The Surf Ballroom

The Surf Ballroom follows Clint Cory, a washed-up rock journalist on the verge of losing his career, fiancée, and sanity. When a chance lead draws him to Lubbock, Texas, he meets Maria Kerry, the dying mother of Mat Kerry-the legendary frontman who supposedly died decades ago. She reveals that Mat didn't die: he was disappeared by The Company, a shadowy syndicate controlling the music industry. As Clint digs deeper, he uncovers evidence of an organized effort to erase musicians who resist control-some staged as overdoses, suicides, or accidents. With the help of Meyer Oglethorpe, guitarist of Stoned Thursday, Clint retrieves explosive proof: contracts, lists of names, recordings. But The Company is already watching. Hunted across state lines, Clint scatters fragments of evidence to zines and indie presses, racing to protect his pregnant wife and his mother from reprisal. Each step forward costs him allies and safety, until he's forced into a deadly choice: surrender the truth to save his family, or risk everything to expose The Company and preserve the music itself. Blending thriller, conspiracy, and music journalism noir, The Surf Ballroom is a 95,000-word novel about fame, erasure, and one man's desperate fight to keep the voices of a generation alive.