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| Rockstar Tours |
A forbidden romance. A modern mystery. Wuthering Heights as you’ve never seen it before.Catherine is tired of struggling musicians befriending her just so they can get a gig at her Dad’s famous Manhattan club, The Underground. Then she meets mysterious Hence, an unbelievably passionate and talented musician on the brink of success. As their relationship grows, both are swept away in a fiery romance. But when their love is tested by a cruel whim of fate, will pride keep them apart?Chelsea has always believed that her mom died of a sudden illness, until she finds a letter her dad has kept from her for years—a letter from her mom, Catherine, who didn’t die: She disappeared. Driven by unanswered questions, Chelsea sets out to look for her—starting with the return address on the letter: The Underground.Told in two voices, twenty years apart, Catherine interweaves a timeless forbidden romance with a compelling modern mystery.
April Lindner is the author of two novels, Catherine, a modernization of Wuthering Heights, and Jane, an update of Jane Eyre. She also has published two poetry collections, Skin and This Bed Our Bodies Shaped.
She plays acoustic guitar badly, sees more rock concerts than she’d care to admit, travels whenever she can, cooks Italian food, and lavishes attention on her pets—two Labrador retriever mixes and two excitable guinea pigs.
A professor of English at Saint Joseph’s University, April lives in Pennsylvania with her husband and two sons.
you can read my review here
PLEASE WELCOME APRIL TO BOOKHOUNDS!
***
I go to a lot of rock concerts…maybe too many, sacrificing
sleep, spending money that could be used for more practical purposes like, say,
eating or paying the mortgage. Nothing
gets me more excited, more inspired, than music; it taps straight into my emotions
in a way that other arts—even books—can’t quite do. And live music is even more immediate,
because when you’re in the audience you’re part of the experience, giving back
to the performer, interacting with him or her, helping to amplify the
energy. I love being lost in an
enormous arena crowd, part of something so much bigger than myself. Even better is being in a small club, up
against the stage, interacting with the band, making eye contact, cheering them
on.
As you can see, I’m a more than a little obsessed with the
live music thing, so it’s no surprise that music and musicians have made their
way into my books. My first novel, JANE,
wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for my fascination with music in general and rock
in particular. Though I’ve always loved
retellings of classic literature, and I’d long wanted to write a JANE EYRE
retelling of my own, it was the realization that Mr. Rochester could be a rock
star that jolted me into action. It’s no
secret that I’m a huge Bruce Springsteen fan; I’ve been to upwards of fifty
shows, sometimes travelling many states away to get there. And I
confess, I’ve done some musing about what it must be like to be Bruce, or
someone like him, who plays to packed arenas and has a huge, loyal fan
base. When I set down to write JANE, I
already had a pretty vivid idea of what Nico Rathburn’s life would be like, and
what pitfalls there might be for an ordinary girl who falls in love with him.
Something similar happened with my second book, CATHERINE. I’d made up my mind to write a retelling of
WUTHERING HEIGHTS. As in the original, I
wanted setting to be really important, almost a character in itself. I’d been
thinking of the White Mountains of Northern New Hampshire, a place that can
feel almost as stark and remote as I imagine the Yorkshire Moors do, but the
story just wasn’t falling into place for me.
Then one night, I happened to be at a show at the legendary Stone Pony
in Asbury Park, New Jersey—basically my favorite club in the world, as steeped
as it is in Bruce Springsteen history and in whole Jersey Shore music
scene. I can’t recall now who I was
seeing that night, but about halfway through the show I felt that familiar
mid-concert crackling energy coursing through me and realized that I felt, for
the first time in a while, truly inspired.
That’s when it occurred to me that the story of Catherine and Heathcliff
could be set in a night club, and that Heathcliff could be a punk rocker. After that, the story began to crystallize. I transplanted the club to New York’s Lower
East Side, mainly because I wanted it to be a part of punk history, right up
the street from the legendary club CBGB.
Right about the time I was writing the first draft of
CATHERINE, I became obsessed with a musician named Jesse Malin who, like my
hero Hence, started out in a punk rock band and went on to own a nightclub on
the Bowery. Jesse Malin is an incredible
songwriter; he’s more of a rocker these days than a punk, and, boy, can he
write a song! When I was putting the
finishing touches on the first draft of CATHERINE, I happened to notice that
Jesse was going to be playing his own club, the Bowery Electric, so of course
my husband and I had to be there. I’d
seen Jesse live several times before, but there was nothing quite like seeing
him play his own club. Hence, my
Heathcliff character, does something very similar in a key scene in CATHERINE,
and from the buzz in the air that night it was very clear that there was
something very special for a musician taking the stage in his very own
club. I was able to rewrite that scene,
to make it better, for having been at that show.
Finally, I’m in the process of writing a new retelling, this
time of E. M. Forster’s A ROOM WITH A VIEW, about a young British girl
travelling through Italy. My new novel,
tentatively titled LUCY, is about an American backpacker touring Europe; she
has a life-changing encounter with a free-spirited street musician. So music has found its way into this new book
too. After this one, I don’t know if I’ll
be able to get away with any more novels that feature rock music and musicians;
it might be time to move on to some of my other obsessions. We’ll see.
check out the other blogs on this tour
Week One
June 17th - Bewitched Bookworms - Review + Interview
June 18th - Jessabella Reads - Guest Post
June 19th - Laurie's Thoughts and Reviews - Interview
June 20th - Romancing the Dark Side - Guest Post
June 20th - Between the Pages - Review
June 21st - Emily's Crammed Bookshelf - Interview
June 21st - A Little Shelf of Heaven - Review
Week Two
June 24th - Parajunkee - Guest Post
June 25th - The Book Belles - Interview
June 25th - The Bookmark Blog - Review
June 26th - Curling Up With A Good Book - Review
June 26th - Ink Skies - Interview
June 27th - BookHounds - Guest Post
June 27th - To Read or Not To Read - Review
June 28th - Tales of the Ravenous Reader - Guest Post
The Giveaway
A hardcover copy of CATHERINE by April Lindner to THREE (3)
winners.
It is a tour-wide giveaway shared across all the stops via a
common Rafflecopter.
Giveaway is US only.
Must be 13 or older to enter.
Giveaway ends July 4 at 11:59 p.m.
Winners will be chosen via Rafflecopter and contacted by
email.
Mandatory requirement is to leave a comment. Optional
entries are to Like the CATHERINE Facebook page, follow the author on Twitter
and Tweet (daily) about the tour/giveaway.
All giveaway options are weighted evenly.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
I love modern retellings because you get to see the story through another author's eyes. It's just really interesting to see how they turn things written long ago, into something new and fresh and still keep the basic meaning to the story, if that makes sense.
ReplyDeleteI love when modern retellings keep the relevant story and characters, but condense it enough to be digestible to a modern audience. I think that's a skill, and is harder than most people assume, but when it works it's a beautiful, beautiful thing.
ReplyDeleteThere are just so many twists you can add with any re-telling. I think modern ones that stay true to the theme and intent of the original, while at the same time making in a completely unique reading experience are hard to find and so much fun to read.
ReplyDeleteI love modern retellings for several reasons, the first is that another generation can grab hold of at least the concepts of the classics. I also love them because it's a chance to see another view of the story, of the characters, of the whole image. It's like taking a 2-d image of something, adding another view and realizing you made it 3-d, so to speak.
ReplyDeleteI love to see a fresh take on an old tale. It proves the lasting nature of story.
ReplyDeleteGood luck to everyone.
I love that they link history with new technology and events.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting to see the different twists someone can come up with for a well know story..
ReplyDelete