Title: Girl with Guitar
Author: Caisey Quinn
Release date: May 22, 2013
Genre: Romance
Age Group: New Adult (Mature 17+ content)
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After Kylie’s dad dies in a freak accident, he leaves her with nothing other than her crazy stepmother, Darla, and the ability to play guitar. When Darla kicks Kylie out and she loses her job all in the same day, she hops a bus to Nashville determined to make her late father’s dreams come true. Waitressing and saving her pennies to record a demo, her big break comes when she’s asked to join a tour going down the tubes with once platinum album-selling country music superstar Trace Corbin. But touring with Trace is hardly a dream come true since he’s pretty much drinking his career down the drain. If Kylie can’t pull Trace out of his rut, he’ll pull her and her dreams down with him.
Excerpt
She cut the song off before the last chorus and opened her eyes. “Well?” she asked, looking up at Tonya. Who had tears in her eyes. “Whoa, hey, what’s wrong?”
“That was beautiful, really. It was like you knew my whole life story, which you don’t, thank God.”
“Thanks.” Kylie beamed.
“But you can’t play that tonight,” Tonya said evenly, dabbing her tears away with a bar napkin.
Her heart sank into her stomach. “I can’t?”
“No.” Kylie watched Tonya’s eyes harden as she gripped her shoulder. “Listen to me, kid. I know a few things. Like for one, your life’s goal is probably not to be a waitress in a honky tonk. And for two, I know that all you really want is to make it big in country music like every other kid in this town, and that’s all fine and good and I’ll say I knew you when. Matter of fact, hold up, sign this napkin.”
Kylie’s mouth gaped open at her friend’s blunt observations. And she was seriously
holding out a napkin and a pen. Slowly, Kylie took it and scribbled her name across it.
“But here’s what else I know. If you go play that sappy song that no one knows the words to, everyone will smile and nod and keep right on drinking. The managers and talent scouts that show will keep texting on their phones and someone somewhere might say, ‘That was a nice song,’ or ‘She was cute,’ and that will be it.”
“Okay, so…” Kylie was still too stunned to say much of anything. Tears threatened
behind her eyes. This was the song she’d worked so hard on, put so much of herself into. Wasn’t it a good thing to be original?
“So you get your cute little butt out there, you sing some Taylor Swift or Kelly whoever cover, and you shake it up and make it your own so the audience can sing along while not comparing you to whoever really sings the damn thing.”
“Oh, is that all? Well, that should be a piece of cake. Thanks for the advice.” Kylie rolled her eyes and left them focused on the ceiling so her tears wouldn’t fall.
“Look, you can sing, you play good enough. You’re kinda sexy and all that stuff they want. I wouldn’t waste my breath or my time, Kylie, if you didn’t just blow me the hell away, but I know this town. If this was your first day of meeting with a label exec, I’d say bust that song out. But this is a bar, and you need to get their attention fist. The guys who come in here are looking for one thing. Acts that bring in money. People want to hear that song that makes them stand up and sing along and stay up drinking and partying all night. Think you can do that?”
Kylie swallowed hard, pushed her tears back behind her eyes, and forced a smile. She’d grown up without a mother. Buried the only man she’d ever loved less than a year ago. Lost everything in the blink of an eye. Surely she could do this. “Yeah. Yeah I can.”
“Good, ‘cause no matter what they call it, this shit ain’t for amateurs.” Tonya stood, offering her a weak smile before leaving Kylie all alone to figure out what the hell she was going to do.
About the Author
Caisey is a Gemini, wife, mom, and former high school English teacher living in Birmingham, Alabama, who spends her days chasing a three-year-old and hiding away with her MacBook. She spends her nights writing and is a firm believer that sleep is overrated. Currently she is hard at work on Girl on Tour, the second book in the Kylie Ryans series.
www.facebook.com/pages/Caisey-Quinn/112590918936422
