Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m originally from Australia and moved to Los Angeles in the mid-1990s. After writing three novels which were eventually filed under “Good But Not Quite Good Enough” I happened upon an online article about a hotel that opened on Sunset Blvd in 1927, called the Garden of Allah. It was one of those residential hotels which were more common back then – you’d check in for 3 months while you worked your $1000-a-week contract with MGM, as F. Scott Fitzgerald did in 1937. The Garden of Allah quickly became known as a place where interesting people stayed. The guests of this hotel read like a who’s who of Hollywood’s golden years: Errol Flynn, Ginger Rogers, Harpo Marx, Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley, Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Frank Sinatra, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Artie Shaw, David Niven, Leopold Stokowski, Orson Welles…and on and on…
I found it such a rich field for storytelling that I immediately knew what I wanted to do: write the history of Hollywood through the eyes of the residents of the Garden of Allah. So I invented my three protagonists and I weave their fictitious story around the factual events going on in Hollywood at the time. Through what will eventually be nine books, I will take my readers on a ride through golden era Hollywood as its various phases unfold – the advent of the talkies, then Technicolor, the making of “Gone with the Wind”, the fight over “Citizen Kane,” then into the war years at the Hollywood Canteen, the post-war rise of the anti-Commie hysteria, the fall of radio and the parallel rise of television, and how Hollywood combated it by going wide screen. So much went on during that period that it’s an embarrassment of riches, really!
I have written five books in the series so far:
Book 1 – “The Garden on Sunset”
Book 2 – “The Trouble with Scarlett”
Book 3 – “Citizen Hollywood
Book 4 – “Searchlights and Shadows”
Book 5 – “Reds in the Beds”
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The name of my latest book is “Reds in the Beds” and it was inspired by what happened in America in the period immediately following WWII. The wartime purpose of the House Un-American Activities Committee was to root out Nazis on the home front, but now that the Nazis had been vanquished, they needed a new target, and landed on Communists. They realized they could get maximum publicity if they focused on the infiltration of Commies into Hollywood movies, regardless of whether or not there actually were any. As a result, an entire industry was upended, and hundreds upon hundreds of careers were destroyed. My characters live though this period so there was no way I couldn’t not write about it.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I don’t know how unusual this is, but I write seven days a week. When you’re juggling the demands of a 2nd job while you’re also trying to get your next novel out, you have to be very self-disciplined with the time you can carve out for your writing. That means no email, no Facebook. It’s amazing how much you can get done when you cut the cord to all distractions.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Probably the most influential author for me has been Armistead Maupin, who wrote the “Tales of the City” novels. It wasn’t until I was well into my 2nd novel that it dawned on me that I was sort of writing an LA version of “Tales of the City” – a very specific time and place. His books are set in and around San Francisco starting in the 1970s, while mine cover Los Angeles, starting in the 1920s. While I haven’t modeled my books on his, he definitely laid the ground work.
What are you working on now?
Right now I”m working on book 6, which covers the years 1948 through 1950. This was when two classic movies were being filmed and released: “Sunset Boulevard” and “All About Eve.” It’s also the time when the Hollywood Powers That Be started to realize that this new-fangled gadget called a “television” might be something they ought to take seriously after all.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I adhere to the advice “Don’t talk about your books; talk about what your books are about.”
My books are about living and working during Hollywood’s golden age – 1920s to 1950s – so I post a lot about what life was like back then. I do this on my website, blog, Facebook, Google Plus, and Pinterest. Fortunately for me, I write about a time and place that was photographed A LOT so there are tons of photos I can post and share info that I’ve acquired in the course of my research. All of this becomes Google-able and a lot of my readers find me while searching information about a person or a place that I’ve covered in my social media. I’ve also learned that putting effort into growing an email list is worthwhile. In that way, you can directly email your fan/followers/readers and develop a relationship with them.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
I have three words of wisdom: persistence, persistence, persistence. I’d say at least 80% of what people think goes into becoming a writer — inspiration, talent, craft — comes from dropping your butt into your chair / sofa / bed / hammock / position of choice and start tapping that keyboard. Even on days when you don’t feel like it. In fact, I’d say especially on those days you don’t feel like it. Even if you hate every word of what you’ve written. You can’t polish or improve or edit or re-write something you haven’t written. So stop talking about it, stop thinking about it, stop dreaming about it, and just DO IT.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
“Write the book you want to read.”
What are you reading now?
Right now I’m reading “Fall of Giants” by Ken Follett. It’s the first of his gargantuan Century Trilogy, which follows five interrelated families throughout the course of the 20th century. I’d heard that he waffles off onto vaguely irrelevant tangents, but I haven’t found that to be the case at all.
What’s next for you as a writer?
As a writer, next for me is book 6 in my series.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
I’m a lover of long historical sagas. So if I’m going to be stuck on some island with only 3 or 4 books to read, I want them to be long and absorbing. So it’s “Gone with the Wind” – “London” by Edward Rutherford – pretty much anything over 600 pages by James Michener.
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