Happy Christmas Eve!

One last Christmas vlog as I found a Christmas story I had forgotten I had written. So, here you go and Happy Christmas! Merry New Years! And ALL THAT STUFF! Hope you enjoy!

To see the other Christmas vlogs, check out my YouTube channel here.

Four Vlogs of Christmas: Week Four - Homemade Rosewater & The Story

This week I don't have anything left to read that I wrote that's Chrismassy, so instead I read something that was published last year at this time in the Winter Issue of Electric Velocipede. I recommend checking them out when you get a chance.

I also share with you some of goodies I have made for the holidays because I can't seem to get anyone around here to enjoy them with me, so maybe you can enjoy them with me virtually. Because sharing things is more fun than hoarding them for yourself. I think, anyway. Or as Pooh says, "it's much more friendlier with two."

So, hope you have a great time sharing the holiday with others, especially your loved ones.

To see the vlog for Week Three go here.

To see the vlog for Week Two go here.

To see the vlog for Week One go here.

Norman Bogner, Mystery Bookstore and other writerly things...

My life has been a tad busy since oh, about mid-November. This is a good thing, though I was hoping it would slow down enough for me to put up decorations and the tree for Christmas. I dragged the boxes of Christmas stuff out of their cupboards and hidey holes the day after Thanksgiving, wishfully thinking I would have time to put it up that weekend. That didn't happen.

It is a good thing I'm busy. It's work. It's connections. It's what I do. When my e-novella came out November 9, I floated the entire week, in between finding places to advertise it for sale since the sale-ability of a Christmas book is fairly limited to a brief 6 week period. Then there was work to do, Thanksgiving and a trip to prepare for and then more work to do. And it hasn't slowed down since.

And now here I am, six days before Christmas and I still have boxes on the floor, no tree up (but I do have a wreath up!), Christmas shopping done, but presents sitting dejectedly in piles waiting to be wrapped and sent to their future homes, plus a couple of major projects and a few minor ones that really need to get done now.

In the middle of this my friend, Norman Bogner, tells me he's having a book signing of his recent release, 99 Sycamore Place, and could I come and bring some of my friends? Of course I say yes! If you've ever had a friend who is doing a book reading or signing when their book comes out you go and show support. It can be a long lonely haul sometimes and, who knows, you might need them to show up at your book signing sometime soon, right? We can only hope.

So, though I'm busy and behind I go. And despite my negative grousing to myself about the whole thing, I have a grand time. And I mean it. It was great! It was like God and the Universe were telling me to STOP and pay attention. And I'm glad I did.

The signing was at The Mystery Bookstore, one of the last indie bookstores in L.A. It's tucked away on Broxton, just off of Westwood and north of Wilshire. It's a great old bookstore. It has PERSONALITY. The staff are great folk and engage you and know stuff and are intelligent and literate. And the store itself is great. They specialize in mysteries, of course, but they have other fare there as well. At Christmas time I have a special yen for Christmas murder mysteries - both short fiction and long - and I can never seem to find it. But I found at least six holiday murder mysteries sitting out while I was there and I'm sure there's more tucked back amongst the shelves.

The Mystery Bookstore has readings/signings at least twice a week so if you have a favorite mystery author passing through L.A., chances are they'll end up there. It's worth checking out. The space is nice and they set up about 10-15 chairs for people to sit in front of the table/podium where the author sits. They brought in water for everyone, too, which was a nice touch. And then there was Norman's presentation.

Norman wanted to discuss the genesis of this most recent novel, share where his ideas had come from. And from his explanation I gathered that this was a novel that was a long time germinating. It was a very personal piece. A piece he's probably worked on in some form or another since he knew he wanted to be a writer at the age of 8 or 9. Like many other writers, Norman can't always tell you where an idea for most of his novels has come from. He'll hem and haw like the rest of us and explain about how he gets to know the characters and lets them tell the story. But he couldn't tell you where the first seed of that idea or that first character came from. It just kind of happens. Many writers go through this. But 99 Sycamore Place was different. It was interesting to hear all the different elements that were brought into this most recent novel.

Norman is, like many writers, unassuming in person. It's his wordcraft and intelligence that will take you off-guard if you're not careful. And he comes from a background rich with cultural heritage. He grew up hearing 4-5 languages around the dinner table. He remembers the grown-ups in his family trying to shield him from the knowledge of their relatives in Europe being slaughtered simply for being Jewish. He remembers his first sight of those newsreels at the movie theaters showing the millions of people found in places like Auschwitz and Bergen Belsen. These had a profound influence on him. But, as he explained at the Mystery Bookstore, he didn't want to write another Holocaust story.

Then there was the aunt who was a pianist, and the girlfriend in college who paid more attention to her piano practice then she did to Norman. This was also a character that Norman has wanted to write about, the gifted musician. He wanted to write that heroine.

Then there were the White Supremacists recently released from prison whom he met while shadowing a tattoo artist for his book, The Deadliest Art. They explained the world of the gangs in the prisons and how the Aryan groups were much stronger than any other gang. I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall at the lunches he went to with these two men who wanted swastikas tattooed on their backs.

Finally, there was the lion hunter that Norman met by chance in a bookstore years ago. In trying to write this story he kept coming up against what to do for the hero of the piece. He didn't want it to be a detective or P.I. For one, he wasn't going to write a police procedural or gumshoe novel. He was writing a story about how a hate crime twists the life of a young woman on end. As Norman explained, after he did his research with policemen and detectives, he knew that while they viewed hate crimes as awful, they really didn't have the resources or time to go into tracking down perpetrators of such bigotry and hate. But a lion hunter, better yet a lion hunter who's used to tracking predators and now has too much time on his hands, now that's a hero that Norman could get behind for this story.

And so all the elements finally came together and he was able to get out this story he's been wanting to write ever since he, well, wanted to write.

And on some level it was particularly surreal to be hearing about continuing antisemitism, even to this day, and how people have to deal with it constantly. STILL. And here it is six days before Christmas. Not a Jewish holiday, sure, but a holiday about love for one another and peace and goodwill to everyone. It made me stop and consider my life and my writing and what it all means to me. I'm really glad Norman Bogner was able to come out and share these wonderful details of his life with us. And I'm really glad I took the time to be part of that book signing. I look forward to reading the book (well, cuz DUH, I got an autographed copy!).

Here's Norman Bogner and his new book, 99 Sycamore Place.

In other news... I surreptitiously looked up my e-novella on Amazon and checked it's rank through the fingers in front of my face. I am at #139,992 on the Kindle list. I sure hope there are at least 139,993 on that list! Cuz being last would suck, unless I were tied with someone, then it wouldn't be so bad. (At some other time I will tell you about how one of my fellow cross country runners and I used to work on tieing for last in all the cross country races in high school. I think she was just being kind and holding back for me, but it was fun.)

And I'd also like to put in a plug for some places that are advertising and/or promoting The Holly and the Ivan.

The Larchmont Chronicle (You can read the article on page 18 of the December issue. Just click on the virtual issue in the lower left hand corner of the website.)

Aoife's Kiss, which promotes fun fantasy and science fiction and speculative poetry through Sams Dot Publishing. You can sample some of their pieces online FOR FREE.

Bewildering Stories, which promotes anything that's out there and wacky! FOR FREE!

Electric Velocipede, which likes to explore a lot of different speculative fiction and poetry, but has a special fondness for steampunk. Sample some of the current issue online now FOR FREE.

Fantasy Magazine, which used to be a print magazine, but decided to go wholly online a couple of years ago. They like to explore anything from the mythological to the magically surreal and you can read their stuff on line FOR FREE.

So check them out and have a good weekend before Christmas. Serious count down begins now!

Four Vlogs of Christmas: Week Three - Santa is My Homeboy

To watch me read an excerpt from this story click on the picture above or here.

You can find the rest of Santa is My Homeboy here on Mindflights.com.

Merry Christmas!

See you next week with the final vlog before Christmas!

Bragging. That's all. Just Bragging.

You can find the Larchmont Chronicle at www.larchmontchronicle.com. Not sure they've uploaded the December issue yet, though, to their website.

Four Vlogs of Christmas: Week Two - City Sidewalks (a poem)

Hello and welcome to week two of Advent. Hope you're having a good Christmas season. Here is my second contribution to the Christmas season, my reading my poem, City Sidewalks.

Have a good week!