If you’ve been around this blog and feel as though you’ve heard this one before, please don’t stop me (who got that Smiths reference???) but instead go here probably because you feel like this (I know I do):
I know, I’ve told you before that I was going to be a published author. It was humiliating enough to tell friends and family that it wasn’t going to happen. I didn’t announce it here, to the world. Perhaps some of you were even wondering, “Hey, what’s going on with that?” Well, nothing. That publisher went out of business before CHASING EVELINE even saw the light of day. And I’ve been pretty depressed since.
Because for some people, publication seems to be either a festive carnival, an all-you-can-eat buffet, or an island paradise. For me, it’s been like a mid-July desert crossing in jeans and a wool sweater.
But that hasn’t stopped me. Either because I’m perseverant or crazy. Or both. But I’ve kept at it (and am keeping on keeping at it with a second manuscript here) and finally CHASING EVELINE has found a home. Pen Name Publishing will bring Ivy and Matt into the world. I am so grateful for this opportunity and to have someone believe in my story and in my writing. February 2018 is the tentative publication date. So there’s no need to clear space on your shelf/Kindle yet. But someday February 2018 will arrive. And when that happens, I hope the world will love Ivy and Matt as much as I do. Here’s what you can expect:
Sixteen-year-old Ivy Higgins is the only student at Carmel Heights High School who listens to cassettes. And her binder is the only one decorated with album artwork by 80s band Chasing Eveline. Despite being broken-up since 1989, this rock band out of Ireland means everything to Ivy. They’re a reminder of her mom, who abandoned Ivy and her dad two years ago. Now the music of her mom’s favorite band is the only connection she has left.
Even though Ivy wavers between anger and a yearning to reconnect, she’s one-hundred percent certain she’s not ready to lose her mom forever. But the only surefire way to locate her would be at a Chasing Eveline concert. So with help from her lone friend Matt—an equally abandoned soul and indie music enthusiast—Ivy hatches a plan to reunite the band.
The road to Ireland won’t be easy, though. And not just because there is no road. Along the way they’ll have to win over their Lady Gaga-loving peers, tangle with some frisky meerkats, and oh yeah, somehow find and persuade the four members to play a reunion gig. It’s a near-impossible task, but Ivy has to try. If she can’t let go of the past, she’ll never find joy in the present.
