Literary manager | Producer | Ken Atchity

The Bruce Collins Show- “The Lost Interviews”- Part 2- Guest: Dennis M. Walsh, “Nobody Walks: Bringing My Brother’s Killers to Justice”

2013-05-25T00:00:00.001-07:00

“Walsh’s is a storyteller and the story he’s telling is as compelling as any police procedural with its unraveling of family secrets and lies.”
—Criminal Element

“Every once in a great while, a true crime is written that pulls at the heartstrings, while it also provides a tale of suspense that will be remembered for a good long time. This is that story.”
—Suspense Magazine

“Walsh, a criminal defense attorney for 30 years, tells the blistering true story of the 2003 murder of one of his brothers, Christopher, who was discovered in a trash barrel in a California storage locker. Despite law enforcement’s reluctance to pursue the case since the author’s father and younger brother were in prison on drug charges, Walsh shoulders the burden and delves into the nadir of the criminal underworld, quizzing thieves, skinheads, Nazi bikers, hookers, and porn queens to construct something meaningful from various lies and schemes. Good leads dead-end and seemingly ironclad confessions crumble, but the author’s resourcefulness and determination to catch his brother’s killers keep this sordid tale moving along at a quick clip. Walsh keeps his law practice operating throughout the ordeal, but still finds time to persuade reluctant witnesses to offer their testimony and cooperate with authorities; after four years of sleuthing, the trial finally begins. The hearing is a real corker, chock-full of twists and turns, and written with passion and an eye for drama. Taut and relentless, this chronicle of a former cold case puts one man’s resolve and the American idea of justice to the test.”
—Publishers Weekly

“Pulpy, engrossing account…Walsh captures the arc of his family’s involvement in an act of senseless malice, calling into question the cultural endurance of macho violence within certain subcultures and the difficulty of holding men responsible for horrific acts within the legal system’s overtaxed framework. Gritty, effective, personalized tale of the outlaw lifestyle and its consequences.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“Nobody Walks is a triumph, a grimly fascinating true tale of one street-wise criminal defense attorney’s quest for justice in the brutal murder of his brother. Dennis Walsh’s tireless four year odyssey plunged him headlong into an underworld populated by dopers, porn stars and gangsters and culminated in an explosive courtroom drama and the arrests of hundreds. Walsh’s captivating style engages, inspires and unnerves as he lends new meaning to the term ‘brotherly love.’”
—Kerrie Droban, author of Running with the Devil and A Socialite Scorned and co-author of Prodigal Father, Pagan Son

DENNIS WALSH has been a practicing criminal defense attorney for thirty years. Walsh was drafted in 1972 while he attended CSUN and joined the Navy. Upon returning home he received his BA from CSUN and went on to graduate from the University of Santa Clara School of Law. Walsh lives in California.

BRUCE COLLINS is a former pro wrestling promoter, an author of three published books (one of them with Brett Wagner, the host of The Speed Channel’s PASS TIME and voice of Monster Garage and another book with Ric Drasin, the middle Hulk in the 1970’s Incredible Hulk tv show with Bill Bixby and the creator of the Gold’s Gym logo) and the former book reviewer of Monster Radio, which was nationally syndicated in 84 radio markets. Bruce has hosted The Bruce Collins Show (and its’ genesis known as The Big Finale) since January, 2006. The Bruce Collins Show graduated to AM radio in 2009 and spent two years broadcasting at WSMN 1590 AM in Nashua, New Hampshire and WWZN 1510 AM in Boston, MA. Currently, the program resides online at www.fringeradionetwork.com . Based on the AM radio exposure, he was approached by the History Channel’s Decoded TV (with bestselling author Brad Meltzer) to audition for their program. After learning he would have to interview occultists and numerologists without expressing his own opinions, he turned down the invitation. Bruce is the self-proclaimed Baron of Broadcasting.

Izumi Watanabe--Japanese vocalist Sees Her Own Voice

2013-05-25T00:00:00.000-07:00

Blogcritics Reviews How to Quit your Day Job and Live Out Your Dreams

2013-05-24T00:00:00.001-07:00

Are you in an unsatisfying job and would like to get out of your current line of work? Do you want to transition from a job that is secure but soulless, from a life that is created by others to one that is created by you which allows you to follow your creative dreams? If you do, this book is for you.

Kenneth Atchity was also in a job he despised. He was a tenured professor. He should have been on top of his game and happy. He had security, and everything he wanted financially. But he was still fundamentally unhappy because he felt drained and didn’t feel as if he was fulfilling his creative purposes in life. How sad? He always wanted to be a story merchant and film producer. Then one day he dared to take the necessary steps to make his dreams come through. And this is how the idea for this book was born.

Kenneth Atchity’s book is for everyone who feels that their creativity has been squelched at their current line of work. How to Quit Your Day Job and Live Your Dreams will show the reader how to create a personal vision and recreate your life so that it fulfilling your vision, face negative peer pressure, identify and control conflicting inner voices, redefine what it means to live successfully for yourselves, steal time to make your dreams come true, and a lot more. The book is full of advice for the person who is still working at a dead end job and wants to take fruitful steps to get out. Kenneth Atchity shows the reader how to do this through consistent planning, a bit of hard work, and perseverance.

The good news is that we can all reclaim our lives, and we don’t have to stay in dead end jobs for the rest of our lives and live unhappy and unfulfilled days. We can be bold and recreate our lives so that they are what we want them to be. So, if you want your life to change for the better, pick Kenneth Atchity’s book today and get ready to transform your life one step at a time.

Let Story Merchant Books turn your script into a novel!

2013-05-22T00:00:00.001-07:00

Script Lit Turns Unused Screenplays Into e-Novellas

Looking to transform Hollywood’s pile of unproduced scripts into publishable e-books, James West, a motion-picture industry entrepreneur, has launched Script Lit. The company licenses optioned, but never produced, scripts, to turn them into commercial fiction. At the end of April, Script Lit released its first e-book novella—Mom of the Year by screenwriter Denise Pischinger—and plans to offer three more titles later this year. It’s no secret that Hollywood studios option a lot of scripts that never become movies—scripts that may be quite good but are victimized by bad timing or arbitrary decisions of the studio, West said. West has been making his pitch to Hollywood studios since last fall, asking them to give him access to their scripts and hoping to sell the studios on the potential for finding bestsellers in an otherwise inert mound of content. “There are compelling stories in these scripts. The studios love the idea,” he said, though he acknowledged that some have been slow to act, adding, “there’s a lot of legal stuff to go through.”

Mom of the Year is the story of a 30-something woman who gets into a battle with another mother in her school volunteer group. The book is available for sale at all major e-tailers, and right now, Script Lit is offering a free download of the title. The company is also publishing Ambrose Fountain by Brian Sieve, due out in June, the story of an ordinary guy who comes to believe that a fountain on his property can grant wishes; and The Enders by Rich Farrell, slated for August, about five people in different countries and their reaction to the news that the world is ending.

West said he has been looking to partner with traditional book publishers. His original plan was to get access to the scripts through a studio, pick the best unproduced content, and act as a kind of “producer,” while working with a New York publisher to secure a ghostwriter, edit, and publish the book. West met with “most of the Big Six,” who he said have been “overwhelmingly positive” but also reluctant to act. (Although he said one publisher wanted to get involved but only if the script was also being produced as a movie—of course, if that were the case, West was quick to note, publishing wouldn’t be a problem.) “It will take a visionary publisher to do it this way,” he said.

So West decided to launch Script Lit and publish the books himself as e-book original novellas, with POD paperbacks to come. West said he licenses the rights to each script directly from the writer’s agent or manager and hires a ghostwriter to create a narrative context for the story. He noted that screenwriters aren’t necessarily novelists, so he’s put together a staff with two in-house novelists who have experience writing in a variety of commercial genres. “We keep all the script’s original dialogue in the book—the dialogue is important—and take the setting and tone, and I have a staff of writers enrich the story and turn it into literary and narrative prose.” He emphasized that the original screenwriter is credited as the book’s author.

“We typically offer the original screenwriter up to 50% of royalties,” West said, noting that his terms will likely change once he’s able to get an agreement with a conventional publisher, who may want to offer an advance or split royalties differently. “I always ensure that the original writers get the best deal possible,” he said, adding that Brian Sieve will get “a 50-50 split of all future royalties.”

Zach Tann, literary manager and partner at Magnet Management, which manages the careers of screenwriters, represents Sieve. Tann said, “It’s hard to sell a screenplay to the studios these days if it isn’t a huge franchise. There’s a lot of good material that isn’t known. So here’s a script that can be turned into an e-book and read. It seemed like a good way to get more attention, and there’s not a whole lot to lose.”

“I’m surprised this hasn’t been done before,” Tann added. “So many scripts are never sold, and they may be good. Selling to the studios is about timing, you may have a great script but it may be the wrong time.” He said that Sieve worked closely with West and his staff during the novelization of the script, providing them with notes and feedback. “At the very least a lot more people will get to actually read it.”

West, who is also cofounder of TitleDoctors, a firm that researches and provides marketable titles for films, said he’s offering free downloads of Mom of the Year and the book is getting some attention on Goodreads and Facebook, as well as generating good reader reviews on Amazon. He admitted that it was never his intention to become a publisher, emphasizing that “the goal is still to get the studios and conventional publishers involved in Script Lit.”

“Once these books hit their stride,” he said, “I’d like to go back to the studios and say, ‘See, we did it. Now, open your archives and let us see which scripts are bestsellers waiting to happen.’”

NOBODY WALKS' Dennis Walsh with prosecutor Stephanie Sparagna

2013-05-21T00:00:00.000-07:00

Deputy D.A. Stephanie Sparagna at the Biltmore Hotel where the LA County Bar Association named her and her co-counsel, Natalie Adomian, Prosecutors of the Year for their work in convicting a female CHP officer who had murdered her husband.

Raven Reviews Interview!

2013-05-20T00:00:00.003-07:00

Interview! Ken Atchity Discusses His Latest Book: The Messiah Matrix

Ok, I loved Dan Brown’s books. How sacrilegious, I know. And I call myself a Christian. To me, his books were nothing more than great fictional thrillers. It sparked a few conversations about “what if…” But, that’s it.

So, when I heard another book exists that rivals Dan Brown’s stories, I could not pass up the chance to meet the mind behind that one. Meet Ken Atchity!

Here are the interview highlights:

What’s the name of your most recent book? If you had to sum it up in 30 words or less, what would you say?

The Messiah Matrix, an iconoclastic thriller that questions the origins of Christianity when the lead characters converge to uncover a secret the Vatican has protected for over two millennia.

What has inspired you to write this book?

My childhood fascination with the parallels between the Roman Empire and the Roman Catholic Church.

Are you religious?

I’m definitely not religious, though I’m interested in the spiritual core and ritual of all religions. I’d call myself spiritual.

Have your religious views impacted this book (Messiah Matrix)? How?

My view of the dangers and damages of organized religion were a major impetus behind this book, which ends with a vision of how humanity can be spiritual without being fanatically organized.

How much of this book (Messiah Matrix) is fact vs. pure fiction?

That’s for the reader to decide. Anyone interested can request my long list of sources.

How has Dan Brown influenced your writing?

I decided to write this novel DESPITE its being similar to Dan Brown’s books, because I believe its premise is more revolutionary and thought-provoking than the premise of THE DA VINCI CODE, a book I admire.

Did you picture any specific real-life people when you created your characters?

I did have a person in mind for Emily Scelba, the heroine; and a few other characters as well. The most remarkable thing to report is that the book predicts not only a JESUIT pope but an ARGENTINE JESUIT pope. Don’t know what I was channeling at the time!

What was the oddest thing you ever had to research while writing?

Probably the diet of Caesar Augustus…

Who designed the cover on your book? (Who designs the covers on your books?)

A British designer designed the cover, James Reid. It rocks!

If you had to do it all over again, what would you change in your latest book?

I’d change the background on how Emily found an ancient Augustan aureus—and I may still do that.

How long does it usually take you to write a book?

It can range from a year to several. Messiah Matrix took about two years.

Do you have a day job? Family? How do you balance it all?

My day job is working with writers to develop their stories into books and films. A family? I’m married to a wonderful woman, and have two great children, and four grandchildren… How do make time to write? I prioritize it and keep my stopwatch running.

What are you reading now?

I’m reading Steve Job’s autobiography.

If you were shipwrecked on an island, what three books would you want with you?

Wow. Great question. Probably Moby Dick, Don Quixote, and the Odyssey.

If you could have any author as a mentor, who would it be and why?

I had a wonderful mentor in John Gardner (On Moral Fiction, Grendel, Nickel Mountain, etc.). If I could have another, it’d be Dan Brown because I love how he thinks.

Has there ever been a movie that you thought was better than the book?

Yes, Prince of Tides is one example, though I loved the book too; and Birdy.

What tips do you have for aspiring writers? What have you learned along the way?

I’ve learned the only rules are never give up, and go for it! Great things are accomplished only by writers who don’t quit no matter how hard everything becomes.

What’s next for you? Any current/future writing project?

Always. I’m finishing a book of quotes for writers, then will edit and publish my second book of poetry (the first appeared in 1978), then another book for writers. I’m not planning to write another novel until I find another great story.

MORE ABOUT KEN…

With more than forty years experience in the publishing world, and twenty years in entertainment, Dr. Ken Atchity is a self-defined “story merchant” - writer, producer, career coach, teacher, and literary manager, responsible for launching dozens of books and films. His life’s passion is finding great storytellers and turning them into bestselling authors and screenwriters. Ken has produced 30 films and 14 books.

ABOUT THE MESSIAH MATRIX:
First Jesuit Pope predicted in THE MESSIAH MATRIX!

To what lengths would the Vatican go to suppress the secret origins of its power? Current papal politics has made this thriller eerily prophetic! The Messiah Matrix is a myth-shattering novel whose protagonists delve into the secrets of the past—and expose the fundamentalists who hide them still.

A renowned scholar-monsignor is killed in Rome while a Roman coin is recovered from a wreck off the coast of ancient Judea. It’s up to his young American protégé—a Jesuit priest—and a vivacious, brilliant archaeologist to connect these seemingly disparate events and unravel the tapestry that conceals in plain view the greatest mystery in the ecclesiastical world. Together they pursue their passion for truth—while fighting to control their passion for each other. What they uncover is an ancient Roman imperial stratagem so controversial the Curia fears it could undermine the very foundations of the Roman Catholic faith—much like the secrets emerging from the Vatican in today’s news.

From the ancient port of Caesarea to Rome’s legendary catacombs and the sacred caves of Cumae, this contemporary novel follows their exhilarating quest to uncover the truth about the historical existence of the real “Christian Savior.”

BOOK LINKS:

Website
Amazon

Book Review: Dr Fuddle and the Gold Baton by Dr Warren L Woodruff by ajoobacats

2013-05-19T16:15:00.000-07:00

Description

When the dark musician Jedermann and his fierce Seirens of Dis gain control of the legendary Gold Baton, Tyler, his sister Christina, and their friends are drawn into a perilous adventure foretold by an ancient prophecy.

Guided by the mythical Dr. Fuddle, the explorers must leave earth and journey to Orphea. Will the Messengers of Music be able to save the world of the immortal composers from chaos and destruction? For them to have even a chance at victory, they must master the most difficult instruments of all—themselves.

Review

A delightful tale of good versus evil, by a music teacher, where the power of good is conveyed through classical music. This is a lovely book for children from the age of 10, who are advanced readers, the illustrations are lovely but I wish there were more.

It’s difficult conveying a story like this without actual music but Dr Woodruff does it well. For those children who are musically inclined this is a good story which aids and enthuses children learning music. It isn’t the most imaginative story for children around but it ties music and reading together adequately, despite the lack of audio.

A good lesson about finding your voice no matter what disabilities maybe in your way.

Harriet Klausner Gives Dennis Palumbo's Night Terrors Five Stars!

2013-05-18T18:21:00.001-07:00

Fabulous Police Procedural, May 18, 2013

Harriet Klausner

Night Terrors
Dennis Palumbo
Poisoned Pen, May 7 2013, $24.95
ISBN 9781464201318

In Pittsburgh, the FBI quietly asks psychologist Dr. Daniel Rinaldi to help former FBI special agent Lyle Barnes deal with his experiences of hunting serial killers. Barnes was the best because he could get inside the heads of these predators, but now in retirement they get inside his head every time he tries to sleep. Adding to his Night Terrors is a serial killer targeting anyone involved in ending John Jessup's homicidal reign; which includes Barnes who captured the psychopath and by extension Rinaldi may be on the murderer's list.

At the same time, Wes Currim confesses to decapitating businessman Edward Meachem in Wheeling. Wes refuses to show the body unless the shrink who works with the Pittsburgh PD accompanies them. Thus at the request of Chief Block, Daniel arrives in nearby West Virginia as an obviously disturbed Wes takes him and WPD to the severed corpse. Wes' mom Maggie believes her troubled son never killed the victim and pleads with Rinaldi to prove her contention while in Pittsburgh, the Jessup body count rises and Barnes vanishes from federal protective custody.

The third Daniel Rinaldi mystery (see Fever Dream and Mirror Image), is a fabulous police procedural as the protagonist struggles between patient confidentiality and law enforcement needs. Fast-paced throughout, readers will relish this twisting thriller as Wheeling and Pittsburgh keep Dr. Rinaldi and two police departments overworked trying to prevent further homicides.

Guest Post on Music Plus Books

2013-05-17T00:00:00.001-07:00

The Messiah Matrix Visit the Messiah Matrix Facebook page for some timely postings about the new pope, Francis, and his attempt to restore spiritual power to the ancient Roman Catholic Church, that in recent decades has shown so many signs of decadence and cynicism.

My novel explores that ancient institution, tracing its roots to the Roman Empire itself and in particular to Emperor Caesar Augustus who instituted tolerance in Rome once he'd completed his conquest of the world. Why would anyone take the time from their busy day to read this book? It's romantic. It's a thriller. It's contemporary. It pits a doubting young Jesuit priest against a vivacious archaeologist who's found evidence that the origins of Christianity are not what we've been taught. Together they find the truth behind centuries of mystification, unmask corruption in the church, and change the world to a clear understanding of why organized religion stands in the way of the very values it professes to uphold.

I've been thrilled at readers' reactions to the novel, even when they don't accept its premise because my purpose was to get people thinking about the truths they accept without question. We must choose to make the world more tolerant, recognizing that everyone has the right to worship the divine potential in human nature in the way they choose. Tell me your thoughts!

The first five to respond to this post will receive a free signed copy of the book if you copy your response to me at drk@storymerchant.com

Film Maker Lila French Discusses Her Film BIRDBATH in Reel Nola Magazine

2013-05-15T00:00:00.000-07:00

TURN TO PAGE 28

Sci-Fi's Underground Hit

2013-05-13T00:00:00.000-07:00

Authors are snubbing publishers and insisting on keeping e-book rights. How one novelist made more than $1 million before his book hit stores.

Simon and Schuster has put down six figures for print rights to a post-apocalyptic thriller called "Wool" that it believes could draw the same readers that made "The Hunger Games" trilogy a success. WSJ's Alexandra Alter reports on Lunch Break. Getty Images.

Hugh Howey's postapocalyptic thriller "Wool" has sold more than half a million copies and generated more than 5,260 Amazon reviews. Mr. Howey has raked in more than a million dollars in royalties and sold the film rights to "Alien" producer Ridley Scott.

And Simon & Schuster hasn't even released the book yet.

In a highly unusual deal, Simon & Schuster acquired print publication rights to "Wool" while allowing Mr. Howey to keep the e-book rights himself. Mr. Howey self-published "Wool" as a serial novel in 2011, and took a rare stand by refusing to sell the digital rights. Last year, he turned down multiple seven-figure offers from publishers before reaching a mid-six-figure, print-only deal with Simon & Schuster.

Story Merchant Clients Lisa Cerasoli and Dennis Walsh Talk Books on Peter Anthony Holder's Podcast

2013-05-10T00:00:00.002-07:00

Listen to Podcast

Writer and filmmaker, Lisa Cerasoli, is the author of As Nora Jo Fades Away, a non fiction account of caring full time for her grandmother who suffered from Alzheimers.

Dennis Walsh is a criminal defence attorney and the author of Nobody Walks: Bringing My Brother's Killers To Justice, the true story of how he avenged the murder of his youngest brother.

Peter Anthony Holder

Welcome to my website! I'm a Montreal based broadcaster and the host of The Stuph File, an eclectic program that's a mix of interesting interviews and odd news.

Guests I've had the pleasure to talk to in 20 years of hosting a late night radio show include the likes of Star Trek's George Takei; Steve Allen, the first host of The Tonight Show; Burt Ward, Batman's original Robin; Buddy Ebsen; the legendary Carol Channing; astronaut Alan Bean, who walked on the moon; Lindsay Wagner, The Bionic Woman; Cloris Leachman; Karl Malden; Peter Bogdanovich; Gilligan himself, Bob Denver and more.

Congratulations Royce Buckingham on Your 2013-14 Sunshine State Young Readers Award and Sasquatch Book Award Nominations for The Dead Boys!

2013-05-09T00:00:00.000-07:00

Sasquatch Book Award Nominee

Titles are selected by Librarians in the State of Washington in order to encourage students to read some of the best new books published each year.

http://www.wlma.org/sasquatch

The Sunshine State Young Readers Award (SSYRA) is a program co-sponsored by the Office of Library Media and the Florida Association for Media in Education (FAME). This program for students in grades 3-8 is designed to entice students to read high interest, contemporary literature for personal enjoyment.

http://www.fldoe.org/bii/Library_Media/ssyrap.asp

AEI Client Dennis Palumbo's Night Terrors Reviews on Kirkus

2013-05-08T00:00:00.002-07:00

NIGHT TERRORS

by Dennis Palumbo

Buy now from

AMAZON.COM
BARNES & NOBLE
LOCAL BOOKSELLER

KIRKUS REVIEW

Pittsburgh clinical psychologist Daniel Rinaldi (Fever Dream, 2011, etc.) finds to his sorrow that even serial killers have fans.

Now that Wesley Currim has confessed to killing wealthy Wheeling coal-mine executive Edward Meachem and led Chief Avery Block and Detective Sgt. Harve Randall to the headless corpse, you’d think the case would be closed. But Wes’ mother, Maggie, swears he’s innocent and provides him with a cast-iron alibi he’s determined to repudiate. Do Block and Randall have the right man in custody? Dr. Rinaldi, who went along with them since Wes had refused to talk unless he was called in, can’t say. And he has no time to yield to Maggie’s pleas and break Wes’ confession because he’s been snatched off the street by FBI agent Neal Alcott and plunged into a different nightmare. Even though John Jessup, convicted of killing four prostitutes, has been beaten to death during a riot in an Ohio prison, the pen pal calling himself “Your Biggest Fan” is determined to avenge him by carrying on in his tradition. In short order, the prison guard who killed Jessup, the judge who sentenced him to four life sentences and the Cleveland ADA who prosecuted him are shot. Not surprisingly, Lyle Barnes, the retired FBI profiler who helped nail Jessup, is having night terrors, and Alcott wants Rinaldi to meet with him and calm him down. For his part, Rinaldi wants to be left alone to consummate his stymied romance with Detective Eleanor Lowrey of the Pittsburgh PD. How likely is that when the entire tri-state region is full of serial killers and killers-in-training?

Some thrillers are beach reads. Palumbo’s are strictly for late at night and for readers who have no pressing engagements early the next day.

Story Merchant Client Terry Stanfill Signs Her Novel Realms of Gold in Exeter Chapel

2013-05-07T00:00:00.000-07:00

The Chapel, Exeter College, Oxford--tapestry is by Burne-Jones-William Morris , both had been students at Exeter College

Crown Publishing will be releasing the biography of Robert Ripley titled “A Curious Man!, authored by Neal Thompson May 7th

2013-05-06T12:26:00.001-07:00

“A Curious Man is the rollicking, terrific story of one of America’s greatest men…Ripley brought back to an awed nation the richness of an endlessly exotic world, and Neal Thompson tells the story with a perfectly-pitched sense of what makes such a man, and a nation, tick.” –Peter Heller, New York Times bestselling author of The Dog Stars

“Anyone who wants to understand America needs to read this book… Neal Thompson gives us a vivid portrait of this complex, restless man in all his maniacally conflicted glory.” –Ben Fountain, National Book Award Finalist and National Book Critics Circle Award winning author of Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk

A shy, insecure, bucktoothed boy, Robert Ripley willed himself to become a man of the world: a talented artist, an athlete, a rabid traveler, an unlikely ladies’ man, a heavy drinker, a playboy-millionaire, a shrewd businessman, entertainer, and media pioneer. He was Howard Hughes crossed with PT Barnum; Peter Pan crossed with Marco Polo. A goofy everyman, a bit of a yokel, his obsessive curiosity about the world and it’s oddities earned fame and fortune. Yet, as his housekeeper once said, the greatest “Believe It or Not” of all was Ripley himself.

More advance Praise for ‘A Curious Man” [PDF]

Raised poor in northern California, LeRoy, as he was known, survived the 1906 earthquake a year after losing his father. Forced to quit high school and to find a job, he started his newspaper career as a sports cartoonist in San Francisco. After moving to New York in 1912, he toiled in relative obscurity until his ‘Believe It or Not’ cartoons, created in 1919, became increasingly popular through the 1920s.

His first book of cartoons and essays, published in 1929, became an instant best-seller and led to his hiring by William Randolph Hearst, who paid him $100,000 a year. By the mid-1930s, he had become one of the highest-paid entertainers of his day, earning $500,000 a year from his cartoons, best-selling books, lectures, films, radio shows, endorsements, and museums. He received more mail than any single person in history (millions of letters a year), and in 1936 was voted the most popular man in America.

By the start of WWII, he had become one of the most eloquently traveled men alive, visiting obscure corners of more than 200 countries. He crossed the Atlantic and Pacific oceans dozens of times and belonged to the Circumnavigators’ Club and the Explorers’ Club. He collected oddities from around the world–as well as beautiful women–at his eccentric mansion on a private island off Mamaroneck, New York (where he moved after living for fifteen years at the New York Athletic Club in midtown Manhattan).

He died after suffering a heart attack in 1949 while filming the 13th episode of his TV show, which featured a story about the creation of the funeral song, Taps.

Believe it!

Charles M. Schulz’s first-ever published cartoon appeared in Ripley’s ‘Believe It or Not’

As a radio pioneer, Ripley broadcast shows from the Grand Canyon, from underwater, from overseas, from inside caves and from the decks of ships.

A talented athlete, he once tried out for the New York Giants and in 1926 became New York City’s handball champion.

Ripley’s popularity foreshadowed such pop-culture phenomena as YouTube, reality TV, Fear Factor, Jerry Springer, Oprah, America’s Funniest Home Videos, and Jackass

From the Epilogue:

The revelations that made Ripley gasp – burning ghats in India, shrunken heads in Ecuador, armless/legless girl wonders – seem tame compared to the extremes of shows like Jackass and the exploits of the masses on YouTube.

And yet, the phrase Ripley coined remains part of the English lexicon nearly a century later. In 2010, “believe it or not” appeared 138 times in The New York Times, and a Google search landed more than 5 million “believe it or not” hits. His spirit lives on in shows like MythBusters and River Monsters. Also thriving are the aspirations Ripley embodied – to show people something they didn’t know, to entertain and educate and titillate, to question and challenge the truth – as are the driving passions of voyeurism, exhibitionism, and the base appreciation of freakishness, oddities, and pranks of nature.

The man who considered himself a rube and a farm boy, who indulged in a lifestyle as risky as any character in his cartoons, who taught readers to gape with respect at the weirdness of man and nature, who contributed to the adoption of America’s national anthem and the creation of the memorial at Pearl Harbor and so much more… he may have been the most unbelievable oddity of all.

~~ Read a brief EXCERPT [PDF]. For the password, visit neal’s new Facebook page. ~~

“Neal Thompson constructs an elegant argument: the world Ripley created is the world in which we now live.” –David Shields, New York Times bestselling author of The Thing About Life Is that One Day You’ll Be Dead

21 Novels to Read by the Time You're 21

2013-05-06T00:00:00.001-07:00

I made this reading list for my granddaughter Meggie, and wanted to share it with you too, though I could easily add at least another ten to this list. It's hard for me to imagine someone not having read these books before she or he reaches 21 (in no particular order):

1) Portrait of Jenny (Robert Nathan)
2) Catcher in the Rye (J. D. Salinger)
3) Moby Dick (Herman Melville)
4) The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (Carson McCullers)
5) To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
6) Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
7) Dune (Frank Herbert)
8) The Godfather (Mario Puzo)
9) The Black Stallion (Walter Farley)
10) Fahrenheit 451 (Ray Bradbury)
11) Catch 22 (Walter Heller)
12) Slaughterhouse-Five (Kurt Vonnegut)
13) The Collector (John Fowles)
14) Enders Game (Orson Scott Card)
15) Casino Royale (Ian Fleming) -- and all the James Bond books!
16) Love Story (Erich Segal)
17) The Prince and the Pauper (Mark Twain)
18) The Great Gatsby (F. Scott Fitzgerald)
19) Rebecca (Daphne Du Maurier)
20) The Scarlet Letter (Nathaniel Hawthorne)
21) Birdy (William Wharton)
Lagniappe: Siddhartha (Hermann Hesse)

Tome Tender Reviews Terry Stanfill's Realms of Gold

2013-05-04T00:00:00.001-07:00

Realms of Gold by Terry Stanfill

Realms of Gold
by Terry Stanfill

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Terry Stanfill’s Realms of Gold is part suspense, part mystery, and part romance all in one book, so pay attention to the details, and trust me, realms of Gold is full of rich detail! Giovanni Di Serlo and Bianca Caldwell meet at a wedding in Italy, discovering how much they have in common. He is an Italian archeologist working on a secret dig in Puglia, Italy while she writes articles for an art magazine, getting her inspiration from dreams and visions-a gift passed down through the generations. Bianca is immediately smitten with Giovanni, who is reluctant to share more than a polite cup of coffee with this plain woman. Their common ground is the beauty of history and its many mysteries waiting to be uncovered. When Bianca’s dreams and visions of a woman named Zatoria cause her to contact Giovanni after they have each returned to their own lives, they begin a journey together that leads them on a path that connects the Vix Krater, an ancient bronze vessel to the legend of King Arthur and the Holy Grail. As these two become more involved in ancient history, they begin a romantic journey of their own that binds their hearts as well as their minds.

Terry Stanfill takes us into the hearts and minds of these two people as they travel Europe on a quest through time unlocking the doors of history in this character driven novel. Her writing is dreamlike, with rich scenes, and intense emotional tension. The pace is relaxed and slowly pulls us through on soft waves of well-written prose. As history unfolds, it is plain to see that Terry Stanfill has done her homework in creating this well-crafted tale, making it an intriguing historical read and an unconventional romance with a taste of mystery and quiet adventure.

Story Merchant Books - April Best Sellers!

2013-05-04T00:00:00.000-07:00

AEI Client Dennis Palumbo's Interviews on The Big Thrill Mystery Website

2013-05-03T00:00:00.002-07:00

Night Terrors by Dennis Palumbo

By Sandra Parshall

Dennis Palumbo’s love of writing took him to Hollywood, where he enjoyed a successful career as a screenwriter, with credits that include the feature film MY FAVORITE YEAR. He was also a staff writer on the television series WELCOME BACK, KOTTER and wrote episodes and pilots for other series.

Eventually, his interest turned to psychotherapy, and after training he developed a private practice specializing in helping show business clients deal with creative issues. He never stopped writing, though. His first novel, CITY WARS, was published by Bantam, and his short fiction has appeared in ELLERY QUEEN’S MYSTERY MAGAZINE, THE STRAND and elsewhere. He contributes articles and reviews to national publications, and his popular Hollywood on the Couch column for writers and other creative artists appears on the PSYCHOLOGY TODAY website. He is also the author of WRITING FROM THE INSIDE OUT and the mystery short story collection FROM CRIME TO CRIME.

With MIRROR IMAGE (2010), Palumbo began his popular and critically praised thriller series featuring psychologist Daniel Rinaldi and set in the author’s hometown, Pittsburgh. BOOKLIST called the second in the series, FEVER DREAM, “a smart, strong read” and KIRKUS REVIEWS described Rinaldi as “Jack Reacher with a psychology degree.”

In NIGHT TERRORS, Palumbo delivers another compelling tale, as Rinaldi works with two difficult clients who couldn’t be more different: one is a former FBI profiler who is tormented by grisly memories and pursued by a murderer bent on revenge; the other is a loathsome confessed killer whose mother believes he is innocent and wants Rinaldi to prove it. PUBLISHERS WEEKLY calls NIGHT TERRORS “riveting” and KIRKUS REVIEWS notes, “Some thrillers are beach reads. Palumbo’s are strictly for late at night and for readers who have no pressing engagements early the next day.”

In a recent interview, Palumbo talked about NIGHT TERRORS, his protagonist, and his writing life.

First, the inevitable question: Is Daniel Rinaldi a fictional version of Dennis Palumbo? What qualities does he share with you, and how do the two of you differ? Does he have attributes that you envy?

Rinaldi both is and isn’t a fictional version of me. We certainly share biographical data—both Italian-American, born and raised in Pittsburgh, and graduates of the University of Pittsburgh. As therapists, we also share theoretical beliefs and treatment techniques, along with a fair amount of skepticism about much in the psychotherapy field. Particularly when it comes to the pervasive use of diagnostic categories to label people: to try to define, limit or explain away every idiosyncratic or contrary response of individuals. As if anyone has a clue as to what constitutes “normal.”

But there, my similarity with Daniel ends. He’s a former amateur boxer, for one thing.

He’s also a lot more brave and resourceful than I am. Most of the things he encounters would have me running for the hills! So I guess I envy his courage, even though, in the books, his friends and colleagues consider some of his actions merely foolhardy.

When you decided to write a crime fiction series about a therapist, did you consider using Hollywood as your setting? Why did you rule it out and place Rinaldi’s practice in gritty Pittsburgh instead?

I never considered using Hollywood, because—much like the rest of Southern California—it’s been over-used as an arena for crime fiction. On the other hand, I feel that mid-Atlantic states like Pennsylvania, and mid-sized cities like Pittsburgh, haven’t been exploited as much as they could be. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that I love Pittsburgh, and have fond memories of the kind of childhood a kid could have in a tight-knit, ethnically-diverse community like that.

Moreover, there’s the wonderful dichotomy of the “old” Pittsburgh—steel mills, smokestacks, coal barges gliding along the Three Rivers at night—in contrast to the new, gentrified Pittsburgh, with its world-class hospitals and universities, its pioneering role in organ transplants and nanotechnology. As I like to say, it’s a shot-and-a-beer town colliding with the Information Age. Blue collars being exchanged for white ones, with all the unease and uncertainty that implies. It’s a rich, complex, vibrant setting for a contemporary crime series.

I assume you don’t have a lot of serial killers and outright psychopaths as patients in your Hollywood practice. How did you develop and deepen your understanding of such people and the crimes they commit?

Well, the joke answer is, after twenty years as a Hollywood screenwriter, dealing regularly with movie producers and network executives, I already had plenty of experience dealing with psychopaths. Seriously, I guess I’ve done a fair amount of research on the topic. Though I’ve always maintained that every type of character, no matter how heinous or irrational, that a writer can imagine is already inside him or her. Within every writer, I believe, is a nun and a serial killer, a hermit and a vampire, a faithful spouse and a callous infidel. Everything encompassed by the human condition is available to the writer, is something to be acknowledged and explored. A good writer, to borrow a phrase, “contains multitudes.”

In NIGHT TERRORS, you explore a topic that many people probably wonder about: How do criminal profilers, who crawl into the minds of the world’s most repugnant killers, live with the things they’ve seen and heard? How did you learn about the emotional burdens of their work? What do you think sets them apart from other law enforcement personnel?

I’ve read interviews with profilers, and also read memoirs that a few have written.

There’s no question that the work comes with its full share of emotional burden, and burn-out is a significant issue. But curiosity about the human condition, as well as a desire to excavate evil to its very roots, tends to be the overarching motivation for those called to this work. Of course, as is also true about therapists, it would be a mistake to overlook whatever unique, perhaps dysfunctional childhood dynamics fed this desire to explore the darkest corners of the human mind. I won’t presume here to discuss what these dynamics might be, and I’m sure they are as different as each profiler is different from one another. But I feel pretty confident they’re there. As to what sets them apart from other law enforcement personnel, that’s a tough question. The simple answer is: cops and Feds want to catch the bad guy, profilers want to understand them.

You construct complex plots – all those twists and turns that readers love — without sacrificing a satisfying psychological depth. How does a story take shape for you? Do you spend a lot of time on pre-writing planning? Are you ever surprised by unexpected developments or revelations that crop up in the course of writing?

I have to confess—I never plan or outline a novel. I start with characters who seem to come to me, people with significant issues, for whom large things are at stake. Which means I’m not only surprised a lot by unexpected developments and revelations, but I also go down blind alleys and make wrong turns. But I don’t mind this. I like the discovery inherent in that kind of writing.

The truth is, I rarely know who the victim is when I start a new novel, and never know the identity of the killer or killers until far into the book. Then I have to go back and plant the appropriate seeds, red herrings, and misleading conversations. So there’s a lot of groping when I write, if you know what I mean. But I suppose I’m used to it. I also like something the novelist E.L. Doctorow once said about writing a book. He said it was like driving down a dark, twisting road at night. Your headlights only show you ten feet ahead at a time, but sooner or later you get home.

Readers have grown used to seeing corrupt cops and psychopathic psychiatrists in novels, movies, and TV dramas. Do you think writers are playing on the reader’s natural fear of being betrayed by someone they trust? Or do these characters reflect a genuinely negative public opinion of police officers and therapists?

I think both notions have some truth in them. We’re certainly a more cynical culture now, with pretty low expectations of our authority figures. Especially of the male persuasion. The days of unquestioned patriarchal authority are over. We don’t much trust male politicians, doctors, shrinks, and—let’s face it— priests. But as women assume greater positions of authority, they’re also being routinely looked at with suspicion. Take bankers and hedge fund managers, for example. Whether male or female, we don’t trust them. So, for a writer, detailing how people in positions of power betray the trust of those around them is a sure-fire way to engage the reader’s interest and understanding.

One interesting side note: When it comes to the police, as well as firefighters and other first responders, I believe there’s been a renewed respect and appreciation for their efforts. Certainly with regards traumatic events like terrorist attacks and mass killings.

Unlike almost every other governmental or civil authority, we’re glad they’re there.

Your novels are complex, atmospheric and richly descriptive – very different from screenplays. But do you use some screenwriting techniques in your book-length fiction? Can you give an example of how screenwriting has influenced your books?

First of all, thanks for the kind words about my work. As to using techniques I learned as a Hollywood screenwriter, the two aspects of that form that come to mind are a respect for pacing, and a love of good, realistic dialogue. I hear from readers all the time that one of the things they like about my books is the verbal jousting that often occurs between my characters, and particularly the use of humor. I owe much of that skill, such as it is, to my years in television and film.

How do you manage a full-time practice, personal appearances, and a prodigious writing output of both fiction and nonfiction? What is your schedule like? If you had to give up one thing for the sake of your personal life, what would you sacrifice?

Who says I manage it all? Ten minutes after I wake up in the morning, I already feel like I’m three hours behind. To be candid, my life is a real balancing act, one that I don’t always handle with aplomb. But I like being busy, even a tad over-committed.

In terms of schedule, I have a full-time private therapy practice, seeing patients every day from 8 AM till 6 PM. But I also write every day, usually at lunch, and, very occasionally, in the evenings and on weekends. Which is why, unlike most other series novelists who churn out a book (or two!) a year, each new Daniel Rinaldi book takes at least a couple years. Somehow, I also manage to sneak in the occasional blog for THE HUFFINGTON POST and the PSYCHOLOGY TODAY website.

And while I do book signings and whatever media I can get when I have a new book coming out, I only attend a few writing conferences a year. I’d like to attend more, but my life doesn’t make much room for them. My personal life includes a wife, a teenage son, a neurotic though loving Doberman, three cats, and an addiction to watching depressing
documentaries on PBS.

Finally, as to what I’d give up for the sake of my personal life, I’d probably just try to cut back a bit on everything. I love being a therapist, so I guess I’d see fewer patients. I love writing, so I guess I’d just do less of it. I suppose I’d also be willing to skip a depressing documentary or two, but only as a last-ditch measure

What writing projects do you have in the works now?

At the moment, in addition to providing some blogs for mystery sites and doing Q&A sessions like this one—all in support of NIGHT TERRORS—I’m also noodling ideas for the fourth Rinaldi book. As I mentioned, I don’t start until I get a sense of some of the characters, and how they might intersect with Rinaldi’s world.

Plus I always like to explore certain issues in the psychology field. Schizophrenia, suicide, sleep disorders, the current state of mental health treatment. These issues, and what I think about them, provide the background for whatever story I want to tell. Who kills who, and why, all comes later.

Amazon Recommends The Messiah Matrix

2013-05-02T12:02:00.000-07:00

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Ray Bradbury’s 7 Rules for Writers

2013-05-01T00:00:00.000-07:00

1. Write with gusto.

2. In quickness is truth.

3.Write who you are.

4. Don’t write for money or fame.

5. Feed the muse daily.

6. Don’t be afraid to explore the attic.

7. Surprise yourself.

Bonus Rule: Do the work you were born to do — and no one else’s. Towards the end of Zen in the Art of Writing, Bradbury includes a series of poems about creativity. One of them is entitled, “What I Do Is Me, For That I Came.” In it, he writes:

    Be not another. Be the self I signed you in your blood…

    I leave you gifts of Fate most secret; find no other’s Fate,

    For if you do, no grave is deep enough for your despair

    No country far enough to hide your loss.

Ray Bradbury comments on his career and his sources of inspiration.

The Messiah Matrix Excerpt - Featured Title on BookDaily!

2013-04-30T15:37:00.002-07:00

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Apr. 30, 2013

Today's Featured Title
	The Messiah Matrix [Kindle Edition] by Kenneth John Atchity ISBN / ASIN: 0957218907
Anyone passing Ryan McKeown, S.J., on his morning walk down Rome’s Janiculum, would have witnessed a worried-looking young man with dark shadows under his eyes. His usual composed countenance had disappeared and his furrowed brow revealed the burden he now bore. Images of the penitent’s death plagued him, more so because of the man’s extraordinary confession and enigmatic last words, “Find Father Ryan…memory in ashes of Jasius…in the Gesù.” Why did this mysterious monsignor use his last breath to deliver this strange message to his killer? What was he trying to tell me? It was appalling even to entertain the thought that Holy Mother Church might have ordered the killing of a monsignor. It was just too horrible to contemplate. Surely the Albanian was mistaken? Not only was he wrestling with the shock of dual murders but Ryan’s doubts about his faith now consumed his every waking moment and haunted his nights. It was mind versus spirit, and the mind threatened to destroy every feeling his spirit flourished on. Ryan’s mind was filled with a jumble of questions in a jumble of languages—English, commendably fluent Italian, and an ancient dialect insiders would readily identify as the vulgar Latin spoken almost exclusively at the highest ecclesiastical levels in Vatican City. The names flashing through his brain—Eusebius, Philo Judaeus, Lactantius, Origen, Tertullian—were an esoteric litany of historians, poets, biblical scholars, and philosophers—all from the infancy of Christianity. Ryan’s obsession with tracking down the origins of the Catholic faith permeated his consciousness. The area spanned by Via Garibaldi was a living postcard of tiled roofs, bell towers, cupolas and gardens set off in breathtaking contrast against the cloudless turquoise sky. But this morning the young American priest, lost in ruminations about the fateful confession and his biblical doubts, had been oblivious to the spectacular view--and to the breeze ruffling his curly brown hair to more than usual disarray. It would be difficult to recognize Ryan as a recently ordained priest in his casual street clothes and comfortable black Reeboks, much less one enrolled in the pontifically authorized Society of Jesus, known to the world as “Jesuits.” Ryan’s questions about troubling inconsistencies in traditional Catholic doctrine had only grown more confusing as he’d turned from his graduate studies of the Latin epic poet Virgil to a temporary stint teaching a course on early Christian theology at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. At that time he was a Jesuit scholastic, getting in-the-classroom experience, and testing the demands of his calling. Now that his priesthood had been consecrated through the sacrament of Holy Orders and he had been dispatched to the Eternal City to study the New Testament and its commentaries, Father McKeown’s personal doubts and scholarly perplexities were, he feared, all too close to becoming a neurotic disorder. “How can I accept ordination with all this uncertainty?” he’d once asked his confessor, a functional octogenarian alcoholic, one of the cadre of emeriti that staffed the Woodstock seminary. “How do you feel about your faith?” the old man asked. “I feel wonderful,” Ryan admitted. “When I smell the incense in the presence of the Holy Sacrament, I feel…holy…I feel right.” “Then act as if you were certain,” the old priest had advised. “It is a corollary of Pascal’s wager. There’s no such thing in this world as absolute certainty. So accept that and go forward acting toward the best outcome no matter what.” As the days before his ordination became cluttered with crucial commitments and endless ceremonies, Ryan found he had no more time to entertain his uncertainties. The trouble with me, he ruminated, is that I’ve always had too little time—for everything. Things just keep happening before I’ve got them figured out. He’d always wished there could be an off-calendar eighth day of the week to do nothing but consolidate what you actually think, hopefully believe, and truly feel. It was all, to Ryan, a bit overwhelming—especially for a young man who was still intent on figuring out, one piece at a time, the immense puzzle that was the Roman Catholic Church, the religion into which he had been involuntarily baptized as an infant, willy-nilly confirmed as an adolescent, and hesitantly ordained as a priest of its most militant order. Now it was too late, as far as the priesthood was concerned. He had been confirmed in that direction and, following his old confessor’s advice, determined to make the best of it. To his grateful surprise, even after his ordination his immediate superiors not only encouraged him to continue following his scholarly nose investigating the origins of the Church, but had also mysteriously arranged the residency in Rome. Whenever his scholarly path seemed to disappear before his eyes, he returned to the simple basic questions that had inspired this quest: How could it be that Theophilus, one of the earliest Christian apologists, wrote nearly 30,000 words about Christianity without once mentioning Jesus Christ? How come the name “Jesus Christ,” in fact, doesn’t appear in any Greek or Latin author until after the Council of Nicaea? Why was it that the only near-contemporary account that mentioned Christ, a suspiciously precise paragraph known as the Testimonium Flavianum, in Josephus’ Antiquities of the Jews, had been proved to be a patent insertion into that historical narrative? How could Jesus have been born in 1 A.D. when the Gospels say he was born before Herod the Great died—and King Herod’s death could be pinpointed to 4 B.C.? Even Philip Cardinal Vasta, now known to the world as Pope Pius XIII, had lamented that the greatest obstacle for spreading the Catholic faith today was that the historical existence of Jesus could no longer be made credible. If Ryan could somehow find a way to stamp a measure of documented authenticity on the career of the Church’s founder, he would be serving the Holy Father as well as his own wavering vocation. If he could make that tangible contribution to the church, he might justify his own doubt-ridden existence and give himself a break. If he could find evidence to prove objectively that Jesus really existed as a human being, he’d be able to reconcile all the contradictions. Without that proof certain—that had eluded scholars for some two thousand years—every thread of the tapestry of biblical scholarship became just another loose end and his profession based on an allegory at best, at worst, a phantom. Continues...

Excerpts are provided solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Yoga Gives Back "The Rise for Women Challenge"

2013-04-30T00:00:00.000-07:00

For the cost of one yoga class you can change a life.

YGB is invited by Arianna Huffington (The Huffington Post) for

"The Rise for Women Challenge"

April 24-June6, 2013

CLICK HERE

Help YGB win this challenge by donating any amount here between April 24th and June 6th!! The Huffington Post, Skoll Foundation, and Half the Sky Movement host this challenge to help non profit organizations working for women to grow and do more!!! All donations for YGB during this period will be credited towards this Challenge and you will be profiled on the website. Thank YOU!!!

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Kurt Vonnegut on how to write a short story ...

2013-04-29T00:00:00.001-07:00

Literary manager | Producer | Ken Atchity

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Izumi Watanabe--Japanese vocalist Sees Her Own Voice

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The Messiah Matrix Excerpt - Featured Title on BookDaily!

The Messiah Matrix [Kindle Edition]

Yoga Gives Back "The Rise for Women Challenge"

For the cost of one yoga class you can change a life.

Kurt Vonnegut on how to write a short story ...