Monday, September 22, 2014

Super Girls Blog Tour! (+$35 Amazon GC Giveaway!)

Title: Supergirls
Author: Mav Skye
Series: N/A
Pages: 73
Date Published: July 16th 2014
Publisher: N/A
Format: Kindle
Genre: Suspense
Source: Goddess Fish Blog Tours
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Synopsis:
Sisters Jenn and May have finally found their golden ticket out of the slums. Pervy sugar daddy, Frederick Bells, promises to be an easy score with a big payoff—millions are hidden within his mansion.

The plan is simple: tie up the pig, steal his cash, and skip town. But fate has a different plan, including a villain with a wicked imagination. The sisters resort to playing their childhood game SUPERGIRLS to battle their fears in Bell’s den of horrors.

Will the SUPERGIRLS find their prize or will their heads join the pile behind the black cellar door?
~Guest Post!~
How Music Helps Me Write: Supergirls Playlist
by Mav Skye

I have a confession: I don’t write stories by myself. Never have. Even at this moment, I’m plugged into my iPhone, listening to Nevermind by Birthday Massacre. The reason that particular song is playing is because it’s on my Supergirls playlist and I’m writing about Supergirls right now.

I’ve always said Art begets art. Which is kinda silly, you should look at my teens’ faces when I tell them that, but it’s completely true. In this case, music helps create the tone, mood and texture of whatever I’m writing. There are several levels of a story: there’s the story line, the basic plot, and then there’s what happens between the plot and the story line, the undertones. It’s not what I’m saying, but what I’m not saying, and that is where the music helps me out.

Supergirls has a long playlist for a novella. I think that’s because I knew from the start Supergirls would become a series. I have several books planned and these specific songs guide me. In the story itself I mention a few of the songs (and there's plenty that I don't.) 

Right off the bat, “twisted sister” is used as a term of affection between Jenn and May. Twisted Sister is also the quintessential all American Stick-It-To-The-Man band, which is the attitude the girls have toward the universe.

The first place I actually mention in the story is when Jenn and May are investigating Frederick Bells’ aka Fat Bastard’s study. They discover thousands of photographs of women plastered on the walls. In the center of the collage are photos of younger sister, May. Fat Bastard had been stalking her for months. It scares the girls to the core.

They find Fat Bastard’s laptop and try to guess his password. Jenn suggests, Eat the Rich (by Aerosmith). It’s supposed to be a joke, but once Jenn thinks of the song, she can’t shake the lyrics. The song sets the perfect tone for the sisters’ grisly discovery behind the closet door, a discovery that will change their lives forever. Later on, as they hunt for the cash in Fat Bastard’s haunted mansion Jenn will hallucinate his distorted face, again and again, screaming Eat the Bitch! (Just a little foreshadowing of what’s to come.)

The next song I mention is when Jenn and May are in the room with the “sisters of pain”, marble statues of naked women begging for mercy. Hundreds of ornate daggers dangle from the ceiling, blades down. Jenn and May discover that the statues are rigged to move—arms wave, heads tilt, eyes blink. When the sound system starts blasting Imma Be by Black Eyed Peas, and the statues dance, so does May. Jenn thinks she’s nuts until her own favorite song comes on (which happens to be mine too.) Heroes by David Bowie. Jenn gives in and dances with her sister. When you are trapped in a mad man’s mansion and the sisters of pain start dancing, you dance with them. What else is there to do?

I chose Imma Be because the song is about being whatever you want, the old American Dream way. Party, party, dream and drink and boom, baby, you’re rich! Total Jenn and May song.

Heroes is more substantial and yet whimsical. Maybe in some parallel universe, just for one day, things will be as you wish. As the scene ends, Dead by Buckcherry pounds through the speakers and the girls are jolted back to reality— a loud thump outside the room alerts them that Fat Bastard has escaped his bonds. If you have time, look up the lyrics to Dead. They are fantastic and describe Jenn and May’s generation well.

I wish I had time to tell you about why Linkin Park’s Roads Untraveled is perfect for the ending scene. When you read it, you’ll know exactly the way it’s supposed to feel. I don’t have enough much room on this post to tell you about other scenes, but here’s a short list of the best music for the novella:

Psychotic Girl—Black Keys
Bittersweetheart— Soul Asylum
Nevermind and The Dream— Birthday Massacre
Eat the Rich—Aerosmith
Violet Rays and Oceania—Smashing Pumpkins
Supergirl—Reamonn (of course!)
Runaway Train—Kasey Chambers
The Weight of Love and Chasing Cars— Snow Patrol
Faster—Within Temptation
Epilogue—Apocalyptica
Imma Be—Black Eyed Peas
Heroes— David Bowie
Dead— Buckcherry
Hero— Chad Kroeger (from the Spiderman Album)
Under Pressure—Queen and David Bowie
Sugar—Garbage
Breathing Underwater—Metric
Mad World—Michael Andrews and Gary Jules
The Sticks—Mother Mother
Big Girls Don’t Cry—Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons
Roads Untraveled—Linkin Park
~Try an Excerpt!~
A narrow door with a brass knob catches my eye. It blends into the wall. “The closet,” I whisper.

We both walk to it, look at each other. I open the door. It is dark. A lone pull string hangs from a bulb. It tick-tocks back and forth like a grandfather clock tongue. I watch it a second, willing it to stop ticking, but it moves anyway in its own ghostly rhythm. I hesitate. Do I really want to see? Not just inside the closet, but see our lives clearly: May and mine, always looking for the next 7-11 job to get screwed at, flip a trick to pay rent, grab a buck burger for dinner, never having a real boyfriend, the weight of paying for May’s meds. What is the price for a dream, for peace? Our mother’s price (her face appears in my mind, navy blue eyes and a pale pretty mouth, a scar the shape of a kiss on her cheek) was running away. The price, I know, is always hefty and… complete. What would my price be?

The string tick-tocks on.

“Maybe we should just leave,” whispers May.

Her statement reflects my thoughts, but in her voicing it out loud, I feel angry. Running away. It’s what we’ve always done, what our mother did. We aren’t going back to that life. No way.

Tonight everything is going to change.

“Not without the money,” I say, and grab the string.
~Meet Mav!~ 
When Mav Skye isn't turning innocent characters into axe murderers, refinishing old furniture, chasing around her spring ducklings, or reading the latest horror novel, she's editing at the almighty Pulp Metal Magazine.She adores puppies, pirates, skulls, red hots, Tarantino movies and yes, Godzilla.Especially Godzilla.


She is the author of Supergirls and The Undistilled Sky. Look for her wicked horror romance, Wanted:Single Rose, this fall and the second book in the Supergirls series, Night without Stars, early 2015. Find her here!
Mav will be awarding a $35 Amazon GC to a randomly drawn winner and a signed paperback copy of Supergirls (interntional) will be awarded to another randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

15 comments:

  1. This novella sounds like a wild ride.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you, Mary! Wild is a good word to describe it. I'm curious, do you ever think of theme songs when you are reading the climax scene in a book? I tend to do this. I wonder if it's because of all the movies I watched as a kid.

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  2. Thanks for the Guest Post Mav! It's nice to have you here! Listening to anything great this morning? I had a moment where I rocked out to Bohemian Rhapsody...you just can't not!

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    Replies
    1. Thanks so much for having me here today, Andra. Oh yeah, Love is a Battlefield came on as I was driving my kids to school and we were all singing it. Bohemian Rhapsody is terrific too, especially on a monday. What I'm most excited about is U2's Songs of Innocence that came out last week. Did you get the free download?

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  3. i like that you implemented a guest into yor post! (:

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  4. I loved reading the meet mav post. Thank you for sharing.

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    Replies
    1. Very kind of you to say. It is great to connect on twitter as well. ;-)

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