Showing results by author "Lee Matthew Goldberg" in All Categories

The year is 1995, and my parents have finally allowed me to take the summer to tour in a VW van across the country with my boyfriend, Evan, and our band. Yes, my dream to be a singer became reality. Even with Clarissa, Evan’s jealous ex-girlfriend, as the lead singer, it’s my presence on stage that led us to a major record deal. There are moments you’ll always remember in life, but I can’t imagine anything more cool than hearing your song on the radio for the first time. But being a rock star isn’t as easy as it sounds.

Lexi Mazur is a depressed, alcoholic pill-popper whose only joy has become her reality TV shows, often fantasizing that the people on TV are a part of her world. After her boyfriend, Steve, leaves her, she fixates on the show Socialites and its star, Magnolia Artois, following every facet of the girl’s life on social media in the hopes of befriending and becoming more like her.

Everything changed when the police officer knocked on the door to tell me – a 16-year-old – that my older sister Kristen had died of a brain aneurysm. Cue the start of my parents neglecting me and my whole life spiraling out of control. I decided now was the perfect time to skip town. It’s the early '90s: Kurt Cobain ran the grunge music scene and I just experienced some serious trauma. What’s a girl supposed to do?

Imagine a secret, hidden city that gives a second chance at life for those selected to come: felons, deformed outcasts, those on the fringe of the Outside World. Everyone gets a job, a place to live; but you are bound to the city forever. You can never leave. Its citizens are ruled by a monstrous figure called the "Man" who resembles a giant demented spider from the lifelike robotic limbs attached to his body. Everyone follows the man blindly, working hard to make their Promised Land stronger, too scared to defy him and be discarded to the Empty Zones.

For budding writer and filmmaker Noah Spaeth, being a production assistant in director Dominick Bambach’s new avant-garde film isn’t enough. Neither is watching Dominick have an affair with the lead actress, the gorgeous but troubled Nevie Wyeth. For Noah’s dream is to get both the film and Nevie in the end, whatever the cost. And this obsession may soon become a reality once Dominick’s spurned wife, Isadora, reveals her femme fatale nature with a seductive plot to get rid of her husband for good.

A man wakes up in present-day Alaskan wilderness with no idea who he is, and nothing on him save an empty journal with the date 1898 and a mirror. He sees another man hunting nearby, astounded that they look exactly alike except for his own beard. After following this other man home, he witnesses a wife and child that brings forth a rush of memories of his own wife and child, except he's certain they do not exist in modern times - but from his life in the late 1800s.

It's 1978 in New York City, and disco is prominent. As are mobsters, gritty streets, needle parks, and graffiti-stained subways. Jake Barnum lives in Hell's Kitchen. He's a petty thief selling hot coats with his buddy Maggs to make ends meet and help his sick kid brother. At a Halloween party downtown, he meets a woman with a Marilyn Monroe mask who works for an organization called The Desire Card—an underground operation promising its exclusive clients "Any Wish Fulfilled for the Right Price."

Kyle has his mentor over for dinner to catch up and introduce him to his girlfriend, Jamie, and the three have a great time. When William mentions that he’s been writing a novel, Kyle is overjoyed. He would love to read the opus his mentor has toiled over—until the novel turns out to be not only horribly written but also the most depraved story Kyle has ever read.

J. D. Storm is an ex-Army sniper, discharged after losing an eye in battle. Finally finding work at the illusive Desire Card - an unsavory organization that promises "any wish fulfilled for the right price" - he heaves a sigh of relief. But when those wishes become too immoral, J. D. quickly finds out that no one reneges on the boss, a powerful and eccentric madman known only as Clark Gable because of the realistic mask he wears, without paying a hefty price.