ABOUT

WELCOME TO MY WORLD OF WRITING AND MUSIC

I have been a journalist, magazine and newspaper columnist,  written books with humor and chapters for short story and non-fiction anthologies, and now my very first novel. I’ve won a New Apple Literary Prize and was awarded a Bronze Medal  by Reader’s Favorites. I have been a musician, songwriter, and record producer, and had a Grammy-Nominated album.

This site you’re on is mostly about my music, but you should also check out my author site at: www.rickbleiweiss.com

 PIGNON SCORBION & THE BARBERSHOP DETECTIVES (my novel)

The newest book I’ve written is a classic mystery with a cast of lovable characters that you will find enjoyable and mysteries you will find challenging to solve. It publishes on February 8, 2022 from Blackstone Publishing.

Circa 1910, Dr. John Watson’s friend, Pignon Scorbion solves cases much like Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot. However, when Scorbion moves to a small town in the English countryside as the town’s Chief Police Inspector, he solves his cases in a barbershop, aided by the barbers, a shoeshine man and a reporter (all acting as his assistant “deputy detectives”). Witnesses, suspects and victims alike are interrogated and interviewed in the Barbershop; it is also where Scorbion delights the barbers with tales of his exploits and his unique family history, as well telling them background stories relevant to the cases they work with him.

THE EYE OF JUPITER (Science-fiction rock musical/opera)

With my ex-bandmate, Jack Climent, I have co-written this unique science fiction adventure story mixed with pop and rock music – a rock musical with timeless songs, comparable to Moulin Rouge set in outer space, or what Star Wars might be like if it were a musical, and with a nod to The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

If you want to hear the music (demos only) go to the EYE OF JUPITER tab, and here’s the story line:

Aarvil Longshadow is launched into space as the first human to travel outside our solar system. In a state of suspended animation, he has no idea his ship becomes disabled and roams aimlessly through space. A wandering society of shape-shifting servant robots, The Trels, come upon his ship and take Aarvil aboard their craft. Mission aborted, Aarvil wants to return to Earth and the Trels agree to take him there. During their journey, the Trels begin morphing into characters of old Earth movie and television stars they see as they follow the signals to locate Earth. As they reach Alpha Centauri, they learn while Aarvil was gone an evil alien overlord, Envartas, and his legion of troops have conquered Earth, murdered most and enslaved the survivors. Aarvil becomes an unlikely hero as he, JohnR, (a rebel who fought Envartas’ when he first arrived), JohnR’s daughter Dayna, and a small group of Trels attempt to carry out JohnR’s centuries-old plan to defeat Envartas and rid the Universe of him and his reign of terror, saving humanity from extinction in the process.

MUSIC 

In addition to THE EYE OF JUPITER’S music, I am writing, playing and recording other original music.

The music you will hear in my NEW MUSIC section is all written by me, played by me and the vocals are sung by Jake Howard and William Ray, under the name RetroRockit. Most of the tracks are not fully mixed yet. The music is uptempo (mostly) and meant for people to dance to and to to enjoy themselves with. Included in the recordings are some story songs, pure dance songs and a few songs with a message.

The tab MUSIC I PRODUCED has some of the records I and my co-producer, Bill Stahl produced, including records the sold over 500,000 copies, that were used by the NFL as musical beds and ones that were in Coke commercials.

CONNECT WITH ME AT: createdbyrick@gmail.com