• Here’s the Story

    I wrote a book called The Forest for the Trees and it’s an advice book for writers. This blog hopes to continue in the spirit of the book, answering basic questions such as how to write an effective query letter to more complex issues involving writers' personalities, especially but not limited to their self-destructive proclivities. But mostly, it’s a place to regularly vent about publishing.
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So You Wanna Be a Rock & Roll Star

Tonight, at Cake Shop, Care Bears on Fire. Three fourteen year old girls playing the loudest most pumped rock I’ve heard in a long time. Favorite songs: Get Over It, You Can’t Make Me, and a two minute ass-kicking version of Everybody Wants to Rule the World. Full disclosure, the drummer’s dad is my client. But no arm twisiting was involved. I was born to stand against the dank wall of a basement club.

In 1975, with my babysitting money burning a hole in my pocket, I went into Cutler’s Record Store in downtown New Haven. A new release caught my eye. The album cover was black and white. A woman in a white shirt with a jacket tossed over her shoulder stared out unapologetically. I had to have it, though I hadn’t heard of the artist or any of the songs. The album, of course, was Horses. It changed my life.

4 Responses

  1. I am pretty sure this took place last night.

  2. Strong girl voices always rock.

  3. [...] Betsy Lerner. So You Want to Be a Rock & Roll Star [...]

  4. Hey, me too. Babel turned me into myself.

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