Praise for the Freak Scene Dream Trilogy, including "The Flowers Lied" "There was a time when (rock) music was the living pulse of a generation... That is the era of the Freak Scene Dream Trilogy, an ambitious and ultimately successful attempt at recasting the coming-of-age-in-the-wake-of-the-sixties-experience in innovative but authentic language, Kerouac in the 21st century." DENNIS MCNALLY, author of "A Long Strange Trip: The Inside History of the Grateful Dead" and "Desolate Angel: Jack Kerouac, The Beat Generation & America" "If Lester Bangs had ever published a novel it might have read something like this frothing debut by longtime music journalist Michael Goldberg... Readers from any musical era will come away with a deeper appreciation of how nostalgia can shape our lives, for better and for worse." COLIN FLEMING, Rolling Stone "Goldberg presents us with a beautiful evocation of the Seventies where the music wasn't just the soundtrack to our lives but the auteur of them. Writerman, our hero, drinks and drugs and dances to the nightingale tune while birds fly high by the light of the moon. Oh, oh, oh, oh Writerman!" LARRY RATSO SLOMAN, author of "On the Road with Bob Dylan" "Michael Goldberg is comparable to Kerouac in a 21st century way, someone trying to use that language and energy and find a new way of doing it." MARK MORDUE, author of "Dastgah: Diary of a Head Trip" "Penned in a staccato amphetamine grammar, its narrative is fractured and deranged, often unsettling but frequently compelling, an unsparing portrait of the teen condition: assured then despairing, would-be sex god then impotent has-been, an only child battling the wills of his domineering father and interfering mom in the anonymous, suburban fringes of Marin County."
SIMON WARNER, author of "Text and Drugs and Rock'n'Roll: The Beats and Rock Culture" "Aspiring rock journalist Michael Stein (aka Writerman) returns in the second installment of Goldberg's Freak Scene Dream Trilogy, picking up the narrative where he left off and fumbling his way across the countercultural landscape of the early Seventies like some less jaded, wannabe-hippie version of Holden Caulfield... "Among the more memorable scenes: a hamfisted attempt to get his rock journalism published in the college newspaper, even more awkward attempts to get laid (that include at least one success, with his best friend's girlfriend, no less, in a gondola at the top of a Ferris wheel), getting thrown out of a Neil Young concert by one of Bill Graham's goons, navigating a surreal Halloween party while peaking on LSD, and kibitzing with a popular Lester Bangs-esque rock-crit. Along the way we get cameos from Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, Captain Beefheart, the New York Dolls, Slim Harpo, James Brown, John Fowles, Sartre, Dostoyevsky and Godard. Settle in, crack open a bottle and/or spark a doob, and get ready for an emotional rollercoaster ride. Oh, and don't touch the Thorens." FRED MILLS, editor, Blurt magazine "So who is this protagonist anyway? Holden Caulfield meets Lord Buckley?" PAUL KRASSNER, author of "Confessions of a Raving, Unconfined Nut: Misadventures in the Counterculture" "'True Love Scars' reads like a fever dream from the dying days of the Summer of Love. Keyed to a soundtrack of love and apocalypse, Writerman pitches headlong into a haze of drugs, sex and confusion in search of what no high can bring: his own redemption. Read it and be transformed." ALINA SIMONE, author of "Note to Self" and "You Must Go and Win" "Radioactive as Godzilla. RICHARD MELTZER, author of "The Aesthetics of Rock" "True Love Scars is deeply dialed in to rock's dichotomy of enlightening powers versus stonered party time." GREG M. SCHWARTZ, PopMatters "Michael Goldberg reminds us of the difficulties of remaining true to our own visions amidst the powerful exigencies of young adulthood." JOLIE HOLLAND, recording artist, whose albums include Catalpa, Escondida and The Living and the
About the Author: So what do you wanna know? When I was a kid, rock 'n' roll and literature made life worth living. Or rather, it was literature that rocked my world-"Treasure Island," "Crime and Punishment," the Hardy Boys books, the Oz books, all those sexy 007 novels-until I turned 12, and then rock 'n' roll-The Beatles, the Stones, Dylan, The Yardbirds-blew my mind. Well girls trumped both, but that's another story. I started writing stories in sixth grade and by high school I was certain that writing was my vocation. And I did have one of those "Almost Famous" moments, writing Creem editor Lester Bangs and getting an encouraging letter back asking me to send him some record reviews (which he didn't use). Fast-forward to 1975, and I was in the thick of the punk scene, interviewing Patti Smith and The Ramones and the Talking Heads for stories that ran in the Berkeley Barb and the San Francisco Bay Guardian. I had some close calls. The Clash nearly threw me out of a San Francisco recording studio, the Sex Pistols tried to break my tape recorder, and Frank Zappa said if I was one of his fans he was in big trouble. The life of a rock journalist. Things did work out, and I spent 10 crazy years talking to everyone from George Harrison and George Clinton to Brian Wilson and Stevie Wonder for Rolling Stone where I was an Associate Editor and a Senior Writer. My writing has also appeared in Wired, Esquire, Vibe, Details, Downbeat, NME and many more. In 1994 I'd founded Addicted To Noise (ATN), the highly influential music web site. Newsweek magazine called me an "Internet visionary." I joined forces with SonicNet in 1997. I was a senior vice-president and editor in chief at SonicNet from March 1997 through May 2000. In 1997, Addicted To Noise won a Webby award for best music site, and a Yahoo Internet Life! award. While I was at SonicNet the site won Webby awards for best music site in 1998 and 1999, and Yahoo Internet Life! awards for three years running as best music site in 1998, 1999 and 2000. You can expect the third book of the Freak Scene Dream Trilogy, "The Moon & The Stars," to be available by August 2016. I write a monthly music column, The Drama You've Been Craving, for the Australian version of Addicted To Noise. And I publish the video-and-audio-intense culture blog, Days of the Crazy-Wild at www.daysofthecrazy-wild.com. Any other questions?