It’s Monday, so you know what that means… Time for a Featured New Book spotlight!

Today it’s author JoAnne Tucker with her poetry book and her mystery, Murder Most Foul. Two books, but only one song. What’s with that?

The song that reminds me of my poetry book is “I want to know what love is.” This is a song about a man searching for true love, and that is what my poetry book is about. It is true love in various forms-love of family, of god, of nature, of personal triumphs and heartbreak. My poetry collection is about my life and all the stages I went through over the years, but it was wonderful even in times of sorrow. I had my future and my family beside me and that is what got me through the bad times. I hope you can use this.

Now, JoAnne didn’t tell me if she was referencing Mariah Carey’s version of Foreigner’s classic, or if she had the rockin’ version in mind, so I’m making the call (sort of!).

Blurb for Murder Most Foul

When two dismembered torsos wash up on the banks of the local river in the small industrial town of Pleasant Valley, residents are horrified. Between contradicting statements, police ineptitude, lust, lies, manipulation, incest, the motorcycle gang The Devil’s Disciples, crooked cops, and a botched crime scene, everyone becomes a suspect.
The young beautiful Jackie Reeves, a registered nurse, believes the killer is a man from her past. She contacts the dangerously handsome FBI Agent Walker Harmon. An arrest is made, but Harmon and Jackie believe an innocent man is being railroaded by local cops. Determined to find the truth, before anymore killings, Agent Harmon and Jackie are forced to run a gauntlet of deep trouble and turmoil, which marks them for death.

Buy link for Murder Most Foul–
Murder Most Foul is a four story anthology. And we know how much Susan likes anthologies!

Buy link for Poems About Life, Love, and Everything in Between

Blurb for Poems About Life, Love, and Everything in Between

Poems About Live, Love, and Everything in Between, is a collection that provides a glimpse into the heart, mind, and soul, of its author. It is a heartwarming read, written with love and respect for others. It was inspired by the authors love of nature, inspiration, spiritualism, personal triumphs and heartbreak, and life in general. Some poems were written in times of sorrow, others in joyous celebration. Life is like that.

My website is Books and Paintings by JoAnne

I can also be found at
Email
Facebook

This would have been the third year I’ve told you guys that all I wanted for my birthday was book royalties. We did it two years ago with Mannequin, then last year with King Trevor.

So what’s the holdup?

Me.

I dawdled. Dragged my feet. Debated hiring an e-book formatter (the awesome Deena at e-Book Builders. Tell her I sent you.), hesitated about asking the uber amazing Lakota Phillips if she’d step up for her boy and do the art again. Tried to do the formatting myself.

I suck at formatting.

So… the book’s not coming out today. This year, the birthday gift will be late. But it’ll be here, and you will NOT want to miss this one. Be sure to read the intro… it confirms what many of you have suspected. And that’s all I’ll say about this, so move along…

Save your pennies… the price will be the usual: $2.99 e-book and $9.99 trade paperback (I hope).

And yes! Because this will be the best-selling Demo Tapes anthology yet (no easy feat, since Demo Tapes 1 has been out since November 2008 and is still the top-selling anthology), I’ll be folding some of the royalties you guys generate into having Deena reformat Demo Tapes 1, 2, and 3. Lakota’s already on board to give 1 and 2 new covers, as well.

There just might be a special something for anyone who leaves a review of ANY of the Trevolution books (including Mannequin) anywhere online. Stay tuned for that…

Have I mentioned there WILL be a Demo Tapes 5?

After reading about it at Dear Author, I HAD to get my hands on Kimberly Lang’s The Downfall of a Good Girl.

Click on through to read my review.

I love meeting other authors of Rock Fiction. You guys know this: Rather than being threatened or worrying that you’re going to steal my audience, I’m glad there are more and more of us spreading the rocking goodness. If we keep it up — and keep up the excellence — we’ll make Rock Fiction a contender of a genre yet.

That brings me to today’s author: Toni Kenyon, whose bio sounds an awful lot like mine, at least when it comes to rock and roll and kitties. (No, the two are NOT oxymorons. Sheesh.)

Her new book is called Private Love in a Public Place, and here’s the song that makes her think of it:

Better Man by Robbie Williams … “Once you’ve found that lover you’re homeward bound, love is all around, love is all around…”

Robbie’s performance of this song (live at Knebworth) epitomizes the struggle Julian has with Jules the man and Julian the performer. I love this clip and I can’t watch it now without thinking about Jules.

Robbie Williams… not someone I’d have expected from a rocking chick! Just goes to prove that musical tastes, like reading tastes, can’t be defined by genre.

I’m curious about this Jules dude. Are you? Here’s the blurb. That ought to satisfy us both.

Mags O’Brien lives on the alcohol-soaked, drug-enhanced concert circuit, managing out-of-control rocker Julian MacAvoy. She helps him spread his musical gospel to his adoring followers, despite the fast-spinning turnstile on his bedroom door, and the broken hearts he leaves in his wake.

Mags believes she’s immune to Julian’s magnetic personality but when controversy hits the tour, she finds herself in danger of falling at his feet, slave to his appetites and her own desire and need.

Julian refuses to be tamed, but the pressure of the ravenous crowds clamps tighter and tighter around him. His chaotic world starts to crumble when he realizes his motivation to continue touring comes from an unobtainable woman. Can he force her to make the agonizing choice between himself and her estranged husband?

An erotic and candid look at life on the road.

A woman managing an out-of-control, alcohol-soaked rocker… shades of Sharon Osbourne, perhaps? Let’s read it and see!

Buy it here:
Smashwords (Affiliate link. Use it. I need a new roof.)
iBookstore
Amazon

Visit with Toni:
Web
Blog
Facebook
Twitter
Goodreads

I’ve known Jaime McDougall almost since I began blogging. I know she was one of the first folk to ask me to write a guest blog post for her, and I’ve written HOW many since then? (over 50 is the answer, and no, that original blog post isn’t linked to. If you find it, holler, and I’ll link to it.)

So… It’s my pleasure to host Jaime today with her new book, Fading Echoes.

I’ll admit it; I thought way too much about what song reflects my recent release Fading Echoes. I tried to think about what reflects the themes of secrets and lies, what song reflects being haunted by your past… But when I cleared my mind and thought of my main character, Charlotte, the song came to me instantly.

Vindicated by Dashboard Confessional

Why Vindicated? Why would I pick a song attached to one of the Spiderman movies? Well, not because of Spiderman. Rather, the lyrics…

Vindicated, I am selfish, I am wrong, I am right
I swear I’m right, swear I knew it all along
And I am flawed but I am cleaning up so well
I am seeing in me now the things you swore, you saw yourself

When Fading Echoes begins, Charlotte has been trying so hard for so long to be what people want her to be. But as the book progresses, she discovers that being flawed is okay. She struggles to take control of her own life – and to discover what being a pure bred werewolf is all about.

The lines ‘I am right, I swear I’m right, swear I knew it all along’ are especially relevant because Charlotte faces another predicament: she is a werewolf crying wolf. Intensely focused on her past, Charlotte knows that the pack is under threat. But, knowing her obsession, no one is willing to listen. Even her best friend, Tom, is beginning to think she should just let it go.

She still has hope that she will find a way to prove that they are in danger, but is she putting her hope – and trust – into the right people?

Slight hope dangles on a string
Like slow spinning redemption

Ooh, yum, right??? Damn, I like this song. I’m putting it on my iTunes wishlist as I type. (am I really out of it that I’m still iTunes and not Spotify?)

Ready for the blurb?

In a town full of werewolves and legends, Charlotte Peterson is unique. As the first ‘pure-bred’ werewolf in Echo Falls, she struggles to fit in even amongst her pack.

When Dr. Adam Baker arrives in town, Charlotte is forced to balance their growing friendship with her need to keep the pack’s secrets – and her own. But she is not the only one keeping secrets and Adam’s past could threaten them all.

That is not the only danger. Compass, the genetic research company intent on isolating the ‘werewolf gene’, will do whatever it takes to gain the final advantage over all werewolves. Compass CEO Calvin Stephens has a very special plan in mind for Charlotte…

Time is running out for Charlotte and the pack as Calvin’s plans near completion. In a town where secrecy is the key to survival, can Charlotte trust Adam to help her? Or has she revealed the deadliest secret of them all?

Go pick up a copy or three!
Amazon
Smashwords

Find me at:

Inkyblots
Facebook

I can’t recall how I came about it the other day, but ever since I did, I’ve been gazing at the open tab, scratching my head.

Someone — and it wasn’t me — tagged Demo Tapes: Year 3 over at Smashwords. Tags are good, right? This should be a good thing.

But… it’s the tag itself that’s a bit… odd…

The tag reads ewwww.

I have absolutely no ideas, especially since whoever did this didn’t bother to leave a few words of review. Yes, even if they had been negative words, at least I’d understand the motivation behind this odd tag. It’s also the only book over at Smashwords tagged like this.

Go look for yourself. It’s … odd.

Probably not worth thinking about except, to be honest… it kinda makes me giggle.

Remember back a few weeks, when I mentioned I’d be hosting Phyllis Zimbler Miller for a second turn in the spotlight? Well, here we go!

The song “All the Right Moves” by One Republic makes me think of my cozy mystery CAST THE FIRST STONE: A REBECCA STONE MYSTERY because of the theme of competition that runs throughout the book. These lyrics from the song capture this:

“All the right friends in all the right places
“So yeah, we’re going down
“They’ve got
“All the right moves in all the right faces
“So yeah, we’re going down.”

In the story Los Angeles business reporter Rebecca Stone must finally face the fellow Wharton student who broke off their engagement in order for him to focus on making it big on Wall Street. The following words from the song are similar to the thoughts that have plagued Rebecca since then:

“Do you think I’m special?
“Do you think I’m nice?
“Am I bright enough to shine in your spaces?”

Now Rebecca may finally get the answer to these questions.

Ready for the blurb? Here you go…

Cozy mystery CAST THE FIRST STONE introduces shomer Shabbat Los Angeles business reporter Rebecca Stone:

While investigating the murder of a Wharton professor spending the summer term at UCLA, Rebecca Stone must grapple with telling her former fiancé that she has now become an observant Jew.

Kosher recipes from the Jewish holiday book SEASONS FOR CELEBRATION by Rabbi Karen L. Fox and Phyllis Zimbler Miller (available on Amazon) are included in this cozy mystery.
See the followup outing for amateur sleuth Rebecca Stone in TWO BIRDS WITH ONE STONE: REBECCA STONE MYSTERY SHORT STORIES.

You know, I may need to present this to my book club… Hmm….

Pick up your own copy!
Kindle

Main links:
Amazon Author Central
Website
Blog
Twitter
Pinterest
Facebook

The best part of the Internet is that we get to meet and know people from all over the world. This isn’t news to anyone, I know. But I’m old enough that I haven’t stopped being tickled by how easy it is to connect with people in cool parts of the world.

Like Marat M’saev Daan. He’s in Serbia, and while he’s not the first Serb I’ve met (and I count a couple of Croats among my real-life friends, as well), he’s the latest.

His book, Moment of Truth, is a collection of short work that came out a few months ago. That’s still new in my book! (Yeah, that pun was a groaner. I know.)

So… Marat, what song makes you think of your book?

Song that reminds me most of my book is “Where do we draw the line” by Poets Of The Fall. Metaphors in the song and how they are connected to our lives and surroundings reminds me a lot of words I have written and of my way of thinking.

Pretty cool, huh? I’ve heard of Poets of the Fall, but I haven’t heard Poets of the Fall before now. I’m overdue. What a lovely, delicate, yet lush song. Maybe even a bit haunting.

That brings us to the next question. Marat, what’s your book’s blurb?

There’s always been some thinking. Self-knowledge or knowledge of the environment? It often doesn’t matter. Time periods are different, the question is do we recognize them. Our desires, our needs, our truths, it takes courage to admit to ourselves that after a long night, a new sun is born. One story after another, our lives go with hope for a better future. That’s our moment of truth.

“Moment of truth” is a collection of short stories I have written in different times, each one connected to a particular event, my feelings and emotions and/or point of view at that very moment. It has been written in my own symbols and style that I have found most suitable to describe written above.

Go pick up a copy! It’s exclusive on Amazon (I hate exclusives, if I may take a wise woman’s quote out of context).

My personal links are:

Website

Facebook page

Twitter

Blogger

GoodReads

And once you’ve picked it up and read it, how about leaving a few words of review over at GoodReads? Recommend it to your friends, if you’re so inclined. I know Marat will appreciate it!

After I put out my plea last month for folk to step into the Featured New Book spotlight, Shewanda Pugh was one of the brave souls willing to take the plunge.

I appreciate and admire that bravery!

So… Shewanda, what song makes you think of your book?

Without a doubt, it’s One More Night by Maroon 5. Crimson Footprints II: New Beginnings, like the Maroon 5 hit, is a wonderful contradiction, bursting at the seams with the euphoric pull of forbidden love while simultaneously wrangling with reality. Everyone can relate to wanting what we ought not have. And while Adam Levine, mid-delusion, begs for but a single night, the love found in Crimson Footprints II: New Beginnings is far too irresistible for that.

Ooh, irresistible love… I’m all for that!

Ready for the blurb?

An eleven-year-old boy hitchhikes 1500 miles from Bismarck to Miami; a prostitute yearns for escape from a prison of her own making, and the horrible secrets of a long-ago murder are unraveled in the shadows of one woman’s dreams. Lizzie Hammond is an ill-fated whore that believes in little, save her own ultimate demise. Kenji Tanaka is a pseudo-architect, content to hide in the shadows of his family’s overwhelming success. Neither can stand the other. But the appearance of a boy only rumored to be true helps them discover that two unlikely halves can fit together as the perfect whole. For Lizzie Hammond and Kenji Tanaka, redemption is found in the most unlikely of places: each other, even as the world around them disintegrates.

Niiiiccccceeee…. pick up a copy!

Kindle
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Smashwords (affiliate link)

4. Personal Links:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ShewandaP
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Author.ShewandaPugh
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17322100-crimson-footprints-ii
www.ShewandaPugh.com

Whenever I finish editing something, I offer a day in the Featured New Book spotlight to my clients. And I love it when they take me up on it; it gets to show off how nicely they shine after I’m done with them.

Carol Brill is one of those cool folk. And here she is today to tell us about Peace by Piece, a book that’s achingly beautiful, and not just because I had a small hand in shaping it.

I am excited to visit Susan’s Author Interview and look forward to your comments and a chance to chat.

Susan’s question “What song makes me think of your book?” is simple—“Seeing you Again,” by Dan Fogelberg.

Peace by Piece is about love in all its many forms—unshakable first love, friendship, family, and the tender love between Maggie, a reserved woman, and Izzie, a motherless little girl. Although there’s no magic or thrill of romance with Izzie’s father, Maggie fools herself into believing loving Izzie and becoming her mother will be enough to finally lock her first love, Thomas, out of her heart.

Fast forward. Maggie has been married for eight years when she and Thomas see each other again at a teacher’s conference a handful of miles from the college town where her heart first came alive, and where it was irrevocably broken.

I’ll turn it over to Maggie for an excerpt from Peace by Piece to help you see why “Seeing You Again, is her song.”

The familiar titles jump out at me, Lonely in Love and A Love Like This and Seeing You Again. There’s no mystery to what Thomas is saying. I know the words to all of these songs by heart.

I close my eyes and rest my head on the steering wheel, full of memories of the Fogelberg concert Thomas took me to as a birthday surprise. My heart aches remembering that night and a love so tender it’s clear to me now nothing else can fill the void losing it left in my heart.

Memories of my first time with Thomas engulf me, how he surprised me on my birthday with tickets to the Dan Fogelberg concert, how after the drive back from Philly, we walked barefoot, hand-in-hand on the moonlit beach, snuggling in the moist sand beside the jetty, the way his thumb traced my bottom lip. Every place our bodies touched was on high volume, his hands on the sides of my face and neck, the muscles in his legs against mine, the boney part of his elbow pressed against my ribs. We seemed to fit together the way no two people ever fit together before.

After seeing Thomas again, can Maggie return to her secure but loveless marriage to Donald? Will she jeopardize her treasured life as Izzie’s mother, the child who has become her own?
What do you think? This time around, should she trust Thomas and follow her heart?

Having read the book, I can attest: this is THE perfect song for this book. Pick up a copy and see why.

Here’s the blurb, if you really need it. You don’t. You want to read this.

PEACE BY PIECE traces the push and pull of a young woman’s life from her coming of age in her college years and through her early thirties. Dealing with unshakable first love, family, relationships, and the difficulties of being a stepparent—all shadowed by the curse of anorexia/bulimia—PEACE BY PIECE is ultimately about complicated second chances and hope.

How about some links?
Carol Fragale Brill’s novel, Peace by Piece is available at:
Createspace
Amazon

Visit Carol at:
Blog/Website
Facebook
Goodreads author profile
the book at Goodreads
Other
Email

I’ve known Phyllis Zimbler Miller online for awhile now. So it’s my honor to host her for not one, but two Featured New Book spotlights. Two separate spotlights, in case any of you are groaning about how long this post will be.

Her new book is called CIA Fall Guy, and here’s what she had to say about the song that makes her think of her book:

The song “The Riddle” from the musical “The Scarlet Pimpernel” (which I saw performed on Broadway many years ago) makes me think of my romantic suspense spy thriller CIA FALL GUY because of these lines in the song:

“Just see how virtue repays you
“Your turn and someone betrays you
“Betray him first
“And the game’s reversed!
“For we all are caught in the middle
“Of one long treacherous riddle
“Can I trust you? Should you trust me too?
“We shamble on through this hell
“Taking on more secrets to sell
“Till there comes a day when we sell our souls away!”

While I won’t say who in the book these lines best represent (that would be giving away too much), I will say that this is a good description of the intrigues in CIA FALL GUY.

How COOl to have some Broadway on my blog! I love it. (As an aside, the original vision for the Trevolution books was to have ShapeShifter bringing a musical to Broadway. That should tell you something about me!)

Here’s the blurb:

When Beth Parsons is summoned to CIA headquarters for the bogus purpose of identifying someone from her past, she realizes she must find out what is really going on. Forced to partner with the man who may have been responsible for her husband’s death, she has to unmask the real traitors or end up as the fall guy.

After the CIA driver who brought her to D.C. is shot and killed, Beth escapes her CIA “babysitter” and sets off to discover why she is suddenly once again in the world of spies and double agents.

Her quest takes her to Europe and then back to the U.S., and pairs her with a mysterious man who may or may not be on her side.

If you like espionage stories and tales of intrigue — especially ones with a dash of romantic suspense, CIA FALL GUY is for you!

Links!
Amazon

website

blog

Twitter

Pinterest

Facebook

I hadn’t expected the spotlight on the Featured New Book to be dark today. Last week’s post prompted four replies… from four great authors whose book (or books) I’d love to feature, only… they didn’t follow the rules. Each of the four sent me an e-mail asking how to do it.

I sent them the same link that was in the post.

This link.

(I have yet to hear from any of the four, which is why you’re not meeting them and their books today. Weird, huh?)

It really is okay if the first contact you have with me is to send me the information I need for the Featured New Book. I know: others might consider it rude, but the information’s right there on the site for a reason. Use it.

I hope many of my author friends will take me up on this — and spread the word.

Really. It’s super if you send me an e-mail that starts, “Hi, Susan. Saw the Featured New Release and here’s my answer to the Famed One Question Interview…”

I can’t feature your new book if you don’t send me any information about it…

Spread the word. The definition of new doesn’t have to be exact… I’ve featured books that have been out a few months.

In the meantime, remember that a few words about any book you read at B&N, GoodReads, Smashwords, or wherever you can are always a great help to an author, big or small!

Here’s the link for the Featured New Book rules.

A number of years ago, I signed my book club up for every publisher and agent and other group who was taking book club registrations. I was, as always, upfront with our focus: Jewish Lit.

I got a few suggestions for books. I got a lot of postcards from people who’d just snag my name and not bother to look at what our group is all about. I even got a few books.

And then… silence. For years.

A few weeks ago, Kensington Press was kind enough to send me two books: Scrapped and Chihuahua Confidential (written by Mollie Cox Bryan and Waverly Curtis, respectively).

Hmm, I thought. They look cute, but they’re not Jewish-themed. We’ll read cute, so long as it’s Jewish-themed. That’s our thing. Jewish lit.

Kensington was kind enough to send me a catalog of their other upcoming cozy mysteries, and it features a work of Jewish lit. From Herring to Eternity, by Delia Rosen. It looks like it’s part of a series, and we prefer to read series in order — which isn’t a problem, except the setting is what makes this Jewish-themed. That means it’s not a Jewish-themed series. Possible strike out, right there. It’s not due out until August, so I’ll discuss it with my group, but I’m not optimistic.

Well, thanks for the thought, I told myself. It was nice of them to send me two books.

This week, I picked up an advance copy of Joanne Fluke’s new Hannah Swensen Mystery, Red Velvet Cupcake Murder.

Still not Jewish-themed.

I’m still appreciating the thought.

If you know of any Jewish Lit not already on our book club page (did you even know that was there? I bet not!), throw the titles my way. I’ve been so busy lately, I haven’t been able to keep up with the search.

I have more than enough to read. I really do.

So what was I doing in the library, letting my eye get caught by a book called Heavy Metal and You?

Well, trying to avoid exactly that problem, to be honest. I’ve still got books other authors have sent me, I started a book when I was between reviews for The World’s Toughest Book Critics that I’ve yet to finish, and TWTBC must like me enough that I got this current assignment an entire week before the last one was due. In other words: they’re filling my reading time, all by themselves, and all the other books around here continue to lie in wait for me.

But… how do you walk away from a book called Heavy Metal and You? Especially when a line in the acknowledgements reads: Special thanks to Tom, Jeff, Dave, and Paul, for being Slayer. (However, we won’t stop to ask why founding member Kerry King didn’t get a thanks but Paul Bostaph, who tends to play with them when Dave isn’t, did.)

The author is Christopher Krovatin, and he’s written some other things since Heavy Metal and You, settling into the horror genre after this stint in YA. The publication date is 2005, which feels old by today’s standard of immediacy. And the publisher? Push, a division of Scholastic.

So… go pick up a copy and read along! Leave your comments here or on the West of Mars Fans page over at Facebook.

Just when I think the well is going dry for these Featured New Book spotlights, you guys come through for me. Keep it coming!

Today’s guest and spotlight savior is ML Roble, a woman whose kindness and upbeat personality shine through the e-mails we’ve exchanged. I hope this is the start of a good friendship.

Her book is called The Magician’s Doll. And the song that makes her think of it?

I’ll let her tell you, herself.

One Safe Place by Marc Cohn. I’m partial to his live versions, but any one of them will do.

When looking for a song, I thought I should try to find something magical, whimsical and Disneyesque since The Magician’s Doll is a children’s novel, but somehow One Safe Place by Marc Cohn grabbed me. The lyrics capture a major force driving my main character, Natalie; her journey is one of feeling safe, both outside and in.

“Will you make a smoother landing
When you break your fall from grace
Into the arms of understanding
Looking for one safe place.”

Natalie feels her powers represent a fall from grace, and the people around her, especially her mother, try to help minimize her fear and help her understand that there is good in what she has and in who she is.

“Life is trial by fire
And love’s the sweetest taste
And I pray it lifts us higher
To one safe place.”

Natalie resists her abilities as the experiencing of them can be frightening, but it’s her love for the people around her that brings out her best and helps her come into her own against the forces coming for them.

“How many roads we’ve traveled
How many dreams we’ve chased
Across sand and sky and gravel
Looking for one safe place.”

There will be more journeys for Natalie and those she loves before they are truly free of the forces in pursuit.

Wow, huh? I love how you guys are able to relate your books to one song so well.

Now, for the book blurb:

“They are stronger. They are coming. They will arrive!”

Life is hard enough for twelve-year-old Natalie whenever her mother opens shop as a psychic.

But when Natalie herself starts to “see” things, it gets even harder.

Now she has to deal with losing control of her mind and body when information she does not seek comes to find her. Now people won’t stop asking her questions when all she wants to do is bury her head in the sand and pretend she has a normal life.

But then a big top circus rolls into town bringing with it Beausoleil the Magician, his daughter, Louisa, and his mysterious doll. Strange things are afoot with Beausoleil and his ilk, and in their wake, an eerie storm is brewing. Soon Natalie must decide whether to keep her head in the sand or whether to embrace her abilities and face the growing threat that will change her world forever.

Ooh, I like; it’s a neat twist on the paranormal.

Go pick up a copy for yourself!
Smashwords (this is an affiliate link)

Amazon Kindle

Barnes and Noble Nook

An Excerpt from The Magician’s Doll

My Goodreads page

My Facebook page

You’d think a book about the Beatles would have to be Rock Fiction, right?

So did I.

Until I sat down and started reading Alan Goldsher’s Paul is Dead. There’s nothing Rock Fiction about this book. In fact, what started out as amusing quickly turned annoying. Yeah, it was funny to see Mick Jagger as such a putz, even though I am rather fond of Mick.

It was too one-joke and not enough… well, anything else.

So… no to Paul is Dead as Rock Fiction. And no to it as being a book I even finished.

After a holiday hiatus, the Featured New Book spotlight is back in action! (I had to give the spotlight operator time off. Union rules. Plus, he was going to tell Roadie Poet about what a hardass I am. Hello? One day of work a week? Spotlight operators should have it so good!)

Today’s guest is the lovely Julia McDermott, whose new book, Make That Deux, sounds simply delightful. But before we get to the book, here’s the song behind it.

The song that makes me think of my book is LOVE AND AFFECTION by Joan Armatrading, recorded live in 1976:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4eZ1DP__yY

MAKE THAT DEUX is the story of Jenny Miles, who spends her junior year of college studying in the south of France in the late 1970s. Jenny leaves behind her boyfriend Phil in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where the two met and became a couple almost a year before the novel’s opening. Jenny has studied French for years and is ecstatic to be able to realize her dream of participating in UNC’s new year-abroad program, and to see Europe. But she’s anxious and uneasy about being separated from the person with whom she’s been madly in love for many months.

Phil and Jenny manage their long-distance relationship via handwritten letters and a few very expensive phone calls, and Phil plans to come see Jenny over the winter holiday break. But in the fall, when unexplained issues force Phil to renege on his promise to visit, Jenny begins to suspect his feelings for her. Later, an accidental incident fuels Jenny’s doubts about their relationship and whether they are meant to be. Then, as her friendship with French-speaking (but not French) Lucas develops in romance, Jenny is forced to make some decisions.

The novel has three parts, and Part 3 is entitled OPEN TO PERSUASION, taken from the beginning lines in Armatrading’s song:

“I am not in love
But I’m open to persuasion
East or West
Where’s the best
For romancing”

Here are a few lines from Part 3:

“…I left and trudged back to the room. I unlocked the door like a cat burglar while Trish slept soundly. Good. I changed clothes and softly crawled into bed. What a day it had been. Maybe it was for the best that tonight had turned out like it had…
Love and affection, that was what I wanted. With someone. I just wasn’t sure with who anymore.”

Joan Armatrading! Who’d have thought such a classic would grace THESE pages?

Believe me, I’m not arguing.

Here’s the book blurb:

Three American college girls living in an apartment on the Mediterranean. Two boyfriends back home. “The One” (and only), if it’s “meant to be” — whatever that means!

Jenny Miles has three goals: to speak French like a native, to travel all over Europe, and to have a blast. Meanwhile, two men compete for her attention and amour, ici et là. C’est compliqué!
Take 10 months. Add 2 (surprise) transatlantic flights, 2 Greek isles, 1 moped (une mobylette) and beaucoup de lettres! Subtract 1 phone, 1 promise to be faithful, and 1 bikini top. La solution?

Make that…a year that Jenny will never forget.

Ready to go buy? (Why not???)
Amazon paperback

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Smashwords (note that this IS an affiliate link, please and thank you!)

Author David Biddle got a hold of me. He’s written a work of Rock Fiction, and he wanted me to review it.

But… I am horribly behind with my reviews that aren’t for The World’s Toughest Book Critics. So I said no, but that he was, as usual, more than willing to step into the Featured New Book Spotlight for a week.

Well, you guys know how swamped I’ve been with the editing. Maybe you’ve even been one of the people who’s lately been asking me for expanded services. So conversation with David has been slow. And then the holidays hit, and who wants to be posted during the holidays? And then, my feed went down, so I held off again…

That brings us to today. So… because I’ve taken up WAY too much of your precious time already with my saga, let’s get to David.

Hey, David! What song makes you think of your book?

Beyond the Will of God is a rather unique, highly psychedelic novel about the mysteries of loud guitar music and altered states of consciousness. Years ago, after an all-night state of wonder (hopefully you know what that means), I flashed on the notion that our great deceased entertainers, particularly musicians like Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, and Jim Morrison, could possibly still connect to us through their music. I was 17. It was 1975. I was a crazy kid. 25 years later I completed Beyond the Will of God: A Jill Simpson Mystery. It was finally published this year.

The story is chock full of references to every kind of music — from Elvis’ first hit “That’s All Right” and Jeff Buckley’s “Last Goodbye,” to The Doors’ “Riders on the Storm,” the Grateful Dead’s “Playing in the Band,” and Sun Ra’s improvisational jamming Arkestra. But one song rides high over all the others — Jimi Hendrix’s “1983 … (A Merman I Should Turn to Be).” That’s the song that got me so riled up with this notion of musical mystery. It’s a long (nearly 14 minutes), nutty composition that Hendrix described as science fiction poetry. He worked harder on this single piece than all the others on his defining album Electric Ladyland.

At one point, just before a crazy, beautiful, super over-dubbed guitar solo, he sings: “Anyway, you know good and well/It would be beyond the will of God/And the grace of the king…”

Now, I’m not a very religious person (though I do think about spiritual stuff all the time), but that phrase “beyond the will of God” just smacked me upside the head. To me, it said all there needs to be said about why people seek altered states of consciousness.

And the song … well, the song is still an anthem about those wild days of running free. Jimi played all the instruments on it. He was as unbridled and infinite with his vision of the possibilities of music as anyone has ever been. Had he lived, I’m sure he would have gone even further off into that realm. It’s a beautiful and rarefied realm. He had definitely gone beyond the will of God. And he made it possible for me to do the same with my story years later.

Partial lyrics from “1983 …”

Well it’s too bad that our friends can’t be with us today
Well it’s too bad
The machine that we built
Would never save us that’s what they say
That’s why they ain’t comin’ with us today
And they also said it’s impossible
For a man to live and breathe undrerwater
Forever was a main complaint
Yeah and they also threw this in my face they said
Anyway you know good and well
It would be beyond the will of god
And the grace of the king
Grace of the king
Yeah

For the full set of lyrics, go here.

Song on YouTube (this is, ironically, one of those pieces of work that Hendrix would never do live)

Ready for the book blurb?? I sure am!

If you’re looking for something different to read this year, Beyond the Will of God is a mystery/thriller that goes completely off the grid. As much as it begins with a murder, the story ultimately points at secrets to many of the unresolved conspiracies people have wondered about for years.

Police detective Jill Simpson is investigating the murder of an Amish teenager outside of Columbia, Missouri. Tabloid reporter Frank Harris has been sent into the heartlands to interview a clairvoyant who claims she is having an affair with Elvis. As these two work first separately and then as a team, the storyline twists and turns to include bigger questions that will change their lives forever.

Beyond the Will of God is a cross between a Tony Hillerman mystery, Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged” and Carlos Castaneda’s Yaqui Sorcerer series. It is serious yet playful, questioning and entertaining. You could call it a YA novel for Boomers. You could call it a paranormal fairy tale for refugees from another time. Or you could just call it weird, a bit sexy, and a good winter read.

Buy at Amazon

Buy at Barnes and Noble

Buy at IWriteReadandRate

So?

Okay, maybe you missed my initial post about the Rock Fiction Readalongs I’ll be doing, but it’s never too late to talk Rock Fiction.

I have to confess that I read David Hiltbrand’s Dying to be Famous in a few days, certainly much faster than I’d expected. Always a good thing — unless you were going to read along! I doubt some of you even had the book before I’d closed the back cover, only reasonably satisfied by the experience.

Here’s the link to my review of Dying to be Famous. Read it, and be sure to come back here and tell me what your own thoughts were.