Doing laps in the LA Fishbowl

When Worlds Collide (in a good way)

I get to bring both my superpowers together next month, when I head into the booth and record the audio version of Still Life Las Vegas! Woo hoo! Summer’s just started, and many things are a’brewin’…

June 20th, 2015Still Life Las Vegas

A Little Movie, then FREE BOOKS!

Forget about Jurassic Park and Star Wars and Transformers 28: When Toasters Revolt; the trailer of the summer is here: Mine! Yes, the trailer for Still Life Las Vegas, the one I worked on with Peter Hastings, where acclaimed Accordion Diva Gee Rabe dressed up and played for sweet music for us, has been officially introduced via St. […]

May 12th, 2015Still Life Las Vegas

Adventures in Publishing: Blurbs and Lockdowns

This is especially true in publishing. Hi all! It’s been a red-letter day today. I started the morning from a Facebook message from rock star graphic novelist Gene Luen Yang (writer of Boxers/Saints and ABC: American Born Chinese), someone whose books my son Ben and I both love (hey, Boxers/Saints got Ben interested in reading about HISTORY, so […]

April 27th, 2015Still Life Las Vegas

Adventures in Publishing: The Beauty of a Page

On a previous adventure in publishing, I wrote about the cover designer  Young Lin from St. Martin’s Press, who created a cover I would want my book to be judged by.  But what about inside the book? Who’s responsible for what that looks like? A month ago, I would have guessed— well, I wouldn’t have […]

March 16th, 2015Still Life Las Vegas

Embracing the Sheep

There is no good reason why I should love Lunar New Years. It’s not a holiday I grew up celebrating. It always falls on a different date, taking me by surprise, sometimes still fatigued from the December holidays. It’s also a gargantuan effort, at least the way I do it: combining the decorating of Halloween, […]

February 19th, 2015Still Life Las Vegas

Adventures in Publishing: Accordions and Folk Tunes

Wherein we learn that, despite all the awesome coddling that comes with being at a super publishing house, they will not do EVERYTHING for you.  Lookie what I got! If I’d a known accordions weighed a ton,I woulda written them heavier. No, I’m not taking up a new hobby. I’ve rented it for a shoot […]

January 30th, 2015Still Life Las Vegas

Still Standing

I can’t lay all this wretchedness of the past few weeks on 2015’s doorstep; the pain was brewing just at the end of the year, smuggled in as an odd ache amongst the assorted miseries of a flu before the holidays, and asserting itself just as 2014 was giving up the ghost. But it wasn’t […]

January 19th, 2015Still Life Las Vegas

Adventures in Publishing: Proof

A few weeks ago, I received a rather large packet in the mail: My manuscript! But covered in strange markings, done in mauve pencil. This, my friends, was the copy edited copy of Still Life Las Vegas, ready for perusal. A bit daunting at first glance, this document was nonetheless exhilarating to look at. After […]

November 22nd, 2014Still Life Las Vegas

Adventures in Publishing: Please Judge My Book by Its Cover

IT’S HERE. When I first opened the email attachment that had the possible cover of “Still Life Las Vegas” in it, I gasped and slammed my computer shut. It was nothing that I expected: there was so many images, so much color, and it was oddly… Perfect.  I’ve never met Young Lim, the designer at […]

November 14th, 2014Still Life Las Vegas