Cheyanne Young
Genre: YA Contemporary Romance
Date of Publication: Feb 15th, 2014
Number of pages: 178
Cover Artist: GoOnWrite.com
Kindle | Paperback
Book Description:
The high school play is in two months and senior Wren Barlow just became director. Wren still isn't over the fact that she got stiffed as a stagehand instead of the lead role that she totally deserved. Now she is in charge of rehearsals, costumes, navigating around cast member hookups and managing the real life drama at home.
The principal counts on her to succeed because tickets have been sold and the money has been spent. But when he drops a gorgeous bad boy on her and wants him to help the play for extra credit, she falls hard for someone she knows she can't date.
With everything spinning out of control, the mysterious and secretive detention king named Derek has a few tricks up his sleeve and wants to help—too bad Wren is scared to give him a chance to prove himself.
More Romance Please would like to extend a warm welcome to Cheyanne Yound, author of Understudy.
Cheyanne, first, thank you for dropping by. Please tell us where you are from and who or what most influenced you to become a writer?
My love of reading is what influenced me to write my
own stories. I also credit Sarah Dessen and her books for influencing the genre
I chose to write. I’ve always wanted to write stories that make readers feel
the way I felt when reading her books.
If you were to
be left alone on an island, what three books would you take with you?
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
The WOOL Omnibus
What are your
most and least favorite movie genres?
I love comedies that make me laugh until I cry and I’m
always a sucker for a good chick flick. I absolutely will not watch horror
films.
If you could
choose any man for your next book cover, who would he be?
Joseph Gordon-Levitt, for sure
When you are on
a deadline, what aspect of your ‘regular’ life suffers most?
My house and/or all the chores that go with living
life as a regular person. Laundry, dishes, groceries… they all get ignored!
What advice
would you give aspiring authors?
READ! And then write. And then keep reading and never
ever think your first draft is good enough.
What advice
would you give seasoned writers?
Don’t compare yourself to other writers. We all have
our own journey.
When reading for
pleasure, do you prefer a physical or electronic book?
I love them both equally. If it’s purely pleasure
reading then I love the feel of a book in my hands. But the convenience of
ebooks make reading on the go perfect since I can switch from Kindle to phone
app to computer.
From the first
stroke of a pen (or laptop), how long did it take you get published?
I started seriously writing in 2009 and my first book
came out in the middle of 2013. So, to answer: way longer than I ever imagined!
Did you ever
feel like calling it quits?
Pretty much five or six times a day.
Thank you so much for joining us today, Cheyanne. We really enjoyed the insights. Good luck with Understudy!
Excerpt:
Chapter
1
It’s two forty-five on the dot and my
stomach is nestled firmly in my throat. Ms. Barlow sits in her director’s chair
at the back of the theater arts classroom. She tells me to stand on the zebra
print x made of tape in front of the white board, in the place she usually
stands while she’s teaching class. Today is the first day I’ve seen the zebra
print x. I wonder if that’s the same zebra print tape she took away from a
freshman last week.
The classroom is abnormally dark with a
single spotlight shining directly on my face. I wish I’d worn makeup. My nose
is too oily, I just know it. Three stapled-together pages of Ms. Barlow’s
original script shake in my hands as I stand, waiting for her signal to start.
She has a peacock feather tucked behind her
ear and a pen in her hand as she scribbles something on her clipboard. Her
bright orange hair is gray in the dark. I clear my throat.
“Yes Wren,” she says without taking her
eyes off her clipboard. “You were auditioning for a minor role, but then you
switched for the role of Gretchen? Am I reading your chicken scratch
handwriting correctly?”
“Yes ma’am,” I say, wondering if I should
tell her I signed up for auditions while writing on someone’s back in the
hallway before class and that’s why my handwriting resembles chicken scratch. I
wasn’t going to audition at all until Mom pointed out the requirements in The
Art Institute of Lawson catalog places a strong emphasis on extracurricular
activities. And if I’m going to be in a school play for the sole purpose of
winning the affections of my dream college, I might as well do it right. Even
if my best friend is also auditioning for the lead role.
Ms. Barlow stares at me over the rim of her
purple teardrop glasses, appraising me as if she doesn’t see me in class every
day.
“You do know Gretchen’s role includes a lot
of kissing with the male costar?”
I didn’t know that, but I nod anyway. It’s
too late to back out now. Plus I like kissing. I can handle kissing.
Ms. Barlow laces her fingers together and
rests them in her lap on top of her clipboard. “You may begin.”
I swallow. The words on my paper blur into
a mess of jumbled letters that form nonexistent words. Good thing I have it
memorized. I crumple the papers and hold them in my clenched fist.
“Jeremy? Is that you?” I squint my eyes,
which comes naturally with the blinding spotlight on me and take a step
forward. “Jeremy, get down! What the hell are you thinkin’? Are you crazy?”
“Stop.” Ms. Barlow’s hand flies out. She tilts
her head to glare at me over the rim of her glasses. “Why do you sound like a
melodramatic southern belle?”
“Because my character lives in Alabama?”
She shakes her head. “No. Do it again.”
My heart pounds so hard it turns my chest
into goo. “Jeremy! Get down! What the hell are you thinking—are you crazy?”
Ms. Barlow lowers her voice and assumes
Jeremy’s lines. “What do you care?” she says with a snarl.
“Of course I care.” I clench my chest.
“Jeremy, you can’t jump.”
“Give me three good reasons why I shouldn’t
jump off this bridge and end my worthless life right now. Actually, just give
me one.”
I heave a sigh, a big dramatic one like
I’ve practiced in front of my mirror for the last two days. Unfortunately it
comes out like I’m choking on my own spit. I ignore the teacher’s disappointed
nod. “How about this one?” I say, tossing my hands up in surrender as I stare
at the empty desk in front of me, pretending it’s Jeremy. “I’m in love with
you.”
“You’re too fat,” Ms. Barlow says.
“Huh?” That isn’t the script.
She marks something on her clipboard and
flips to the next page. “I’m sorry Wren. Despite your…attempted…acting, you
know I’d love to give you the lead role but you’re just too fat.”
“I’m not fat,” I say confidently, because I
know I’m not fat. Is she even allowed to say that to a teenage girl? Sure, I
gained a few pounds over the summer but that hardly makes me fat. Plus, I’m on
day twenty-six of the 20 Minute Abs DVD, and if I tighten my core I totally
have a six pack under the inch or so of flab.
“Gretchen is five feet ten inches and a
hundred and five pounds. She’s an aspiring model.”
“It doesn’t say that in the script.” I wag
my papers at her.
Ms. Barlow’s short hair flies around her
face as she whips her glasses to the top of her head. “That’s irrelevant. It
says that in my mind and I am the writer and the director.”
I wish the lights were on so I could glare
at her, and not just at the darkish blob I can see. I don’t stomp my foot on
the floor, but I want to. “I’m telling Mom.”
She waves away my threat with a flourish of
her hand. “Good. And while you’re at it, tell her to stop filling the house
with ding-dongs and Twinkies. It’ll do you both a favor.”
Okay. This is about to blow up to
epic-Barlow-like proportions if I don’t do something to scale it back. I smooth
my hands over my shirt and stand straight. “You’re right, Aunt Barlow, I’m
sorry. But I really want this part so if there’s anything I can do to make
myself perfect for the role, please let me know.”
“I’m Ms.
Barlow while in school. I’m not your aunt right now, I’m your director.”
“Yes,” I say, humbling myself to her
greatness, something she laps up like starved puppy. Ms. Barlow starred in
Broadway plays in her younger years, before age and three divorces and heaps of
melodrama took its toll and made her resemble a haggard man.
“Why do you even want this role? You
watched me slave over this script all summer and you never cared.”
“I care,” I say. But she’s right. I don’t
care about this stupid school play.
So even though I have no interest in a
school play, probably because my mom, the failed actress, and my aunt, the
failed Broadway star-turned-theater arts teacher shoved acting down my throat
since I was in infancy, I am going to get this role. And then my picture will
be put in the yearbook and The Art Institute of Lawson will be impressed and
they will accept me and I’ll get an awesome job as an interior decorator.
That all starts with Wren Barlow playing
the lead role in the Lawson High School play.
Ms. Barlow taps her foot on the footrest in
her tall chair. She scribbles something on her clipboard that makes her nose
crunch up like she’s smelled something bad. “Thanks for auditioning, Wren. Will
you send in the next student?”
About the Author:
She also writes under the pen name Amy Sparling.
Author Contacts:
Website | Twitter | Goodreads
Tour giveaway details
5 ebooks
$20 Amazon Gift Card
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