Caitlyn Duffy's Blog

Almost three years ago, I contributed a short story to the Rock Gods of Romance series. I’d authored a story about Brice Norris, the trouble-making lead singer of Sigma, the fictional band who opened for Pound on their world tour in The Rock Star’s Daughter.  When that book had first come out, several readers had written to me asking about Brice and whether or not he was real. He’s most definitely not real, but I loved the idea of a young rock star crashing and burning on his overnight success.

I’d never done anything more with the story I’d started about Brice traveling home to visit his parents and falling in love with his big sister’s best friend, who was also back in their hometown escaping the mess she’d made of her life in New York City.

Just today I realized – Wattpad! I should at least share this book on Wattpad! So, here it is: Hometown Hook-up.

The cover of Center Stage! features an illustration of Allison and Elliott created by  the amazing artist Rebeca Puebla. I fell in love with Rebeca’s style through her Instagram account, www.instagram.com/subversivegirl, when I saw an insanely awesome portrait she’d drawn of actress Kysten Ritter as Jesssica Jones.

Above is a sketch in progress, and below is the final art:

Many details in both The Rock Star’s Daughter and Center Stage were inspired by the time I’ve spent living in Los Angeles. I wanted to give my readers a little glimpse into SoCal life, so I selected a few items critical to life in LA for a music fan like Allison Burch!

To celebrate the September 14 release of Center Stage, you can enter for a chance to win a copy of the book, a Beats By Dre Pill Speaker, and 2 bottles of California-style nail polish by Lauren B by answering this question on Facebook:

Which song would you use for your audition on a reality TV singing show, and why? The grand prize winner will be chosen randomly from entrants on Sept. 23, 2015!

Good luck!

At long last, Center Stage! is finally being released on September 14th!

Anyone who’s read The Rock Star’s Daughter will remember Allison Burch, Taylor’s best friend and Todd’s younger sister. Before Taylor’s whisked away into her father’s world of celebrity and luxury, she spends her summer days working with Allison at Robek’s making smoothies in Los Angeles. But the girls have a bitter argument when Taylor’s feeling homesick in Chicago.

One of the most common questions I received from readers about The Rock Star’s Daughter is, “Did Taylor and Allison ever become friends again?”

The more I thought about Allison’s plight, the more obvious it became that the best friend of a girl who suddenly becomes famous overnight might just have a story of her own to tell. I started wondering what Allison’s goals were (other than to find a boyfriend), and how losing her best friend so abruptly might have impacted her junior year of high school.

The notes I made on Allison ended up being pretty lengthy–lengthy enough to fill an entire book! Allison Burch longs to become a famous singer, but her parents aren’t famous celebs like those of her best friend, Taylor Beauforte. In fact, Allison’s parents think the entertainment industry is petty and frivolous. She doesn’t even tell her parents when she secretly sends in an audition video to Center Stage!, a musical reality competition TV show.

And she certainly doesn’t tell them when she cuts classes to venture to Hollywood alone when she’s invited to audition for the producers in person.

Being chosen as a contestant on Center Stage is the key to making all of Allison’s dreams come true. If she’s the grand prize winner, she’ll get to join Irish boy band All or Nothing on their world tour, and she’ll get a record deal of her own.

But she doesn’t count on Chase Atwood, Taylor’s famous rock star dad, being one of the judges.

And she definitely doesn’t count on falling hard on Elliott Mercer, her biggest competition on the show.

How much is Allison willing to lose in order to win?

You can enter for a chance to WIN a free copy of Center Stage on Goodreads from now until September 12.

You can *also* enter for a chance to win a Center Stage Los Angeles prize package on Facebook, which includes a totally rad Beats By Dre Pill Speaker and 2 shades of ultra hip Lauren B organic nail polish in LA-inspired colors.

. Enter by commenting on the Facebook post, and the winner will be randomly selected on September 23rd!

It’s been quite a while since I last posted because I’ve been outrageously busy since I relocated to Los Angeles in November. I’ve been finishing the last draft of Center Stage!, revising my first NA romance, Hometown Hookup (the inside scoop on Sigma’s Brice Norris), and working on completely different kind of manuscript aimed at teens.

Plus, lots of unpacking.

But… the big news is that Book #4 in the Treadwell series — all about Taylor’s adversary on campus, the beautiful Emma — is now FREE on Amazon and iTunes! This book is particularly close to my heart because it details the struggle of a girl who seems to have everything (wealth, a modeling career, a cute boyfriend) with an eating disorder that spirals out of control.

Here’s the full description:

Emma’s known on the campus of the prestigious Treadwell Academy for having it all; her father’s the owner of Hunter Lodge, a massive fashion corporation, and Emma’s gained international fame as the cover model of its popular, sexy catalog. She’s gorgeous and she knows it, has a cute boyfriend at the nearby St. John’s Preparatory Academy for boys, and rules the school with her best friend, Paige. 

But everything changes the summer before junior year when Emma gains ten pounds and her father’s creative team decides she’s too heavy to put on the catalog cover. Mortified over being fired, she develops an obsession with losing weight that quickly escalates into an eating disorder. Emma vows to gain revenge for her dismissal from Hunter Lodge by taking over the runway modeling world by storm, and when Emma puts her mind to something… look out. 

Surprising even herself, Emma accomplishes everything she sets out to do; she finds a powerful agent, lands desirable modeling jobs, and starts building a name for herself. However, all of Emma’s success comes at the price of her physical and emotional health, and she knows she’s in serious trouble when she realizes that it’s impossible to be perfect when everyone’s definition of the word is different. 

Sometimes when I’m visiting home in Los Angeles, I get to indulge in a little Hollywood glamour!  On this trip, I spent a little time at Petit Ermitage, a fancy boutique hotel in West Hollywood with a roof deck pool, a private hummingbird sanctuary, and a pretty impressive private art collection!

One of my very best friends drove down from San Francisco to visit me while I was in California, so we took in the sights from the roof deck at the hotel on a Thursday night:

Petit Ermitage – Thursday night decadence

 Around midnight, my friends and I had an irresistible urge to eat tacos, and fortunately in West Hollywood, tacos are available at just about any time of the day or night (for better or for worse – sometimes this is decidedly not a good thing). We made a pilgrimage to Pinches on Sunset, and indulged at an hour when our stomachs were sure to be annoyed with us:

My friend Chiraag at Pinches for tacos at around 1 AM

The next day, we made sure to check out the beautiful roof at Petit Ermitage during daylight. The gardens up there really do serve as a sanctuary for humming birds, which is totally awesome!

The roof garden at Petit Ermitage

Sunrise in Los Angeles

And then, all too soon, it was time to say farewell to Los Angeles once again and return to the steamy August hustle and bustle of New York City.  I sat in front of a misbehaving toddler for the six-hour flight (seriously not cool) and the only thing that made the experience bearable was my copy of Neil Gaiman’s The Ocean at the End of the Lane, which  was pretty fantastic. If you’re looking for something amazing to read, there’s even a free preview of the first three chapters available on Amazon.

I’ll miss you, L.A. Until next time!

I just spent last week in Los Angeles, partially to finalize Center Stage! (aka the Allison book) and to gather some images that I’ll need for it.  I was reminded once again of how L.A. always smells like flowers, how fantastic the coffee is (hooray for Intelligentsia!) and how it’s home to pretty much the best weather in the world.

Whenever I’m back in Los Angeles, I can’t help but get very nostalgic for Taylor Beauforte, Chase Atwood, and all of the characters in The Rock Star’s Daughter, especially when I’m in the neighborhoods of Larchmont and West Hollywood, where Taylor lived near Allison before the action of the book unfolds.

Here’s Rosewood Avenue, the street where Allison lives, not far from North Laurel, where Taylor lived with her mom at the beginning of the story:

And here’s quaint Larchmont Village just outside Hollywood, where Allison and Taylor used to ride the bus to get iced coffee in the summertime.

It is also coincidentally where I failed my first driving test by almost hitting a pedestrian. True story.

Two things are certain about my relationship with Los Angeles: it always inspires me, and it gets harder to leave every time I visit.

View from my room in Silverlake. Griffith Park Bouelvard!

My favorite thing about Los Angeles: flowers, flowers everywhere.

Perfect skies in Glendale.

My room in Silverlake. Check out the sunset view through that back porch!

Sunset over Silverlake.

Excuse me, but isn’t it almost MAY?

Last night, Brooklyn experienced a little surprise snow storm… hopefully the last of the season! I was sad this morning to find that a lot of the flowers that had already started to bloom had been treated to a little dusting of flurries.

Tomorrow, I’m off to the ear/nose/throat specialist to find out what the heck is wrong with my ear. For the last two weeks it’s been bugging me, and I think my persistent eye strain may be related. What’s super annoying about feeling under the weather right now is that it’s making it much harder to edit Center Stage! even though I’m getting a kick out of re-reading scenes that I barely remember writing!

Anyhow, my romantic interest in Center Stage! is named Elliott, and he’s very, very loosely inspired by singer/songwriter Elliot Smith, who passed away in Los Angeles eleven years ago.

Here’s a video for his classic, Angeles, which is a song that never fails to make me homesick when I hear it.

I just was google-stalking myself and found Robyn’s book report. It’s very well done. I’m not sure I could describe the plot of the book on camera better than she’s done. Bravo, Robyn!

In writing Center Stage, I’ve found it really inspirational to listen to music that I think my main characters would favor. I’ve developed a sort of “inspiration playlist” to help the story unfold, and I thought it might be fun to introduce you to the story through music!

I like to believe that Allison Burch would have a strong appreciation for female vocalists with unique voices. Here are a few songstresses who I think Allison would idolize.

Hope Sandoval / Mazzy Star / Fade Into You

Fade Into You was a big hit when I was in high school, and even today it makes me feel melancholy and nostalgic whenever I hear it. No one in the industry has a voice quite as haunting as lead singer Hope Sandoval.

Fiona Apple / Sleep to Dream 

For a while there, in the 90’s, this was the anthem of all girls, everywhere, who aspired to be bad girls. As a songwriter, Fiona Apple packages angst and fury in her lyrics that seemed like a call to arms for all girls who’d been burned by dudes. “Don’t come around, I’ve got my own hell to raise,” she warns the guy who’s wronged her in this tune.

Kelly Clarkson / Since U Been Gone

I was a huge fan of Kelly Clarkson when she was on American Idol, and her first single did not disappoint.

I think Kelly’s at her best when she’s vindictive, and in this video as she’s tearing up some guy’s apartment, she cuts loose. It’s kind of hard to believe from Justin to Kelly came out eleven years ago. My, how time flies. In may ways, Allison is based on Kelly, as she was the first girl in the USA to become a huge breakout reality TV music star.

P!nk / Try

I’m not going to lie – this song gets the tears flowing and makes me have fantasies about karaoke glory, even when I’m standing in line to pay for diet soda at the deli!

In many ways this song was the inspiration for the dynamic between Elliott and Allison in Center Stage! and of course, P!nk is right. You’ve gotta get up and try, try, try.

What are your favorite videos, and do you have any favorite contestants from reality TV shows like The Voice and American Idol?