West of Mars

New Year’s Eve.

I’m off tour.
More’s still out.
So’s Hambone.

Mom’s with Antonio.
They’re going strong.

That means
tonight
It’s just me.
Alone.

For New Year’s Eve.

Used to be,
I thought
only losers
were alone
on
New Year’s Eve.

I’m no loser.
If anything,
I’m a nomad.
A nomad
With friends
On tour.
And a mom
with
a love life.

I’ve heard it said
that
what you do on
New Year’s Eve
is
What you’ll do
All
Year
Long.

Hope that doesn’t mean
I’ll be
Alone.

All.

Year.

Long.

I’ll share the saga of a week mostly without Internet (and the 150 mail messages that got nuked. Not good. Very very not good) later, but for now,

to celebrate the holiday season and to entice all you e-reader users, new and old, I’ve dropped some prices around town.

The Demo Tapes triplets are now 99c each.

Mannequin is now FREE (at Smashwords only for the time being).

If they sell well, I’ll leave ‘em low, especially if they stimulate sales of Trevor’s Song. This is a good time for you already familiar with the Trevolution to gift some e-books to your friends, as well. King Trevor is still slated to be released on April 12, 2012.

Because Smashwords is my favorite retailer, here’s the link to my page there.

You Kindle users can use this link. Or the Smashwords one; you CAN get Kindle format from Smashwords, you know.

Here’s hoping you all had a great day today, regardless of what or how you celebrate.

It was via Triberr that I learned of the 2012 Ebook challenge forming up over at Workaday Reads.

The idea is that you pick how many e-books you’re going to commit to reading in 2012.

This is an awesome goal. One I wholeheartedly support. I’ve been reading e-books for over two years now, and I really love them.

It’s time to share the love.

If you or someone you know has signed up for the 2012 eBook Challenge — or any challenge that my books will count toward — AND you are willing to post a review (good or bad) somewhere online, I’ll gladly gift you Smashwords coupons for a free download of whichever of my books you’d like.

Go on. Spread the word. Spread the love.

… and I’m spending the day over at the Independent Writers Association, with thoughts of what it takes to de-stress. Need a hint?

Nah. This is a no-spoilers blog.

Go see for yourself.

Once again, I’m combining this week’s Three Word Wednesday post with real life. This is a stand-alone piece, but you old-timers will recognize and remember Kermit Ladd.

Kermit Ladd, intrepid journalist, was sent to the gorgeous suburb of Maison Villa to meet with legendary guitarist Terry Fantillo. With his seventh wife by his side, he proceeded to show all present his scaled-down models of the stack of amplifiers he intends to build.

“It’ll be the second man-made object visible from space,” he brags. One almost expects him to pound on his puffed-up cheset, but all present are spared that spectacle.

“I thought about making it a touring exhibit,” he goes on to say, “but my engineers told me it would be better to make it immoble. Otherwise, my stack,” he ads with one of those nods that tells you the speaker is about to divulge a huge secret for your ears only, “would confuse the astronauts in the International Space Station. They wouldn’t ever know what city they were looking at, or what part of the world was showing. I think it’d be great, but NASA wasn’t so into the idea. The astronauts have enough to deal with and focus on up there, I guess.”

When asked if he would ever turn on this wall of amplification, Fantillo laughs. “Wouldn’t that be the ultimate retribution for the asshole neighbor who keeps letting his dog shit in your yard?”

His laughter goes on even when he’s the only one laughing. If the atmosphere becomes strained, Fantillo doesn’t notice.

“Yeah, we’ll turn it on once or twice,” he says once his guffaws have smoothed out into something approaching a state of sobriety. For Fantillo, widely rumored to have an unacknowledged drinking problem, that is quite the claim. “The engineers tell me anyone in close proximity will be sorry, but we’ll do it. Maybe when we have friends over for the Super Bowl or New Year’s Eve.”

Wife Number Seven nods.

Fantillo smiles at her as if she has greatly pleased him. “It’s enough to have such a thing,” he says. “My wall of amplification. Maybe someone will put it in a museum, or the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It’s going to be one-of-a-kind. No one will ever duplicate what I’m doing.”

The question, dear readers, is why anyone would ever want to.

Again, I’m a day late with this, but here it is anyway: I’m over at Tilly Greene’s Hot Thoughts today, taking part in her Perfect Gift is a Book series.

Stop in and see what my Perfect Gift is. And why not pick up one of my own books when you pick up my Perfect Gift, as well?

Oh, and while you’re there, leave a comment to be entered into a prize drawing at the end for all sorts of Perfect Gifts. Tilly’s come up with some doozies!

It seems that when I get Rock Fiction recommendations, they come from one of three sources: Misty of Top Shelf e-Books, Maria Savva, or Mary at BookHounds and Forever Young (Adult).

The rest of you DO know that if you come across something not on my Rock Books page, you’re encouraged to drop me a line, or post it over at the West of Mars Fans page at Facebook, right?

Anyway, today’s find comes from Mary. It’s author Heather Jensen, who wrote a Rock Fiction/Vampire book, Blood and Guitars. Yep, that’s pretty much it. Guitars. Vampires.

Which means that of course it’s another one I need. It’s in print, the Kindle store, and up at Smashwords (that’s where the link above will take you), so if you get your hands on it before I do, feel free to send me your review. I’ll link to it from the Rock Fiction page.

Read and rock on –

Since RJ was visiting yesterday, I didn’t want to pre-empt him, so I’m telling you about this today.

While RJ was here, I was over at Suzan Harden’s Wild, Wicked, and Wacky blog. I’m talking about the shiny stuff that surrounds us during the Christmas season … and I’m drawing comparisons of it to another, special shiny in my life.

Stop in and say hi, whydon’tcha? Suzan’s cool. You’ll dig her.

I’ve been buds with the most excellent RJ McDonnell for … years now, I’d bet. He’s a great dude, very savvy, and his books reflect this. Plus, the’re Rock Fiction, and we all know about Susan’s weakness for Rock Fiction.

In fact, RJ’s third book in his Rock & Roll Mystery Series, the Concert Killer, has just been released. Which means I get to bring you a Featured New Book that’s Rock Fiction! I do NOT do this nearly enough (hint to all you who know Rock Fiction authors, be they writing a series or a stand-alone.).

Without further ado, here’s RJ:

The song that makes me think of my novel, The Concert Killer, is its trailer song by the same name. Since I write the Rock & Roll Mystery Series, I decided to write an original song to promote the book. The novel is about a serial killer who attempts to shut down the concert industry, and opens on his fourth kill. The song serves as a prequel, providing details on his first three murders. Here’s a link to the YouTube trailer and song.

Lead guitar was performed by Robbie Walsh, who played with Noel Redding of The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Chubby Checker, Ginger Baker of Cream, and Tico Torres of Bon Jovi. Bass and drums were performed by Robbie’s current band mate, Larry Moss. I did the vocals and rhythm guitar.

I wrote the song almost immediately after finishing the edit on the book. This involved going through the text 20 times; immersing myself in the thoughts and feelings of a religious fanatic serial killer for months. Most of my friends and family told me they heard a distinct UK accent in my voice. They have all seen me perform at bookstores, parties, and library events in the past, and never picked up on this affectation on any of my other songs. I think the immersion process was so intense that I dug down to my Irish roots when delivering the vocals.

If you’re interested in finding out what the story is about, I posted the first 48 pages on fReado. It’s not your typical serial killer novel, which usually falls into the horror genre. This is a whodunit mystery. In
keeping with the first two novels in the series (Rock & Roll Homicide and Rock & Roll Rip-Off), I continued to use humor in between action scenes.

My detective is a 28-year-old who worked as a club musician for 10 years before starting his internship as a private investigator. During those 10 years he also attended college and worked as a counselor at an outpatient mental health center. Now that he runs his own detective agency he employs two former patients. They’re both very good at their jobs, but have quirks that
periodically lighten the mood.

If you enjoy rock fiction, all three are available in digital and paper formats. The digital versions are priced at $2.99 on Kindle:

Rock & Roll Homicide
Rock & Roll Rip-Off
The Concert Killer

There you go! RJ’s book makes him think of his own song! Just like Jeremy Wagner before him.

If RJ’s kind enough to send me a digital copy of The Concert Killer, I’ll post the review at all the usual suspects, starting with my own Rocks ‘n Reads blog.

Maybe I’ve been remiss in not adding my own two cents to the new collaboration between Lou Reed and my beloved Metallica.

That’s because I don’t like to be negative. Or to ride on bandwagons (usually. Some are worthwhile).

But here’s the thing: while I don’t like Lulu, in my eyes, it’s performance art. More power to Lou and Tallica for bringing performance art into realms it hasn’t previously gone. Or if it has, history’s erased it pretty quickly. Just the fact that this is Lou Reed and Metallica… yeah. Not fading into the archives so fast, you know? Even if it never meets with anything other than disdain and derision, it’s earned a spot in musical history.

Not helping the cause any is a recent interview Lou gave to The Telegraph. Really, really bad move here, Lou.

Saying you’re more literate than most people who interview you? That you made Lulu for literate people?

Dude. There aren’t many more literate than me. Or most of the people who read my blog. After all, literate means (according to Merriam-Webster online) Educated, cultured. A second entry says, “Versed in literature or creative writing.”

Nowhere in the definition does it talk about being a snob. Or a dick.

And I don’t care if you’re notoriously scary to interview, worse than my fictional Mitchell on his worst days (because, as many of you know, Mitchell’s merely putting on an act. Lou seems real.). Putting down the people who may get what you’ve tried to accomplish just isn’t very smart PR. Don’t alienate the people who’re going to spend money on you, Lou. Not in this economy.

Lou, every person who stops in here at West of Mars will probably shock you with their literacy levels. I doubt you made Lulu for a single one of us. Stop putting us down, stop looking down your nose at us because we don’t conform to your idea of what a literate person is.

And while you’re at it, get away from my Metallica boys. While I’m glad to see them stretching their musical chops and working with you, I don’t want to see what sort of ways in which you’re going to bring them down. Because after reading that article? I don’t see how anyone who spends any time around you can be anything BUT a downer.

Blech. I know people you can hang around. Better you than me, dude. I don’t have the time or energy for the lot of you.