It wasn’t quite a month ago that I sat down to catch up on that bane of my existence, the feed reader. In it was a post from the Fat Cyclist himself.

That’s not unusual. I subscribe to his feed. I expect to see posts from him. I like to sit and dream about being able to have a life like his, where he can ride his bike on rollers and go out in the gorgeous country where he lives. I’ve followed him through the loss of his wife, Susan, to breast cancer, and to a new love with a woman he first nicknamed The Runner and now calls The Hammer.

I’ve also followed his many ways of raising money for the LiveStrong foundation. I haven’t jumped in most of his exploits (although I almost jumped at this year’s 100 Miles of Nowhere; look for me to give in and do it next year), but the one I ran into those few weeks ago was one I couldn’t stay away from.

Fatty — his real name’s Elden, but really, why call him Elden when Fatty is so much more… Fatty-esque? — has teamed up with this place I’d never heard of — the +3 Network. Over there, SRAM has sponsored a challenge. For every activity you log in, they’ll donate money to bikes for kids in Africa through an organization called World Bicycle Relief.

That’s the jist of the whole +3 Network. Sign up, join challenges. Log your activity. The sponsors will take care of the rest.

So… I’ve joined Team Fatty. I’d like you, if you’re the active type, to join me. I mean, hello? We’re working out, exercising, bike riding, walking, what have you anyway, right? There are all sorts of activities for you to log, from the mundane (walking, mountain biking) to the more esoteric (table tennis! Rowing! Roller Derby!) — and even credit for for physical therapy/rehab and stretching. In a sense, you could challenge yourself to trying all the different activities at least once. You can also get credit for chores, folks, and volunteer time.

It’s an easy way to make a difference. Come join me, will ya?

I love it when Smashwords does site-wide promotions. Anything I discount down to free flies off the shelves. Needless to say, I love watching the numbers tick upwards.

Do some of these people come back and buy? Do they read what they download?

I don’t know. I know I read, at least (and yes, there IS a lot of poor quality stuff out there. No argument there.), although I remain too backed up, even with e-books, to spend a lot of money on books right now.

Anyway, to help encourage people to read and return to buy my books, I have joined the Smashwords Summer Sale. Like usual, the first two Demo Tapes anthologies are free, and for the first time, so is Mannequin.

Trevor’s Song and Demo Tapes: Year 3 are half off.

Which means for $3, you can have FOUR books and a short story.

Like always, take advantage. Tell your friends. Spread the word. And once you’re done downloading my books, go find some new authors to read. Or explore. Since, you know, you won’t like anything. But if you hit up the freebies, at least you’re not out any money if you hate what you read.

(and if you don’t hate it, why not leave a review somewhere? The more somewheres, the better, of course, but… one somewhere is also awesome.)

A little over two weeks ago, a meme started appearing. It’s a simple one, that asks the participant to fill in this sentence: Writing is like…

Both Joel Kirkpatrick and Darcia Helle have asked me to answer. And while I originally posted a short answer to Joel over at his GoodReads blog (does anyone read those on a regular basis?), once Darcia came around asking a second time, I figured I’d need to answer it here. For everyone to see.

My answer to Joel was “Writing is like breathing.”

I say that often when asked about my writing and my need to write. It’s always been this way for me; others need to breathe. I need to write.

I remember being in graduate school and going over to my cousin’s house one night for dinner. Being there for dinner wasn’t unusual; I was around often. It was that she turned to me and said, “What are you working on in the book? You’re awfully cranky. Is it a fight scene?”

By Jove, she was right.

I’ve also heard, “You’re cranky. When was the last time you wrote?” Or, “You’re in a good mood. Get a lot of pages written today?” (Yeah, that was my pre-kid, Pre-Facebook/Twitter years when I routinely wrote 8-10 pages a day. I miss those days.)

It’s more than a mood equalizer, though. Writing is what I do. It’s who I am. It’s my drive to get out of bed in the morning and it’s usually the last thing I think about — well, my characters and their story, not the act of writing so much — before I go to bed. My characters live with me. You guys aren’t surprised to hear this. You’re expecting it because my characters live with you, as well (and thank you for allowing them into your lives).

Writing is the essential part of me. It’s what I now offer to people in search of help. “Do you need a writer?” or “You know, you can call on me and my writing skills. I’m here if you need anything.” It used to be I’d say, “What do you need?” Now it’s focused. “Let me write for you.”

“Writers write,” I tell people with a shrug. My local Boy Scout district and The Boy Band’s Troop are full of men who thank me for stepping up and offering to write things like Court of Honor ceremonies and press releases.

It’s who I am and it’s what I do.

You can say the same thing about the need and act of drawing air into one’s lungs. It’s what we do. It’s how we survive, how we cope when things get stressed. We inhale. Hold it. Exhale. We use it to shape our day, our lives, our activities.

Thus, writing is like breathing.

(I’m supposed to tag someone, but if you’re a writer, have at it. Drop me an link and I’ll post it here.)
Look! Robin at My Two Blessings took me up on the offer.

Need yourself some Trevor that you can hold, turn, fondle, and caress? Something more tree-based than a mere computer screen of one sort or another can provide?

You’re in luck.

I’ve FINALLY gotten all the bugs out of The Demo Tapes: Year 3 print version. Right now, it’s only for sale via CreateSpace’s online store, but it should be up at Amazon in a few days. You’ll also be able to order it through B&N, Powells, and any other independent bookstore you may think to order it from.

If you’d like an autographed copy, drop me a note before the end of July. The usual rules will apply: I’ll charge you the full $9.99 plus I think it’s $3 for shipping, unless you want priority, and then it’ll be $6 for the shipping. Uhh… those are US rates only, though. If you’re out of the US, holler and I’ll have my awesome postmaster look it all up for you.

Please note: the end of July! I’d like to get one batch of just enough copies, maybe have one or two others on hand, but since I don’t have to place a bulk order, I’d prefer to just get what I need.

(That said, I still have copies of Year 1 and Year 2 here, along with a TON of Trevor’s Song. Okay, maybe a metric ton. Whatever. More than I’d like.)

Remember: autographed books make great Christmas gifts! Get your shopping done now!

Holy schmoley, are you ready for this onslaught that I’ve been too lazy to tell you about?

Lazy? Really?

Well, okay. Prioritizing my own fiction over someone else’s non-fiction. How’s THAT?

First off… Steven Adler. Remember him, the drummer who got himself pitched out of Guns ‘n Roses ’cause his drug use was too intense for even the members of Guns ‘n Roses? Well, his MOM has written a memoir now, all about being the mom to an addict. Okay, an addict who happened to know Axl before he went off the deep end. If there ever WAS such a time.

I can’t find a link to the book; it’s not scheduled for release until November (according to the press release that’s been sitting in an open tab for months, anyway), but Steven himself wrote a memoir that came out last year. Why didn’t I drool over this a year ago? What’s wrong with me?

Here’s another one in the “What’s wrong with me?” category. Get ready to laugh and snicker. This isn’t even something I’d consider a guilty pleasure, but damn if I don’t want to see it.

Europe is putting out “a special edition 140-page coffee-table book, with pictures following the band on their latest continental tour, as seen through the lens of legendary rock photographer Denis O’Regan!”

Okay, so I don’t need the deluxe version with the live CD. I’m just not that big of a fan of Europe. It’s the pictures I want here, folks. The details of a live show… those are what fuels my writing and my imagination (well, that and Metallica in large doses).

Hunh. No buy link for that, either. Am I finding esoteric stuff today, or WHAT? Maybe it’s that this won’t be released until August. Who knows?

Okay… moving on…

Here’s the headline that caught my eye: Former DEEP PURPLE / RAINBOW Tour Manager Colin Hart To Issue New Book In September” (here’s the link so it’s fully cited and not stolen or anything). The wording of the article is weird; it implies that the book was first released in a language other than English. Of course, you know I want the deluxe version with its “80 pages of photos and memorabilia from Colin’s collection including reproduction of tour itineraries, faxes, letters and more. ”

Yeah. SO up my alley… And you wonder where I get my research???

Of course, if I’d ever actually get my hands on these books — review copies are beautiful things — more research would be happening, more inspiration would be happening, and then more writing would be happening, too. See how that works?

It’s been way too long since rock and roll writer Chelle LaFleur stopped in with some of her words of wisdom. Here are a few, once again, based on a true story.

Now, Chelle ain’t been here much of late. That’s ’cause Chelle ain’t had much to say. All that bad behavior we expect from our rocker heroes lately been comin’ from them politicians, and they ain’t people who Chelle prefers to pay much attention to. Chelle don’t do politics. She rocks and rolls. Which means Chelle here been bored. B.O.R.E.D.

Until word of Rattlesnake Quake came down the pike. Seems they been together so long, they be worse than an old married couple. They’re one-a them old married couples who figured out they sleep better if they each got their own room and a twin bed in it. Except them boys in Rattlesnake Quake, they did that separate hotel room thing a long time ago.

They’ve moved on in the world and up to their own tour bus.

Different strokes for different folks, we all like to say. ‘Cept them guys in Rattlesnake Quake been braggin’ about how they turned this tour all green ‘n all. Which explains why Richie and Doug each got their own tour bus.

If you think about that too much and your head explodes, don’t be callin’ Chelle here. She’s busy pickin’ up the pieces of her own brain.

Now you got a grip on the background here. Richie and Doug. Two tour busses. It oughta end there, right?

That wouldn’t give Chelle much of a thread to talk about if that were all. You boys and girls know Chelle. You know it can’t end there.

Nope. It ended on some highway or maybe a parking lot. Details are sketchy, but no one’s fightin’ the fact that it went and happened. Which means that if they’d up and been as green as they sayin’ they bein’, this never woulda happened and instead of makin’ fun of them boys in Rattlesnake Quake for tryin’ to save some carbon emissions when they’re up and drivin’ all around the country, we’re all sittin’ here instead, makin’ fun of ’em for drivin’ into each other and spewing twice as much carbon into the air.

Like Chelle said, don’t think too much about any of it. Your head might explode, same as I heard that toilet on Richie’s bus did when Doug’s bus hit it.

You heard it first, and you heard it here: goin’ green means one bus, no matter how much better y’all sleep when you all got your own space.

***
Like I said, this is based on a true story, but which parts are true, I’ll leave up to you to figure out. If you’d like to keep YOUR head from exploding, head over to Three Word Wednesday or the Friday Flash hub and check out what other tales folks are spinning this week.

I’ve been mentioning CJ Lyons here enough that you guys ought to have figured out by now I’m a fangirl. Of CJ’s writing. Her storytelling. And, mostly, of who she is as a person. She’s what you’d want from a pediatric ER doctor: calm, in control. She exudes these qualities and best of all, she’s funny at the same time.

When she said at the Pennwriters Conference last month that she’d just put out a new book, I got very excited. “You have to stop in for a Featured New Release for it!”

And, so, here she is. CJ Lyons, answering the famed one-question interview: What song makes you think of your book (and why)?

I always write to music and often find one song that I play over and over again because it resonates so much with the theme and characters of a book, so this question was easy!

For NERVES OF STEEL, the first in the Hart and Drake series, the song was Chad Kroeger’s Hero (from the Spider Man soundtrack). He sang a line about needing a hero, “but I’m not going to stand here and wait.”

That so perfectly summed up the main character of NERVES, Cassandra Hart, an ER doc who is so passionate about protecting her patients that she risks her career and her life to save them.

SLEIGHT OF HAND, the second in the series, was just released and it’s more about the relationship between Hart and the police detective she becomes involved with, Mickey Drake.

They’re both wounded heroes, fighting to regain their balance after the trauma they experienced in the first book. They guard their hearts, frightened by the feeling of vulnerability love brings–especially after almost losing each other in NERVES OF STEEL.

The song that I kept coming back to, over and over, while writing SLEIGHT was Godsmack’s Touche.

The refrain is: I’ll only do for you what you’ll do for me….perfectly capturing that post-honeymoon phase of a relationship (especially one so young and fragile and already bearing scars) where it’s a give and take between two people, until they both surrender and learn to dance together rather than spar.

Another line from Touche that struck a chord was: wasting time like it was free…again, reflecting the essence of both Hart and Drake’s inner conflict, that they want to do so much more with their lives but outside forces keep curtailing them, drawing their focus from what is truly important: their love and their passion for protecting the innocent.

SLEIGHT OF HAND really ups the ante on an emotional level while also raising the stakes for both characters until they end up risking everything but discover that the one thing they can’t lose, no matter how hard they try or what the outside world throws at them, is each other.

Wow! And CJ says she doesn’t like to do promo… she’s NUTS, I tell you. This was a fantastic answer, probably one of the most detailed explanations we’ve ever gotten around these parts. Just… wow. Awesome.

Go pick up Sleight of Hand. (Yes, this link is an affiliate link, which means if you use it, I’ll get a few pennies. Those pennies will either support maintaining this site, or they’ll go into some cool gives for you guys. It’s all up to you!)

And can I just comment on how most excellent CJ’s musical tastes are? Chad Kroeger and Sully? Two very hot singers, indeed. (But they ain’t got nothing on a certain Mitchell Voss, now, do they???)

You know how when you upload a digital book to a service like Smashwords or Kindle, it takes a few days for it to get approvals and for the book to go live. That means if you’d like your book to come out on, oh, say the 15th of the month, you may want to upload it on … oh, say the 12th.

And because you have never lost blind faith that it’ll all work out, you announce this date of the 15th and don’t waver, even when it becomes obvious that the print copy won’t be ready in time.

So… when you upload the book to Smashwords on a Sunday night and less than five minutes later, it goes live, what do you do?

Announce it at Twitter, of course. And on Facebook. And THEN come over here to the blog and tell folks to head over to Smashwords to get their hands on Demo Tapes 3.

Or wait a day or two, and it’ll be up on Kindle. But why wait? I get better royalties over at Smashwords, after a. ll. And it’s already selling over there — that took maybe five minutes from my Tweeting about it. (You guys are amazingly devoted and I am amazingly lucky to have you.)

I’ll let you know when the print copy is available. In the meantime, go pick up the ebook versions, will you? And help spread the word, too!

If you’ve been here long enough to hear me gush about the Rabbi’s Cat books and my deep and enduring love for Joann Sfar, you know I’m open to the idea of graphic novels and comics.

Now comes word of this British offering. At least I THINK it’s British. I opened the tab on this eons ago. Possibly a few months.

It’s Phonogram: Rue Britannia and it was written by Kieron Gillen and Jamie Mckelvie. Here’s the blurb. Sounds like more a mindfuck than a piece of rock and roll literature, but hey. I’ve been pleasantly surprised by things before.

Britannia is ten years dead. Phonomancer David Kohl hadn’t spared his old patron a thought for almost as long… at which point his mind starts to unravel. Can he discover what’s happened to the Mod-Goddess of Britpop while there’s still something of himself left? Dark modern-fantasy in a world where music is magic, where a song can save your life or end it.

Mmm. Music is magic and where a song can save your life or end it… I am SO there.

But wait! There’s a second volume!

It’s the first weekend of summer vacation, so I’m headed to the pool and stuff with the kids. Get it in before I get tired of them, you know?

I have some new fiction for you. Well, not really. It’s old fiction that’s been hanging around my hard drive, waiting for the right time to make an appearance. But it’s new to you and it features a tender scene with Mitchell and Kerri and I just love it, so…

Head on over to the #amwriting online home site and read it there. Yes, it’ll be included in Demo Tapes 5. But it’ll be AT LEAST two years before that comes out (most likely. I mean, hello? Have you seen Demo Tapes 3 yet? This week, I promise — well, not in print. That’s going to take a bit longer. Stupid mail.).

Why wait? Go read it now.

Yep, it’s true. If you’re in or near Pittsburgh, you ought to road trip over to the Penguin Bookstore in Sewickley on June 17. Come between 4 and 7.

You just may see a certain someone emerge from behind the famed Orange S on a Red Background.

If you come early enough — between 4 and 5 — you can ask her a question as part of the Q&A.

If you buy one of her books, you can even get her autograph. It might even look like this: (not really, but you can hope!)

June 17. Penguin Bookstore. Sewickley, PA. 4-7PM.

No better time to join the Trevolution. It’s an ever better time to let the Trevolution grow.

Okay, it’s Friday and we’re going to try this Hangout thing one more time. Maybe it’ll work. I hope so.

Here’s something to inspire you. The cover of ShapeShifter: The Demo Tapes (Year 3). Awesome art by my good friend Lakota Phillips.

You’ll be able to buy the book June 15, if all goes well. I’ll keep you posted.

Before I go, here’s the Hangout rules:
Here are the rules…

1. Leave a comment here, on this post. Say hello to me, tell me what you’re reading, what song you’re jamming to… You pick, just say SOMEthing! Leave your link (I can’t get Comment Luv to work regularly) to your blog.

2. Go visit the blog link in the comment above you. Tell them “I’m from West of Mars” and hopefully something nice about their post. Because, you know, the best way to make new friends is to actually read what they write.

3. When three people have left a comment since your last one, you may play again. If no one’s commented for two hours, you may play again. This is the ONLY time you may visit someone other than the person above you.

4. If you’re new here, your comment will go into moderation. I’m going to try to keep on top of that, but do check back to make sure no one missed you. If you were skipped, leave another comment — even if you break the three-person rule.

5. Be nice. Have fun. Make new friends — that’s what this is all about. And, of course, I operate on the Commutative Principle of Friendships, whereby any friend of yours is a friend of mine. Which means anyone and everyone is welcome to play.

6. Game ends Sunday night, even if I post something again in the meantime.

There just isn’t any other word for it but COOL.

It may have taken 113 years to realize Andrew Carnegie’s full vision for what was one of the country’s (and perhaps the world’s, but I don’t know that much history about libraries around the world) first free library, but it’s happening. In Homestead, PA.

If you don’t know, it ain’t like West of Mars. Homestead’s an old steel town. Unemployment is rife. Unlike around here, high school graduates aren’t assumed by anyone to be heading off to the Ivy League.

The library? The third one in the city built by Mr. Carnegie as part of his chagrin over the Homestead Strike (or so I was taught in my Pittsburgh history classes and you can tell I don’t recall ALL the details.). This place OOZES history.

And now it oozes sweat — from the thousand-seat music hall. From the health club. Yes, a health club in a library!

But wait. You know how libraries ought to be climate controlled, to preserve the books? Well, back in 1898, when the place was built, there wasn’t exactly air conditioning. So that pool in the basement? Made perfect sense.

Apparently, it still does. It’s being renovated, but that doesn’t take away its title as “the longest continually operating heated pool in Western Pennsylvania” (That’s a direct quote from the morning paper and thanks to them for letting me use it).

There’s also a bowling alley inside, which doesn’t surprise me, having spent a few summers in a bowling alley on the Chatham University campus — that one is located inside of what was first a private residence and only later became part of the school. However, the bowling alley in the Carnegie Library of Homestead may find a new purpose: that of a spot for some indoor baseball training.

Doesn’t matter, does it? The idea here is that these extra things will help fund the library and help create a community center. Now, 113 years after Carnegie shared his vision with the city of Pittsburgh, it’s being realized.

Andrew Carnegie was, at times, a controversial figure (see above mention of the Homestead Strike), but for us, today, who are facing budget cuts in our libraries, isn’t this a model we ought to explore more? If that music hall and that health club and that swimming pool can keep people’s minds fed along with their bodies and their musical souls, shouldn’t we support them, cheer them on, and make sure they succeed?

Here’s the link to the full article. Use it. Homestead isn’t the only local library going this route.

Kudos to them. And kudos to anyone else in any other city who heads down this path. Let’s save our libraries, folks!

So it’s Friday and I wasn’t going to do this week’s Three Word Wednesday prompt. I’m busy, as you guys can tell by my lack of Three Word Wednesday and Friday Flashes.

But I opened the feed in my reader anyway and checked out the words. Just in case they inspired me.

Then I went and got myself a new keyboard.

Because, you see, this week’s Three Word Wednesday’s three words are: grin, jumble, and naked.

For real?

Are you sure about that?

Let’s stop and think about this, shall we? Grin. Jumble. Naked.

C’mon. I don’t even have to write this.

Or, if I do, it’ll look like this:

Trevor. Naked jumble. Grin.

There you go. Like you hadn’t already envisioned this, yourselves.

If you were trying to access West of Mars for an almost five-hour period last night, you were out of luck. While I was sitting at The Boy Band’s orchestra concert, the lights flickered. Then went out.

Here’s an article from the local paper about it. Anyone else a bit scared that they don’t know what caused such a massive outage?

Needless to say, the orchestra concert was cut short. We all raced home, although I’m not sure why. It’s not like any of us could get into our garages.

And, just as we did during the mega snowstorm of 2010, when the street hadn’t been plowed for days, all the cool neighbors (and some of the uncool ones, too. Really? Mowing the lawn at 7AM on a Monday?) gathered in the street. The kids ran wild. Dogs danced on their leashes, their walks abandoned in favor of the impromptu gathering.

It may seem heretical for someone who has built the bulk of her career online, but nights like last night remind me why unplugging is a good thing. I do wish for more of these nights when we tumble out of our big homes and reconnect, face to face, and chat about everything and nothing. You long-term readers know how much I love to be outside, camping and biking and with the family.

This is a good balance to strive for, I think. Shutting down the glow of the screens and instead seeking the glow of the stars.

It’s a day late, but mostly because yesterday set the tone for how the week’s going to play out: freaking crazy.

But… our winner of an autographed copy of Trevor’s Song (one of the last remaining Lulu editions that have since been retired) is Tammy Ramey!

Congratulations, Tammy. Keep an eye on your inbox for mail from me.

Okay, so it wound up being on three of us, but I suppose if you want to join the fun, you should.

People are leaving for BEA — Book Expo America. For us authors, unless we’re being heavily promoted by our publishers, it’s not worth our going.

So best-selling author Anya Bast put out a call. Who wants to have a Left Behind party with her?

I think Anya’s way cool. Denise Agnew joined us, as well. Denise is also neat; we’ve known each other’s online personas for years.

So… what to give…

Well, it dawns on me that I now have five copies of the now-retired Lulu version of Trevor’s Song. I have nothing to do with them. Which means I’ll give one away, to mail anywhere in the world.

Just leave me a comment (complete with your e-mail so I can contact you!). I’ll pick a winner first thing Monday morning.

Want to up your chances? Tweet it. Mention it on Facebook. Like the West of Mars Fan page. Tell me in the comments what you’ve done. I’ll throw it all into a big hat and let one of the kids pick a name out.

Prefer e-books? I can do that, too. Pick your title of my four (not sure? Visit The Books page to see them — but note that I can’t give copies of the With Love anthology away) and Monday morning, some of you lucky folks will get Smashwords coupons.

Yep, it’s that easy.

Oh, and those of you worried about leaving your e-mail? Have no fears from ME. I don’t save e-mail or addresses (ask any of my friends, who are always getting e-mails from me, asking for their addresses along with useless promises that I’ll write it down THIS time).

If you’re an author who didn’t make it to BEA this year and would like to join the fun, holler. Anya, Denise and I would love to have you.

We’re nine weeks in now. I’d have thought you guys would have made this place hop every weekend. What’s up? C’mon. We all need new readers for our blogs (and, for us writers, for our books). Meeting new people is fun. And it’s not like you’re obligated to hit up more than one person!

Here are the rules…

1. Leave a comment here, on this post. Say hello to me, tell me what you’re reading, what song you’re jamming to… You pick, just say SOMEthing! Leave your link (I can’t get Comment Luv to work regularly) to your blog.

2. Go visit the blog link in the comment above you. Tell them “I’m from West of Mars” and hopefully something nice about their post. Because, you know, the best way to make new friends is to actually read what they write.

3. When three people have left a comment since your last one, you may play again. If no one’s commented for two hours, you may play again. This is the ONLY time you may visit someone other than the person above you.

4. If you’re new here, your comment will go into moderation. I’m going to try to keep on top of that, but do check back to make sure no one missed you. If you were skipped, leave another comment — even if you break the three-person rule.

5. Be nice. Have fun. Make new friends — that’s what this is all about. And, of course, I operate on the Commutative Principle of Friendships, whereby any friend of yours is a friend of mine. Which means anyone and everyone is welcome to play.

6. Game ends Sunday night, even if I post something again in the meantime.

I made friends with Suzan Harden ’cause she’s friends with Christie Craig. I met Christie through Win a Book (and to think I’m toying with the idea of shutting it down!). See how this works?

Suzan’s followed a road similar to the one I’ve taken: which route to publication do I take?

As you guys know, it’s a hard road. A hard decision. And Suzan’s finally made her choice, which is good for me ’cause I get to tell you about her debut novella, Seasons of Magick: Spring. It’s 99c at Smashwords! (and yes, that link is the affiliate link, so I’ll get some pennies if you use it to buy the book. Which you ought to do.)

This means I had to ask Suzan the Famed One Question Interview (do I need to trademark THAT, too?): What song makes you think of your book?

Her answer shocked me. Ready for it?

Okay, this sounds incredibly geeky but it’s Barry Manilow’s ‘Ready to Take a Chance Again.’ The lyrics match my hero Adrian’s despair after he lost his wife and the return of hope after he meets Tessa. I know. I’m such a sap. LOL

The opening to that video is a hoot. Go check it out!

And here’s the extended book blurb. So you know what we’re going on about today:

Extended Description
Welcome to Morrigan’s Cauldron! But be careful what you ask for because this little Greenwich Village shop can deliver your heart’s desire. Or your greatest nightmare.

Tessa McClain’s life has spun out of control. Thanks to her con artist ex, she’s lost her job, her money and her reputation. Desperate, she talks her way into job at a local New Age shop. There’s just one problem—Adrian Holloway, the hunky store manager. The last thing she needs is another bad boy in her life. But her body hungers to break her brain’s ‘no men’ rule.

After the death of his wife, Adrian abandoned his Wall Street world and found peace in the quirky Greenwich shop, Morrigan’s Cauldron. Or he did until an April wind blew smart-mouthed Tessa McClain through the front door. While he’s ready to take another crack at love, convincing Tessa may be more trouble than he bargained.

There ya go… another new book from another new voice. I love it.

I woke up this morning, Friday, convinced that author Nancy Martin and I were at irreversible odds. She’s always been very anti-self-publishing. One of her concerns — and I’ve always seen the truth of it — is that people are sucked into the scammers and the services that charge a lot of money for no return.

One of the reasons I went the route I did was because I was told, point-blank, that there’s no market for books about rock stars (Agent Barbara Poelle confirmed that yet again this afternoon). Yet I had a demand. Not a HUGE demand, but enough demand to make some money. I was told, back in 2008, that Trevor and the band were what self-publishing was perfect for: a niche book aimed at a niche audience.

I was also told that it was 100% about my subject and zero% a reflection of my writing skill and talent.

But… knowing that Nancy felt as she did, I tried to keep my world under her radar. I didn’t want to set her off, get on her bad side. I mean, heck. Nancy is an important woman in the Pittsburgh writing community. She’s smart as the devil and can deconstruct a book’s structure in one reading. I respect Nancy. I LIKE Nancy.

So imagine my surprise when I wandered into the hospitality room and Nancy asked if I’d be joining the lunch for the Published Pennwriters. You have to meet certain criteria for the Published Penns, and although I’m about to put out my fourth book, I don’t meet those criteria. I pointed that out. She told me to come anyway — she said I had important things to say and she was hoping I would say them. About my choices in the publishing game.

I ate lunch with the non-published folk, because, after all, they’d already accounted for my lunch with that group and I do like them. Most of my good friends are among them. And then I intended to sneak into the Published Penns lunch and lurk in the back.

No go.

Nancy had me walk through the room and take her seat. At the front. So that, you know, the ENTIRE ROOM (full of well-published people, including the amazing Jonathan Maberry and the awesome CJ Lyons and the way cool Jacquelyn Mitchard, as well as agents! And editors!) saw me. They were doing introductions. Nancy saved me for third-to-last. The only people who introduced themselves after me were Susan Meier and Jonathan. Wow.

And yes, I introduced myself as shamelessly self-published. I told the story of how I wanted royalties for my birthday, so I published a short story that you guys bought. (It’s still for sale, if you missed out somehow. Same price and everything!)

What I think this means is that I’m done hiding. I don’t like to talk about myself as a self-published author; we should all just be authors and be done with it already. But I need to stop NOT talking about my books. I need to put it out there — heck, there are two copies of Trevor’s Song sitting in baskets, waiting to be won by a lucky raffle winner. And yes, there are tickets in the cups beside my baskets now, too!

Time to quit hiding. Time to stop expecting to be attacked for taking an unpopular path (and how rock and roll is that? Taking the unpopular path?).

Hi. I’m Susan Helene Gottfried. I’ve got three books in print and a short story that’s available only as an e-book. And there’s another on the way, hopefully next month.

Isn’t it time you all joined the Trevolution?