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The Latchcast
Bestseller Episode 14
2010/05/01
Robert Caulder's star continues to rise as he cross over to music. Does the now-bestselling writer have a future as a rock star? And a ghost from the past reaches out to touch him.
PROMO: Dark, A horror anthology, available here
Download Episode 14
Bestseller Episode 13
2010/04/13
Info (Show/Hide)
Rob finds himself in Germany with several members of an up-and-coming hard rock band. And he also finds out that the freaks really do come IN at night.
NOTE * I've included the text of the chapter because it has several occurences of the German language, which at times I trued to emulate and others, I just left out completely. I still, however, wanted you to have the best possible enetertainment from this episode.
Fourteen
As it turned out, the story of Rob’s debauchery and car theft didn’t only make the New York papers. It was the buzz of tabloids, online message boards, and legitimate reporting services nationwide. The attention wasn’t all bad, however. Rob’s brush with the law seemed to pay off as far as book sales went. His most recent release, the paperback edition of Fear, hit number four on the New York Times Best-seller List. Amazingly, it stayed there for several weeks.
When Bad Season was released in hardcover a month after Fear’s paperback release, it was number five or better on every list Rob checked.
His brief incarceration was long forgotten and he was in Hollywood. The producers for the Fear of the Dark film kept their word and Rob had a small speaking part. Hopeful that it wouldn’t be cut in the final editing, Rob left the studio in high spirits.
Some of the studio people introduced him to a few prominent folks around the Sony lot. But the best part of the day, save for his acting debut—if you could call a security guard attacking—then promptly mutilated by the film’s antagonist a debut, was meeting Trey Bones. Bones was the lead singer for the popular rock band Razor Bone, which currently had a number one album, Delicate Caress, and number one single, “Just Like We Used To”.
Razor Bone was the band of the minute, and if they played their cards right, they just might have one more hit record up their sleeve before slinking away into musical oblivion, like so many had done before and even more were likely to do in the future.
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They’d met on the set of their new video, Crimson Skies. Sony not only signed the band to their label but also produced their videos in house. This was the first inkling Rob had of how supremely large the corporation was, which made him rethink how much he would ask for the rights to his next release. It could wait, however. Bad Season had already been sold to them for two-point-five.
While Rob liked the whole band, Trey was the most outgoing, and invited Rob to hook up with him that evening.
“I love your books, man. All of them. I can’t wait to see how twisted the next one is.”
“I’ll get you a copy before they hit the shelf.”
“That’s a promise?”
“That’s a pledge.”
“Fucking awesome, man.”
And that was that. But they never did manage to get together that night. Rob was packing his bags at the end of the week, preparing for the flight back to New York, when his cell rang.
“You got a passport, Robbie, my man?” It took him a minute to place the voice.
“Trey?”
“The one and only. Do ya?”
“Do I what?”
“Have a passport?”
“Yeah.” He and Ellen obtained one in anticipation of a vacation that never made it to fruition.
“Good, meet me at my hotel. I feel up for a trip. You busy?”
“Nothing on the agenda. Where we going?”
“Ever been to Germany?”
“No, but my books sell really well there.” The German translations of his last two novels had all been high sellers.
“Good enough, see you in a while.”
~ * ~
Sony Music had been very generous to Razor Bone. They were flying the band to Germany to perform a show for a music fest. Trey added Rob’s name to the roster yesterday.
The flight was a series of connections and layovers. The air was remarkably cool when the plane finally touched down on German soil.
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The musicians and roadies got thoroughly sauced on the flight. However, Rob and Trey refused the alcohol. Rob discovered Trey shared his attraction to pills, and together, they popped an amazing amount during the journey.
The term jet-lag took on a whole new meaning for Rob when he arrived at his hotel room. He crashed onto the bed and was immediately out.
He was unsure how long he had slept. He was also unsure how long the pounding on his door had been going on. He stumbled to his feet and clawed his way to the door. “Yeah?” he asked in a hoarse and exhausted voice.
“Open the frigging door, man.”
Rob opened the door and Trey stood there, decked out in rock star attire: black leather pants, black satin shirt, and a huge silver cross around his neck. “You ready?”
“For what?”
“For what, he says. For the motherfucking show. Damn, man, are you okay?”
“Just burnt out.”
Trey fished something from his pocket. Three capsules. “Here, take one of these now and—”
Rob immediately dry-swallowed all three.
“Well, anyway. Shower and get dressed. We have a backstage shindig to attend.”
~ * ~
Rob had been to very few concerts in his life, and never backstage. He wasn’t prepared for it. If he could’ve likened it to anything, it would be the hottest club of the moment during opening night.
Countless men and women thrummed together, barely a hair’s breadth between them. Music blared from unseen speakers. Groupies and technicians shared space as musicians clamored around like kings of the hill.
“If you think this is something,” Trey said during one of the rare moments they saw one another, “wait till after the show.”
While the majority of the crowd was German, Rob was pleasantly surprised to hear only an occasional foreign word. Most conversations were spoken in English.
Half an hour before Razor Bone hit the stage, Rob was invited to a small room to share in the band’s pre-show
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briefing. The concert was in an open-air venue, but there was plenty of room for the bands and their crews to lay in wait. They were just outside Berlin, in a town Rob couldn’t pronounce and he was having the time of his life.
The five members of the band huddled together: Trey, Bonner, the lead guitarist, Fletcher Crown, the bassist, Herbert Howell, the drummer, and Jack Strut, the rhythm guitarist. They began to chant words that Rob couldn’t quite make out. There were three other men and a woman in the room with him. The woman was introduced as Nikki, Bonner’s girlfriend for the night.
After the band broke their huddle, each took a pull from the same bottle of Jack Daniels. Then, like a college football team, they thundered out of the room. Rob followed them down the white, bright corridors. When the band went up, he went down, and soon found his VIP box seat.
The performance went off without a hitch.
The crowd sang along to every Razor Bone song, especially the ballads.
About forty-five minutes, and two encores later, Razor Bone left the stage.
Trey had been right about backstage. If it had been teeming before, it was surging now.
The most noticeable difference was that women now outnumbered the men five to one. Trey gave Rob a brief overview of how this happened. During the performance, or even before, members of the band indicated girls in the crowd that should be allowed access backstage. Sometimes this was done by gestures, other times by advanced radio communication. Isn’t that something, Rob reasoned, all the advances we’ve made, and we use them to chase tail.
Not that he found anything at all wrong with that.
In fact, he admired it.
Trey and the bassist disappeared into the showers with several women, none of them dogs, and Rob felt a pang of jealousy.
He lost himself in the crowd, listening to people talk, and initiating a few conversations himself. For the most part, however, he just stood in awe of the activity around him.
The awe was short-lived. “You ready?” Trey asked, tugging his shirt sleeve.
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“For?”
“For the after-party. It’s at a nearby club. I’d tell you the name, but I can’t remember it, and you wouldn’t understand me even if I tried. But it’s supposed to be very exclusive. Grade-A, prime puss or so I’m told.”
“Let’s go, then.”
“Yes,” Trey said. “Let’s.”
~ * ~
The Blue Herron Exotic Club was housed in an unassuming four-story structure in a trendier part of the newly renovated section of Berlin. Their car deposited Rob, Trey, and Bonner at the front of the dark stone building. The windows must’ve been tinted, for no light escaped them. The only indication that the building was inhabited was a small neon sign that read: Open. The sign was affixed to a dark glass door.
“What kind of place is this, again?” Rob asked.
“They say it’s the best place in the country to sample the delicacies,” Bonner said. He was usually so high on pot he didn’t make sense. The subject of getting laid, though, cut through Bonner’s slurred words.
“A few guys told us about this place. Damon Crux, from Devil Dare, said he drops ten grand here every time he comes.”
“Well, we going to get out of the frigging street and dip our dicks before mine shrivels up and falls off, or what?” Bonner said and stepped to the door.
“Well, a poet he is not. But I think we should follow his lead,” Trey said.
“I agree,” Rob said.
The two pushed through the door. Trey first, followed by Rob.
The Blue Herron’s entryway was not noticeably different from the exterior. Cheap industrial carpet, a sour blue color, covered the floor. There was remarkably little in the way of furnishings. A counter sat against the far wall, dusty and ancient. A tall German woman in a faux fur coat stood behind the counter. Her expression was slack, unconcerned. To her right, mounted on the wall, was a simple black telephone.
“Gutenabend, Herren,” she said. Good evening,
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gentlemen. Her accent was thick.
“Hello,” Rob said, the other two silent beside him.
“Are you lost?”
“Uh,” Trey said. “I’m looking for Hitler’s daughter.” Rob wasn’t sure he’d heard his friend correctly. Bonner, as well, look puzzled.
The German woman stared at him, her thin, pointed nose not unlike those of evil witches in fairy tales. “I see.”
She held her gaze a moment, then picked up the telephone and spoke one word in German. She replaced the phone on the hook. Finally, her placid face shattered and she smiled slightly.
The door cracked open.
“Sie können hereinkommen ,” the stern woman said.
Strange, foreign music filtered in through the open door. Like terrified children, the trio entered into another world.
The forlorn appearance of the outer room and the building’s façade disappeared. Plush velvet carpet covered the floor; the room was dim, but lit with purple lighting. The lobby’s antiseptic smell was replaced by spice and sugar and a lush scent that he couldn’t identify.
The room was set up as a casual meeting place. Black crushed velvet couches, love seats, and large, comfortable-looking chairs were arranged in close, welcoming positions. But the seats were not empty. Men in business suits and casual clothing filled the seats. They wore expressions ranging from calm coolness to agitated nervousness.
A tall but beautiful woman appeared from nowhere and directed them to a row of seats. Though pretty, her features were stoic and hard, the face of a prison warden.
Both Bonner and Rob sat. Trey conversed with the woman, pointing at his friends. After a moment, the woman nodded and left. Trey took a seat between them.
“What happens now?” Rob said.
“She said to sit and wait.”
And that’s what they did. Women began to emerge from a dark hallway, scantily clad in short, almost sheer robes, in teddies, in bodices. Each went to one man, reached out to him, and led him away. There was no deliberation or system to it; it was if the women had already chosen their
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mates.
Finally, the room was empty save for Trey, Rob, and Bonner.
A black woman sheathed in a light blue gown that stretched to the ground and flowed outward like the petals of a flower walked to Bonner. Her skin was as dark as midnight, and her body perfect in proportion. She could have easily been an African queen. Even her gait was regal as she sauntered across the room.
Bonner was on his feet before their hands touched and never looked back as he followed the woman away.
Several minutes passed. How many Rob didn’t know. He was submerged in delicious anticipation.
Another woman emerged from the darkness and approached Trey. She was slighter shorter than the lady behind the counter out front. The only other similarity they shared was a stern, determined look. Dressed in a short white robe, she was slender and lithe, her hair long and flowing. It was naturally blond and shone in the low purple light.
“Hitler was an asshole, but he did something right, eh?” Trey whispered as he was pulled to his feet. Just before they disappeared down the corridor, Trey looked back at Rob and gave him a sly wink.
Rob was now alone in the room. He was anxious but uneasy as well. Rob had never had trouble with the opposite sex. Since he had gone away to college, he’d been able to attract women, though nowhere near as successfully as with his newfound wealth and status. But this was a brothel, a flop joint, a whore house. He had no more business here than he had on the front pew of a church on Sunday morning.
But he couldn’t bring himself to leave. He was as susceptible as any man to the pleasures of the flesh, arguably even more so. These were no street walkers here. From his one experience with a high class call girl, he could easily say that the women here were above and beyond them by leaps and bounds.
He decided to stay, fooling himself that there had ever really been a choice.
And he was rewarded for his decision.
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She stepped from the darkness like a hovering spirit. But she was not the stuff of his novels, far from it.
She had the face of an angel, a true higher being. She was tall, well over six feet. Her hair, platinum blonde, was layered and feathered close to her exquisite face. Her figure was stunning, evident even though she was wrapped in a long, terry cloth robe. Her skin was darkly tanned, the color of bronze, a striking contrast to the white robe. She walked like a lioness, light and brisk but with a confidence borne of strength and power.
When she took his hand into hers, her flesh felt warm as silk. He felt weightless as she brought him to his feet. She turned without a word; their hands still clasped, and piloted him away, down the dark hall. The aroma wafting from her was fragrant, exotic, and wild, completely and irrevocably enticing. She led Rob up two flights of stairs. They emerged in another hallway, this one lit intermittently by brass fixtures glowing a gentle blue.
They stopped at a nondescript door. She did not knock, she did not turn the knob, only pushed the door open.
The room was bright, much brighter than Rob expected. It was bare save for a bed frame with a huge mattress covered in robin’s egg blue linen. The headboard was wrought iron. One entire wall was nothing but one single, very wide, very tall mirror.
“Haben Sie einen Sitz,” she said.
“Uh, I don’t speak German. At least not very well.”
“Have a seat,” she said in broken English, with a slight smile. “My name is Katrina, and I will make you very…” she searched for a word, “happy.”
She gently pushed Rob backward and he landed softly on the bed. She stepped back about five feet. From her robe, she pulled a small remote control and tapped a button. Music seeped from unseen speakers. Dance music, techno. Though not too loud, the volume was high enough that he could feel the beat of the song thrumming deep inside him. Another tap of the remote and the bright light diminished by half.
She swayed lightly but confidently with the music.
She pouted her lips and swung her hair backwards.
It was Danielle’s hair, Rob thought. That’s what had caught him so off-guard downstairs. Though Katrina’s hair
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color was the polar opposite of Danielle’s, the cut was exactly the same. But thoughts of Danielle did not belong in his mind. Not now, not in this place.
Katrina bent and slapped him across the cheek. Not as hard as she could, he reasoned, just a sting.
“Pay attention,” she said, and he did.
She resumed her performance. She freed the robe’s belt and spread the garment open. She moved painfully slow.
He hoped for a bare body, a deliciously tanned form.
But what he saw was almost as welcome.
Yes, her body was the same golden bronze as her face and arms, the muscles of her stomach toned and flat. Her legs, long and sleek, and might well have been designed by Hugh Hefner himself.
Her chest and pelvis were covered, however.
Katrina wore a leather bra and panty set. The bra was cut low, the cups covering only about half of her generous mounds. The centers were cut out, a fat, delectable nipple poking out from each one. The panties were also devoid of a center section. Two straps, one wrapped around each hip, kept the garment in place. Through the opening, Rob saw a wondrous sight.
“You like?”
Rob found himself nodding. “Yes. Very, very much.”
“Ausgezeichnet.” Excellent.
Katrina moved from the center of the room to the side wall and opened a closet door Rob hadn’t noticed. From it she withdrew a stainless steel, wheeled cart. When she rolled it over, he saw it was covered with sex toys of every size, shape, and description.
From a cubbyhole on the opposite side of the cart, Katrina extracted what at first looked like a coiled serpent.
Then she snapped it out.
It was a whip. The Indiana Jones type. After snapping the air several times with it, she tossed Rob a pair of handcuffs from the top of the cart.
“Put those on and prepare for the ride of your life.”
Rob did as instructed. But without fear, only lust and a juvenile excitement that lasted even after the sex goddess, dominatrix, if you will, lashed him across the shoulder with
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her leather weapon.
Bestseller Episode 12
2010/03/24
Robert Caulder begins his meteoric rise to both fame and infamy!
Promo: Stay Dead by Steve Wands / www.stevewands.blogspot.com
Bestseller Episode 11
2010/02/14
Chapter Twelve! Rob comes out on top in the Big Apple, scoring successes with both personal and "private" appearances.
Day of the Zombie, An Omega: Earth's Hero Story Part 4
2010/02/05
Nate rediscovers hope at the last moment. Sally North, the gorgeous and brilliant love of Omega's life is in the a very wrong place at a very wrong time.
Bestseller Episode 10
2010/02/05
Bestseller Episode 10...From Ivy Springs to the snowy peaks of Colorado, Robert Caulder has begun his new life. After a bout of solitude and wining and dining beautiful women, the now relatively wealthy Caulder heads to the Big Apple for his big debut, but is he really the man of the hour or just another cowpoke out of his league?
Bestseller Episode 9
2010/02/03
Info (Show/Hide)
Here it is…finally, Bestseller Episode 9. Here we find that Robert has pushed Danielle into having an auction with the New York big boys in publishing for his new book. Was it a mistake or the very break he needed? Sorry, about the delay, but should be back on schedule now. And jump on over to A Little Dead Podcast at alittledead.multiply.com to check out the Bestseller Contest McPierce has going on over there!
Bestseller Episode 8
2010/01/06
We find that Robert Caulder is a greedy man, has an inflated ego and that he has a taste for women that are not his wife!
Day of the Zombie, An Omega: Earth's Hero story, Part 3
2009/12/17
Here's the third installment of the zombie/superhero tale, Day of The Zombie, An Omega: Earth's Hero Story
Bestseller Episode t
2009/12/10
Episode 7 of Bestseller. This episode read by Stephen Thompson of JAFMP.com at http://www.jafmp.com
Bestseller Episode 6
2009/12/02
Robert Caulder gets an agent and signs a book deal! He and Ellen celebrate and all seems like heaven in the Caulder household!
Promo: the Kruger Nation
Bestseller Episode 5
2009/11/28
Info (Show/Hide)
Chapter 6 of Bestseller, written and read by Keith Latch
Danielle Greer is a struggling independent literary agent that just started her own agency. Faced with the hard rules of business, it's all she can do to keep her head above water. Then, as she works her way through a pile of manusrcipts, she finds one written by an unpublished author. Robert Caulder, it seems, just might be the thing she's been looking for.
Promos:
A Little Dead Podcast
Bestseller: The Promo
2009/11/27
Here's the promo for Bestseller. Take it, share it, spread it, freakin' devour it!
Day of the Zombie, An Omega: Earth's Hero story, Part 2
2009/11/25
Here’s part two of my superhero/zombie story. Omega fights with a mb of zombies and we’re introduced to Nate, a twelve-year-old, living alone in a truckstop.
Bestseller Episode 4
2009/11/21
Robert Caulder, through divine intervention or a a miracle of much darker origination, begins to write. Already his early success causes strain between him and the woman he loves the most.
Bestseller Episode 3
2009/11/10
Welcome to Bestseller, episode 3. Robert has dreams that make him question his sanity. We meet the Robert's parents, who are not shy in shooting down his aspirations as a writer. Finally, Robert returns to the keyboard, but he's not sure where they're coming from. And decides he doesn't need to know as long as they keep coming.
Bestseller-Episode 2
2009/11/04
Episode 2 of Bestseller, the podcast novel, written and read by Keith Latch.
Robert Caulder has regained consciousness after a severe auto accident that almost took his life. A strange phrase greets him, one that he can't get out of his head. A mysterious man stalks his dreams, but will this stranger creep over into his waking hours as well?
Call the comment line at 1-206-202-9065
Day of the Zombie, An Omega: Earth's Hero story, Part 1
2009/10/31
Here’s Part 1 of Day of the Zombie, An Omega: Earth’s Hero Story. Stay subscribed for the next installment, coming very soon. Happy Halloween!
Bestseller, Episode 1
2009/10/30
The Prologue of Bestseller, written and read for you by Keith Latch. Signed copies available at www.keithlatch.com
Johnny Krueger is on the run, from what, he has no idea. Holed up in an out of the way motel, a ghost from his past comes knocking. With the love of this rediscovered angel be enough to set him straight?
Download
Promos: The dARK Hours Podcast
The Latchcast
https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/keithlatch
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