Blog
Rick Berlin’s Big Balloon (a love story)
I write about the Boston music scene, but Rick Berlin has lived it. Emerging from the COVID shutdown with two new recordings and a bunch of upcoming gigs (see below), Rick has also captured his particular wit and self-reflection in a new book. The Big Balloon (A Love...
The Devil’s Music
A new Gabriel Valjan novel is always reason to celebrate, and this one hits close to home! Gabriel tackles many of the same themes that I do – the unreliability of memory and our tendency to reframe history to suit our needs – though in his case, that history is the...
Sets & crimes & rock & roll
In real life, the wonderful New York Times best-selling author Caroline Leavitt and I talk about writing all the time. So she revived her blog to put down some of our Q&A. You can read an excerpt below or click over to her space here:...
Kings River Life feels the HOLD ME DOWN beat
"This novel really takes you into the grimy world of a traveling band and the melodies behind the music...." THANK YOU, Kings River Life! The magazine is also offering a giveaway. See below: "Hold Me Down" By Clea Simon: Review/Giveaway November 05, 2021 Review by...
Happy pub day, Cathy Ace!
One of the. most miserable parts of the pandemic is that I miss my friends! Ace author Cathy Ace – see what I did there? – perhaps tops among them! Smart, funny, and wise about the writing and publishing, Cathy is someone I always look for first thing when I surface...
#TBTwith Mystery Maven Sara DiVello
Did you miss my HOLD ME DOWN pre-launch event with Mystery and Thriller Maven Sara DiVello? Not to worry, our host for the evening – Houston's MURDER BY THE BOOK – has put our talk up on Youtube and Facebook and I'm sharing as a #TBT! We're not taking questions...
Talking craft with Dale Phillips
I got to chat with fellow New England mystery author Dale Phillips over at his blog a while ago and hadn't had a chance to share till now. We tackled the writing process, music books and how to craft a compelling story. Here's how it starts: So how did this novel come...
HOLD ME DOWN “will grab you by the heart…”
"Hold Me Down, acclaimed author Clea Simon’s new suspense novel about a hard-driving punk rocker dragged into the trauma of her wild past by a murder in her present, will grab you by the heart even as it makes you grip the edge of your seat. Life as a successful...
Chatting with Poisoned Pen’s Barbara Peters
The legendary Poisoned Pen Bookstore hosted this lively conversation last week ranging from guitars to Ginger Rogers!. Since it's a recording, we can't take your questions live – but if you have any, post them and I'll do my best to answer!...
Boston Globe calls HMD a “propulsive thriller”
Today's Sunday Boston Globe book section hails HOLD ME DOWN as a "propulsive thriller," saying: "In electric prose, Simon conjures the rock-and-roll world, its drink, drugs, and band-dynamics, and the twin seductresses of excess and success, as she makes a penetrating...