7/27/2014
Today Musical Monday is being taken over by Geralyn Corcillo whose novel She Likes it Tough is on of the novels in the Have Chick Lit Will Travel Romantic Comedy Box Set, that I am also included in and which just released on Friday.
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What a whirlwind weekend I have just had! The Romantic Comedy Box Set Have Chick Lit, Will Travel that I am a part of along with Monique and Jennifer Gilby Roberts is burning up the Amazon charts!
Can you guess what song has been going through my head all weekend? It is by – not to be biased against Monique and Jennifer – The American Authors! “The Best Day of My Life.”
And how could these past few days be anything but the best days? At one point on its meteoric blast through the charts, Have Chick Lit, Will Travel was nestled between Sophie Kinsella’s I’ve Got Your Number (which includes the Best First Kiss Scene ever!) and Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy. Sigh…what a beautiful, divinely comfy place to be.
Back to Musical Monday. Did you ever see the Mel Gibson, Jodie Foster, James Garner movie Maverick? In it, Foster’s character unearths a secret about the other two. When they ask her how she figured it out, she explains, “You both sing the same wrong words to Amazing Grace.” And that little oddity gave it all away.
See? Using music in stories can be fun and so much more than background noise.
In my contribution to the Box Set, She Likes It Tough, my first-person narrator heroine Lisa Flyte constantly relates her life to aspects of pop culture – books, movies, TV shows, and songs she has had trolling through her life. And the hero Jack Hawkins picks up on this through the course of the story and their topsy-turvy relationship. So much so, that when everything between them gets good and truly fracked up, and Jack is trying to work his way back to her, he tries to do it through songs:
I open the email. No text. It’s an MP3. A heartfelt apology from Jack? A snippet about us from some radio show? I can’t imagine.
I get up and close the door to my office. Then I make sure the volume on my computer is low enough that only I’ll be able to hear it. I open the attachment.
With the first riff of guitar strings, I catch my breath. “Joey,” by Concrete Blonde.
The heart-wrenching lyrics rip into me with their desperate struggle to salvage messed-up love.
But we got lucky once before
And I don’t wanna close the door
I can scarcely breathe. Is Jack asking me to come back? Is he trying to confess something? Explain something? Or did he just send me a song he thought I’d like? And if so, why? Why why why why why?
The song ends, making it easier to hear my heart pounding.
The silence of the computer makes my skin prickle. Jack sent me a song.
Wait. Jack sent me a song? Are we in middle school?
Or should he get points for choosing THE BEST SONG EVER?
I don’t know. I don’t know I don’t know I don’t know.
The wooing through songs continues, but how does it end up – and what does it mean to the outcome of the story? Does Lisa fight back with songs of her own? Does she ever figure out what Jack wants or is trying to say?
From Lisa’s cell phone ring to how something about The Ramones gives away one of her secrets, music chirps and trills its way throughout this story. Because after all, like sex and free food, doesn’t music just make things better?
How do you use music in your life, your work, your art? And if one song from a spurned lover could win you back or at least make you think twice or even pull your hair out trying to decide what to do – what would it be?
Biography
Geralyn Corcillo has work published under the names GVR Corcillo and Geralyn Ruane, as well. Identity crisis? Sure…but she’s got it pretty much figured out now.
Once upon a time, Geralyn Vivian Ruane Corcillo taught high school in Watts and South Central Los Angeles. But deciding she needed an even tougher job, she chose to write.
Corcillo won a few contests, hit the New York Times Bestseller List with her first short story “Jane Austen Meets the New York Giants,” and got a B-movie screenplay produced by Roger Corman. She Likes It Tough is her debut novel, and winner of Best Humor Book 2013 and Best Indie Book 2013 from the Rebecca’s Reads Choice Awards. She Likes It Tough was also a Quarter Finalist in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards 2014.
Corcillo lives in North Hollywood with her husband Ron, a guy who’s even cooler than Kip Dynamite.
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Pop back tomorrow for a post by the third author in Have Chick Lit, Will Travel Jennifer Roberts
Comments
Geralyn Corcillo
7/27/2014 03:29:48 pm
Wow, Monique, you really make my post look fantastic! Thanks 🙂 I applaud the energy and finesse you put into this incredibly fun blog! Being a part of The Box Set with you and Jennifer is truly wonderful, and being on your blog is just more scrumptious icing on the cake 🙂
Geralyn Corcillo
7/27/2014 03:43:34 pm
Have Chick Lit, Will Travel – #57 on Amazon’s Humorous Women’s Fiction Bestseller List! It has been movin’ on up all day 🙂
Reply
Monique
7/27/2014 05:26:11 pm
Very exciting about the ranking. Great post!!
Reply
Geralyn Corcillo
7/27/2014 06:45:24 pm
Thanks, Monique. Looking forwards to Jennifer’s post tomorrow!