Jamey Popilowski dreams of becoming a rock star and Lilah Cellini dreams of Jamey. Together the young couple leave their childhood home of Terrabain Street and hit the open asphalt, kicking up a musical storm along the way. Entering their raw mix of carelessness and longing is Zeke, destiny in black leather. Zeke is the soundman, producer, preacher, but is he angel or devil? Lilah can’t make up her mind; however, one thing is certain, he changes all their lives forever. While Jamey embraces the musician’s lifestyle, along with its excesses, Lilah is confronted by choices that will ultimately lead her to her own goals.

A Raw Mix of Carelessness and Longing follows the intertwined lives of friends and idols and articulates the fine balance between the love of making and performing music and the temptations that hide in the shadows.

Cecelia Frey was born in Northern Alberta, grew up in Edmonton and now lives in Calgary. Her short stories and poetry have been published in dozens of literary journals and anthologies as well as being broadcast on CBC radio and performed on the Women’s Television Network. Her last novel, A Raw Mix of Carelessness and Longing, was shortlisted for the 2009 Writers Guild of Alberta Fiction Award and she is a three-time recipient of the WGA Short Fiction Award. She has also won awards for play writing. Cecelia is the author of poetry collections: the least you can do is sing; Songs Like White Apples Tasted; And Still I Hear Her Singing; Reckless Women; and Under Nose Hill; short story collections: The Nefertiti Look; The Love Song of Romeo Paquette; and Salamander Moon; and novels: Breakaway; The Prisoner of Cage Farm; A Fine Mischief and A Raw Mix of Carelessness and Longing. Her play, The Dinosaur Connection, was produced on CBC’s Vanishing Point series.

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A Raw Mix of Carelessness and Longing hits its best notes in capturing the feelings of manic teen angst, and the solipsistic act of artistic creation-operating on faith, trying to survive on deficit. —AlbertaViews

Frey’s novel is a beautifully told coming of age story set against the grimy backdrop of the Western Canadian music scene. A hypnotic, memorable book.$#8212;January Magazine

A new sense of the dramatic to the Canadian novel . . . Listen in! —Robert Kroetsch

Frey’s depiction of the music industry feels authentic, and her prose occasionally reproduces the lucid, ethereal quality of good lyrics. —Quill & Quire

As intense, lovely and electrifying as the music coursing through the characters’ veins. —FFWD