Yes, your love’s in jeopardy, baby!

I’ve either induced a huge groan, given you an earworm, or caused some confused looks. I’m not sure which it is.

Rocker Greg Kihn turned author some years ago, and he’s got a new-ish release that’s called a Rock Thriller by his publisher. (In other places on their website, they call it a “rock murder mystery.” Well, which is it? Thriller or murder mystery? A publisher who doesn’t know the difference isn’t much of a publisher!)

We know better, though, right? It’s a Rock Fiction thriller or Rock Fiction Murder Mystery. Sheesh.

This one is called Rubber Soul, which is a nod to the late, great Beatles, of course. There are other nods to the Fab Four as well — a shop on Penny Lane, and a few other surprises.

The one thing this description fails to do, though, is tell me much about the mystery. It’s too in love with the Beatles thing. Which makes me wonder if this is really a mystery or if it’s a tribute novel thinly disguised?

Jett’s too young to know much about the Beatles. Heck, I’m barely old enough to know a lot about the Beatles. So we’ll see what happens when this one hits our hands.

If you’ve read it, send us a link to your review!

One in an occasional series

A lot of my authors seem to prefer to send me their manuscripts in two halves.

Maybe they do it so they don’t have to pay my fees upfront. But… using PayPal’s Bill Me Later feature is now an option when you pay us at West of Mars. Using that will let you defer payments, although there are service charges and interest that need to be considered. I get how that would be a deterrent. I do.

Maybe some of my two-parter clients have set an editing date that they then scramble to meet, so by sending half the manuscript, they are buying themselves extra time to work on the back half. In that case, I’d rather shuffle your project to a later date. I’m starting to move to a “send it now” schedule — meaning that you send it when ready and I’ll get to it in order of arrival. I’m trying to get better about billing not before I start the project ahead of yours. You shouldn’t have to pay and then wait for a month. That’s a crazy long time.

(Of course, asI move to “send it now,” authors will always be able to reserve dates. There will start to be a deposit to save, and that deposit will be waived if the date isn’t met. Reserving dates means I am not letting anyone else have that time, and if you bail, it’s not fair to them. Or me.)

Whatever the reason, I do a better job as your editor when I have one file for the whole manuscript. That’s because there has yet to be a manuscript I haven’t had to search through. Did I remember to remove the hyphen in tiptoe? Makeup? And don’t forget the -wards siblings. Toward. Backward. No S on the end, folks. That’s a common search.

One file for your manuscript means if I want to reference something earlier — a character’s eye color, a point on the timeline — it’s easier to find. The file is already open and waiting. I don’t have to search fruitlessly through one only to get frustrated when I have to break my rhythm and search for that second file.

Of course, this is always an issue when working on series. I make extensive notes when working on a series. And… I do my best to refer to them, too.

One file. One payment. Makes life so much better for your editor, and a better life means a better job done for you, as well. I’m only human. I make mistakes. I challenge you to find the person — or these horrible new computerized editors — who doesn’t make a mistake.

So even if you have to send your file in two parts, be sure to let you editor know if she can cut and paste the second part into the first. For consistency. For a better editing job.

Aren’t you worth that? Aren’t your readers?

Let’s all welcome Devorah Fox to West of Mars! Devorah found me because I’d tweeted a link to her books and said thanks. And now she’s here to tell us what song makes her think of her book, Naked Came the Sharks.

I love that title. This is one of those titles that is so great, I’d pick up the book, no matter what it’s about.

Before we get to what it’s about, though, let’s get to the really important stuff. (No, not buy links. Those are at the bottom, like usual).

Devorah, what song makes you think of your book?

That’s got to be “Song of the Ocean” by Kelly Brown of the Bad Monkeys. Kelly graciously gave me permission to use the song in the trailer for “Naked Came the Sharks” and it’s just perfect. Trop rock with an obvious affection for life near and on the water and a hint of regret that things aren’t the way they should be…just like the story of “Naked Came the Sharks.” Here’s the link to the trailer.

Trop rock? Like Jimmy Buffett? Go listen and tell me what YOU think.

So. The book, if the trailer wasn’t enough, you’re at work and can’t click through, or are just a lazy sod (and if you are, welcome to the club. Although I DID click through!), here’s the book description:

Chasing her dream of becoming an investigative reporter in San Francisco, Holly Rivera Berry has to return to her hometown of Bonafides on the Texas Coastal Bend to settle her recently deceased father’s estate. She discovers that just before he died her father researched the possibility that via an old Mexican land grant the Rivera family owns The Gap, a natural channel to the Gulf of Mexico. Land speculators plan to erect luxury homes, resorts, hotels, and a casino along The Gap and Holly comes to doubt that her father died of natural causes. The more she investigates, the more things don’t add up. One by one her allies fall victim to fatal accidents and it looks like Holly might be next.

This is becoming a familiar plot device, but one I don’t often get tired of. The best ending is when the little guy wins and the development can’t happen. Does that happen here? Read it and see!

Get your copy:
createspace
Kindle
smashwords
amazon
Nook
diesel e-books
inktera ebooks (pagefoundry)

I love it when books are widely available. I bet there are more, so be sure to ask at your favorite independent retailer.

And don’t forget to connect with Devorah!
blog
amazon author page
smashwords series page
Google+
Facebook author page
Pinterest
Twitter
Goodreads
LinkedIn

As is my tradition, I’ve set my entire catalog to FREE this week in honor of Read an E-Book Week, an annual event that just might be at the end of its life as a promotional tool. But gosh darn it, it’s still fun!

When I joined my first Read an E-Book Week five years ago, it was still a struggle to get people on board with digital books. This was, of course, before Kindle. Before Nook. Before Kobo. By promoting our books at Smashwords, we were able to give people cheap or free options and show them this great new world that was waiting to be explored.

But then came the slew of e-book readers. Then the e-reader tablets, the Nook HD and the Kindle Fire. And people began adopting e-books like it was the most natural thing in the world.

Today, e-books make up a sizeable chunk of the book-buying habits of millions. I don’t have the stats in front of me, but I do know, as many authors do, that I sell WAY more e-books than print. (of course, I’ve also doubted my print sales reports for awhile now, and know of other authors who’ve verified hinky things happening on that front.)

Anyway… regardless of whether or not you’ve ever read an e-book or not, Smashwords remains one of the best places to find new books, especially during Read an E-Book Week. Pick up any titles of mine that you haven’t grabbed yet, and then surf around a bit. See what else is out there.

Yes, some of it will be lousy. Go into any bookstore and pick ten books at random. I guarantee you at least one will be lousy, if not more. But I also guarantee you that you’ll find at least one book that is so outside the norm, so cleverly executed or well imagined, that you’ll find yourself hooked.

The best part of working outside the traditional structure is that the rules are different, and in the self-publishing world, there’s room to stretch and break boundaries. To throw traditional formats and genres out the windows and invent new ones.

Come join the ride. There’s amazing books being written.

So as I was looking for better links to Gracen Miller’s Rockin’ the Heart for last week’s post, I came across a book that’s been on my radar for awhile now, but I’ve never blogged about. So… while I’m coveting Rock Fiction every Thursday, here’s another one to publicly drool over.

It’s Michelle Valentine, who has written an entire Rock Fiction series. The first is called Rock the Heart, and it has a twist that’s both familiar and fresh.

How can that be?

Easy. The familiar is that the character comes together because of a business arrangement between the bands. Here, the rock god has hired the marketing company the heroine works for. What’s fresh is that it’s a marketing company, and they send an intern out to seal the deal.

Now, this brings up immediate questions. Does this marketing company have music industry experience? If so, why doesn’t Lane know this? And why send an intern to do an executive’s job? Personally, I’d be offended, whether or not I already knew the person involved.

These two have a lot to overcome, our intern and our rock god. Notice how they aren’t even on equal footing? They’ve got this past history and, of course, Noel is into the groupie scene.

How author Valentine can pull it off… that’s the question, as it always is. Any book can have holes poked into it when you’re only going on the description. What matters, as always, is if the characters can transcend the cliche, if the music biz details are accurate, and how well the book captures the reader’s imagination and comes alive in our minds.

The pursuit of the books that do that make the occasional clunker worthwhile. I’ve seen more than one book rise above familiar tropes and be standouts. Here’s hoping this series does exactly that.

More from my friends in the Lucky Charms anthology! Today, it’s Gail Oare, who is a super lady you all need to know.

Her story, Celtic Knot, has what must be the funniest song I’ve come across in all the years I’ve been doing this Featured New Book Spotlight. Ready?

My story in Lucky Charms: 12 Crime Tales is “Celtic Knot.” When I wrote it, I was concentrating on the symbolism of Celtic knot variations and what one(s) would be chosen as a charm bracelet keepsake associated with a family secret. I had no music in mind at all when I wrote this story. This is odd for me since I love Celtic music, having done my thesis on Welsh mythology, taught myself to play the English concertina and am now learning the bagpipes. So when asked by West of Mars for the song that inspired the story, I went on a search for one, a Google search.

And failed. There doesn’t seem to be any tune titled Celtic Knot despite the many possibilities it holds!

What to do? Back to my mental blackboard. I reflected on the underlying sadness of the “Celtic Knot” family tragedy that hung over the family for years until the final resolution. The heavy sound a hammer pounding a piece of metal on an anvil came to mind. Bomp bomp bomp. Regular, relentless pounding. Oddly enough, this sound and rhythm brought to mind an episode of the sitcom “Cheers.” It was almost St. Patrick’s Day and Sam and his competitor Gary were both vying for the most revelers for the holiday at their respective taverns. Sam found out that Gary was planning to hire an Irish band at his bar, so Sam sought one out as well. St. Patrick’s Day arrives. Gary’s bar is packed with patrons reveling to the lively jigs and drinking songs. Then the camera moves to Sam’s empty bar, where a solemn Irish band was singing a slow dirge of “And everywhere I looked was death, death, death.” Like the labored sound of metal on the anvil, like the tragedy that haunted the family in “Celtic Knot.”
So the music I will claim for my story is this heavy, heavy “death, death, death” from Sam’s Irish band. I’m not sure that is even a real song, just a musical prop for a sitcom, but regardless, I’m commandeering it as the soundtrack for my crime story. Who knew?

eBook versions of LUCKY CHARMS are available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, and iBooks. Print versions are available through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and CreateSpace although we encourage you to send your sales through Mystery Lovers Bookshop, our local independent bookstore. Support your independents!

I do way too much surfing some days. I think we all do, but when you’re a business owner, it can be a dicey proposition. There’s always something business-related that needs to get done and what am I doing? Not that!

But it pays off because Rock Fiction is an important genre — a claim reinforced by the number of books I covet around here. I’m hoping all these cool authors will join in for this year’s Rocktober.

Like this woman: Gracen Miller. She’s got a history as a paranormal writer, and she tips her hat to that by naming her lead character Fang.

But… like always, I have reservations. The problem with Rock Fiction (as most acquiring editors at publishing houses will tell you) is that their plotlines tend to be a bit cliche. Like here: Fang’s got it all except a woman. And what do you know, but the woman he wants is his best friend’s girl.

Ultimately, what it comes down to is execution, which is why I usually overlook the plot and read the book anyway. I mean, I adore romances and we all know that the plots in the end are the same: Boy and girl meet (or meet again). Things get in the way. They overcome and have a Happily Ever After. In fact, Rockin’ the Heart might very well be a romance first and Rock Fiction second. That’s not an uncommon thing in the Rock Fiction genre.

It’s what happens along the way that makes it worth reading. It’s how the author brings the characters to life, how authentic the rock and roll details. Like I said: it’s all about execution.

So I covet this and dread the day Jett will tease me because she’s got a copy and I don’t.

One in an occasional series

Many of my clients, after we work together for the first time, tell me they want to keep me all to themselves. A secret. Their very own editor.

I get the fear: my schedule at times can fill up as many as twelve weeks ahead of schedule. Not all authors are aware of when they’ll need me, and a lot of my clients sort of look up and realize they need me. Now. This second.

As a writer, I’m not much different. It’s often hard to know how long it’ll take. How much real life will intrude, how hard you’ll have to fight the story. You may have a vague date by which you want to finish, but then a secondary character takes over and the entire book needs to be rewritten… I get it. Remember, Trevor was originally supposed to die at the end of Trevor’s Song!

So when you want to keep your editor all to yourself, when you don’t want to share me, while it’s high praise and the ultimate luxury, you’re actually hurting me. After all, most writers don’t Google “I need an editor” and expect to find something other than a lot of articles about how to find a good editor. (I tried it. That’s what I found. Let me know if your experience is different.)

Nope. Smart writers find their editors by asking their writer buddies who they use.

Smart writers being asked that question know that if they don’t share their editor, their editor runs the risk of sitting around, waiting for them, a little too long. And then they have to go out of business because, hey, at the end of the day, it’s all about being able to pay those bills.

Don’t risk an editor’s career. Share your editor.

And if you’re a super savvy writer, you’ll let your editor know to look for your friend — and in that e-mail, you’ll give your editor a ballpark for when you think you’ll need her and ask her to save a week in, oh, say June.

I bet she’d be glad to.

Remember, if you missed the news, West of Mars now has editors to help with your non-fiction as well as your fiction. If you write it, we can make it shine.

I’ve referenced the Non-fiction department here at West of Mars a few times now, but last week, I sent out the official press release (if you’re a media outlet and you didn’t get it, holler and I’ll send it to you … and add it to my list for future releases).

Here it is:

West of Mars, LLC is proud to announce an expansion of services into the area of non-fiction editing. Copy and line-editing services are provided for multiple publications, including, but not limited to, company annual reports, press releases, memoirs, monthly newsletters, opinion pieces written for local press, and blog posts.

Principal non-fiction editor Mary Sutton has worked in the high-technology industry for over fifteen years as a technical writer and editor for companies in the Pittsburgh area. She also writes independent blog posts for business. Fiction editor Susan Helene Gottfried brings more than twenty years’ editing experience to new and best-selling authors who publish their books independently or with small presses.

West of Mars, LLC is a Wexford, PA-based author services company providing editorial support and more for anyone who writes for public consumption.

For an estimate for services, contact Susan Gottfried at Susan@Westofmars.com.

Or, of course, since you’re already AT West of Mars as you read this, here are the links you need:
current editing home page
Current non-fiction page

There ya go. If you write it, we’ll help you polish it.

It’s through Triberr that I’ve come to know Mary Ann Bernal, a lady with some fascinating interests. If you watch her blog, you’ll be as blown away as I am.

So I’m pleased to bring you the song that makes her think of her new book, The Briton and the Dane. I’ll hand it over to her now:

Verdi – Requiem Mass Dies Irae

The music sets the stage for the tumultous storm that transport Gwyneth back in time, when treachery, deception and betrayal run rampant in 11th century Britain.

Short and sweet… So what’s the book about?

Dr. Gwyneth Franger is a renowned expert in early medieval England who is set upon learning the truth about the death of Lord Erik, the last descendant of the powerful House of Wareham. Her quest becomes an obsession, a condition that began with the discovery of a portrait of the tall and valiant warrior with which she forms an extraordinary and inexplicable bond.

Digesting troves of mildewed scrolls and source documentation only enhances her belief that Lord Erik was brutally assassinated by a cabal of traitors in the pay of William the Bastard, shortly before the onslaught of the Norman Invasion.

On an archeological dig in Southern England, her team unearths an Anglo-Saxon fortress, a vast citadel built during the reign of Alfred the Great, which she believes was Lord Erik’s stronghold. In the midst of her excitement, she is awakened one night from her slumbers by a disconcerting anomaly emerging from the site.

Dr. Franger finds herself transported back to the Dark Ages and at the side of the noble Lord Erik who commands an army of elite Saxon warriors, a swift and mobile force able to deploy quickly throughout the kingdom to ward off invaders.

Witnessing the unrest firsthand, Gwyneth senses that her instincts had been right all along, and she is determined to learn the identities of the treacherous blackguards hiding in the shadows, villains who may well be posing as Lord Erik’s friends and counselors.

Will Gwyneth stop the assassins? Is she strong enough to walk away and watch her beloved Erik die? Or will she intervene, change the course of history and wipe out an entire timeline to save the man she loves with all her heart?

Buy links!

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Connect with Mary Ann:
Website
Blog
Twitter:
Pinterest

“Halloween’s still three months away,” Lauren said. She took a step back and looked at the decorations Grant had put up. “By the time it gets here, that’ll have long rotted.”

“That’s the idea,” he said. “By the time it gets here, this’ll look like a real graveyard. Full of ghosts and overgrown and scary.”

“Like that one we had to clean up for our community service,” Lauren said and shuddered. “That place was haunted.”

“Ghastly,” Grant agreed and flashed her a smile. He’d loved it, that unkempt graveyard. Sure, Lauren had been intrigued by the headstones—well, the ones she could read, anyway. It had been a Civil War graveyard, but whoever had buried the dead had been kind. They’d taken the time to put names on the stones. How, Lauren didn’t know. It couldn’t have been easy. There had been so many of them.

She remembered the atmosphere of that place. Quiet, like all graveyards were. But there was something else. Being there had made her hurt. Ache. And not just because, like most of her friends, she didn’t believe in war. War was stupid and pointless.

Being in that cemetery had driven that point home. And the fact that war is cruel, too. Lauren had come out of there feeling unsettled, awkward with herself. She’d felt like they were supposed to have been changed by a day cleaning up weeds and helping to stand marker stones up again, letting the world know who had been there before them and why they’d died.

She’d felt like the dead people were trying to talk to her.

She shuddered.

Grant noticed. “You still creeped out by that place?”

“Yes.” She nodded at his pseudo-graveyard, the one he wanted to let rot until Halloween. “And I feel like this… it’s making a joke out of it. A cruel joke. People died there, Grant. And then people forgot. They walked away. They stopped caring. And it took us, doing a day’s community service, to go clean it up, and for what? So someone can forget again?”

“If you’re telling me to give this up and go drive five hours again so we can maintain that graveyard, forget it. It’s not my job. Or yours.”

“How do you know? What if those are your relatives buried there?”

“Lauren, my grandparents came here long after the war was over.”

“Yeah, but how do you know you didn’t have family here, and they left?”

He shook his head and started to walk away.

Lauren let him go, staring at the small patch of ground with the painted styrofoam and the newly planted kudzu. He’d regret the kudzu, that was for sure. Kudzu buried things, made it impossible to see them. And what you couldn’t see, you could forget.

Part of her would always see that graveyard, the one they’d cleaned. She wouldn’t forget. Maybe one day, she’d go back and take care of it again.

A cold, creepy feeling ran across the top of her scalp. Historic or not, it had been scary.

Maybe Grant was right. Maybe some ghosts needed to be left undisturbed.

This was a Three Word Wednesday post.

Triberr buddy Carmen Amato asked me for my opinion on the future of bookstores. After reading what everyone else had to say, I think my ideas are simple and maybe belonging to another era in time. I don’t know.

Go take a look and tell me what you think. I know I certainly WANT this vision of the future of bookstores to come true. But with really really good parking.

There’s some upheaval with the website right now — stay tuned for more about that — so Jett’s been quiet lately as we figure out the best way to showcase her work … and the entire Rock Fiction genre.

But in the meantime, we don’t want to keep author Michael Kayser waiting to hear what she thought of his book. In a word: fun!

Go read the whole thing for yourself. And pick up a copy (link to GoodReads; pick your retailer from there), if only to see what that last paragraph means. TOTALLY worth it.

Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!

I’ve known Deena Rae Schoenfeldt for a long time now. In fact, if you like the e-book formatting of Demo Tapes 4, she’s the wonder behind it. (What? You mean you don’t have a copy yet? Why not?) And if you’re a West of Mars client and you ask for book formatting, Deena is one of the women I’ll send you to.

I’d say she’s very qualified to have written her book, Navigating the World of e-Book Publishing. If you’ve got questions, start finding the answers within.

Deena stopped by not only so I can plug her and her work and her book, but so she can take over the Featured New Book Spotlight! Deena, what song reminds you of your book?

Save You by Matthew Perryman Jones

Just a sample of some of the lyrics and what they convey to me:

“Wanna give my soul” – isn’t this the true essence of writing? Pouring out your soul on paper for the masses to read and experience…

“Don’t want to let you down” – Wanting to get the whole thing right on every level to reach the largest audience and exceed their expectations.

“Help me decide, Help me to make up my mind” – The book is about laying out information to make an informed decision about directions to take in publishing.

“You gotta swing the bat, too many years have died” – You have waited long enough, you have to take the chance and see if your decision was the right way to go and if it resonated with people. Seize the day!

Save You – the title just conveys helping and saving. Besides that it is an absolutely beautiful song.

Those that know me are probably shocked that I didn’t choose something by Lisa Marie Presley but lets face it, most of her lyrics are pretty angry and while I identify on a personal level nothing she has out so far really fits this book. But if you get a chance be sure to listen to her first album in it’s entirety and if you are ever going through a break up – Idiot is AWESOME.

Here’s the blurb:

With a no-nonsense, conversational style, Deena Rae of E-BookBuilders gives advice to aspiring authors about indie publishing. Filled with information about social media, pricing, formatting styles, covers, reviews and platforms (to a name a few) there is a wealth of information for the novice author. Even experienced authors and publishers will find this book helpful and informative.

With sections such as ‘Authors — Quit Doing This!’, ‘In Praise of Audio(books)’, ‘Twitter Primer for Authors’, and ‘Should You Use Amazon’s Author Central’, Deena Rae gives detailed information that anyone in the industry of publishing should know and consider.

Whether you are just starting on your publishing journey, considering entering the literary world or have 30 books for sale, there is something for everyone in this book.

Go pick up a copy! You know you need it!

And connect with Deena, if you’d like (and you do like!).

If you would like to add the book to your Goodread’s shelf – just click the button!

I’ll let Jett have this one all to herself because I simply can’t come clean about my guilty pleasure love for rock star-penned books. Wynonna Judd’s Restless Heart? Loved it. Pamela Anderson’s Star? Pure trash of the absolute best beach read variety.

So I’ve got another one to add to the list: Nicole Richie’s recent release The Truth About Diamonds.

This is Ms. Richie’s first foray into fiction. It was released in 2006 and has actually been on my radar all that time. Why I’ve never drooled over it in a public forum is beyond me. I know it’s on various wishlists I’ve constructed over the years.

And it spawned a sequel! Priceless, it’s called.

Who cares what they are about (although the reviews — the professional reviews — are surprisingly positive)? It’s Nicole Richie, who ought to know firsthand what she writes about. And man, I want a fly-on-the-wall view of that life!

So there’s two for the price of one there. For you. And Jett. Because I have no guilty pleasures that I own up to.

Nope, not me.

Martha Reed is truly one of my favorite people. Join her at a writer’s convention and all you’ll need to do is sit and listen as she spins hilarious tale after hilarious tale. Be prepared to laugh until you cry, and never come back to me and complain that you weren’t warned. I’ll point you right here.

And here’s a great place to be, because Martha’s story, Strangler Fig, made the cut for the Lucky Charms anthology I’ve been telling you about. She stopped in today to tell us what song makes her think of her book.

What’s Past is Prologue
During the summers when I was a kid I grew up in a house filled with swing music. My grandfather, Pop, had a lakeside cottage with a rotary phone and no TV but he did have a tape player and a stack of vinyl. We listened to big band swing music, mostly Benny Goodman, all day long. To this day whenever I hear a rising clarinet solo I have a flashback to those glorious summer days.

At certain drum solos, Pop would raise his hand and call for silence. ‘Listen!’ He would say. ‘That’s Gene Krupa.’

Pop served in the 3rd Marines during WWII. He fought his way across the Pacific islands. He parachuted into the fight at the battle of Tinian but he wouldn’t ever talk about it or tell me anything more. Then Pop died, and recently I got the feeling that his generation, so defined by its music, was fading away. I decided to write a short story with characters from his age group to try to capture some of that wartime feeling, that genuine camaraderie. The perfect song for that time is The Andrews Sisters singing Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy.

My story, STRANGLER FIG, tells the tale of T-Rex, a street thug, and his retirement home invasion. The problem is that all the retirees are all ex-Pacific Naval Command. They’ve had plenty of practice dealing with his particular brand of trouble before. T-Rex has no idea about the deadly situation he’s gotten himself into.

STRANGLER FIG is only one of 12 crime tales found in the LUCKY CHARMS anthology. LUCKY CHARMS was produced by members of the Mary Roberts Rinehart Pittsburgh chapter of Sisters in Crime, an international organization dedicated to the advancement of women crime writers. Each tale tells of surprising good luck or of good luck gone sour. I invite you to explore the anthology and to brace yourself for an entertaining read.

And for a change, Martha said it better than I could.

Get yourself a copy! Only Martha Reed can come up with something like Strangler Fig … and a street thug named T-Rex.

eBook versions of LUCKY CHARMS are available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, and iBooks. Print versions are available through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and CreateSpace although we encourage you to send your sales through Mystery Lovers Bookshop, our local independent bookstore. Support your independents!

Regulars around here know that Mary at BookHounds and I are both Rock Fiction lovers. We’re also friends, which isn’t much of a surprise when you think about it. We’ve got books and music to bond over, after all.

So when this Share the Love hop came about, with the idea being that the participating bloggers would give away copies of undercelebrated books, Mary decided there was only one thing to do: Feature me and Trevor.

She’s offering a print copy of Trevor’s Song and three digital copies of it, as well — but I’ll sweeten the deal. If you’ve got Trevor’s Song and want one of the other books in the Trevolution series, ask Mary if you can swap it out. You may even want to get one of the retired copies of Demo Tapes 1 or 2 — the new covers are in the works!

Go on over and enter! Last I checked, your chances were pretty good, but that was ten minutes after the post went live. Who knows how it’s doing now?

Enter before February 14.

And those of you who remember the old Win a Book blog I used to run, yes, I DO miss writing these posts!

I must truly be coveting these books because I’ve followed more than one buy link to them, at a variety of retailers.

As I type this, you can buy them separately for more money than the box set will cost you. The question then becomes if you want to risk the storage space on your e-reader with three novels and a novella that you may not like. Yeah, I know, delete is an easy key to hit.

If you read these, let me know what you think. And, as always, I’d be glad to link to a review.

The books are The Seaside Series, written by Rachel Van Dyken. They’re tagged New Adult, because that’s the hot new genre of the moment and, of course, rock stars fit into the idea of being twenty-some and free. The first book starts with the main character still in high school, though. Isn’t that more Young Adult?

It’s fine to straddle lines; that’s part of the beauty of self-publishing. That we can straddle them. The question is if it’s deftly done.

The books seem to be about two rockers: Alec and Demetri. They have reasons for being in this small Oregon town, and there are two chicks named Natalee and Alyssa. Two men. Two women. Yeah, sounds about right. Of course, there’s more over the course of the series: love triangles and drug rehab, consequences for choices… it sounds kinda typical. The question becomes if author Van Dyken can pull it off.

I’m curious. Like I said, let me know. I’d be glad to link to your reviews!

Last week, I posted about how I was coveting Rock Fiction novel Stay with Me. I wasn’t quite sure if it was truly Rock Fiction or not because the blurb said nothing about whether or not lead character Hailey had a music connection.

Well, let me tell you that Google alerts are sweet things because author Elyssa Patrick herself dropped me a mention. Yes, Hailey’s a rocker, she said — one who turned away from the biz in order to attend college. Think Emma Watson, she said. Hailey just wants to be normal.

She went on to add that the book isn’t angsty, something I assured her more than once I’m good with. (I am missing the angst gene, I swear it.) She said it’s “a light, sexy read.”

Girlfriend, I am SO THERE.

While I scrounge up a copy of this for me and Jett, let me go on record saying Elyssa Patrick is a cool lady. I hope to have her come visit and be involved with Rocktober 2014. Bigger and better this year, and last year definitely wound up being bigger and better.

Who was it who said Go Big. Get Wild? That’s going to be Rocktober this year.