Lacey’s Bridge Tavern Book Club will once again be having Sandy Lo as a guest author to discuss her latest book “Dream Catchers”.  Sandy will be signing copies of “Dream Catchers” as well as selling them.  Along with the book, Sandy will also be selling the mp3 of “Haley’s Letter”, the song from the novel. This will be a dinner event, which will cost $23 per person and includes a 3 course meal, unlimited soft drinks, tea, coffee, tax & tip. A cash bar will also be available for those who fancy the drink! Please RSVP to: sandy@sandy-lo.com, so the restaurant has an accurate head count. Thank you!!

Date: Monday, August 30, 2010
Time: 6:30pm EST
Location: Lacey’s Bridge Tavern
Street: 75 Innis Street
City/Town: Staten Island, NY
Phone: 7182737514
Website: www.laceysbridgetavern.com

I’m hoping to promote “Dream Catchers” more while I write the sequel.  So if you enjoyed the book, please pass it onto a friend or send them the link to purchase it.  I need to spread the word!  Also, if you could pass around links to my Twitter page and Tortured’s Twitter page as well, that would be great!

www.twitter.com/authorsandylo
www.twitter.com/torturedband

I would love to hear from you guys on here…please post a comment!  Thanks!

Hugs, Kisses & Stars,

Sandy Lo

With every year that passes, I find myself evoking change.  As a child, I had no say in anything.  I was the youngest of four.  My parents were both close-minded.  I was taught to think everything was “weird” or “crazy”.  I wanted to change it all.  I wanted to change who my father was.  I wanted to change how my mother felt about him.  I wanted to change the fact that my siblings were older and moving on from childhood, because I thought they were moving on from me as well.  I suppose this need and want for change is why I’m so accepting of it now.  In fact, I welcome change while my siblings fear it.

Change is inevitable, though.  Why not embrace it?

The things I have strived for in life are things that were somewhat frowned upon in my family.  My parents wanted me to be practical.  I was never practical.  I always dreamed big.  My mother, God love her, used to call me a modern day hippie.  I’ve always been a free spirit who loved the differences in people and kept an open-mind.

When I began my own magazine at eighteen, it was something no one took seriously.  It was only when I took my dad with me to interview Jessica Simpson, that he realized I was actually doing something productive.  My mother didn’t need me to take her on any interviews to realize how big of a deal it was when I presented the Backstreet Boys an award.  And all I had to say to my brother was, a million people read StarShine Magazine.  Still, one thing mattered to everyone and still matters to them this day…money.

I realize money is a necessity.  So is happiness, though.  Writing and meeting interesting creative talent makes me happy, with or without compensation for it.  One day, I hope to make a living off my books.  I also want to keep working in the entertainment industry.  Maybe not as the editor of StarShine Magazine, but maybe as a publicist or working in some other realm of the industry.

To invoke change, you have to make change.

In 2011, I am making the biggest change of my life.  I’m moving to Nashville, Tennessee.  Why?  There’s not one particularly grand reason, like I have relatives there or friends.  There’s little small, possibly insignificant-sounding reasons.  Like when I was 10-years-old, I saw a movie called “The Thing Called Love” that was about a songwriter from New York who moved to Nashville to make it big.  Or how about the fact that Nasville IS “Music City”?  Maybe because my next novel takes place in Tennessee and I want to see what it’s like to live in the south.  Maybe I want to move out there because I’m tired of New York.  Or maybe because I want to live in a completely new, unknown place and make a life for myself all on my own.  All of these reasons are why I want to move to Nashville.  I could probably find a bunch more, too.

With that change set in motion, I’ve decided I need to re-evaluate my time management.  Juggling a full-time job, a magazine, and writing novels is tough.  Not to mention, trying to get an agent, promoting those novels and finding time for family, friends and sleep–I’m wiped out.  Something has to give.  So, not being able to part with any of those things–I’m condensing them.  I’ve been running StarShine Magazine for 9 years.  That’s a long time.  Without much of a staff, I’m doing just about everything, and it’s exhausting.  Especially when every once in a while, your website gets hacked into or the webmaster decides to stop doing it.  I’ve been through a lot with it.  Plus, I manage 3 Twitter accounts, 3 Facebook pages and 2 MySpace pages.

So, gradually, StarShine will be a section on this website: www.sandy-lo.com.  I will still interview celebrities when I can and post about new music, movies, etc.  But it can no longer be the chunk of my life it once was.  Writing novels has been part of me for longer and has been dying to make its way into the forefront of my life.

I just hope the StarShine readers and artists will understand and support me in my writing career.  I hope you guys will still check out the site and see what I’m up to–I’m sure in Nashville I’ll be interviewing some awesome country stars!

Change is difficult, I know.  Believe me, it took a lot to make this decision.  However, with the decision made, I’m excited for the future and all the doors this will open.

Hugs, Kisses & Stars,

Sandy Lo

Connect with Tortured on Twitter: www.twitter.com/torturedband.  Interact with characters from Sandy’s novel “Dream Catchers” by replying to their tweets.  Jordan, Sebastian, Darren & Danny post what’s going on in their day as well as with the band.  Note: Sandy Lo is really the one tweeting as her characters.  Have some fun and follow Tortured!

Connect with StarShine Magazine on Twitter: www.twitter.com/starshinemag.  Get the latest entertainment news, interviews + reviews when StarShineMag.com is updated!

If you haven’t heard, Ellen (yes, thee Ellen!) is following me on Twitter! This put a fire under my butt to try and get on her show! But I’ll need your help! Below I will list a few ways you can contact The Ellen Show. I would love it if you could do one or all of them to up my chances of getting noticed by Ellen’s producers!

What do you get out of it? Well, seeing me on TV + possibly hearing “Haley’s Letter” performed live. And a big HUG + thank you from me!

Contact Ellen:

TWITTER:
Reply to @TheEllenShow that you would love to see @AuthorSandyLo on the show. Tips: Mention “Dream Catchers”.

FACEBOOK:
Go to: www.facebook.com/ellentv. Write on Ellen’s wall that you’d like her to do a segment on me about my book “Dream Catchers”.

ELLEN’S WEBSITE: www.ellen.warnerbros.com/show/respond/?PlugID=10
Fill in all of the information and again tell her about me and why you think I should be featured.

Additional Tips: You can mention I’m a self-published author of 2 books and the editor of StarShine Magazine all before the age of 30. You can tell her about the song I wrote for “Dream Catchers”, “Haley’s Letter”, which is performed by James Manzello.

Thank you guys SO much! This means the world to me!

Hugs, Kisses & Stars,
Sandy Lo

“I am so fortunate to be in the position I am in to speak with my musical muse for Dream Catchers”, explains Lo. “30 Seconds to Mars are really amazing.” Mars’ front man and actor, Jared Leto even inspired the main character, Jordan Walsh, a bit. “As a teenager, I was a fan of ‘My So-Called Life’ and fell in love with Jared’s character, Jordan Catalano, which is why I named my main character Jordan,” Lo shares.

Following her interview with Shannon Leto, Lo saw the band live for the first time on their “Into The Wild” tour to support their latest album This Is War. “I felt like my character, Haley, seeing Tortured perform for the first time,” she says with a smile. “30 Seconds to Mars really know how to put on a show.”

To read Sandy Lo’s interview with Shannon Leto and to see her review of the 30 Seconds to Mars show, go to: www.StarShineMag.com.

DREAM CATCHERS is available now through LuLu Press and is coming soon to other online retailers. Lo’s coming of age story of sheltered college student, Haley Foster, running off to New York City with the carefree musician, Jordan Walsh, has been receiving rave reviews from Amazon readers.

“I truly appreciate this realistic work of fiction that tells a personal story in an engaging way. Dream Catchers leaves you wanting more, well after you’ve read the last page!” gushes one reviewer.

Another reader commends SANDY LO on her characters: “Dream Catchers is told from the main character’s perspective, therefore allowing you to truly understand what she, Haley Foster, is thinking and feeling throughout the varied situations she is faced with. Many of the other characters are also fleshed out rather well, including Jordan Walsh, paragon of bad boy good looks and lead singer of the band Tortured. It appears that the author, Sandy Lo, wanted to tell a love story which was able to indulge the reader, while not coming across as overly predictable.”

To read an excerpt from DREAM CATCHERS and to order a copy, go to: www.sandy-lo.com or http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/dream-catchers/6137629.

Also, “Haley’s Letter”, the song written by SANDY LO for DREAM CATCHERS is now available on iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/haleys-letter/id356084511! The song was also written, produced and performed by JAMES MANZELLO and co-produced by FRANS MERNICK.

For more on Sandy Lo: www.sandy-lo.com
Follow Sandy on Twitter: www.twitter.com/authorsandylo
Facebook: www.facebook.com/authorsandylo

Sandy would love to hear what you think of the song!  Please leave feedback!

Thanks to Jeff Timmons for the sweet video message he sent for the party.  You can view it here:

As a reminder, you can find “Dream Catchers” on sale at lulu.com!  Here’s a direct link: http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/dream-catchers/7869073.

If you have already read “Dream Catchers”, please review it on Amazon.com.  The book will be available there as well within a few weeks.

“Dream Catchers” on Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Dream-Catchers-Sandy-Lo/dp/055722604X/ref=pd_rhf_p_t_1