Wednesday, July 2

New Girl on the Blog!

I generally have bad associations with being the new girl. This is mainly because when I moved from St. Louis, Missouri to Oak Park, Illinois in third grade, I had a really hard time making friends. I know now that those girls that turned their noses up at me because I didn’t have the right clothes and was bookish were just snobs and not even really cool anyway. But the fact that it took me about seven years to feel like I’d found my place in my new town left a little bit of a chip on my shoulder and when I walk into new situation, anxiety flares.

However, when it comes to writing and reading related things, I’ve always seemed to fit in right away. When I started school at Columbia College Chicago, I felt comfortable in the Fiction Writing Department immediately, so comfortable in fact that I got a job at the office there and stayed for five years! And when my debut novel I WANNA BE YOUR JOEY RAMONE sold to a YA publisher and I had to familiarize myself with the YA world, I felt immediately welcomed. I’ve been navigating my new school, if you will, for about a year now, and many of the gals on this blog have been my guides. And now to be invited to hang out with them at the Teen Fiction Café? Well, that invitation pretty much makes up for all those slumber parties I wasn’t invited to in grade school. The people that hang out here are way cooler than the queen bees I went to school with in my book and I know we’ll have wayyyyyyyy better conversations, too.

But I guess now is the time to stand up in front of the class (or in the middle of the café as the case may be here) and tell ya all about myself, right?

So I’m Stephanie Kuehnert and I’m from the Chicago area. My 29th birthday is coming up on July 13th. I’m huge into music and the top five most played artists you’ll find on my iPod are Nirvana, Hole, Social Distortion, Rancid, and Against Me!, but I listen to a pretty wide variety of stuff from punk bands to Pink to legends like Johnny Cash. I swoon over Johnny Depp. My favorite TV shows are Grey’s Anatomy and Degrassi (all of them, I grew up on Degrassi Junior High and High, but I’m totally addicted to the Next Generation, too), but I also like the weirder stuff like the X Files and Twin Peaks. I’m obsessed with pirates and Hello Kitty and big sunglasses and vintage dresses and the city of Seattle. I work an office job now, but I really loved bartending.

Oh yeah, and I wrote a book called I WANNA BE YOUR JOEY RAMONE, which officially comes out from MTV Books on July 8th, but you can already buy it on amazon now (way to throw me off, amazon!). Here is the basic deal about IWBYJR (ie. what you will read on the back of the book):

A raw, edgy, emotional novel about growing up punk and living to tell.

The Clash. Social Distortion. Dead Kennedys. Patti Smith. The Ramones.

Punk rock is in Emily Black’s blood. Her mother, Louisa, hit the road to follow the incendiary music scene when Emily was four months old and never came back.

Now Emily’s all grown up with a punk band of her own, determined to find the tune that will bring her mother home. Because if Louisa really is following the music, shouldn’t it lead her right back to Emily?

You can find out more about the book on my website.

Now, since I was lovely enough to get an invitation to Teen Fiction Café, I would like to invite all the lovely people that hang out here to my cyber release party for I WANNA BE YOUR JOEY RAMONE. It is a week long party with lots of fun guests and prizes. That’s right a week long! See the lengths I go to to make an impression! I really want you guys to like me and think I’m fun! Lol! But seriously, here is the invite and I hope to see you at one of my blogs next week!

14 comments:

Jessica Burkhart said...

Welcome, welcome! So glad to have you, Steph. :)

Cheers from another Grey's and Johnny fan!

Shooting Stars Mag said...

*swoon* Johnny Depp...*sigh* I love Degrassi: The Next Generation..but I dont have the channel it's on...just a channel that shows old episodes...NOT IN ORDER either, mind you. LOL But I've seen stuff at other people's houses too and yeah, great show.

Anywayyyy...super stoked for your release party! WHOOO! Nothing like cyber parties and yay for all the women who rock. I know most of them and YES, they DO rock, especially Jolene. LOVE HER!

-Lauren

Amanda Ashby said...

Hooray - Stephanie it's soooo cool that you're here at TFC!!!!

Alyson Noel said...

Waving to Stephanie-- so glad you joined us!

Melissa Walker said...

Not my Jolene at your blog party? How fun! She is the bestest. And so are you. I am seriously chomping at the bit for IWBYJR.

Sara Hantz said...

Hey Steph~
Greys and Johnny work for me too! And my birthday is July 18th.... so that makes us moody, homeloving, crabs together (not that I'm moody or crablike, you understand).

Great to have you here.

Stephanie Kuehnert said...

Hi everyone! Loving to hear from all the Johnny lovers. Who wouldn't swoon, right? It's so great to be here with all you guys! Waves to you all!

Lauren, you are throwing me a great party to kick of my party. It's like the neverending party!

And yes, Melissa that is your Jolene! She and I did a little book swap and I love Go Ask Ogre so much I had to have her for Women Who Rock week. She totally rocks.

And Sara, I'm totally moody, lol!

A.S. King said...

I totally lurk here - but wanted to drop in and say WELCOME, Stephanie! I grew up with a punk rock art-school sister who gave me her hand-me-down Black Flag t-shirts so I've been looking forward to IWBYJR since I heard about it.

It's great to see you here.

Amy

Shooting Stars Mag said...

Stephanie: Well, you deserve a neverending party, so yayyy! :)
-Lauren

Wendy Toliver said...

Welcome Stephanie! We're so glad to have you here at the Cafe. Great post! :)

Rachael Stein said...

yay Stephanie!! whoo hoo, good to see you here :D i will be sure to be at your blog next week to celebrate :D

Gerb said...

Welcome, welcome Stephanie! Hey, WTG Amazon! I'm gonna order it and see if it beats the one on hold at B&N...

Kelly (Lynn) Parra said...

Welcome, Steph! It's great to have you with TFC!

Lauren Baratz-Logsted said...

Welcome, Stephanie!