So I Wrote an ‘80s Book
I’m constantly torn between “moving in silence” — when the only thing you’d ever hear from me is big news or good news — and the publishing industry’s preference that writers leverage our platforms before we really have anything to promote.
So here I am, letting far too many people behind the curtain of a journey that may well take years to come to fruition. To the folks who read my holiday newsletter and diligently interact with my Instagram: Thank you. This blog post is for you.
Everyone I have ever met my entire life has been waiting on me to write a book, probably because that’s what I told them I was going to do. Whether or not THE FRONTMAN is that book is up to the literary agents I’ve been cold emailing.
Querying can take years. Literary agents are busy folks, often with other non-agent jobs. They have a duty to their clients first, and maybe after their day job and their existing author pool (and writing their own books!) they’ll have a few spare seconds to fish you out of their query pile. God knows how big that pile is if it’s in an e-mail inbox. QueryTracker knows how big that pile is if its hosted through their platform, which is how I know I am one of literally hundreds of queries tossed at a single agent in the span of a single month.
“I am one of literally hundreds of queries tossed at a single agent in the span of single month”
While we wait to see if I am chosen from these piles, I want to tell you about my book.
THE FRONTMAN (in all caps because italics are for published works) is the story of a 19-year-old scholarship kid who drops out of college to impersonate her rockstar twin brother on his tour while he hides his battle against heroin addiction. It’s a little bit of Mulan and a lot of She’s the Man. It’s one woman and her secret and all the people she could let down if she fails.
It’s a story about the disproportionate amount of emotional labor women and girls take on, how being forced to grow up fast leads only to bigger crashes later. And, of course, it’s about watching a loved one fight a battle where you can’t help. Addiction makes casualties of allies.
THE FRONTMAN is a journey of learning that you can’t want something for someone, and a study in grappling with identity when you’ve only ever been told who you aren’t. Lastly, THE FRONTMAN is about sex, drugs, and 1980’s rock’n’roll.
I set the book in 1983 to 1985. I created a playlist and limited it to songs from those years. I chose this era because it made me feel closer to my parents, and because my life is flush with people I could interview directly instead of relying on a now-faulty search engine when I had questions.
I spent more money than I should have branding my creative process for this book. I bought a Bon Jovi concert ticket, a Fender tee, more cassette stickers than I possibly need. I saw Goonies at the drive-in. I saw Styx in concert. I just barely stopped myself from making merch for the band I created for the book (but when I do make merch, I’ll partner with Something Good Guide to do it). I comb Facebook marketplace every day looking for a boombox and cursing the fact I gave up my old one in 2008.
But I also had a lot of fun researching this book! I got to rewatch many John Hughes movies and hours upon hours of VH1’s I LOVE THE ‘80s. I also watched ‘80s-set contemporary shows like Physical, GLOW, and the first two seasons of Stranger Things. Just the first two, though; when I showed my mom the series back in 2016, she said it was the first time she ever saw the ‘80s as she knew them represented on screen.
A lot of the glitz and the neon — and the music! — I associate with the 1980s as a whole was from 1987 to 1989, after the events of my book, so I couldn’t rely on a lot of other ‘80-set media, or even my own favorite songs from the era.
I played with my dad’s tape deck and my mom’s jewelry. I interviewed her college roommate about fashion. I bugged all my aunts about prom. I combed through yearbooks twice as old as I am for character and brand names. I have so many band shirts and buttons, photo shoots and PowerPoints and Canva carousels. I can’t wait to share them all with you one day.
But you, like me, must wait. In the meantime, it’s nice to have some company.