A Dream Within A Dream: Stephanie Parent

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June 24, 2013

Book Blitz & Giveaway: Precious Things by Stephanie Parent

Precious Things
Author: Stephanie Parent
Genre: New Adult Contemporary
Release Date: June 4, 2013

Description:

Isabelle Andrews isn’t supposed to be here. She isn’t supposed to be a freshman at Hartford Community College, she isn't supposed to be living at home and working at her dad’s failing bakery, and she definitely isn’t supposed to be taking Intro to Electronic Music Production, a class that will get her nowhere toward her goal of an English Lit Ph.D. by age twenty-five. But when her dad’s latest business fiasco eats up her college fund, Hartford Community College is exactly where Isabelle finds herself—and thanks to her late enrollment, she doesn’t even get to choose her classes. Stuck with Electronic Music and way-too-easy English courses, Isabelle is determined to wallow in all the misery she feels entitled to.

But community college brings some unexpected benefits…like the fact that a certain overworked, over-scheduled Electronic Music professor hands over most of his duties to his teaching assistant. His tall, green-eyed, absolutely gorgeous teaching assistant. When TA Evan Strauss discovers Isabelle’s apathy toward electronic music—and, well, all music—he makes it his mission to convert her. The music Evan composes stirs something inside Isabelle, but she can’t get involved—after all, she’ll be transferring out as soon as possible.

Still, no matter how tightly Isabelle holds on to her misery, she finds it slipping away in the wake of all Hartford Community offers: new friendships, a surprisingly cool poetry professor, and most of all, Evan. But Evan’s dream of owning his own music studio is as impractical as Isabelle’s dad’s bakery, and when Evan makes a terrible decision, everything Isabelle has gained threatens to unravel. Soon Isabelle discovers that some of the most important lessons take place outside the classroom…and that in life, as in Evan’s favorite Depeche Mode song, the most precious things can be the hardest to hold on to.

Precious Things Playlist

Precious Things features a lot of Depeche Mode songs in the story, and while most of them are named in the novel, a few are not, so I thought it might be helpful to put together an official Precious Things playlist! I also have to admit that I am not much of a Depeche Mode fan—I really only started to listen to their music while I was thinking about this book, mulling over the idea of a story set around an electronic music production class. (Like Isabelle, I also took an electronic music class at a community college; however, I was already a college graduate at the time and the class wasn’t for credit.) Also like Isabelle, there are a lot of Depeche Mode songs I don’t like, but I have found a few that I really love, and the mood and tone of them had a huge influence on the writing of Precious Things. So here are the songs, in the order they appear in the book:

1. “Enjoy the Silence”—For the record, I hate this song almost as much as Isabelle does. It’s one of Depeche Mode’s earlier hits.

2. “Waiting for the Night”—This is the song Isabelle listens to after reading the Robert Frost poem “Acquainted with the Night,” and the combined effect of the song and poem prompts an unexpected emotional reaction.

3. “I Want It All”—Evan plays this song for Isabelle the first time they’re alone together. In other words, the almost-kiss sexual-tension song.

4. “Halo”—The soundtrack to Evan and Isabelle’s first date. The “girl with a famine in her heart” song.

5. “Goodnight Lovers”—This song foreshadows some of the troubles Isabelle and Evan will face in the last part of the book.

6. “Precious”—This one is my favorite too.

And if you want more Depeche Mode, here are some other songs that inspired me, but didn’t make it into the book: “Ghost,” “Useless,” “Stripped,” “One Caress,” “Suffer Well,” “The Things You Said,” and “Shine.” Happy listening!

Thanks for stopping by and sharing your playlist for Precious Things with us Stephanie!

Stephanie Parent is a graduate of the Master of Professional Writing program at USC and attended the Baltimore School for the Arts as a piano major. She moved to Los Angeles because of Francesca Lia Block's WEETZIE BAT books, which might give you some idea of how much books mean to her. She also loves dogs, books about dogs, and sugary coffee drinks both hot and cold.

Author Links:

Website / Goodreads / Twitter

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Giveaway: (1) ebook copy of PRECIOUS THINGS - Open Internationally!

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March 21, 2013

Cover Reveal: Precious Things by Stephanie Parent

Precious Things

Author: Stephanie Parent
Genre: New Adult Contemporary

Release Date: May 2013

Cover Designed by: Allie Brennan of B Design

Cover reveal Organized by: YA Bound

Summary from Goodreads:

But community college brings some unexpected benefits…like the fact that a certain overworked, over-scheduled Electronic Music professor hands over most of his duties to his teaching assistant. His tall, green-eyed, absolutely gorgeous teaching assistant. When TA Evan Strauss discovers Isabelle’s apathy toward electronic music—and, well, all music—he makes it his mission to convert her. The music Evan composes stirs something inside Isabelle, but she can’t get involved—after all, she’ll be transferring out as soon as possible.

Still, no matter how tightly Isabelle holds on to her misery, she finds it slipping away in the wake of all Hartford Community offers: new friendships, a surprisingly cool poetry professor, and most of all, Evan. But Evan’s dream of owning his own music studio is as impractical as Isabelle’s dad’s bakery, and when Evan makes a terrible decision, everything Isabelle has gained threatens to unravel. Soon Isabelle discovers that some of the most important lessons take place outside the classroom…and that in life, as in Evan’s favorite Depeche Mode song, the most precious things can be the hardest to hold on to.

About the Author

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February 12, 2013

Forty Days Book Blitz & Giveaway

Forty Days (Neima's Ark #1)
Author: Stephanie Parent
Release Date: February 12, 2013

Buy Link: Amazon

Description:

The entire village knows Neima’s grandfather is a madman. For years the old man has prophesied that a great flood is coming, a flood disastrous enough to blot out the entire earth. He’s even built an enormous ark that he claims will allow his family to survive the deluge. But no one believes the ravings of a lunatic…

…until the rain starts. And doesn’t stop. Soon sixteen-year-old Neima finds her entire world transformed, her life and those of the people she loves in peril. Trapped on the ark with her grandfather Noah, the rest of her family, and a noisy, filthy, and hungry assortment of wild animals, will Neima find a way to survive?

With lions, tigers, and bears oh my, elephants and flamingos too, along with rivalries and betrayals, a mysterious stowaway, and perhaps even an unexpected romance, FORTY DAYS is not your grandfather’s Noah’s Ark story.

FORTY DAYS is approximately 45000 words, the length of a shorter novel, and is the first installment in a two-part epic story. It does contain a cliffhanger ending.

Readers looking for a traditional, religiously oriented version of the Noah’s Ark story should be warned that FORTY DAYS may not appeal to them. The novel will, however, appeal to lovers of apocalyptic fiction, historical fiction, and romance, as well as anyone who’s ever dreamed of having a baby elephant as a pet.

Excerpt:

A crash comes out of nowhere, a sound not of water but of something solid rending, splitting, falling, followed by shill screaming. I run to the door without thinking and the water hits me like a wall, blinding me, pushing me back. It takes all my strength to force my way outside, where, eyes narrowed, I make out children bracing themselves, hands on knees, some down on all fours in the now-slippery earth. The rains can be ferocious, yes, especially when they first arrive…but have they ever been like this before? Not in my lifetime, I don’t think.
I struggle forward till I can just glimpse the cause of that solid crash, blurred through a curtain of rain: a cottage has crumbled to the ground, its roof split down the middle, its foundation collapsed under the weight of the roof and the water. My throat tightens: that is—or was—Hannah’s dwelling. As a widow with no sons, Hannah had no one to shore up her cottage before the rainy season. How many years have passed since anyone’s even offered to patch her roof?
I look for Hannah herself, knowing Mother would want me to offer her shelter, but I can’t see past the crowd of taller villagers quickly forming around her cottage. Someone will take care of her, at least.
Another crash rings out over the rain, the sound reverberating down to my bones, and before my eyes the roof of another cottage slides forward, over the still-standing walls and all the way down to the ground, as easily as mud sliding down a hillside. And this is Emir’s house. I saw him repairing his roof just a day or two ago.
I’m trapped in place, suddenly, my body turned solid as stone in my bewilderment and fear, even as the world is tearing to pieces before me and the rain seems determined to knock me onto my knees. And then, through the swirl of wind and water, a single word rises, a harsh, cutting word, repeating and gathering strength like a chant:
“Curse. Curse. Curse. Curse. The ark has brought this curse upon us.”

About the Author: