Karen Booth
Chick Lit author Tracie Banister joins us today on RNRHS, bringing a post rife with 80s music, which you know makes me happy. I, like Tracie, have many happy memories of lighting up the gymnasium dance floor to the Go-Go’s, a band that epitomized the 80s and everything girls wanted at that time–to live a life full of funky clothes, vintage convertibles, sunny skies, and frolicking in public fountains. My sophomore year of high school, a cute boy at a record store told me that I looked just like Belinda Carlisle. I think I rode the high of that compliment for months. It wasn’t until later in life that I wondered if that had been 80s-boy code for, “you’re cute, but a little pudgy”.
Tracie Banister
El Toro High School, El Toro, CA & West Carteret High School, Morehead City, NC. Class of ’85, Currently: a Chick Lit writer.
Band and/or song that reminds you the most of high school: Oh, gosh, if I had to pick one song that encapsulates my high school experience, it would probably be “Our Lips are Sealed” by The Go-Go’s. That song played at every slumber party and school dance I can remember. It was such a fun, upbeat, empowering song for girls, and we all loved rocking out to it.
Favorite piece of music memorabilia (poster, t-shirt, etc.) in high school: I was totally obsessed with The Police in high school. Their Synchronicity album was released right about the time I got my driver’s license, so my friends and I would cruise around town listening to the Synchronicity cassette tape on a continuous loop. I had every piece of Synchronicity paraphernalia you can imagine – t-shirts, posters, spiral notebooks, magnets, all emblazoned with that iconic artwork that had the paint splashes of red, yellow, and blue. I wore that Synchronicity t-shirt well into my twenties until it was practically threadbare and even then I couldn’t bear to throw it out! So, that tattered tee was kept in the bottom of my dresser drawer for another decade. It made me feel 16 again every time I saw it!
Band that you hated that everyone else at school seemed to love: Journey . . . SHUDDER I don’t know what it was about Steve Perry’s voice, but it made me want to go postal every time I heard it and there was no getting away from Journey when I was a teenager. That band and their music was everywhere. I want to give a big raspberry to Glee and the musical Rock of Ages for making that annoying song “Don’t Stop Believin’” popular again a few years ago. GROAN
Best show or concert you saw in high school: I was several hours away from the closest arena when I was a teenager, so I didn’t get to attend my first concert (Hall & Oates!) until I reached the ripe old age of 20 (I’d moved to Atlanta at this point.) I made up for lost time in my twenties, going to 10+ concerts a year throughout the decade. I had a friend who worked for a local music producer, so she always got us free tickets, even backstage passes sometimes (I got to meet Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons backstage at a KISS concert!) So, I don’t have a best concert from my high school years, but my best concert of all time was probably INXS (R.I.P. Michael Hutchence)
Best high school make-out song: Well, my classmates would probably say something like “Waiting for a Girl Like You” by Foreigner or “Keep on Loving You” by REO Speedwagon, but I was never really into ballads. My make-out tune of choice would be “Tainted Love” by Soft Cell; I always found that song to be really sexy and hormone-revving (Guess I had a dark side!)
An avid reader and writer, Tracie Banister has been scribbling stories since she was a child, most of them featuring feisty heroines with complicated love lives like her favorite fictional protagonist Scarlett O’Hara. Her debut novel, the Hollywood-themed Blame It on the Fame, was released in January, 2012, and she followed that up with the Miami-set Romantic Comedy, In Need of Therapy. You can find out more about Tracie at traciebanister.blogspot.com or follow her on Twitter @traciebanister.
I am over-the-moon, please-don’t-yank-me-off-this-cloud, excited to show off the cover for Bring Me Back. I’m thrilled with this cover for many reasons, and not just because it’s beautiful and SO me–it represents this story on many levels and puts the perfect face on a book of which I am undeniably proud. For my readers who are writers, you know how little input authors usually get when it comes to cover design. It’s not much. I am incredibly lucky to have Turquoise Morning Press as my publisher, who carefully listened to me and the case I pled for this image. I couldn’t be any happier with the results. Now to wait for January 20th!
Bring Me Back
Music critic Claire Abby is a single mom dreading her daughter’s departure for college and worried that turning forty will leave her career running on fumes. She’s floored when she lands a Rolling Stone cover story on 80s British rock legend Christopher Penman. She spent her teenage years fantasizing he was her boyfriend.
In person, Christopher is everything Claire feared he’d be—charming, witty and unwilling to address the rumors he’s dodged for a decade. Still, she contains her adolescent fantasies and manages to earn his trust, unearthing the truth and the devastating secret behind it. His blockbuster story is her first priority when she returns home, a nearly impossible task when Christopher starts calling and flirting. She knows she should maintain a professional distance. She knows she should focus on the story. She knows it would be best to simply walk away. But how can she say “no” to the man she could never forget?
“Fast-paced, sexy and altogether irresistible, Bring Me Back is made all the more appealing by Karen Booth’s inside knowledge of the music industry. A flat-out fabulous read!”–Celia Rivenbark, NYT Bestselling author
“In Bring Me Back Karen Booth shifts every girl’s adolescent daydreams into the sharp focus of adulthood, and proves that reality can be even better than fantasy.”–author Margaret Ethridge
Bring Me Back will be published by Turquoise Morning Press, January 20, 2013. It will be available in all e-book formats and trade paperback.
If I told you one of my favorite images of the 80s came from the Police, conventional wisdom might suggest it’s Sting taking off his shirt in the video for “Don’t Stand So Close To Me”. But, that would be wrong. Sorry. No, to me, one of the best (ahem, sexiest) bits of imagery from 80s music is beanpole Stuart Copeland in bright-white tennis shorts, magnificent floppy mop of hair, lanky legs, making an ass of himself in the “Every Little Thing She Does is Magic” video. Love it. It was geek rock before we had any idea what that was. Le sigh. While I take a moment to fan myself, fellow Ellora’s Cave author Brenna Zinn is here, talking 80s, naiveté and The Police, which makes me just as happy as Stuart Copeland’s knobby knees.
Brenna Zinn
Class of ’85, Currently: I’m a full-time author and babysitter of three huge English Mastiffs
Band and/or song that reminds you the most of high school: The Police – “Every Breath You Take” was the song known as OUR song between me and then boyfriend. But I was such a radio/music hound, almost any song from the early 80s reminds me of high school. Men At Work, Duran Duran, Eurythmics, Men Without Hats… good times, good times.
I also worked at the local university’s arena selling popcorn and drinks at concerts. REO Speedwagon and John Cougar were two concerts I remember working at. I remember several people asking that I not fill their sodas completely to the top and not knowing why they would want that. Now that I’m over 21, I finally understand. I was SOOO naive.
Favorite piece of music memorabilia (poster, t-shirt, etc.) in high school: Mainly the album covers from the multitude of records I bought. They still look great. My husband and I framed several album covers and hang them on the wall in our place in Austin. It’s our rock-n-roll condo. Everything in the place is either associated with music or cycling.
Band that you hated that everyone else at school seemed to love: Every hair band ever known to man. I didn’t see what the big attraction was. Still don’t. I didn’t even like AC/DC until I married my husband. He wanted to make sure our unborn baby had good music taste, so he’d put on AC/DC, plug in these huge earphones, then put the earphones on my belly. My daughter, who is now 22, knows every AC/DC song ever recorded. She and my husband go to AC/DC concerts together. I elect to stay home, eat chocolate ice cream, and watch Ghost Hunters on television. It works out best that way.
Best show or concert you saw in high school: I mentioned above that I used to work concerts at the local arena. I didn’t actually attend a concert until I was 18. I saw Prince during his Purple Rain tour. That was a total eye-opener. I felt as though I had just passed some rite of passage after attending that show. Suddenly I was mature and worldly. (Did I mention how naïve I was?)
Best high school make-out song: “Every Breath You Take” by the Police and “Broken Wings” by Mr. Mister. Oh the memories I have making out in the back of a 1964 Mustang.
Brenna Zinn is a multi-published author of erotic romance, including Rise of the Dom. You can find out more about Brenna at brennazinn.com and follow her on Twitter @BrennaZinn.
The fabulous cartwheeling Valerie Haight joins us today for a funny-ass trip down memory lane, all in celebratory anticipation of her novella Happenstance, which will be released December 23rd by Turquoise Morning Press. She tells an awesome story about her senior prom, which sounds like something straight out of a John Hughes film. I can totally see Molly Ringwald out there on the dance floor, thumbing her nose at the lame-ness of her fellow-students, superfloofy as all get-out.
Valerie Haight
Doyle High School, Livingston, LA, Class of ’94, currently: Administrative Assistant aka Proper Gopher and Author
Band and/or song that reminds you the most of high school: “Wonderwall” by Oasis. I drove a white ’89 Ford Festiva…I’ll wait while you snicker. It held 8 people if you count the runt tossed into the hatchback space. Yes, *nervous laugh* of course we obeyed seatbelt laws! Gas was 99 cents a gallon and we drove every inch of the Baton Rouge asphalt in that peppy lil baseball cap.
Band you hated that everyone else at school seemed to love: Pink Floyd. “Another Brick In The Wall”. “Hey! Teeeea-cher!” Grrrr! I still hate that song.
Best show or concert you saw in high school: Que the violins! I never attended a concert in high school. I did dance with myownself at senior prom to Spin Doctors “Two Princes”. I was a new senior. I hadn’t grown up with those kids and I was fairly certain I wouldn’t see most of them after graduation. (This was before Facebook, people.) We had this ROCKIN’ awesome live band and they were playing their hearts out to a ginormous, empty dance floor. What was a cartwheeling fool to do? I hopped out there and rocked out to the entire song! My dress was short, superfloofy and did most of the rockin’ for me. Me and that dress! We made memories that night.
Best high school make-out song: “Name” by Goo Goo Dolls. Best. Kiss. Ever. Sorry, where was I? Oh, right. Looking him up on Facebook. LOL.
Karen! Thanks so much for letting me participate in your high school questionnaire! This is so much fun and brought back some seriously funny…and devious memories!
Valerie’s debut novella, Happenstance, will be released December 23rd by Turquoise Morning Press. Look to her FB Author Page for info about that, as well as her short story Magnolia Brides in the TMP wedding anthology out June 2013. You can follow Valerie on Twitter @Valeriebrbr.
Fellow contributor to Felt Tips, the world’s first office-supply themed anthology (yes, really!), AmyBeth Inverness is my guest on RNRHS today. She has all sorts of memorable 80s moments to share with us, including the awesomely 80s song “Safety Dance” by Men Without Hats. Ah, to have been a fly on the wall during the band meeting when they thought up their band name. I mean, really. If any band name screams, “Being in a band should get us tons of chicks, but there’s no way it’s happening now,” it’s Men Without Hats. I’m sure someone (probably the drummer, but that’s pure conjecture on my part) quickly chimed in with, “We should put a court jester in our video. Just to seal the deal.”
