Guest Post: Tracy Deebs & Giveaway

Today I have the pleasure of having Tracy Deebs, author of Tempest Rising, here on the blog as a part of her blog tour. Tracy was kind enough to put together a list of items from her teenage years we would find if she were to have a garage sale.

Hi Emilie, thanks so much for having me here today. I love the idea of a garage sale from my teen-age years, though I’m not sure there would be much there of value, lol. But I’ll give it my best shot!

1. My old pink and yellow surfboard: $20 Though it’s not a Brewer (Dick Brewer, master surfboard maker) like the one my main character, Tempest, got for her sixteenth birthday (funny, isn’t it, that she got the exact surfboard I begged my parents for way back when—some things aren’t forgotten, lol) it’s still a good board. It saw me through many surfing adventures up and down the California coast.
2. My VCR tape of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid: $3 My absolute favorite movie from the time I was three until I was about seven (and switched allegiances to Wonder Woman) I watched it every single day for nearly four years. It’s a beautiful and poignant story, one filled with darkness and deception, but one that also involves sacrifice and true love. I’m convinced that it is the love of this story (and not the Disney version) that inspired me to write Tempest Rising to begin with.
3. My Early ‘90s Alternative Music Collection: $35 First edition CDs of Smashing Pumpkins, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Soundgarden, Nine Inch Nails, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Counting Crows and Stone Temple Pilots. I can’t begin to count the number of hours I spent hanging out with my friends—or boyfriend—listening to these CDs. I did countless English projects dissecting the lyrics and probably had the words to every song on every CD memorized (to be honest, I think I still do).
4. My four-inch heeled black leather, designer knee boots: $20 I saved for three months to buy these boots and wore them everywhere for two entire winters. Seriously, everywhere, and despite my propensity for clumsiness, somehow managed to never fall on my butt in them (something I can’t say about my current favorite pair of five inch high hot pink platforms)
5. My Collection of Art Posters: $5 I love art. Love, love, love art. From Van Gogh to Picasso, from Kandinsky to Kahlo, I love art of all types. My high school bedroom, and college dorm rooms, were plastered in all directions with posters of famous works of art. While I have no artistic talent whatsoever, or maybe because of it, I love to write characters who are artist. Tempest, besides being a mermaid and a kick-butt surfer, is also an artist. Picasso is her favorite artist, too.
6. My book collection, comprised of romance novels, existential works of literature, the complete collections of the Romantics and the Beat Poets and various other works: $6 I’ve been a reader as long as I’ve been a writer, which is about the same time I realized that those letters my preschool teacher made me practice actually made words when I put them together. When I was in junior high and high school, and even college—okay, for my whole life, if I’m being honest—I’ve gone through books at an alarming rate. My husband, who is not a big reader, always laments the amount of money I spend on books—and the copious amount of boxes he has to carry every time we move, but I can’t stop. It’s an addiction that led to me being a writer and a college professor. And when I was young, my Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden and Sweet Valley High books saw me through many a crisis.

Okay, now it’s your turn. What one thing would you sell in a garage sale that represents who you are. Leave a comment with your answer and fill out THIS FORM (you need to do both!) to be entered to win lipgloss and nail polish in Tempest purple.