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CASTING COUCH BOOGIE: A ROCK OPERA NOVEL by JOHN MANOUELIAN

Book Excerpt:

It was a hot night in late June 1966. Eighteen-year-old Misty and her twelve-year-old brother, Jeremy, were in the recreation room of their home in the Chevy Chase suburb of Washington, D.C. They were watching summer reruns of their favorite TV shows while their parents were at a neighborhood party. Misty had just graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School and had plans to attend the University of Maryland in the fall.

It was nearly 7:45 p.m., and Misty’s boyfriend, Tom Salmonti, was due to call any minute. The work shift at his summer gas station job would be ending soon. After a few minutes, the phone rang and Jeremy raced to reach it. “Hello men’s room,” he answered.

“Don’t answer the phone saying stuff like that,” said Misty. “What’s the matter with you?”

Tom laughed at Jeremy’s prank and asked for Misty. “You want Gertie,” said Jeremy, “Gertie, the dirty birdie?”

“Cut it out, Jeremy,” said Misty, whose real name was Gertrude Pauline Klotz. She grabbed the phone saying “I hate that name. Why did they ever name me Gertrude?  Grrrr! You’d think Klotz was bad enough, but they had to add insult to injury. Well at least I adopted the cool nickname of Misty.”

“Oh hi, Tom,” said Misty, changing her voice from harsh to pleasant. “Sorry you had to hear me blow up, but Jeremy is really being bad.”

“That’s okay,” said Tom. “I just got home. How’d you like to go down and cruise the Pit (Bob’s Burger Pit Drive-In restaurant) and see who’s hanging out?”

“That would be great,” said Misty, “but I’m stuck here babysitting wonder twerp and we would have to take him along.”

“Well, we can stuff him in the trunk or something,” said Tom.

“Oh, anything to shut him up,” said Misty.

“I’ll pick you up in 45 minutes, after I get out of the shower and fly on over,” said Tom.

“Okay bye,” said Misty, as she hung up while dodging a pillow thrown by Jeremy.

“Listen, Jer,” said Misty. “Tom is coming over to take us to the Pit. I want you to act normal for once in your life and sit in the back seat and keep your big mouth shut. If you can’t do that, I’ll have Tom tie you up and gag you and shove you in the trunk, like he just told me.”

“Oh yeah, Gertie,” said Jeremy, “you just try. I’ll tell Mom and Dad.”

It was 8:30 p.m., and Misty and Jeremy sat on their front porch waiting. Soon came the deep-throated rumble of Tom’s car with its hot rod exhaust system. They could hear it from half a mile away. It grew louder and louder, and soon Tom pulled his shiny red customized 1957 Chevy Impala convertible (with the top down) into the driveway. He revved the engine twice and turned off the ignition.

“Well stump jumper,” said Jeremy to Tom. “What are you doing here? Didn’t you know you died two weeks ago? I guess no one bothered to tell you.”

“Be quiet, Jeremy,” said Misty, “and cut out all of the nonsense. She opened the car door and pulled the seat forward to let Jeremy into the back.

But Jeremy, with ideas of his own, ran to the open convertible, slapped his hands onto the side, and vaulted right in saying, “Ride ‘em cowboy, yee-hah.”

“You little idiot,” said Tom. “You’ll ruin my custom paint job and rolled and pleated interior.

Download Casting Couch Boogie by John Manouelian  while it’s free on Amazon December 2nd – 6th.

Duck and Cover, Growing Up in the Atomic Age by William C. Philips

Some scholars argue that the Atomic Age began with the first atomic explosion and ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Since that time frame neatly brackets all the stories found here, I’m not about to debate a pack of scholars and ruin a good subtitle, i.e., Growing Up in the Atomic Age. I wish to make it clear, however, that I had nothing to do with either event. For one thing, I was born in 1947, two years after the first atomic bomb test. And while I was in Washington, D.C., when the Soviet Union collapsed, I had other things on my mind.

Of the thirty-three chapters in this memoir, twenty-one of them have at least one boot firmly cemented in the 1950s, so, for the most part, Duck and Cover stands as a personal history of that era. While this admission may alarm younger readers, let me put your mind at rest by saying that I never start a single sentence with, “Kids today don’t…” or, “Young people today should…” or any sentence that blames the young for not being old. I have no animosity toward your generation; in fact, at the age of seventy-four, I wish I could throw off the aches and pains of an old man and join your ranks–even if it means wearing my baseball hat backward. If I have any gripes, they’re against my generation. Specifically, the ones who say, “Kids today don’t…” and “Young people today should…”

Many who lived in the 1950s, or wished they had, see it as a Golden Age. It truly was a Golden Age for television, but only because TV was still a novelty. In the Philips’ house, television brought our family together mainly because we couldn’t afford two TVs and the screen was so small that we had to sit shoulder to shoulder. When not watching our old TV, which Dad bought used, we watched the TV repairman work on it. To many families, TV repairs were so frequent that repairmen became honorary member of the family. Only a child of the ’50s can say, as I can, “Bill Deamon was our TV repairman.”

Some old fogies whine about the bad influence of today’s TV shows, but to my knowledge, not once did Breaking Bad or Game of Thrones encourage kids to wreck their TVs. Readers of a certain age know which ’50s show I’m talking about—Winky Dink and You. Numerous times during Saturday morning episodes, Winky and his dog, Woofer, would find themselves in peril and pleading with their young audience to save them. The catch was that parents had to fork over 50 cents for a piece of transparent vinyl, called a “magic drawing screen,” and stick it to the TV screen before Winky came on. Kids could save Winky from danger by using ordinary crayons on the vinyl screen to draw in a bridge, a ladder, or whatever it took to help the boy and his dog. I know you’re way ahead of me on this, so I’ll be brief—not every parent bought the “magic screen” or even knew they needed one, but most kids had crayons. So in many homes, Winky and Woofer survived, but future TV viewing was seen through a waxy haze.

Download Duck and Cover, Growing Up in the Atomic Age by William C. Philips while it’s free on Amazon December 2nd – 6th.

The Land of Ataraxia : Genesis by S S Merce

Book Excerpt:

It was the end of their third music night, and their crew seemed to be in high spirits like every other music night. It was their longest streak at sea, adrift without a destination in sight, but the crew seemed least bothered, or so Kai thought.

Strumming his finger through the last chords of their encore for the night, Kai fought down the heat that threatened to take over his olive face when the crew hollered jubilantly, offering him praises and a roar of applause for his music. He concluded that he’d never get used to this kind of attention.

The Caelesti Viatrix, their humble carrier, smelled of moss, wood oil, and a bit of ebony. Its wooden floor was unmarked by rotting blood or sword marks from a battle, unlike ships that usually sailed the Elswyth Sea. The waves carried their boat like a gentle mother caressing her babe to sleep and the slow rhythm was starting to lull him into blissful serenity.

“Encore! Encore!” chanted their young navigator, spilling half the contents of her glass onto the wooden floor of their deck and the rest on their boatswain. Viatrix did not seem to mind one of her children sullying her wooden floors, but judging from their chef wrestling the cup out of their navigator’s hand and admonishing her on wasting precious bitter melon wine, Kai reckoned they were running low on food. When she adamantly kept chanting for an encore, he shook his head at her request before the rest of the crew started following her lead.

“I think we have had enough for one night, Asteria,” he grinned fondly at the put-out expression on the pixie-haired girl’s face.

She seemed to recover quickly though. She walked on wobbly feet towards their mechanic and pulled the grim boy towards the fire graciously produced for them on the ceramic stove by their boatswain Fintan. The white fire with its bluish tongue licked at the surrounding darkness, giving the ship a sapphire glow. It was only a matter of time before he and their captain would have to help their drunken crewmates to bed.

Ah, the woes of being a responsible man, he thought.

Setting his beloved instrument aside, Kai marveled at the night sky and the strange cacophony of empty thoughts drifting through his head. Their crew seemed to be getting rowdier in proportion to the receding bottle count from their wine stash.

“They are a rambunctious bunch, aren’t they?”

Download The Land of Ataraxia by S S Merce while it’s free on Amazon December 1st – 5th.

Six Paws Under: Psychic Sleuths and Talking Dogs (A Jaz and Luffy Cozy Mystery Book 7) by Max Parrott

Stepping onto the island near Blackwood Cove, Luffy by her side, Jasmine breathed in deeply. There was no one waiting at the dock for her, but then she had no way of knowing whether anyone else had arrived. Each contestant was taking the journey from the mainland separately, as the producer didn’t want them to meet too soon. He had explained to Jasmine that the meeting was one highlight the viewers enjoyed.

Even though they weren’t in view, Jasmine knew there were cameras somewhere watching her. Cameras, with viewers on the other side. Joining the competition was a choice. She knew, technically, what she was getting into, and all she could really hope for was good editing. Glancing down at Luffy, the stillness of his tail a sign he still wasn’t happy, she picked up her bag.

If they got through to the end, it would be around a month on the island, with a group of strangers. There were eleven, including her, according to the information packet they sent when she became a contestant. The producer had been excited to have a genuine celebrity on the island, even though Jasmine still did not see herself as one. To her, it was simply a way to get the money she needed. Even if she didn’t win, maybe being on telly would be enough for others to invest money in her business.

As Jasmine made her way along the path, she studied the island. It was privately owned, in the hands of the producer, and the competition was in its third year. Three years of people being willing to put their life on hold for a month to live on an island. She shook her head. Until she applied herself, she couldn’t understand the choice, but the money was worth it. Hopefully.

Thanks to the time she’d spent watching the show, after deciding she was going for it, Jasmine knew a little about the layout of the island. Getting from the dock to the main house was easy enough, as long as you followed the path. More than once people got lost, missing a turning somewhere, but there were people around to help. People they would not see unless something went seriously wrong.

Reaching the end of the path, Jasmine opened the door, stepping into the house. Warmth surrounded her. There was no one else in the living room, a sign she might be the first to arrive, or they were off somewhere exploring. It didn’t seem likely it would be all that long before someone else would arrive, and waiting was probably the best option.

The living room had a large sofa and different seats scattered around. The beanbag chair was Jasmine’s choice. Nestling herself, bag by her side, she looked at Luffy. He looked back at her, silence unnerving but not unexpected. From the beginning, he’d made his displeasure with her choice obvious. Luffy didn’t like to break his daily routine, but he acknowledged the need for investment in his best friend’s business. He stayed by her feet, possibly having softened since he noticed there was quite a lot of unchartered land to explore.

Jasmine looked around the room, once more searching for the cameras she knew were there. The game show crew carefully hid them to ensure none of the contestants could cover them. One rule of the game was that you could not hide from the cameras while you were in the house, other than in the bathrooms. Not a surprise, considering what they’d all signed up for.

Finally, a guy stepped into the house. He was pulling a suitcase behind him. Jasmine’s eyes met with his for a moment, and he narrowed his eyes at her. “You the first one here?”

“Possibly. I didn’t find anyone else here, but I also didn’t go hunting. I’m Jasmine. You?”

“Sam. Dog yours?”

“Yeah, this is Luffy.” Luffy raised his head, thumping his tail. “We go everywhere together.”

“Why are you here?”

“The prize money. Can’t help thinking it’s the primary reason most of us are here. Unless you have some other story.”

Download Six Paws Under while it’s on sale on Amazon December 1st – 6th.