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    Rock Star
    Rock Star
    Rock Star
    Ebook72 pages50 minutes

    Rock Star

    By Adrian Chamberlain

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    About this ebook

    Struggling at home and at school, Duncan decides to try out for a local rock band. He plays the bass in the school orchestra, but it is a long way from band camp to rock star. Joining a heavy-metal band, he tries to fit in, dumping his old friends and trying to walk the walk. When his dad's new girlfriend starts to teach him about real rock music and introduces him to her musician brother, Duncan discovers that there is more to being a guitar hero than playing in a heavy-metal band.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOrca Book Publishers
    Release dateMar 1, 2010
    ISBN9781554695287
    Rock Star
    Author

    Adrian Chamberlain

    Adrian Chamberlain has always wanted to be a rock star. While holding down a day job as an entertainment writer for the Victoria Times Colonist, he indulges his fantasies (albeit on a reduced scale) by playing organ and piano for The Soul Shakers, a Victoria rhythm-and-blues band.

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      Book preview

      Rock Star - Adrian Chamberlain

      Rock Star

      Rock Star

      Adrian

      Chamberlain

      orca soundings

      ORCA BOOK PUBLISHERS

      Copyright © 2010 Adrian Chamberlain

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without permission in writing from the publisher.

      National Library of Canada Cataloguing in Publication Data

      Chamberlain, Adrian, 1958-

      Rock star / Adrian Chamberlain.

      (Orca soundings)

      ISBN 978-1-55469-236-1 (bound).--ISBN 978-1-55469-235-4 (pbk.)

      I. Title. II. Series: Orca soundings

      PS8605.H33R62 2010 jC813’.6 C2009-906848-6

      First published in the United States, 2010

      Library of Congress Control Number: 2009940839

      Summary: When Duncan joins a rock band, he must decide if he is willing to live the life and lose his friends, or make some tough decisions.

      Orca Book Publishers gratefully acknowledges the support for its publishing programs provided by the following agencies: the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund and the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Province of British Columbia through the BC Arts Council and the Book Publishing Tax Credit.

      Cover design by Teresa Bubela

      Cover photography by iStockphoto

      ORCA BOOK PUBLISHERS

      PO BOX 5626, STN. B

      VICTORIA, BC Canada

      V8R 6S4

      ORCA BOOK PUBLISHERS

      PO BOX 468

      CUSTER, WA USA

      98240-0468

      www.orcabook.com

      Printed and bound in Canada.

      Printed on 100% PCW recycled paper.

      13 12 11 10 • 4 3 2 1

      For Penny and Katie

      Contents

      Chapter One

      Chapter Two

      Chapter Three

      Chapter Four

      Chapter Five

      Chapter Six

      Chapter Seven

      Chapter Eight

      Chapter Nine

      Chapter One

      After school I walk up the front steps of our house and head straight for the kitchen. I’m starving. There’s a peanut butter jar on the counter. But sure enough, someone’s used it all up. Empty. That puts me in a bad mood.

      There’s almost nothing in the fridge. Some stuff that looks like dog food in a Tupperware container. Milk. Old celery. I grab the celery and take a bite. Ugh. All wilty and squishy. So I bend over and gob it into the garbage bin. This is disgusting and weirdly satisfying at the same time.

      I’m still bent over the garbage when Dad calls me into the living room.

      Duncan! he yells. Duncan!

      You’d think I was twelve or something, not fifteen. I’m in grade ten.

      School’s not my favorite thing, to tell you the truth. Mostly it’s boring. Some days I even hate it.

      But one thing I do like is the school band. I play bass guitar. Sure, the songs are pretty lame. What do you expect from a big orchestra, with clarinets and French horns and all that stuff? But playing bass guitar is pretty cool.

      It’s just me and Dad now. I don’t have brothers and sisters or anything. Mom died two years ago. She had cancer. It was quick. One day she sat down with me to tell me. She’d been sick for a while, and the doctors thought it was something else at first. I forget what. But then they figured out it was cancer. Six weeks later, she was dead.

      Duncan McCann! Can you come in here for a second?

      I stop gagging and stand there, motionless, like a video on pause. I thought the house was empty. Something in Dad’s voice sounds different. I remain still. I’ve got a pretty good imagination. If I pretend something, I can even forget what I was doing before. Five seconds go by. Then I walk into the living room. There’s this blond lady sitting on the couch with Dad. Weird. Unbelievable. And Dad looks kind of nervous or something. Even though he’s smiling.

      Duncan, I’d like to introduce you to Terry. She’s a friend of mine, says Dad.

      Hey, Duncan, the lady says. She’s smiling. She’s taller than Mom was. And sort of all-right-looking for an older lady. Dad’s fifty. And Terry’s probably forty or something. She’s wearing a leather jacket. Mom would never have worn a leather jacket. Not in a million years.

      Hi, I say. I’m still holding my backpack. I drop it on the wood floor. It weighs a ton and makes a loud noise, like a kick drum.

      Yes. So anyway, Duncan. You’ll be seeing a bit of Terry around the house. I mean, we’re…well, seeing each other. She and I.

      I was getting it now. Dad has a girlfriend. This lady. She smiles and holds out her hand.

      Okay, I say, shaking her hand. Then I pick up my pack and run upstairs to my room. I slam the door. I fall on my bed, face into my pillow, which sort of smells like corn chips. I’m not crying. I mean, I’m fifteen years old now. I’m not

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