Happy Holidays!

 

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 Adventures, which got pushed aside by two sizeable gig-jobs and the complications and clean-up after my Mom's passing, two years ago. Lately I've also been dealing with a couple of minor medical issues - nothing serious, but time lost to doctor visits. In the midst of all that I retired from part-time teaching at the local community college, after 17 years. Time sure flies when you're grading papers.

So, a quiet holiday all around, with some interesting things on the horizon for the New Year. These will include a trip to Japan with my aikido dojo - to which I'm seriously looking forward! - and being a guest at the Celsius 232 literary festival in Aviles, Spain. (The last time I was in Spain Francisco Franco was still the head of the government!) I haven't been on an airplane in YEARS, and it's a long damn way to either of those places. 

Closer to home, I'll be at the Los Angeles Vintage Paperback Collectors Show, at the Glendale Civic Auditorium (a VERY nice venue!) Sunday, March 17.

In the meantime, a quiet Christmas with family and dear friends, watching movies and sleeping late under a pile of cats.

Thank you all for your loyalty and your patience! Have a wonderful holiday.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Even More Fun With Research

Image
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. ...
Read more

Sample Post

Image
     A girl once went to the fair to hire herself for servant. At last a funny-looking old gentleman engaged her, and took her home to his house. When she got there, he told her that he had something to teach her, for that in his house he had his own names for things.      He said to her, "What will you call me?"    " Master or mister, or whatever you please, sir," says she.      He said, "You must call me master of all masters . And what would you call this?" he said pointing to his bed.      "Bed or couch, or whatever you please, sir."     " No, that's my barnacle . And what do you call these?" said he, pointing to his pantaloons.     "Breeches or trousers, or whatever you please, sir."     "You must call them squibs and crackers . And what would you call her?" he said pointing to the cat.     "Cat or kit, or whatever you please, sir."     "...
Read more

Entirely Too Much Fun With Research

Image
  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...
Read more