Mundie Moms

Monday, September 19, 2016

DIE YOUNG WITH ME By Rob Rufus / Blog Tour: Author Guest Post / Giveaway


Welcome to Day #1 of the Die Young With Me Blog Tour! To celebrate the release of Die Young With Me by Rob Rufus (9/20/16), blogs across the web are featuring exclusive content from Rob and 10 chances to win a copy of Die Young With Me, as well as two chances to win a Punk Rock Prize Pack in the Grand Prize Giveaway! I'm thrilled to not only be kicking off the tour today, but Rob himself has shared today's guest post with us. Check it out below, as well as find out more about his book, and enter to win!

Unique Challenges of Writing a Memoir by Rob Rufus

I wouldn’t call myself a memoirist.  I write fiction, short stories, screenplays, news articles, op-eds, music articles, and songs…but my memoir was the first piece I wrote that got a lot of love.  Which rules!  I love memoirs, and I love writing them (who doesn’t like talking about themselves?).  But there are some unique challenges to writing a memoir that aren’t as present in other genres.

The main challenge is being true to the story, and to the facts.  Sounds easy, right?  But memory is selective, at best, and then of course there’ll be edits, and page-counts, and redactions galore.  You also need to keep a literary flow to the story – there is the need for a linear storyline, which so often doesn’t exist in real life.  Even more pressing is the fact that the truth is often boring as hell – stranger than fiction, sure, but not as exciting.  The reader wants a page-turner, not a courtroom transcript.

As a songwriter, I think those realities were easier for me to accept than a lot of first-time memoirists.  I’m used to cramming a ton of information into a limited medium.  The easiest way to overcome these challenges is to focus on the essence of the story – the nitty-gritty is important, obviously, but the essence of what you’re trying to say needs to be the central point to your process.  That’s the real truth you wanna get across, after all.  Think of it this way – you can write the most detailed lyrics in the world, but if the chorus sucks, no one will care to listen.

Another challenge for me was the fear of upsetting people – you’re writing about real life, after all.  Writing about real people is a unique undertaking, especially when it’s people you care about.  I often felt the need to self-edit, because I didn’t want to upset anyone.

My only advice is not to worry about it.  If you’re worried about pissing people off, you’re not going to write anything worth reading.  It sucks, but that’s just how it is.  So tell yourself, over and over, that if they want to be the hero of a story, they can write their own book.  Stay focused on the task at hand!  It’s your book, write it for yourself.

And it truly is your book.  

That’s the thing about writing memoirs that makes it worth all the trouble – it’s you, undiluted, in your own words, no interpretation needed.  It’s a weird feeling to have people read about you, sure, and it is uncomfortable 99% of the time.  But, for me, writing a memoir has been more rewarding than anything else – because it is a way to retroactively give meaning to the events of your past, and carve out a legacy on your own terms, in your own words.  That’s worth the extra effort, any day.

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Stop by BookHounds tomorrow for the next stop on the tour!


ABOUT THE BOOK


By: Rob Rufus
Published by: Simon & Schuster 
To Be Released on: September 20th, 2016
Purchase from: Simon & SchusterAmazon | Barnes & Noble | Indiebound
Add it to Goodreads

In the tradition of John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars and Me and Earl and the Dying Girl comes the incredibly moving true story of a teenager diagnosed with cancer and how music was the one thing that helped him get through his darkest days. 


 Punk’s not dead in rural West Virginia. In fact, it blares constantly from the basement of Rob and Nat Rufus—identical twin brothers with spiked hair, black leather jackets, and the most kick-ass record collection in Appalachia. To them, school (and pretty much everything else) sucks. But what can you expect when you’re the only punks in town? 


When the brothers start their own band, their lives begin to change: they meet friends, they attract girls, and they finally get invited to join a national tour and get out of their rat box little town. 


But their plans are cut short when Rob is diagnosed with a rare form of cancer that has already progressed to Stage Four. Not only are his dreams of punk rock stardom completely shredded, there is a very real threat that this is one battle that can’t be won. 


While Rob suffers through nightmarish treatments and debilitating surgery, Nat continues on their band’s road to success alone. But as Rob’s life diverges from his brother’s, he learns to find strength within himself and through his music. 


Die Young With Me is a raw, honest account of a brave teen’s fight with cancer and the many ways music helped him cope through his recovery.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR



Rob Rufus is a musician and writer living in Nashville. His band, Blacklist Royals, has released two full-length albums and played in sixteen countries over the past five years. Rob has written articles for Modern Drummer, Amp Magazine, Digital Tour Bus, and many music sites. Rob also works closely with the cancer community, including the Lance Armstrong Foundation, Stupid Cancer Podcast (the largest advocacy/support organization worldwide for teens with cancer), and Make-A-Wish Foundation. You can find him online at robrufus.net, on Twitter @rob_rufus, and Instagram @dieyoungwithme_official.

Follow RobWebsite | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram

FOLLOW THE TOUR
September 19th - Mundie Moms
September 20th – BookHounds
September 21st – PageTurners
September 22nd – The Ravenous Reader
September 23rd – A Dream Within a Dream
September 26th – Positively Book Crazy
September 27th – Crossroad Reviews
September 28th – Book Briefs
September 29th – Addicted 2 Novels
September 30th – Once Upon A Twilight

ENTER TO WIN: GRAND PRIZE GIVEAWAY

  • Two (2) winners will receive a Punk Rock Prize Pack featuring a finished copy of Die Young With Me, an exclusive poster, a mix tape (ft. an excerpt of the book), Die Young With Me switchback comb (not pictured), and Rob Rufus punk rock vinyls
  • Enter via the rafflecopter below
  • US Only
  • Ends 10/2 at midnight ET
a Rafflecopter giveaway

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