Wow, I’m flattered by the response my Dear Employees letter evoked.

Those of you with serious talents to add to West of Mars, don’t be shy about hounding me. This summer, I begin the process of building the infrastructure that’ll let me bring in extra editors, and I’d love to have formatters and cover artists (and… and… and… ) in the fold, as well.

If you haven’t heard, I’m also going to launch a promotional business that’ll encompass the Featured New Book spotlight but go beyond it. My dream is to revolutionize online book promotions, and yes, you’ll be able to afford to join in. Part of my vision is to have events that you authors and bloggers can join without the need to open your wallet. (Of course, the other part will be events that will hit your wallet… did I even need to say that?)

For you readers, it’ll be free, all the time. No worries there!

Of course, a new web design needs to go along with that — there’s a reason Demo Tapes 4 isn’t on the site yet. It’s in the works, and wait until you see what the supreme Tim at Tech No Riot and I have cooked up. I’m even willing to share Tim’s services, so if you’re in need, he’s your man. Tell him I sent you.

Stay tuned. Once upon a time, West of Mars was a very well-known name. The phoenix needed to die so it could be reborn, and with your help and support, West of Mars will be even bigger this time around.

It goes without saying it’s going to be better, right?

That means you’d better get your baking skills in gear and make friends with FedEx. I wasn’t kidding about those samples!

Sometimes, you guys find me and I never find out how. I see this all the time on the editing side, but I’m even more thrilled when you guys spread the Featured New Book word and new authors find me. Today’s author, MaryAnn Kempher, falls into that category.

So let’s get busy.

What song makes you think of your book?

It’s an older song, called Friends and Lovers by Gloria Loring. It’s perfect for my book. It’s about two best friends fighting the romantic love that’s growing between them, and finally realizing they can be both–friends and lovers.

Why do I think I remember this song? Wow. Making me feel my age here!

Book blurb:

Instead of feeding her late-night appetite, a midnight food run nearly gets 28-
year-old Katherine O’Brian killed. She’s the only person to see the man who
brutally murdered a local woman, and the killer is hell-bent on making sure she
doesn’t talk.

Scott Mitchell left a broken engagement behind when he moved to Reno, and the
last thing he needs is more melodrama. But when he and Katherine are paired
for a college project, that’s what he gets. It can be very distracting when
someone is out to kill your lab partner. Together, they try to figure out what the
police haven’t been able to—the identity of the murderer. Passion flares, but with
Katherine’s life in danger, romance seems like more than a bad idea.

Scott and Katherine will face jealousy, misunderstandings, lust, and rivals, not to
mention attempted murder—and all before their first real date.

This book can be purchased at Amazon.

Connect with MaryAnn:
Twitter
Facebook
Goodreads
Pinterest

A copy of the letter I intend to write one day when I have employees to torture.

Dear Employees.

Once you’re done with all that, sit back down to whatever you’re working in refreshed and glad to be employed be someone as utterly cool as me.

What do you think? Want to come work for West of Mars?

Yep, it’s one of my favorite months of the year: The Smashwords Summer/Winter Sale!

Why Summer/winter? Because e-book readers live all over the planet, and on half the planet right now, it’s winter. I’m not sure I could ever adapt to snow in July, but maybe I could. It’d be quite the adventure to find out.

Back to the sale… Head over to Smashwords. Pick up some of your favorite works of Rock Fiction, browse for some goodies, or even have some fun with the coupons I’ve set up for my own books. I know you guys have all seven, so why not take this opportunity to introduce a friend … or five… or ten… to the zany antics of Trevor, Mitchell, and the gang?

Here’s a hint: all it’ll cost you is the time (mostly; you can afford a buck for the King, right?). This month is all about spreading the word, so let’s get that word spread, far and wide!

And we’re back! (Did we actually take a week off? Feels like we did.)

As always, I’m trying to spread my net wide and far, and so I reach out to authors when I can. Today’s author is one person I reached out to a few months back. Welcome PJ Adams, everyone!

What song makes you think of your book?
Something, by the Beatles – not actually the Beatles version, but a lovely live version by George Harrison and Eric Clapton

My new novel, The Object of His Desire, is the story of a young American woman living in London and her encounters with a wealthy and powerful member of the English aristocracy. He’s a man who’s used to getting what he wants, but also a man with dark secrets buried away in his past. She’s drawn to him, even though she knows she shouldn’t be; he’s drawn to her, even though he never allows people to get too close to him. There *is* something in the way she moves that attracts him like no other lover, something in the way he woos her…

The song is about that indefinable something – you know it’s there, even though you might struggle to put it into words. It just is. And that’s exactly what there is between Trudy and Will in my novel: despite all the objective understanding that any relationship would be a bad thing, there’s something drawing them relentlessly together.

And apart from it being a truly beautiful love song, it was one of those moments when George Harrison was given the spotlight in the Beatles, and even though I’m a child of the 1970s and I probably shouldn’t have a Beatle of my own, if ever I did it would be George.

Cool! The era of lusting for a Beatle isn’t over. I thought I was too young for it. Glad to see I’m not.

BLURB:

The Object of His Desire by PJ Adams

When Trudy goes to her estranged brother’s wedding, the last thing she expects is one of those moments: a handsome stranger, their eyes meeting across a crowded room… a tempting, but dangerous stranger. Determined to find out more, she discovers that dark secrets bind him to her brother; she also learns that he’s the kind of man who gets what he wants, and what he wants right now is Trudy.

Introducing her to the world of the super-wealthy, he showers her with designer clothes, shoes, and diamonds, whisking her off to dinner dates by private jet… what more could a girl want?

But as she finds out more about him, Trudy begins to wonder if she can ever love a man she can never fully trust. A man involved in murder and blackmail, who may just be using her as an alibi. Should she run or let herself fall for him? And will he give her a choice?

A passionate erotic romance, where scandals buried away in the past lead to murderous intrigue in the present, in the intensely steamy world of the super-wealthy and powerful.

BUY LINKS:
Amazon US
Amazon UK

and in paperback…
CreateSpace
Amazon US
Amazon UK

Other links:
Web/blog
Facebook
Twitter

The ladies in my book club, who I adore almost unconditionally, encouraged the group to read a particular book. It’s a fictionalized account of an author and his first wife, and that’s hopefully the most telling detail I’ll reveal about it.

In case you can’t tell, I hated it. Got halfway through and realized I didn’t care about the characters — and this was a character-driven book. In fact, I hated the two main characters. Loathed them, even.

I’d been warned: The book could be a trigger book. The husband could be demanding and a bastard. A cheater, which wasn’t news. And the wife was passive. Hubby’s out of town? She moons for him. Had no life other than him. And then she gets pregnant and… is passive about that, too. Not even passive aggressive. Just passive. Completely devoid of emotion.

It’s hard to read and sympathize with a passive character. It’s even harder — for me, at least — to empathize with a passive character. Maybe it’s because commercial fiction — which this wasn’t. It’s firmly in the women’s fiction category — is full of strong, take-charge women.

But then I think back to a collection of short stories I read in grad school, back before the trend for women to kick butt first and take names later. I had the same reaction, and that was how many years ago? Clearly, my reaction has little to do with the past fifteen years and the past five in particular.

Maybe it’s my tastes. Maybe it’s that I was eight years old when a woman with cinnamon buns on either side of her head grabbed the gun out of her (to be revealed) twin brother’s hands and turned the whole idea of rescuing the princess on its head. Right then, I learned that women don’t have to be passive — and that we shouldn’t be.

Yeah, okay, love makes a girl do weird things sometimes (raising the question if it’s even love), but this book? The female character was passive from the get-go. Mommy decided she was too fragile to be allowed out of the house. So the character shut up and let herself be treated that way. Compliant. No escapes into the garden to prove Mommy wrong.

Ick. Just not my type of woman.

And the husband? There was no depth to him, no feeling that he was a real, live, breathing person. The worst part is that in this case, he was! But he never transcended being words on a page. He lacked dimension — but given that the book was told from the point of view of this passive woman, is that a surprise? A bland narrator will turn everything else around her into the same shade of monotone grey.

Including the setting. They travelled all over the world, these two. They were real people. They truly did this. Yet — and you can probably anticipate what I’m going to say — the settings blended into each other. The gritty and the gorgeous, it all had the same tone to it.

It was like eating unflavored oatmeal with too much water in it. Or paste.

To make matters worse, chapters tended to end with that heart-wrenching twist that manipulates the reader. Even without the visual cue that a chapter was ending (you know: the white space at the bottom of the page), a sharp reader can tell it’s coming. The tone of the narrative changes.

A sharp reader can tell they are being manipulated. And sharp readers generally don’t like to be manipulated, even in the name of literary brilliance.

So I’m declaring this one a failure. And I’m going to issue an appeal to my writer friends: don’t do this. Your readers need to be able to identify with your characters, and those characters need to be alive, so alive that when the reader puts the book down, they miss them.

I daresay not many people miss passive people.

Hello everyone!

Last week I was out of town, away from all technology, thus being unable to post. But here is Behemoth, the second in the Scott Westerfeld series. Jump in!

Behemoth: Scott Westerfeld
🙂 out of 😀
4/5

The behemoth is the fiercest creature in the British navy. It can swallow enemy battleships with one bite. The Darwinists will need it, now that they are at war with the Clanker Powers.
Deryn is a girl posing as a boy in the British Air Service, and Alek is the heir to an empire posing as a commoner. Finally together aboard the airship Leviathan, they hope to bring the war to a halt. But when disaster strikes the Leviathan’s peacekeeping mission, they find themselves alone and hunted in enemy territory.

Alek and Deryn will need great skill, new allies, and brave hearts to face what’s ahead.

Immediately after Leviathan, our story picks up. The Clankers have revealed a new Shocking weapon, one that will bring the Darwinists to their knees. However, the Darwinists have the Behemoth, their fierce new weapon. But the Ottoman Empire is one who remains neutral, and they WILL be a turning point in the war, if the Darwinists can gain their trust.

I have read a lot of series where the books run right into each other, and most of them have been either bad, or awful. This book, by those standards was amazing, not only in the fact that the two books ran right into each other, but the book itself was amazing. Next week, we have the series finale, Goliath, and then we move on to a new series. Most likely the Bartimaeus series, but if I get any other ideas, we will delve into that.

See you next week,
Your Friend at TBR

Well… I still don’t have a book to feature! How is it possible that no one out there has a new book they’d like to talk up?

It’s not that hard. I mean, hello? ONE question. That’s it. Just one.

Otherwise, it’s been quiet around here. Settling into the new schedule that includes having Teen Boy Reads and his sister underfoot. Editing like a fiend; I’m finally no longer behind.

And… it being June, I’m spending part of the week at my second favorite place on the planet: Boy Scout Camp. Rumor has it two other women are coming this year, so I’m eager to see how their presence will change the dynamic. After all, my attitude has always been that I’m on the men’s turf and they shouldn’t change because of me. Well, okay, they should put their tent flaps down before they change their clothes, but they should be doing that anyway ’cause there are young kids around.

Best news? I’ve been spending a nice chunk of time writing. Hope to have it for you next April, for my annual birthday release. Cross your fingers, keep the good stuff coming, and find me some books to feature here, will ya?

Hey, all:

I am a sucker for Steampunk, and I have a Steampunk trilogy for the next couple of weeks. Well, here we go.

Leviathan
By Scott Westerfeld
🙂 out of 😀

Prince Aleksander, would-be heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, is on the run. His own people have turned on him. His title is worthless. All he has is a battletorn war machine and a loyal crew of men.

Deryn Sharp is a commoner, disguised as a boy in the British Air Service. She’s a brilliant airman. But her secret is in constant danger of being discovered.

With World War I brewing, Alek and Deryn’s paths cross in the most unexpected ways, taking them on a fantastical, around-the-world adventure that will change both their lives forever.

Aleksander, heir–Sort of– to the Austro-Hungarian throne wakes up one day and is whisked off away from his palace by two of his teachers. He is unknown to what is happening, and is told to drive a family Stormwalker that he has never driven before. As he flees, he learns that his parents are dead, and war is beginning.

Deryn Sharp –Daryl Sharp– is a midshipman in the British Air Force. He/She is a brilliant airman and a genius at what she does. But when her ship crashes in the Swiss Mountains, all hope seems bleak.
Eventually these two meet, and form an unlikely bond, Clanker and Darwinist, and ally together to stop the war and reseat Alek on the throne.

As a steampunk enthusiast I was quite amazed at how good the book was. I was able to keep with the story really well most of the time. There were a few holes where time went by and some events happened, that I never saw, but it was a good, enthralling read.

The next blog post will be on The Amulet of Samarkand, by Jonathan Stroud. I am under way on reading book two, since the series is absolutely hysterical.

Well, See you guys next week.

Your friend at TBR

First off: the Featured New Book spotlight is empty again! C’mon, authors and readers. If you don’t have a new book out, surely you have a friend who has one. Send him or her my way. I love to help others out.

A reminder link to the Featured New Book Spotlight page. Follow the directions and send me an e-mail.

Second is a bit of a weird story. Despite clear instructions NOT to, a potential client left a comment asking for a sample edit and what my timetable is. The mail got deleted, as the site says it will, but I dug it out.

I’m sort of wishing I hadn’t. I tried twice, in two different ways, but the e-mail bounced.

Either someone is messing with me, which I don’t appreciate, or Janet made a mistake, which happens.

Janet, if you’re out there, please be in touch. My calendar is filling up pretty fast, so we need to connect sooner rather than later.

I have been reading a lot lately, so much so that I ought to turn some of these Rock Fiction explorations into Readalongs. The truth is that I’ve been devouring a lot of these books.

While Denise Vega’s Rock On wasn’t one I devoured as quickly as I have the others, it was still an okay read. Click on through and read my thoughts on this YA novel.

Ok, everyone. Sorry it has been so long, but I have just forgot to post, but will have posts more regularly as summer rolls in. Again, sorry. I wrote this post a while ago, but never posted it. So, I bid you best reads.

Well, It’s here.

Department 19, book TWO! The Rising. Amazing. excited. Lets get it before I can’t type.

Department 19: The Rising
😀 out of 😀 (5/5)

91 DAYS TILL ZERO HOUR.

THAT’S 91 DAYS TO RUN.

91 DAYS TO HIDE.

OR 91 DAYS TO PRAY FOR DEPARTMENT 19 TO SAVE YOU…

After the terrifying attack on Lindisfarne at the end of the first book, Jamie, Larissa and Kate are recovering at Department 19 headquarters, waiting for news of Dracula’s stolen ashes.

They won’t be waiting for long.

Vampire forces are gathering. Old enemies are getting too close. And Dracula… is rising.

12 weeks after Lindisfarne, The department has picked itself up and most who went survived. But all who went changed. And Valeri Rusmanov has been working Dracula back to life, and the vampires and becoming bolder, and they are leaving graffiti on all the walls. He Rises 91 days to slay Dracula, because after then, Dracula becomes the world’s dictator and all the humans will be non-existent. Unlikely alliances will form, all to bring down these monsters.

Holy Heck in a handbasket. To make this simple, Department 19 blew almost every other book I have read out of the water. The Rising blew the first one out of the water. Yeah. So, next week, I am trying something new. I am going to give a “Reccommended Reads/Recently Read,” and we’ll see how that goes. After that, I will do the Leviathan Trilogy BY Scott Westerfield, and Then Mortal By Phillip Reeves.

See Ya next time,

Your Friend at TBR

I know cool people.

It really IS that simple. I know cool people. Lots of them. And M. E. Sutton is one of them. Best of all, I know her in real life, too. She’s one of my more favorite real-life people, and we simply don’t get to spend enough time together.

It ought to go without saying that when her new book came out, I was all too glad to have her swing by and tell us what song makes her think of her book.

What song makes me think of this book? I’d have to say “Breakaway” by Kelly Clarkson. It is from the Princess Diaries 2 soundtrack. They play it during the parade, where Mia goes up to a little girl at the children’s home who is being bullied by some older kids. Mia asks if the girl wants to be a princess, and she’s says, “I’m too little.” And Mia says they are all princesses and leads them in the parade. For me that kind of encapsulates the whole series message of Hero’s Sword, that even when the world is trying to put you down and keep you in the place others have decided you should be, you have to “break away,” spread your wings, and fly – be true to yourself.

“I’ll spread my wings and I’ll learn how to fly
I’ll do what it takes til’ I touch the sky
I’ll make a wish
Take a chance
Make a change
And breakaway”

Your favorite metal head here has to admit a soft spot for Kelly Clarkson…

But… M E, what’s the book about?

Eighth-grader Jaycee Hiller is beginning to fear she only imagined her trip to Mallory. But when a rainy afternoon leaves her with hours of playing Hero’s Sword, her favorite video game, she finds herself drawn back into the game – literally.

STORM CLOUDS is the exciting second volume of the HERO’S SWORD saga – chronicling Jaycee Hiller’s trials in eighth grade, and her exciting adventures in Mallory, the setting of her favorite video game. Jaycee enters the video game realm via a special controller and is caught up in the action of this fantasy realm.
In STORM CLOUDS, a valuable jewel belonging to the neighboring estate of Devin, the Sapphire Star, is missing, stolen at the Fall Consortium. Lady Starla stands accused of the theft. Devin’s demands are clear: return the Star or they will take it back by force.

Now it’s up to Lyla Stormbringer to find the Star and the thief. before Mallory finds itself at war.

You know you need a copy…
Amazon:

Kobo

iBooks

B&N

Goodreads

Website

Now, all you boys and girls who been readin’ Chelle’s pieces at this here Trumpet knows that Chelle ain’t no big fan of Terry Fantillo. That man’s been through seven wives, and I heard tell from more than one person that he was workin’ on number five while still married to three, and still got four on the side, too.

That ain’t nobody Chelle can stand behind.

But sometimes, someone goes and does somethin’ that makes even Chelle say a cheer over. Today, that someone’s Terry Fantillo, mister man of a million wives.

You heard that teenybopper Tommy Goldman’s been headin’ down that path o’ darkness, right? The gettin’ thrown outta the casino he wasn’t old enough to be in, the breakup with Sherry Case smack dab in the middle of his show. That made her newest record, which ain’t one Chelle’s called up on Spotify or nothin’, sell another three million copies in the States alone in two hours. And then there’s the fight Tommy had with the photographer who waited for him to get off-a his tour bus and actually caught sight of one-a Tommy’s hairs outta place.

Tommy’s got a new trick, one he learned from that redheaded hothead: he been takin’ the stage an hour late.

Now, our hothead, he don’t care and he don’t apologize. But Tommy? He been makin’ these Tweets that sound lamer than a racehorse that got put down three days ago. Chelle here just wanna know whose equipment is failin’ there, Tommy boy? And which piece is it really?

The music world’s been buzzin’ about that, sho’ nuff. And then Terry Fantillo steps smack in the middle-a it and calls him out. Tells him to get his act together and then goes on and calls him somethin’ that can’t be printed in this here family newspaper. Not that you all ain’t seen it before. I just can’t be askin’ my bosses to print that word, and I can’t be payin’ those fines if they do, neither.

But you know what Chelle here is doin’? A fat girl happy dance. Almost went through the floor, jumpin’ up and down the way I did when I saw what Terry Fantillo up and done.

Maybe it takes one-a them unprintable words to know another when he sees it, but Terry Fantillo sure came through. He may not do it for all them wives he’s had over the years, but he did it on behalf of all us music lovers who think the show oughta start on time.

You heard it first, and you heard it here: Maybe there’s somethin’ redeemable about Terry Fantillo yet. But probably not Tommy Goldman. The only redemption he’s gonna be doin’ is gonna be redeemin’ his stocks and bonds to pay for his rehab.

This has been bugging me for some time now, but it’s getting worse of late.

I met a fellow editor about a year ago when we did a joint blog appearance. We didn’t interact; we just both answered a set of interview questions. No biggie, right? Always good to meet a fellow editor.

Lately, she’s been soliciting help for certain questions of grammar. Basic questions. Things that any editor ought to know in her sleep. Things that ought to be second nature. That were covered in fourth grade, for crying out loud.

**

I have probably taken to seeing it once a week over the past couple of months. Someone new hanging out their editor shingle. Glad to have you on board; the world needs good editors. Let’s chat and work together. We’re all in this together and while I’d love to try, I simply can’t edit for every writer out there. (nor should I; finding a good editor is like finding a good pair of jeans. You gotta try a bunch on first.)

But…

Saying, “I had to learn how to write academic papers in algebra 1 and my prof insisted we know how to self-edit” doesn’t make you an editor, folks.

Saying, “I have a degree in English” doesn’t make you an editor, folks.

Not knowing grammar conventions doesn’t make you an editor, folks.

***

Authors, when you are looking for an editor, please vet them carefully. One of the other trends I’m seeing of late is really really cheap prices (lack of comma intentional). A complete novel edited for $50? Seriously? Up to 90,000 words — something that would take me ten days to do properly, at a cost of anywhere from $450 (for a proofread) to $990 for a full content edit, is a job you’re willing to do for less than $100?

Do you not have a mortgage to pay?

Sadly, I do. And groceries to pick up, and utilities to maintain. Clothes to buy for growing kids, not to mention to replace my own wardrobe, most of which has holes in it. (Yes, check that sentence… has holes in it. While we’re talking in general about clothes, the phrase refers back to the word wardrobe, which, as a collective noun, requires the singular. Does an editor who learned language in med school know that? If they do, can they explain it to you?)

Authors, keep this in mind: you often get what you pay for. And while I’m still on the inexpensive end for an editor of my caliber, my rates are competitive. With me, and with other editors I know out there, you get more than what you pay for.

That’s the editor you’re looking for.

Spend your money wisely. Vet your editor. Send him/her a sample of your work. Any editor worth your project will happily do a sample for you.

***

So what DOES make a good editor? Check out this post by my mentor, Theresa Stevens. She blogs at Edittorent, one of those blogs that all writers should read, especially the archives.

***

In the meantime, I’m done answering that other editor’s questions on Facebook. I’ve got a backlog right now and clients waiting on me, and while I’d love to be your teacher and mentor, I simply don’t have time. If you don’t know these basic things, you have no business calling yourself an editor and maybe you should look for other work.

It’s harsh, yes, but it’s better than getting yet another e-mail from an author that starts off with, “I hope you can help me. I’ve paid over a thousand dollars for editing and the editor…” — invariably, the editor wasn’t very good and the author, at their own expense, has to start the process over.

While these authors — and I’ve heard this from numerous clients now — aren’t buying into the cheap brigade, they’re still heartbroken. And worst of all, they begin to doubt the value of an edit. Maybe, they think, they should pay Kirkus that same money for a review. A review which will probably include the phrase “better editing would have made this a better book.”

Think about it.

According to last week’s Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, today is WPTS-FM day in the city of Pittsburgh.

Join me in the celebration, will ya?

I didn’t get my college radio start at PTS, but I sure blossomed there. I took an hour and a half of weekly heavy metal programming and turned it, at its peak, into 11 hours a week. I interviewed bands, went to shows, built a staff, networked my way into what I thought I wanted: a career in the music biz.

You guys know how that ended. I walked away from the biz…but keep writing about it. The seed had been planted before PTS, sure, but up in the Pitt Student Union (fourth floor), it grew. And grew.

So… celebrate with me today. PTS was seminal in my quest for self-discovery, the place that was my home during the years I lived in the (ahem) residence halls. I met true goths and women who took over the role of promotions director, ordered a bunch of WPTS-branded rubbers, and had all the musicians she met sign them. I wonder if she still has Chris Cornell’s. I met groupies and promoters and journalists and had my face splashed across the front cover of the Pitt News. I met the guy who told me I should forget about going to New York and working at a label ’cause I’m better as the big fish in a small pond, not as a small fish in a big pond.

Ahh, the tales I could tell. We’d be here for days, weeks, months. And you’d all laugh and say yeah, that sounds exactly like me. You can see it in the Trevolution writings.

Congratulations, PTS. I still miss you — and this alum is proud as hell that you’ve been named one of the top five stations in mtvu’s ranking of the nation’s college radio station. I’d like to think I played a small part in that. Who knows? Maybe my legacy lives on over there.

I’ll have to stop in and see.

Rock fiction alert! Rock Fiction alert!!!

Why Anne-Marie and I haven’t hooked up sooner is beyond me. I think we’ve tried and it’s been me who’s dropped the ball. It’s not for lack of intent, but for lack of time, I promise!

So Anne-Marie is here today to talk to us about the latest entry into her quadrilogy, Behind Blue Eyes. This volume is called Let My Love Open the Door and why do I feel the need to windmill my strumming arm and smash a guitar before handing things over to a deaf, dumb, and blind kid who plays a mean pinball?

On that note… Here’s Anne-Marie.

What a wonderfully easy question when your book series is based on a famous song. Or is it? The quadrilogy is called Behind Blue Eyes, and so one might be tempted to start humming along with Roger Daltrey or even delve deep into Pete Townshend’s more haunting solo version. But then, you start to think about the three books you have published so far, each with its own Who-related title, and choosing between Love Reign o’er Me, Love Ain’t for Keeping, and finally, Let My Love Open the Door seems impossible. They’re all great songs, and they each have a role to play in telling Ian Harrington’s story. Ian is the main character across the four-part rock and roll saga, a talented but troubled young rock musician who has fled his homeland to start a new life, burdened by a terrible secret and wanting a career in music. He is at once a bad man and sad man, a creation of my imagination from when I first heard the song Behind Blue Eyes in the late 1970s. I threw him into the Toronto of that time, added a great cast of characters to complicate his new life, and weaved a rock and roll story with drama, romance, and to quote a reader review, “euphoric highs and startling crashes”. And so we come full circle back to the original song, which was the catalyst and inspiration for the entire tale. I present you the Pete Townshend version, if only to give full credit to the man who started me on this writing journey.

Ooh, yeah… this is my sorta stuff!! Check OUT this blurb:

It’s 1986. Ian Harrington is living the good life in Toronto: he is the lead singer of Something Else and is raising his six-year-old daughter, Victoria. His life is busy and creatively satisfying, but he has not been able to hold a romantic relationship since Sarah. A chance encounter with a former flame offers the possibility of lasting love, but the liaison is fraught with conflicts and challenges both new and echoed. By following his heart, Ian risks having his world turned upside down. Standing skill threatens far more…

Links!
Behind Blue Eyes: Part Three: Let MyLove Open the Door (paperback)

Lulu author spotlight for Behind Blue Eyes series

General Amazon page

Book 3 (Let My Love Open the Door) Amazon link

Author link for Kobo

Book 3 Kobo link

Personal links:
Author website

Facebook page

Twitter @BadManSadMan

Goodreads:

Still on hiatus from the fancy book review people, so I’ve been reading and reading the stuff that’s piled up over here. It feels good to make even a small dent in the TBR mountain ranges.

So check out my review for Allison Harnby’s It’s Not You, It’s Me. One of those fun reads that stops just short of being a West of Mars Recommended Book and … hmm. Maybe I need a new category. West of Mars Good Book.

What do you think?

Miss me? I miss blogging, too, and I need to do a follow-up about the Pennwriters Conference. Let’s just say that each year I go, I have an entirely different experience. So far, it’s all been good, even if it hasn’t been what I was expecting/hoping for.

Anyway, the real reason you miss me isn’t the conference. It’s that the hurricane that is West of Mars Editing has blown back up into a Stage 3 storm. Maybe it’s Stage 4; being able to tell involves lifting my head out of my current project (another good one!) and taking a good, hard look around. I’m too busy to do that, with manuscripts lined up and my awesome clients waiting patiently for me to work my fingers to the bone.

With every day that passes, I love what I do even more. I paid a high price for this career, but I don’t regret it. If anything, I wish I’d been able to do it sooner.

I hope to be back with regular stuff here soon — I have at least two Featured New Books to bring you, and one Rock Fiction review, too. In the meantime, know that I’m working to bring you guys some great reads. And yes, I’m being a good nag and staying on Teen Boy to bring you more of what he’s reading. He’s got drafts saved. He just needs to finish them up. He’s got that end-of-the-school-year funk. Or something. I do know he’s not nearly as busy as me.

In the meantime, keep me in your reader (I’ve switched to Feedly. It’s … different), keep buying the books of the Trevolution (did I mention I’ve been writing more again? Well, I am!), and keep telling your friends about the Featured New Book spotlight and about what an awesome editor I am.

Even if it means less regular blogging, at least you know I’m loving life.

I first came across Lily Harlem’s name because she’s written a Rock Fiction trilogy (Mattress Music, Mirror Music, Menage a Music). I haven’t read them yet, but hope to.

However, SHE came across ME while looking for some promo for her new book, Breathe You In. And the Featured New Book is here for exactly that: Promo for your new book.

(If this isn’t showing right, yell at Tim at Tech No Riot. He’s supposed to fix this stuff for me.)

So… Lily, tell me what song makes you think of Breathe You In?

With Or Without You by U2

Breathe You In is a story that has been lurking in my mind for years. Before I became an author of erotic romance I worked in London as a nurse. As part of a post graduation course I got to spend time observing cardiac surgery which looking back was when this story was born. Because it wasn’t just the surgeries that fascinated me but also caring for these patients after life saving and life changing operations.

Seeing a chest wide open, a heart beating, being repaired or even transplanted held something magical for me, so much more so than a hip replacement or a bowel operation. I remember chatting to a woman in the post-op ward about her operation and she was completely fascinated that I’d observed her surgery and actually seen her heart. In fact she made me come and speak to her husband about it when he visited that evening. He looked at me as though I’d told him I’d seen a fairy at the bottom of the garden. I’ll never forget that look on his face.

Why? Because the heart is the foundation for our lives, not just the chemical, electrical and engineering qualities it possesses, but also the way we refer to it when we love someone. It’s more than that even, we say it breaks when someone leaves us, pines for a lover we are separated or beats more quickly when we’re held, kissed, made love to.

The heart is an organ referred to more than any other in our body in our day-to-day lives. When I started outlining the plot of Breathe You In it was these thoughts that kept playing with the threads of the storyline. I became fascinated by the thought of a girl obsessing over the recipient of her dead husband’s heart. She wanted to see him, to know where the heart that loved her so much was when she went to sleep at night. It’s the one piece of him that she cannot stop thinking about. I guess that’s where that haunting U2 song, With Or Without You comes into play. The words, not being able to live with someone or without them worked for the situation my heroine found herself in. She’s torn up with grief but also fascinated to find the one part of her husband that is still alive, still breathing, beating. I even managed to give the songs references to thorns into her thoughts at the end of the first chapter.

In the UK donor families and recipients can communicate and even meet but it has to be mutually agreed and coordinated through a liaison officer. In my story, Katie, can’t wait, she has to see the donor, but that’s it, just see him from a distance, and she hires a private detective to seek him out. But when Ruben Strong turns out to be not only fit and healthy but gorgeous and charming things start to get complicated, not least because she doesn’t tell him what he has inside of his chest that she’d come looking for.

It was this complex tangle of emotions that for me, as a writer, were so much fun to play with, and satisfying too, because I didn’t want this to be a sad story, I wanted it to be about overcoming tragedy, trauma, getting out of the lowest point of your life and finding love and happiness, passion and laughter once more. It’s an emotional tale that is fun and sexy too, my very favorite sort to read and write, and I even managed to get the song With Or Without You into the novel because U2 (like me) were her husband’s favourite band and that leant itself to a mention.

One other song features in the book, The Police, Every Breath You take. That worked so well for my hero and heroine’s first dance, in fact my beta reader wrote a comment when checking through the manuscript that she was crying with joy at that point and had to walk away and compose herself before she could carry on reading – which I took as a compliment!

Reviews so far are very positive, much to my delight, and out of my 30 novels and short novels that I’ve published, this one is certainly a story that tugged my heartstrings when writing it – pun intended. I hope you’ll check out Breathe You In. Thanks so much for reading about the special songs which inspired several scenes within this story and have a wonderful day.

Yowza! How can you resist after THAT??? I sure can’t.

Need a blurb? Sure, you do!

Soul-aching desire was just the beginning!

If the road to Heaven starts in Hell then I was ready to start climbing my way out and Ruben Strong was the man to accompany me. With his devastating good looks, seductively sexy charm and lust for adrenaline he was sure to make it a sensual and erotic experience as well as one to re-awake the passionate, throw-caution-to-the-wind woman I’d once been.

I’d given Ruben something, though, without him realizing, and that gift had come from the man I’d loved before. But I couldn’t tell Ruben. I had to keep that a tight secret even as our naked bodies wound together, sought out pleasure and hit the dizzy heights of ecstasy as one. Because Ruben had my husband’s heart, literally, and that heart was still in love with me, so it seemed, and now I was in love with Ruben.

Emotions tangled with bliss, and fears were locked away as I surrendered to the touch of Ruben’s hands, the taste of his skin and the sounds of his pleasure. I couldn’t deny that Ruben had brought me back to life the same way I had him and there was no way I was giving up that feeling, not for anyone.

How about some links?

Amazon US
Amazon UK

(Not available anywhere other than Amazon)

Lily Harlem Links
Website
Blog
Twitter
Facebook
Facebook author page
Pinterest
Goodreads
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