NORTHAMPTON, Pa., Sept. 23, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Award-winning Pennsylvania author Suzanne Mattaboni and Emphasis Press today announced that she will be promoting her debut novel Once in a Lifetime, an award winning coming-of-age story set in 1984, at the Frankfurt Book Fair—one of the largest literary trade events in the world. Known in its native language as Frankfurter Buchmesse, the event will be held on October 16 to 20, 2024, at Messe Frankfurt in Germany. Mattaboni was invited to attend the event with “The And I Thought Ladies,” a growing literary community and author platform based in Maryland. Suzanne, “The Ladies,” and their colleagues will be located at an exhibitor booth in Halle 5.1/D56, and will be meeting with streaming network executives and film producers during the event.
Additional participants in the booth include Deborah Franklin Publishing; author and women’s rights advocate Kasey Rogers; Madville Publishing’s Kimberly Davis; Pixie Lee of PL Publishing; and author Dwight Allen. Once in a Lifetime is currently available through Amazon and Kindle Unlimited, Barnes & Noble, Walmart, and wherever books are sold.
Mattaboni is celebrating the launch of the second edition of Once in a Lifetime. It includes new content such as a Q&A from the popular Jeanne the Book Nerd reading blog; plus a foreword from rock journalist Annie Zaleski, whose work has appeared in Rolling Stone, NPR Music, The Guardian, and Billboard. Zaleski’s latest rock bio, Taylor Swift: The Stories Behind the Songs, is launching this month from Simon & Schuster.
The new edition of Once in a Lifetime also includes a bonus story from Mattaboni’s forthcoming collection of short fiction, Gore, Lust & Kin. The collection, which mixes horror with twisted relationship stories, has garnered early praise from readers including New York Times bestselling author Jonathan Maberry. He called Gore, Lust & Kin “Daring, insightful, heartfelt, and unflinching. Highly recommended … but buckle up!” Maberry is the author of Ink; the V Wars book series that launched as a Netflix series in 2019; and the Joe Ledger series of action thrillers, which is also currently being developed for film.
Showcasing Award-Winning Fiction
Once in a Lifetime has won an assortment of honors, including a PenCraft, an IPPY (Independent Publisher Book Award), and an International Book Festival award, in addition to nods from both the London and the Paris Book Festival competitions.
The novel follows 20-year-old art student Jessica and her group of avant-garde roommates, who delve into love, life, and art during one of music and pop culture’s most vibrant eras, the mid-1980s. Fiercely devoted to the New Wave music subculture and searching for a way to break through to what she calls her “real life,” Jessica sets her sights on a mosaic art study abroad program in London and needs to scrape up the extra tuition money to attend. Meanwhile, her hometown boyfriend Drew wants to see other people if he’s not exciting enough to keep her stateside.
The girls suffer through chaotic waitressing shifts in a progressive riverside town by day and pogo their way through alcohol-fueled punk clubs at night. Then Jess meets a hot, daredevil guitarist who crawls through her window and makes her head spin like a record. After various romantic entanglements, she’s left to decide if the men in her life will leave her as damaged as her cracked-glass mosaic art projects—and whether they’ll stand in the way of that dream semester in post-punk London. Along the way, the girls learn how difficult it is for the young women of the ‘80s to “have it all,” like their whole generation of newly-minted feminists had been promised.
“The Frankfurt Book Fair is the largest international publishing event in the world. It’ll be a thrill to engage with industry talent of this magnitude about Once in a Lifetime, and about the potential of my short fiction to be adapted as a streaming series,” said Mattaboni. “I’m confident it will be a productive and eye-opening venture, one that will help further my own professional goals, and will help to develop business for Emphasis Press. I’m eager to learn all I can while I’m immersed in this global literary community.”
About Emphasis Press
Based in the Northeast, Emphasis Press publishes women’s fiction, horror, sci-fi, dystopian, and 20th Century historical fiction. Our mission is to provide a showcase for the amazing narratives that are being ignored by large publishing houses. We believe independent novels and anthologies are the new literary magazines, where fresh and interesting stories are finding homes and being read on-demand. www.emphasispress.com
About Suzanne Mattaboni
Suzanne Grieco Mattaboni is a fiction writer, podcaster, PR professional, Newsweek Expert Forum contributor, and former reporter for Newsday. She writes women’s fiction and horror, among other genres. She has been published in Seventeen, The Huffington Post, Mysterious Ways, Guideposts, Child, Motherwell, and hundreds of high-tech trade journals. Her work has appeared in anthologies including the Howard Jones music “fanthology” We’re In This Together, the Hard Boiled and Loaded with Sin noir anthology, the Chicken Soup for the Soul series, and the ‘80s-themed horror anthology Pizza Parties and Poltergeists. One of her short stories was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Suzanne is a past winner of Seventeen magazine’s Art and Fiction Contest and was named a Lehigh Valley Business Woman of Influence.
Additional Resources:
Inspiring Journeys podcast with Return to the ‘80s’ Paul Stroessner and Suzanne Mattaboni
Rebelphonics interview with Suzanne Mattaboni
Stuck in the ‘80s Suzanne Mattaboni podcast with host Steve Spears
Return to the ‘80s ONCE IN A LIFETIME Spotify playlist by Paul Stroessner
Women with Attitude: How ‘80s New Wave Music Fueled Feminism by Suzanne Mattaboni, in Women Writers, Women’s Books
Link to Headshot
Link to 2nd Edition Cover
Suzanne Mattaboni Linktree
Contact: Suzanne Mattaboni
suzanne@mattaboni.com
610 737-2140
