MY ALMOST CAREER IN MUSIC
NEW IN MY POPULAR-ICON SERIES!
FRANK SINATRA: THE ARTIST AND HIS MUSIC
MY ALMOST-CAREER IN MUSIC
Fans of First Blood, The Brotherhood of the Rose, and my other action/suspense novels might be surprised by the following:
In my youth, before I decided to be a writer, I almost chose a career in music. The rock-and-roll scene made me, like many teenagers, fantasize about being a performer. But unlike many of those teenagers, I realized that if I wanted to be in music, it would help to know something about it.
So I found a classical music composer who was also a teacher, and twice a week I went to him, learning how to play the piano while I also learned the principles of musical theory, harmony, counterpoint, and orchestration. I played in a dance band and still pitch in when I’m asked, as this photo shows.
My musical training prompted me to write these new e-works.
FRANK SINATRA: THE ARTIST AND HIS MUSIC
Did you know that Frank Sinatra was permanently scarred from birth and never went anywhere without using pancake makeup . . . that in his youth this supposedly self-taught singer took voice lessons from a Metropolitan opera singer . . . that he learned breath control by swimming underwater and mentally singing lyrics?
These are only some of the little-known revelations in this e-work. Based on more than forty years of listening and reading, it provides an in-depth analysis of Sinatra’s music and shows why this troubled high-school dropout came to be justly called the greatest interpretative singer in the recording era. After you read this, you might never listen to Sinatra or any other singer the same way again.
NELSON RIDDLE: THE MAN BEHIND THE MUSIC
Frank Sinatra. Nat “King” Cole. Ella Fitzgerald. Judy Garland. Peggy Lee. Rosemary Cloony. Linda Ronstadt. No matter their various styles, these and other iconic popular singers had one thing in common—much of their best work was arranged by Nelson Riddle, whose fame within the world of arrangers rivaled that of the legends for whom he wrote. Indeed, some critics maintain that, if not for Riddle, Sinatra might not have overcome his mid-career failure and climbed to the superstar status that he eventually attained.
This e-work describes the career of a musical genius, who changed popular music and proved that a great arranger is as important as a great song and a great singer. At its core is the irony that a man whose music is described as “light” and “bright” should have been so bitter and disappointed in his life.
Scribd
MURDER AS A FINE ART
Coming on May 6: MURDER AS A FINE ART, a harrowing thriller about 1854 London and the first media-sensation mass murders. The book features a real-life main character, Thomas De Quincey, the notorious Opium-Eater, who inspired Edgar Allan Poe who in turn inspired Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to create Sherlock Holmes.
This is an extremely beautiful book. I highly recommend buying the printed edition rather than the e-version.
“A masterpiece—I don’t use that word lightly—a fantastic historical thriller, beautifully written, intricately plotted, and populated with unforgettable characters. It brilliantly recreates the London of gaslit streets, fogs, hansom cabs, and Scotland Yard. If you liked The Alienist, you will absolutely love this book. I was spellbound from the first page to last.
—Douglas Preston, #1 bestselling author of The Monster of Florence
“London 1854, noxious yellow fogs, reeking slums, intrigues in high places, murders most foul, but instead of Sherlock Holmes solving crimes via the fine art of deduction, we have the historical English Opium-Eater himself, Thomas De Quincey. David Morrell fans — and they are Legion — can look forward to celebrating Murder As a Fine Art as one of their favorite author’s strongest and boldest books in years.”
–Dan Simmons, New York Times bestselling author of Drood and The Terror
