New York-based suspense writer C.E. Lawrence is the author of a series of thrillers that includes last December’s SILENT KILLS, to be followed by a fourth entry, SILENT SLAUGHTER, later this year. How does one construct such a series? Glad you asked …
It’s always a challenge to pinpoint the exact moment a notion takes hold of the imagination. Sometimes it’s even hard to remember if an idea came from me or one of my writer friends (when in doubt, of course, I always claim it as mine.) So I don’t recall when precisely I knew I was going to write thrillers. But after a bunch of plays, two Sherlock Holmes novels and three “cozy” mysteries, I was ready for something different. And I was becoming increasingly fascinated by criminal psychology, already collecting books on serial killers, con men and investment bankers (okay, cheap shot, but I’m only human).
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The following is an excerpt of EXIT MUSIC: THE RADIOHEAD STORY, UPDATED EDITION by Mac Randall, published by Backbeat Books, an imprint of Hal Leonard. This first chapter is reprinted with permission of the publisher.
The day was Monday, June 9, 1997, and a concert was about to begin near New York City’s Union Square. Over the weekend that had just ended, thousands of music fans had made pilgrimages much further uptown, to Downing Stadium on Randalls Island in the East River between Manhattan, the Bronx and Queens, to witness the second annual two-day Tibetan Freedom Concert. An all-star event organized by New York’s own hip-hop kings the Beastie Boys to focus world attention on Tibet’s plight under harsh Chinese rule and to raise money for the cause of Tibetan independence, the concert had featured such rock luminaries as U2, Patti Smith, Michael Stipe and Mike Mills from R.E.M., Alanis Morissette, and the Beastie Boys themselves.
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Controversy has been courted by COURTNEY COMES CLEAN: THE HIGH LIFE AND DARK DEPTHS OF MUSIC’S MOST CONTROVERSIAL ICON, an ebook on musician Courtney Love by Maer Roshan, founder and editor-in-chief of the popular addiction and sobriety website The Fix. COURTNEY COMES CLEAN is now available on the iPad, Nook and other e-readers, and below are some juicy excerpts, including how crack improved her math skills!
Courtney’s musings on living a (mostly) drug-free life:
“I think of myself as sober,” Love says, though she admits that her daily diet of prescription meds wouldn’t pass muster at an AA meeting. “When you’re used to heroin and cocaine, a few pills doesn’t seem like the end of the world. As they say in AA, it’s about progress, not perfection. I mean, abstinence is a nice idea, but I don’t know if it’s right for everyone. Especially for someone who was nursed on a steady diet of Valium and Ritalin from the time I was seven, thanks to my fine mother.” …
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Judging by the title of his new novel/diary/ravings of a lunatic, I HATE YOU, KELLY DONAHUE, one might think Mark Svartz to be an angry man. One would be correct, given the following guest essay by the New York-based advertising copywriter. It’s about Valentine’s Day — a day which will live in infamy.
On the night of Feb. 14, millions of happy couples around the world will express their undying love for each other as they celebrate the holiday known as Valentine’s Day. Meanwhile, millions of single people will be home alone on this night of romance — in the case of girls, eating pints of Häagen-Dazs while watching THE NOTEBOOK and, in the case of guys, masturbating while thinking about single girls who are home alone eating Häagen-Dazs while watching THE NOTEBOOK.
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Television writer Michael Dempsey turned novelist with NECROPOLIS, a sci-fi/noir blend published by Night Shade Books. Its protagonist is alcoholic NYPD detective Paul Donner, who, after dying … well, let’s let the author take it from here in this guest feature:
Paul Donner was a Brooklyn police detective who got dead — shot to death in a “random” crime. But 50 years later, Donner was back — revived courtesy of the Shift, a process whereby inanimate DNA was re-activated. This new “reborn” underclass was not only alive again, they were growing younger, destined for a second childhood. The freakish side-effect of a retroviral attack on New York, the Shift had turned the world upside down.
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