The After Times by Christine Potter (The Bean Books Finale) | Musical Guest Post from Author, Excerpt, & $50 Giveaway
A book blog tour from Goddess Fish Promotions.
Thank you to the author, publisher, and Marianne & Judy at Goddess Fish for providing me with the information for this tour.
Book Details
The After Times by Christine Potter Series: The Bean Books Book #5
Published by Evernight Teen on August 19, 2022
Genres: Fiction, Fantasy, Time-Travel, Young Adult
Format: eBook
Pages: 215
Spring, 2020: High school senior Gracie Ingraham hasn’t time traveled in ages. It’s crazy enough living through the scary first months of the Covid pandemic, going to school on Zoom, and being quarantined with your best friend Zoey—and your ex-boyfriend Dylan.
But suppose you start slipping into the past again in the middle of all that? Gracie’s mom and brother might be under the power of a demonic glass artist from the late 1980’s. And Dylan’s obviously still in love with Grace.
Cue the mysterious fires, the haunted stained glass, a pair of dangerous blue jeans—and a tornado! It’ll take the whole gang from The Bean Books to figure out if time travel means breaking quarantine—and to sort out the devils from the saints!
Say you’re Gracie Ingraham, nerdy but happy high school senior. But you’re also a time-traveler from 1962 who got a bit lost and has been living in the 2000’s since 2018. That would be plenty without it now being 2020. Covid has just shut down the world. Your pandemic pod? Your BFF Zoey—and your ex-boyfriend, Dylan.
Dylan still lives to spin weird vinyl LP’s with your sort-of, kind-of Dad, Amp. So your quarantine hobby is going to have to be Being Mature About Stuff.
But then your time traveling kicks into high gear again. And your long-lost brother and mom mix it up with a creepy, pyromaniacal force that is most likely demonic. How can love save the day when you can’t even go downtown without wearing a mask?
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Excerpt from The After Times
Across the way, the windows in the parish hall were all dark. Dylan had to be asleep. For a couple of minutes, I sat on the back porch of the Rectory in the strange, bright moonlight, scrolling on my phone. But no one I knew outside of our pod was up, either.
So I let my curiosity lead me. I turned on my phone’s flashlight and walked back into the graveyard to where the party had been the night before—where Zoey and I had seen Amp as a college kid with his friends. Although the church’s groundskeepers had cleaned it up by now, the beer can I’d kicked that afternoon glinted in the moonlight under a bush.
And then the air changed, and I knew exactly why I was awake.
****
It was Mom, my real mom, the one who tried to save me from a nuclear war that never happened, the one who ended up sending me the better part of a lifetime into the future. She was why I’d walked into the cemetery—why I had just Traveled. See, that’s what I mean about getting called. It’s like someone or something is saying, Hey. Hey, Grace! Take a look at this!
It had been a cool spring night. Now it was the middle of a sultry summer afternoon. The sky was full of thick, grey clouds, and you could smell a thunderstorm on the way. There was a lot of bird song—almost as much as there is if you get up at dawn and hear it. Ever noticed how the birds get talking to each other before storms? I ducked behind a bush, even though I had a feeling that Mom couldn’t see me. And I slipped my mask on just in case.
Excerpt provided by the author/publisher for use in this post.
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Purchase Links for The After Times
Amazon – OneLink for every country
The After Times (The Bean B...Shop on Amazon
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Guest Post from Christine Potter
Music, Music, Music: The Bean Books and The After Times
The After Times is the grand conclusion to the five-part time-traveling Bean Books series. Like the rest of the books, it’s bursting with music, which is funny; I can’t write with music on. I really can’t. I get entranced by the tunes and an hour passes. Did I mention that the solution to Wordle on the day I’m writing this blog was IRONY?
(Don’t worry; the above wasn’t a spoiler—you’re reading this way into the autumn, and I’m writing it weeks before!)
Bean Donohue, the core character in the series with her name, starts out as a teenaged guitarist/singer. She has a trio with her two best friends, Samantha and Suzanne, and since it’s the early 70’s, they are heavy into Simon and Garfunkel and Fairport Convention, along with some old-school Pete Seeger tunes.
Young Bean likes songs with big, singalong choruses like “The Only Living Boy In New York,” and Sandy Denny’s “Peace in the End.” I bet you haven’t heard that second one—here’s the YouTube link. Do yourself a favor. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEChRefC0RA Bean actually looks a bit like Sandy Denny, but her hair is red, not blonde.
Bean’s true love, Zak, is a solid Dead Head, as are most of the characters in the first three books. As were most music fans in the early 70’s. Bean sneaks out to see The Grateful Dead at the Fillmore East in Manhattan with Zak on February 13, 1970.
I used that show in the book because a certain future young adult author was there, too: me. The Allman Brothers and Love also played that night. It’s considered one of the best Grateful Dead shows ever. Bean (and I) lucked out. Because the internet is just magical sometimes, you can have a sample, too! Here are some selections: https://gratefuldeadoftheday.com/02-13-1970
In college, Bean becomes a DJ at her campus station. Her best college friend is a guy named Amp, and he turns her on to this wonderful song by Alex Chilton and Big Star. It’s called “Thirteen” and it is a young adult novel all by itself. Tell me if I’m wrong. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pte3Jg-2Ax4
Throughout the first three books, Bean takes off from her home decade in the 1970’s and visits the 1880’s and the 1940’s. Her trips to the forties help her understand her sometimes-mean mom, but in the 1880’s, she uncovers the life story of a forgotten woman composer, Edwina Moreson-Bright. I based Edwina on the 19th century composer Felix Mendelssohn’s sister, Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel.
Here’s a piece by Fanny Hensel called “December.” You can hear snowflakes in it—and a German Christmas carol: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTn74p0_UwE. Like Edwina in my book, Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel is finally getting some respect. Edwina’s more-successful-in-his-own-time brother is important to the close of The After Times.
The last two Bean books feature a new young character, but Bean is still very much around. Grace Ingraham is a time traveler from 1962 whose parents are trying to keep her safe from what they re sure will be a nuclear war. She ends up living in 2018, with Bean’s best friend Amp as a sort-of foster father. Bean is now a time-traveling guide. It turns out to be a little like muggles and wizards; there is a whole community of time travelers who keep their ability to skip decades a secret, except to one another.
Amp, now a very liberal Episcopal priest (he was pretty spiritual early on in the series), is a maniac vinyl record collector. Some of Grace’s new friends in 2018 are David Bowie fans. They like to jump around to “John, I’m Only Dancing.” Like lots of early Bowie, it’s an amazing tune for getting your ya-ya’s out. Here’s a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmVVyhpuFRc
The final book in the series, The After Times, is set in 2020, during the first scary months of lockdown. Grace is quarantined with her best friend Zoey and her ex-boyfriend Dylan. To make matters worse, Dylan idolizes Grace’s foster dad Amp and they have both become Robyn Hitchcock fans. If you don’t know him, Robyn Hitchcock is a contemporary Byrds/Beatles/Pink Floyd-influenced singer/songwriter, a musician’s musician.
I’ve followed him for years, and thought it would be fun to finally put his music in a book. Grace isn’t won over by Hitchcockian songs about insects and fish, but she finally decides the album I Often Dream of Trains is just right. Here’s a song from it that any time-traveler should adore: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBdNpOOJAvc
Grace’s best friend Zoey is super fond of this song, from the Broadway musical Fun Home, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMJvLTZOhpE. It’s key (see what I did there?) to an important turn in the plot.
Alas, I can listen to none of this while I work! My favorite soundtrack for actually writing? A snowy morning. Nobody up yet, my cat Bella purring beside me on the desk. I’m typing this in August, so it’ll be a few months before that…meanwhile, enjoy the tunes!
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I love my Amazon Kindle Unlimited Subscription. So many books, so little time!
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About Christine Potter
Christine Potter lives in a haunted house--for real. Besides the ghosts that turned up in a recent investigation, she shares her digs with her church musician husband (plus his two pipe organs) and a pair of very spoiled cats. She's been assured that her ghosts are harmless, just "very old spirits who don't want to leave," which is understandable. It's a comfy place.
Christine is the author of the time-traveling YA series, The Bean Books, on EVERNIGHT TEEN: Time Runs Away With Her (Book One), In Her Own Time (Book Two), What Time Is It There? (Book Three), Gracie's Time (Book Four), and The After Times (Book Five). She has also published three collections of her poems: Zero Degrees At First Light, Sheltering In Place, (2013) and most recently, Unforgetting. She's taught creative writing to high schoolers, junior high students, and senior citizens. Christine ran the online poetry workshop The Gazebo for many years. Her poems have appeared in magazines ranging from Rattle to The Anglican Theological Review--and once wrapped around a stick of Double Bubble in Gum Ball Poetry. She's been nominated for the Pushcart Prize a few times, and has had a poem commissioned for July 4th by ABC Radio News.
Christine is also a sometimes-singer (sounds like a 12-year-old boy soprano, sort of) and a dulcimer and guitar player who knows how to fake change ringing on a small carillon. She loves all music and always eagerly awaits the next Robyn Hitchcock record.
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Easy Amazon Info Link
Amazon – OneLink for every country
The After Times (The Bean B...Shop on Amazon
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Giveaway!
Christine Potter will award a $50 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.
Visit more stops on this Goddess Fish tour for extra chances to win!
Official Tour Page for The After Times
Full Tour Schedule:
September 12: Andi’s Young Adult Books
September 12: Long and Short Reviews
September 19: Fabulous and Brunette
September 26: Viviana MacKade
October 3: Read Your Writes Book Reviews
October 10: Lisa Haselton’s Reviews and Interviews
October 17: Gina Rae Mitchell
October 24: All the Ups and Downs
October 31: Kit ‘N Kabookle
November 7: Sandra’s Book Club
November 14: The Avid Reader – review only
November 14: Books in the Hall
November 21: Christine Young
November 21: Westveil Publishing
November 28: Hope. Dreams. Life… Love
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Is swimming a hobby that you enjoy?
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This is my favorite YA genre. Great excerpt.
I enjoyed your guest post.
What is the name of your second very spoiled cat?
Please tell us the name of one of your cats.
How long have you played the dulcimer?
When you were young, what genres did you like to read?
When you were a child, who were some of your favorite authors?
I would like to read this book!
I liked the excerpt.
It does sound like a fun, unique series.
Love the cover and the music! best of luck with the book tour.
Thanks so much for stopping by, Michele!
The After Times by Christine Potter sounds like it is a fascinating seris.
That should have been series!
I agree, Nancy. I hope to start reading it soon.
I love the cover and the excerpt.
I enjoyed the musical guest post and the excerpt, The After Times sounds like a brilliant read and I like the cover!
Thanks for sharing it with me and have a fabulous week!
This is such an interesting premise!
Thanks! It’s a fun book. The Bean Books have young AND old (hah!) adult fans. I’m proud of them. And The After Times is no longer only in Kindle; it’s now a paperback, too, so I’m really stoked today. Here’s the link, if you’re interested: https://amzn.to/3SeqtI5
Good to be here this morning! Yes, I really do listen to all that sometimes-obscure music–except when I am writing. Thanks for hosting my new book THE AFTER TIMES and my book series THE BEAN BOOKS on my blog tour.
Happy Monday! Thank you for sharing your guest post, bio and book details, like you, I cannot read or write with music on, it completely distracts me and I am unable to focus. White noise from my fan works the best for me to drown out all of the little distracting noises
The dirty trick is that I am married to a musician. But he can sing or play his pipe organ (yeah, we have one–long story) in the house because with the living room door shut, I only get muffled sounds in my first floor study. Our very old house is on three levels, and the room I work in was I think where the miller kept his farm animals in the 1700’s. It’s surrounded by stone. Gets chilly down there in shoulder seasons when the heat’s not on!
Thank you for hosting