Maggie Blackbird

Today, award-winning and bestselling author Susan Sloate is guesting. She’s talking about her latest release, Scenes from a Song, a drama title. Be sure to check out the sale. And don’t forget to enter the King Sumo giveaway.

****

Susan shares why she set the novel in 1961:

Novels tell you almost immediately where and when they want to be set, and for me 1961 was the obvious choice. (I’ve also written other books set in the 1960’s, so it wasn’t hard to go back to it.) SCENES FROM A SONG is the story of a phenomenally successful 1960’s band, and it begins with the first notes of the song floating into the mind of Jimmy, who’ll become one of the lead singers and guitarists for the band. We’ll learn that Jimmy is recovering from a rough time and living in a new place that he hates, but what we don’t know then is that those random notes in his mind will literally change his life.

In 1961 a lot of change was stirring, in our country and in our culture. Things were starting to happen that would result in unbelievable change by the end of the decade, but for now, Elvis had become a cultural icon and rock’n roll was starting to flow into the hearts of teens everywhere. When Jimmy learns that the band playing in the park where he works is a rock’n roll band, he’s immediately excited. So it was a crucial year between the early rock’n roll and what happened later, and teenagers of that era were excited about the possibilities, but couldn’t yet imagine what was to come.

For Jimmy, 1961 was all about the music, his greatest interest, and as he gets more involved in the band, he starts to get away from the sorrow he’s been living with and moves toward a whole new phase, which will last for the rest of his life. (The book ends in 2015, and yes, Jimmy is still singing and playing that song, all those years later.) Isn’t it amazing how many songs from that era—and even from that year—we’re still singing today?

****

Title: Scenes from a Song
Series: N/A
Author: Susan Sloate
Genre: Drama
Length: 255 pages
Release Date: August 19, 2025
Publisher: Covfefe Press

Blurb: On Halloween Eve, 1961, in his dingy Bronx walkup apartment, seventeen-year-old Jimmy Welton hears the opening notes of a song in his head. Jimmy’s still mourning his firefighter father, who taught him to play the guitar but recently died in a house fire, leaving his family destitute. Jimmy takes this song, about all he misses from his life now, to the New York amusement park where he works after school. There, he meets Mark Morgan, a rebellious teen with his own band, who eventually invites Jimmy to join them. And the rest is rock’n roll history…

Their band, The GooseBumps, become a worldwide phenomenon, and the songs they write and sing together become the backbone of rock musical history. And the song Jimmy first heard on Halloween, “Wrapped in Gauze”, becomes the song that not only comforts him in that terrible time but also comforts others: Victoria, recently divorced and dealing with an out-of-nowhere family tragedy; Carolyn, whose final flippant words to someone in pain can’t be taken back; and Jack, battling back from unimaginable loss with the help of his cheeky therapist and a song he thinks he hates.

SCENES FROM A SONG is the story of a song that makes us smile, that breaks our hearts, that stays with us forever, and the very special band that started it all.

GET IT FOR .99 CENTS DURING THE TOUR!

Goodreads | BookBub | Amazon

Jimmy hesitated for a moment, then took a good slug and felt it burn down into his stomach. Only then would he trust him-self to strum the first chords of “Bawk Bawk”. He’d written it in a sardonic mood one day, when he heard Debby playing “The Twist” on her record player and wanted to make fun of it. It had never occurred to him he’d end up playing it for a bunch of guys in a seedy bar after midnight.

Jimmy took a deep breath and launched into the song, speaking as well as singing it. After he’d written it, he’d realized he could even dance it a little, too, and he made gestures as well:

Imitating a chicken, clicking his heels together, clapping his hands. His father had told him he was a natural showman, so he gave it his all.

When he began to ham it up in the dance part, the boys be-gan to laugh, and they laughed right through to the end. Jimmy finished with the high whistle he’d learned the previous summer, and a final click of his heels before bowing to them.

Mark, Kellen and Hammy applauded enthusiastically, and Mick, who’d come back to see if they wanted another round, said to him, “Terrific, fella. Funniest thing I’ve seen since ‘The Ed Sullivan Show’. You a comic?”

“Are you kidding? He’s a musician!” Mark roared. “A great musician! And ‘Bawk Bawk’s a number-one hit if ever I heard one!”

He jumped onto the floor and imitated Jimmy, clicking his heels together, arms flailing like a chicken, and making the ‘bawk bawk’ sound. In a minute, Hammy and Kellen were following him.

“Play it again, Jimmy!” Mark shouted. “So we can dance it this time!”

****

SUSAN SLOATE is the author or co-author of more than 25 published books. This includes 3 editions of Forward to Camelot, a time-travel thriller about the JFK assassination that became a #6 Amazon bestseller, was honored in 3 literary competitions and was optioned by a Hollywood company for film production. She also wrote the autobiographical Broadway novel Stealing Fire, which became a #2 Amazon bestseller and Hot New Release, and Realizing You (with Ron Doades), for which she invented a new genre: the self-help novel.

Susan has also written young-adult fiction and non-fiction, including the children’s biography Ray Charles: Find Another Way, which won the silver medal in the 2007 Children’s Moonbeam Awards. Mysteries Unwrapped: The Secrets of Alcatraz led to her 2009 appearance on the TV series MysteryQuest for The History Channel. She has also been a sportswriter and a screenwriter, edited the popular Kyle & Corey young-adult book series, man-aged two political campaigns and founded an author’s festival to promote student literacy in her hometown outside Charleston, SC. She has appeared in multiple volumes of WHO’S WHO IN AMERICA, WHO’S WHO IN ENTERTAINMENT and WHO’S WHO AMONG AMERICAN WOMEN.

Follow Susan: Website | Facebook | X | Instagram

****

Enter for a chance to win a $25.00 Amazon or B&N Gift Card.
King Sumo Giveaway