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Tune in Tomorrow: The Curious, Calamitous, Cockamamie Story of Starr Weatherby and the Greatest Mythic Reality Show Ever by Randee Dawn

In her debut novel, Tune in Tomorrow: The Curious, Calamitous, Cockamamie Story of Starr Weatherby and the Greatest Mythic Reality Show Ever (Solaris) — a fantastical satire of the craziest proportions — author and former Soap Opera Digest editor Randee Dawn takes readers into the paradoxical world of reality TV.

FANTASY BECOMES REALITY

Just like Alice after dropping down the rabbit hole, readers enter a wonderland of otherworldly creatures and humans playing themselves in the mythics’ version of a soap opera. But like reality shows in the mortal realm, Tune in Tomorrow (TT) — produced on the “other side of the veil” — is a scripted and staged event.

Twenty-six-year-old wanna-be actress Starr Weatherby (whose boring real name is Samantha Wornicker) still can’t make a living from acting, so she fills salt and pepper shakers at a New York City diner. It sounds cliché until it isn’t. When she overhears some unusual customers — dressed in costume at table five — using theater terms, she gives them an impressive Shakespeare performance as she pours their coffee. Impressed, the one wearing a costume complete with horns and a tail, gives her his business card: Jason Valentine, Executive Producer Tune In Tomorrow.

Jason considers the show “a work of art … on a par with Stonehenge, fairy pools and crop circles.” He’s been surveilling Starr in the mortal world for months. Her ability to give an improv performance as a singing mango won him over. It impressed him that she “could spontaneously invent songs for tropical fruit. Actors could be trained. Performers were born with it.” He knows he must recruit her for the show. 

GATEWAY TO GREATNESS

At first, Starr thinks the mythics are costumed humans made up with special effects, including animatronics. She’s intrigued by Jason’s invitation to visit the set. But when she gets to the address for the studio, there’s nothing there. What she doesn’t realize is that the portal to another realm “beyond the veil” appears only two to three times a day. 

When the gate finally appears and she passes through, Starr encounters bizarre creatures who aren’t just in costume. They are mythics — magical beings who inhabit a fantasy world “on the other side of the veil” — a dragon manning the security desk, small but industrious “brownies” who accept wages in glitter, dozens of tiny make-up and hair fae, and cameradryads who film while camouflaged as plants.

As Starr tries to assimilate into the cast, she realizes that although The Powers That Be (TPTB) bill Tune In Tomorrow as a reality series starring “mortals,” it is just as scripted as any other fictional television show. But viewers don’t know that.

THE EXOTIC IN THE MUNDANE

Hundreds of years before, the stories told to mythics were called Stories of All Purpose, or SOAPS. But mythics now want real human stories.

According to Jason, Tune in Tomorrow is “the longest-running, most-viewed reality TV show ever made in any dimension. It has been running for 439 years, six months and three days. We are made by mythics for mythics — but starring humans.” Jason knows it’s the humans’ “ordinariness” that makes them “exotic.”

MYTHICAL MISCHIEF

Fiona is the queen of TT—she’s been its star for over 118 years and has received 128 “endless awards” for outstanding achievement. She’s played the part of Valencia Marlborough for so long that her former conniving alter-ego has now taken over as Fiona’s primary personality. But Fiona fears her stardom might one day just disappear, so she’ll do whatever it takes — including sabotaging Starr — to protect her popularity. After all, she’s done it before. 

Unfortunately, the show has been losing viewers, and Jason can’t figure out why. As TT’s ratings lag, both the show and the mythics involved start to “come apart at the seams.” If they don’t get the viewers back, they’ll all just disappear with a poof. The show needs more eyeballs and hopefully, hiring Starr will improve the “Expected Eyeball Count.” Starr has the talent, but will she be able to work with the other actors on the show?

As the cast attends a TT fan convention, an explosive article in the mythical WaterWorlds newspaper threatens to blow everything apart. Can Starr survive Fiona’s treachery and save the show? Starr eventually realizes that, “In time, all things are possible. Just like in a fairy tale. Just like in a soap opera.”

AN AUTHOR WITH EXPERTISE

In Tune In Tomorrow, author, freelance writer and soap opera fan Dawn combines her love of showbiz glam and whimsical creatures to create a funny, fantastical world in which readers experience the satire behind the phrase “the show must go on.” 

Dawn’s witty take on society’s fascination with peering at life through a camera lens spotlights the sometimes-blurred intersection between fantasy and reality, all captured on video.

Her playful narrative propels readers into the realm of alternate possibilities while questioning what is real and what is make-believe, and if we can even tell the difference.


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About Randee Dawn:

Maryland-born Randee Dawn is now a Brooklyn-based entertainment journalist who scribbles about the glam world of entertainment by day, then spends her nights crafting wild worlds of fiction. She’s a former editor at The Hollywood Reporter and Soap Opera Digest, and these days covers the wacky world of show business for Variety, The Los Angeles Times, Emmy Magazine and Today.com. Dawn’s obsessive love of all things Law & Order led her to appear in one episode and later co-author The Law & Order: Unofficial Companion.  Her short fiction has appeared in numerous anthologies and online publications; she also dreams up trivia questions for BigBrain Games. Once a month she can be found hosting Rooftop Readings at Ample Hills Creamery in Brooklyn. When not writing, she’s focused on her next travel destination and hangs out with her wonderful, funny husband and fluffy Westie. She admits she reads way too many books and consumes far too many mangoes.

Tune in Tomorrow: The Curious, Calamitous, Cockamamie Story of Starr Weatherby and the Greatest Mythic Reality Show Ever by Randee Dawn
Author: Randee Dawn
K.L. Romo

K. L. Romo writes about life on the fringe: teetering dangerously on the edge is more interesting than standing safely in the middle. She is passionate about women’s issues, loves noisy clocks and fuzzy blankets, but HATES the word normal. She blogs about books at Romo's Reading Room. For more, visit klromo.com, @klromo on Twitter and @k.l.romo on Instagram.

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