What an incredible thing to be given from one of the Master Jedi of rock and heavy metal journalism, the elite Martin Popoff, about Revolution Calling:
“It’s obvious Ray knows his metal, but it’s also obvious he knows his wider pop culture, history, politics and world events, as Van Horn, Jr. snaps us right back to life as a goofy metalhead in the pressure-cooker that was the late ‘80s—or as Morrissey called it, the haties. As well, he delivers action events, concepts and plot in a rock-solid writing style that shines with clarity. Dialogue is mapped-out with similar confidence, allowing Jason and his exquisitely-drawn buddy Rob, as well as the tale’s other characters, to take shape quickly. Completing the circuit and keeping the tale fizzy and effervescent are endless flashes of place names, band names and brand names.”
Just wow. Thank you, brother. Revolution Calling is almost here!
I want to thank all who came out to the Carroll County Ag Center in Westminster, Maryland last Saturday to see us and for buying Coming of Rage and TJ’s books and oracle cards.
Next, I have another advance review of Revolution Calling from the esteemed Joel McIver, metal music writer and author of To Live is to Die: The Life & Death of Metallica’s Cliff Burton :
“A story of everyday heavy metal folk and how their everyday pain is real.”
His thoughtful quote has landed on the back cover of Revolution Calling. Mega thank you to Joel!
Today was a bit of wish fulfillment as me and my new wife and longtime fellow author, TJ Perkins, did our first joint book signing in Westminster, Maryland.
It was my first public appearance doing a book signing in promotion of my short story collection, Coming of Rage, while TJ was knocking it out of the park cross selling her various books for differing age brackets including The Healthy Witch (book and oracle card set), Four Little Witches, Wound Too Tight, Mystery of the Attic and her ninja fantasy Shadow Legacy series. TJ will be joining me at my publisher, Raw Earth Ink, for an upcoming re-release of her Kim and Kelly mystery series sporting all-new covers.
Many years ago, when we were just friends, we supported each other’s writing endeavors and used to daydream back then about sharing a space together at a future book signing. When we re-met years later and became an actual couple, we raised the proposition of a joint signing once again. Today, we made it a reality. I can’t think of a finer way to start a marriage.
TJ is a natural salesperson and her gift of gab pushed more than half of her stock off the table. Coming of Rage did rather well in its own right. The most refreshing element to the signing other than doing it together and dropping a lot of bookmarkers into prospective readers’ hands was meeting so many sweet and cool people in attendance.
The Pushcart Prize-nominated Coming of Rage and TJ’s worksare available for purchase at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Likewise for Revolution Calling, scheduled for release this coming December.
If you’re interested in a review copy of Coming of Rage and/or my upcoming novel, Revolution Calling, both released through Raw Earth Ink, please drop me a message!
My classmates will remember this relic, though it had sleeves back in the day. Those came off the first couple years of my time in the music industry where other metal fans stood in awe of my “armor” when I covered live shows wearing it.
I am the real-life Jason Hamlin and Rob Martino from Revolution Calling, coming your way in early December from Raw Earth Ink.
Also from Raw Earth Ink, Coming of Rage, by Ray Van Horn, Jr. Available through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Lulu, Kindle and Nook.
Advance praise has started coming in for my new novel, Revolution Calling, including this gem from Decibel magazine writer, Justin Norton: “Ray Van Horn grew up during the 80s metal upheaval and associated culture wars and was clearly paying attention. Revolution Calling captures what it was like to be a metal fan when the music was still dangerous. The book has a vibe that will remind readers of Joe Lansdale and Robert R. McCammon. If you ever wanted a novel that mapped Stranger Things favorite Eddie Munson’s inner life, this is it. Die, posers!”
Revolution Calling, by Ray Van Horn, Jr. Coming soon from Raw Earth Ink.
Back in 2006, I had the pleasure of having dinner with Geoff Tate when he was still in Queensryche. Very generous with his time, he gave me a lot of insight into the music industry back then while I told him how much of an impact Operation Mindcrime had on me.
Years later, I crafted a story with this album as my primary soundtrack. One that has nothing to do with Operation Mindcrime other than musical reference, but it was my verve, my marching rhythm and I can’t wait to share my novel, “Revolution Calling” with you later this year.
Cheers, gang, hope your week’s been good to yas. Been exceptionally busy in the office on our way toward the three-day weekend upcoming, so the blog production has been sluggish. However, lots of things were happening, so here’s what’s been on my mind…
First: We had a blue supermoon on Wednesday. Life was moving at such a crazy pace this week we forgot all about it, smh. It was the closest orbit of the full moon we’ve had this year at 222,043 miles away. Saturn happened to joining in the party, creating a cast so impactful the entire world was enthralled. Blessed be Isis, Khonsu and Anubis.
I saw many stunning photos from friends and the national press. This one taken at an equestrian statue of Damdin Sukhbaatar on Sukhbaatar Square in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia just blew me away. Truly magickal. Speaking of magickal, the day TJ and I tie the knot, the universe will bless us with an annular solar eclipse.
Two: I had the pleasure of meeting horror author and mastermind behind the legendary Cemetery Dance press, Richard Chizmar, at the Shock-o-Con in Havre de Grace, Maryland. As a fellow Marylander horror-homie, I’ve enjoyed some fun, distant chats with Richard over the past year and meeting him in person, the dude is a righteous cat with a very nice family. His son, W.H. Chizmar, is also a sharp scribe in his own right as I found out by reading his novella, Mr. Purple this week.
Richard is author of the New York Times bestselling Chasing the Boogeyman and collaborator with Stephen King on their “Gwendy” trilogy. Chizmar is set to drop his highly anticipated sequel, Becoming the Boogeyman, in October. As the first one had so many locations I related to and tramped around myself, I can’t wait for Becoming.
Three: You might’ve read a recent post of mine about a horror comic book miniseries, Metalheads, which I began with my artist buddy from Kiel, Germany, Dominic Valecillo. Welp, fate has taken a kind turn, as I received a call from Dom last weekend, who has wrapped up on his current projects. The band will be getting back together for a reboot of Metalheads with fresh art, revised sections to the opening issue and a brand-new direction for the story overall as we will begin pitching it around to comic imprints. Fingers crossed on one hand, horns-up from the other!
Four:Ahsoka is thus far up to the hype. Rosario Dawson is everything we want from a grown-up Jedi on the lam and after some in-your-face action sequences tying threads to the end of the animated series, Star Wars: Rebels, the story is now getting real. One of the few survivors of the nefarious Jedi-cide that was Order 66, Ahsoka Tano is knee-deep investigating a new threat to a brief period of peace following the fall of the Empire.
You can’t keep a nasty Sith vein wholly severed, though. We have fellow Order 66 survivor Baylan Skoll, who has turned to the dark side with his apprentice, Shin Hati. We have Rebels renegades Sabine Wren and Hera Syndulla woven into the plot. For deep Star Wars nerds who revel in Timothy Zahn’s “Heir to the Empire” novel trilogy, there’s that Thrawn guy who keeps getting mentioned. Squeeeee!
Five: With our wedding coming up in a month-and-a-half, I always smile at this picture, our more than humbling beginnings, nearly 2.5 years ago. It was March, two months having moved into my place and we had just started dating. Because of COVID and 90-to-120-day shipping delays, I was still waiting on my sofa, living room chair and bedroom furniture and sleeping upon my mattress on the floor. I was grateful to get my kid’s furniture and a coffeetable within a few weeks.
Even more grateful for this, the first weekend TJ crashed at my place all weekend, trooping through the lawn chair living room days. We ate terrible, oversalted chicken and okra but compensated with peanut M&Ms and lots of wine from a vineyard outing, plus binging and laughing like idiots at Metalocalypse. She purposefully left behind an extra toothbrush and a pair of cuddle duds, scratching and spraying her territory that fast. THAT, my friends, is what you call true love.
Here’s your boy in the court of the Queen of Metal, Doro Pesch, circa 2006. I’m proud to say I’ve interviewed Doro four times in my career, one the sweetest, humblest people on the planet. Doro celebrates her 40th anniversary this year with a new album in October, Conqueress – Forever Strong and Proud. These pictures you see remain one of my favorite nights (and weekends) in the music business, hanging with Doro and Savatage/Trans-Siberian Orchestra guitarist, Chris Caffery, who’d been subbing in her band on that night on top of opening the gig with his own ripping solo slot.
I’d been in NYC the night before covering industrial rock legends Skinny Puppy, schlepping down the east coast to cover Doro’s gig the next day on little sleep. I’d fallen asleep behind the wheel on the way home for a moment and I’m damned lucky to be alive today.
You had The Runaways, Betsy Bitch, Wendy O. Williams and Girlschool breaking gender barriers in heavy music before Doro Pesch fronted Eighties German metal heroes, Warlock, and accelerated a woman’s deserved place inside the masculine-dominated genre. Sure, Doro’s combined beauty as a former model and her svelte stage presence has always made her a divine visual spectacle and she remains an ageless wonder today. Her chops have always been on their game and I’m looking forward to hearing them again, now 40 years in the metal life. Doro isn’t so much a machine as she is a perfected fireball. High altos to lower octave rasping, Doro hits it all, and she can rally you as much as seduce you. Doro’s solo music is an extension of Warlock’s stomping anthems, because all we are, all we are we are, we are all…all we need.
What has always struck me about Doro, however, is how gentle and sweet she is when you talk to her. It’s no secret Doro Pesch puts her fans ahead of herself and she is perhaps the most personable celebrity in heavy metal. The first time I had Doro on my phone, I literally melted. I confessed like a nerd that I’d harbored a crush on her in 1988 after my then-girlfriend dumped me on her way to college. Doro and Warlock vicariously helped me get through that teenaged trial–along with the Ramones.
Kind soul that Doro is, she laughed and thanked me but there was a genuine, flattered cadence to her delivery that resounded with me. This is a woman who’s no doubt been told by hundreds of thousands of men how attractive she is and still there’s a profound humility to Doro Pesch that endears you further to her. Luckily, I hadn’t chased her off with that reckless admission. I mean, who does that in a professional interview? She gave me three more and remembered me each time, so happily, no faux pas!
That night in 2006 hanging with Doro and Chris Caffery and Doro’s drummer Johnny Dee is one of my happiest moments as a rock journalist. Johnny, doubling as Doro’s tour manager, was beyond gracious. The guy took care of me and escorted me through the venue security without confrontation and yet to claim my backstage pass, which he’d slipped into my laminate holder at the precise time I needed it. I still have that badge in my box of music scene mementos. Suffice it to say, security for Doro Pesch is pretty damned strong, for obvious reasons.
Every time the Queen of Metal had new material to promote, my motto to my editors was “I always have time for Doro.” I can tell you from the four interviews I did with Doro she is simply precious and the humblest woman of her stature I’ve ever known. One of those chats came after she’d lost her American home in Long Island to Hurricane Irene after relocating from her native Dusseldorf, Germany. She was stoic while soft-spoken and so very gracious in her time and candidness. I was incredibly proud of her.
One of the interviews I did with Doro was even more of an honor, considering it was an assignment for Metal Maniacs magazine bestowed upon me by the editor, one of Doro’s personal friends who normally takes Doro herself. Thank you for that, Liz. I understood what an immense gesture it was to grant me the Doro interview. That was number four and I was as proud of that one as I was the first one for my monthly column in AMP, much less that awesome night in Springfield, Virginia.
Roads Lesser Traveled 