Jessica Topper's Blog - Posts Tagged "book-release"
SOFTER THAN STEEL is here!
Happy September, Goodreaders!
I love this time of year - here in the northeast, the leaves are starting their golden transformation, there's a crispness in the air, and the kids are cracking open fresh school supplies.
I find it only fitting that Softer Than Steel, the second full-length novel in my Love & Steel series, releases during this season. It's a time for change.
If anyone needs a fresh start, it's Softer Than Steel's hero, Rick "Riff Rotten" Rottenberg.
A non-practicing Jew, ex-Pat Brit from a wealthy, educated background, Riff's probably my most complex hero yet. He traded the silver spoon in his mouth long ago for heavy metal in his veins and prays to very different gods now.
Riff is plagued by the guilt of losing his wife and wasting the years he could've spent with her and their children during a life of hard rocking on the road. Resurrecting the band after its long hiatus seems to be the perfect way for him to fill his empty days...the sold out venues, lengthy tours and fan adoration provides validation and solace. But the time off the road sends him into panic attacks. Not knowing where else to turn, Riff finds himself turning a doorknob on New York's Lower East Side...
Inside a former tenement synagogue, Sidra Sullivan is striving to build her yoga business and heal her heart from a charismatic singer with a bad case of LSD (Lead Singer Disease). She's fiercely proud of her Indian-Irish upbringing and close-knit neighborhood, but lately she feels like she's drowning in the Melting Pot. The last thing she wants is another huge ego in tight pants hanging around, consuming her time and attention. But when her newest yoga student makes her an offer she can't refuse, she has a hard time denying him the sanctuary he so desperately needs.
As Sidra works Riff up to more challenging poses, he begins to wear down her walls of protection, challenging her to see him in a different light. She, in turn, teaches the steeled, seasoned rock warrior to soften his stance and find strength from within.
September is a great time to "fall" into a new book - I hope you'll check out Softer Than Steel!
I love this time of year - here in the northeast, the leaves are starting their golden transformation, there's a crispness in the air, and the kids are cracking open fresh school supplies.
I find it only fitting that Softer Than Steel, the second full-length novel in my Love & Steel series, releases during this season. It's a time for change.
If anyone needs a fresh start, it's Softer Than Steel's hero, Rick "Riff Rotten" Rottenberg.
A non-practicing Jew, ex-Pat Brit from a wealthy, educated background, Riff's probably my most complex hero yet. He traded the silver spoon in his mouth long ago for heavy metal in his veins and prays to very different gods now.
Riff is plagued by the guilt of losing his wife and wasting the years he could've spent with her and their children during a life of hard rocking on the road. Resurrecting the band after its long hiatus seems to be the perfect way for him to fill his empty days...the sold out venues, lengthy tours and fan adoration provides validation and solace. But the time off the road sends him into panic attacks. Not knowing where else to turn, Riff finds himself turning a doorknob on New York's Lower East Side...
Inside a former tenement synagogue, Sidra Sullivan is striving to build her yoga business and heal her heart from a charismatic singer with a bad case of LSD (Lead Singer Disease). She's fiercely proud of her Indian-Irish upbringing and close-knit neighborhood, but lately she feels like she's drowning in the Melting Pot. The last thing she wants is another huge ego in tight pants hanging around, consuming her time and attention. But when her newest yoga student makes her an offer she can't refuse, she has a hard time denying him the sanctuary he so desperately needs.
As Sidra works Riff up to more challenging poses, he begins to wear down her walls of protection, challenging her to see him in a different light. She, in turn, teaches the steeled, seasoned rock warrior to soften his stance and find strength from within.
September is a great time to "fall" into a new book - I hope you'll check out Softer Than Steel!
Get What You Need is finally here!
This may just be the book I didn’t know I needed.
At long last, Get What You Need is out in the world. GWYN, as I affectionately call it, has been lingering on the back burner of my mind through my haphazard publishing career.
If Louder Than Love was the book of my heart, then Get What You Need may just be the book of my head. In fact, when I was looking back through my rough notes on this story that explores the characters from my debut ten years into the future, I realized I had started jotting them down before Berkley had even picked up and published Louder Than Love. So, obviously I had wanted to stay with these folks in their world for a little bit longer. And I hope you will too!
Many readers tell me they do a re-read of Louder Than Love every year, or whenever they feel the need. Fair warning, diving into GWYN right after may be a shock to the system. After all, the adorable five-year-old is now fifteen and some of her thoughts, words and actions aren’t so cute anymore. I now see there may be a little of me in her teenage rebellion.
At fifteen, my family picked up and moved to a new city, and I had had to leave all my friends behind. Kids who had known me forever, that I had never had to prove myself to. And I had never really had to keep myself company before…being “the new kid” really forces some introspection on you.
With Abbey, she experiences the opposite – being thrust back into her childhood home after years of shaping her persona in Manhattan. Coming back to kids who knew her when she was younger, and they are all pretty much strangers now. And she feels she’s an enigma. Plus, having a famous rock star for a stepfather, in her words, “rates pretty high on the freak scale.”
While Abbey was the catalyst for this story (at one point I was calling this book “Abbey’s Road” in my head) and Louder Than Love’s beloved couple Adrian and Kat are a constant, to me the real star is Natalie. We never meet her on the page in Louder Than Love, but she’s Adrian’s estranged daughter and she had certainly shaped him – Natalie appears in his stories to Kat, his triumphs and his regrets, in his views of fatherhood and trying to be a better man the second time around.
I was so happy to bring Nat across the pond and give her a bit of the old “Love, Loss & Rock and Roll” treatment that this brand of books has become known for.
I may be too close to this story at this juncture. Could it be read as a standalone? Maybe. It is, at its heart, a tale of sisterhood. Of small town solace, where the grounding presence of the lake and its community welcome you.
I’d love to hear your thoughts, whether you’ve followed the entire journey through the Love & Steel novels and have reached this point. Or whether you are about to reach for your first Jessica Topper novel to see what’s been going on in her head, and her heart.
At long last, Get What You Need is out in the world. GWYN, as I affectionately call it, has been lingering on the back burner of my mind through my haphazard publishing career.
If Louder Than Love was the book of my heart, then Get What You Need may just be the book of my head. In fact, when I was looking back through my rough notes on this story that explores the characters from my debut ten years into the future, I realized I had started jotting them down before Berkley had even picked up and published Louder Than Love. So, obviously I had wanted to stay with these folks in their world for a little bit longer. And I hope you will too!
Many readers tell me they do a re-read of Louder Than Love every year, or whenever they feel the need. Fair warning, diving into GWYN right after may be a shock to the system. After all, the adorable five-year-old is now fifteen and some of her thoughts, words and actions aren’t so cute anymore. I now see there may be a little of me in her teenage rebellion.
At fifteen, my family picked up and moved to a new city, and I had had to leave all my friends behind. Kids who had known me forever, that I had never had to prove myself to. And I had never really had to keep myself company before…being “the new kid” really forces some introspection on you.
With Abbey, she experiences the opposite – being thrust back into her childhood home after years of shaping her persona in Manhattan. Coming back to kids who knew her when she was younger, and they are all pretty much strangers now. And she feels she’s an enigma. Plus, having a famous rock star for a stepfather, in her words, “rates pretty high on the freak scale.”
While Abbey was the catalyst for this story (at one point I was calling this book “Abbey’s Road” in my head) and Louder Than Love’s beloved couple Adrian and Kat are a constant, to me the real star is Natalie. We never meet her on the page in Louder Than Love, but she’s Adrian’s estranged daughter and she had certainly shaped him – Natalie appears in his stories to Kat, his triumphs and his regrets, in his views of fatherhood and trying to be a better man the second time around.
I was so happy to bring Nat across the pond and give her a bit of the old “Love, Loss & Rock and Roll” treatment that this brand of books has become known for.
I may be too close to this story at this juncture. Could it be read as a standalone? Maybe. It is, at its heart, a tale of sisterhood. Of small town solace, where the grounding presence of the lake and its community welcome you.
I’d love to hear your thoughts, whether you’ve followed the entire journey through the Love & Steel novels and have reached this point. Or whether you are about to reach for your first Jessica Topper novel to see what’s been going on in her head, and her heart.
