Once Upon A Rock Star

A sex-and-tell story about the crazy lifestyle of sex, drugs, and rock and roll. A decade of rock history...and a decade of rock fan adoration for one little chiquita from Omaha who spent star-studded nights with superstars of eighties rockdom: David Lee Roth with Van Halen, Billy Squier, Ozzy Osbourne's Jake E. Lee, Paul Stanley of Kiss, Motley Crue's Nikki Sixx, Bret Michaels and Poison, Vivian Campbell and Def Leppard, the J. Geils Band's Peter Wolf, Aerosmith's Steven Tyler--and plenty more. Rockin' Rita and her sexy entourage were ultra-fans who rocked the boys in the bands backstage and between the covers when the heavy metal rockers and the glam "chicks with dicks" rolled into town in their tour buses. With her own outrageously high hair and edgy original clothing designs, Rita never missed an opportunity to get the coveted backstage passes that led to dressing room parties and hotel hook-ups. This is a sex-and-tell story about her obsession for sex and drugs with rock stars. Rita reveals her flirtatious romps and hard rock tales with the bad boys of 80s heavy metal in her legend- filled story... Once Upon a Rock Star

Trevor: A construction worker with dreams of music. Dana: A girl who could love him. “Wouldn’t mind hearing you sometime...” Dana said. Trev laughed, “Yeah, like that’s really going to happen!” BUT IT DID. Come ride the rollercoaster as Trevor Riggs goes from a virtual unknown to a full-fledged rock and roll singer of a platinum-selling band. Remember those bands of the 70’s and 80’s that were very much loved and fantasized about? Wouldn’t you just love to go back? Take the chance to go back and see what it could be like as the singer on that stage. Or the one in the audience who falls in love, as he gazes into your eyes, singing his sweet serenade, just to you.

"Funny, tender, edgy. I wanted the love story to go on forever."—Joan Johnston, bestselling author of No Longer a Stranger Written in the wonderfully honest, edgy, and hilarious voice she perfected in God-Shaped Hole, Tiffanie DeBartolo shines in a passionate new story of music, love, and sacrifice. Eliza Caelum, a young music journalist, is finally getting her footing in New York when she meets Paul Hudson, a talented songwriter and lead singer of the band Bananafish. They soon realize they share more than a reverence for rock music and plunge headlong into love. When Bananafish is signed by a big corporate label, and Paul is on his way to becoming a major rock star, Eliza's past forces her to make a heartbreaking decision that might be the key to Paul's sudden disappearance. A layered and emotional look into the world of music, this raw summer read will resonate with readers who loved Daisy Jones & the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid. Praise for Tiffanie DeBartolo's God-Shaped Hole: "From highs to heartbreak, DeBartolo conjures an affair to remember."—People "Honest, raw, and engaging."—Booklist "This generation's Love Story."—Kirkus Reviews

Rush McMahon is one of the biggest rockstars on the planet. Handsome, talented, and famous, he has his choice of pretty women. After finishing another successful tour, he should be on top of the world. He pretends to be, but he’s not. How can he be anything but miserable when his brother just married the woman he once loved? Jewel Anderson is desperate and all alone in the world, except for her impulsive roommate Camaro Moltepulciano. She’s hungry. The rent for her tiny apartment is overdue, and Cam just gave the last of their money away to someone less fortunate. Jewel has a heart of gold like her best friend Cam, but hearts can’t be traded to pay for rent. Since both refuse to return to the homeless shelter where Jewel was almost assaulted, what can two nearly destitute women do? Rush is a bad boy lead singer living a lie. Jewel is a good girl at the end of her rope. He is her last option. She might be his only hope. What happens when Rush and Jewel meet on a dark street corner in LA? Can a chance encounter between two people from opposite worlds lead to happily ever after? The Right Man is a modern-day retelling of Cinderella by New York Times bestselling author Michelle Mankin. “Think Cinderella meets Pretty Woman. It just made my heart sing.” Lexxie Lin, Un Conventional Bookworms. “Blew me away. Loved it.” Carly Phillips, New York Times Bestselling Author. Do you believe in fairy tales? In happily ever after? In love?

A modern-day retelling of Snow White by New York Times bestselling author Michelle Mankin. Once upon a time with a beautiful hooker who used to be a princess, and a handsome manager for rock stars who is more than he seems. She’s kind and fanciful. He’s bossy and straightforward. She has nothing and feels like her life has no value. He has a reliable well-paying job that keeps his bank account full, yet his yearning heart is empty. Both have hidden their true selves away. But if your secret self is hidden, how can the right person ever find and fall in love with the real you? Two lost and lonely souls arrange to meet at a pay-by-the-hour motel. Is it happenstance, fate, or a wish come true when his carefully crafted reality and her make-believe one collide? The Right Wish by New York Times bestselling author Michelle Mankin is a modern-day retelling of Snow White. Dress up. What once was lost is found. Hope in the most unlikely of places. Kindness over evil. Do you believe? In fairy tales? In happily ever after? In love?

The eagerly-awaited personal memoir by award-winning author Geoffrey Notkin, and star of the popular television adventure series, Meteorite Men. A science writer and television host with a rock ’n’ roll heart describes his exciting, and sometimes astonishing, quest for meaning and understanding in an unexplainable universe. From the smoking volcanoes of Iceland to the sunblasted wasteland of Chile’s Atacama Desert, and the Australian Outback to the Siberian Arctic, Geoffrey Notkin recounts a forty-year odyssey of adventure that takes him to some of the world’s strangest and wildest places—where music and meteorites are often the only sign posts. Fourteen years in the making, Rock Star, chronicles Geoff's incredible adventures across four continents in search of elusive space rocks, his career as a rock 'n' roll musician, and his childhood in an oppressive British public school. It is populated by a cast of fascinating, larger-than-life characters, and relates hilarious behind-the-scenes stories about the making of Geoff's numerous TV shows. A unique, unforgettable, and beautifully-told story of adventure, passion, determination, danger, frustration, and ultimate triumph.

Curated from the archives of FORUM, the award-winning magazine of Florida Humanities, this anthology presents 50 often surprising and always intriguing stories of life in Florida by some of the nation’s most talented writers and scholars  Once Upon a Time in Florida transports readers into the eventful life and times of this remarkable state through 50 stories vividly rendered by some of the nation’s most acclaimed writers and scholars, along with 150 evocative images. This collection opens more than 14,000 years ago with the first people to inhabit the peninsula and continues through the state’s territorial beginnings, the era of slavery, statehood, the Civil War, Reconstruction, the Jim Crow period, and Florida’s transformation into a complex, powerful megastate.  Throughout, readers will encounter the unexpected: The myth-busting truths behind Ponce de Leon’s search for the Fountain of Youth; the real First Thanksgiving; the first legally sanctioned free Black town; the revealing wartime letters of novelist Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings; the Jacksonville principal who penned the lyrics now known as the Black National Anthem; and the little-known story of how Mary McLeod Bethune saved World War II‒era Daytona Beach. The stories also highlight Florida as a magnet for dreamers and doers, featuring the heady days of the Space Age seen through the eyes of a teenager; the secretive mission that brought Walt Disney to Orlando; the music culture that has churned out a stream of Rock and Roll Hall of Famers; and a look at how Florida’s glossy image has been indelibly shaped through the eyes of Hollywood.  Told through the lens of the humanities, at its heart this anthology is the story of what it means to be a Floridian. In these pages, folklorist Stetson Kennedy travels the back roads with novelist Zora Neale Hurston, capturing vanishing stories and songs. Former U.S. Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the first Latina in Congress, remembers her family’s early days as Cuban refugees. Novelist Lauren Groff describes how the writings of literary giants taught her to love Florida. Columnist Bill Maxwell and novelist Beverly Coyle, who grew up in the waning days of Jim Crow, share clear-eyed memories of experiences as different as black and white. And southern grit writer Harry Crews tells of a family memory evoked by the Suwannee River.  There is much more to discover in this vibrant anthology, which celebrates the 50th anniversary of Florida Humanities, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, and presents selections from the timeless and treasure-filled archives of Florida Humanities’ award-winning FORUM magazine. Contributors: Jerald T. Milanich | J. Michael Francis | Michael Gannon | Kathleen Deagan | Darcie A. MacMahon | Larry Eugene Rivers | Robert A. Taylor | Casey Blanton | Rick Kilby | Gary R. Mormino | Stetson Kennedy | Betty Jean Steinshouer | Gordon Patterson | Rick Edmonds | Andrea Brunais | Steven Noll | Richard Foglesong | Eric Deggans | Bill Maxwell | Beverly Coyle | David R. Colburn | Nila Do Simon | Stephen J. Whitfield | Willie Johns | Ron Cunningham | Jon Wilson | Dalia Colón | Bill DeYoung | Maude Heurtelou | Lauren Groff | Maurice J. O’Sullivan | Michele Currie Navakas | Craig Pittman | Thomas Hallock | Edna Buchanan | Philip Caputo | Gary Monroe | Peter B. Gallagher | Bob Kealing | Jack E. Davis | Charlie Hailey | Terry Tomalin | Bill Belleville | Cynthia Barnett | Jack E. Davis | Jeff Klinkenberg | Harry Crews Distributed on behalf of Florida Humanities

Beth Morgan is a young woman who's just been given the 'once in a lifetime' opportunity to meet her favorite band, Traveler. That meeting leads to a chance encounter with her idol, the band's lead singer, Andy Stevens. What follows is a love story. A journey through the peaks, valleys and trials of a relationship lived in the public eye; the miles they traveled together through his career in the music business, and her struggles to stay obscure in a world she never really settled into comfortably. In the end it's all about love, fate, and what the heart can't hold back.