Yeah, I know Full Circle is the name of a song by Vegas rockers Otherwise, and beyond that, Otherwise has nothing to do with this post.

But last week, I felt like I’d come full circle.

It has been ten, nine, maybe eight years since I last saw a band play live. Disturbed. A tour sponsored by Jagermeister. In Cleveland’s House of Blues.

Last week, it was the Carnival of Madness tour. We as Human, In This Moment, Papa Roach, Skillet, Shinedown.

You CAN go home again, folks.

Oh, lots has changed. I bought three tickets for $75. And spent another $45 in service fees. What the FUCK? I think Eddie Vedder had it right when he tried to take on Ticketmaster. He saw where things were headed.

And people wonder why no one goes to shows anymore.

On top of that, such a large bill meant an early start time: 5PM. I left my house around 2:30, expecting traffic (but see above about no one going to shows anymore. Wasn’t a problem). That’s a long day and night — and meant dinner for me and the concert buddies had to be bought on-site.

Bye bye to another $40.

I’ve now spent more in ancillary items than I did on the tickets. So I am pretty confident when I say that, at least in this case, ticket prices weren’t the reason for the crummy attendance. There’s a vowel for you Live Nation, Ticketmaster, huge corporate promotions folks, and Vanna didn’t even need to sell it to you. Don’t bleed your customer base dry while giving us all patronizing pats on the heads and whining about how low ticket prices are.

Of course, crummy attendance wound up meaning we got a free seat upgrade so that the people with lawn tickets could sit where we’d been supposed to. Move ’em forward, don’t make the bands look past rows of empty seats in order to find their real fans. Works for me, and not just because I got better seats out of it. I have yet to meet a band who plays better to an empty house than to a full one.

That’s the rant part of the concert experience post. I’ll be back with thoughts of the bands and general impressions of the show. Once I got past the exorbitant food prices and service charges, there wasn’t much else to rant about.

Thankfully. The point of live music is to feel alive, to feed your soul. Not to bleed your bank account dry.

Book five of the goddess girls series starts with Athena being called down to Zeus’s office. Zeus asks Athena to keep an eye on the new mortal, Heracles. Although Athena likes Heracles, he does some kind of bold things, and can be rash at times, Athena finds herself helping him with the 12 tasks he was given to try to earn a place at MOA, and a chance at immortality. Unfortunately, he only has a few days left to complete 11 of the tasks. With Athena’s help, he is able to complete some of the task. Along with this, the mortal Arachne seems to think she is better then a goddess!!!!

I like this book because it’s an interesting way to tell the story of Heracles, although it’s closer to the myths than the other books in the series. It also has an interesting spin on the myth of Arachne’s challenge.

If you like my review, read Goddess Girls Athena the Wise!!!

One of the best things about this here Internet is the way it brings us together. Take today’s feature author, for instance. I met Nessa on a booklovers’ forum, and she is one of the few people who knows what I actually look like. She’s even (brace yourself) been in my house.

So no one’s jumping for joy higher or with more glee — well, other than Nessa herself — than I am to see she’s got a book in print. And best of all, she did us all a zinger and wrote a super book (Okay, speculation there. I haven’t read it yet.) that’s outside the genre we all thought she’d first publish in.

Let’s get right to it. Nessa, what song makes you think of Syrah?

This was actually a very difficult question for me, because I am really bad with music. I’m just not the kind of person who is always listening to it, and associating songs with things is not something I tend to do. However, I asked my friends on Facebook & Twitter and I was told by someone who loved the book that it made them think of Stormy Weather by Ella Fitzgerald. So I’m going to go with that.

Ooh, what a voice. What a legend. Mmmmmmm….

Want to know what the book’s about? I sure do!

All Corked Up: Book One

All Shawn Neale is looking for when he stumbles into All Corked Up on Christmas Eve is some wine recommendations. What he finds is an instant attraction to Royce Wilkinson, the shop’s owner. After a few weeks of flirting during shopping and some semi-dates at Royce’s wine tastings, they decide on a real date. It goes well, but life isn’t that simple.

Shawn wants to buy Delicto, the local pub he manages. He’s been planning his life around this for years, but when the owner, who believes being gay is an illness, discovers Shawn went out with Royce, he gives Shawn an ultimatum: stop dating guys or he won’t get to buy Delicto. It’s a heartbreaking quandary: Can Royce and Shawn be happy with a secret relationship until Shawn buys Delicto or is Shawn going to have to choose between his dream job and his dream guy?

Ready? Go get your own copy!

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I finished a book earlier in the week that has become one of my new favorite Rock Fiction books of all time.

Amazing, mind-blowing, totally altering the way anyone will view the music business and what it takes to get big…

But you’ll have to wait until Rocktober to hear more about it.

I’ve still got plenty of room if anyone wants to join in! I am going about it a bit more organized this year and am hoping to be able to feature a book and/or author a day, either here or elsewhere.

Join in! Spread the word! This year’s Rocktober will be the best yet!

Drop me an e-mail if you’d like to play along.

Aphrodite has a problem. She’s failing Hero-ology, in a major way. As extra credit work, she starts a club called Lonely Hearts to help mortals find love. when she receives a letter scroll that was split in half, addressed to the goddess of love, she travels to Cairo, Egypt, with her friends, she finds out that there is another goddess of love in the world; Isis, the Egyptian goddess of love has the other half of the letter scroll, so together they find the sender of the letter and compete to help him, along with competing to determine the true goddess of love.

I like this book because it shows that even though they share the same title, they are still different goddesses from different places. If you like my review, read Goddess Girls Aphrodite the Diva!

This is one of those rarities for me… a book I edited that I can tell you I edited — some folk like to keep their editors close by, fearing being told they will have to wait weeks or months for an opening.

I loved working on this book, I love how it turned out, and I think anyone who likes a good, fun romp with knights and ladies and hired hands and treachery and handsome men and valiant women… well, it’s all right here for ya. Have at it.

The book is Lady Gwendolyn, by my bud Magnolia Belle. And if I didn’t convince you yet that you need this one, check out what song makes Belle think of her book:

Bridge’s Ode, first track on “Celtic Classic: An Enchanted Journey” fits the mood of “Lady Gwendolyn”. It hearkens back to medieval times where the wild, piercing scenery of England and Scotland could steal your breath and the hardness of life could break your heart.

Here’s the book trailer link

Belle makes really good book trailers — and I am not a fan of trailers. But somehow, Belle has a touch and I have yet to watch one that she’s made and come away with a migraine.

Ready for the blurb?

In early medieval days, bandits beset a caravan taking Lady Gwendolyn Hampton of England to marry Angus Dewar in Scotland. In the confusion, she escapes, while the bandits think her maid, Madeleine, is her. From one peril to another, Madeleine must keep the ruse in order to stay alive. Lady Gwendolyn’s brother, Lord Richard Hampton, wants Madeleine as his consort, and tries to rescue her. Through betrayal, intrigue and murder, she becomes a woman of title, and must decide if she wants the life he offers.

Ready to get a copy? I know you are!
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I’m blogging over at Animal Friends about the sweetest pair of girls to ever hang out in my foster room. Come by and meet Constance and Claire.

Goddess Girls book 4 starts with the four Goddess Girls, Persephone, Athena, Aphrodite, and Artemis, in Beastology class taking an extremely difficult test; defeat three monsters for an A. After class, Artemis runs into the new boy, Orion. He’s a mortal transfer student trying out for the school play Eros and Psyche. Soon she finds herself spending all her time with him, much to her friends disappointment. When a turn of events hurts Artemis, she must choose between Orion and her friends.

I like this book because it’s also an excellent example of boy/girl troubles. Although I do have to admit that, personally, this is my least favorite from the series.
If you like my review, read Goddess Girls Artemis the Brave!

We’re back after a short hiatus… this feature is all about you guys, and your desire to participate, remember. Keep on spreading the word… I love meeting new folk.

Like Matt Schroeder. He came to me … shoot, I don’t remember how. Doesn’t matter; he’s here now, with his book, The Rest is Up to You.

Matt, what song makes you think of your book?

The Greatest By Kenny Rogers

Matt didn’t say anything else, which makes me think this is a self-explanatory song. I linked to a lyrics video if this is a new one to you, as it was to me.

So what’s the book about?

Sometimes, horrible things happen to good people, but the outcomes of those life-changing events often depend upon the motivation of the individual to overcome the hardships. Ohio State graduate and motivational speaker, Matthew Schroeder, rose above his own personal tragedy, and his compelling story is one worth hearing, for it comes from his heart.

In 1997 on a frigid and rainy December afternoon, Matt was driving himself to work, significantly slower than the posted speed limit, when his tires spun out on a sheet of black ice, and he wrapped his vehicle around an electrical power pole. The transformer then fell on top of Matthew’s vehicle, pinning him helplessly inside.

Pick up a copy for yourself!

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Signed copies can be obtained directly from Matt. If you choose the signed copy option please send me a private message at, matt at mattschroeder.org and details will be exchanged.

To acquire my motivational and inspirational book in digital format see the Kindle, eBook version.

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Mary and I have been plotting.

After all, Rocktober is drawing nearer — can’t you feel the weather turning? See the NFL players out on the training fields? — and I’ve been asked by many clients and friends to develop a really cool promotions department at West of Mars.

Really cool may mean falling on my face before I get it right, but one easy way to start is with Rocktober, the month-long celebration of all things Rock Fiction.

I know you want to join in. I need bloggers and authors, but if you’re a reader who wants to get a review of that Rock Fiction novel you’ve been dying to read, I’ve got room here for you.

Drop me an e-mail and we’ll talk. I’d like less of a free-for-all this year. Pick a date and commit to it, please!

And wait until you see the cool touches we’re going to give you for rockin’ out with us this Rocktober. Fifty-three days left. Can you stand it?

(Need some ideas for Rock Fiction titles? Check the Rock Fiction page here at West of Mars! I’m updating it as soon as I come across new titles, so if you have any suggestions that aren’t on the page, leave them in the comments here or on the West of Mars Fans page at Facebook.)

Aphrodite is the goddess of love and beauty, and loves helping mortals find their match. So, she decides to give her friend Athena a makeover. Hair, clothes, makeup, the works. When the 4 goddesses go to a party on the godboys’ floor, Aphrodite starts to get a little jealous when her crush, Ares, takes an interest in Athena. On top of that, she has to deal with one of her dozens of admirers, Hephaestus, and a strange request for help from a mortal named Hippomenes.

I think that this book represents many teen girl problems: BOYS!!!!!!!! The authors make the characters seem like real teens; dealing with difficult crushes, and jealousy when your friend attracts the boy you like.
If you like my review, read Goddess Girls: Aphrodite the Beauty!!!

I think it changed in graduate school, this trend of good things happening in the month of August. My MFA graduation was in August. My firstborn showed up this month.

And now…

I’m pleased to announce that West of Mars is seeing its first expansion. I now have a non-fiction department, headed up by my good friend and even more experienced editor, Mary Sutton.

Sometimes, things come together, the stars align, and this was one of those moments. I had an employee, and then, a job landed in our laps. And voila. Non-fiction department is up and running.

It may take a bit for me to change the website (yeah, see Demo Tapes 4 on this here site? Sheesh.) because I swear, all you fiction writers spend the year working on your manuscripts so you can ship them off to your editor during the summer. I’m swamped. I am loving it.

Stay tuned… there’s more changes coming.

If you’ve got a work of non-fiction, go and contact me directly and I’ll forward it on to Mary. She’s going to be enjoying a degree of autonomy over there in non-fiction land.

The second book in the Goddess Girls series is about Persephone, goddess of flowers. Persephone’s mom, Demeter, goddess of the harvest, is always telling her to ‘go along to get along,’ and Persephone is feeling like she’s phony; it’s even in her name, PersePHONY. when Persephone meets the ‘bad boy’ of the school, Hades, she finally has someone she can be herself with. One annoying problem. Wait make that two. The first one is her mom. Demeter is extremely overprotective of her only daughter, and won’t let her do anything with the godboys of MOA except be in the same classes with them. The other problem is her friends, Athena, Artemis, and Aphrodite. There are rumors going around about Hades that her friends believe. And they are not good ones. Join Persephone while she tries to determine if the rumors are right, and as she tries to break free of PersePHONY. I like the book because it shows a different version of the Persephone myth where Hades doesn’t kidnap Persephone, but instead she falls in love with him, despite all the bad things being said about him.

If you liked my review, read Goddess Girls: Persephone the Phony.

I forgot to add a cover picture for Goddess Girls: Athena the Brain, and here it is.

Yep, another week with no Featured New Book.

This is something I’d like to see continue and grow, not wither and die, because I’d like to build on the Featured New Book for some of the changes I’d like to implement here.

That’s why there’s been an overall lack of blogging. Between summer being the time when all you writers finish up your revisions and decide it’s time for an edit and the behind-the-scenes changes, things have been busy here.

You’re going to like what I’m rolling out. It’ll be slow, and it’ll be awhile (I’m still looking for the right accountant, which is frustrating because the other two pieces came together so quickly and easily), but rest assured, there are some really good things in store.

Jump on board. Tell your other friends to send me some Featured New Book Spotlight pieces.

It’s gonna be better than good.

I clicked through to a post this morning that was supposed to be about censoring books. I’ve had Trevor’s Song censored so many times because of its language, I like to be able to laugh it off with fellow authors.

But man, did this post set me off. It was a different sort of censorship.

The author was talking about how she’d published some romances with some sensual or sexual scenes (to what level of sensuality/sexuality, I don’t know) under her own name. Her husband wasn’t thrilled with her choice, because this woman has standing in her community.

She’d brushed him off — and been shocked to discover teens she was familiar with were reading her books. Sex scenes and all.

Her contention was that we parents should be censoring what our kids read.

Now, if you’ve been hanging around my blog for any length of time, you’ve noticed that on Tuesdays, one or the other of my kids likes to blog.

I have read very few of the books they blog about.

To put it simply: I don’t have time. Both kids can read a book in two days during the school year. Less during the summer. Teen Girl Rocks and Reads, as she calls herself, isn’t a teen yet. And she has fallen in love with the ease of Overdrive and her iPod. For her, the iPod is a book depository first and a toy second.

So let’s take a look. Two kids, who each devour books. One mom, a single parent who owns a successful, growing business, who runs the household, who is active in her community, and who has her own life. (pretty much in that order, too.)

Do the math.

Go on. Maybe your head won’t explode like mine just did.

So now I’m going to say something that might be unpopular with the helicopter crowd, but here it is: as parents, our job is to instill values in our kids. When my daughter downloaded a book with sexual content that made her uncomfortable (and hadn’t been hinted at in the book description, she claimed), she simply hit delete. No muss, no fuss. She didn’t even tell me about it until I asked her about a kissing scene in a book I’d recommended to her. When she fessed up, I shrugged it off. She’d done the right thing, as far as I was concerned.

Think about it: she saw something she didn’t like, and she walked away.

For me, that’s the greatest success I could have as a parent. She handled a situation with no drama and no demands that Mom come to the rescue and delete the book so she didn’t have to look at it ever again. She didn’t inform me she was never reading another book, never using Overdrive. Nothing. She just said she wished that the information had been in the book description. If she had known, she wouldn’t have downloaded it.

Yes, my kids are still young enough to need some protection from the world. Absolutely. But on the flip side, I dashed down to a small town half an hour from my home yesterday to pick up my son, who got off a charter bus 10 days after I’d last seen him. We’d had contact once, when he’d asked me to send him a care package.

He was at the Boy Scout National Jamboree. He spent days with new friends I’d never met, led by two men I’d never met (and two I know well), walking in the woods, managing his own schedule, his own cleanliness (a shout-out to the other Scout parents who now chuckle at the words ambient shower), laundry, money, responsibility, and even a day devoted to giving back to the West Virginia community at large.

Even if I had been one of the adult leaders on-site, I couldn’t be there to protect him. To warn him before the many thunderstorms rolled in, or tell him when it was safe to go back out. I wasn’t there to make sure he handled guns safely, or had his harness attached to the zip line properly. Those are the sorts of things that, as a Scout, he is expected to know and be attentive to on his own, even before the staff checked to make sure he was following protocol.

In short: the Scouts instill values in him, values that help him make smart choices.

As a parent, I have tried to instill values in both my kids. And when I see my daughter quietly walk away from a book with content she isn’t comfortable with, I know that while I may have hugely failed in other areas, at least in this one, I’ve been a success.

So, no. I won’t censor what my kids read. I’ll gladly read anything they tell me is worth my time and that they want to share or discuss with me. I’ll let them make their own decisions, and I’ll take a deep breath and let it out each time those decisions prove I was right to trust them.

I got that proof with my son and Jamboree. I got that proof with my daughter and that book.

For all my missteps as a parent — and some have been huge — I know I am doing something right. There’s no going backward from here.

The best part of this socially connected world of ours is that we get to meet neat people without ever getting out of our pajamas — and there’s no innuendo or impropriety about it.

Okay, maybe it’s lazy.

There’s nothing lazy about Marat M’saev Daan, who is a repeat spotlight holder — not a hog. Never! Just a driven, accomplished writer who spends more time writing than I currently do (it’ll all be worth it as West of Mars grows. You’ll see!).

So here’s Marat with the song that inspired his new book, Carnival Rust.

Although this book was given name by same named song by Poets of the Fall, song that reminds me most of this book will be “Diggin’ in the dirt” by Stefanie Heinzmenn. A lot of bad emotions have moved me to write this book and in the end after every dark night, there is a new dawn with sun rising that promises us a new smile on our faces that will make us even more beautiful that we were the day before.

Ready for what it’s about? I sure am. With a title like Carnival Rust, you know it’s going to be good.

Pain, sorrow, anger, passion are emotions that moved writer to start writing this book. Sometimes, when we are cornered and don’t know what to do we have those emotions and want to burn the whole world. A moment later like rain is falling all over us and we feel like unprotected robots exposed to ones nemesis creating of us “Carnival of rust”.

After long thinking, I have sorted this book under poetry cause no matter how short stories are, their form belongs the most under this category.

Nice, huh?

Need some buy links? I sure do.
For now, book is available on CreateSpace and Amazon (both US and Europe), but I am working on it to publish this book on few other places. Buying links are:
CreateSpace
Amazon US
Amazon Europe

Connect with my bud Marat, why don’t you?
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Yeah, while Teen Boy is on self-imposed hiatus (his new thing is “I’m working on the blog” but when I look over his shoulder, my blog looks suspiciously like Minecraft), the Teen Girl has decided to bring you some Rockin’ Reads. Her choice of name, not mine!

Please welcome her and make her as comfortable as you’ve made the Teen Boy.

When he gets back from National Jamboree, I’ll see if I can get him reading AND blogging again.

This is the first book in the Goddess Girls series by Joan Holub and Suzanne Williams. The series is a twist on the Greek Gods and Goddesses where many of them go to a school on Mount Olympus called Mount Olympus Academy; also known as MOA. Book 1 starts down in a village in Greece in a house where Athena lives with her best friend, Pallas. As the book continues, Athena is taken away to Mount Olympus, starts school, and becomes friends with the three most popular goddesses at the academy: Aphrodite, Artemis, and Persephone. But in her first class, she is called down to the office by the principle: Zeus!! But once one of her inventions goes horribly wrong, Athena must find a way to save all the mortals down on Earth.I like this book because it’s showing Athena in a way most myths don’t: as a kid. In most myths, Athena springs from Zeus’s head, fully grown, in full greek battle armor. The authors have made the characters seem real, not just mythical.
If you like my review, read Goddess Girls book 1: Athena the Brain!!

It looks like word of the Featured New Book spotlight is spreading. I’ve got a bunch of posts to bring you guys — keep it up! I love the deluge.

Today’s author is Frederick Brooke, who I’d never met before he dropped into my inbox. Good to know you, sir! After reading this post, I hope you’ll all join me in hoping Frederick isn’t a stranger in West of Mars-ville.

His new book is called Collateral Damage, and here’s Frederick himself to tell you more:

The whole time I was writing COLLATERAL DAMAGE, I had Eminem’s song “I’m Not Afraid” going through my head. I finally realized why when I was working on a scene with Michael Garcia. Michael has had some of the same troubles with drugs and anger and abandonment that Eminem riffs about.

I guess I had to
Go to that place to get to this one
Now some of you
Might still be in that place
Just lettin you know that you’re not alone
If you’re tryin to get out
Holla if you feel like you’ve been down the same road
Just follow me, I’ll get you there

If he could, Michael would follow. Eminem captures the desperation and helplessness of an addict, and the rage and complete lack of self-esteem that so often go with it. Michael would follow if he had someone to follow – but isn’t that how it is with anthems like “I’m Not Afraid”? They inspire us. The singer can also be the leader we follow, if only virtually.

The language of the song is beautiful, arresting, a vision:

Okay, quit playing with the scissors and shit and cut the crap
I shouldn’t have to rhyme these words in a rhythm for you to know it’s a rap
You said you was the king, you lied through your teeth
For that fuck your fillings, instead of getting crowned you’re getting capped

Lord Byron himself would have admired Eminem’s wordplay, weaving a jumble of images involving the creative dentistry of rappers, their visions of royalty, and the rituals of kings and crowns. Through his own art, Eminem finds his own way out of the deadly maze of drug addiction.

My character, Michael Garcia, is also a poet. I don’t want to spoil the story by quoting the whole poem here. But the question of whether Michael will find his way out of the maze through art or any other means is one essential element in the book COLLATERAL DAMAGE.

Michael and his friend Husker put on a big reunion of Iraq War veterans in the book, and they call the party “Collateral Damage.” When Annie, his old lover, asks him how they came up with that name, Michael doesn’t have to think long about the answer. “It’s who we are. What we are. They had their war, they got what they were after. Think about how we’re damaged.” To which Annie Ogden says: “I’m not damaged. Speak for yourself.”

Ooh, love it — and I’m not much of an Eminem fan, as catchy as his music is.

Ready for the blurb?

Annie Ogden is back. Like it or not, she’s about to learn about Collateral Damage.

A love story.

When Annie Ogden’s ex-boyfriend Michael Garcia reappears, she has to confront a lie dating back to her time in Iraq. Will she go back to hot, passionate Michael, who has developed a disturbing interest in meth, or stick with her pudgy PI partner and fiancé, Salvatore?

A murder.

The calculus changes when Michael is arrested for murder. When Salvatore refuses to help investigate, Annie is forced to try to find the killer herself. Meanwhile her sister’s creepy husband, Todd, is making more of an ass of himself than usual.

An obsession.

Annie’s problems with three obsessive men suddenly pale in significance when she realizes the killer has set his sights on her. Having changed his mind about helping her, Salvatore finds himself in a desperate race against time, the only man capable of finding the killer before it’s too late.

And some links for you, too!

First off, the all-important buy link. It’s a Kindle-only book, so us without Kindles are out of luck (bummer).

Now, on to the social fun!
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Amazon page
Goodreads
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