Caitlyn Duffy's Blog, page 7

The Treadwell Academy – one year anniversary

Exactly one year ago today, The Rock Star’s Daughter was first published.

I had written the first book over the course of a year, inspired to write a story about how difficult it is to move forward in life after something completely unexpected happens. While my own dad is not a rock star (and probably if pressed to name a rock star, he might only be able to come up Mick Jagger) and my mom (thankfully) is in perfect health and is not at all the type to hang out in seedy bars in Hollywood, the event in my own life that inspired Taylor’s story was the very untimely death of a close friend. After the initial sadness and shock over his passing subsided, what was far more painful was the part that followed: figuring out how my life was still my life in his absence, when everything felt so different (and at the time, unbearable).  I shaped Taylor’s struggle to embrace all of the changes thrown at her on my own day-to-day acceptance of changes in my life.  Taylor’s story became one of triumphing over loss, of opening her heart to love even though she was in pain, when the risk of getting hurt (by everyone… her Dad, Jill, and Jake) was great.

Never, ever did I dare to dream that this book would be downloaded by hundreds of thousands (yes!) of readers, and that so many readers would review it so favorably and reach out to me. I’ve heard from readers who wished Taylor had chosen Jake instead of Todd, from readers who were angry that Allison never called back to apologize, from readers who have lost their own parents and identified with Taylor’s shock over her mother’s death, and readers who complained that Iowa doesn’t stink like manure!

Pretty much as soon as I started writing the Taylor book, I realized that there were a lot of other stories I wanted to tell about things girls go through at Tayor’s age. Nothing gives me greater satisfaction than writing these stories, and I really cannot thank every single one of you who have downloaded the book and read it enough for your support. Thank you, thank you, thank you for making this year so very special for me.

This summer, I’m busy editing books 3 & 4 (dealing with topics of sexual abuse and eating disorders) for release, and writing the sequel to Taylor’s story. In the follow-up, Taylor deals more thoroughly with her grief, but all of the Beauforte/Atwood clan will be back: Jill, Kelsey, Chase, Todd, even Betsey Norfleet…  and of course, Jake.

The dog (and cat) days of summer

It’s just hot here in New York right now.

Insanely, eat-nothing-but-ice-cream, stay-inside-and-hide hot.

Because I walk around my neighborhood a lot as the owner of an elderly dog who finds great satisfaction in wasting time outside, I’m always up to date on the latest neighborhood news.  Last weekend, I received a good scare when I saw a flyer announcing that the beloved friendly cat of Clinton Street, Biscuit, a big orange fatso who likes to get back rubs from strangers as he strolls around on the sidewalk outside his owners’ apartment, had gone missing.

Of course, I took the news of Biscuit’s disappearance very personally, because I like seeing him strut his stuff up and down his block every morning, greeting kids on their way to school. The possibility that he might be gone from our neighborhood and my morning routine indefinitely or permanently deeply saddened me. So every morning I’ve made a point of walking past Biscuit’s apartment like a stalker to see if perhaps he had resurfaced. And today I am delighted to announce that Biscuit’s back! It would appear, however, that he is under house arrest.

Biscuit lives!

This dog has the right idea

It’s just so darn out right now that this morning I observed this chocolate Lab hiding in the shade beneath the bench at Starbucks while his owner was indoors purchasing ice coffee. I should mention that it was 8 AM when I took this picture, and it was already over 90 degrees.

All of this heat just means I’ve been working harder than ever in my air-conditioned vault on finishing up Books 3 and 4 in the Treadwell Academy series, and writing chapters of my first non-Treadwell book, Senior Scavenger Hunt.

More about tattoos and the Blue Phoenix

In The Believer’s Daughter, Grace Mathison’s love interest is an unlikely tattoo artist who works in Manhattan’s East Village at a funky store called the Blue Phoenix. The store isn’t really based on any one tattoo parlor in particular, but rather on a whole bunch of them that I remember being around the cool neighborhood (you may have heard of the East Village if you’re a fan of Rent) a few years ago when I resided there (during my pre-Brooklyn period).  Owned by a friendly giant named Andy, the Blue Phoenix has a regular clientele of locals as well as the occasional celebrity drop-in.  The East Village has been a neighborhood where celebs have gotten tattoos, body piercings, and generally have had no problem finding trouble to get into for decades. Lea Michelle recently got 2 new tattoos at White Rabbit  on East 10th Street not too long ago. Rihanna picked up an inking gun at East Side Ink last year and got in a little trouble for practicing her tattooing skills without a license. In the book, famous pop star Tawny drops by the Blue Phoenix on New Year’s Eve to pick out a tattoo, and rules out getting something that would copycat Bjork’s famous Vegvisir (shown below).

Bjork’s Vegvisir, a Viking compass

Rihanna got in a little legal hot water when she took a tattoo lesson at East Side Ink a few years ago

If you’ve read the book, you know that Grace (as Gigi) makes a name for herself in the downtown tattoo scene with her unique drawing style, known in the art world as continuous line drawing, or continuous contour. You can learn more about the awesome ways to create cool images all with one, long line on the Dark Roasted Blend blog.

One of most brilliant illustrators around, Pam Sable, is a master of this technique.

Finding Felix… welcome to Brighton Beach!

Hi fellow internet peoples! As promised yesterday, today I ventured out to the Brighton Beach/Coney Island neighborhood for the first time in quite a while. When I was new to New York, I made the journey out on the F train to the beach quite frequently.  It’s easy sometimes to forget that there’s a nice beach in Brooklyn accessible by the subway. And, like the character of Felix Katz in The Believer’s Daughter, a lot of people live out in the Brighton Beach area and commute about an hour into the city every day for work.

Can you imagine living just a few steps away from a beach and a carnival? I guess if you live near Santa Monica, you probably can. I was pleased to observe upon arriving at Coney Island this morning that it’s a lot cleaner and nicer than I remember, and I daresay the boardwalk is far less sleazy than the one in Venice Beach. Holla, New Yorkers!  I did, however, see an old man crash his bicycle into a brick wall when he was straining his neck to watch girls in bikinis jog past. Fortunately, no one was injured, and sadly, I was laughing too hard to capture the moment with my camera.

Click to view slideshow.

Coney Island used to be a pretty seedy area, not too long ago. It was a place where you could still see old-fashioned sideshows, like bearded ladies, wolf boys and magicians pulling doves out of hats. For a while, its future was up in the air, but the new amusement park, Luna Park, seems to have brought a lot of the old charm back to the boardwalk while simultaneously getting rid of a lot of the weird, dirty carnival element.

Brighton Beach is a neighborhood rich in history and it has historically been a place where a lot of Jewish immigrants coming from Eastern Europe settle after arriving in New York (immortalized in Neil Simon’s very famous play, Brighton Beach Memoirs).  One of my favorite things about New York is that you can almost feel like you’re visiting another country without ever leaving the city. Brighton Beach exemplifies this perfectly; it’s a neighborhood where you hear a lot of Russian spoken, and if you walk a few blocks inland from the boardwalk, there are tons of Russian and Turkish restaurants. When I was creating the character of Felix, I knew I wanted him to be as different as possible from Grace. She’s a sheltered, spoiled girl raised, as her brother calls it, “behind the religious curtain.” I wrote Felix as a worldly, mature guy whose parents were raised behind the iron curtain, which is what Russia used to be referred to before Glasnost.