA is still one of my favorites. I re-read Dick Francis’s entire body of work religiously (40 novels)—the best thriller writer I’ve ever read, and he can create characters in a couple of strokes that are unbelievably memorable.  I’m a big fan of Ayn Rand as well; you can pick up any of her novels, open to a random page and get lost in her storytelling, which is spellbinding. What a writer!

Anything else you’d like to share?

Please let ME know what you’d like to read from me next! I’m working on an musical right now—writing script and lyrics—the most exciting thing I’ve ever done professionally, also the scariest!—but I’m open to a new book project and would love to know what kind of story would excite you—maybe it’s already on my stack of unfinished projects!

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

SUSAN SLOATE is the author or co-author of more than 25 published books. This includes 3 editions of Forward to Camelot, a time-travel thriller about the JFK assassination that became a #6 Amazon bestseller, was honored in 3 literary competitions and was optioned by a Hollywood company for film production. She also wrote the autobiographical Broadway novel Stealing Fire, which became a #2 Amazon bestseller and Hot New Release, and Realizing You (with Ron Doades), for which she invented a new genre: the self-help novel.

Susan has also written young-adult fiction and non-fiction, including the children’s biography Ray Charles: Find Another Way, which won the silver medal in the 2007 Children’s Moonbeam Awards. Mysteries Unwrapped: The Secrets of Alcatraz led to her 2009 appearance on the TV series MysteryQuest for The History Channel. She has also been a sportswriter and a screenwriter, edited the popular Kyle & Corey young-adult book series, man-aged two political campaigns and founded an author’s festival to promote student literacy in her hometown outside Charleston, SC. She has appeared in multiple volumes of WHO’S WHO IN AMERICA, WHO’S WHO IN ENTERTAINMENT and WHO’S WHO AMONG AMERICAN WOMEN.

Visit her online at https://susansloate.com.

Social Media:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SusanSloateAuthor

X.com: @Susan_Sloate

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/susan_sloate/

Website: www.susansloate.com

The book will be $0.99 during the tour: https://amzn.to/3JGG198

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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION 

Susan Sloate will be awarding a $25 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner.