2 summer books

2 new novels for summer from Good Deed Rain--THE WORRYS and AMERICAN MANTRA.

Clift Counterfeit

I asked a student if she saw that horse I mentioned two days ago. (The one I could tell was trying to be Montgomery Clift). She agreed there was something strange about it.

basil

4th of July

cover spread, publication date this 4th of July

Montgomery Clift

I just saw a horse on campus. Really. It was trying to be Montgomery Clift.

another bonanza

Here's a different Bonanza. It was at the Fun Forest in Seattle. If you were there you'll remember it was a demented scene. I swear there used to be a stuffed moose head on the wall. He would roll his eyes and jabber. I featured this shooting gallery in the new novel The Worrys. Imagine a weasel running back and forth like a Warner Brothers cartoon.

bonanza

A Beechcraft Bonanza flew overhead while I ate my 4 day old bagel. I still know my planes!

How Come?

Another page in the book Puget Sounds has a photo of the show I was on, How Come? hosted by Al Wallace on King TV in Seattle.

wunda wonderful

Long ago in Seattle’s magic era, there used to be a TV show called Wunda Wunda. I’ve been looking through this great book called Puget Sounds which includes these two photos of a burglar who got caught by police on the set! I love Wunda Wunda’s reaction as it was happening! I pay tribute to her in my next novel to be published. More on that soon, stay tuned!

blue jay dream

I helped a blue jay in the first good dream I've had in a long time

The Trouble with Harry

Today’s edition of Literary Lapses concerns a children’s canine classic. I was walking our hound in the woods the other day when we met a lady walking her dog. It was low, white with black spots and bore a remarkable resemblance to a famous dog I assumed everyone knew. I asked her, “Have you read Harry the Dirty Dog?” Umm, let’s just say this is a sentence you need to be very careful delivering. Know your audience.

El Gorila Blanco

I don’t know if I mentioned what happened after I wrote Walt Amherst is Awake. That novel features a white gorilla named White Pongo who actually stars in a 1945 movie. I decided to revive his career and featured him in a few more books since then. Then I saw an ad for the Rock’s hit new movie Rampage which features a white gorilla blowing up everything in sight. Yin and Yang. In my book, the gorilla wears a Captain cap and blue uniform and is crossing the bay in his little sailboat.

warm weather reads

I just finished reading 2 great books: Charles Wright's Sestets collection and a biography of Criswell.

marble wonders

Walking down Broadway, old movie palaces and unbelievable heights carved from marble.

Los Angeles

Star and a Car

My first star sighting, spotting Diane Keaton on the overpass!

Flying into Los Angeles

telephone bird

I heard an amazing bird in LA, singing on top of a telephone pole. It was robin-sized with black and white striped wings. Just found out it's a Northern Mockingbird! Wowza! If I had one of those lawn chairs, I could have sat on Exposition Boulevard for an hour listening.

top 2

My top-2 favorite flowers, daisies and dandelion, growing on my napping spot at work.

hambone

AMERICAN MANTRA

Here's the cover of a new novel AMERICAN MANTRA to be published July 4th. It's about a couple of time travelers who go to 1955 in search of a missing poem. Featuring: The Moonlite Drive-In, garage rock, a vampire, beat poets, diners and jukeboxes, dream collectors, a cardboard robot, racehorse betting, a B-movie gorilla, radiation and radio...AND it's fully illustrated by the 1950s art of Robert Huck. Another Good Deed Rain gift to the future.

powdered pineapple

I've been reading Criswell's uncanny book Your Next Ten Years published in 1969. His predictions are spot-on! Like this one:

Up the Leopold

My 1955 novel (more on that soon!) features pigeons on the roof of the Leopold and a mysterious poet asleep on the 4th floor.