Barbara's Blog

  My apologies for the long hiatus, once again. In addition to finishing the usual round of line-edit + copy-edit on the next Hollywood book, Saving Susy Sweetchild, a lot of things to do: minor health fixes, the Gallifrey One convention, and the Los Angeles Vintage Paperback Book Collectors Show (and a couple of truly lovely evenings with friends). The Paperback Show is always entertaining. In addition to a staggering number of old paperbacks - many of which I remember reading in the '60s (there was a bookstore on Holt Blvd in Pomona that I'd bike down to on Saturdays: we referred to it as "Dirty Earl's" because of the goods on offer in the store's back room) - there are dealers specializing in the cover-art of the 1940s-1970s era. And, the show (and especially Tom Lesser - Thank you, Tom!) makes sure it has a day-long rotation of authors to sign those paperbacks. In addition to chats with fan and writer friends, I found such things as English translations of

  Two memories of this time. First, two years ago this day was my Mom's funeral - Valentine's Day, 2022. I can smile when I think of it because I know she was so happy to go, and her funeral meant that I could think of it in terms of, "How appropriate that this is the day; the first Valentine's Day they'll be able to be together in seven years. How happy that'll make them both."  It was, of course, right in the middle of the pandemic, so though Mom passed away in January, funerals at the National Cemetery in Riverside were so backed up that she couldn't be buried until Feb. 14, and had to spend a month in a refrigerator someplace in Colton. When we got to the cemetery the driveway where the processions assembled looked like a drive-in vaccination site at the height of the pandemic: divided into lanes with cones, with three other funerals cued up ready to roll before us. It was all... very strange and a bit surreal. Though after two years I'm still

Here's an old one, to remind me that I really do need to get back to painting. Having turned in the manuscript for the next Hollywood murder mystery just before Christmas, I've been putting together outlines for what I hope will be the next Ben January book (# 21!) and the next Hollywood book (which will take place mostly in the film industry in New York, which was just as much a center of motion picture production in the mid-'20s as Hollywood was, and a lot more fun after hours). Writing up an outline is like pre-writing the book. I, at least, have to figure out what happens, and how; who's the villain, who gets killed, and why. Any murder mystery is actually two stories: the story of the crime itself, and then the story of how Mr. Holmes or Lord Peter or Professor Tamar figures out whodunnit. And, in my case at least, to give a picture of the world, the society, in which such events take place, which is a large part of the fun. It's one reason I love historicals.

  Whew! I seem to always be apologizing for not keeping up with my Social Media - and I apologize yet again. Since Thanksgiving I have been working down to the wire on the deadline for the third Hollywood mystery, Saving Susie Sweetchild - a bit darker than the first two, since it deals with the kidnapping of a child. But the manuscript is done, I really enjoyed both working on it and researching it (except researching the parts about actual kidnappings in the 'teens and '20s of the 20th Century. That was pretty awful). The stuff about how child stars were treated in the silent films was pretty scary as well. I HIGHLY recommend Diana Serra Carey's Whatever Happened to Baby Peggy? and Hollywood's Children . Benjamin January # 20 ( 20?!? ), The Nubian's Curse , will be out in January - in time for at least part of the holiday season, since the frame-story is Christmas-to-Twelfth-Night. And I hope to get at least a little down-time, to work (finally!) on more Further

  Happy Thanksgiving to all! A very busy time of year here, even BEFORE the giant windstorm stripped the palm-tree in my back yard of ALL its accumulated dead fronds and deposited them in my front yard. (The nice folks from 800-GOT-JUNK? just drove away with an entire truck-load). Just finished the next-to-last polish of "Saving Susie Sweetchild" (Hollywood #3), and will get started (finally!) on a couple of Further Adventures before tackling the final polish and pulling together outlines for the next Benjamin January and the next Hollywood mysteries. Benjamin January # 20 - "The Nubian's Curse" - will be out in January, a little bit to my regret, since it has a Christmas framing-story and it would have been nice to come out for the holiday. But, it has gotten stellar reviews in Publisher's Weekly, Kirkus, and Booklist - which tells me I'm doing my job. PW:  Hambly’s outstanding 20th whodunit featuring formerly enslaved doctor Benjamin January (after  De

  More fun with research. I've been re-reading Sylvia Lovegren's book Fashionable Food - which is a history of food fads in the 20th century, complete with recipies. (!) From the '70s on (it goes up to the early '90s) it's a disconcerting journey down memory lane ("Hey, I remember fondue parties! I remember fern bars!") but the 1920s-30s are downright horrifying (and extremely useful, as I'm hoping to do at least several more Hollywood mysteries). Banana-and-popcorn salad garnished with mayonnaise? "Boil the spaghetti in salted water for 1 hour"? Not to mention the history of Chinese food in America... In other news, I will be a guest at the local LA convention, Loscon, Thanksgiving weekend. The convention is at the LAX Marriott Friday the 24-Sunday the 26th - I'll be there Saturday and Sunday, on panels and (I hope) doing a signing. And for those of you who live in the San Fernando Valley and are looking for a really tasty Mexican resta

It's darker earlier, the nights are a bit more chilly, the neighbors are putting up all sorts of weird decorations in their yards, and it's time for the Halloween watchlist.  And as I was going through spooky stuff to watch and listen to, I unearthed an old favorite: David McCallum reading H.P. Lovecraft's "Haunter of the Dark." And boy, did McCallum get into reading that one! The man had a lovely voice, and wonderful delivery, even when Lovecraft's prose goes a little over the top. (Or a lot over the top. It takes a fine artist to deliver some of those lines with the audio equivalent of a straight face). Other Halloween favorites in the audio line (I listen to audio books while doing physical therapy exercises): Dan Starkey reading Wm Hope Hodgeson's "The Whistling Room." I don't know the name of the fellow who reads my audio version of Wilde's "The Canterville Ghost," or Poe's "Masque of the Red Death." I think i