Odds and Sods for Sunday, April 10, 2011

Morning, world.

What's shaking? Anyone in the mood for a free book today?



"What happens when a frustrated American artist-turned-soccer-mom and her overconfident and charming British cyber-lover plan a three-day tryst of erotic depravity at a hotel in New York City?

Elizabeth and Richard are about to find out.

Elizabeth is about to turn forty years old, facing empty nest syndrome, and wistful about roads not taken. Unhappy in both her marriage and her career, she mourns abandoning her dream of being an artist. She feels like an outsider in her sports-obsessed family and a misfit at work in the corporate world. She's hoping Richard, a refined, British upper class gentleman with unusual sexual preferences, will be her Knight-in-Shining-Armor and rescue her from her unfulfilling life. What ensues is a hilariously poignant sexual romp through the Big Apple."

Yep, it's true. My very first published novel, Three Days in New York City, the first of the "sex in the city" trilogy, is TOTALLY FREE TODAY and you can pick up your copy right here at All Romance eBooks.

I feel I should mention that while I've been told Three Days is a laugh out loud comedy, a lot of the jokes revolve around sex and it is extremely graphic, so normally I'd say BUYER BEWARE but hey hey, since it's free today and today only, I say, Go for it! And if you like what you read, don't forget about the second book in the trilogy, Another Bite of the Apple, and the third and maybe or maybe not final installment, Bitten to the Core. If you would like the paperback versions of any of these books, please visit my author page over at Indiebound or directly from my publisher right here. Notice I am trying to steer you away from Amazon, but...sigh...I know resistance is futile, I know, so here is the link for that.

Speaking of writing, guess where I will be on Saturday?



Yep, I'm back, and I'll be with the East Coast Authors at a table selling and signing the reissue of Daddy Left Me Alone with God. And there will be lots of free chocolate! Stop by and say hello. For further details on the festival, here's the link to their webpage. For those of you who still get the morning newspaper, usually the Philadelphia Inquirer contains an excerpt with a map of where of the various authors/events will be but if not, trust me, I'll be tweeting and Facebooking my location.

It really is true about Facebook. Now that I know how it works, I see that's where everyone is. The blogging community as I knew it is dwindling. There are still huge communities of everything from mommy bloggers to entertainment/gossip bloggers, but most people, especially writers who need to be spending their time working on their novels, are now stationed at Facebook. So...if you haven't already, you can friend me right here.

And for me, blogging has become kind of bittersweet. Julie and Eric have apartments of their own; I no longer tour with them...so like, how do I top my stories of the past seven years since I first started blogging? I refuse to be one of those, "Well, today I had an English muffin with peanut butter for breakfast and maybe if I'm lucky, there's some brown rice and veggies left over for lunch...then I plan on writing, reading so and so's novel, and ooh ooh, I took a nap!"

Erm...no.

But yeah, how do I go from writing about meeting Robert Fripp to talking about English muffins and peanut butter?

Yer right. I can't. So I don't.

But the truth is, I have been working on my new book and I've been basically a shut in, taking care of my dog. Gah! I've been housebound for weeks, playing nursemaid to Monty the wonder dog. Yes, I know he is thirteen and has a terrible illness, but he's still hanging in there; I am confident he's not in any pain (seeing as how he still brings me his leash and has a totally voracious appetite)...but his illness, which suppresses his immune system, leaves him susceptible to just about everything and right now in addition to Cushing's disease he's fighting something called demodicosis. Don't google it. I even refuse to be my usual self and look. My feeling is, if the vet is still upbeat and Monty is still acting like Monty, I'm just taking it a day at a time and enjoying every second with him, but yeah, I am afraid to leave him alone and need a babysitter for him if I do go out.

But here's proof that he's doing great - in honor of opening day of baseball season this week, I got Monty a present and he's looking damn fine for a sickly senior citizen, isn't he?



Also, I should mention that when he turned 13 a few weeks ago, since it was his bar mitzvah, we had a party...Julie and Eric came over, we sang Happy Birthday, and this gorgeous cake is vegan peanut butter:



The idea was inspired by my vet, who told me that he has "patients" who do indeed lavishly bar mitzvah their dogs. Since I did not even have a bar mitzvah for my son, heathen that I am, I made up for it with Monty. We also had vegan coconut ice cream with our cake. :)

So, while I've been missing, I am sure you've seen the Facebook and twitters from not only me and the family but by others...Julie and Eric have been busy, busy, busy. From the Pink Revolver concert, featuring legendary musicians guitarist Jane Getter, keyboard player Rachel Z, drummer Camille Gainer Jones, vocalist Vivian Sessoms and bassist Julie Slick...and I understand another show is in the works for either May or June...here are some photos from last month:











I am still waiting for a You Tube to surface from that show, along with a You Tube from another project Julie is involved with drummer Carl Bahner...if you check Julie's website, you'll see she's got another show with Carl lined up as well as some Paper Cat shows..she's also the new bassist for Philadelphia super group Dragon King. But no worries, she's still an active member of the Adrian Belew Power Trio and there is talk of a very interesting tour this fall. Watch this space! Hmm...to save you the trouble, here's a list of Julie's upcoming gigs but I know there are more that she needs to add that are quite, quite special:

04/29 – Phoenixville, PA – Bahner/Slick Duo – Pickering Creek Inn
04/30 – Philadelphia, PA – Dragon King – The Barbary
05/04 – Philadelphia, PA – PAPER CAT – Johnny Brenda’s
06/07 – Philadelphia, PA – with Eric Slick, Tim Motzer, and Chris Cuzme – Triumph Brewing Company

Did you know that Eric has a brand new website? It's very cool but will be even cooler once he's off tour and has the time to update it but for now, here is the link. Eric is currently on tour with Dr. Dog and last night they played at the Cat's Cradle in Carrboro, North Carolina where I just read they had quite the monsoon and hailstorm last night. Ha ha, it wouldn't be a real tour if one of my kids wasn't involved in some kind of natural disaster, huh. So, two things. One, here is a photo of Eric from the sold-out Dr. Dog show in Philadelphia on February 11, where management took pity on me (being one of the few people in the venue over 30) and let me sit on the side of the stage...



and two, here, in case you've never been so lucky, what it looks like in the green room backstage at the Electric Factory where they played that night...well, not exactly what it looks like, but look who is hanging out "watching" all the partying...





Pretty cool, huh. Also, Eric had more than another fifteen minutes of fame last week when he appeared for almost ten days on the front page of the Bonaroo website with this video, where he reminisces about meeting Dr. Dog for the first time...where? At Bonnaroo, of course!



But the nicest thing that happened was this morning, when I received the official "review" from my pal, brilliant photographer Michael Inman (ha ha, Mike, I see you've abandoned your blog, too but you can friend Mike on Facebook right here. I met Mike when J&E first joined the Adrian Belew Power Trio because he is a long time King Crimson and prog music fan, so I was a little nervous about how he would react to the looser, jamband style of Dr. Dog. I needn't have worried. Here's the lovely, lovely excerpts from his FB messages that I came down to when I woke up this morning.

First. Mike sent me a copy of a message he sent to Andre Cholmondelay, who is currently teching with the UK reunion tour featuring Eddie Jobson, John Wetton, and Marco Minnemann:

"Hey Andre,

Just had to tell you this. I went to see Eric last night in Dr. Dog...and quite honestly I didn't get what all the fuss was about that band...till I saw them LAST NIGHT OMG! They were so insanely excellent! He has come such a long long way in such a few short years. You had a significant part in his development for giving him his first break in Project Object. I wish I had seen him in that band too. However I think Eric has found the right place now with Dr. Dog OMG! I never thought I would say that because I SO LOVED him in the Power Trio with Julie.

But last night I saw these boys play their ASSES OFF! They were buggin on the stage...bouncing all over the place I was in the front row and I am still freaking out at the caliber of this band! I am weeping with Joy for how amazing they are. Before I went in Eric came out and talked to me a bit. He was saying how playing iwth this band is so much different than playing where he had a lot more fills. He really had to teach himself restraint. You know what he has learned with this band is how to be a supporting drummer and hold back till it's his time to shine and trust me he has plenty of fills!

I know you have been through so so much lately losing Cheri and all and have gone through and are going through some really rough patches. But something in the cosmos told me I needed to write you to tell you just how amazing this boy has become! He has some incredible parents, an amazing sister and you of course also played a very important part in his journey so far.

I hope when you read this if warms your heart to hear these words. I know you are an amazing musician, and a super addition to any road crew a band could ever have. I am sure that Wetton and Jobson know this and if they don't they are fools! I took many photos last night it was very difficult to capture these boys because they run all over the place...such energy! Such talent...such timing! And Eric has a huge role in that.

Hope that you come through the Charlotte area sometime in the near future and if you do please let me know. And when you get the chance if you haven't already done so.....go see Eric in Dr. Dog. I think you will be grinning the entire show just like I was.

Peace, Mike"

Isn't that the most beautiful message, ever? And here's what Mike wrote to me, directly, when I thanked him so much for his letter to Andre and me:

"You are welcome Rob and Thank You for hooking me up with the photo pass! It's always appreciated! Oh and these guys can really make a huge noise! OMG! I am still in awe of their live show! There is no video and no audio recording that can EVER capture this. Oh and you know as well as me....that Eric will always be in twenty side projects no matter what band he is playing in. AND I pray he and Julie are playing together again.....because they TALK they communicate through music...like Identical twins who have their own language!

Peace, Mike"

I love what Mike says about Julie and Eric. Indeed.

By the way, if you are in the NYC area, you can catch the UK reunion show Monday night. You can find the details right here. Julie asked me if I could go - I think she may be attending - but in light of everything going on right now, I kind of doubt it. Having attended this show in 2009, I can tell you it's incredible (and I saw them without John Wetton so I can just imagine how awesome it is now)...so yeah, if you live anywhere near New York, you really need to GO.

Okay, then. Have I covered everything? Get your free copy of Three Days in NYC today; come say Hi to me at the Book Festival next Saturday (unless you are a stalker then please, do not bother me har har), if you are in the Florida area go see Eric on this current Dr. Dog tour which runs through next week...if you are in Philly do not miss any of the upcoming Julie/Eric shows (though there are some great NY ones coming up that neither have on their respective websites yet so I'm thinking I'd better stay quiet until they are officially announced)...and if you are a praying sort of person, send me some white light for my doggie.

Talk soon...
xo

P.S. Whoops, I did forget one thing. This weekend marks the one year anniversary of The Great Canadian Writers' Retreat. So much has happened to all four of us this year! I really want to do a blog post which gets into that in detail, but this time last year, one of the highlights was hanging out with Susan Henderson five months prior to the publication of her debut novel, Up from the Blue. Well, guess what. A year to the day of our first night together, Susan appeared on the Rosie O'Donnell radio show after receiving this tweet from Rosie!

"@rosie @LitPark - I love ur book - almost done with it - would u like to come on my radio show ?"

Can you imagine how Sue felt when she got that tweet? From Rosie Freaking O'Donnell? Anyway, yep, Rosie sent a car to pick up Sue and you can listen to the whole interview right here. That might not be the direct link, but it will take you there.

Okay, then. Happy Sunday, all. I believe you have some reading to do. :)