New Book featuring Beastie Boys

[AfroKing]

Hello.

Thought you good people might like to know that the Beasties are all over my new book, JOHNNY HAZZARD, which is out now in Barnes & Noble, Borders, Amazon and all decent book stores worth a bean.

It's a 'young adult' story revolving around a 15 year-old skater from Austin, TX who spends his summers in London visiting his divorced dad. This summer, against a backdrop of flips, nollies, space cookies and Beastie Boys tunes, he falls for an older girl, pops his cherry, and generally does all he can to reach the holy grail of teenagehood - experience. A vacation to Belgium, and a visit to the battlefields of the First World War, enforces Johnny's fervent opposition to the Iraq conflict.

The book opens with a quotation from 'Sabotage', and Johnny's fondness for the Beasties and their influence on him is mentioned throughout. Johnny Hazzard has, indeed, the skills to pay the bills.

I'm a young (26) author from London. Beasties have played a huge part in my life, and I wanted my character to have a music taste which avoided the obvious 15 year-old clichés. And, as you all know, when it comes to the B-Boys, it's a whole lot more than just the music...

Thanks for listening!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0439673615/qid=1138454659/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-0572294-6536753?n=507846&s=books&v=glance

[PaddyBoy]

Good luck!

[AfroKing]

Thank you very much. I need it! (y)

[pickledbeats]

awesome...wonderful idea...I do agree w/ you about the b-boys being more than just music...it's a way of life for some of us...good luck w/ the book...PEACE, Dusty

[AfroKing]

Yep, it's all about the clothes, the attitude, the rhymes...and that crazy originality and inventiveness. I hope I've got some of that across in young Johnny.

The book is aimed at a young audience but I think it appeals to all ages...and Beastie fans.

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http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/04...=books&v=glance
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[jackrock]

wow! that sounds like a really intruging book! maybe i'll put it on my rather short list of B-books to get.

[kleptomaniac]

i'd really like to read that, especially since it's about a 15 year old like me. :o

and especially since it's got beasties in it too. (y)

sounds cool! i'll buy it! :D
will you sign my book? lol


woohoo! johnny hazzard \m/

[AfroKing]

yo' damn right I'll sign it, kleptomaniac!

Not sure I'm going near you anytime soon, though. I'm in NYC and Austin this Spring.

Here's a couple of chunks from JOHNNY HAZZARD for B-Boys and Girls' perusal....

Jack hasn't even kissed a girl, and David is much too rude to get very far. More than one grown-up has told David he has a future in literature. And more than one girl has told David to never call her again. Johnny Hazzard figures that David can't help but be offensive, and that this flaw might cost him dear in the "getting laid" stakes.

Like his three best friends, Johnny Hazzard is a virgin. The urgency that has crept into conversation recently has made him uncomfortable. Sex has become the mission, the quest, the whole point of being alive. And with Kade having a regular girl, it seems he will reach the Holy Grail first. This is pissing Johnny Hazzard off slightly. After all, he was the first to properly kiss a girl, when he was just eight years old. Tongue hockey at eight is a messy business, but Johnny Hazzzard struggled through. He opened and closed his mouth like a fish, imitating what he had seen on Dawson's Creek. Saliva dribbled down his chin and dripped onto his hand...

************
Johnny's trying out a tailslide on a wooden crate, conveniently dumped there by somebody else. The attempts aren't going so well. A guy in his early twenties, with darkish skin and short, messy, dark brown hair, is pointing an expensive-looking digital camera at Johnny Hazzard. He is wearing a Beastie Boys T-shirt and baggy dark blue jeans, held up by an enormous silver-studded black belt. Sporadic facial hair decorates his face, looking a bit like someone's hurled a pot of black paint across it. Johnny Hazzard skates up, grinds to a stop a couple of inches away from the guy's feet, and picks up his board.

"Beastie Boys..." Johnny says, as though he's about to declare a long-winded theory.

"Yeah, Beastie Boys..." comes the response, in American English although the speaker is definitely not American. "You like?" asks the mystery man, with a smile. Johnny Hazzard enjoys the guy's aura.

"Sure I like," says Johnny Hazzard.

"You can't front on that...."

Johnny smiles and the gesture is returned. If the eyes are a window to the soul, the smile is the catflap, and a warm smile is an open catflap.

***************

[jackrock]

Jack hasn't even kissed a girl, and David is much too rude to get very far. More than one grown-up has told David he has a future in literature. And more than one girl has told David to never call her again. Johnny Hazzard figures that David can't help but be offensive, and that this flaw might cost him dear in the "getting laid" stakes.

Like his three best friends, Johnny Hazzard is a virgin. The urgency that has crept into conversation recently has made him uncomfortable. Sex has become the mission, the quest, the whole point of being alive. And with Kade having a regular girl, it seems he will reach the Holy Grail first. This is pissing Johnny Hazzard off slightly. After all, he was the first to properly kiss a girl, when he was just eight years old. Tongue hockey at eight is a messy business, but Johnny Hazzzard struggled through. He opened and closed his mouth like a fish, imitating what he had seen on Dawson's Creek. Saliva dribbled down his chin and dripped onto his hand...

************

hahahahahahaahahaaha




"Beastie Boys..." Johnny says, as though he's about to declare a long-winded theory.

"Yeah, Beastie Boys..." comes the response, in American English although the speaker is definitely not American. "You like?" asks the mystery man, with a smile. Johnny Hazzard enjoys the guy's aura.

"Sure I like," says Johnny Hazzard.

"You can't front on that...."

Johnny smiles and the gesture is returned. If the eyes are a window to the soul, the smile is the catflap, and a warm smile is an open catflap.[/I]

***************
you can't front on that! yeah!

dude im loving this already! and i like the cover of the book (y) (y)

[kleptomaniac]

excellent! (y) that made me smile :)


so when's the movie coming out, man? :p

[Justin]

If you make a movie, i could play all the roles

[laurie_hammy]

wow! that sounds like a really intruging book! maybe i'll put it on my rather short list of B-books to get.

hahahaha I was gonna say something similar ;)

[AfroKing]

I need to sell a few copies before anyone thinks of making a movie. But, of course, I'll keep you all in mind for the starring roles ;-)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/04...=books&v=glance

Go JOHNNY, go!

[AfroKing]

God DAMN! Earlier link was wrong. Here's the book :

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0439673615/sr=1-1/qid=1138576298/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-7865807-0340754?%5Fencoding=UTF8

And judging from some of the messages I've received from people on this board, Johnny ain't the only teenager digging the Beasties....

[kleptomaniac]

And judging from some of the messages I've received from people on this board, Johnny ain't the only teenager digging the Beasties....

not by a longshot, buddy :cool: (y)

[AfroKing]

Mass media respects the B-Boys but it seems to portray them as having very much a 20something and 30something following. I know this to be bullsh*t, as anyone who goes to see them live knows too.

I wasn't able to spell 'Beastie' when L2Ill came out. I discovered them around Ill Communication time. I think a lot of fans came to the band later on.


------------------------
Meet Johnny Hazzard.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0439673615/sr=1-1/qid=1138663999/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-7865807-0340754?%5Fencoding=UTF8
-------------------------

[kleptomaniac]

if you wanna, you can add the link to your signature. it'd be a lot easier. :o


ps: i discovered them around tt5b, i'm so weird... *blushes*

[kleptomaniac]

*waits by mailbox for book to arrive*

[Waus]

::click:: ::click:: ::typetty::

Purchased

[AfroKing]

Thank you, thank you. Much appreciated.

I'm gonna paste another special preview on here over the weekend. I'd love to hear what any of you think of it, so feel free to message me your verdict...it's a snip at $11.53 on Amazon!

Although far from an autobiography, there's definitely something of me in Johnny and his Beasties fixation, and the way the B-Boy phenomenon touches so many different bits of your life. Johnny's quest is to have the savoir-faire


http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0439673615/sr=1-1/qid=1138663999/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-3623679-7314464?%5Fencoding=UTF8

[AfroKing]

Hey yall

here's another coupla paragraphs from my new book, JOHNNY HAZZARD. You know, the one about the kid from Austin who comes to London. The skater boy who likes his Beastie Boys, nollies, and hash cookies (yes, there are scenes of drug-taking, so probably not suitable for Republicans...)

Take a quick look. If you like what you see, check it out on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0439673615/sr=1-1/qid=1139275432/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-3543033-0703949?%5Fencoding=UTF8

or just throw questions at me. I'm happy to answer 'em. Also happy to hear from any aspiring writers. Not that I'm Ernest Hemingway or Israel Horovitz or anything, but I'll try to help if I can...

This sneak preview deals with Johnny beginning to understand the Iraq war by learning about World War One, during a family vacation to Belgium. A trip to the battlefields of that war brings a vivid reality to the current conflict..."in a world gone mad it's hard to think right..."

(!) ******************* (!)

Like everybody with a TV set everywhere in the world, Johnny Hazzard saw the planes smash into the World Trade Center. He saw it happen approximately one hundred and fifty times, in fact. He saw the first day of "shock and awe" in Baghdad, when the relentless bombing looked more like a fireworks display than a civilian slaughter. He also saw the pictures of American torture and humiliation, of Japanese, Korean, American, Italian hostages, of coffins draped in US flags, and the footage of screaming Iraqi mothers, pleading for an explanation as to why their young children had been killed by an apparently misdirected missile. These were shocking, these were astonishing, and these were new images. Johnny Hazzard had not witnessed war before.


But they were distant and unreal. Rolling news turns the most dramatic into the most repeated. And the more you see the footage, the less real it becomes. It is a video game, or a DVD you've watched a few times. It is not a war; it is prime-time entertainment. Endless analysis by "experts" fails to bring home the reality of the horror. Watching the TV, Johnny knew what he ought to feel, but he couldn't feel it. When he tried to bring on some kind of sadness, he just felt fake.

Johnny can't get a line out of his head...

The land of the free, and home of the brave...

Johnny thinks again of Fahrenheit 9/11. Of the hundreds of senators without a son or daughter in the armed forces, supporting a distant and calamitous war. Johnny thinks of the Patriot Act - to oppose it, they tell him, is to oppose the land of the free. Freedom, after all, is what we are all fighting for...

(!) ********************* (!)

[kleptomaniac]

^^ you're an awesome writer (y)
i'm starting to think this johnny character is real! he's got such deep thoughts, he's just amazing :cool:

i wish my book would get here sooner!

[jackrock]

Have you written any other books? Anything else up your sleeve for the future?

[Jmoney77]

I support you all the way, Good Luck!

[AfroKing]

Yes, I've written one other book, called LUCKY. In fact, it too features the Beasties. A quotation from ALIVE precedes one of the chapters.

It's here:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0439546559/ref=sr_11_1/102-1708332-1146527?%5Fencoding=UTF8

I'm working on a new book right now, and also trying to get on with writing a feature-length screenplay. I've completed 2 short films. No Beasties in those, though.

Thanks for the support, b-boys & girls.

I'll be doing some readings & Q&A sessions in NYC and Austin next month! And also in town for the SXSW Festival.

[kleptomaniac]

hey i finished reading johnny hazzard today!

well...i don't think i can do the "long-winded" review, because i'll prolly just end up summarizing the whole book (and ruining it) and adding little things like wow! and cool! or something like that, so i'll just say that you're a very talented writer and to keep up the good work ;) (y)

you're an inspiration (lb)
thanks.

Yes, I've written one other book, called LUCKY. In fact, it too features the Beasties. A quotation from ALIVE precedes one of the chapters.

gotta get that one too!

[jackrock]

how many pages is it?

[kleptomaniac]

how many pages is it?

around 330-ish.

[jackrock]

wow, sweet

[AfroKing]

Yowza! I turn my computer off for a few days and get back to find nice words said about me! Glad you enjoyed the book, kleptomaniac. You read that pretty fast. Thanks!

So yeah, if anyone's in Austin I'm going to be hanging around for 5 weeks this March/April, look out for me and my Afro.

:D