StayBlu Reads: Blog Tour: Blessed Tragedy by HB Heinzer

Maddie Neumann died the day she pulled away from her parents' house determined to make her dreams come true. She wasn't the perfect little princess she'd been raised to be, all she wanted to do was rock. Everything Maddie was tucked away in a box to allow for her re-birth as Rain Maxwell; a badass rocker who answered to no one and lived by her own set of rules.

Rain's world is shattered with one phone call from her estranged family. No sooner does she get home than everything she thought she knew about her life starts changing.

Colton Bradford knew there was something special about Rain the moment they first met. Unfortunately, she had a hard and fast rule about dating a bandmate so he was stuck in the friends zone. When Rain is going through her own personal hell, will Colton finally be able to make her see how he feels and convince her to take a chance on love?

Available on Amazon

Rain, the lead singer of the hottest band, Blessed Tragedy has a past that she keeps close to the chest. It's not that she had a bad childhood. She has a family who seemed perfect but she was never free to be who she wanted to be so on the day she graduated high school, she packed her bags and moved on. Feeling lost, and in trying to find herself, she stumbled on a little bit of trouble before meeting her band mates.

She found a new family in her band. Three men she could count on to be her support system. Especially, Colton. Colt and Rain lean on each other but as tragedy strikes back home, her worlds begin to blend. She has to trust in her band mates as they follow her home, and see the girl she was.

Rain has to figure out how to work her way through her family issues, while trying to battle her feelings for Colt. What's been happening between Colt and Rain has been slowly growing over the years, but as she leans on her during her rough time, the emotions quicken. Is she willing to risk their friendship to try and pursue something more? How will their relationship affect the band?

I really enjoyed this book. Seeing Rain begin to find herself, as well as a new way with her family and with Colt. To me, this book really talks about second chances in all sense of the phrase, not just in romantic relationships. It reminds you that everyone screws up, but that's okay because your friends, your family, they'll be there for you in the end.

Some writers can tell you what book piqued their interest in writing a book of their own. I can’t. Other authors tell you the name of a teacher who influenced and encouraged them to write. The only English teacher I can remember probably does deserve some of the credit for my success because she was one of the hardest teachers I ever had. Honestly, I don’t know why I write; all I know is it’s one of two things I can do that makes me feel completely free.

The first “official” writing I did was as a fifteen year old high school sophomore. My dad was part of an APAzine and, for whatever reason, I started guest writing on his zine. That led to me getting a zine of my own in the Turbo Charged Party Animal APA. Rope the Moon (named after the John Michael Montgomery song and a nod to my dad’s influence on me) was the ramblings of a child in a world of adults.

I was held to a high standard because most of the contributors were my dad’s age. They were somewhat hesitant to allow a kid in, but they voted me in after those guest contributions. To this day, I feel blessed to consider some of those members friends.

Sometime after high school, life got in the way of my dreams. They keyboard was dusty. Looking back, that’s also when I felt my most restless. After my daughter was born, I started my first blog, More Than Mom, as a way to vent about my struggle to hold onto the identity I’d owned for 27 years.

In 2006, I heard about NaNoWriMo for the first time. I jumped in with the enthusiasm of anyone who’s never tried to write a 50,000 word novel in a month. It was a damn good story. Did I mention I’d never written anything of that length before? Yeah, that’s important because it means I never lost a work in progress of that length before. It was November 14th and I was over 24,000 words when my hard drive failed. And with the loss of my manuscript, I lost the drive to write for a while.

In 2012, I attempted NaNoWriMo again, this time saving in so many places I’m sure I’ll be finding partial copies of Bent everywhere until the day I die. The thing they don’t tell you with NaNo? When you hit 50,000 words, that doesn’t mean you’re done writing! So, I kept writing until I was done. And then I edited. And edited some more. Deleted a bunch of scenes, added others in. Had some trusted friends and mentors read it and then tweaked it some more.

In January 2013, I made the single scariest click of my mouse that I will ever make. I published Bent. It’s been a whirlwind year and it keeps picking up pace but I’ve never before felt so blessed to be where I am!

I’d love to hear from you! Feel free to email me at hbheinzer@gmail.com with questions, comments or even a good joke!