Kirk Bjornsgaard
"Kirk was a great guy and a friend to the Oklahoma Center for the Book as an OU Press staff member. I really wish he would have lived to know he had won the award that year. The judges were effusive in their compliments on the book. Two women on the panel were especially impressed with his ability to write from a woman’s perspective, something, they said, “many male writers cannot do."
William R. Young
Public Information Manager Oklahoma Department of Libraries
| cover by WillowRaven
A novel about music written by a musician shows depth that can't be faked. In Confessions of a Former Rock Queen, author Kirk Bjornsgaard, a rock 'n' roller for almost four decades, expertly chronicles the life of an unsophisticated, small-town, Oklahoma girl tapped on the shoulder by fame during the '60s.
As her star rises and the pressures mount, Bjornsgaard guides us with a steady, knowing hand through Sally Moore's life, its challenges and perks, its wild highs and crashing lows. And behind it all, always, you can hear the soundtrack of her life -- and, indeed, the lives of all the baby boomers who grew up at the same time as Sally did. Those folks will especially appreciate this fine novel, but it will also be enjoyed by anyone who wonders what happens with performers once the microphones have been turned off, the stages and studios have gone dark, and the audiences have gone back home to dream of what it must be like to be a star.
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Kirk Bjornsgaard
April 29, 1951 - April 29, 2009 Kirk Bjornsgaard's experience as an acquisition editor for the University of Oklahoma Press and Penn Well Publishing Company gave him insight into the need for well-written submissions. Kirk has co-written books and contributed chapters to anthologies. His experience also includes stints in public relations/media relations/ marketing, writing for an advertising agency, working as a newspaper and radio reporter, and freelancing as a magazine writer. Kirk Bjornsgaard's novel, Confessions of a Former Rock Queen, is not only well-written but is interesting. It was to be the first of a trilogy, but his death left only the first novel for us to read as his legacy. The novel was released the last of March 2009, a few weeks before the author's death. Kirk got to hold his novel in his hands and signed a number of copies, autographing the 50 copies he determined to finish on Monday before he passed away Wednesday morning. It won the Oklahoma Book Award in Fiction in 2010, nearly a year after his death. His widow and daughter accepted the award in his stead. Copies of the novel will be available on his author promo page as long as his heirs leave the contract with 4RV. The world lost a good man, and a good author when we lost Kirk Bjornsgaard. |