Welcome to my stop on the NBtM virtual book tour for Rock Gods & Messy Monsters by Diane Hatz. This book tour was organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. On my stop, I have an excerpt from the book as well as an awesome guest post from the author. There's also the tour wide giveaway for a chance to win a $20 Amazon or Barnes & Noble gift card. Be sure to visit the other stops on the tour for more content. Enjoy!
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Author: Diane Hatz
Publisher: Whole Healthy Group LLC
Publication Date: September 1st 2022
Print Length: 213 pages
Genre: Contemporary Humorous Satire Fiction
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Rock Gods & Messy Monsters is one woman's search for herself among the blood-soaked walls, dangling body parts, and alien-hatched explosions inside Acht Records.
It’s the 1990s. Alex arrives to work at Acht, her improbable blonde hair streaked stress magenta and anger black. Her first duty is to wipe blood off her boss’s walls, to clean up his blood vessel explosion. It goes downhill from there.
On the surface, Rock Gods & Messy Monsters is a story about life inside an entertainment company. A cast of comedic characters exemplifies the inner workings of Acht, where power and greed mask incompetence.
A series of escapades involve Alex, a hard-working, lower-level employee desperately trying to get promoted. When she does, she realizes her dream is a nightmare. Corporate executives are busy working with aliens to manufacture a half-human, half-robot superstar. At the same time, one of the doubly-named Senior Senior Executive Presidents attempts to overthrow the Deity in charge.
Underneath and between the lines of exploding body parts and brain extractions, Rock Gods & Messy Monsters is a cautionary tale. It reminds us that our dreams can be illusions, and learning who we really are takes courage and a commitment to self-love.
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EXCERPT:
The blood didn't bother Alex but cleaning it up made her angry.
"Damn it," she cursed aloud as she surveyed the red stained walls and coagulated mounds of Langley ooze around her boss' corner office.
Alex returned to her desk, her wildly improbable blonde hair already streaked stress magenta and anger black. It was coming to an end; Alex had to get out of her job. But with the worldwide recession and lines of job applicants she saw every day on her way into the building, she was lucky to have a job, especially in a major record company.
Alex put her backpack on the floor and unzipped the side of her head. She reached in and pulled out her brain, placing the throbbing gray matter in the customized, faux crystal cerebrum urn Acht Records had supplied her with her first day at the company. She had fought the procedure at first, refused to sign the Cerebrum Extraction Release form, but with times being as hard as they were, and with the knowledge that she had spent over six months unemployed before being offered this job, Alex knew she had no choice.
And after wandering through the homogenous maze of Acht, up and down forty floors of identical gray hallways and glaring fluorescent lights, she had realized she would be better off if she removed all traces of thought and intelligence before commencing employment at the company.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Diane Hatz worked at major and indie record companies, managed a band, and freelanced as a music publicist. She is co-founder of The Relay, a fanzine on The Who, which is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. She’s attended thousands of concerts.
Diane has a Masters in Creative Writing and is currently focused on writing fiction. Her book Rock Gods & Messy Monsters is currently available from most online retailers. Her substack “Next Draft with Diane Hatz” is a newsletter for creatives looking inward. And some writing stuff.
During her sometimes-surreal career, Diane founded the nonprofit Change Food, worked to shut down factory farms, organized & spoke at major TED/TEDx events, and executive produced The Meatrix, a Webby Award winner. She has studied with many spiritual teachers, including The Dalai Lama.
In late 2020, after 30 years living in downtown Manhattan and the East Village, Diane moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico. When not at her computer creating, you can find her hiking, road tripping, or breathing in all the beauty the Southwest has to offer.
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GUEST POST:
- Are any of your characters based on anyone you know in real life?
The characters in Rock Gods & Messy Monsters are fictional, but they're a mashup of people I've known, along with my creative mind. If I had to choose one character who most resembled a person, I would choose Alex. She's based on me.
I published a fanzine on the rock band The Who for over a decade in the 1980s. I managed a band from my hometown for a couple years. And I attended thousands of concerts, from my local bar to large outdoor music festivals.
After moving to New York City in 1990, I landed a great job at Island Records, which lasted only a year. I then worked for an indie label for a couple years, and I ended up in corporate music at a major record company.
When I started employment at the large record company, I was shocked at how uncreative it was. I also had the misfortune of having a bit-of-a-lunatic boss. If I think about it, I've had a few, and as a way to deal with the abuse I endured, I started writing Rock Gods & Messy Monsters.
There are parts of the story that are obviously fictional. If you read the book, the scenes with Derby didn't happen, and my boss didn't explode the blood vessels on his neck as Langley does. And I didn't have to sew them up! Alex creatively shows what I went through while working in corporate music.
I had a boss who would call me in his office and scream at me. I went on interview after interview to get out of the job. After forty-four attempts to leave, I discovered he wasn't letting others hire me away from him. He would occasionally fire me but then give me work to do when I asked him for the termination in writing, as human resources required.
As my boss would yell at me, I would watch a vein in his forehead pulsate. One day, I imagined it exploded. It was a surreal experience and influenced how the book was written. And that's why Alex has to sew up his blood vessel explosions.
The other characters are more caricatures and combinations of people I knew. I've been told it's an imaginatively funny book that's surreal and relatable at the same time.
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GIVEAWAY:
Diane Hatz will be awarding a $20 Amazon or Barnes & Noble gift card to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter. Good luck!
(All the Ups and Downs is not responsible for this giveaway, its entries, or the prize. Goddess Fish Promotions and the author assume all responsibility for this giveaway.)
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