Recent reading: "Behind the Door"

Behind the Door: The Dark Truths and Untold Stories of the Cecil Hotel 

by Amy Price

I picked this up at the L.A. Times Festival of Books last month after seeing Price on a historic L.A. panel. Price was the general manager of the notorious Cecil Hotel in downtown Los Angeles near Skid Row for ten years. In spite of the hotel's depressing location and often tragic history, she fell in love with the place, hoping that the gentrification of DTLA would reach it and restore it to its former glory. 

When Price arrived at the Cecil in 2007 it already had a checkered past. Built as a luxury hotel, its fortunes had fallen decades earlier as it deteriorated along with the area. Numerous deaths - both suicides and homicides - occurred at the Cecil. At least two serial killers (Richard Ramirez, aka the Night Stalker - and Jack Unterweger) had called the Cecil home during the commission of their crimes. 

Price - then a jewelry designer and aspiring interior decorator - was originally hired by a friend to help give the Cecil a hipster update to bring the hotel back to life. This was complicated by a number of long-term residents who were more reflective of the Skid Row neighborhood than the Cecil's former glory. Other issues had to do with the hotel's design - many rooms did not have their own bathrooms or showers, requiring the use of communal facilities, and the Cecil also had neither heat nor air conditioning. The residents had been relocated to just a couple of lower floors, while Stay on Main, as the hotel aspect was dubbed, utilized non-resident floors. And for a while, Stay worked as a popular, dirt-cheap, hipster hostel. However, when summer arrived the lack of AC became a major issue, and Stay's reviews began to reflect the disenchanted guests. 

 

Then came the Elisa Lam case. When LAPD failed to locate the missing young woman, they released security video of Elisa behaving oddly in a Cecil elevator and the case became an internet sensation. Several weeks later Elisa was found on the premises, and the Cecil became world-infamous as the hotel where the missing girl turned up in its water tank after guests complained about issues with water, including low pressure, filth, and a weird taste.

After ten years at the Cecil, attempting to restore the hotel and manage its colorful residents, Price was relieved of her duties by new ownership. She embarked on a successful interior decorating career and an unsuccessful marriage. Then Netflix came calling about a planned documentary about the Cecil Hotel, and Price, led to believe that Elisa Lam wouldn't be the focus and eager to let the world know there was more to the hotel than the girl in the water tank, signed up to participate.

 

One thing I remember about the resulting docuseries Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel, is that I thought it was a major cheat that Lam's mental illness and her issues with her medications weren't brought up until late in the story, instead suggesting several theories of who murdered Lam when it turned out she wasn't really a murder victim. And not only did the show focus on the Lam case, it also gave some viewers the impression that Price was possibly suspect in Lam's death, or that she may have tampered with the infamous elevator video footage. When the show debuted, Price's life was turned upside down. She received vicious and even threatening messages online by people obsessed with the Lam case.

 

Fortunately, Price came through the ordeal a self-described stronger person. She showed a great deal of compassion toward the Cecil's unfortunate residents during her tenure, but seems to have made her peace with the whole experience. Today, the Cecil Hotel has been repurposed as a low-income housing facility.

 

From the book (discussing the "tragedy tourism" triggered by the Elisa Lam case:

 

But booking a stay to be closer to tragedy paled in comparison to the weird performances spawned by Elisa's death. Once, I got a call from someone at the Pacific Electric Building telling me there was a man playing the guitar on top of one of the water tanks. It was ten o'clock at night. The man had risked his life to put on this show. He'd had to climb the fire escape up to the top of a 150-foot building, just as Elisa had most likely done.

My FOB haul

Last weekend marked the first time I got back to the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books since I don't know when (pre-COVID?) and I think I actually used some restraint in buying books, especially on Day 1 when the only book I bought was the Mike Farrell autobiography.

 

The haul:

 

• Just Call Me Mike: A Journey to Actor and Activist by Mike Farrell
• Behind the Door: The Dark Truths and Untold Stories of the Cecil Hotel by Amy Price (she was on an L.A. based panel and worked at the Cecil Hotel for ten years, including during the Elisa Lam disappearance)
• The Unclaimed: Abandonment and Hope in the City of Angels by Pamela Prickett and Stefan Timmermans (also from the L.A. panel) 

And from the discount bookstore:

• The Man Who Ate Too Much: The Life of James Beard by John Birdsall
• Let Me Feed You: Everyday Recipes Offering the Comfort of Home by Rosie Daykin 
• Whiskey in a Teacup: What Growing Up in the South Taught Me About Life, Love, and Baking Biscuits by Reese Witherspoon (I usually don't go for celebrity cooking/lifestyle books, but the aesthetics of this one snagged me)

 

I tried to get an autographed copy of David Mamet's Everywhere an Oink Oink after seeing him interviewed, but the bookstore sold out before I could grab one. Bummer.

 

It was really good to get back to the FOB. Next year's festival is April 26-27, 2025 at USC and is the 30th anniversary. Looking forward to it!

Recent reading: "Love Me Fierce in Danger"

 

Love Me Fierce in Danger: The Life of James Ellroy by Steven Powell

 

This is an in-depth look at the never-a-dull-moment life of legendary Los Angeles-born author James Ellroy.

 

We get a lot of background on Ellroy's childhood, including the notorious unsolved murder of his mother, as well as his father's experience as a minor player in Hollywood. It was an upbringing that led to a dissolute young adulthood, but props to Ellroy for figuring out by his late twenties that he needed to get sober and straighten himself out. It was this discipline that would eventually make him a successful and prolific writer.

 

On the other hand, Ellroy's behavior and treatment of people has often been cruel and brutal, and discussion of these instances are frequently followed by statements from friends that in spite of this, Ellroy can be sweet, gentle, and generous. But the book makes clear is that in addition to being a brilliant writer, as a person Ellroy can be difficult to deal with. It seems that to his friends, he's worth the difficulty. This includes the many women who have been a part of his life (no joke, you'd need a spreadsheet to keep them all straight).

What Powell could have gotten more in-depth on was the novels themselves. My personal favorite, L.A. Confidential, gets a surprising short shrift considering that it's one of Ellroy's most well-known. What surprised me the most was learning that Ellroy's shocking criticism (contrary to the praise he heaped on it when it was released) of the film version of this novel didn't just start at last year's L.A. Times Festival of Books (the first time I'd heard of it) but shortly after director Curtis Hanson's 2016 death. At one film festival, hosted by Noir Czar Eddie Muller, he lashed out at Hanson, insulted the film, then headed home, leaving Muller to deal with the fallout from shocked festival attendees.

 

I was also surprised to learn how much of Ellroy's adult life was spent outside L.A., with time in Denver, Kansas City, Connecticut, and Carmel-by-the-Sea. I'd heard he's moved out of L.A. at times, but didn't realize how much of his life has been spent away from it.

Written with Ellroy's cooperation, this is about as a comprehensive and official bio of the author that we're likely to get. The book's title comes from the closing line of Ellroy's 1992 novel White Jazz, the fourth book in his L.A. Quartet.

From the book:

L.A. Confidential began principal photography in May 1996. Ellroy visited the set and witnessed the filming of a scene in which Bud White rescues a bound and gagged Inez Soto from her kidnappers. Ellroy developed a rapport with the main cast, with the exception of Kevin Spacey, describing him as "a venomous individual" and James Cromwell who he regarded as "aloof and imperious". Ellroy shared many of Milchan's concerns about the casting. He looked at the cast and saw people who did not look or sound like the characters he had created on the page. Helgeland recalls that during one rehearsal an actor disagreed with Hanson about how to play a scene and even brought an "expert" on set to prove his point. "Curtis disappeared for a moment and returned with a phone. He said to the actor 'Here's my expert' and passed him the phone". Ellroy chewed the actor out over the phone, who then sheepishly agreed to play the scene the way Hanson wanted.

Update: Love Me Fierce in Danger is an Edgar Award nominee in the Best Critical/Biographical category.

Updated 5/1/24: Love Me Fierce in Danger is now an Edgar Award winner! Congratulations to author Steven Powell.

Not gonna lie, this is disappointing

I was thinking about going back to the L.A. Times Festival of Books this year for the first time since The Plague shut things down in 2020, but I ended up home this weekend working on school assignments. 

 

One reason I wanted to go (in addition to hitting up the discount booksellers and adding about a dozen more books I don't need to the "will I ever get around to reading this" pile) was learning that legendary Los Angeles writer James Ellroy would be present. I've been a fan of his work for years, especially both the novel and film version of L.A. Confidential. Now I'm glad I missed it: James Ellroy Says He Can Now Disparage Curtis Hanson's "L.A. Confidential" Adaptation. Not gonna lie, I was stunned to read this.

When L.A. Confidential was released in 1997 Ellroy was very active in promoting it. I remember him saying that the book and the film adaption both stood on their own successfully, like two sides of the same coin. I even wrote a paper about the adaptation in a film class in the early 2000's using examples of the differences between the novel and film, characters and subplots that were reduced or eliminated, and I remember reading quotes from Ellroy praising the adaptation. In fact, I particularly remember a comment in which, having sold the rights to the novel to Warner Bros., Ellroy said that he and his agent considered it unadaptable and as a result I titled the paper "Adapting the Unadaptable". But it turned out that Ellroy and his agent were wrong.

 

While researching the paper, I don't remember seeing one negative comment from Ellroy about the film, director Curtis Hanson, the script adaptation by Hanson and Brian Helgeland (for which they earned a well-deserved Academy Award), or the stellar acting. Kim Basinger won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of elegant call girl Lynn Bracken and the film introduced American audiences to Guy Pearce and Russell Crowe, thank you very much. The film also earned nominations for Best Picture, Director, Cinematography, Art/Set Direction, Sound, Film Editing, and Original Dramatic Score, all of which were lost to Titanic. I've seen it mentioned multiple times over the years that if L.A. Confidential had been released in any other year than Titanic, it would have dominated its Oscars, something I happen to agree with. In fact, what I find interesting that despite ruling the Academy Awards that year, there was one category in which James "King of the World" Cameron's epic failed to score even a nomination: that of screenplay.

Adapting a novel into a film or TV show is an art form completely separate than writing a novel or an original screenplay, or developing an original television series. There's different expectations from readers and viewers. Just one example - if I'm reading a novel, I don't expect to get through it in one sitting. It doesn't feel odd to stop at some point and return to it later. With a film, on the other hand, the theater experience expectation is that you'll sit through the whole thing without interruption. Even viewing at home, if you stop watching partway through, there's a good chance it's because the film isn't meeting your expectations or attention sufficiently to stick with it. And television is a whole other animal because you have to take a limited story and figure out how to stretch it over a number of seasons/years.

Another thing to consider is that despite several efforts, the Hanson/Helgeland version of L.A. Confidential is the only adaptation that was successful. An HBO pilot that more closely followed the novel was produced in 2003 (with Kiefer Sutherland as Jack Vincennes and Eric Roberts as Pierce Patchett) but failed to receive an order to series. Another unsuccessful attempt was made by CBS in 2019, with Walt Goggins as Vincennes. In fact, of all the Ellroy works that have been filmed, not one has been anywhere near as successful as L.A. Confidential. I don't know why, after all these years, he felt the need to disparage the 1997 version and the filmmakers who were so passionate about it. 

I'm glad I wasn't in that Festival of Books audience - it would have been shocking and depressing to have to listen to Ellroy rip on such fine work and the amazing people involved in producing one of my all-time favorite films based on one of my all-time favorite novels. Even worse that Ellroy mentioned Hanson's death as a reason to express his displeasure with the film twenty-five years after the fact. Maybe Ellroy should have followed his own advice, taken the high road, and kept this particular opinion (in the immortal words of Sid Hudgens), "Off the record, on the QT, and very hush-hush." 

Updated 4/25/23: Check out the comments in this thread. I'm not the only one who thinks L.A. Confidential is an all-time great.

RIP Anne Perry

Prolific, best-selling author Anne Perry has died. She was 84 years old and had been in ill health since having a heart attack in December.

Anne Perry at the 2015 California Crime Writers Conference

I discussed Perry's background here in a review of a biography of her.  Prior to taking the name Anne Perry, she was Juliet Hulme, who along with her friend Pauline Parker murdered Pauline's mother Honora Reiper in 1954 when the girls were 15-16 years old. The crime - along with the girls' obsessive friendship - was the subject of Peter Jackson's fantastic 1994 film Heavenly Creatures. Kate Winslet portrayed Juliet, while Melanie Lynskey, who is currently killing it in Yellowjackets, was Pauline. It was the motion picture debut for both actresses. Great film, I highly recommend it.

A few years back Perry left her home in Scotland and relocated to Los Angeles to better facilitate Hollywood productions of her works but I never heard of any resulting projects, and her imdb entry only lists The Cater Street Hangman, a 1998 TV movie based on her 1979 debut novel. On the other hand, she kept publishing novels right up to her death.

I first saw Perry in person at the L.A. Times Festival of Books some years ago, and also at the 2015 California Crime Writers Conference where she was a keynote speaker. At these appearances her past was never brought up and it didn't seem to hurt or hinder her career. I always had somewhat mixed feelings about Perry - she served her sentence and was productive and law-abiding thereafter, but back when I read The Cater Street Hangman it felt weird to be reading a murder story written by someone who'd actually done it. Based on what I've read about her, she put the murder behind her and got on with her life, describing it as a youthful mistake that she had paid the price for. She was also an amazingly prolific author, publishing over sixty works since her 1979 debut. 

RIP Anne Perry.

We have cover art!

Sisters in Crime Los Angeles has revealed the cover for our next anthology, Entertainment to Die For, which will include my short story "As Seen on Television".

I like the red, very eye-catching! Also looking forward to Sara Paretsky's introduction.

I don't know the exact date - in the e-mail it said "early next year". I'm thinking March or April, because SinC/LA usually releases their anthologies around the L.A. Times Festival of Books, which will take place April 22-23 next year.

All the editing that's fit to print

The editorial process for my story "As Seen on Television" was completed last week. The story will appear in Entertainment To Die For, the next anthology from Sisters in Crime/Los Angeles. It will be published sometime next spring, probably March or early April. SinC/LA always has a booth at the L.A. Times Festival of Books in April and they like to have the anthologies out right before that.

My editor has been super and the process was pretty painless. Mostly rewriting a couple of sentences for clarity, eliminating repetition of words and expressions, including removal of about five million uses of "had". Seriously, I'm going to do a word search for "had" in future stories because, damn, five million isn't as much of a exaggeration as it should be.

Other than all that, I'm really happy with the story. The lead Detective and her partner are characters I've used in some other stories, but this is the first one to be published. I'm hoping to use them in future projects as well.

Submitted without comment

Publishing update...or lack thereof

I expected to have two more short stories published by now. But a few things have conspired against us (*cough* COVID *cough*) and right now I have little to nothing to report.

The Fish That Got Away (from the Sisters in Crime Guppy group) was scheduled for a March release, but between COVID and the departure of an editor who shepherded Guppy anthologies in the past, we seem to have slipped down the publisher's food chain. In fairness to them these anthologies aren't money makers for anyone involved, and they do have a business to run. Right now it seems like we're looking at a July release (hopefully).

Avenging Angelenos (from Sisters in Crime/Los Angeles) should have come out right about now, since SinC/LA releases their anthologies in conjunction with the annual Los Angeles Times Festival of Books in April. The FOB was cancelled last year, and this year's is virtual April 17-18. But I haven't heard anything about this anthology in months and if it was on target we would have gotten cover art by now. Again, not a money maker for anyone involved and I don't want to be perceived as badgering people who are taking time out of their own lives and writing time to make this happen, but it's looking like it isn't going to happen this month. Beyond that I don't know. I'm just waiting to hear from them and I'll go from there. Really looking forward to seeing this anthology get out there - my editor on this one was really complimentary about the story. 

And unfortunately, that all the news that's fit to print right now. 

Recent Reading - "True Fiction"

True Fiction by Lee Goldberg

True Fiction is the first of Goldberg's Ian Ludlow novels (the second, Killer Thriller, was released in February). Ludlow is a pudgy, mild-mannered writer who has to become his slick, fictional super-spy to survive after a strangely familiar terrorist attack has him running for his life.

Ludlow is promoting his latest novel when there's a 9/11-type attack on a Waikiki hotel. His shock and horror when he hears of the event is different than most people's because the attack was his idea. Some time earlier Ludlow and several other writers were approached by a CIA agent who enlisted them to brainstorm possible terrorist attack scenarios, and Ludlow recognizes the Waikiki attack as one he contributed. When he discovers that all the other writers involved have recently died, he realizes he's next on the hit list and goes on the run with Margo French, a young woman who was assigned to escort him to his author appearances and is reluctantly swept up in his predicament.

Ludlow heads to rural Nevada to enlist the aid of Ronnie Mancuso, previously an actor on a show Ludlow wrote for who has become a survivalist. Mancuso may seem nutty, but his paranoid and bizarre preparations for the end of civilization as we know it (along with Ludlow's mental transformation into his protagonist) come in very handy in helping them stay one step ahead of their well-equipped pursuers.

Goldberg has a wicked sense of humor that makes the action fun as well as edge-of-your-seat exciting. And it made me beyond happy that one of Mancuso's old acting credits was Frankencop from Goldberg's novel My Gun Has Bullets. I felt like I'd somehow come full circle.

True Fiction is just a really terrific book and I'm looking forward to reading the next Ludlow story. In addition, Goldberg mentioned today on social media that he's putting the finishing touches on the third installment in the series, so there will be even more to look forward to.

"The CIA knows we're here," Ian said.

"Hell yes. Winter is coming." Ronnie came back to the Mustang, grabbed the RPG launcher off the hood, and headed out into the field toward some boulders.

"He is batshit crazy," Margo said.

Ian disagreed. He trusted what his heart was telling him. He was a fool to think he'd outsmarted the CIA. The only thing that had kept them alive this long was pure, dumb luck and it may have just run out.

Los Angeles Times Festival of Books - Part 3

Hit a few panels, took a few notes.

Michael Connelly in conversation with Daniel Pyne
Pyne is the new showrunner for Connelly's Bosch. He's also a screenwriter (Fracture) and novelist. His new book, Catalina Eddy, sounds fantastic.

Pyne, Connelly

• How TV changed Connelly's writing: Dialogue. In the books he can be in Bosch's head as much as he wants, but not on TV. Also, on TV he can't have Harry in every scene. Pyne: Action has to be behavioral, not in thought.
• Pyne: Features have been taken over by tentpoles and Marvel Comics. TV is where adult storytelling is at.
• This year is the 25th anniversary of the first Harry Bosch novel.
• Connelly on Bosch's aging in the novels: acknowledged that because he didn't freeze Harry in time age-wise, that it's become a factor. However, in real life retired detectives who are "closers" are still in demand. Connelly said he will continue writing Bosch until he (Connelly) quits writing.
• Connelly was asked if he's ever considered writing a period piece. Said he loves 1970's Los Angeles. He placed Harry as a rookie cop at the 1974 SLA shootout.

Crime Fiction: Hidden Truths

Gar Anthony Haywood (moderator), Laura Lippman, Megan Abbott, Stuart Woods, T. Jefferson Parker

• Lippman's latest novel, Wilde Lake, is a reimagining of To Kill a Mockingbird, set in a different time and location. She was interested in the idea of Atticus Finch being "principled to a fault".  
• Abbott has joined the writing staff of the upcoming David Simon HBO series The Deuce. When I looked it up on imdb, I discovered Simon is married to Lippman.
• Parker is friends with a number of military veterans (he lives in Fallbrook, CA, near Camp Pendleton) and stated that the stereotype of the PTSD-afflicted vet unable to cope is largely inaccurate - for every one of those, there are hundreds who grit their teeth and deal with it. He used this issue for his protagonist Wiley Welborn in his latest novel Crazy Blood.
• On the subject of research: Abbott always uses the same type of gun in all her stories so she doesn't have to worry about learning new specific details. Lippman admitted that she once asked the diminutive Abbott and writer Alison Gaylin what it's like to be short.

Writing and Publishing: Breaking In

Betsy Amster (moderator), Lisa Lucas, Sean McDonald, Oscar Villalon, Bonnie Nadell

• Nadell: Harder to break in because large publishers aren't taking risks. However, McDonald pointed out that smaller publishing houses that are willing to take risks are popping up all the time (in fact, he just started one called MCD, which plans on publishing about twenty titles per year).
• Nadell: It seems like the book business perpetually has a "the sky is always falling" mindset, but she doesn't agree. Feels that independent bookstores are stronger than ever.
• During the Q&A, the panel was asked about the best way for new writers to break in. Nadell: Not looking for experience, looking for the best writing. 

Hooray for Old Hollywood

M.G. Lord (moderator), Karen Maness, Jon Lewis, Kenneth Turan, Glenn Frankel

This was a really great panel. One of the two best I saw last weekend.

L to R: Lewis, Turan, Frankel

• Frankel is a Pulitzer-winning journalist. His latest book, High Noon: The Hollywood Blacklist and the Making of an American Classic, examines how a film revered for its message of the importance of personal integrity was made during the House Committee on Un-American Activities hearings. High Noon's screenwriter, Carl Foreman, testified during the filming and was blacklisted for his alleged Communist sympathies. Per Frankel, the book is about half about High Noon and half about the blacklist.
• Maness is the co-author of The Art of the Hollywood Backdrop, a massive coffee table book examining the history of backdrop painting. The audience was thrilled to hear that despite being largely supplanted by technology, historic backdrops have been retained over the years by J.C. Backing, a company founded by the Coakley family, whose roots go back to the early days of MGM. Over the years, as studios divested themselves of property, the Coakleys bought up the backdrops. There will also be also be a scenic art show at Gallery 800 in North Hollywood starting in June. 
• Lewis (Hard-Boiled Hollywood: Crime and Punishment in Postwar Los Angeles) says he's fascinated by the period between the collapse of the old studio system and the rise of new Hollywood.
• Turan, the famed L.A. Times film critic, wrote Not To Be Missed: Fifty-Four Favorites From a Lifetime of Film because he loves to spread "the gospel" - the good news - of films he loves. Said that the films in his book aren't necessarily the best films, but more of a desert island suggestion.
• Lewis was asked about Gary Cooper's politics (he was a staunch conservative and Republican) versus the climate of the HUAC hearings. Per Lewis, Cooper testified very early on as a "friendly witness" and didn't name names. He also wasn't interested in getting in the middle of an ideological struggle and took the role in High Noon simply because he liked the script and needed the work. Politics didn't enter into it.

Writing Short Stories

Libby Flores (moderator), Chanelle Benz, Dana Johnson, Rebecca Schiff, Deb Olin Unferth

• On writing fiction: Flores: "Slow down where it hurts". As for writing characters, she quoted Kurt Vonnegut: "Make your character want something even if it's only a glass of water." 
• Benz on her characters: Once they've gone through a gate, it's locked behind them. They can't go back.
• Johnson: Likes to write about the things that people pretend not to see, hear, or would rather not address.
• Unferth: There are four levels of conflict: 1) Inner/existential, 2) Local (neighborhood), 3) Global, 4) Philosophical.

Crime Fiction: The Hunter and the Hunted

Lee Goldberg (moderator), Daniel Suarez, Gregg Hurwitz, Christopher Farnsworth, Eric Jerome Dickey

The other exceptionally great panel. Goldberg is always entertaining. We were treated to his impression of his heavily-accented French wife's insistence that no matter how she dies (even if hit by a meteor) the police should investigate him for murder. Crime writer's search histories are never not incriminating. Goldberg acknowledged if that happened, it would look like he'd been planning the crime for years.

L to R: Goldberg, Suarez, Hurwitz, Farnsworth, Dickey

• Dickey literally moves to wherever he's going to set his next novel and lives there for a period of time. As a result he's lived in London, Argentina, and Odenville, Alabama to name a few. He said that his inspiration to immerse himself in a locale is due to having read a novel years ago that was set in Los Angeles and noticing how much the author got wrong about the city.
• Hurwitz is famed for immersing himself in activities that his characters will experience, including the use of high-powered firearms. He joked that he once got his ass kicked in martial arts to understand the pain it inflicts.
• Suarez: Researching is the most social thing he does as a writer.
• Hurwitz: Writers must get gun details right. If you don't, you will hear about it.
• During his Diagnosis Murder days, Goldberg suffered two broken arms in an accident. The doctor let him stay awake to observe his operation and fascinated, Lee started asking him questions that lead the doctor to ask, "Are you trying to ask me how to commit murder?" After hearing that, Goldberg's wife suggested writing the medical costs off as research.
• Hurwitz: The mere suggestion of violence and/or gore goes a long way. He'll often end a chapter just before something horrific is about to happen. Nonetheless, more than once fans have told him they can't believe how gory those "scenes" were.

With that, another FOB is done. I had a great time as usual and am already waiting impatiently for the next one. 

Los Angeles Times Festival of Books 2017 - Part 2

Author signatures!!! Including mine!!!

My first panel of the day Saturday was Michael Connelly in conversation with Daniel Pyne. Pyne will be taking over as the showrunner for Bosch beginning Season 4 (Season 3 just debuted on Amazon Friday night). The previous showrunner, Eric Ohlmeyer, has moved over to The Man in the High Castle. Pyne also recently published a novel, Catalina Eddy, which sounds fantastic and is now on my Amazon wish list.

After the discussion I headed out to get in line for Mr. Connelly. I brought my brand-spanking new copy of LAst Resort for him to sign. The line wasn't as hellish as I'd feared - I probably only waited about twenty minutes to get to him. I explained that I was in the anthology and that it was the first time I'd been published. He's pretty low-key and not very chatty, but did take the time to write this:

I'm proud to say that I didn't make a bumbling fool of myself in front of him. In fact, I don't think I even stuttered once. It was an awesome experience.

After that, I headed over to the Sisters in Crime Los Angeles booth to say hi and show off my newest treasure. Matt Coyle, my editor, had been signing earlier at the booth, but it was the same time I was seeing Michael Connelly so I thought I'd missed him. Luckily he was still around, so I got to chat with him. He also had me sign a copy of LAst Resort for him - my first book signing!

Sunday, as I mentioned before, I saw L.A. Times film critic Kenneth Turan at a panel called Hooray For Old Hollywood. After the panel I bought his book Not To Be Missed: Fifty-Four Favorites From a Lifetime of Film and had it signed, along with Hard-Boiled Hollywood: Crime and Punishment in Postwar Los Angeles by Jon Lewis.

Next up: panels!

Los Angeles Times Festival of Books 2017 - Part 1

Another FOB is in the books (heh). Now I have to wait until next April. I swear I'd go every weekend if they had it that often.

As far as bringing home truckloads of books, I actually used a lot of restraint this year:

Yup. This is it.

I got Hard-Boiled Hollywood and Not To Be Missed autographed by the authors. Kenneth Turan is so sweet! We bonded over our love of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, which is one of his not to be missed films.

The FOB was officially kicked off by the always awesome Trojan Marching Band. Here they are from my not-so-vantage point in line to see Michael Connelly.

More to come...

Spring break this week!

There will be no food service this week - we are on a much-needed break this week. At the beginning, when I saw the break on the schedule, I was actually kind of bummed, but at this point we kind of need it. The work is fun but intense.

As an added bonus, it will also give me a chance to recover from the L.A. Times Festival of Books. More about that (and my book buying spree) later, when I've had some rest.

L.A. Times Festival of Books - Inside Hollywood

This panel featured moderator Margaret Woppler, Alex Espinoza (The Five Acts of Diego Leon), Adam Braver (Misfit), Matthew Specktor (American Dream Machine) and Nina Revoyr (The Age of Dreaming)

Alex Espinoza:

• Became interested in Hollywood's transition from silent films to talkies.  Silents could be used worldwide, but sound required foreign-language versions to be shot.  During this period the "Latin Lover" was popular with filmgoers.  However these stars were not necessarily treated as well by Hollywood as their Caucasian counterparts.
• In discussing the layers and complexity of reinvention of self, he mention how early Hollywood would "Latinize" actors who looked the part, even if they weren't Latino.  He told about the silent star studio executives dubbed Ricardo Cortez, who was actually a Jewish New Yorker born Jacob Krantz.
• Like many of the "Latin Lovers" of early Hollywood, Espinoza was born in Mexico and eventually moved to Los Angeles.

Adam Braver:

• Misfit focuses on the last weekend of Marilyn Monroe's life, especially in terms of what Hollywood does to people, their identity and need to reinvent themselves.
• Attracted to Marilyn as a subject because she was a great, real-life complex character.  He felt the key to writing someone like her is finding the core human part of a character.

Matthew Specktor:

• His father was legendary Hollywood agent Fred Specktor, whose clients included Gene Hackman and Robert De Niro.  Because Hollywood is constantly depicted negatively, he wanted to describe a place inhabited by real people.  In American Dream Machine, the stars are in the background and the experiences of the fictionalized agents sons are not limited to Hollywood.

Nina Revoyr:

• The Age of Dreaming is about a Japanese former silent star who is tracked down by a young reporter with a script for him.  He is excited about a comeback, but hopes no one looks too deep into his past.
• Sessue Hayakawa was an inspiration.  Despite his stardom, like the Latin Lovers, Asians were also not treated well by Hollywood.  In addition, growing anti-Asian sentiment in the U.S. at the time meant that Hayakawa was limited to sinister and villainous roles.  This created animosity toward him back in Japan, where his countrymen felt that his roles contributed toward negative Japanese stereotypes.  Revoyr wanted to explore the idea of being hugely successful in an industry that doesn't accept you, and the personal cost of making the necessary compromises to attain that success.

L.A. Times Festival of Books - Crime Fiction: City of Angels

This fascinating Southern California-themed panel of was comprised of moderator Paula Woods (Charlotte Justice novels), Marcia Clark (yes that Marcia Clark, and the Rachel Knight series) , Denise Hamilton (Damage Control, L.A. Times Magazine) and T. Jefferson Parker (the Charlie Hood series).  Easily the highlight of this year's FOB for me.

Marcia Clark:

• "Rachel Knight was an avatar" based on Clark's own experience in the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office, but way cooler.  For example, Clark has Rachel reside at the glamorous and historic Biltmore Hotel in Downtown L.A.
• Based on her experience, homicide detectives are the funniest people she knows (particularly in terms of black humor).  She cited a sign in the LAPD homicide bullpen that reads, "Our day begins when your day ends".
• Her latest novel explores what it's like to be in the middle of a media circus, something Clark, as a major player in the O.J. Simpson trial, knows all too well.
• Noted that "we live longer lives" and so have time for more than one career.
• She has a deal with TNT to develop her books as a 1-hour drama series.

Denise Hamilton:

• With sex scandals all over the news, she wondered what it would be like if you were one of the people involved and had a deep, dark secret that would destroy you if it was revealed.  
• As part of her research she asked a friend who works in Public Relations if they had ever turned down a client.  The answer: Kim Jong Il, although they were impressed that he'd heard of them.  Hamilton also asked if they had to believe that a client is innocent.  The answer was no, but they still have to be able to maintain their firm's professional rep.  This was the reason they also turned down Michael Jackson - it would have hurt their credibility with clients.
• Considers her work "surf noir" that explores the dark side of Southern California's beach culture.

T. Jefferson Parker:

• Many people in law enforcement want to write because they have such great stories.  His connection to this was a neighbor who was the Forensics Director of the ATF's Orange County office.
• His latest Charlie Hood novel is his last with that character.  He wants to start a new series, although he hasn't figured out yet what it will be.  Admitted that ending a seires was "a little scary", but the fun part of writing is finding out what happens next.
• When he writes, he feels like he's along for the ride, rather than in charge.
• Has 17 million books in print.

L.A. Times Festival of Books - Crime Fiction: What We Can't Tell You

I don't know who comes up with the titles of the "conversations", but they need to give it up.  Just call it what it is: Conversations with authors.  About their latest books.  I'm not sure what it what things they couldn't tell us that the FOB had in mind, but luckily for me and the rest of the audience, these authors told plenty.

Moderator Tom Nolan (Ross McDonald: An Autobiography and Artie Shaw: King of the Clarinet), Ariel S. Winter (The Twenty-Year Death), Attica Locke (The Cutting Season, Black Water Rising), Fuminori Nakamura (The Thief), Chris Pavone (The Ex-Pats)

On how they came to write their current novels:
Nakamura: Fascinated by pick-pocketers and prostitution.  The Thief combines both.

Locke: She is from the south, where some old plantations live on as venues for tourism and events.  In addition, in the south "plantation" can mean pretty much any venue.  She was invited to a wedding that was held at an old plantation that really was a former plantation and as an African-American wasn't sure how to feel about it.  She became interested in exploring the location's past and present and the book was written "to explore that...with a dead body."

Pavone: After a couple decades as an office drone, he was startled when his wife came home one night and asked, "How would you like to live in Luxemborg?" She worked for Amazon and had been offered a job overseas.  One big move across the globe later, he found himself a stay-at-home dad in a strange land.  He often made small talk with mothers he met at the park with his kids to and was fascinated by one woman who would chat but would never really reveal anything about herself.  It made him wonder if she was hiding some sort of terrible secret that she had to keep from everyone and that launched the protagonist of The Ex-Pats.

Winter: The Twenty-Year Death follows a Fitzgerald/Hemingway type character in the last twenty years of his life (1931-1941-1951) from the heights to depths of success.  His agent wanted him to write a character that could recur in future books, but Winter decided to have his character recur at different points in his life in one story.

On becoming a writer:
Pavone: Was a voracious reader as a kid.  In college he majored in government, then ended up working in the book publishing world and loved it, mainly because most people involved were in it for the love of book and writers, rather than the money.  But after twenty years in the biz, he tired of it and decided to write himself.

Nakamura: He suffered from depression as a teen and coped by writing out his thoughts.  When he went to college he couldn't figure out what he wanted to do and decided to write out his diary as a novel and loved it.

Winter: Always wrote, had decided to become a writer by the 6th grade.  In college he he decided he wanted to be a playwright, but grew dissatisfied with the collaborative process and turned to back to prose.

Locke: Always wrote as a kid, but grew up wanting to be a filmmaker.  By twenty-four she was working as a location scout and sold a script only to be told that it wasn't going to be made.  Her husband was in law school and they were broke, so she became a "writer for hire".  While she made enough money to buy a home, nothing she wrote was being produced and she tired of writing for people who didn't read in what she described as a "fear-based industry".

The genre:
Nakamura: Despite writing about crime, he is regarded as a writer of serious literature in his native Japan, but doesn't mind people categorizing his novels as either genre or pure fiction.  The film Diary of a Pickpocket is a favorite of his and he referred to it while writing The Thief.  He actually practiced picking pockets of friends and claimed to have had a pretty good success rate.

Pavone: Interested in unreliable narrator/narratives.  On the topic of success: Only one-tenth of 1% of the American reading public needs to purchase your book in order to be successful, so he's okay with 99% of the public not buying his book.

Locke: She feels caught between literature and mystery, and doesn't like to be pigeon-holed as a mystery writer because she's worried she will miss out on potential readers.  Feels that crime fiction is inherently political because it involves distribution of power.

Here comes the Festival of Books

The L.A. Times Festival of Books takes place tomorrow and Sunday at USC.  I've got my schedule and tickets ready to go.

I went to the FOB last year for the first time and had a blast, and also came home with a truckload of books.  Really looking forward to going again.  It will be interesting to see how many more books I own by Sunday night compared to right now.

My Festival of Books haul

Left: FOB program, Harbor Nocturne (autographed by author Joseph Wambaugh) from the Book Soup shop, copies of Mildred Pierce and Double Indemnity with cool film noir covers (also from Book Soup, total spent there about $60), Daily Trojan (free), Egyptian stamps I bought for The Brother, who is into these things.  Not sure what the vendor with Egyptian artifacts was doing at the Festival of Books, but he wasn't the only head scratcher (there was a booth manned by a State Farm agent as well).

Middle: Cookbook, FOB notebook and fridge magnet, another cookbook, FOB mug (I really loved the bookosaurus logo).

Right: Yet more cookbooks and some pamphlets/handouts.

I did all my shopping on Sunday and could not have carried one more thing.