For Whom the Bell Tolls

falling faintly and faintly falling

Scuba Theory

Come on show me all the light and shade that made your name

Drug dealers taking a break

Me? I took it for real. I wrote six hundred songs about how I feel.

the king and his valet

Hanging out my old love letters on the line to dry

The Walrus and the Carpenter, a retelling

Encino Gothic

ferocity pt. 2

syncopation and ferocity

And when you walk through the street, bells chime, and a hymn fills the world

The picture you see is no portrait of me

Divine sepulchre (do dolphins swim downward to find the light?)

Children of Light

Suburban Raga

look into the terrible mirror of the sky; oh, bend against the invisible, and search the glare of revelations gone by.

a dark night. starless and bible black.

scene looking for a meme

trickster rules this world

sing brave achilles (we've nothing wrong if we've done nothing wrong)

Dancing Fools

but your eyes said look at me more

Don't know my right from left or my right from wrong

Mick Jagger, aka The Great Communicator

Cute Kitten Porn

OK this blog is now very gooey and cute

I miss my twenties

Treason and Gunpowder Plot

Happy Guy Fawkes Day. Blow up yer staid old idears!

The Pale Saints are way better than me

NY Times Guest Blog

Pretty great.

Boston Globe review!

“Two parts ‘Spinal Tap,’ one part Chekhov…Shilling both understands and overstates the cockeyed rock world. Writing about the boredom of touring, and the adoration given to anyone who plays music on a stage, he gets the rhythms as well as the ridiculous logic of the road, as his characters' distinctive voices mix hyperbole with pop culture references into their own particular narcissistic brews…underneath the broad humor, Shilling also recognizes the humanity of his characters. They create out of their personal pain. Just because their art is of dubious value doesn't mean that their stories aren't valid. And between the laughs he lets some recognition shine in. Filthy, covered in sores and disgrace, the Blood Orphans almost earn our - and each other's - respect. Beer in hand, they will, we sense, rock on.”

-- Boston Globe

Reviews!

Hipster Book Club:

Characters this complex can be hard to write, especially in books meant to be comedic, but Michael Shilling handles this with little difficulty.

Book Launch Cafe:

From the first sentence, Rock Bottom grabbed me with its itchy hands and dragged me on a wild, frightening ride through the last day of the last tour of the failed and humiliated band Blood Orphans.

Emerging Writers Network:

A rollicking good read . . . a difficult book to put down.

LitMob:

Readers will likely find themselves rooting for this band of misfits (or at least most of the band members) and enjoying their wild ride into obscurity. In his world of sex, drugs, and rock & roll, Mr. Shilling certainly knows what he writes. The story is utterly believable.

Booklist:

Told in alternating chapters by each of the band members as well as their wise and raucous
female manager, this is an exuberant comic romp by a veteran of the Seattle music scene.