So now that you know about our band, and have rushed out to buy all our non-existent stuff, it's time to promote our next release. Which by the way is news to two of our mates - Cornelia and I just started working on this the other day, but we're real excited. We think it's a chance to reach a whole new audience, while at the same time, riding a wave. Of what, we're not quite sure.

But it's time for a concept album. I know, we don't have "albums" any more but a "concept CD" just doesn't sound right. (Some time ago I saved an "Arlo & Janis" cartoon where is showed Arlo rocking out with headphones on. Janis asked him what he was listening to and his response was "The Beatles. The White CD." See? Just WRONG somehow.)

But you know, the Beatles did Sergeant Pepper and there were rock operas and was it Pet Sounds or some Beach Boys concept thing? So NOT that we follow trends or anything, but I suggested to my bandmate and she agreed that our next release would be a concept album and here it is.

It's a Jack Reacher/Lee Child Song Cycle tribute album.

We're going to work on at least one song for each book - so that's like nine already and then maybe a couple you know, like "arc" songs. One just about Reacher and how cool he is. You know. How he could take, Bubba, Win AND Joe Pike in a fight. (Okay, I admit it, that's from a chat I hosted with Lee back in '01, but isn't it a hoot of an idea? And that was HIS line - not about Reacher winning but suggesting he go up against all of the other guys. We also talked about how I wanted to see Reacher team up with Greg Rucka's Atticus Kodiak. Now he's cool.)

It's not like we Sad Anoraks are into trends. Okay, we admit it, we missed a lot of trends by only forming last October. But this isn't trend-hopping. No no, it's about archetypes. Yeah, that's it. We're deep.

So far we don't have a lot; Cornelia's working on lyrics and we've started off with book one, of course, KILLING FLOOR, which so far suggested a country song "I'm Killing the Floor over You" or the ballad "Killing Me Softly with His Floor". Thank you, Cornelia.

Why a Lee Child song cycle? Because we're heavily into the idea of being famous and successful band while riding someone's coattails. Because we're fictional and that means we missed the chance to play at the Live 8 concert. Because we ALL like Lee. (I know, I know, who doesn't? The guy's a lot of fun. And a good writer. He's going to be writing for a long time, we suspect. And he will probably be way too classy to object to this. Er, right?)

Hey, last week on his tour blog Lee called me a "genre fixture" and after a great deal of fussing about whether that was a good thing, I decided that what it really meant was that (ahem, scuze me, I gotta switch voices here)

"I am a shining star in the mystery firmaMENT."

So, what do you think?