The Blues Muse – my new book on Rock and Blues – The blurb – I need your views.

Posted on by Opher

Arthur Brown 1

I need some help.

I am presently working my way through editing this book. I’m still finding it fun even though I find editing extremely difficult. I really have to focus and work at it. It does not come naturally.

Fortunately I have help from my friend Chris and my wife Liz. They are brilliant. I am processing their suggestions.

Last night I woke up with an idea for the blurb for the back. I’ve written it out below. The original blurb follows. The question is do I go with the new one (first) or old one (second) or amalgamate the two?

I’d welcome your views.

Blurb

I was in conversation with my friend Mike Green discussing how good it would be to have a time machine to go back to all the wonderful moments in Blues and Rock history; to be there when it happened. To see Tommy Johnson busking and Robert Johnson in that tavern, to catch Elvis in small theatres and The Beatles in Hamburg, Howlin’ Wolf in Chicago and Hendrix at the Speakeasy.

It was then that I realised I did have a time machine. My knowledge, experience and imagination enabled me to be everywhere in time and space. All I had to do was create a witness and set him free.

My ‘man with no name’ takes you on that journey. He was there. He saw it all, was part of it all and loved it all.

This is a novel of the History of Blues and Rock through the eyes of a man who breathed the air, tasted the food, slept in the beds and lived the music.

 

Or

 

Blurb

 

This is the real story of Blues and Rock told through the eyes of the man with no name, the muse, the witness. You’ll be there with Charley Patton in Mississippi, with Son House teaching Robert Johnson to play, then with Robert at the crossroads, with Elvis recording in Sun Studio, Little Richard battling it out with Jerry Lee Lewis, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf and Elmore James in Chicago, Bob Dylan in Greenwich Village, The Beatles in Hamburg and the Cavern and a thousand more.

This paints the main events in full colour with background and social context, not as a set of dry facts but as a novel through a series of self-contained vignettes. A few liberties have been taken but the spirit is true.

13 thoughts on “The Blues Muse – my new book on Rock and Blues – The blurb – I need your views.”

  1. If space is not an issue, then I’d try and amalgamate the two.
    Open with Blurb #1 “How good would it be…” etc but leave out the fore-comment about your conversation with Mike Green – that’s irrelevant.
    Omit that very last sentence on Blurb #2. Reason being, I think you have set the scene very well and that last sentence containing “a few liberties have been taken…” bursts the bubble a bit, INHO.

    1. Thanks for that Andrew. I’ll have a go. It’s always good to get an objective eye – particularly from someone who knows his stuff. Cheers.

  2. I prefer the first because it tells a story – the gestation of your project. It sets the bar high, encouraging the reader. As a budding writer myself this gets me onside

  3. The final paragraph in #2 is dry, could use ideas tho as narrative in #1. Could use new items from #2 gig list in #1, but split so your ‘avatar’ will go & explore them. Keep story approach but if too long cut to semi poetry … sorry about gabbling here, good luck …

  4. I like #1. It carries you with it more. #2 feels like it’s just telling you something. You want your readers to start out being a “friend” of your friend.

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