Little Disquietude Press Kit
Table of Contents:
Press Release and Contact Information
Book Summary
Quotes from Fans
Interview with the Author
Biography (Short)
Biography (Long)
Excerpts
Bibliography
Review copies happily supplied. Make inquiries to owner@supposedcrimes.com.
***
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: C. E. Case
Supposed Crimes, LLC
owner@supposedcrimes.com
THE LEAD IN A NO-NAME MUSICAL IN NORTH CAROLINA ISN’T A DREAM
COME TRUE, BUT FALLING IN LOVE MIGHT BE IN C. E. CASE’S LITTLE
DISQUIETUDE
February 11, 2011 (Falls Church, VA) — Love is onstage in C. E. Case‘s first novel, Little
Disquietude. Leah Fisher, an actress you probably haven‘t heard of, is getting her big break in
the premiere of a brand new musical… All the way down in North Carolina. Leah‘s a New York
native, with New York sass and Broadway expectations. She‘s not sure she‘s going to fit in down
South. Or into the musical she‘s supposedly starring in, an adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe‘s life
that‘s getting weirder by the minute.
Sophia Medina, the Shakespearian lead, is also having trouble fitting in. An understudy bumped
up at the last minute, she‘s coping with jealousy from her peers and doubts from her director. But
she can show Leah around, and together they may muddle through to minor stardom.
Ida reviews, ―By turns hilarious and touching…an excellent read, and a must if you‘re a fan of
romance, theatre and/or sarcastic New Yorkers.‖
Award-winning author Geonn Cannon adds, ―This is a gorgeous novel, written with a true love
for the theatre. In addition to pulling you into the world of a small-town theatre presentation, it
introduces you to wonderfully funny and extremely real characters. A fantastic introduction to a
new writer with a great voice for the South.‖
Little Disquietude is available in paperback ($15.00/978-0-9828989-0-1) and eBook ($5.99/978-
0-9828989-1-8).
About C. E. Case:
C. E. Case is a librarian and musical theater fan in Northern Virginia. Little Disquietude is her
first novel. Her second novel, The Riches of Mercy, will be coming in early 2012. Both novels
take place in North Carolina, her home state.
About Supposed Crimes LLC:
Supposed Crimes LLC, based in Northern Virginia, publishes lesbian-interest fiction and holds
the rights to the richest, freshest pieces by C. E. Case, Geonn Cannon, and V. R. Merrymore.
More information, including media kits, is available at http://www.supposedcrimes.com.
***
New York City native Leah Fisher, an actress you probably haven‘t heard of, is getting her big
break in the premiere of a brand new musical… All the way down in North Carolina. In Durham
she meets Sophia Medina, the understudy unexpectedly playing Lady Macbeth in the theater
season‘s token Shakespeare play. Leah is smitten, but trying to balance lust and drama isn‘t easy,
especially when her director, her leading man, and the entire South might be conspiring to ruin
her.
***
―This is a gorgeous novel, written with a true love for the theatre.‖
- Award-winning author Geonn Cannon
―By turns hilarious and touching…a must if you‘re a fan of romance, theatre and/or sarcastic
New Yorkers.‖
- Ida
―I‘m glad that the whole thing takes place somewhere other than Broadway. I get tired of
reading about the successful actress who‘s good at everything except romance… I only know
two actresses, one is a total diva and the other is more of a stunt woman, but both of them are
‗real‘ when it comes to how they interact off camera. I liked that your characters were like that
as well.‖
- Latrice
―Charming and just a little bit-off beat, Southern without making a parody of it, and the romance
was perfect… It‘s a book that I‘ll savor for a long time to come, whenever I need a rainy-day
read or just want to enjoy the comforting feeling of falling into an excellent love story.‖
- Bethany
***
What was your inspiration for Little Disquietude?
I‘ve always wanted to be a novelist. Who hasn‘t? In college I started reading lesbian romance
novels like Tropical Storm by Missy Good and Drag Kings and the Wheel of Fate (signed
copy!), I decided that‘s what I wanted to write. The inspiration for Little Disquietude came while
I was seeing shows, of course. I love live theater. There‘s so much energy and such a connection
to the actors. I grew up seeing shows with my parents–Godspell when I was barely five, and then
season tickets to the Broadway tours and the college summers every year. The thrill of the
moment combined with my childhood nostalgia seemed, well, easy enough to write as a project
for National Novel Writing Month. I was successful, and here we are.
Of course, my current idols inspired me, whether it was listening to their music or seeing them
perform. Seth Rudetsky, Scott Alan, Lisa Brescia, and Barbara Walsh all helped me channel my
energy, whether they know it or not. And actors I had crushes on or wanted to be growing up,
and yes, Andrew Lloyd Webber. I think I listened to my Phantom of the Opera CD nonstop for a
year.
It‘s hard to pinpoint which moments were the most inspirational. Watching A Chorus Line on
cable television for the first time when I was twelve? Or standing outside a stage door at night,
freezing cold, waiting for a glimpse of stardust?
How do you know so much about theater?
Research! Obsession? I‘ve seen hundreds of shows, read Respect for Acting, several books on
Meisner and Stanislavsky, several show books, and conducted interviews with actors at all
levels–amateur, college, and on Broadway. I feel like I mined the whole theater world for tidbits.
My most on-point sources were interviews and reviews by The New York Times, and Ben
Brantley is my God, and various podcasts.
Why Edgar Allen Poe and Shakespeare?
Public domain!
Yes, cheater. But why Edgar Allen Poe and Shakespeare?
Come on, Edgar Allen Poe is so cool. Everybody writes about him. Poems are easy to adapt to
music–Joan Baez‘s Annabel Lee–was particularly significant. And the ability to go dark and
twisted appealed. I imagine Poe: The Musical to be a Tim Burton/The Wild Party sort of affair,
with a healthy dose of Kiss of the Spiderwoman as presented by Eric Schaeffer. Macbeth was
chosen to match. And because I had recently seen an outside summer production that had
tremendously wonderful spatters of blood during the murder scenes, and I was a little heady.
What’s your writing process?
Desperation one month a year. I lack the discipline to write anything of length, but National
Novel Writing Month has been very inspiring. For four Novembers now I‘ve written novels, and
then spent the few years working each one into a real book. I have always written. There has
always been an itch I can‘t explain. Silly short stories as a kid, and then more dramatic as a
teenager, culminating in nearly ten years of fan fiction extravaganza. I read every book on
grammar and fiction-writing I can find (see: Research! Obsession!) and then I channel that into
November, usually scribbling out an idea I only had the day before. My next novel came from a
lifelong ―Wouldn‘t it be cool if..?‖ idea that I finally realized I could actually attempt myself. So,
my process: Not very steady or rewarding, but often surprising.
Your next novel?
My next novel will be The Riches of Mercy, a two part sprawling piece about a big city lawyer
who gets stranded in a small town and of course, falls in love. Then she has to decide if she has
the strength to change her entire life. I‘m calling the genre Christian Lesbian Romance.
Hopefully that‘s a Thing. Or, will become so.
***
C. E. Case is a librarian and musical theater fan in Northern Virginia. Little Disquietude is her
first novel. Her second novel, The Riches of Mercy, will be coming out in early 2012. Both
novels take place in North Carolina, her home state.
***
C. E. Case is a librarian and musical theater fan in Northern Virginia. Little Disquietude is her
first novel. Her second novel, The Riches of Mercy, will be coming out in early 2012. Both
novels take place in North Carolina, her home state.
Little Disquietude is the product of a lifelong love of the theater and a frenzied National Novel
Writing Month. Her muses include the big stars and the ones who never made it. She always
wanted to be a writer. Her culture values the Great American novel. Little Disquietude is just
genre romance, but she hopes it‘s a fun read.
C. E. Case grew up all over North Carolina. Greensboro is where she‘d like to retire, Asheville is
where her people are from, and Wilmington–Well, Wilmington has a beach. For now she lives
and works in Northern Virginia, helping people find the romance novels at the local library. She
has two parakeets who support her writing, though they do not deign to read it.
Her second novel, The Riches of Mercy, will be coming out in early 2012.
***
1
―Adam, don‘t I have to audition?‖
―No.‖
The word thrilled her. She was chosen. She took another sip of champagne and let the alcohol
fall into where the joy pooled in her stomach. ―North Carolina?‖
―Leah.‖
―I can‘t. I can‘t leave. I have a schedule, and commitments.‖
―You‘re an actress.‖
Her commitments were fleeting. She had a two week gig to dub secondary voices for an anime
series—36 episodes—and after Care Bears, she‘d finished a three day Off-Broadway play where
she sang in the chorus. She had two readings lined up next month, one workshop, and in April
she would be doing backup singing for a friend of Adam‘s first album at an independent label in
the Bronx.
She sighed. ―I have readings, Adam. They might turn into something.‖
―You had this reading. It turned into something.‖
She studied her fingers curled around the champagne glass. Poe had been a crazy idea, a public
reading that no one attended at a non-profit theater in New Jersey. Poems set to music hadn‘t
been that crazy an idea, but Adam‘s orchestrations were wild—Electric guitar to mimic gothic
melody, and then moments of light that made her cry when she sang for him.
―Who‘s going to be Poe?‖ she asked.
―I cut Poe.‖
―You cut Poe?‖
―There is no Poe. He‘s the vacuum, the void, the nothingness of the soul, and you, Mrs. Poe, and
the other characters, are the reactions, the vestiges, the being born and the dying. I took out what
was in between.‖
The problem with being friends with a playwright was the concept stage. There were not enough
drugs in the world for actors at times like this. She took another sip of champagne and set the
glass on the checkered table and asked a more practical question. ―So, how big‘s the cast?‖
―Two.‖
―What?‖
―We need to find you a man.‖
Leah quirked an eyebrow.
2
Sophia Medina stood as still as possible. At least a hundred people rushed past her. Someone
came up to her with a tape measure, measured her, touched her waist, her breast, her calf. Told
her how tall she was, derisively. She already knew 5‘8 was too tall to play Lady Macbeth. And
with her Haitian mother, and at twenty-five, she was too ethnic and too young. The director had
actually listed these characteristics as he bumped her up from Lady Macduff.
There‘d been no one else available. Just Sophia from the ―also starring‖ section of the playbill.
Her own understudy had taken over Lady Macduff. A forty-something actress, a local like
herself, who could probably play Lady Macbeth in her sleep.
Creating an entirely new wardrobe for her at the last minute had already become part of the
Scottish curse as far as the crew was concerned. That the dressers were late was only the tenth
thing that had gone wrong today. She was terrified of moving. Terrified of breaking the spell that
had gotten her to center stage in the central role.
―Stage left, Sophie,‖ the director called. He sat an impossible twenty feet away in the fourth row
of seats. She moved to the left.
Grey-haired and manicured, with a distinguished face that graced every program‘s back fold, the
director had been the Shakepeare director at Durham Playhouse for over twenty years. She was
nothing to him. Just a problem on a sheet of paper.
―Okay, Sophie. First monologue. Lady Macbeth. Boom.‖
―Now?‖ She glanced at a crew member carrying a castle turret past her.
―You do know your lines, don‘t you?‖ he asked, glancing at his watch.
Her face burned. She‘d been the understudy for months and being bumped up to lead didn‘t
automatically make her an idiot. And yet, she started badly, stumbling over the first line,
distracted by the noise around her. ―They met me in the day of success—‖
The director waved his hand. ―Try to sound excited, Sophia. This man is telling you about
witches, not that he got a raise at work.‖
Her eyes stung. She started again, reciting her lines in front of those hundred people, most of
whom probably thought they could do a better job than she could as Lady Macbeth. Even the
men. The rest just wished she‘d get out of the way so they could set up the lighting effects.
―Art not without ambition…‖
She closed her eyes as she went on, pretending she‘d been on stage for twenty years like her
predecessor, the one everyone still thought of as the real Lady Macbeth. She lifted her chin, and
tried to show everyone that she belonged.
―Better,‖ the director said.
***
Works by C. E. Case
Little Disquietude, 2011, 978-0-9828989-0-1
The Riches of Mercy, Coming in 2012, 978-0-9828989-2-5
C. E. Case, along with two brilliant fellow writers, regularly reviews Venice: The Series in her
blog, Brooding Detective.