Indie Fall Fest: Karen Gordon Release Day Blitz & Guest Post

Today I have Karen Gordon here with her new release, Popstars, Friends, & Lovers: a dreamer's tale and a guest post! Check it all out below.

Don't forget to drop by the kick-off post and enter our HUGE giveaway!

Over on Pretty Little Pages, Kristen is also featuring Karen Gordon today! 

For two weeks Steve Shrader lived a dream. A dream that he didn’t even know existed until he felt it. For two weeks the kid with no mom had good food, clean clothes and sheets and Christmas. For two weeks he had love - in the form of Hello Kitty band-aids and hot soup and his best friend, MG. Then he screwed up, like he always did, and the dream he was living went away.

Now school is over, MG is gone and he’s headed down the same path as all the adults in his life; drifting along, dodging or dealing with one sh*t-storm after another, numbing themselves with cigarettes, drugs and alcohol. But he’s seen a better life. He’s seen what he wants. He wants MG. The question is how to get to her from where he is now.

MG dreams of living large in New York City. (OK, to tell the truth, it’s her mom’s dream, and she is just along for the ride.) But she’s gonna make it work - in a kick-ass, cool apartment, with a glam fashion job and photo shoots with rich friends in magazines – or not. She left everything she was sure of back home in St. Louis and almost everything she thought she knew about Manhattan and life isn’t turning out to be true.

When her false dreams crumble and fall though her hands she’s left with what’s real. A real life with a real job and real love; and it can all be hers if she’s brave enough to believe in herself and go after what she truly wants.

Their love story started in Burnouts, Geeks & Jesus Freaks: a love story, now it continues in Popstars, Friends & Lovers: a dreamer’s tale. MG, the best friend with a talent for trouble, and Steve, the most laid back hero in romance novel history, are back. With old friends from high school and a crazed array of new ones they go for a win in the game called life.

Dare to Dream

In a review of my first novel, Burnouts, Geeks & Jesus Freaks: a love story, the reviewer noted that she didn't like the fact that the burnouts didn't seem to have much ambition. It's true, they don't. But ambition comes from dreams, specifically dreams that you believe have a chance of coming true. Its dreams that the burnouts lack and that lack is the theme of my second novel, Popstars, Friends & Lovers: a dreamer's tale.

One of my favorite scenes in the first book was Ben and the burnouts having breakfast together when he was kidnapped. Its career day at school and the burnouts don't feel the need to be there. It's a traditional skip day for them and that alone speaks volumes about the prospects these kids see for their futures. When they question Ben about his plans the differences become clear. He has a dream, and a clear plan to reach it, and a family that supports him in his dream. 

In contrast Casey hopes to get a job at a local factory and MG has unrealistic dreams of herself and Carrie moving to New York and walking right in to glamorous jobs. Carrie, Gina and Steve have no specific dreams for the future because no one ever told them they could. Dreaming starts at home, in families that tell their kids that they are not only allowed to have a dream, but the family will put time and money and love into helping make that dream come true. I agree that their lack of aspirations is frustrating, but I wrote it that way because it establishes one of the results of their home lives and also opens the door for so much to happen in book two.

Once out of the cocoon of high school outside forces start to define their lives. If you don't have a specific plan and people to help keep you on track, you tend to drift with the flow and hope for the best.  

I love the complexity of this theme. Popular culture tends to show dreams as a one size fits all kind of thing. We are told we should dream and dream big; then we should relentlessly go in the direction of our dreams and never, never give up. Until you have a movie star's body, face, spouse, house and paycheck you have not made it. 

I can't wait to dispel that myth. Through MG and Steve and a bunch of new characters I'm turning that cliché, Disneyesque idea on its head. Because it’s only when we grow up and figure out what we truly want from life that daring to dream becomes powerful. Book two is all about those dreams, the ones that when they do come true bring peace-of-mind, contentment and love (cause it's a love story--after all).

Karen Gordon was born and raised in the suburban paradise of St. Charles, MO, on the outskirts of St. Louis. She earned a B.S. in English from the University of Central Missouri (BS being the operative term) and a M.A. in Media Communications from Webster University, where, always a rebel, she graduated in a hot pink mortarboard because she didn’t like the school colors.

She currently resides in Olive Branch, MS (formerly Cow Pen) on the outskirts of Memphis, TN with her 2.5 super-smart kids, and an amazingly-funny, cute, geeky husband.

When not writing, she is a stay-at-home mom (chick in charge) and part-time teacher. Any down time is spent reading, catching up with friends and obsessively worrying about every little thing.

Her first novel, “Burnouts, Geeks and Jesus Freaks: a love story” was published in March of 2014 with the second novel in the Burnouts series, “Popstars, Friends & Lovers: a dreamer’s tale” being released in November, 2014. She is currently working on the third, and final, novel in the series, tentatively title “Boi H.E.A.”

 

Connect with Karen:

Goodreads – Facebook – Twitter – Amazon