Wasn’t it just the other day I was blogging about a new Metallica book?

Today came word of ANOTHER one.

Renowned British rock journalist Mick Wall will release a new book, “Metallica: Enter Night – The Biography”, in hardcover via Orion in the U.K. on November 11.

(See Blabbermouth for the whole article)

Sheesh. It seems like the whole world has decided to write about my favorite real-life band. And that’s fine (or it would be if they’d all send me review copies so I could compare/contrast them. HINT, folks!).

It’s been quiet here this week. I’m sure you’ve noticed. I’m sure you’re getting excited to see what I’m working on bringing you for the Musical Hanukkah Celebration and my big push to donate at least half my royalties in November and December to charity. (Hint: I just got word of sales at Sony, B&N, and Apple today. So if you shop at any of those places, get ready to buy ’cause the books are THERE!)

Stay tuned. We’re going to have a LOT of fun. I’ve got lots of two-parters for you guys, too. And lots of your favorite characters (and a few you’ve seen here but haven’t warmed up to yet. Yet.).

Musical Hanukkah. Metallica. Books. Who’da thunk???

So, yeah. We’re busy building excitement for the Musical Hanukkah Celebration here (and putting out a fire or two. Yikes! This was arson, boys and girls, of an entire city block), and as a way to help you do that, long-time friend and groupie Julia has hosted me over at A Piece of My Mind. She does this cool 5 on Friday meme that’s all about music (makes ya wonder why I don’t, ya know?).

Today, I stepped up to the plate and did my best to share my vision of ShapeShifter via music. Stop in and see what it’s about. Tell me if you agree/disagree. Just… don’t make me listen to country music as you try to prove that Mitchell’s really a crooner!

Believe it or not, this is our final Musical Hanukkah Flashback. Know what that means???

BRING ON THE NEW STUFF!

But first, go back to this Thursday Thirteen, will ya? I totally invented thirteen kids whose lives had been touched by the music in our schools program, such as the one who’ll be receiving at least 50% of my royalties in November and December. If you’ve got the books already, remember, the holiday shopping season is almost on top of us. You’ll need gifts for friends and family members — and books make great gifts! (I can even autograph them for you!)

Aunt Sally won’t like a book? Why not donate the same amount of money you’d spend on her gift and tell her what you did, instead. A direct link (and full details, including the bit about thank-you prizes you’ll be eligible to win for supporting the cause this way) is available on my contest page.

If you’d like to follow the evolution of (and the adventures behind) the Musical Hanukkah Celebration, use this link to the first flashback.

Ahh, Trevor. Love him or hate him, he’s the glue that holds this place together.

(And really, does anyone HATE Trevor, or just love the others more?)

Today’s flashback gives you Trevor exclusively. It’s a Trevor’s Word of the Moment, a feature I’ve let slide around here. Go check it out and tell me if you think I ought to bring it back.

Of course, I’d be thrilled if you’d join me in my own mitzvah — raising funds for the Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation. There are two ways to do this: via direct donation or by buying my books. Up to 50% of my royalties in November and December will be donated to this great charity, based on the famous movie whose name it shares. Of course, if you can’t wait eleven days and have to buy NOW while you’re thinking about it, that’s awesome, too. It’ll help me recoup some costs that have built up. That in turn will let me donate a bigger chunk of my November and December royalties.

See? Buy now. Buy later. It all comes together to make a bigger donation.

If you’d like to follow the Musical Hanukkah postings from the beginning, why not go back to the first flashback? They’re all linked up, in order, so you can follow each one.

This is the second-to-last one, so if you’d like to see how it ended last year, I encourage you to do it.

Awhile ago (really, TOO long ago), I featured my friend, author Christine D’Abo when she had a new release.

It took two years, but she’s returning the favor, hosting me for a fun interview. Stop in and check it out. Although it went live yesterday, I’ll keep an eye on the comments for a day or two, if you’d like to leave one over there. Or here. I watch the comments here, too.

Well, from the last post, you’d think there was no Musical Hanukkah Flashback for ShapeShifter last year.

Guess what? Politics and good intentions can’t hold our boys down. They want to keep helping kids … so they found a way.

Why not help find a way in real life? There are two ways that I’m offering. First is for you to buy any (or all) of my books. At least 50% of my royalties will go to charity.

The other way is to make a direct donation. I’m organizing a raffle as a way to say thanks. If you’d like to donate something, please contact me.

All the details are on my contest page. Please check it out and help bring this previously-fictional event into the real world. It doesn’t take a huge financial effort on your part (The Demo Tapes as e-books are only $2.50 each at Smashwords!) to make a huge difference for a kid who wants to make music.

To start following the flashbacks from the beginning, use this link. And if you need to skip on ahead to the next one, here’s the link so you can do that.

I don’t remember the last time I did a mail call post. I’ve been doing a lot of them over at Rocks ‘n Reads so I don’t double-post over here, but lately, that hasn’t been an issue. I’m so busy getting the Musical Hanukkah Celebration together (read this page for more details) that it appears I’ve been neglecting you guys.

Not true. Totally not true. Once we start rolling with the new fiction, you’ll agree.

In the meantime, I picked up three books from my beloved PO Box on Friday, so I figured I’d share with you what I got.

First was from BookMooch: Yes, the River Knows. It’s written by Tracy Dunham. I’d wanted it because I recently read the first in this series, Wishful Sinful, and really liked it.

Next was another rock and roll novel, thanks to my good friend Mary at BookHounds. She sent me her ARC copy of Olivia Cunning’s Backstage Pass. I hear it’s hot. I hear it’s good. I hear I now get a chance to see for myself.

And finally, Thomma Lyn Grindstaff sent me a copy of Mirror Blue. I’ll be raffling this off to anyone who makes a direct donation to the Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation between, well, now and the end of the year. Maybe I’ll even sneak in a read between now and then… If you’d like to make a direct donation as part of the Musical Hanukkah Celebration, the link is above.

That’s it from West of Mars this week. Lots going on, lots more to come. I hope you’re reading something good — and will join in this year’s Musical Hanukkah Celebration as we take it from the realm of fiction into the real world.

If you’d like to see what others discovered in their mailboxes this week, stop by The Story Siren and Mailbox Monday, this month hosted by She Reads and Reads

Oh, I’m just going to shamelessly cut and past what Blabbermouth said.

Chronicle Books has just released “The Ultimate Metallica” book of photographs by legendary rock photographer Ross Halfin.

Halfin has documented METALLICA for nearly 25 years, from their beginnings as a scrappy, furious garage band to their current status as the heaviest and most popular metal band in the world. Featuring a foreword by METALLICA drummer Lars Ulrich and an afterword by guitarist Kirk Hammett, “The Ultimate Metallica” collects the best of Halfin’s amazing images, taken over the years with access granted exclusively to him as the band’s main lensman. His candid photographs — taken on stage, backstage, on and off tour — are supplemented by text from many people close to the band, including managers and music writers, plus some colorful personal observations from Halfin himself.

Ulrich says of Halfin’s work, “He just gets right the fuck in there. . . . Every drop of sweat, every molecule of saliva, every out-of-place nose hair, it all gets captured cuz he’s just fucking there.”

Ross Halfin has toured with and photographed many bands, including IRON MAIDEN, DEF LEPPARD, KISS, THE CLASH, SEX PISTOLS, and THE WHO. He lives in Surrey, England.

Okay, so not so mmrow on the out-of-place nose hairs, but the rest? Total. Mmrow. I need this book. Research, don’tcha know… research.

As has become the norm around here (and ought to continue this year), Chelle got the honors of revealing the details of the 2009 Musical Hanukkah Celebration.

And holy smoke, no one saw THIS one coming.

Sometimes, there is such a thing as too big and with too much clout.

Not so in my world — yet. You can help me get there, by buying copies of my books! Yep, it’s that easy. You see, during the months of November and December, I’m going to donate at least 50% of my royalties to a certain charity that ties in so well with what my fictional band is trying to do. Check the contest page here at West of Mars for full details.

Already got the books? Can’t think of anyone who’d like one or more as a holiday gift? Well, then. On that there contest page is a link so you can make a direct donation and help get instruments into the hands of willing and excited kids. I’ve got prizes lined up to raffle off if you take that route.

Think about it. You’ll get a book. Kids get to make music. We all get to make a difference in the world.

To start following the flashbacks from the beginning, follow this link! If you need to go forward and see what happened next, use this link.

Many of you West of Mars groupies are here for Roadie Poet. For Trevor. For Mitchell.

They’re all great characters to fall in love with.

But a few of you dig Chelle LaFleur — the music writer who isn’t afraid to tell it like it is. Today’s Musical Hanukkah Flashback features Chelle. She’s rounding up the 2008 Musical Hanukkah Celebration, touting up the fictional money that was donated to a fictional charity.

I think those numbers are pretty cool. I’d love to have as much clout as ShapeShifter, so I can make a similar donation. Instead, at least 50% of the royalties from the November and December sales of my books will be going to charity. Check out the contests page for full details. You know you want to get involved!

If you’d like to start reading the Musical Hanukkah Flashbacks, and flash backs to each post, click here. This link will take you to the next in the sequence.

Now, because the Musical Hanukkah Celebration is supposed to be a concert, it’s hard to write. Every retelling of a show I’ve ever seen is… well, a snoozer. Which is, of course, the LAST thing a rock concert ought to be.

The morning after, though. That’s another story. I’m not quite sure where Mitchell is waking up, but clearly all’s kosher. He’s cranky, though. Beware the dragon with the hangover! (even if it IS warranted…)

And now for the usual reminders… you can track the Musical Hanukkah Flashbacks from the beginning via this link. Jump ahead to the next via this one. And we’re flashing back because this year’s Musical Hanukkah Celebration will involve YOU more than ever. At least 50% of my royalties earned in November and December will be donated to a certain music-in-the-schools charity. Check out the contests page for full details.

Before I begin ranting about the HORRID experience attending Penguin games at the new Consol Energy Center has become, let me direct you over to my friend Mary’s blog, BookHounds.

She’s declared October to be ROCKtober, and is featuring all sorts of great rock and roll books this month. (She’s just launched a companion blog, and you might see a familiar contributor there, as well)

Today, she’s featuring a certain someone you know. Someone who woke up with a horrid migraine from the poorly managed noise of the Consol. Someone who has something important with the one and only James Hetfield…

Stop in and see. Oh, and even though you guys all have copies of The Demo Tapes (Years 1 AND 2), Mary’s giving away HER set.

(and for you who need Trevor’s Song in print, Lulu’s running a sale: Enter coupon code EXPLORE305 at checkout and receive 14.92% off any order. Maximum savings is $50. Expires October 11.)

My Three-Word Wednesday post this week… And I wrote it on Wednesday! (Right?)

A hint of a sweaty sheen on sleek skin.
A lust for life, for living, for love.
A need, burning, blistering, beyond belief.
Feet, hands, arms, legs.
Making music. Using music. Living music. Breathing music. Sweating music.
And afterward, afterglow, afterburn.

So. You tell me what I’m talking about. Sex? Music? Exercise? Something else?

Now, you all need to listen up good to old Chelle here. What I gotta say ain’t got squat to do with music, but it sure as shootin’ got to do with us in the music community.

Know that story of that poor college kid whose romantic fun got broadcast all over that there Internet? The kid who had to go off himself ’cause he couldn’t stand the way the whole world, free and not, could watch him gettin’ it on with someone else?

I’ma gonna stand up right here and now and say this is the biggest tragedy Chelle’s seen in a long time. It’s even a bigger tragedy than that hottie Mitchell Voss losin’ his heart to an artist type and takin’ himself off the market. It’s that big.

There’s one thing that’s started happenin’ about this story that’s got Chelle all up in arms. That’s them people who’re speakin’ out. They’re so quick to make this all about how we treat gays and lesbians, they done gone and forgot how this ain’t just about one certain group of folk. No sirree, this here issue of hidden cameras and YouTube postin’s somethin’ that affects every last one of us and it don’t matter if you be a boy who likes boys, or a girl who thinks girls are better’n boys.

Listen up, boys and girls. This is bigger’n one piece of America. Heck, it’s bigger’n America. With this Internet thing so big and makin’ so much of a dent in that lifestyle we used to have before it went and came along, these issues, they now involve every last person on this planet. Think about it. You wanna see people in Borneo? You can. Want to see people in Cornpatch, USA? You can.

Look around for a sec or two. You’ll see lots of folk postin’ videos of themselves feelin’ good. The difference here is that them folk? They knew what was the skinny. They knew they’d be putting their private parts out there for all-a us to ogle. They was cool with that.

This kid in Jersey? And prob’ly way more like him?

Alls they wanted to do was shut a door and have some time where they could kick back and not worry about nothin’ except what feels good and what feels better. They wanted it between theyselves, where love and lust and what feels good belongs.

Keep that in your minds the next time you think it’s cool to be this stupid. None-a you respectable metal heads would want video of you in a suit and tie, walkin’ into church on a sunny Sunday with Mom and Dad, would you? You got a rep to protect, right?

Don’t matter if you’re out of your black and into a zoot soot or if you be wantin’ some private time to see if this person you lustin’ for can be a forever partner. If you don’t want it broadcast, you don’t need to stress that it might be.

You heard it first, and you heard it here: Chelle don’t broadcast your private life on this here Trumpet paper. Don’t be broadcastin’ others’ privates anywhere, yourselves. You’re cool enough to read what Chelle’s gotta say. Prove it.

So getting to the Musical Hanukkah Celebration one year wasn’t enough for our friend Springer. He upped for a second year, although this time, he didn’t win the lottery to jam onstage with the band.

He was okay with that — until, as he hung around the back door of the Rocket Theater, two things happened…

Springer: Hanukkah ’08.

Want to trace the flashbacks from the beginning? Or skip ahead to the next?

Remember, we’re doing this so you’re on board and ready to go once November comes and we begin the prep for this year’s Musical Hanukkah Celebration, where the festivities will be coming off the page so you can join in. I’ll be donating at least 50% of my royalties in November and December to charity, and there’s also a way for you to make a direct donation to the Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation, which provides musical instruments for kids in schools.

You can start giving now, if you’d like. It all adds up in the end!

As I’m editing The Demo Tapes: Year 3, I’m noticing that I spent a nice chunk of the year looking at the band from the outside, instead of from the inside, like I usually do.

Musical Hanukkah Flashback #10 proves that to you: it’s written from the point of view of a new character, a guy I was dared to create. Best of all, he’s got a history with the band — and they don’t know it.

I titled this one Other Side of the Curtain. I meant it in both a physical sense, as that’s where Penis is standing when the story opens. But it’s also a metaphor: he’s outside the band, looking in.

Be sure to leave comments here or there as you stroll down memory lane and catch up on what you may have missed — or what you’ve never seen before. And remember, the best way to keep this fun coming is to buy my books. If you’ve missed it somehow, at least 50% of my royalties in November and December will be headed to charity, but if you can’t wait and need to buy now, go for it. I know my accounting is odd, but it’ll allow me to donate a higher percentage when all is said and done.

And if you’d like to start at the beginning and read the flashbacks in order, here’s the link to the first one. If you’re looking for the next, use this link.

I’m posting this here instead of at Rocks ‘n Reads so more of you will see it. Once again, Jennifer Estep has knocked one out of the park. Go pick up Venom, which releases today. Or, heck, pick up the entire Elemental Assassin series.

Sometimes, when you work your way through a series of books, you get the feeling the author wasn’t expecting this or that to happen. That the unfolding series of events is as much a surprise to the writer as it is to you, the reader.

Not so with Jennifer Estep’s Elemental Assassin series. This is one of the best plotted series I’ve encountered in years. In other words, as we devour Venom, the latest release in the projected five-book series, there’s a sense that nothing has been left to chance. Everything that happens has a reason, and we’re building to something big, explosive, and Earth-shattering.

Just the way I like it.

In Venom, a number of things are happening. Gin Blanco finds that retirement is a difficult state to remain in. She may not be taking money to do her job, but people still need the skills of her alter ego, the assassin named The Spider. Just because she wants to run a restaurant and take classes at the local community college doesn’t mean people’s lives have gotten any easier.

In fact, as Venom progresses, Gin’s life is getting a bit harder. Her baby sister isn’t just alive, but is the newest hire on the Ashland police force. Bria is replacing Donovan Caine, the man Gin had serious chemistry with but who couldn’t handle her being on the dark side of the law.

Baby sister’s no pushover and her presence, sniffing around Gin as she attempts to figure out what’s going on, quickly becomes constant and reliable. Gin’s not ready to expose their relationship yet — although I do wonder how ignorant Bria truly is. I hope I’m not disappointed in future books and that she’s figured it out.

Also replacing Donovan Caine is a new dude in Gin’s life. The chemistry is there. He knows she’s an assassin. If the weapons he’d forged and hung on his wall are any indication, Owen Grayson could very well be Gin’s soulmate. This man has many mysteries he’s hiding. While some are revealed in Venom, it’s obvious there are many, many more we’ve yet to encounter. Owen has the same delicious potential as baby sister Bria.

Believe it or not, these are merely the subplots. Like I said, the Elemental Assassin series must have been planned out from the get-go, because the heart of this story is that of Roslyn the vampire. She’s found herself, entirely unwillingly, in a relationship she wants no further part of. As those dark secrets are revealed, it’s obvious that Gin is, once again, set on assassinating a truly heinous being. I dare anyone to argue for this low-life’s survival.

As awful as Roslyn’s problem is, it is at the same time a stroke of luck for Gin. This is the opportunity she’s been wishing for: the chance to bring down Mab Monroe and her city-wide-controlling operation. Oh, Gin’s not going to effect this downfall in one fell swoop. Nope. That’s where the beauty of Estep’s plotting comes in. This opportunity to help Roslyn becomes the first step in achieving Gin’s ultimate goal. As the series unfolds over the next two books, we’ll get to watch what happens. Will it succeed, will it fail… we don’t know. It could easily go either way.

That’s because Estep isn’t afraid to put her characters on the hook. She lets them get beat up (as Gin does in the opening scene of Venom). They take their lumps. By doing this, Estep creates the niggling sense that maybe Gin won’t have a happily ever after — at least, not in the way Gin’s envisioning it.

And as readers, we eat up that uncertainty. We need to keep reading. We need to know. And we agonize that book four in the series, Tangled Threads, won’t be out for another six months.

Overall, Estep’s dark world continues to both fascinate and feel like a familiar place we take refuge from our own lives in. This is a world where vampires go out during the day, where Giants are real people, and Dwarfs are infused with good magic. It’s a world of possibility. And by creating an assassin, not only does Estep get to play with the big moral questions, she allows us to wish we could be Gin. Just long enough to turn into the Spider and … take care of … things… ourselves.

Venom. You’re not surprised to hear this, but it’s a West of Mars recommended read.

Ahh, the third year of the Musical Hanukkah Celebration. If you haven’t been here until now, you’ve really been missing out.

In the third year, the band had outgrown All Access, the dinky but cool club they’d used for the first two years. Their manager, JR, had finagled them a deal to move to the Rocket Theater — a venue previously reserved for Riverview’s drag queen community.

There’s some justice in the band moving in with drag queens, and not just because Kerri used to hang out with them…

Checking out the Rocket Theater. One of my favorites!

And now the standard disclaimer stuff… in November and December, at least 50% of my royalties will be donated to charity. For full information, check out my contests page. And to follow the flashbacks from the beginning, use this link.

Want to go to the next? Here’s the link!

Susan’s note: Springer and Trinity appear here every now and then. When last we saw them together, Trinity was in trouble. It was our boy Springer to the rescue — then as now.

Springer sat down on the edge of the bed beside Trinity. She was hugging her knees to her chest, like she did all the time now. Getting herself in major trouble the way she had… it had messed her up pretty good.

“This year’s Musical Hanukkah? You up for it?”

He hadn’t expected her to say yes. Hadn’t expected her to do much else other than what she did: shake her head from side to side exactly twice. Fast, too. Nothing slow or deliberate. It was like she wanted to get done with this talking stuff as fast as she possibly could.

“Trin,” he said, trying to stop himself from moving an inch or two away from her. But c’mon, he wanted to say. How long was a guy supposed to keep getting the cold shoulder? She wasn’t even his girl and she was acting like this. “You gotta pull yourself together already. Life’s falling apart all around you.”

“Why?” she spat, her voice dripping with an edge that gave Springer the chills.

“Why what?” Springer asked, confused.

“Why do I have to pull myself together? What if there’s nothing left to pull together? Did you think of that? Did you forget I got kicked out of the house, I got kicked out of school? I’ve got nothing, Springer. Nothing.”

“Well,” he said, wondering if this was a good idea or not, “you’ve got me.”

She made an ugly face.

“And a place to stay,” Springer said, starting to panic. “Grandma was saying the other day that if you’d be willing, she’d pay you to be her companion.”

“Oh, great. I’ve gone from being a whore to … to…”

“To having a good job taking care of a sweet old lady,” Springer said. “You’ll have a place to stay and whatever you need.” He didn’t mention that he could move back home. Or stay here with Trinity and Grandma. “All you’d need to do is the cleaning, the grocery shopping, stuff like that.”

“Taking care of the garden, cooking. You know. Being a slave. Are you sure I’m not really Black, Springer? Is this the South before the Civil War?”

It was sad he’d gotten used to her talking like this.

“Slaves didn’t get paid. Grandma’s willing to pay you. And let you use her car. I bet if you wanted to go to school for something, she’d help you.”

“School?” Trinity raised her head, her chin coming forward. As her forehead tilted back, she rolled her eyes. “Dropouts can’t go to school.”

Springer sighed. All he’d wanted to know was if she was up for the Musical Hanukkah Celebration. Or maybe if he should go without her. It was looking like that was how it was going to go.

“Look, Springer, why are you here?”

“Because right now, I live here. Someone’s gotta take care of grandma.”

“I can’t take your job, Springer.”

“I wish you would.”

“Why? So you can go live life while I’m slaving away here?”

“So you can do something besides feel sorry for yourself,” he said, sstanding up. “And because I think Grandma would rather have a girl around than me.”

“You’re her grandkid. She’s not allowed to not want you around.”

As if she’d realized the hypocrisy of what she’d just said, she smiled. Sort of.

“Think about it, Trin. You’re not the only one around here who’s miserable ’cause of what happened to you. Right now, you’re the one with the power to change it all.”

She shrugged and put her chin back down on her knees. Springer left her like that, just like he usually did. At least she’d said something. A lot of somethings.

It was an improvement.

Check out other Friday Flashers, as well as Weekend Writer’s Retreat. There’s good fiction to be found on this here Internet.

I haven’t done a Booking Through Thursday prompt in eons, mostly because they haven’t really appealed. Today’s does.

It’s all about what we’re reading now, and if we enjoy it and all that.

So…

I’m reading three books right now — an ARC copy of Jennifer Estep’s Venom. It’s coming out on September 28 (yeah, I waited until the last minute. The file refused to convert to .epub nicely, so I have to read on the laptop) and if you haven’t started Jennifer’s Elemental Assassin series yet, you are SO missing out. Start with Spider’s Bite, the first, and go from there.

Really. Jennifer knows how to build a world that’s so comfortable, you’ll think YOU live there.

I’m also about to finish up Linda Fairstein’s Death Dance. If you’ve read my book talks for any length of time, you’ll remember I’m a HUGE Fairstein fan. You don’t have to read the series in order. They’re smart and full of historical facts about the city of New York. During her years as a prosecutor, Fairstein herself pioneered a lot of the ways in which rape victims are dealt with and helped in the court system. We’ve still got a long way to go, but she was instrumental in taking those first vital steps.

And finally, because I needed something to read and the laptop was tied up by children or husband — not to mention I’m overdue to turn the review in — I’m reading Jan Bornstein’s Deuces are Wild. It’s the third in a trilogy, and it’s rock and roll fiction. I’m not terribly far into it yet, so we’ll see…

Remember to keep your eyes on Rocks ‘n Reads for other books I’m reading. Add it to your reader; I don’t post there often.