Arts & Entertainment Connexions

My friend Kristine of Ashton-Maguson Media, introduced me to this author and sent me a press release. Rick does yet another superb job with his latest, Dolor: Arielle │Book III. Check this out…

“DATE: AUGUST 25, 2010

FROM: KRISTINE ASHTON-MAGNUSON

AUTHOR RICK FLORINO CONTINUES
DOLOR NOVELLA SERIES WITH

Dolor: Arielle │Book III

OUT SEPTEMBER 27

Sam’s wife Arielle just left him, but that’s the least of his problems…

After sitting through three meetings in his downtown Dolor law office,
strange things begin happening to this lawyer.
One of Sam’s clients nearly bleeds to death
in some sort of ritual right before his eyes,
however the evil doesn’t let up…

Author Rick Florino continues his Dolor mystery/horror novella series with Dolor: Arielle│Book III, out September 27 via New American Deities. Arielle–the third in a series of ten stories about the creepy town of Dolor–will be available for only 99 cents on September 27, 28 and 29 at www.BookOfDolor.com. From September 30 through October 31, 2010, Arielle can be purchased for the discounted price of $3.99. As an introduction to the Dolor story, a free download of Lila and Chrissy, the first two books in the series, is available at www.bookofdolor.com/signup.html and hard copies of the books can be purchased for just $4.99 each.

Florino–author of Dolor: Lila | Book I, Dolor: Chrissy | Book II, Do The Devil’s Work For Him, founder of Ruin Magazine and Editor-In-Chief of ARTISTdirect.com–offers his thoughts on Arielle: “Arielle represents everything that I always wanted this series to be. The mystery behind Dolor begins to unravel further within the landscape of a very dark and twisted story. The narrative itself examines so much in short space—from the breakdown of a marriage to the breakdown of a mind. Then there’s a deeper and more demonic aspect to Arielle as well that’s reminiscent of ’60s and ’70s horror, yet the characters all come to life vibrantly. Fans of the series will get to learn a little bit more about Caleb Taylor, and they’ll also get a closer look at what’s really happening underneath the surface of this town. Arielle also features a musical aspect that will come into play much more as the series progresses. In some ways, Arielle closes out the trilogy that is the first three books. However, it also leaves everything open for the next seven to come. This is a very special book, and newcomers and previous visitors to Dolor will be equally possessed by it…I still am.”
Florino moved to Los Angeles to pursue his dream of working in the entertainment industry after graduating from Boston University Magna Cum Laude at 19 years old. He began his career at New Line Cinema and freelancing for magazines such as Metal Edge, AMP and Lollipop. Constantly writing, he cultivated a unique style that was clever, vivid and highly eloquent. That style would fuel his 2006 creation, the bi-monthly hard rock publication Ruin Magazine. In 2007, Rick became an editor for ARTISTdirect.com, where he conducts interviews with A-list film and music talent for exclusive features. His words have also appeared in publications including Inked Magazine, BPM Magazine, Revolver, Kerrang!, Hit Parader, LAX Magazine, Shockhound.com, Craveonline.com, Bloody-Disgusting.com and many more.

His first book, Do The Devil’s Work For Him, was released in June 2009. In support of the book, Rick was featured on No Good TV with members of Guns N’ Roses/Velvet Revolver, System of a Down and Devildriver discussing the text. He was also featured on FOX News. He released the first book of the Dolor series, Lila, in October of 2009 and followed with Dolor: Chrissy in February 2010.
Here’s a sample of the critical praise for Dolor: Chrissy and Dolor: Lila:

“Rick Florino is a writer that can be compared to Stephen King…He was put on this earth to tell stories and that is exactly what he is doing.”
–Dana Feldman, Examiner.com, March 13, 2010
“A unique blend of macabre writing and graphic horror imagery. An addictive story line leaving you anxious for more to come.”
–Raphael Shlosman, VampireFreaks.com, January 21, 2010
“…when I see an indie book series out, like this Dolor, I stand up and take notice…This second book in the Dolor series is not only a fun read, but its a fantastic and twisted look into an entirely new world! I highly recommend it.”
–Matt MacNabb, BookLegion.com, February 17, 2010
“No sophomore slump with Dolor: Chrissy | Book II…heavy horror elements are involved–heavier than those that came into play in Lila…the steps he’s taking with this ambitious project are sure-footed.”
–Rod Lott, Bookgasm.com, February 24, 2010
“…a gritty series of illustrated novellas about tragic characters, fantasy, and horror…Rick Florino’s ability to write tight convincing dialogue, plot, and intrigue is exceptional…This is not your typical graphic novel or horror novella, the Dolor series drags a reader in from the first page and tells a full story in limited time.”
–Jessica Bohatch-Easton, MetalExiles.com, March 2010

“…strange, dark and witty…I couldn’t put it down and when I was done; I wanted nothing more than to have the next installment in my hands…”
–Sarah Boger, BandVibe.com, February 20, 2010

“Lila makes for a damn good read. It’s creepy in spots, and madly melancholy in plenty of others. Rick Florino clearly understands the sensitivity behind the content, and manages to siphon frightening reality from the idea…outstanding piece of fiction.”
–Matt Molgaard, Fangoria.com, November 16, 2009

“Horror fiction has put a few cities on the map: Castle Rock, Serenity Falls, Orangefield. Add Dolor to that list…It’s easy to get caught up in Florino’s tale, not only because it adheres to storytelling brevity, but also because it has a rock ‘n’ roll sensibility to it, dishing out details of drugs, sex and violence.”
–Rod Lott, Bookgasm.com, November 2009

“A heartbreaking, horrifying and honest examination of a damaged psyche, true violence, drug addiction and love unreturned…a horror masterpiece…”
–LAX Magazine, Winter 2009

“If the rest of the volumes are even half as good as Lila, we’re in for a huge treat…A great start to what appears to be an even greater series…”
–BC, Bloody-Disgusting.com, December 5, 2009

Dolor: Arielle │Book III…How much farther will you fall?
About Dolor
Dolor is a creepy little town that you won’t be able to leave. It’s the kind of place you can’t forget. It’s the kind of place where anything can happen. It’s the kind of place where evil doesn’t just die. It’s the kind of place that nightmares are born to live forever…

In October 2009, Rick Florino opened up Dolor to the “real” world with his first novella Dolor: Lila | Book I. At the beginning of Lila, FBI Agent Jeffries goes to Dolor to investigate a fire. The town’s been burned to the ground. One lone house stands—charred to Hell on the outside, but fine on the inside. Within those walls, Jeffries finds ten small diaries. Each diary is written by a different denizen of Dolor, delving into some sort of darkness. The first diary is Lila | Book I.

Enter the world of Rick Florino’s Dolor, you’ll never be the same. Then succumb to the tales of Chrissy, Arielle, Decker, Cassie, Olivia, Orestes, Lucia, Sage and Helen. Nightmares are guaranteed.
www.BookOfDolor.com”

TheLiveLine.com – where fans and artists go to shoot the sh** (used with permission from Alternative Revolt Magazine)

One of the hardest working guys I know not only promotes several record companies and a number of artists but he also works for a very cool business, TheLiveLine.com. This company allows fans to call a number and listen to a recorded message left by an actual famous artist of their choice to see what the latest thing going on in their lives is. Not only that, but a fan can also receive a text by the artist of what they’re into or what they’re about to get into. To make it sweeter, sometimes the artist will answer the phone and talk to you if they’re super cool and not super busy. Want to know who some of these artists are? Scott Ian (Anthrax), Dez Fafara (DevilDriver), Burton C Bell (Fear Factory), Maria Brink (In This Moment), and many more.

Not only do they have an amazingly simple and effective idea for promoting businesses, their idea behind fan-to-artist mobile phone interaction is cool and unique which will probably be as important as society has made Twitter. Their press release sounds mighty inviting: “The website allows our talent to create AudioBlogs, and anyone can call them at a number we assign them for FREE. This itself is cool to be able to hear their actual voice, and interact with fans. Fans can even leave voice messages for the Artists, and you never know, the artist may just answer the phone and start talking to you! Every time an artist updates their AudioBlog, a text alert goes out.

Try it for yourself, and give Maria Brink a call for FREE: (877) 306-2742. Who is Maria Brink? The delicious singer of “In This Moment” who also was featured in Playboy.

TheLiveLine.com has an updated version which will go live very soon and you don’t want to miss out on this huge ordeal. You can see a glimpse now at http://www.theliveline.com

What interested me equally was a section they have called “Purgatory.” This is a cool concept where unknown artists get a chance to score a spot with the big boys on the site. Basically, an unknown artist tries to gain 1,000 fans. Until they do they stay in “purgatory” but once they get that number of fans they achieve a spot with the already-knowns. So, to get a bit more understanding here is an interview with someone who knows all about TheLiveLine.com, Scott Holmen.

THE INTERVIEW

Daniel/AR: The idea behind theliveline.com is very cool. It’s been tested for a couple years if my information is correct. What prompted the idea and how did it get moving so fast and successfully?

Scott/TheLiveLine: We were aware that the technology was available but mostly being applied to retail marketing. We approached our parent company with the idea of using their existing technology and applying it to the entertainment industry.

Daniel/AR: Tell me a typical scenario how a fan could benefit from joining.

Scott/TheLiveLine: In addition to getting updates from Artists IN THE ARTISTS’ OWN VOICE, fans on TheLiveLine have access to exclusive contests, promotions, alerts and access to our “Talent Family”.

Daniel/AR: What is the cost to join?

Scott/TheLiveLine: It is absolutely FREE to be a fan or an artist on TheLiveLine.

Daniel/AR: Tell me a typical scenario of how a business could benefit from this. Let’s say the name of the business was Envy Anna Jones or Eggshell White Castle.

Scott/TheLiveLine: The businesses that are coming alongside TheLiveLine see the value of several components that we produce. A business is able to access fans, via their mobile device, which is the most immediate and relevant way to reach their targeted demographic today. We are able to serve highly targeted text, voice and web communications on behalf of these businesses.

Daniel/AR: How would you compare this to Twitter which is what I thought of initially?

Scott/TheLiveLine: We are different than twitter in that we have incorporated an Audio component in TheLiveLine. On twitter, you can’t be too sure who is tweeting on behalf of an artist. Frequently, an administrator is generating the tweets. With TheLiveLine, you are HEARING your favorite artists voice SECONDS after they record their AudioBlog and are provided with a way to engage in 2-way communication with them.

Daniel/AR: When theliveline.com is complete what are all the great things one can expect from visiting it and being a member?

Scott/TheLiveLine: As we continue to build out TheLiveLine we expect to facilitate event based mobile experiences where we are at shows allowing fans to engage with the artists via picture 2 screen text to screen, voting, and providing mobile deals on merch, concessions, etc.
We will be able to provide fans and brands with highly relevant information that they will want based on some of the information that they request. For example, a metal fan will request and get information around metal music, metal merch, metal events, etc.

Daniel/AR: Your “purgatory” is a very cool idea. To what extent will theliveline.com go to make sure these artists get known?

Scott/TheLiveLine: We are huge proponents of the “up & comers”. We have already used our resources to book shows for some of these smaller bands. We truly believe that as Artists see a company in this “Dog Eat Dog” world that you so accurately describe come along side of them and help them with publicity, brand building, management, and bringing them into our network within the entertainment business they will reciprocate by providing TheLiveLine with new content, traffic and otherwise reciprocating. Scratching each others backs if you will.

Daniel/AR: Anything else you’d like to have everyone know?

Scott/TheLiveLine: We would love fan feedback on our TheLiveLine. We would love to know other bands that you would like to connect with through TheLiveLine. This site is meant to cater to the fans so I would hope that they would be generous in letting us know what they want. We will do everything we can to make this site the ultimate site for engaging with artists and gathering information about entertainment.

Daniel/AR: Even though this isn’t an artist interview I’ll throw you a famous question curve ball just the same. If theliveline.com dominated all businesses and could change the way people paid for services what would the change be, would Bill Gates care at all and would it affect the afterlife in any way?

Wow. That is a big question!

1. Ultimately , payment for services would be made by brands that see the tremendous return on getting targeted, relevant information in front of fans on TheLiveLine. This way, fans are only present with information/advertising that they would want to see and advertisers see a high rate of return on their advertising dollars because of this.

2. I hope that Bill Gates would care. If TheLiveLine is “dominating all businesses” we would likely come up on his radar in a meaningful way.

3. As to the afterlife, one can only hope that energy put forth in this life affects the afterlife but I am hardly in a position to speak to these mysteries with any definitive conviction. For now I’ll just trust that if we “do good then good will follow us”.

Daniel/AR: Thank you very much for talking a bit about this amazing concept. Being one for the major and not-so-major artists together in one place is worth telling people about. I wish you all the best.

Daniel C. Morrison aka: The Hit Man

Hello everyone. I am happy to announce a promotional dream come true for artists of all genres. In light of the recent news about Ear Xtacy potentially being erased from Louisville I decided to go ahead and announce something I am introducing to artists of all genres. It’s a sad truth that local artists get little exposure and I think like most others do: it’s got to change! So artists of all genres, listen up closely.

Thanks to a supporting cast by Shout! Radio Services and Daniels Doorstep I have an opportunity to give you exposure unlike any other. It’s a package that consists of a high definition video posted on YouTube for your portfolio, an interview like you see me post on this site (which will be posted on as many sites as I can including DanielDoorstep.com, this site, and Louisville Mojo), the opportunity for you to sell your merchandise to the public, and at times mention on local public broadcasting stations, and sometimes being aired live on Acoustic Alternative radio (for musicians). There is a lot more to it than that and you can find information here at AllForOnePromotions.com.

I’m also using my html coding experience to come up with a list of artists in the Louisville area. I have realized that I cannot search one spot and find all the artists that exist in this city. So anyone who is in a band, who paints, who is a comedian, etc. send me your name and what you do and a link so I can get a public directory for this city.

I hope to be able to start one of these conventions really soon but I need the cities support. I am going this alone as far as paying for the initial costs, doing the recruiting, doing the physical work and most of the advertising and it’s very difficult but my passion and desire to be a good samaritan and help others drives me forward. Hopefully, this will work. I have seen no one go to this extent. I can’t thank Shout Radio enough for their support. Here’s to everyone who has an art and skill to make the world a better place!

Sincerely,
Daniel C. Morrison
aka The Hit Man

Hello everyone. I hope the holiday season did you well and your new year started off right. If it didn’t, I hope you were able to sleep through it, ha! I wanted to take a moment to let everyone know that the reason the content has not been added regularly has nothing to do with the holidays. I have sprained and fractured my left ankle, caught 2 nasty computer viruses where I had to wipe all computers and my external hard drive and also fought a 17 day nasty cold/flu. Please, no violins.
I’ll have you know that I will be adding content again shortly but I am also excited to announce a project I am going to start backed with support by Shout! Radio Services, AcousticAlternative.com and a trio of good samaritans. It is going to be an arts and entertainment convention focusing on artists of all genres all over the nation, starting first in Louisville, KY. Not only will this allow artists to showcase their talent it will also aid them in a successful resume with promotional opportunities next to impossible to find in one place.
Stay tuned for more information on this. I’m just awaiting the final website design. This is a real deal, not some fly by night idea. I’ll stake my entire reputation on it. In fact, it’s coming together so nicely that I am positive God has a hand in it! So happy 2010 everyone and remember, together we and 2010 can accomplish anything!

One for all,

Daniel C. Morrison
aka The Hit Man