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New YA Novel to be released 5/25/13 - Inspired by Cinema Treasures and members of this website
posted by
Michael Zoldessy
on
February 22, 2013 at 10:44 am
Hello
My first novel, entitled Not So Long Ago, Not So Far Away, is scheduled to be released on May 25th, 2013. It’s a quirky, contemporary, coming-of-age novel set in the Summer of 1977 when the Star Wars fan phenomenon was in its earliest stages. Here’s a brief synopsis:
When Erika’s best friend, teen beauty queen Cassandra Abbott, disappears during the early hours of Memorial Day 1977, Erika isn’t exactly surprised. After all, they’ve been plotting and planning Cassie’s escape for months. But then Cassie’s departure unleashes a whirlwind of questions, suspicions and accusations that Erika never expected.She’s lying to the police. She’s being bullied by older students. Worst of all, she’s starting to doubt she ever REALLY knew Cassie Abbott at all. Under the weight of scrutiny and confusion, Erika struggles just to breathe…until a strange new movie transforms her summer with A New Hope.
For Erika, Star Wars changes EVERYTHING. So she volunteers to do chores for a local theater owner to gain unlimited access to a galaxy far, far away from her current reality. At the Bixby Theater—a beautiful but crumbling movie palace from a more civilized era—Erika discovers new friendships, feels the crush of first love and starts an exciting new romance with Super 8 film making…but she can’t hide in a darkened movie theater forever.
As the summer wears on, tensions escalate over the unsolved mystery surrounding Cassie’s disappearance. Someone seems to think Erika knows too many of Cassie’s secrets. Eventually, Erika must step out of the shadows and, armed only with her Super 8 camera and the lessons she’s learned from Star Wars, fight to save herself and the theater that has become her second home.
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The fictional Bixby theater in my book was loosely based on my favorite Cinema Treasure – the Midland Theater in Newark, Ohio. My copy of Cinema Treasures by Ross Melnick and Andreas Fuchs was an invaluable resource in fleshing out my story. I will be sure to acknowledge the book, the authors and this website in my acknowledgements.
However, I would also like to personally thank three members of this website for their incredible generousity in sharing their stories, thoughts, pictures and comments about operating a struggling Cinema Treasure in 1977, but I do not have any way contact or thank two of them. AlAlvarez & TheaterBuff1, I would love to include your names in my acknowledgements (and, if you are affiliated with any Cinema Treasures, I would also be happy to mention the theater(s) by name) and I would also like to offer you a free book. Please email “Slayzak” at an AOL email address as soon as possible. I need to turn in my acknowledgements to the publisher within the next 30 days.
Thank you!
Trisha Slay
Comments (3)
Congratulations! Do I suspect a movie version may be coming? :-D
Who knows JodarMovieFan….
It’s a great novel, I really liked it. In college, I was assigned to write a review of this book. I am very bad at writing, so I started looking and found a great educational resource called betterwritingservices. There I found all the help I needed to write a book review. Now I will cope with similar tasks much faster.