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Monday, December 30, 2013

All Badge Kickstarter Rewards Sent!!!

With the exception of one or two stragglers, all of the Kickstarter Rewards for Badge have been sent. This means, if you have a reward coming, it's on its way. If you have a reward coming and you don't get it in a week or so, do let me know and we'll rectify it.

This also means that the monster of Badge is out of the cage. It only took seven years. For those of you getting Badge as a reward, the best way to let me and the world know what you think of it is by reviewing it at your blog, at Amazon, at Goodreads, or anywhere else on the web. (Don't worry; I won't miss it.) Amazon and Goodreads both have pages already set up for Badge, and I'll soon have some kind of Badge Facebook page as well.  Perfect for linking!

That's it for now. Enjoy the rest of the holidays, and I'll have lots of Badge news for you beginning next week.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Read the blurb of Badge.

Or read an excerpt of Badge.


Tuesday, December 17, 2013

My Review of Partial List of People to Bleach up at Word Riot

This is a review of the Future Tense edition of the title, which came out earlier this year. Have at it.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Read the blurb of Badge.

Or read an excerpt of Badge.


Monday, December 9, 2013

Writers Anonymous

If there's one thing my writer's group Writers Anonymous doesn't tolerate, it's boring writing.

Every Thursday night in Portland, I print my latest piece and head to one of the four or five rotating dining rooms where WA meets to critique each other's work. It became very clear early on that each piece I bring in had better not lag. I can feel the sighs of my fellow attendees viscerally, inwardly cringe at every stifled yawn. If I make it through my five or so minute reading with a sense that I didn't put anyone to sleep, I know I'm getting somewhere.

This process has yielded two books thus far by WA members, both of which would make perfect Christmas reading. The first is Breakfast: A History by Portland Mercury food writer Heather Arndt Anderson. A book about breakfast? Yes, and one that is engaging and urbane and fun. Heather has a knack for writing about food, and this book oozes like a broken egg yoke with her wealth of culinary knowledge, witty asides, and delicious quotes from days of breakfast yore. If you don't this book, I'll eat beef tongue for breakfast for a month.

And Heather is speaking tomorrow night at the Jack London Pub on Riot Grrls in 1913 Portland. Go see her!

The second book is God is Disappointed in You by Mark Russell. You know what the problem is with the Bible, besides it having more baggage than a cross-country TWA flight? Its wealth of wisdom is buried in verbiage that can be abstruse, and all that begetting and begetting. Come on, get to the point. This is a shame, because the Bible has more value than any other work of literature I've ever read. Mark Russell sets out to cure this weighty text of its encumbrances and give us only what's beautiful, riveting, relevant. Within GIDIY, each book of the Bible is reduced to two or three pages, and each is revitalized by Russell's wit and the pen New Yorker cartoonist Shannon Wheeler. You will laugh. A lot. If you don't like this book, I'll eat myrrh.

And if you don't believe me, believe the trailer

Plenty more will come from this talented group of folks, so don't fall behind now. Buy and read Breakfast: A History and God is Disappointed in You. You will not be disappointed in you.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Read the blurb of Badge.

Or read an excerpt of Badge.


Monday, November 25, 2013

Monday, November 18, 2013

February 2014 Badge Events - Part I

We're about two and a half months from the release of Badge (2/4/14), and I already have two Badge-related events to tell you about.

The first one is the day after Badge's release on February 5th at Broadway Books in Portland, where I'll be reading with two of my favorite local authors Mark Russell and Monica Drake. Each author's reading will also very probably feature a multimedia element. The event starts at 7 PM.

The second one is in Seattle on February 27th, where I'll be reading at the Jewelbox Theater with a large cast of other great rock-tinged writers including Sean Beaudoin, Zoe Zolbrod, Rob Roberge, Jodi Angel and Joshua Mohr. The readings will be followed by Seattle musical duo the Drop Shadows, and it will all start at 9:30 PM. 

Those two are firm, and there are plenty more to come. Stay tuned.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Read the blurb of Badge.

Or read an excerpt of Badge.


Monday, November 11, 2013

Badge Publication Date Announced, plus Badge Cover!!!

It's official, folks. My third novel Badge will available to the world on February 4th, 2014. Those who donated to Badge's Kickstarter campaign will receive their copies sometime in January.

And are you ready for the unveiling of Badge's cover? Well, get ready, because it's ready.

 
Big thanks go out to the lovely Raquel for making this one a reality. 

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Monday, November 4, 2013

Badge Back to the Printer

My week of checking the proof of Badge is over, and the revised version is again in the hands of the printer. The next step is to order advance reader copies, which will go out to reviewers, and of course to read the thing again. If all is okay with it, I'll place a bigger order in January to fulfill my Kickstarter rewards.

I have to say I feel very lucky to have gotten a chance to work for this long on this thing. I think the book will be worth your time.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Check out the Trailer for Stuck Outside of Phoenix the Movie, which premiered in May 2013.




Or try Stuck Outside of Phoenix in print form for just $10.


Or try Stuck for your Kindle for just $2.99.


Monday, October 28, 2013

My Piece on Narcissism is Up at Word Riot

Think you know what narcissism is? Think again.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Check out the Trailer for Stuck Outside of Phoenix the Movie, which premiered in May 2013.




Or try Stuck Outside of Phoenix in print form for just $10.


Or try Stuck for your Kindle for just $2.99.


Monday, October 21, 2013

Badge off to the Printer, plus Stuck the Movie Halloween Showing Info

First, my third novel Badge is finished, proofread, formatted, designed and off to the printer. I should see a proof of the book next week. Then I'll read it again very carefully, probably submitting corrections and generally being anal about everything. I should have a final-final copy in my hands by early/mid-November, when I'll start taunting you with it via the Internet. Those who contributed to my Kickstarter campaign at $25 or more will receive their copy in January 2014, and the book will be available to everyone in February. February is looking like a big month for Badge events too. Stay tuned.

And last but not least, the Tempe Halloween (Saturday, Oct. 26th) showing of Stuck Outside of Phoenix the Movie is firm! The theater is Pollack Tempe Cinemas, and showtime is 9:30 PM. Your Stuck ticket will also be good for entrance into Sail Inn later that night, which will feature local music and a distinctly haunted vibe. So, go dig you some Stuck this weekend, and get the pants scared off of you to boot!

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Check out the Trailer for Stuck Outside of Phoenix the Movie, which premiered in May 2013.




Or try Stuck Outside of Phoenix in print form for just $10.


Or try Stuck for your Kindle for just $2.99.


Monday, October 14, 2013

A New Screening of Stuck Outside of Phoenix the Movie in Tempe for Halloween!!!

Yes, Phoenicians, Stuck Outside of Phoenix the Movie is again coming to a theater near you, and for All Hollow's Eve no less.

Producer Nico is a big time Halloween freak, and he's concocted a night of Rock and Scare Mayhem for Saturday, Oct. 26th. Details aren't 1000% firm but here's what we know for sure: The movie will show at a Tempe theater starting at 9:30 PM on Saturday. Your Stuck ticket will be good for both the movie and entrance into Sail Inn later that night, which will feature local music and a distinctly haunted vibe. Sounds like a ghoulishly good time? You better believe it.

So go see Stuck, and get the pants scared off of you!

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Check out the Trailer for Stuck Outside of Phoenix the Movie, which premiered in May 2013.




Or try Stuck Outside of Phoenix in print form for just $10.


Or try Stuck for your Kindle for just $2.99.

Monday, October 7, 2013

I'm Teaching a One-Day Self-Publishing Seminar at The Attic in November!!!

Hey, current and future self-pubbers!

I have a self-publishing seminar going down in November at The Attic. The difference from my summer course? It all happens in one day. That's right. In eight hours on a Sunday, you will go from someone with a manuscript, a lot of questions, and a will to do it all yourself to someone armed and ready for the fun if murky waters of self-publication. Sound good? Come hang with me on a Sunday! It'll be fun!

Click for more details.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Check out the Trailer for Stuck Outside of Phoenix the Movie, which premiered in May 2013.




Or try Stuck Outside of Phoenix in print form for just $10.


Or try Stuck for your Kindle for just $2.99.

Monday, September 30, 2013

Quick Update on Badge

I'm in the process of putting Badge into book form. When I thought of getting a traditional publisher for the novel, this is the part I most looked forward to handing off to them.

Still, it's going well enough, and I hope to send Badge to the printer on Monday 10/14, two weeks from today. I'll be glad when it's done and I can start focusing on some of the promotional aspects of its launch, which at this moment is slated for 2/18/14. People who donated to Badge's Kickstarter campaign will get their copies in January.

Okay, back to it.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Check out the Trailer for Stuck Outside of Phoenix the Movie, which premiered in May 2013.




Or try Stuck Outside of Phoenix in print form for just $10.


Or try Stuck for your Kindle for just $2.99.

Monday, September 23, 2013

Put your Lobotomy Cap on Before Reading This One

I could write an essay showing the myriad atrocities in this Daily Beast article, but I won't have time. I will say it's entirely possible The Daily Beast does not have your best interests at heart.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Check out the Trailer for Stuck Outside of Phoenix the Movie, which premiered in May 2013.




Or try Stuck Outside of Phoenix in print form for just $10.


Or try Stuck for your Kindle for just $2.99.

Monday, September 16, 2013

My Latest at the Weeklings

Never afraid to grapple with the hard questions of our day, this week at The Weeklings I take on your reluctance to give in to the corporate rock of your youth. Come on people, it's only rock and roll (and you love it). 

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Check out the Trailer for Stuck Outside of Phoenix the Movie, which premiered in May 2013.




Or try Stuck Outside of Phoenix in print form for just $10.


Or try Stuck for your Kindle for just $2.99.

Friday, September 13, 2013

Top Twenty Rock Novels of All Time : #1

What's this? Start at the beginning here.


1

Banned for Life by D. R. Haney

I first came across Banned for Life in 2010 after having a piece published at The Nervous Breakdown and becoming involved in its literary community. One of the most colorful writer/commenters at TNB was D. R. “Duke” Haney. Haney’s debut novel, I read in his bio, was called Banned for Life, which upon further review had serious rock lit overtones, putting it right up my alley. But the thing was $21, well more than what I wanted to pay for a paperback. So, I did what any good supporter of the arts does: I tried to find it used.

When that didn’t work, I tried to hit Haney up for a free copy in a trade for my latest, Ghost Notes. Haney, on to my scheme from the onset, said he’d love to trade but didn’t have a copy of his novel to give away. I waited a year, periodically scanning the Internet, looking for a way to get Banned for Life for less than 20 bucks, to no avail. It was clear if I were going to read this thing, I’d have to suck it up and become that rarest of all creatures: a genuine supporter of small press literature. I placed my order at Powell’s, coughed up the dough, and once I had it in my hands, I plopped onto my couch.

And didn’t get up for a long time.

Banned for Life is more than just another worthy contribution to the pantheon of rock novels. It’s the best one I’ve ever read.

Jason “Killer” Maddox is Banned for Life’s narrator, and his voice is central to the appeal of the novel. It’s also a voice I associate with Haney himself, having read much of his work at The Nervous Breakdown. Instances of its power and compelling nature abound, but the first few sentences capture it as well as any: “It all began with a fuck. What doesn’t? I fucked the wrong person; I fucked up the right one; somebody played me a song. It changed my whole life, that song. That’s why I later went to so much trouble to find the guy who wrote and sang it.”

And there you have the through-story of Banned for Life, but more importantly you have the tenor of the teller: passionate, provocative, profane. It’s the kind of voice I’m inclined to listen to.

But Haney doesn’t just rely on the stun of his yawp. Throughout the novel he reveals his talent for tropes, like this passage about his best friend Peewee: “At fifteen he’d soaked up more knowledge than most people twice and three times his age, and he’d ramble through it in breathless monologues, veering from subject to subject like a house-trapped sparrow trying to find an open window.”

Or in this description of Los Angeles: “At times it reminded me of a Doors song: laid-back on the one hand, ghostly on the other—a hammock stretched between tombstones.”

Or when he first meets Peewee: “There was a sense of stumbling on a secret somehow, as if I’d tripped on a rug and discovered a cellar that wasn’t in the floor plan.”

Haney is a writer, not a blogger, and anyone who picks up Banned for Life with hopes of finding something more elevated than the latest Internet click bait won’t be disappointed.

Jason and Peewee’s relationship is front and center for much of the novel, but just as compelling to me is Jason’s girlfriend Irina, a beautiful, married, chronically detached Serbian who over the course of the last half of the novel learns the underside of what her beauty gets her. Their mutual friend Milan tries to clue Jason in:

“You know Irina—I love her very much, but she plays her game with me, you know. She does this for a long time with me, but then I realize nothing will happen.”

Despite the warning, Jason falls hard for Irina, so much so he doesn’t like her passing affection for anyone, even his long-gone friend Peewee. “Here was a girl so astonishing in every way, I was always going to feel jealous, even of someone who’d been dead for years.”

Much passes between the two lovebirds, most of it maddening for Jason. Not since Jake Barnes and Lady Brett Ashley does a literary relationship seem so doomed for the outset.

If anything in Banned for Life made me bump, it was the occasional gesture of Jason to his own comeliness, or strength, or sexual prowess. For example: “There’s no other way to say it: I was a big, tall, handsome guy.” And later with Irina: “‘I think I’m going to leave,’ she said, and started to get up, but I pulled her down and fucked her nearly comatose, and she was nothing if not encouraging.” That great voice loses a bit for me in these instances. When Jason reflects, “I’m not trying to suggest my dick is that big, or I’m that great in bed,” we know he’s suggesting just that.

But these quibbles can't ebb the flow of goodwill I feel for Banned for Life. Haney has created a tale both tender and bombastic--not unlike your favorite rock album--and the book fulfills the promise of the rock novel better than any other to date.

And you better believe it’s worth $21.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Check out the Trailer for Stuck Outside of Phoenix the Movie, which premiered in May 2013.




Or try Stuck Outside of Phoenix in print form for just $10.


Or try Stuck for your Kindle for just $2.99.

Thursday, September 12, 2013

Top Twenty Rock Novels of All Time: #5-2

What's this? Start at the beginning here.

5

Never Mind the Pollacks by Neal Pollack

The most brazen book on this list, Pollack plants his fictional doppelganger, rock critic Neal Pollack, at the scene of every important rock event in the latter half of the 20th Century, taking us from its birth with Sam Phillips in Memphis all the way to the fateful day Kurt and Courtney got married. Elvis, Iggy and Patti Smith all make appearances, but none of them are an compelling as Pollack, who rages against the dying of the rock.

Memorable Line: “They listened to Jimmie Rodgers and Fats Domino all across Texas, Elvis blowing flies off his lips, Scotty and Bill becoming progressively less famous, Neal chugging the cough syrup, staring bug-eyed out the window, singing ‘Baby, Let’s Play House’ as they steamed into New Orleans and Jacksonville and all roads leading to stardom.”

4

Stone Arabia by Dana Spiotta

Stone Arabia is story of one reclusive rock musician—Rik, who over the course of several decades has created The Chronicles, a mish-mash of music, journalism and ephemera encompassing his made-up rock star life—told from the point of view of his younger sister Denise, who’s struggling to get down her own chronicles. Spiotta beautifully renders a rock life as it gets old, and wears thin.

Memorable Line: “She was a woman who always appeared past her peak but who actually never had a peak.”

3

High Fidelity by Nick Hornby 

Record store owner and music freak Rob is obsessed with understanding his life through top-five lists, all while his ex-girlfriend sleeps with his upstairs neighbor. Hornby gives us an archetypal rock character, the sullen guy a little too attached to his own pop culture opinions while real life threatens to pass him by.

Memorable Line: “Tuesday night I reorganize my record collection; I often do this at periods of emotional stress.”

2

The Commitments by Roddy Doyle

The Commitments is a charming story of a batch of south Dublin nobodies who manage to put together a blues act that threatens to take them to the top. No novel has ever brought the vibe of rock so convincingly to the page, or the fragility of an pop act on a quick ascension to stardom.

Memorable Line: “You made up for the lack of variety by thumping the string more often and taking your hand off the neck and putting it back a lot to make it look like you were involved in complicated work.”

Check in Friday for the #1 Greatest Rock Novel of All Time.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Check out the Trailer for Stuck Outside of Phoenix the Movie, which premiered in May 2013.




Or try Stuck Outside of Phoenix in print form for just $10.


Or try Stuck for your Kindle for just $2.99.

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Top Twenty Rock Novels of All Time: #10-6

What's this? Start at the beginning here.

10 

A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

A hodgepodge of music business types make up this patchwork of pathos in Egan’s ode to the fracturing of our communication in the new century. A Visit from the Goon Squad could be an early sign of where the novel is headed in the iPad era.

Memorable Line: “Everybody sounds stoned, because they’re emailing people the whole time they’re talking to you.”

9

Great Jones Street by Don DeLillo

Bucky Wunderlick is a rock star with a world of fans waiting on his next word, but does he have anything left to say? DeLillo probes the bizarre power of 1970s pop fame, and urban decay, all the while suggesting the two might have more than a little to do with each other.

“’Fame,’ he said. ‘It won’t happen. But if it does happen. But it won’t happen. But if it does. But it won’t.’”

8

How the Mistakes Were Made by Tyler McMahon

Laura Loss is a musician-barista in Seattle’s nineties music scene searching for a way out, when she stubbles upon two young musicians looking for help fulfilling their rock dreams. The subsequent band, the Mistakes, make a few, with Laura revealing her role in their demise in this gripping rock confessional.

Memorable Line: “I sometimes wonder what would’ve become of underground music in this country had Ford never produced [the Econoline van].”

7

The Blue Bourbon Orchestra by Carson Mell

The only writer to appears on this list twice, Mell recounts the plight of middle-aged guitarist and wanderer Charles Leslie deBeau, who finds himself in the titular blues band, spending years touring the south on a shoestring and winding up with a murder rap. Mell refines his storytelling chops from Saguaro to create this heftier, more realistic tome, but still with his patented seductive voice.

Memorable Line: “You only get to choose one path. And it’s not even a path. We just call it that to feel comfortable.”

6

The Wishbones by Tom Perrotta

Dave Raymond loves nothing as much as playing in his wedding band the Wishbones, but at thirty-one, the rest of Dave’s life is crowding him toward something more substantial. Perrotta tells the tale of a reluctant adult who lives to play cover songs that make people sweat on the dance floor.

Memorable Line: “Once, out of curiosity, he squeezed himself into a pair of leather pants, and it hadn’t been a pretty sight.”

Check in on Thursday, when we'll do #5-2.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Check out the Trailer for Stuck Outside of Phoenix the Movie, which premiered in May 2013.




Or try Stuck Outside of Phoenix in print form for just $10.


Or try Stuck for your Kindle for just $2.99.

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Top Twenty Rock Novels of All Time: #15-11

What's this? Start at the beginning here.
    
15

The Last Rock Star Book, Or: Liz Phair, a Rant by Camden Joy

When Sioux City musician-narrator Camden Joy finds himself commissioned to write a “Where are they now?”-style biography of Liz Phair, he winds up revealing his own biography of failed love, obsession and institutionalization. Think Holden Caulfield pushing thirty in the 90s with a microcassette recorder.

Memorable line: “When we count one to ten … we don’t actually count but just repeat words we learned long ago.”
  
14

You Don’t Love Me Yet by Jonathan Lethem

Young, smart, and a bassist in an art rock band in 1980s Los Angeles, Lucinda Hoekke’s only problems are resisting the passion she feels for her guitarist—which would spell doom for her band—and The Complainer, a caller on the complaint line where she works who uses her vulnerability to leverage his way into her life. You Don’t Love Me Yet plays at the intersection of love, art and rock music, with Lucinda and her mates not paying enough attention to the road.

Memorable Line: “Falmouth’s first and most successful piece of art was himself, installed in the larger gallery of the world.”

13

A & R by Bill Flanagan

A & R tells the tale of Jim Cantone, who learned the music business during its Wild West days but finds the new 90s lot of corporate-thinkers disconcerting. This novel somehow succeeds in the all-but-impossible task of making a record label rep sympathetic.

Memorable Line: “These were people who shared nothing voluntarily, least of all their attention.”

12

Saguaro: The Life & Adventures of Bobby Allen Bird by Carson Mell

Saguaro is the tall-tale recounting of fatherless Arizonan Bobby Bird, who goes on to some success as a singer-songwriter but spends most of his life getting in and out of various entanglements with ladies and fringe types. Mell’s captivating, down-to-earth voice makes Saguaro completely devour-able.

Memorable Line: “This is a story I’m not too inclined to tell unless you are particularly interested in tales of full grown men turning into worthless assholes.”

11

Wise Young Fool by Sean Beaudoin

Wise Young Fool is about teen guitarist Ritchie Sudden, who’s found himself in a juvenile lock-up after the events from the night of his band’s first gig. Beaudoin unravels the conflicts that lead to Sudden’s detention by skillfully interspersing both front and back story, and with the verbal alacrity of a prose gymnast.

Memorable Line: “Ravenna’s caught two hundred meters below the reef, unwanted sexual pressure crushing her lungs, sharks below and the bends above, nowhere to go but farther inside herself.”

Check in Wednesday for #10-6.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Check out the Trailer for Stuck Outside of Phoenix the Movie, which premiered in May 2013.




Or try Stuck Outside of Phoenix in print form for just $10.


Or try Stuck for your Kindle for just $2.99.


Monday, September 9, 2013

Top Twenty Rock Novels of All Time: #20-16

The rock novel landscape was a barren place when I released my second, Ghost Notes, in 2008. I’d spent the previous year or so submitting it to 111 agents, barely finding anyone willing to look at a thing called a rock novel. I couldn’t blame them; there was little going on across publishing that might give them hope such a book would find an audience. But I had a vision for a series of novels that brings to life ego-driven lead singers, drunk guitarists, wishy-washy bassists, and drummers who break your heart with the way they hit the kick, snare and hi-hat. I self-published Ghost Notes—as I had my previous rock novel Stuck Outside of Phoenix (2003)—and booked events all over the country, pimping my wares and trying to get anyone excited about rock-tinged fiction. Those anyones barely existed.

What a difference five years makes.

Since the publication of Ghost Notes, rock novels have won the Pulitzer Prize (A Visit from the Goon Squad, 2011) and been named one of New York Times’ Ten Best Books of the Year (Ten Thousand Saints, 2011). Even Jonathan Franzen’s mega-blockbuster Freedom features a singer-songwriter searching for his way forward in the 21st century. Moreover, many not-as-popular-but-at-least-as-worthy rock fiction titles have managed to find their way into print in that span, and some of the best I’ve read. This subject—musicians making their way in the world while the inferno burns inside them, and after it burns out—has always fascinated me, and treating these stories with some dignity seems apropos as the rock and roll era enters its twilight.

All this to say, as I get ready to publish my third rock novel Badge in early 2014, it’s good not to be alone anymore.

With so many new rock novels published in the recent past, I feel compelled to chronicle what’s good, great and classic in this nascent genre. Over the week, I’ll announce my Top 20 Rock Novels of All Time, publishing five titles a day—starting with numbers 20 through 16 below—and I’ll march us right down to my pick for the Greatest Rock Novel of All Time, which I’ll crown on Friday.

Some might wonder my criteria for inclusion on this list. Each of these books qualifies as a rock novel because the main character is shaped by a rock ethos. As far as ranking, these are the main things I considered:

 1)    The promise of the novel’s beginning;


 2)    Its ability to deliver on that promise;


 3)    My desire to read the book again.


Got it? Okay, here goes.

20

Ten Thousand Saints By Eleanor Henderson

In Ten Thousand Saints, Vermont teenager Jude loses his best friend to a drug overdose and is forced to live with his dad in the East Village of the 1980s, only to fall under the influence of straight-edge punks who don’t have sex, do drugs or eat meat. Henderson fills her novel with a tapestry of familial relationships that any latch key kid can relate to.

Memorable Line: “She observed Jude's romance with straight edge as she might have observed his first love—warily, with a mother's pride, hoping that, in the end, his heart wouldn't break too hard.”

19

Never Mind Nirvana by Mark Lindquist

Never Mind Nirvana is a story of arrested adolescence, all with Seattle’s nineties music scene providing background and ambience. Dive bars, post-punk references, and romances that come and go faster than three-minute rock songs get heavy play here, along with a date-rape case that leaves protagonist/lawyer Pete Tyler wondering if the fun’s gone on too long.

Memorable line: “A Blur rip-off of a Pavement song plays on the house stereo as Carol shakes a martini.”

18

Twisted Kicks by Tom Carson

One of the earliest rock novels, Twisted Kicks is the eery story of Dan Lang, a young musician who meets with trouble in New York’s punk scene of the late 1970s and comes back home to Icarus, Virginia to sort through the detritus. Carson’s voice reminds me of great 20th century male writers like John Updike, the darkness of Lang’s past creeping into every line of prose.

Memorable line: “‘That girl’s going to commit suicide some day. She’s got what it takes.’”

17

Boarded Windows by Dylan Hicks

Boarded Windows’s prominent curiosity is boomer aesthete Wade Salem as seen through the eyes of his (perhaps) son, a ruminative, unnamed protagonist and record collector looking for some essential truth to help break through his ennui. Expect references to Aristotle, stories about famous jazz bassists, and women who can only have sex while listening to John Philip Sousa.

Memorable line: “I was wearing, to paraphrase Gogol, whatever God or JCPenney sends to a provincial town.”

16

The Cost of Living by Rob Roberge

The Cost of Living chronicles the trip home to Connecticut of musician/drug addict Bud Barrett to confront his dying father about their past and, God willing, get beyond it. Plenty of sex, drugs and rock and roll punctuate Barrett’s road from guitarist in a seminal rock band to hard-living junkie and back. Roberge’s ability to render the details of drug culture shines through.

Memorable line: “But still, in that moment, things were peaceful, and peace was one of the rarest visitors my head ever received and I wanted to savor it.”

That's it for today. Check in Tuesday for #15-11.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Check out the Trailer for Stuck Outside of Phoenix the Movie, which premiered in May 2013.




Or try Stuck Outside of Phoenix in print form for just $10.


Or try Stuck for your Kindle for just $2.99.



Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Quicky Stuck the Movie Update

If I get one question from folks out here in the real world, it's "When's the movie coming out?"

I'm glad to say there's been some good news in that direction. Right now, Nico has one offer for distribution, with what sounds like a couple of other distributors very interested.

We all know nothing is done until it's done, but this is promising. Here's the Facebook announcement.

Everyone hang tight, and hopefully we'll have more news soon.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Check out the Trailer for Stuck Outside of Phoenix the Movie, which premiered in May 2013.




Or try Stuck Outside of Phoenix in print form for just $10.


Or try Stuck for your Kindle for just $2.99.

Monday, August 26, 2013

Book Blurbs

Right about now is when I should be getting blurbs for Badge. You know what blurbs are: those quotes from various writers on the backs of novels telling you how great the novel is. Getting blurbs involves going out into the world and asking writers to read and blurb your novel. I got a few for Ghost Notes. They're an industry standard. If you want to do everything you can to sell your novel, you get book blurbs.

But I'm not getting blurbs for Badge.

Why Not? Three reasons.

1) I don't want to waste favors with my writer friends on blurbs.

Writers never have enough time to do what they want to do--which is write--and I don't want to exhaust these folks with my requests. I'd rather ask them to help promote Badge in other ways, should they be inclined, by reviewing it, or by doing a reading with me when I'm in their town.

2) Many argue blurbs don't help sell novels.

Hey, if you know Stephen King and can get him to blurb your book, go for it. I know many writers more successful than me who could probably be cajoled into blurbing Badge, but I don't know if their seals of approval will generate enough sales to merit bugging them in the first place.

3) There's something about blurb culture that's tired.

Maybe it's me, but whenever I see a writer's blurb on a novel, all I can think of is this poor writer having to drum up enthusiasm for this work out of loyalty or guilt or because she doesn't know how to say no, and not because she's genuinely interested in the work. That might be my projection, but it also might contain some truth. I've never blurbed someone else's book--self-published writers typically aren't sought after for their opinions--but should I have to do it someday, I can't help but imagine it as a kind of task. I tend to read slowly, so maybe that's part of the reason why it seems cumbersome. The temptation to read just the first chapter and scare up a quick sentence or two must be pretty strong.

Anyway, deciding to forgo blurbs is another great argument for self-publishing. If Badge were being traditionally published, I don't think I'd have a choice.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Check out the Trailer for Stuck Outside of Phoenix the Movie, which premiered in Tempe in May 2013.



Or try Stuck Outside of Phoenix in print form for just $10.

Or try Stuck for your Kindle for just $2.99.

Monday, August 19, 2013

New Website

I just redesigned my website, which makes updating much easier, but I could use your help troubleshooting, especially if you're viewing on an iPhone. So, if you're inclined, head on over and tell me how to make it better.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Check out the Trailer for Stuck Outside of Phoenix the Movie, which premiered in Tempe in May 2013.



Or try Stuck Outside of Phoenix in print form for just $5.

Or try Stuck for your Kindle for just $2.99.

Monday, August 12, 2013

My New Essay on Public Readings up at the Weeklings!!!

Wherein I manage to slag everything I'll be adopting in six months to promote Badge.

Speaking of Badge, I finished the final draft of it this past week (seven years in the making), and it's currently in the hands of its proofreader. I expect a proofread copy back in a week. Then I have to format it, Kel and I have to finish the cover, and it's off to the printer. I should have a copy in my greedy little hands by October, which means I'll be taunting you with it via the Internet during the last quarter of the year. Yes, torture is why I do this.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Check out the Trailer for Stuck Outside of Phoenix the Movie, which premiered in Tempe in May 2013.



Or try Stuck Outside of Phoenix in print form for just $5.

Or try Stuck for your Kindle for just $2.99.

Monday, August 5, 2013

My Review of Rock Novel WISE YOUNG FOOL by Sean Beaudoin

As a teenager, I wasn’t much of a reader. Sure, I read the sports page, the occasional rock biography, but reading novels meant an assignment leveled at me by a teacher. Homework. These required books—A Tale of Two Cities comes to mind—offered nothing to appeal to my adolescent fantasies, which revolved around wanting to be awesome musician, play in a band, put out records and be chased by groupies. I wanted to be a rock star. Sorry, Madame Defarge, but Gene Simmons wins every time.

In the 1980s, the vast divide between books and rock music couldn’t have been wider. I suspect pop culture was seen as a threat to the vaunted world of books, the barbarians at the gate of The Important Stuff. David Lee Roth had a thousand times more influence on the kids of my era than Holden Caulfield, much less Natty Bumpo, and this no doubt pissed off some people with elbow patches on their suit coats. I of course loved that it pissed them off.

Still, when I turned eighteen and took my first lit class in college, I fell in love with A Clockwork Orange, 1984, Slaughterhouse-Five. These seemed more rock and roll to me than rock and roll, so much so I regretted not having started my fiction life earlier. Had Sean Beaudoin’s Wise Young Fool existed back then, it might have meant an entirely different launching point for my book life.

I’m a big fan of Beaudoin’s work at the websites like The Weeklings, and his first foray into the rock novel seemed the perfect time to jump into his longer efforts. Much of Beaudoin’s verbal talent is in full force in this novel. Here, the author renders the hottest girl in protagonist Ritchie Sudden’s high school class, Ravenna Woods:

So why does she make every dude in the school apoplectic? 

Why does she walk around lobbing a toaster into the collective bath tub?

Hey, let’s not pretend.

It’s her body.

There is simply no ignoring its heft and criminal perk. It’s a monument of taut Austrian hydraulics. If she were flat or fat she’d still be pretty, but no linebackers would be cutting practice trying to get to know her better. Without the badonkadonk and sheik-money strut, guys would hardly be killing themselves to score her fake digits anymore.

You’ve got to figure that level of constant objectification and wheedling hypocrisy would make a girl bitter.

And you’d be right.

Ravenna’s caught two hundred meters below the reef, unwanted sexual pressure crushing her lungs, sharks below and the bends above, nowhere to go but farther inside herself.

Any reader of Wise Young Fool will have no trouble finding such acrobatics, the next tumble of tropes never far from the last, creating a distinctly Beaudoinian joy ride.

The plight of Ritchie Sudden from discontented high schooler to rock hero to juvenile detention attendee is the raison d’etre of WYF, and Ritchie’s frustration is palpable throughout—his unresolved feelings over his sister’s death; his too-busy, too-lesbian mother; his absent father; his disgust with the folks in his class. Most effective are the times Beaudoin touches on the very human teenager behind the wise ass, like when a high school student almost chokes to death in front of Ritchie in the cafeteria.

“Call the nurse,” Lacy says.

“Yeah,” Meb says.

“Right,” I say, but for some reason don’t move. I don’t take charge. I don’t leap to action. I don’t leap at all.

I just sit.

Scared.

Such trepidation is the yang to Ritchie’s sardonic edge, and Beaudoin plies his budding guitarist’s frank observations for all they’re worth. At the detention center Progressive Progress, Ritchie lists his classes: “Art Therapy, How to Do a Job Interview, How to Not Be High All the Time.” Ritchie’s mom’s girlfriend’s boss, a businessman and pool cleaning entrepreneur named Rude, is always worth a few chuckles when seen from Ritchie’s vantage. “There’s always enough dirty pools, leaves, and dead mice and bugs, and kids squeezing out a Baby Ruth in the shallow end to keep [him] busy.”

Answering the call for a literature that says something to young rockers about their lives, Beaudoin includes plenty of teenage rock fantasy moments, like when Ritchie dons his Les Paul in front of his bedroom mirror.

I do the Keith Richards slouch, the Billy Zoom grin, the Chuck Berry duckwalk, the My Chemical Romance dickwalk, the Eddie Van Halen finger-slam, the Hendrix teeth-pluck, the Joe Strummer low-slung, the Jimmy Page smack-daze .... Then I stop screwing around and just straight-out pentatonic air-wail like my man Joe Walsh.

Anyone who owned a guitar as a teenager can relate—or so I’ve heard.

Beaudoin skillfully bounces back and forth in time between Ritchie’s time in juvie and the events that lead to it, but the detention side of Ritchie’s experiences runs thin compared to the drama of his band, his love life, and the moment he commits his crime. Still, Beaudoin seamlessly brings it all together in the end, like the disparate members of a rock band coming down hard on the last note of the night, right before the singer shouts “thank you” and they scurry off.

Teenagers and angst go together like Les Pauls and Marshall Stacks. Luckily, rock is there for those who need a potent release from this mortal coil. If our literature doesn’t show that struggle, it’s the lesser for it. Wise Young Fool offers up a fun, fast-paced and ultimately satisfying road map for the young rocker in search of the way home.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Check out the Trailer for Stuck Outside of Phoenix the Movie, which premiered in Tempe in May 2013.



Or try Stuck Outside of Phoenix in print form for just $5.

Or try Stuck for your Kindle for just $2.99.

Monday, July 29, 2013

Come to our Reading Next Week!!!

For the first time in two and seven-twelveths years, I will be participating in a reading.

Yep. It's at Taborspace in SE Portland, and I'll be reading with other members of my writing group Writers Anonymous. The Co-Guests of Honor are Mark Russell, whose God is Disappointed in You will have just come out on Top Shelf; and Heather Arndt Anderson, whose Breakfast: A History just came out on Altamira Press. (Heather promises to make pancakes while reading.)

Other readers will include me, Sarah Gilbert and Rebecca Kelley, and the night will also feature live music by Dave Lindenbaum. (Other WA members may sign on too.) I'll be reading a short piece you've never heard before and manning the book table with Kel. Here's the skinny:

What: Out in Public: Readings from the Writers Anonymous Writing Group
Where: TaborSpace 5441 SE Belmont St  Portland, OR 97215 (503) 238-3904
When: Thursday, August 8th, 7-9 PM

Come help us celebrate two books being released by our group members within a month of each other, which is frickin' ridiculous.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Check out the Trailer for Stuck Outside of Phoenix the Movie, which will premiere in Tempe in early 2013.



Or try Stuck Outside of Phoenix in print form for just $5.

Or try Stuck for your Kindle for just $2.99.

Monday, July 22, 2013

More Badge Revision

I'm about three quarters through my last read-through of Badge, and it feels very close. I managed to talk myself out of one of the two biggish edits from last week, so I've got just one left. It will take about 2k out of the novel, which feels good. That 2k focuses almost entirely on characters who don't really factor into the main story. In other words, they're not that interesting. So off with their heads.

I feel like my novel can so easily slide from good to bad. There are 80,000 words in Badge, but one phrase--even one word--can make me feel like the whole etude gets knocked out of key. Every book and movie I love tilts on the characters' or actors' every word, every gesture. I don't know how anyone does anything of quality in less than five years. It happens, but not with me.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Check out the Trailer for Stuck Outside of Phoenix the Movie, which will premiere in Tempe in early 2013.



Or try Stuck Outside of Phoenix in print form for just $5.

Or try Stuck for your Kindle for just $2.99.