Rock and Roll Love Story : A NovelRock and Roll Love Story : A NovelA blog about a novel featuring a Jersey rocker in the dawn of MTV Articles
Wheels of Fire
2008-03-27 14:57:00 I'm definately ready for that road trip. I'm definately ready for the "suitcase and guitar in hand" and maybe these days you have to add with Ipod, cell phone and laptop etc. where you get in a really nice set of wheels, and you live in your sneakers, blue jeans and Izods, and you bop from hotel to hotel all over the USA. And you own nothing that you can't carry in your two hands and on your back, and maybe even the wheels are rented because if you want to ditch that and wind up in St. Tropez or the south of France, you just drop it off at the airport and wing it. I'd need a few million in the bank to do that, and I'd have to pay off some people, but I am ready. I bought a Megamillions lottery ticket today and 120 million would be much more than I would ever need... More About: Fire , Wheels
Life
2008-03-27 02:50:00 I don't know why I wanted a big screen TV in this one room cabin/beach bungalow. I never watch TV anymore. Okay I watched the Super Bowl, but I could do that in a bar or at friend's house.The fireproof safe for the family photos and videos is a tad obsessive compulsive. It's also fairly heavy. I could back up the videos to DVD and rip them to a portable hard drive, or I could back them up to Internet storage.Why do I need a big bed, two comfy chairs and a sofa? If I want to lie down, I use the bed and if I want to sit, we use the chairs.Am I really going to read all those books on the shelves? Wouldn't a library card be a better idea?I go back and forth on some of these things. Obviously I dont have a lot free time to think of something more creative to occupy my time. More About: Life
A dull spot
2008-03-26 22:39:00 There's really not much of anything going on right now.This Friday I am going to Staples to have the latest version of Rock and Roll Love Story printed out so it can be read like a book. The next battle is to get someone to read it.Things are easing up a bit at work but I am still much too busy to get involved in a serious attempt to sell this book to an agent or publisher. The web page has been up three years and there are over 10,000 hits but we're still one big break away. More About: Spot
Changes in Latitude
2008-03-17 23:40:00 I just checked out the price of Florida real estate...The cabin in the woods is now a bungalow by the beach.... More About: Latitude
In a wooded area where it does not snow
2008-03-13 14:41:00 Checklist for the One Room CabinKing-sized bed with brass frame4 pillows, quilt, wool blanket, sheetsNight table, lamp, cordless telephone w/ answering machineDresserDesk with executive chairLaptop computer with speakers/subwoofer & portable hard driveFiling Cabinet with All-in-One printer on topFireproof safe for documents, photos & family videosSofa2 Easy chair/rockersFloor LampAfghan area rug (over hardwood floors)Bookcase stocked with classics, old favoritesBig screen Hi-Def TV with home theater & stereo systemKitchen table, 4 Windsor chairsMicrowave with kitchen cartWood-burning stoveCeiling fan50 classic rock CDs (backup to mp3 on portable hard drive)/CD TowerCast iron fry pan for the cheese omelets, steak, sausage, Taylor ham & hamburgers (We’ll be on the low carb diet in this cabin)Refrigerator stocked with beer & wine (you have to have some carbs)Electronic coffee pot with timer, coffee grinder More About: Snow , Area
Politics
2008-03-12 00:52:00 I lean left but I am staying out of the fight between Obama and Hillary. What's happening now is not good for the party and its not good for the country. I dont believe Obama is the Messiah any more than I believe Hillary got national security experience from sleeping with the President.The only thing that really scares me about John McCain is that he might bring back the draft to defend his war against terror. I have close young relatives who are males of draft age. Iraq was a disaster from the day one, and if you look down to the blog further down you'll see that I was against it when it was still popular.Unfortunately, the mistake was made five years ago and pulling out now unilaterally could be a complete disaster if done the wrong way. I dont believe any of the remaining three candidates has the right stuff to pull it off. More About: Politics
No Comment
2008-03-11 18:13:00 All I know is that Madonna is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.And I am not. More About: Comment
Daybreak
2008-03-11 00:32:00 The wind knocked out the power, sending us scurrying into the night for shelter. We holed up at a loved one's house, and I wound up on the sofa staring at the ceiling from 2 AM to 5 AM. After an early breakfast, we set out for home, and eventually work, and found the power back on.I was not in the mood for another nine hour day at work. I've been putting those in fairly regularly and nobody seems to notice or care.I tried cleaning up a stain on the new sofa and I would up making it worse. Someone I know claims to have a fabric cleaner that will do the job, so I can only hope.My novel through all this is just a faint hope. But it is a dream that I will not let die. In truth other than blogging about it, I have not done anything really serious about getting it published.With the economy sinking, it looks like a very difficult and unpleasant year ahead. I'd like to be optimistic but...
Rain
2008-03-08 22:52:00 A dreary, dank, foggy day in early March but at least it's not snowing out. The chipmunks are out and the songbirds are back, and if we can only get through the Edes, we'll be home free.I'm not doing much of anything this weekend. I am resting up for another big push with the agents and publishing companies. There's no sense editing the novel anymore if its only going to be reworked by a professional editor down the pike.I am leary of self-publishing. Anyone can get 400 pages in Word into a book format for $500 these days, and yeah that gets you on Amazon and Barnes & Noble with most vanity preses. To get it professionally copy-edited and marketed for the mass audience is a whole nother adventure.I'm looking for an agent, and if you're interested, I can be contacted at the email at this web site. More About: Rain
Spring
2008-03-06 18:54:00 Its a beautiful early spring day in the Jersey Highlands, and I feel lucky to be alive.Things are going rather well at the moment but forces are still preventing me from getting this book published.I met a New York Times best selling author this week, a sweet and very pretty lady. I didn't really have the time to talk to her in depth, but I walked away feeling optimistic. Lisa See is the child of immigrants, and here I am a native born American. If she and Obama can make the big time, so can I! More About: Spring
The plight of Presidential politics
2008-03-02 01:28:00 I did endorse candidates this year and if you missed it, I am not going to go out on a limb again and expose my views to the public.I will tell you that only in rare cases does it really matter who the President of the United States is as to how well most Americans do in the economy and the world. As a matter of fact, the last eight years of hell were just one of those times, and whoever is elected President, we can thank God that it won't be Bush.I don't believe that Obama is the Messiah, I dont believe that Hillary obtained national security experience by boffing the President, and I don't believe in the 100 years war and laize faire economics that any Republican will offer.So you see I have this really big problem with the election. I didn't vote in the primaries because I didn't want to declare myself a member of either party, and that is the way it works in New Jersey when you are an independent. And there wasn't at that point anyone I really felt I needed to stop, at lea... More About: Politics , Presidential
Back to Mystery
2008-02-28 02:05:00 Over the past few weeks, I revealed on this blog a number of key mysteries about the book that have a great deal to do with my personal life. I did it intentionally, to leave in the minds of my most loyal readers, an idea of who and what these characters mean, and why I wrote the book the way I did.Forgive me for being mysterious, but that was priviledged information, and it wasn't meant to remain in the public domain forever. If you've missed it, I apologize, but you will not quickly or easily see that type of information from me again. I intend to remain anonymous, and very frankly people have not been beating down my door about questions about my personal life, so I assume that you just want to read about the book and it's progress, and not about me.One thing, this blog has been here since March 2005, which is working on its third year. The book was written in 2000 about the year 1978, and it has only been refreshed a bit. Britney Spears was a healthy young prodigy in that yea... More About: Back , Mystery
Who is Madeline
2008-02-25 00:13:00 When I was working in the discount store, unloading trucks to pay for college, there was a pretty 16 year old Irish American hippie named Madeline working the register who caught my eye. She was the closest thing I had to a love interest those two years, and I really did take her on a date at the College. Everything that happened up to the point where Rocket transversed a downed tree in the Duck Pond to rescue some children and Madeline changes her mind and says yes to a second date, actually did happen. After that, it's fiction.I was 19 but times have changed since then so I made Madeline 17 in the book. That was mostly because our band sang I Saw Her Standing There and "she was just 17, you know what I mean." The scene at the Last Blast where a stunned Madeline stands in the middle of 10,000 fans and the Hell's Angels to see Rocket singing her song also did happen.I thought hard about writing Madeline out of the book, and if there is ever a movie, it may be neater to cut straigh...
Wont be here long
2008-02-24 19:45:00 The fullest explanation of who Abby Warner and The Fabulous Shelly are in my life remains up under the post "Geneology". That post and everything alluding to it will be removed very shortly. I am revealing this little about my real life in the blog as a special treat to my earliest fans. When the book comes up, this blog will alter significantly. More About: Long
First Signs of Spring
2008-02-24 19:43:00 The Canada Geese are back.The first chipmunk emerged from his hole in the backyard by the oak tree.There's still a few inches of snow on the ground but next week is March. More About: Spring , Signs
Geneology
2008-02-24 04:04:00 The star of Rock and Roll Love Story is Johnny Rocket, otherwise known as Ronnie James DeRenzo. His father, Big Ronnie, is the guiding force in his life, and Big Ronnie has a brother named Lee DeRenzo who was a famous jazz guitarist in the Paterson era.Ronnie James has a very Italian-American cousin named Jimmy Dario by yet another uncle who is attending State College with Ronnie James. There are a number of other uncles and cousins who appear briefly, most specifically the Scelza family, which consists of musical uncle Frank and cousins Davie and Paulie.Rocket's mother Frances appears in cameo, and his sister Deana has a somewhat larger role.The love of Rocket's life is The Fabulous Shelly, Michelle Williams, a rich blonde photography major/party girl who is from the same New Jersey town as actress Tara Reid. Her arch-rival and alter ego is Abby Warner, a daughter of a Fortune 500 CEO, who winds up as the mother of Rocket's first two children. Abby's father is Clubby Warner, a...
Meandering
2008-02-23 23:13:00 It's all very well for me to report on the weather in the Highlands, my escape fantasies, my job and the small doings of my family. But what you're really coming here for I suspect is more about the novel and at the moment, I just don't have anything for you right now.At the job, I am in the process of planning a program where an internationally reknown New York Times best selling author will be coming to my town. That's the closest thing I can give you to a book. I'm only going to be with this novelist for a few minutes before she goes off to meet 300 people, so I don't imagine I will have much chance to talk to her about my book.The book is stalled. There's not going to be much progress with it for a while. We're just too busy with this dual income/two kids rat race at the moment. After next year when the Davey Rocket character goes off to college, we may have some space, I don't know.
Clearing
2008-02-23 20:08:00 The snow plow finally dug us out yesterday and we got to the supermarket. This morning the sky was grey and it was flurring but there was no real accumulation and off to the bank I went with a deposit, and over to the hardware store for a new snow shovel. They had lots of choices and I decided on an aquamarine shovel that had a bend in the handle, just like the one that broke. That was a great shovel and it helped me clear ten years worth of snows with minimal effort. I tried the new one by widening the driveway apron a bit more so that the van could get out easily and it worked like a charm.I suppose I might want to invest in a snow blower as I get older but the experience with the leaf blower leaves me cold. The damned thing was impossible to start, and yes once it got going it did clear up the lawn in a few hours. But really if we cut down a few more of the oaks, we'd have less squirrels and less leaves, and that solve a good part of the problem. Trees are wonderful but we have ... More About: Clearing
Digging out
2008-02-22 23:31:00 Well, my favorite snow shovel broke after most of the mess was cleared up and I had the assistance of my strapping 16 year old to clear up the apron after the snow plow finally came around.We hopped in the car and headed to the supermarket, where we stocked up on all the usual weekend stuff plus some snacks and other odds and ends were completely out of. The Abby/Shelly presence is great at many aspects of modern living, but anticipating disasters and weather emergencies is not one of her talents. I dont see how an adult could be home all week with the weather threatening, and the day of the storm comes around and we're totally out of all food.I didn't really care. I can live for a couple of days on white rice and tunafish. But the gnashing of teeth was getting really unbearable.These folks are lucky they are upper middle class Americans living in suburban North Jersey, where even a paralyzing snow storm only sets you back a couple of hours. If we ever had to cope with a real em...
Snowbound
2008-02-22 18:49:00 4 inches of light powder and Northern New Jersey is pretty much paralyzed. We're all home from school and work today but the provisions in the refrig are low and the natives are getting restless. Its supposed to go on this all day and all night...I lost my Internet connection last night but this morning Kumar at Verizon technical support did a great job of getting me back going again. I can usually trouble shoot most routine problems but this one was a doozy with the Westel modem.At the very least, I have my Internet, the lights, cable tv heat and hot water are on in the house, and there's plenty of diet Pepsi in the house. They can all eat oatmeal and spagetti and drink black coffee and Diet Pepsi because I refuse to run out in that mess to get milk and bread and lunch stuff like I do every Saturday.We'll see what tommorrow looks like before I make another food run...
Getting really fed up
2008-02-20 02:35:00 Rock and Roll Love Story is a serious book about a mentally ill rock star in the Seventies who reaches the very bottom and cleans up his act and brings himself up to the top through the power of faith and love. While the hero is not really me, it is in some senses very autobiographical.I will admit as I watch the train wrecks called Britney Spears, Amy Winehouse and Lindsay Lohan battle their demons, to being really frustrated by the lack of attention that my novel has been getting in the realm of publishers and agents. It seems what I should really do is go off my medication, drink and take drugs, pose nude, drive intoxicated and generally flaunt the worst aspects of my illness in front of the paparazzi. Maybe then I would get some of the attention I think I deserve.But I am not going to do it. I am not going to abandon all the hard work and sacrifices that I made over the last ten years to win back my excellent reputation and put the terrible years far behind me.I've often said t...
Health care reform and mental health
2008-02-19 02:23:00 If I was Britney Spears and I was worth $150 million, I would retire from public life and get my head together.Faced with a similar crisis eight years ago, I was given no financial choice but to recover from a devasting illness and go back to work full-time. From day one of my releases my doctors and I discussed scenarios and the one thing no one wanted to see was another killer commute with a demanding full-time job -- something I walked straight into just 12 months after some people had given up hope on me that I would ever recover.No one thought I could pull that off without any "reasonable accomadations" but I did for five years and when I finally put the stain of my disastrous last gig behind me with five solid years of respectable work in the ghetto. After a 24/7 six year job hunt with over 45 interviews, I walked into an even more stressful new job in the Highlands with a demanding new boss.They dont know how sick I got at this job. The people in the ghetto dont know either.... More About: Health , Mental , Health Care , Reform , Mental Health
CASTING
2008-02-17 01:46:00 Hayden Panitierre, left, as Abby Warner, and Taylor Swift, right, as The Fabuolous Shelly would kick off a young cast. More About: Casting
The search narrows
2008-02-16 03:37:00 Oh no way. I just a picture of house in Reno and it snows. In some places in the Arizona mountains, it also snows. It's looking more and more like the suburbs of Phoenix... More About: Search
In the desert
2008-02-16 02:32:00 Okay, so maybe I am over doing this mimimalism one room cabin a bit. There's got to be a kitchen table with a couple of chairs, some comfy chairs in front of the fireplace, some more pots and pans and a coffee maker. If I'm going to be in there all day long for years at a time, I probably do need 24/7 broadband Internet and cable TV. And no, I cant live off eggs and bacon and rice and beans. There's got to be some cheeseburgers and steak and chicken, some wine and some cheese and some Triscuits or Ritz crackers, and some fruit and vegatables and olive oil and butter. A guy like me can't do without Italian bread or real New York bagels. I like to visit the convenience store everyday to get my fix of Diet Pepsi in those little bottles. Some maybe the wilds of the Arizona desert just isn't going to work for me. Maybe I need to be closer to Phoenix or Tuscon or Reno, Nevada or Vegas. You get the general idea though. More About: Desert
Hermit
2008-02-14 22:18:00 I'm back to the one room cabin in the mountains but it would have to be in Arizona because I can't stand the snow and ice.I'm just generally fed up with the world, the rat race and the pursuit of the American Dream as it is defined by shopping conglomerates and multinational corporations that want to run my life.I need a bed, a $499 laptop to write my novels, a desk with a chair, a lamp, a stove with a cast iron frypan, a tea pot and a small fridge for the beer. Oh yeah, a radio and a cell phone. The cast iron pot is for the eggs and bacon and rice and beans I plan to live on.I can rip all my CDs to mp3 format and use the laptop and a pair of headpones for my music.I need some clothes and some hiking boots and I dont need much more. I will drive my F-150 pickup truck to the nearest Library when I want to use their wireless to send email or surf the Net. Otherwise I will just text message on the cell.I dont need a TV and a newspaper is the last thing I want to see. More About: Hermit
Grammy Night
2008-02-11 03:36:00 I celebrated Grammy night by looking up Cream on You Tube. Sunshine of Your Love and Crossroads. Two of the kickinest kick ass rock songs in history. When Speed Limit played Clapton live, they were thinking of Jack Bruce, Ginger Baker and Eric. More About: Night
Ironies
2008-02-08 03:54:00 Britney was a healthy new starlet when I wrote Rock and Roll Love Story. In a sequel, Rocket managed his demons in his post stardom LA mansion, and he beganing squiring a fresh new pop singer named Kelly Wheel around town. He gets into the same story of troubles with paparazzi and police as the real Britney does. There's a love interest, The Little Gray Girl, who winds up lost in a mental institution after a bout with post partum psychosis.You can't make this stuff up. My story is only interesting because it really was written before Britney got so messed up.The healthy Britney influenced my book as I have said so many times. She was talking about writing a book so she could be like Ernest Hemingway, and the book started in the school cafeteria. So that is where my book starts off.
My endorsement for President in 2008
More articles from this author:2008-02-03 00:58:00 Blog fans who've been to this page may remember that I endorsed Hillary Clinton and John McCain for President for the respective parties. I am hanging by that endorsement but I am going one step further, which I said I would not do.I lost part of my health benefits this week. I still have adequate coverage but I won't be able to coordinate benefits with my wife anymore the way I did in 2000 when my medical bills outstripped by health plan. I am in better health today but without that extra coverage we would have lost all our college savings.I suppose I should be grateful that I still have adequate health care insurance. So many people do not.For that reason alone, I endorse either Hillary Clinton or Barak Obama for President of the United States over John McCain in November. McCain is a good man for national security and foreign policy and fiscal conservatism but he is not on board the universal health insurance wagon and that is by far our single most important domestic issue.We ... More About: Endorsement , 2008 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 |
 |
|
 |
