Friday Chuckle!

A friend sent me this via Facebook, and I wanted to share it with all of you because it’s funny and so true!

Promo Tour for “The Starlight Chronicles!”

 Hello everyone. I hope all is well with you! I’m doing another blog tour for The Starlight Chronicles Series. Check it out if you’re looking for a great story for your teen!

“Lark Singer” is here!

Hello everyone! I hope all is well with you! Today is release day for “Lark Singer!” The second book in the Starlight Chronicles! Here’s an excerpt just for you!

Continue Lark’s journey toward a bright future while she finds answers to questions of her past.

Lark Singer is seventeen years old and already on the way to a brilliant music career. As she and her band, Starlight, gear-up for an upcoming, life-changing band competition, though, life seems to be throwing her a few curve balls. The mysteries of her past seem to be unraveling, and she’s no longer certain she wants to know those answers, or how knowing about her past will affect her difficult relationship with her mother. And when her best friend, Bean, changes things between them, all her plans for a musical future are placed in jeopardy. How can she balance her unraveling personal life to keep her musical goals on track?

Chapter One

THE GUYS ARE impatiently waiting for me. Bean’s foot jiggles so fast; it appears as if a current of electricity runs through him. We have to be down at Pearl’s by seven.
We’re all geeked about playing on stage, I can tell. Performing at Pearl’s gives us the face time we need for when it’s really going to count. The real event — the competition — is only a few weeks away. I pick up my pace, we have three hours to jam and grab some food before we go on stage.
“Come on, Chickie,” he says, gesturing with his sticks as he settles into position behind his drums.
Rushing forward, I plug in my amp. As I crank out a few chords to warm up, that old energy buzzes through my veins. After a couple of licks, I’m ready and my nimble fingers tingle. I’m wired. I love playing in front of a live audience. “Which one are we jamming on?” I look over at Bean and wait for his answer.
His brow creases as he tries to decide. “This one here.” He holds up the lead sheet and waves it impatiently in the air.
I squint to see it. It’s the one we titled “Secrets.” Pointing to the lead sheet sitting on Stevie’s stand, I get into position. I had taken a few minutes and titled Stevie’s lead sheets for him the other day.
He nods. “Thanks.”
Bean slams his sticks together and counts out. “One… two… three.”
We’re off, filling the garage with musical energy. My body’s rigid, as if every muscle’s flexed and ready for action. Screaming chords fill the air, as my nimble fingers crank on my Gibson. I feel like I’m a live electrical wire, popping and snapping with unrestrained energy.
When we’re done with that song, no one speaks. Instead, Bean holds up another lead sheet and then we’re off again. Tonight’s performance is going to be epic. I can tell just by how we’re coming together. I grin in spite of my intense concentration; my confidence is growing by leaps
and bounds. We are so ready for this competition that I can feel it all the way down to my bones.
After the second song, I hold up my hand and say, “Our sound smokes. But don’t you think we should play some of the music we’re going to be performing tonight?”
Bean snorts. “Yeah. Probably.”
We take a few minutes and discuss some of the songs we want to play. We usually crank out tunes that were big hits in the seventies and eighties, a lot of Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, and Rolling Stones. They’re more mellow than what we’ve been playing, but they’re still good melodies and the crowd at Pearl’s digs that classical sound. Playing this type of music broadens our musicianship, but there’s nothing like cranking out our own songs. After choosing a few of the harder tunes we immediately start jamming.
We’ve chosen “Hotel California” by the Eagles. It’s a dark tune about moving to California and I love the melody. My guitar howls out the chords and I feel that quiver inside as I sing the lyrics. After cranking out three more Eagles’ songs, we change it up for a few Fleetwood Mac and Rolling Stones songs. They’re great dance tunes and we know we’ll get people out on the floor with these.
After the last melody, we take a break. The garage seems to hum with the absence of our music. As if it was vibrating at a rapid rate and is slowly winding down because the music stopped. We all take swigs from the water bottles Bean brought out earlier and then sit in the folding chairs by the wall.
“What time is it?” Stevie asks, screwing the cap back on his water bottle.
“Time to get going,” Bean answers after a quick glance at his watch. “My brother should be here any minute to help me get my drum set down to Pearl’s.”
“Cool. I guess I’ll ride down with Francine.” I grimace as I say this and Bean exchanges a look with Stevie.
“I’ve got my parents’ Toyota for the night. You could ride with me,” Stevie offers with grin and a shrug.
“Awesome.” I smile at him as my heart swells with gratitude for my band mates. The truce between Francine and me has been extended, mainly because I’ve been
avoiding her and there hasn’t been an opportunity to wage another war. So I welcome any opportunity to keep the avoidance plan going.
A horn sounds off in front of the house. Moving to the garage door opener, I press the button. The Brown Turd sits in the driveway, rumbling and vibrating.
“There’s my ride,” Bean says. “Can I get some help?”
No one talks as we all gather around Bean’s drum set and help him disassemble it. It takes us about fifteen minutes to get everything in the car, but when we’re done, Bean’s satisfied with our work. He gives me a wink and says, “I’ll see you down there, Chickie.” Shifting his focus to Stevie, he says, “Later, dude.” They exchange a quick knuckle bump, and then Bean jumps in the car.
As they pull out of the driveway, Stevie gives me a nudge. “Come on. Let’s get going.”
I follow him back to the garage, where we grab our equipment and stow it in the backseat of his parents’ green sedan. Then we hustle inside and grab our coats. On my way out the door, I glance at my watch and realize we’ll just have enough time to eat before we play. Since we don’t charge for our performance, the owner of Pearl’s gives us our meal on the house. We’re okay with that because we need the face time and the food at Pearl’s is epically awesome.
After we climb into the car, Stevie starts it and pulls away from the curb. “What’re you going to get?” he asks after adjusting his mirror.
I tilt my head and think about it before I answer. “Probably a wet burrito.” I smile and face him. “How about you?”
“That does sound pretty good. I’ll probably get one of those too.”
We share a giddy laugh and then zoom down the road. I love Friday nights at Pearl’s, the relaxed atmosphere and the friendliness of the staff. The owner of the bar, whose actual name is Marge, always welcomes us with a smile. Her grandmother, the original owner, was Pearl.
Marge is a rotund woman with big boobs and an even bigger heart. When I was a young girl, I’d been afraid of her. Afraid that I’d get lost in that big pillowy chest and suffocate.
I snicker every time I think about that now and chalk it up to irrational fears of childhood.
As we pull into the parking lot behind the bar, I turn to Stevie and say. “Hey, did Bean tell you we have a name for the band?”
Stevie shakes his head as he puts the car in park and shuts it off. “Nope. What is it?”
“Starlight.”
Stevie grins and fiddles with his glasses. He repeats the name a couple of times, then turns to me, and says, “I like it.”
I let out a squeal of delight. “I do too.”
Stevie laughs because I’m not the type of girl that squeals. I’m much more levelheaded, but I can’t help it. We have our songs picked out and we have a name for the band. And the fact that we’re getting face time tonight is just frosting on the cake.

  Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Lark-Singer-Starlight-Chronicles-Book-ebook/dp/B00QPD8GQQ

Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/lark-singer-lisa-orchard/1120868410?ean=2940149846207

Book Review of “Eleanor and Park”

Hello everyone, I hope all is well with you! I’m back today and I have a book review for you. Yes, I was able to sneak one in with all my writing and editing! It’s a great way for me to unwind when I’ve been working hard all day. 🙂

The book I’m talking about today is “Eleanor and Park.”

Bono met his wife in high school, Park says.
So did Jerry Lee Lewis, Eleanor answers.
I’m not kidding, he says.
You should be, she says, we’re 16.
What about Romeo and Juliet?
Shallow, confused, then dead.
I love you, Park says.
Wherefore art thou, Eleanor answers.
I’m not kidding, he says.
You should be.

Set over the course of one school year in 1986, this is the story of two star-crossed misfits—smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try. When Eleanor meets Park, you’ll remember your own first love—and just how hard it pulled you under.

I absolutely LOVED this story!

It’s about a young girl who doesn’t fit in anywhere. Her name is Eleanor. She’s picked on and bullied because she’s different. She rides the bus every day to school and ends up sitting next to a Korean boy named Park.

It’s a love story that starts out with Eleanor reading comics over Park’s shoulder. The next thing you know he’s bringing her comics to read and then it progresses to Park creating tapes of his favorite music for her.

When I started reading this, I thought it was going to be one of those cute, bubblegum romances, but it isn’t. There’s an element of danger that rears its ugly head and at first, you don’t really see it coming.

I loved the twist at the end. I don’t want to say too much more because I don’t want to spoil it for anyone, but this story is one of my most favorite so far. The character development was incredible and so was the plot with its giant twist at the end. It brought tears to my eyes. It’s a great story that helps you remember what young love was like.

What’s up with “Twerking” anyway?

Hello everyone, I hope all is well with you. We’re back from vacation and the kids are back to school. I’m diligently working on my Coming of Age Young Adult Novel. I must say I’m enjoying this one and I’m very excited about it. I enjoyed writing the Super Spies books, but it was time for some new characters. It has been refreshing to say the least.

Anyway, I’ve been hearing and reading a lot about Miley Cyrus and her behavior during the MTV awards. Everyone is outraged about it, especially about her “twerking.” Of course, I had no clue what “twerking” was, so I had to do a little research. 🙂 After I found out what it was, I decided it was one of those things I didn’t really need to know. It’s a dance and a very suggestive one at that. It’s my understanding that this is the dance Miley performed on stage in front of millions of people. I didn’t see it, so I can only repeat what I’ve heard.

Miley is getting a lot of grief over this performance. My take? It’s a marketing ploy, one that worked for Madonna, Britney Spears, and Lady Gaga. They made it big with this type of outrageous behavior and Miley is just following their example. She wants to make it big too.

The problem with that is, that Miley isn’t the only one that follows their examples. Tweens and teens do too. Now that Hannah Montana, er…Miley Cyrus is doing it, young girls are sure to follow, and that my friends, is where problems start.

Teens seem to be crying for attention and affirmation from their peers. What better way than to act like Miley Cyrus? Heck she’s paid to act that way.

“Paid?” The public asks aghast. “By who?”

By every single person who buys a Miley Cyrus CD, poster, tape, or downloads her songs on their ipod. We are paying Miley Cyrus to act that way. That’s right. If you really want to take a stand against this kind of “twerking” behavior, don’t buy her stuff. Send her a message. Believe me when her sales drop to an all-time low. We (the public) will receive an apology and she’ll change her ways. Then maybe our teens won’t think acting that way is so cool. 🙂

However, sometimes when parents openly boycott a celebrity, teens immediately want to know what all the fuss is about, and we all know teens can be defiant don’t we?

So, what’s the answer? On this one, I don’t know. My best guess is if you have a good relationship with your teen, and explain to her why “twerking” isn’t really cool she’ll listen. Again, it all boils down to developing a good relationship through those early years. Building a trust with your child so she knows she can come to you with questions. That way she won’t fall for Miley Cyrus’ marketing ploys. 🙂

Thanks for stopping by and reading my post! I’d love to read your thoughts. So, leave a comment and share them with me! 🙂