Capitalizing on a “Tragic” Capstone
Elaine Schumacher, Staff Reporter
Elaine_Schumacher@csumb.edu
May 8, 2008
Human Communication (HCOM)
senior Jessica Stone can now add
published author to her resume. Her
book and capstone project, “Rock
and Roll Tragedy,” published by
Xlibris, was released on April 30.
“Rock and Roll Tragedy” is a
story about a rich and powerful
music business icon, Peter Connor,
who is living the epitome of the
excessive rock and roll lifestyle.
He sees Savannah, a young and
beautiful girl working in a coffee
shop. Mesmerized by her youth
and beauty he is unable to resist
the challenge of winning her heart.
Savannah sees Peter Connor as her
way out of poverty and he sees her
as the youth he no longer possesses.
Stone described her book as a
contemporary tragedy, “the book is
a fictional story about the raw and
seedy side of the music business,”
said Stone.
As a native of Las Vegas, the
idea for the book came to her in
2006 when she was at home for the
summer and her friend, who worked
at a well-known hotel resort, invited
her to a show. Stone had a front row
seat to the backstage life of the music
business. She observed everything,
from the show producers, to the
female groupies, to the “techies,”
who had their own language.
Stone said that occasionally she
took a break from writing but never
had a problem writing the next
chapter because she felt this story
needed to be told.
“For the past two years, Jessica
has served as a peer advisor,” said
Dr. Qun Wang, HCOM professor.
In addition to maintaining an honor
student grade point average, she
has helped many HCOM students
with their individual learning plans,
personal, academic and social goals
as a HCOM peer advisor.
As a student of the Literature and
Film concentration, she has formed
her capstone project by relating her
book, “Rock and Roll Tragedy”
to Aristotelian theory on tragedy
where the main character, a noble
person, incites pity and fear in the
reader, the distinctive mark of tragic
imitation. “The capstone project
has paradigmatically demonstrated
Jessica’s understanding of and
familiarity with literary theories
and their application to literary
analysis,” said Dr. Wang.
“The experience of writing a book
and having it published is surreal
because a book is an eternal piece of
work that will be here for all time,”
said Stone. “This is my first book
and I am thinking about the next
one. I want to thank the HCOM
faculty who consistently foster the
success of their students.”
“Rock and Roll Tragedy” is
available for $15.99 at www.
Xlibris.com/Rock&Rolltragedy.
html, it will be available at over
200 websites at a later date.