Guest Post by Mandana Towhidy
Title: Arcadia
Author: Mandana Towhidy
Release date: July 8th, 2013
Genre: New Adult
Tour: Irresistible Reads Book Tours
Book Description:
Populated
by rockers, Deadheads, misfits, skinheads, Goths, surfers, preppies,
cheerleaders, and jocks, ARCADIA by Mandana Towhidy is a Fast Times at
Ridgemont High for the Metal years. It's an honest story of Ronnie and her
friends (Ezze, Tess, Ash, and Syd), teen girls in the heart of the Hollywood
Metal scene during the late 80s/early 90s, ruling it in their own way, with or
without the boys, and having the time of their lives: scrounging dimes for
burritos, ducking the hallway narcs, getting stoned in the parking lot, and
hitching rides to the next party to get wasted, all before noon on a school
day. And in the world of Hollywood where more is all you need, Ronnie discovers
happiness in Metal and friends and learning to see through the games and the
"perfect-ness" of it all. Long Hair
Rocks...Again!
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13598083-arcadia
Guest Post
It
feels like I get asked a lot about the playlist that accompanies my novel.
Where did the influence come from? Why did I select those songs? How did I come
up with the idea for a “soundtrack”?
First,
I guess I should say that a lot or most of these songs have been inside my
mental boombox for years…they never left.
They were the soundtrack to my teen years growing up in Los Angeles. There
were a lot of mixed tapes with a lot of these songs on them. And we listened to
them over and over and over and over. They never get old. More specifically,
Metallica, Van Halen, Scorpions, Ratt, and Guns N’ Roses are just amazing kick
ass bands. I never stopped listening to them. Actually, I normally listen to
them on vinyl…especially when I was writing the book. A lot of the time I’d
have a record spinning on one of my turntables…sometimes it was the Fisher
Price portable record player from the 1970’s (I wore out the needle). The
kiddie version. Listening to the record, a song would come up and it would
trigger an idea and a wave of words would rush out and onto the paper (I hand
scripted this book…it was my first time…400 pages of writing…I have to wear a
brace on my wrist when I go to sleep now).
The
idea to add a playlist was a no brainer. There could NOT not have been a list
of songs for readers to check out. Without a list, any reader could plug in
what they thought/think the characters are rocking out to. That doesn’t work
for me. That would make the story a different one, at least that’s how I see
it. All of the songs, including the non-metal variety, are very much a part of
Southern California youth culture from the 1980’s and 1990’s. It was different
in London and it was different in New Jersey. For LA teens, this is what we
listened to…all of the time.
History
also has a way of editing itself. When I became a journalist, I felt like I was
racing against time to cover as much as I could, authentically, so it wouldn’t
get lost at sea later on. There are so many songs by some of these bands that
everyone knows. I made it a point to include some of the not-so-known songs,
the lesser of the Top of the Pops chart songs…those tunes are usually way better
than the big hits anyway. That’s just my opinion. Especially when I think about
a band like Guns N’ Roses. The entire track lists for Appetite for Destruction
and Lies are genius. Every single song is amazing. And relevant to that era. I
also wanted to make sure there was something more for the readers to discover,
be it a lovely ballad by Scorpions (“Still Loving You” will always always be
one of my favorite songs ever!). Some of these hokey clown-y looking dudes are
really amazing musicians, songwriters, and singers. Sometimes, a lot of the
time, the heavy metal genre gets looked as a joke (which I have also been asked
about a few times in other interviews). But when you listen to a song Sabbath
did, you know it’s no joke. There are also really great little guitar bits that
Eddie Van Halen does that included. All in all, I see the stories I write as a
film in my head…I can see the scene…I can see what the character is going to do
and what they are thinking, and I know that a song needs to pop in there. Most
people love it, but it’s done in a way that if you didn’t want to listen to any
tunes you wouldn’t have to. You
could keep on reading.
There
are also some non-metal songs in there. “Hate Surfing in HB” by The D. I.
really and truly reminds me of high school punk rock surfer attitudes. I had to
get it in there. I want people to learn about it, get turned onto that band
from the past. There’s a disco stick song (what I refer to as disco stick) for
the crowd who was going to dance clubs…it’s a song by Egyptian Lover. And it’s
amazing. Each of the girls has their own songs, too. But I finally decided to
not include them. There were already enough songs in the book. But each of the
main character’s friends (Ezze, Tess, Syd, and Ash) did initially have a non-metal
song dedicated to them…and all of those were by Trinere…a very girl/dance group
with catchy lyrics. Ronnie (the main girl) has a song, too, but it’s still in
there. J
It’s not hard to figure out once you’ve read the book.
There’s
a lot going on with the language and the rhythm and the music, the details
(which people seem to either love love or hate hate)…but that’s how this
particular book needed to be. It’s about a lot of teens, in a place flooded
with stimuli, in an era of excess. I just cannot imagine the novel not having
any kind of guide for the music. Because once you put your headphones on and
you hit the link that takes you to the book’s YouTube channel, you’re right
there…at the party, in the car, at The Roxy, listening to the same song they’re
listening to…at the very same moment. And
for me, that’s where it’s at.
About the Author:
MANDANA
TOWHIDY is a writer, editor, and art director whose work has been featured in
pop culture magazines Dazed&Confused, Tokion, Oyster, and numerous other
print and online publications. She writes daily with her little Chihuahua,
Lotte, sleeping by her side
Official Website: http://moreisallyouneed.com
Tour Schedule
Schedule: http://bit.ly/18T8j1n
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