Dave Casler
PO Box 98
Ridgway, Colorado 81432
Young Adult Novels by Dave Casler...
I've been told by publisher after publisher that there's no market for Young Adult novels. I think they're wrong! So I'm putting my novels on-line for you. Forget the publisher! Read to your heart's content--it's free! And, I'd like to hear from you, too! Contact Page.
You're reading About Dan. Be sure to check out About Phillip here.
Dan is a normal kid who loves his soccer. Except everything goes wrong. Everything.
About Series Home
About the About Series
Index to All Chapters
Here are all the chapters, disguised as asterisks. Hover your mouse over an asterisk to see the title of the chapter. Click on the asterisk to go straight to that chapter.
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(About Dan Home) (Last) (Next)
Singing with Mike
"Well, here," said Mike, handing him the guitar. "You can plink around on this thing. It's one of my favorites, a Martin. It's too mellow for stage work but I like it for composing. Here, sit on this chair."
Mike pulled up a wood chair and all but forced Dan to sit down. Ed turned off the stereo. Dan pulled the guitar close and felt the frets gingerly. "I don't know," he said. "I'm really out of practice." He liked the feel of the guitar. He fretted a G and strummed gently. He tried picking a rhythm, first in G, then C, then D, then back to G. The guitar was alive and in perfect tune. "Nice guitar," he said. He tried a tentative E minor and A minor, working them into the strumming pattern.
"Like I said, it's my favorite for composing. The music you heard on the stereo? That's our band."
"Wow! You do that for a living?" Dan asked, suddenly interested.
"Well, not full time. There's not much money in music, but it's sure fun. About five of us play together." He pulled up another chair and leaned over conspiratorially. "Did you know your dad plays a mean bass?"
Dan continued picking out a pattern. " Dad? Bass? No way. This house doesn't look like the house of a bass player! All the bass players I know at school are totally messy."
Ed looked offended but said nothing.
"Well, there may be some truth there, Dan," said Mike, looking over at Ed and laughing. "Ok, enough practice time, Dan, let's hear something."
Dan looked horrified. "All my notes are at home. I mean, how am I supposed to remember anything?" He stopped his rhythmic picking.
Mike just sat back and folded his arms. "An artist remembers everything," he pronounced.
Dan shrugged. He concentrated. He went back to strumming. "This is just a three chord song," he said. He picked his pattern for G, then D, then G, then jumped in.
I once met a girl, who looked in my soul
She saw something in me, I couldn't find before
She made me to sit up and realize I was good
Oh where is that girl, I really need her now.
Oh woman, oh woman, you do this to me
What will you do to other boys like me?
Oh woman, oh woman, you do this to me
How many boys have you captured before.
Dan suddenly stopped. "I can't remember the second verse," he said. "I have it written down somewhere at home. Maybe it's in my guitar case. It's not much. I wrote it last summer about Lisa." He screwed up his face. "Of course, Lisa and I broke up, you know. Maybe the lyrics are more appropriate now!"