A Different Slant of Light

Former almost-rock-star Brian "Brick" Smith thought his punk-rock days were behind him. He was wrong.

Before he became a mild-mannered English teacher, Brian was the songwriter and bass player for a one-hit-wonder punk band: Call Field. Two decades ago, Brian and his bandmates were on a stratospheric ascent through the music industry... until Call Field unexpectedly crash-landed and broke up.

Since then, Brian has been living a quiet white-collar life, teaching at a suburban California high school, and desperately trying to put his past behind him. Despite Brian's best attempts at anonymity, one of his star students, the precocious Veronica Jones, has stumbled upon his not-so-secret identity. After convincing Brian to relay the story of how he wrote his band's only hit song, Veronica is left with many, many unanswered questions. Why did the band break up? What happened to Call Field's other members? Why is Brian so reluctant to revisit his past? Veronica wants answers. All the answers.

Brian doesn't know it yet, but his incomplete music career isn't over. The tenacious Veronica Jones has a plan - and it's one that will bring together all the shattered pieces of Brian's jigsaw-puzzle life. Of course, with Veronica taking charge, almost anything can happen... including retired almost-rock-stars rising from the ashes and facing the music of their painful punk-rock past.

J.D. Levin is a mild-mannered librarian by day... and a mild-mannered rock & roller by night. He has worked as a public school educator for almost two decades - first as an English teacher, then as a Teacher Librarian. Outside of the classroom, he's written songs for Far From Kansas, The Briar Rose Ramblers, Kailua Moon, and Grammy-nominated slack-key guitarist Danny Carvalho. Levin is a graduate of UC Berkeley (BA '01), Stanford University (MA '02), CSUN (MA '09), and CSULB (TLSC '15). He lives on the central coast of California with his wife, two daughters, and cluttered collection of musical instruments. A Different Slant of Light, the sequel to Incomplete, is his second novel.