The Adventures of LitBoy: Bill Brent's Blog

TWILIGHT OF THE IMMORTAL

[Bill's update, 2011.07.18: Hey, folks, thanks for the surprising amount of support regarding the below! And I got Marilyn some outstanding airtime yesterday. I'll post the links soon. She is such an articulate and engaging interviewee.]

 

I want to do something helpful for an amazing colleague's birthday. And you can help. It's easy!

 

Just read my review of her current novel, and if you are so moved, please vote it as "helpful."

 

My goal is simple: to get the review onto the book's front page at Amazon. Marilyn Jaye Lewis has written a memorable epic -- powerful, emotionally rich, and a joy to read -- and I believe that my review accurately reflects that.

 

And if you are so moved, please buy a copy, recommend it to a friend today, or request it via your local library. I believe it should be in every library system. It's that good.

 

Thank you in advance for your support of Marilyn's work.

 

Wishing you joy,

 

--Bill Brent

 

[this page last updated: 2011.07.18, 11:47 a.m. Hawaii time] 

 

[keywords for this post:] historical novel, Hollywood, 1920's, GLBT fiction, silent movies, film stars, Rudolph Valentino, The Sheik, 1910's Broadway, Alla Nazimova, lesbian actresses, lesbian history, openly lesbian, closeted gays, leading man, bisexual actors 

ON SALE NOW: My Life, For A Limited Time!

We've all heard of clearance sales, right? Well, friends, this is my semi-centennial SALE OF SALES! That's right, sales junkies, bargain hunters, and lifestyle groupies! I've turned 50, and I'm clearing it out! ALL OF IT! YES, REALLY!!! Before I turn 51! What a great deadline!

Now, just what is going on here, you might ask? Well, I'm retooling my life for the next several years. I want to be more mobile. In a time of diminishing returns, mostly I want to return to traveling and touring as a writer and creative writing workshop presenter. And I want to go bowling again. In many different places. Bowling helps to keep my head clear, amidst the writing and public speaking. I miss it a lot.

And I want to blog about all of that -- and about retooling our lives -- a lot. This is one thing I know a lot about, and I want to learn what you know about it too.

I've written here before about clearing crappe, and I'm a one-man revolution in motion. Ever since I prepared to move to the Big Island of Hawaii in 2005, I've been clearing my own crappe. I still brought way too much of it with me -- nearly everyone who moves here does, live and learn -- and so I've been giving it away and selling it off ever since!

You see, this is what poor people do. We collect stuff because it helps us to feel less poor. We can always point to our stuff and say, see, I'm not so poor. But I'm not here right now to lecture on that topic. Let's just say that I'm a poor person in recovery, and leave it at that.

One of my dreams when I moved to Hawaii was to set up a home music studio and make demos of some of my songs. A lot of my current crappe is related to that dream. Well, life got livelier, and so I had to choose one dream over another. And so I chose writing over music. Maybe I'll return to music someday.

Meanwhile, I've been very busy writing novels. I finished one a while ago, and I will post the details here, as soon as it's ready to be published. Currently, I have a trilogy well along the way, as well as some other book length, non-fiction work.

But for now, ALL THIS STUFF! IN MY WAY! Yes, most of it is gorgeous, valuable, and useful, yet no longer useful TO ME! By now, I have managed to pare down to the stuff that is pretty choice. But now, I'm selling it all! Not just vintage music gear -- I still have some way cool vintage bowling stuff, and plenty of great books from my personal library -- so mostly, this is what you'll see me posting about here, over and over, for the next several months: trips down memory lane! I hope you'll tag along for the adventure. It's gonna be a fun ride.

I've made it easy for you to subscribe to this blog! Please see the top of this page at www.LitBoy.com for your options. And thank you to my recent new subscribers.

Now, I have a number of online stores. The quantity and variety of inventory has fluctuated over the past decade, but I have always drawn outstanding ratings from highly satisfied buyers. Below are links to ALL my online stores. Please Tweet, Like, forward, re-post, or do whatever magic you can to help spread the word!

[1]  eBay

[2]  Etsy

[3]  Amazon
-  NOTE: This bookstore includes some adult-oriented literature. And nice gift books. More soon!

[4]  LitBoy.com! Last but not least, here is a link to any items I have posted for sale right here on my site. Often, my sales copy will be tongue in cheek, but all of it is genuinely ON SALE. And you are welcome to contact me directly to make your payment arrangements.

[Again, please help me to spread the word! You could post my nice short link to this article you are reading now:]  http://is.gd/mylifeonsale

-  NOTE: Even if the listing is way old, some items are still available, like this gorgeous black and blue vintage 1976 AMF bowling ball (undrilled). Just ask me!

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AND FINALLY! If you buy an item during a visit to Amazon based on a search from this blog (see the Amazon keyword search window in the left sidebar, here at www.LitBoy.com), you will give me a 4% Amazon Associate (affiliate) commission; somewhat less if you order via one of Amazon's 3rd-party vendors. Hey, it took four years, but I just made my first ten dollars! Go me! w00t w00t w00t!

- The hardest part is to train yourself to start searching for Amazon items here at LitBoy.com <--then scroll down a bit, since most of us start right at Amazon, or search for an item using Google, which then directly links to Amazon. But let's try! It all adds up! And that starts me out on the road to get to you. Cool, huh?

Thank you very much for your time and attention today, and if you can do anything to spread the word or otherwise support my career, I will be doubly blessed.

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Wishing you a beautiful day,

Bill Brent

[this page last updated: 2011.04.02, 11:10 p.m., Hawaii time]

FREAK PARADE, by Marilyn Jaye Lewis

Eugenia Sharpe is a beautiful and talented singer-songwriter, a fallen angel with a very big problem. As FREAK PARADE opens, "Genie" has become immobilized, mostly by placing her expectations for happiness in the hands of Darryl, her partner in business and love. When she discovers that Darryl has been cheating on her, she reacts with fury, understandably enough, but also with an overflowing boatload of self-pity that points to deeper issues.

When the inevitable showdown arrives, she betrays her awareness of this, and her inability or unwillingness to change:

I glared at him. "I am everything imaginable, Darryl. I am one fucked-up cookie. You'd be amazed."

Genie has traded a career in the music industry -- with a platinum album to her credit, no less -- in order to avoid the rigors of life in the limelight. While she has an enviable and glamorous life in Darryl's luxury apartment overlooking Central Park, one quickly gets the sense that her life has grown stale.

For me, the overarching theme of Marilyn Jaye Lewis' latest novel is redemption. The narrative arc of the story details how Genie grapples with being "one fucked-up cookie" and finally comes to terms with her flaws, as well as her virtues. This makes for one bumpy ride, set amidst Manhattan's seamy demimonde in settings that are at times over-the-top and not for the squeamish. A veteran author of erotica, Lewis (pictured below) has a masterful command of the highly-charged erotic scene, as well as less than erotic sex scenes that describe in blistering detail the human potential for self-degradation.

And then there are the other nine-tenths of the novel, which include workplace scenes, best-friend scenes, falling-in-love scenes, and much more, in which Lewis' acute sense of characterization and unerring ear for dialog pay dividends. Eugenia Sharpe's observations are, well, sharp; by turns hilarious and pathetic. Lewis' characters are memorable, their struggles are believable, and their interactions held my interest until the very end. In fact, Lewis' novel was tough to put down -- I read all of FREAK PARADE in two prolonged sittings.

[FULL DISCLOSURE: I have worked with this author on prior book projects.]

Here are a few ways you can read FREAK PARADE:

POWELL'S, the online independent bookseller

SMASH WORDS, the publisher's website (many digital formats)

BARNES & NOBLE, print version

BARNES & NOBLE, digital version

AMAZON (where, if you order via this link, I may get a small commission for your purchase, like, someday).

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Wishing you a beautiful day,

Bill Brent

[this page last updated: 2010.08.07, 4:55 p.m. Hawaii time]

The most beautiful erotic fiction collection published this decade?

Greetings, all --

I am re-posting this offer as a favor to my longtime friend and colleague, Jamie Joy Gatto. SEX NOIR is an elegant book, in terms of its content as well as its high-end production values (hardcover, with a dust jacket in duo-tone metallic ink on black!). And so it makes a most memorable and gorgeous gift.

Also, this book conforms in the best possible way with this blog's meta-theme of tales of transformation. Gatto writes in an intense, emotionally rich style, and her characters and situations flirt constantly with the edge of imagination and possibility.

And right now, you can get an autographed copy direct from the author, and support a worthy cause!

HERE are the full details regarding this collection, including how to order. This is a time-sensitive offer, so please act now.

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Wishing you a beautiful day,

Bill Brent

[this page last updated: 2009.10.12, 2:55 p.m. Hawaii time]

LitBoy.com is the brainchild of writer Bill Brent. If you enjoy this blog, please consider a donation in support of my work. You can send money via PayPal to info [!at] litboy [DOT] com, or better still, use Revolution Money Exchange. Unlike PayPal, RME pays me 100% of your donation. It's quick and easy!


Here's the button for that:

Keywords for this post: short story author, Jamie Joy Gatto, Circlet Press, New Orleans short fiction, Hurricane Katrina relief

BOOK REVIEW: INFERNAL DEVICE: machinery of torture and execution, by Erik C. Rühling

What a wicked little book. It's just the thing for an apartment-sized coffee table, at a price that won't break your budget. In terms of torture gear, all the usual suspects are depicted and described within, along with a dungeon's worth of obscurities you've probably never heard of.

Rühling taught himself 3-D rendering in order to create his lovely (and gruesome) little book. This petite yet substantial volume (40 full-color photo pages) deserves some kind of design award. A few, perhaps. He renders his gallery of torture tools in a stark museum-exhibit style while his text, an impressive feat of condensed scholarship, vividly evokes images of the poor souls who were subjected to their horrors. It's a jarring and effective contrast of the mechanistic and humanistic. I am struck by the degree of brutality extended toward women in particular via these devices. Also an awareness of how, contrary to popular belief, we have not really evolved at all from the times and places in which these devices were employed. Hence Rühling's book also serves as a handy little reminder of how man's inhumanity to man is never more than a government directive away ... if that. Trenchant thoughts in these torturous times.

Among the book's highlights are some pithy and amusing treatises on the origins and history of various well-known devices such as the rack and the guillotine. As with most of the devices in Rühling's book, the guillotine underwent various manifestations and has borne many names in many countries at many times. This popular device's employment was often more grisly (read: less instantaneous) than most of us think. Yet my personal favorite is the ear chopper. Whether or not it was actually used, it is fun to contemplate the psychological torment value. No doubt, this says more about me than the ear chopper itself. Heh heh.

INFERNAL DEVICE: machinery of torture and execution, by Erik C. Rühling

Hardcover: 87 pages

Publisher: Disinformation Company (November 30, 2007)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 1932857893

ISBN-13: 978-1932857894

Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.6 inches

CLICK HERE to buy this book at Amazon.

 

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Wishing you a beautiful day,

Bill Brent

[this page last updated: 2008.02.03, 8:58 p.m. Hawaii time]

[keywords: Erik Ruhling]

LitBoy.com is a professional blog. Keeping it online costs me $200 per year. That's before paying me for my writing, photography, or anything else I do here. If you enjoy this blog, please use the Tip Jar at the top of this page. Your two-dollar minimum donation helps keep this banner-free site alive. It's quick and easy!

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