New Gold City

I've written about book bloggers in the past. I recently had an op-ed piece published at TalkingWriting.com that brought bloggers up as the solution to fake and paid reviews on Amazon. You can read that piece, "Can You Trust Online Reviews?" here . It's a prelude to the column I will be writing for TalkingWriting.com called "Talking Indie." Watch for the column's first entry in November.  Today, though, I wanted to point folks towards one of the more creative and exuberant book blogger sites you'll ever find, CabinGoddess.com. Kristine Morton, aka Cabin Goddess, is truly remarkable. You need to bookmark her site and read her reviews. Also, her bacon porn references are downright oral.  Kriss just posted a little conversation I had with Janie Hawthorn (who happens to appear in the title story of my new, soon to be released collection, Implosions of America ) in the middle of the country about the meaning of Beyond the Will of God (which she is also a...

"Morning of the Magicians" Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/shitao/3197160727/in/set-72157625031441773 From about 1993 through 2000 I worked as best I could on my first novel. I am deeply indebted to nearly 20 friends and colleagues who read various drafts over that period. From 2000 through 2005 I tried to get agents and publishers to pay attention to my insane story -- best described as a psychedelic mystery about music and consciousness. I came close a couple times, but no one took me on. After over 100 rejection letters and cards I packed it in and tried to focus on my day job (environmental consulting). I wrote my friend Paula Silici, "That's it. I'm done. No more writing. What a waste of time. How could I have done that to myself?" I went on with my life. My mom died in 2007. My oldest son graduated from college in 2010, the same year my second oldest son was a first round draft pick by the Philadelphia Phillies out of high school.  And Steve Jobs ...

Somewhere in this photo is an envelope containing over 100 rejections. You will find below an actual query sent earlier this year to a book publisher for my novel Beyond the Will of God . I sent out over 200 query letters for this novel -- mostly in the early nawts. This is the very last one. I have an envelope, conveniently lost in my office now, with over 100 rejections of Beyond the Will stuffed into it. Yes, only about half the folks I reached out to actually made the effort to get back to me. That's the way it is. (So it goes). My manuscript was rejected outright by one agent because "I don't do religious fiction." Beyond the Will of God is not exactly a religious story (see the query below to learn where the title came from if you don't already know). Another publisher wrote that they felt the novel had potential and was well-written (aw), but they weren't publishing mysteries. A year later their catalog contained a mystery and crime section that is now...

What would Janis say? There's a simple question at the end here for folks who have read Beyond the Will of God . When I started to seriously write Beyond the Will of God back in 1993, I knew where the book was going to take the reader. I knew that there were questions I've always had about altered states of consciousness and the power of music. I had some weird adventures late at night back in the 1970s. Adventures in my mind. Adventures that needed to be turned into an intriguing story. But I didn't know how to get the story to where I knew it had to go. [I promise there is no spoiler in this brief essay]. The first scene I wrote is part of the first third of the book. It came out of nowhere for me. I woke up one New Year's Day and sat down in front of my new Mac II. I wrote one sentence:  " His vision has that vibrating feel to it, like his eyes are being massaged with electricity."   A nd then another: "In the distance, through the humidity, ribbons o...

My first novel, Beyond the Will of God, is available for purchase at Amazon's Kindle Store. If you're looking for something different to read this summer, this book is for you. It's part thriller, part mystery, part paranormal speculation, and part science fiction. There's romance and sex, of course -- just enough. But the book also deals with big questions about life and the human mind. Click here to go to the Kindle Store page for Beyond the Will of God . As always, Amazon's sample pages are available for you to read. Check it out. If you don't have a Kindle or an iPad with the Kindle, you can download an App for your computer or smartphone right here. Buy the book now to take advantage of introductory pricing. It's a pretty good deal at $2.99. And I'd truly be grateful if you let your friends know about this offer. Send them the link to this web page or to the Amazon listing. Or share this with your social network.  Happy reading! David

Definitely a sunrise in August There's a quiet revolution going on worldwide. Some of you may know about it. I'm not sure how much of this revolution is a function of the Occupy movement and how much Occupy is a function of that revolution.  I've been doing last minute research into the world of transformative consciousness as I prepare to publish Beyond the Will of God . I've found some interesting places on the Internet. They all give me the impression that the "revolution" I speak of is one in which Consciousness Expansion and Sustainable Development are in the process of merging...again. I feel a bit as if I've stumbled into a very beautifully lit room full of quiet people reading various books and looking at screens, waiting for something to happen. In the 1960s, trailing into the 1970s, questions of enhanced awareness and transcendental consciousness led to the birth of the appropriate technology movement and re-fueled the environmental movement. Som...

My new novel,  Beyond the Will of God , is intended to remind readers of, or introduce them to, the playful, exotic, and mysterious elements of loud music that I believe we've forgotten.  Beyond the Will of God  seeks to thread the needle between serious mystery and quirky cosmic thriller. It is funky, humorous, and pathetically romantic -- the way we used to be back in the day.   The book gets its title from a line in the Jimi Hendrix song, "1983...(A Merman I Should Turn to Be)," : ...And you know good and well It would be beyond the will of God And the grace of a king. In many ways, this story is a murder mystery...but it's wrapped in the magic of music...and then rolled up into cosmic questions that we used to ask ourselves all the time. What is the relationship between mind and body? What is telepathy? Why is the truth about altered states of consciousness so delicate and hard to understand? Where is the communal power of music coming from? And what about the ps...

Sometimes you are blessed with good friends who have so much artistic talent they inspire the hell out of you. As I work through final edits and publication formatting for Beyond the Will of God , I have the privilege of listening to some of the most interesting music I've heard in a long time. My good friend Jim Hamilton, percussionist extraordinaire (a big-time student of Brazilian rhythm of all kinds), has provided me with a rough cut of extended compositions by an iteration (or something) of his electro-trip-jazz band GLOBAL iLLAGE . Rest assured, if you pay attention, the most amazing music you will ever hear is yet to come. I have no idea when these tracks will find their way into finished form, but you really need to be on the lookout for this album. It's establishing one helluva supreme manifestation in my head. My novel  Beyond the Will of God, is all about the transformative, transcendent power of music. It is a murder mystery wrapped up in a music mystery wrapped up...

A book announcement. The 1970s were the pinnacle years for conspiracy theories in America. Uncertainties about JFK's assassination got things rolling in the 1960s, but the stories got weirder and weirder the more we watched our great cultural heroes pass on into death well before their time -- Kerouac, Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, MLK, Jr., even Elvis -- to name just a few. For years it was said that no one ever saw The Doors' Jim Morrison's body after he died and that his grave in Paris was empty.  Conspiracy theorists had a field day when evidence of CIA misdeeds came to light during the Church Committee Hearings. No one had ever heard of Remote Viewing. The experiments performed by various military and CIA intelligence units on unwitting citizens using psychedelic drugs seemed like proof that the mysteries of LSD, mescaline, and psilocybin were more than psychological fancy.  As the 1970s gave way to the 1980s & 1990s, abandoned missile silos throughout the p...

And they also threw this in my face, they said, Anyway, you know good and well It would be beyond the will of God And the grace of a king. - Jimi Hendrix, “1983…(A Merman I Should Turn to Be)” Beyond the Will of God is a mystery coming out in Summer 2012. It ain't your run of the mill whodunit, though. Somehow everyone forgot all those conspiracy theories and weird coincidences that kept popping up in the late Sixties and all through the Seventies. More than anything, the music of folks like Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, The Doors, and The Allman Brothers (even The Beatles and Elvis if you were paying attention) spoke to something deep and wild in each of us. Do you remember? Beyond the Will of God brings you back to that place, and offers a great deal of whacky ideas and provocative characters all related to a series of murders that take place in central Missouri during the heat of summer when the insects are buzzing and the air is thick with possibility once again. Here's how...