Tag Archive for: End Me A Tenor

Confessions of a sort of ill, but totally in denial writer

/in /by

By:  Joelle
Charbonneau
I’m sick.  For those
that follow my twitter feed or are Facebook friends for me, I doubt this comes
as a newsflash.  In the last three
months, I have managed to come down with a sinus infection, bronchitis,
pneumonia and pleurisy.  (Who gets
pleurisy???)   I’m now on my third course
of antibiotics (this one is also used for anthrax) and my third inhaler. (Go
steroids.)
Yep.  I’m sick.
The one thing I’ve learned over the course of this
three-month odyssey is that I suck at being sick.   Not because I whine or cry or pout.  (Well, okay, the pouting thing might have
happened when the steroids wore off this last time and my breathing stopped
working so well.  Sue me!)  My problem is that I’m stubborn.  I don’t want to be sick so I try to pretend
that I’m not.  I mean, there are still
pages to be written, pages to be edited, books to be promoted, dinners to cook,
an entire house to be moved, a five-year-old to run after and…
You get the point.
Perhaps my real problem is that I like work.  (Yes, I’m deranged.) And really, when you
think about it, writing a book involves a lot of sitting.  That’s rest—right?  I mean, how much better would it be if I were
to just sit in a chair and do nothing as opposed to typing away on my keyboard?
Okay, I know I have a problem.  But I can’t help it.   So many people that I know hate their jobs. 

When they’re home sick, they love the excuse
to get away from their typical daily grind. 
I LOVE my job.  Never in my
wildest imaginations did I think that someone would ever pay me to make up
stuff or that readers would want to spend time with the characters I’ve
created.  So when someone suggest that I
stop writing in order to rest….I can’t! 
I just can’t. 

But I’m trying.  And
if you have any suggestions as to how to best do that (without giving up the
fun stuff like writing), I’m listening. 
And I’m pretty sure my mother is, too!
Oh – and in case you missed it – END ME A TENOR came out
last week!  Hurray.  Also, the trailer for my first young adult
novel- THE TESTING – debuted on EW.com in case you want to check it out.  See…who has time to be sick when such fun
stuff is happening?  (Sigh…back to
resting….)

Another opening….

/in /by

by:  Joelle
Charbonneau
I’ve had lots of opening nights.  Standing on stage behind the closed curtain
you can hear the buzz of the audience. 
The orchestra tunes up.  The
energy is electric.  No matter how many
rehearsals you’ve had or how well you know the show, there is a rush of
nerves.  A burst of adrenaline.  Under the excitement there is always the
worry that the show might not be ready for the audience – the press – the world. 
Then the curtain goes up. 
The orchestra plays and there is no time for doubts.  No time to worry about whether you’ll
remember your lines, lyrics or dance steps. 
The show starts and there is nothing to do but enjoy the ride.
The curtain is going up a week from today on my fifth
published novel – END ME A TENOR.  This
is the second of the Glee club mysteries.  Paige wants to make it big in the opera
world, but hasn’t yet snagged her big break. 
Until now!  A big name tenor is
headlining The Sing-A-Long Messiah and she has been cast as the soprano
soloist.  This could be her chance to
launch her career and officially end her tenure as the Prospect Glen Show Choir
coach.  Only things don’t go exactly as
planned and she is in danger of losing not only her big break, but her coaching
job as well. 

END ME A TENOR is perhaps my favorite of all the comedic
mysteries I’ve written.  Because Paige
spends part of the book in the world of professional performance, I found that
I put a great deal of my own experiences from the stage on the page.  The excitement.  The nerves. 
The hopes and worries that go along with knowing that you sometimes get
one chance to make an impression on not only the reviewers, but your
colleagues.  That perhaps despite all of
the practice you aren’t good enough to make it in the business.
Sounds a lot like writing, too, right?  Because with every opening curtain in the
publishing world, I feel those same emotions. 
The curtain goes up next Tuesday. 
I only hope that readers love Paige and the Music in Motion gang as much
as I love writing them.
And maybe if I’m lucky, the curtain will be allowed to come
up on this cast for many books to come. 
Paige and I would be happy to perform for as long as readers let us.

Anticipation

/in /by

by: Joelle Charbonneau

It is so easy to get wrapped up in writing new manuscripts and the process of being published, that we often don’t take time to enjoy the anticipation that leads up to a book’s release.  Or maybe it’s just me.  I tend to be the kind that has tunnel vision.  I think about the work that has to be done, not the celebration of the work that has already occurred.

However today is a day for celebration.  In the next couple of months, I will have several books hit shelves.  The first, END ME A TENOR, will be published on April 2nd by Berkley Prime Crime.  I think it is my favorite of all of my mysteries perhaps because there is so much of my performance life hidden in the pages between those covers. 

The second book that will hit shelves is my first young adult novel – THE TESTING.  It will arrive at a bookstore near you on June 4th.  This series has been such a wonderful challenge for me.  My heroine, Cia Vale, has pushed me to consider the world around me in very different ways as has this publishing experience.  While months exist between now and the release of The Testing, lots of cool stuff is starting to happen.  The first of which launches today and I’d like to invite you all to participate.  The Testing has had several different covers.  We thought the final covered had been nailed down, but a new artist who was hired for book 2 took a whack at adding his flare to book one’s design and WOW is it amazing.  The reveal of the new The Testing cover is happening today on Facebook where Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has launched a page for all things Testing Trilogy.

Please stop by and take a peek!  I’d love to hear what you think of the cover and have you join me on this strange and wonderful adventure that I am on.