Book Tour: Between a Rockstar and a Hard Place - Portia MacIntosh - Review + Q&A
The blurb: Behind the music…
Being best friends with a mega-star has its perks and Nicole Wilde, music journalist, laps them up. But when said friend, Dylan King, gorgeous lead singer of The Burnouts, has zero sense of self-preservation – once a drop of alcohol hits his blood stream ‒ and an inability to keep ‘little Dylan’ in his pants, it also comes with responsibilities. Now, Nicole has to track down Dylan in time to play a charity gigtomorrow. Half a dozen groupies, a haunted hotel, a tattoo parlour, a reality show runner-up and a crazy bed-hopping, sleepless night later – will she find him before the tour bus leaves town? And when she does, is it time to head home? Or to jump on the tour bus and go along for the ride!
My opinion.
How great is this cover. I mean, really. Wow.
Thankfully, the story was every bit as fantastic as this cover. It has an amazing setting: behind the scenes of the rock and roll lifestyle of the rich and famous with an easy to love, funny main character and a very hot, very famous crush. And if that wasn't enough: a missing rock star.
Nicole seems to have it all: a job as a music journalist, backstage passes and a rockstar for a best friend. A position all fan girls envy. But she's the most lovely, funny down to earth person about it all.
I can't wait for 'How Not To Be Starstruck' to come out. Portia MacIntosh is one to look out for!
Author Q&A
About the author.
When she was fifteen-years-old, Portia MacIntosh fell in with a bad crowd... rockstars. After disappearing on tour and living the rock 'n' roll lifestyle for a few years, Portia landed a job in the music industry - but only so that she didn't have to join the real world just yet.
Now in her twenties, Portia is ready to spill the beans on the things she has witnessed over the years. Well, kind of. If her famous friends knew that she was borrowing their lives to inspire her fiction, they would stop inviting her on tour and banish her from the inner circle. Then she really would have to rejoin the real world, and she's still not ready.
Portia only started writing novels to share her secrets, but then she realised she actually quite liked writing - maybe even more than she likes living on a bus with a bunch of smelly boys - and has since tried her hand at writing about other things.
In your author bio you said that joining tours was a way of escaping the real world. How are you liking it so far? Or haven’t you said your goodbyes just yet, to the rock and roll lifestyle?
When I first started writing my books, I was still very much involved. I was squashing writing chapters in between gigs and work - writing in the notes app on my phone if I was on the go, or even finding an actual pen and writing on actual paper if that's all that was available at the time. Since signing my deal, I'm having to take my writing much more seriously and that's cutting into my tour time a little... i'm scared to say it, but i'm loving it. I'm still living the life though, and still not ready to grow up [laughs].
What do you love most about being on tour?
I love everything. I love meeting new people - making a new best friend, even if it's just for one night. I love how no two days are the same. I love rockstars, they remind me of the naughty boys at school - the ones who would keep the class entertained, doing stupid things and being cheeky to the teacher. Touring, for someone like me who isn't in a band, is like a holiday. I love it.
Joining tours at the age of 15 doesn’t sound like the average teenage life. How did that come about, and how was it, living that life style from such an early age?
I got "in" with a pretty big band. The more time I spent in that kind of environment, the more I wanted to stick around. Through that band I met other bands, I made more friends, and eventually I wound up with a job in the industry. As soon as my professional and social lives were both in the biz, I was lost to it.
You used some of your experiences as an inspiration for your book(s). Have any of your rockstar friends (or their entourage) approached you yet about seeing their ‘adventures’ pop up in your work?
For me the worry was that people would read my books and decide who was who based on who I am friends with in real life. I also worried that my band friends would read it and start thinking I was talking about them or someone else close to us... I didn't want people trying to put pieces of a puzzle together that were never going to fit. My books are inspired by my experiences, but not a re-telling of them. So the story in my second book, How Not to be Starstruck, may not have happened, but the little events are based around real things that happened or do happen. As for the characters, they are based around a type of person, rather than an individual. My books are realistic, but they're not real. It made sense to use a pen name.
How are you enjoying being a writer, and are you planning on continuing writing?
I love writing! It was never my intention to be an author, I just wanted a way to tell my tour stories anonymously. I have four books coming out with Carina and another two all planned out. It may have come about by accident, but I'm really enjoying writing novels. I love planning, writing, editing, promoting - I'm really loving doing interviews, it's nice being on the receiving end of questions.
Can you reveal something about future projects?
After Between a Rockstar and a Hard Place comes out (20th February) I have the full-length follow-up, How Not to be Starstruck, out in March. My third book out with Carina is called Like Father Like Son - that one isn't about the music industry, so I'm excited to see how that one goes down.
Some facts about Portia
Favorite color
Pink. My entire world is pink.
Favorite holiday destination
I have lots of band friends in New York and LA. If I weren't so busy, that's where I'd be heading.
Favorite band
I love a bit of everything when it comes to music. It's hard to pick favourites, I change my mind all the time.
Favorite drink
I'm a coffee junkie.
Favorite author and/or favorite book
My favourite book is probably The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath.
Massive thank you to Portia
for approaching me about this novella and
for taking the time to stop by and answer some questions,
and to the amazing Gosling Girls for organizing this fabulous tour.
You ladies ROCK.
Comments
Post a Comment