Is Lee the Next American Idol?

Fox American Idol Photo

Lee DeWyze really sang well tonight. I have liked him from the beginning of the season and actually hope he will be the winner. I like Crystal, also, and the duet they sang last week was excellent. And I assume they will have the opportunty to record together, as they both are excellent. Her voice is very unique.

So I am voting...still have more than an hour left. I have believed for several weeks that the final two would be Lee and Crystal.



Time will tell...Casey is popular, too...



Who do you think will win?

~Linda

Mary Higgins Clark, Author of Suspense

“An education is the best gift a parent can give a child.” ~Mary Higgins Clark, Author

Best-selling suspense author, Mary Higgins Clark has released her new book, The Shadow of Your Smile. In this first short video she speaks of the inspiration for her story, and in the second, she offers advice to aspiring writers. In the third video she talks about her book, I Heard That Song Before, a psychological thriller. She reveals in these videos how she comes up with her ideas for her stories. Very interesting.

This weekend, the 82 year-old author spoke at the commencement exercise at Mount Saint Mary College, a private, liberal arts 4-year college located in Newburgh, in the Hudson Valley area of New York. She received an honorary degree, adding another to the many she has been given. She had graduated from Fordham University at about the age of 50 after attending night classes for six years and five of her own children graduated from college and two with law degrees.

She told the nearly 700 graduating students: “Make your story something more than a best-seller. Write it so it becomes a classic.”

How well she knows. She has sold over 100 million books and has won many awards. I read about her life at Wikipedia and her earlier life had been difficult in some ways and I would imagine her memoir, Kitchen Privileges, would be a good read. She will be appearing later this month at the Book Expo in New York.








~Linda

Novelist Barry Eisler and INSIDE OUT

Novelist Barry Eisler has a new thriller, INSIDE OUT, coming out next month, and with his personal background and political interests this should be a great read. It’s all about torture, government cover-ups, a mixture of fiction and reality, written by someone in the know, who for three years was in a covert position with the CIA’s Directorate of Operations, and is a lawyer. He also blogs often about civil liberties and torture.

In the first video he reads one of his sex scenes...(language warning for tender ears)

and in the second video he tells us why he wrote the story.

Guess we need to buy his book! I may buy the audio recording...

The book, audio, and Kindle editions are available at Amazon for preorder. It will be out in late June. It’s getting great professional reviews, take a look.









My previous post about Barry


~Linda

Novel Writing Guide by Jon Guenther

"HEY, DID YOU HEAR THE NEWS?"

Author Jon Guenther has a new blog for writers...aspiring writers...or those interesting in the art of writing...

Novel Writing Guide
Your ultimate guide to creating, writing and publishing a novel by Jon Guenther.

Take a look as he has some excellent comments and ideas--and this will be an ongoing series of instruction and information.

~Linda

Don Pendleton's Last Novel, Roulette

I see Amazon has dropped the price of my Kindle edition of our crime novel, Roulette by Don and Linda Pendleton. This turned out to be Don Pendleton's last novel. Also our first fiction collaboration. It's also available in paper at amazon and other online bookstores.

Review of Roulette: “Great story. I could hardly put it down. So real, so credible, a delightful page turner.” ~Ken M., California



Roulette by Don and Linda Pendleton

Husband and wife police detectives, both married more to the badge than each other, have inevitable conflict within their marriage and their careers are put to the test when a psychopathic killer invades their community.

In the early morning hour of a spring day, Helen Carter, twenty four-year-old housewife and mother of two small children, is awakened by a ski-masked intruder at her bedside. Paralyzed by fear, she works desperately to steel herself against the inevitable rape and harrowing attack that is already in progress. Helen Carter is to become only the first victim of the Sunrise Rapist. She is a very lucky young woman. Following the brutal attack of the second victim of the Sunrise Rapist, the perpetrator is immediately tagged the Sunrise Killer, and the quiet and peaceful community of San Remo, California, becomes a hotbed of fear and outrage.

The San Remo Police Department, already caught up in a difficult political climate, now has its hands full with a killer in their midst. Detective Rebecca Storm, the only woman in the detective bureau, and the sole member of the Sex Crimes Unit, finds that the Sunrise Killer will not only challenge her career, her marriage, but her very life.

Her husband, and fellow officer, veteran Detective Sergeant Peter Storm, already caught up in the infighting of the police department and city management, is drawn deeper into his career battles and challenges as the Sunrise Killer makes his appearance in San Remo.

What is ahead for the San Remo Police Department, and especially for two of its detectives, is many sleepless nights as the Sunrise Killer increases his maniacal assault on the innocent women and children of San Remo. But the killer’s reach goes far beyond his actual victims and their families. The lives of those dedicated to preserving peace within the city and pursuing the serial killer are challenged to the limits, both in their personal lives and in their professional careers.

The story is fast-moving, often riveting, often disturbing, as the cops are repeatedly challenged by a psychotic serial killer who has them all in his grip.

Copyright © 2010 by Linda Pendleton.

New Book by Susan Boyle Coming Soon

Coming this fall, the autobiography, The Woman I was Born to Be by Susan Boyle.

Boyle said: "When I strutted onto the stage for that audition, I was a scared wee lassie, still grieving for my mother, not caring how I looked. I think I’ve grown up a lot in the last year, become more of a lady, and I’m not so frightened anymore.

"I’m writing this book to try to show that you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, and I hope it will benefit other people. My story demonstrates that you shouldn’t just look at the label, you should look at the whole person, emotionally, physically, mentally and spiritually, and I hope that telling it will show that dreams are not impossible, if you’ve got courage and a willingness to go on no matter what the circumstances."

Gay rights and Patient Rights

SUBJECT: Respecting the Rights of Hospital Patients to Receive Visitors and to Designate Surrogate Decision Makers for Medical Emergencies

Today President Obama issued an important memorandum concerning hospital visitation rights and medical directives. In some ways, it could be considered historic, giving not only patients the respect and honor to their decisions, but to give gays and lesbian couples and unmarried heterosexual couples visitation rights that have either been denied, or could be denied. It's all about equality....

“Every day, all across America, patients are denied the kindness and caring of a loved one at their sides,” Mr. Obama said in the memorandum to the Secretary of Health and Human Services, adding that the rules could also help widows and widowers who rely on friends and members of religious orders who care for one another. But he says gay men and lesbians are “uniquely affected” because they are often barred from visiting partners with whom they have spent decades.

Hopefully our President’s memorandum will make the necessary changes to the law concerning hospital care and it appears it will have to be honored by any hospitals participating in Medicare and Medicaid. And it should be that that participating hospitals may not deny visitation privileges on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability.

This could affect thousands of people so hopefully it will move forward quickly.

Have any of you ever had a problem with visitation of love one or fear of being denied visitation or the acceptance of a directive?

Read the President’s memorandum here.

Mystery writer, Sue Grafton Interview

Mystery writer, Sue Grafton, has had a very successful run with her Kinsey Millhone series of novels. Known as the alphabet mysteries,"A" is for Alibi, “B” is for Burglar,” and so on up until "U is for Undertow" her December 2009 book, Grafton has continued to put out a good book with each story. I personally have not read them all, but did read a few of the early alphabet.

I did hear her speak at a mystery writers luncheon some years back and very much enjoyed her talk. Thinking back it may have been in the very late 1980s. At that time her series was fairly new as the first book was published in 1983—but even so, she was already an international best-selling author.

In this recent interview here from Borders, she addresses the reason she is not interested in her books becoming films, and many writers often hold her view on that. And Grafton is even more in the “know” as she worked in Hollywood on films for fifteen years.

Enjoy...





~Linda

Don Pendleton's "Heart to Heart" Novel

Don Pendleton’s fifth Ashton Ford novel, Heart to Heart, is now available at Kindle.

I have enjoyed again reading and getting Ashton Ford ready for Kindle. Don was able to explore metaphysical ideas and the paranormal with his Ashton Ford character.

Don Pendleton wrote this for his readers about his Ashton Ford, Psychic Detective series:

"Through this character I attempt to understand more fully and to give better meaning to my perceptions of what is going on here on Planet Earth, and the greatest mystery of all the mysteries: the why of existence itself. Through Ford I use everything I can reach in the total knowledge of mankind to elaborate this mystery and to arm my characters for the quest. I try to entertain myself with their adventures, hoping that what entertains me may also entertain others–so these books, like life itself, are not all grim purpose and trembling truths. They are fun to write; for some they will be fun to read."

Heart to Heart, is an adventure that Ashton Ford never intended to share because it involved many tender depths of his own heart. It all started with the sudden appearance of a gentleman reported to have died over 150 years ago—and a mind-blowing mystery high above the sea in Laguna Beach, California. There, in a magnificent mansion, Ford finds himself surrounded by luxurious comfort and the flesh and blood “ghosts” of people from the past. Ford’s keen and awesome talents must now pierce the secret of the mansion, while his heart, at the mercy of an ageless and beautiful sculptress, follows a dangerous path of its own.

For Ford, his beliefs about reincarnation and reality would never be the same as he sees into the past, and sometimes, into your heart as well as his own.


Soon, I will have the sixth Ashton Ford book, Time to Time ready for Kindle.

Read about the other books in the series, here and here.

~Linda

Don Pendleton's Psychic Detective Series of Novels

Private Investigator Ashton Ford has special powers, powers that some call supernatural. A former naval intelligence officer, highly knowledgeable in cryptology and philosophy, Ford will shatter your ideas of reality and take you into a mystical world of vision, intuition, and psychic truth. A phenomenal psychic, unparalleled lover, and a true Renaissance man, Ashton Ford can see into the future and even into the distant past using his psychic powers to assist special clients who are in crisis.


Eye to Eye:
In the second book of the Ashton Ford series, Eye to Eye, the most brilliant astronomers and space scientists of the United States and Russia have mysteriously vanished and officials of both countries are frantically searching for answers. Under the shadow of the world's largest telescope, tailed by agents, and with a lovely lady scientist's life in peril, Ashton Ford takes on the most baffling case of his life, and one that will offer him glimpses into worlds that not even he has ever seen.

Mind to Mind:
In this third book of Don Pendleton’s Ashton Ford, Psychic Detective series of novels, what intrigued Ashton Ford about this sadistically brutal "Jane Doe" case was that there were no clues except a few satanic symbols. The silent, mysterious beauty of the woman, why someone wanted her dead, or why the entire left hemisphere of her brain had been surgically removed, leaving her mute and helpless is the central mystery to be solved. It was the toughest case of Ford's career to reach that silent mind with his own and combat the evils of a deadly sex cult and the mysterious beings who threatened her life. In the bargain, he had to discover from which dimension of time and space these mysterious beings emanate. Many of his answers come to him in Ojai, a small community in the mountains not far removed from Los Angeles, a place always thought to be a paradise, that is, until that image of an enchanted place is shattered by paranormal images that defy explanation.

Life to Life:
In Don Pendleton’s fourth novel of the Ashton Ford, Psychic Detective series, Life to Life, Ashton Ford discovers his sense of an orderly universe is threatened by ideas of spirit communication and past lives.

Reverend Annie was a powerful, stunningly beautiful psychic who gave spiritual guidance to thousands of troubled souls and was preparing to extend her ministry throughout the world. But when her family and followers began dying in mysterious, horrifying ways, she had to call on Ford to discover the truth behind their deaths. Soon, Ford found that the lovely reverend was the center of a centuries-old mystical group now threatened by malevolent and divisive forces. Ford had to wage a cosmic battle in a shadowy realm of the unreal and the unearthly–a world that challenges all that we know.

Now at

Kindle: Heart to Heart and Time to Time.
Read about the first Ashton Ford book, Ashes to Ashes.

All six of the Ashton Ford books are available in paper, AND NOW ALL AT KINDLE editions. Coming later this spring, there will be new editions in tradepaper of Don Pendleton's Joe Copp Private Eye series and the Ashton Ford Psychic Detective series with these new covers designed by Linda Pendleton and Judy Bullard.

If you are looking for someone to design your Kindle, POD, covers contact Judy.

Read about Ashes to Ashes , the first Asthon Ford book.

Read about my novel, both in Kindle and tradepaper, Shattered Lens: Catherine Winter, Private Investigator, and I love the reviews I've received.

All six of Don Pendleton's Joe Copp, Private Eye Thrillers are also now Kindles.

I have put a number of our books into Kindle format and I don't have a Kindle yet!--but I have heard people who have a Kindle, love it.

~Linda

Don Pendleton's Ashton Ford, Psychic Detective Series

“Ashton Ford is a spectacular character...” ~Booklist

Now on Kindle, in addition to print.

Meet Ashton Ford...Psychic Detective...

Private Investigator Ashton Ford has special powers, powers that some call supernatural. A former naval intelligence officer, highly knowledgeable in cryptology and philosophy, Ford will shatter your ideas of reality and take you into a mystical world of vision, intuition, and psychic truth. A phenomenal psychic, unparalleled lover, and a true Renaissance man, Ashton Ford can see into the future and even into the distant past using his psychic powers to assist special clients who are in crisis.

In this first book of Don Pendleton’s six book series, Ashes to Ashes, Ashton Ford is hired by a beautiful and vulnerable heiress in need of a sexual surrogate. Ignoring danger signals, Ford cannot resist the chance to aid the distressed woman, but soon finds he is faced with more than he bargained for. In his search for justice, he is plunged into a world of untold dangers, including murder and mayhem, ghosts and apparitions, and splintered reality.

Don Pendleton wrote this about his Ashton Ford novels: "Through this character I attempt to understand more fully and to give better meaning to my perceptions of what is going on here on Planet Earth, and the greatest mystery of all the mysteries: the why of existence itself. Through Ford I use everything I can reach in the total knowledge of mankind to elaborate this mystery and to arm my characters for the quest. I try to entertain myself with their adventures, hoping that what entertains me may also entertain others–so these books, like life itself, are not all grim purpose and trembling truths. They are fun to write; for some they will be fun to read."

All titles to be at Kindle soon.
Titles in the Ashton Ford, Psychic Detective Series: Ashes to Ashes; Eye to Eye; Mind to Mind; Life to Life; Heart to Heart; Time to Time.

Don Pendleton's (Joe) Copp on Fire, Now at Kindle

"Pendleton emphasizes fast-moving, gritty action."
–Library Journal

All six novels of Don Pendleton's Joe Copp Mystery Trillers are now available at Amazon's Kindle.

The last one to become available is Copp on Fire:

From Hollywood's corporate halls to the famous back-lots, Private Investigator, Joe Copp acts his way through someone else's script until he's face to face with the ruthless star of the whole bloody show. Copp writes his own script and turns the production on its head in his search for truth and justice.

The Joe Copp series is also available as trade paper.

Don Pendleton is creator of The Executioner, Mack Bolan series of action/adventure and is known as "the father of the action/adventure literary genre.

He is also known for the phrase "Live Large!" --a theme of his Mack Bolan character. The Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang, Volume II (H-O) gives derivation credit for "live large" to Don Pendleton and his Executioner Series.

Typical of Don Pendleton's writing style, the Joe Copp stories are hard-hitting, fast-moving, gritty, filled with authentic dialogue, and capture keen insight into the inner-workings of the characters.

~Linda

Don Pendleton's Joe Copp Mystery Series Now At Kindle

The Joe Copp Mystery Series by Don Pendleton
Featuring Southern California Hard-Boiled Private Investigator, Joe Copp.

Now Available for Kindle at amazon.com

Reviews of the original hardcover editions of the six Joe Copp Thrillers

“Pendleton has a great new character in Copp. His style is fresh, the pace is brisk, and there are enough twists to please any mystery fan.” ~St. Petersburg Times

“This Joe Copp adventure reads like an express train. A throwback to the vintage Spillane era, Pendleton knows how to keep us turning the pages.”~Publishers Weekly

“Pendleton proves again he is the equal of Mickey Spillane when it comes to the hard-boiled mystery.”~Flint Journal

“Pendleton, author of the long-running paperback Executioner series, shows in his first hardcover that hardboiled writing can be insightful as well as action-packed.”~Library Journal

“Pendleton is a master of action and dialog and ‘Copp’ is a taut detective story.” ~Milwaukee Sentinel

“A roller coaster ride of mayhem, murder...rollicking fun.”-Publishers Weekly

“Gripping...Riveting.”~Publishers Weekly

“Pendleton deserves his popularity...A real whiz-bang of a story.”~Associated Press

“Action filled...Copp is a likable tough guy...An exciting, satisfying read.”~Booklist

“A fast-moving, even blurring, story of murder behind the floodlights.”~Book World

“Pendleton, author of the highly successful The Executioner series, knows how to write high adventure tales, and Copp In Deep is just that. Good reading!” ~Abilene Reporter-News

“...this mystery with a twist...unveiled in a riveting resolution.” ~Publishers Weekly


Copp For Hire, the first of the Joe Copp, Private Eye thrillers, is a high tension, fast-moving story all the way, with Copp always in the eye of the storm and about to be engulfed in it at any moment. Characteristic of Don Pendleton’s stories, the hero is never passively involved but is the catalyst for action in straight-ahead, hard-hitting pursuit of solutions, although forever at the point of being overwhelmed by the developing situations. This is classic hardboiled detective fare, and Pendleton is a master of the form.

Copp On Ice: Don Pendleton’s Private Eye, Joe Copp, takes on the world of corruption within a sprawling community in Southern California.

Copp In Deep: In a fast-moving adventure filled with high tension and intrigue, Don Pendleton’s ex-cop turned Private Eye, Joe Copp, sinks into a world of greed and corporate corruption, treason, professional sex, and murder on demand.

Copp In The Dark: Don Pendleton plunges his private eye character, Joe Copp into the dark shadows and lower depths of legitimate theater in this fast-moving story.

Copp In Shock: Private Investigator Joe Copp finds himself recovering from a bout of partial amnesia after being nearly blown away with his own gun. A woman is dead, and Copp’s riveting search for answers leads him from Los Angeles to Mammoth Lakes mountain resort where, in his darkest hour, he is in a fierce battle with his own mind and with those who want to eliminate him.

Coming soon to Kindle, Copp on Fire by Don Pendleton.

Don Pendleton is creator of the original The Executioner: Mack Bolan Series of Action/Adventure novels and is considered the "father of the Action/Adventure" literary genre.

The novels are also available in tradepaper.

Reviews of PI Novel, Shattered Lens by Linda Pendleton

Amazon.com (temporarily) has lowered the price on my novel, Shattered Lens: Catherine Winter, Private Investigator!

I’m pleased at the response I am getting from readers about my book. When the manuscript was completed, my friend, Richard S. Prather had asked to read it. The late Richard S. Prather was a best-selling author for many years. He wrote the Shell Scott Mystery Series of forty books, very popular during the 1950s through the 1970s, with the last two Shell Scott novels published in 1986 and 1987. Not too long ago, one of his non Shell Scott books was re-issued by Hard Case Crime. I’m involved with his estate in marketing his very last manuscript, The Death Gods.

So when Prather asked to read my book I was a little anxious because he was a stickler for pacing and especially for plot. And any critique from him was valuable, very much in the same way it would have been from my late husband, Don Pendleton, and from several other well-seasoned writers.

Well, Richard loved the book and loved my character, Catherine Winter. He gave me this endorsement, “Linda Pendleton’s first private-eye novel is a brilliant debut.” He said many good things about my book and also encouraged me to write a Catherine Winter series. At that time I did not think I would write a second book.

I know Don could pick up any book and read less than a page and say whether the author was a good writer or not. I’m not sure that I can do that in reading a page of someone’s work unless it happens to be so badly written that it falls apart at first sight.

Another friend, author Jon Guenther, who has written about thirty books now, most being Don Pendleton’s Executioners and spin-off Stony Man novels, and his most recent book, Soul Runner, wrote two great reviews—one he put up at Amazon.com and the other he posted to his blog. I was thrilled with what he said about Shattered Lens.

I think you may see why....

“The hardcore mystery makes a come-back! Too many mysteries these days are little more than watered-down thrillers. At last, a whodunit in the spirit of a Sherlock Holmes mystery has returned. Linda Pendleton busts out of the gate with her first novel of licensed private investigator Catherine Winter. Winter picks up a young girl for a client--a young girl wrapped up in the glitz, drugs, and porn of Hollywood life--who shortly thereafter winds up dead. And the list of suspects is neither short nor usual.

“What makes the book so pleasurable to read outside of the brisk pace is that nothing comes easy for Winter. She has to "earn" it in the same way that Linda has earned her right to sit at the top with today's other crime writers. The inside look at Hollywood and surrounding areas rings with authenticity. As a writer, I've often been disappointed in a lot of mysteries on the shelf but I knocked this one out in no time at all. Yeah, it was just that easy. Part police procedural, part hardboiled, and all entertaining, this one's a keeper.” ~Jon Guenther, Author, Soul Runner

Here is a review from a reader:

“Great! Another page turner I couldn't put down from Linda Pendleton. I really enjoyed the main character, Catherine Winter, Private Investigator. Interesting, no nonsense, but fun, well rounded older gal. She is just as interesting and sexy as the younger ones.

“She's also a great detective. Meets up with some interesting characters to solve this crime of murder. Of course things are never as easy or clear as they seem at first. Twists and turns, a new clue, a new character, you never know what's coming. You will definitely enjoy this one.” ~Anne Boss

Amazon does not seem to tell us authors how long our book may be listed on sale but apparently from what Amazon has told me, the periodically reduce prices, and in this case my book is now reduced more than $4.00. So you can now pick it up in tradepaper back for the sales price $10.76...and for you Kindle readers, it is $8.95.

Thanks to those of you who have read it—and I love getting the great comments and reviews! It is becasue of the response I have received that I decided to write a second Catherine Winter...and hopefully it will be completed over the next few weeks.

I’ve been away from writing the story for the last week or more as I’ve been busy formatting five of Don Pendleton’s Joe Copp Private Eye novels for Kindle. More about those soon.

~Linda

Hollywood Blacklist 1947-1950s

“How can you write if you can’t cry?” ~Ring Lardner 1885 – 1933), American sports columnist, short story writer, known for his humor and satire.

When I first saw this quote I had believed it to be the Ring Lardner who had been one of the Hollywood Ten, the Blacklisted screenwriters and entertainers of the Senator Joseph McCarthy era—the House Un-American Activities Committee. But that person was screenwriter, Ring Lardner Jr., son of Ring Lardner.

More than 300 artists—including screenwriters, directors, actors, and others in the entertainment industry were blacklisted by the studios.

I’m reminded I did met a few of those writers who had been blacklisted and had their careers affected by having to testify before the Committee. Of those were film and TV screenwriters, Alfred Levitt, who appeared before the committee in 1951, and his wife Helen Slote Levitt. For nearly twenty years following the Committee appearance, they were forced to write under the pseudonyms of Tom August and Helen August. Beginning in 1988, Levitt led an effort through the Writers' Guild to correct film credits from the blacklist era, in which it became common for the work of blacklisted writers to be uncredited, or credited using pseudonyms. Numerous films have now been correctly credited due to the efforts that Alfred Levitt led.

In 1995, Alfred and Helen Levitt were awarded The Morgan Cox Award by the Writers Guild, presented to that member or group of members whose vital ideas, continuing efforts and personal sacrifice best exemplify the ideal of service to the guild.

Helen passed away in 1993 and Alfred in 2002. They were a very nice couple.

~Linda

Gen. Colin Powell on Gays in the Military

Retired General Colin L. Powell, former Secretary of State, now, 17 years later, states the "don't ask, don't tell" restrictive legislation should be repealed.

"Attitudes and circumstances have changed," Powell said. "It's been a whole generation" since the legislation was adopted, and there is increased "acceptance of gays and lesbians in society," he said. "Society is always reflected in the military. It's where we get our soldiers from." He also stated, "we've had a lot of experience watching what other nations have done."

It would have been nice if he could have come to this conclusion 17 years ago when I wrote him, along with lots of other citizens, in hopes of changing his military mind to “allow” gays to serve our country.

It is long over due. And now Gates thinks it has be “reviewed for a year.” Why? There have always been gays in the military.

We all know that. Don’t they?

~Linda

Joseph Wambaugh, Master of the Police Procedural

A former detective sergeant in the Los Angeles Police Department, Joseph Wambaugh is considered the master of the police procedural. In fact, in 2004, he was named Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America. He has written numerous best-selling novels and nonfiction, including The Onion Field.

I read several of his early books, including the nonfiction, The Onion Field, but have to admit I have not taken time to read many his later ones.

On his website under his first book, The New Centurions, he has these words:

“The New Centurions is fiction, but everything in it is real.
The New Centurions: a novel about policemen by a policeman. Tough, but compassionate, it’ll make you understand--perhaps for the first time--what it’s really like to be a cop.”

That was in 1971 when I read The New Centurions and at that time I was happily married to a Southern California cop, raising our family. And because I was a cop’s wife, I found the book to be upsetting despite the fact the work was one of fiction—and well written. Too much of it was too real and threatening to a young cop’s young wife. It was like a disturbing look behind the scenes of what often went on in a cop’s life, and what happened on the streets of Los Angeles. Down and dirty, dark and ugly, dangerous and risky. Just the sort of things you want to think about every time your husband puts on his uniform, his gun belt and badge, and goes to work, day shift, or night shift, and sometimes a different shift nearly daily, and all the while you tend to your young children, pretending that all is really going to be okay. I had been a cop’s wife for about six years at that point. He became a reserve police officer in our third year of marriage and then a full time officer two years later. He was a patrolman, a detective, a Lieutenant, a Captain, and retired out after nearly 30 years. Also at times he was Acting Chief. We had been divorced a few years before his retirement after 25 years of marriage.

I had enough exposure to the police life in a small Southern California department only miles away from Los Angeles, that I often did not like what I saw happening with the officers and their families. A lot of marriages within the department were falling apart. For some, drinking became a problem, and for others, job stress led to emotional problems, including abuse.

But all of what I did experience during those early years of my first marriage actually gave me some great "fictional" material to use in my writing. I know when my late husband, Don Pendleton and I wrote Roulette, (a story about husband and wife cops in Southern California who are faced with a serial killer invading their community) some of my “cop” knowledge was invaluable and I believe those years were also helpful in writing Shattered Lens with my PI character, Catherine Winter, set in Los Angeles and Hollywood. I’m currently working on a second Catherine Winter novel.

So possibly you can understand how the “reality” of Joseph Wambaugh’s books could be a little unsettling to any police wife. Living in Southern California, already having the Watts Riot and a few other similar situations that happened in our “neighborhood,” it only re-enforced the reality of Wambaugh’s writing, the reality of a cop’s life on the streets, and even the political influences that had to be dealt with. I wanted to read Wambaugh’s books, but then again, a part of me did not.

Those early books, The New Centurions, The Blue Knight, The Choir Boys, and others, were discussed heavily among our social group of cops and wives. From what I recall, the wives thought a little differently about the stories than the men did. I say men, because at that time I believe we only had one police woman, a detective, on the department. Any other females within the department were civilian employees, such as dispatchers or secretaries.

Wambaugh refers to his books as police dramas. That they are. His latest books are a trilogy: Hollywood Station, Hollywood Crows, and Hollywood Moon.

Watch an inteview of Joseph Wambaugh by Keith Rawson, December 10th, 2009


~Linda

Publishing Industry Magazine

I have subscribed to the publishing industry magazine Publishers Weekly since 1985, and my husband had subscribed for several years prior to that.

But this year I do not plan to renew my subscription because it is expensive and the magazine has been cut down to 52 pages, and not worth the price in my mind. I’m going to miss it as I have read it over those twenty five years with the exception of two or three months. The print subscription is $250 bucks, well actually 51 issues for $249.99. Even the online subscription is close to $200 bucks. I can get 48 weekly issues of TV Guide for $20 and receive an additional 8 copies...yes 56 issues all for $20. Big, big difference.

I’m disappointed with Publishers Weekly magazine. In January 2009, Editor in Chief, Sara Nelson was laid off and four other staffers lost their positions as Reed Business Information restructured. Reed owns Variety and I understand there were heavy layoffs there, also. I don’t currently subscribe to Variety so not sure what impact that has had on the movie industry magazine.

Prior to 2005, the former Editor in Chief of PW had been there twelve years. I’ve not liked the changes to format that have gone on, and I do not like the lack of content in the current magazines. Even the advertising from publishers has been different. Maybe because the whole industry is in a “downturn” and not spending a lot on advertising, I would guess.

Hmm, could be even more reason for writers to self publish? Amazon’s Create Space and Kindle sounds more inviting every day to authors. Especially with all the cutbacks at publishers and then apparently agents not wanting to take on much, possibly assuming books are hard to sell right now.

I did notice that nonfiction sales (which are usually very good) came down a bit and fiction went up in 2009. Nielsen BookScan gave figures for sales in 2009 and adult nonfiction was down minus –6.4 %, and adult fiction was up 0.5 %. Both juvenile nonfiction and fiction were down a little, at -0.2 % and -0.6%. Consumers also went for trade paperbacks over hardcovers, a little more than 2 to 1. Hardly a surprise with hardcover prices as high as they are.

But it shouldn’t be much of a surprise in today’s world that fiction sales are up. People want an escape and good fiction will do just that. We can escape into the world of fictional characters and "ride along" with them as the story unfolds, and be entertained, freeing us of stress, and worry. Sounds good, doesn't it?

~Linda

Elvis Presley...75

He’d be 75 years old. January 8, 1935.....the day Elvis Presley was born.

It is hard to believe all those years have passed since Elvis first sang Heartbreak Hotel in 1956, and long after his movie, Love Me Tender, hit the theatres. Tends to make one feel old!

A Sacramento radio station announced today they are changing their music format, beginning at 6:00 AM, Friday, January 8, 2010, and they will feature Elvis for the day.
K-Hits 92.1 FM "All Elvis, All Day" will debut Friday at 6 a.m., according to the station.

I have written about Elvis before, HERE and HERE.

~Linda

No Boundaries on Planet Earth

© Copyright 2010 by Ted Grussing

On Tuesday, January 5, 2010 my friend, Ted Grussing took to the air from the Sedona, Arizona airport and flew over Marble Canyon/Grand Canyon and the lava flow from SP Crater, one of several cinder cones in the area of the San Francisco Peaks volcano field, about 25 miles north of Flagstaff, Arizona. A cinder cone is a steep conical hill of volcanic fragments that accumulate around and downwind from a volcanic vent. The SP crater is said to have erupted 71,000 years ago. The lava field that flowed from the cone extends out more than four miles. The SP crater is approximately 800 feet tall and has a 400 foot deep crater. According to geologists, several of the cinder cones surrounding SP Crater are even older, indicated by the erosion they show.

© Copyright 2010 by Ted Grussing

In 1969, President Johnson made Marble Canyon a National Monument. The Grand Canyon was designated a Forest Reserve in 1893, and named a National Monument in1908, and in 1919 it became a National Park. Then in 1975 Marble Canyon became part of the Grand Canyon National Park. Grand Canyon National Park covers 1,218,375 acres. The Canyon, deeply cut by the Colorado River, is immense, averaging 4,000 feet deep for its entire 277 miles. It is 6,000 feet deep at its deepest point and 15 miles at its widest. The South Rim is 7000 feet above sea level, which means snow in winter and cool nights even in summer. Summer temperatures along the Colorado River at the Canyon bottom can reach 120º F., and the North Rim is 8000 feet above sea level and can receive snow a good part of the year.

Marble Canyon marks the western boundary of the Navajo Nation, and a few miles to the east is the Hopi Nation. Evidence of occupation of the Grand Canyon goes back more than 11,500 years, and archeologists and geologists have studied the area for decades. In 2008, archeologists excavated two sites along the Colorado River and one of the excavated sites has evidence of as many as six different human occupations over a time span of 3,500 years. The Park is also an ecological refuge, and home to numerous plant and animal species—1500 plant, 89 mammals, 47 reptile, 355 bird, 9 amphibian, and 17 fish species.

This view of the river and Canyon that Ted captured from his vantage point with his camera, shows the geological wonder that it is, even more so than standing on the rim observing from that perspective.

Ted’s flight was obviously on a beautiful day, yesterday, to have captured such sights with his camera. This is what he wrote about his photographs:

“The flight north [from Sedona Airport] to the confluence of the Little Colorado River and the Colorado River and the landscapes were beyond belief with the snow highlighting variations in the texture of the earth. The water was running a beautiful turquoise blue the last several miles of the Little Colorado River and the Colorado was running green as usual; except for a portion of the river upstream from the confluence in Marble Canyon and there due to lighting conditions it was a bluish color with reddish reflections from the canyon walls in it. The shot was taken from 10,800’ over the Confluence looking upriver. The confluence is where going upstream the canyon is denominated as Marble Canyon and downstream the Grand Canyon. There are no such boundaries visible from the air and the canyons are simply one canyon broken into two for whatever reason. That is one of the beauties of flight; you get to see the earth with no boundaries or property lines of any kind; it is simply the surface of planet earth.”

“The SP photo is the polite name for a crater that geologists gave another name to. The lava flow which appears to be several hundred feet high trails from the volcanic crater base down to the lower left of the photo. You can also see the fields of volcanic craters everywhere on the landscape ahead of us. The San Francisco peaks are upper left. The air was uncommonly stable.”

Visit Ted’s website to see more of his photography.

~Linda