Don's Blog

Nashville: The Mood Part 14 Now Available in a Draft2Digital Edition

2025-04-11T14:02:00.004-05:00

The fourteenth volume of Nashville: The Mood.

A popular preacher attacked in a park. The Church of Mesmenology continues its march to prominence and influence. Lawyers failing to impress clients or do their jobs. Office politics and personal disputes. Sleazy meetings across class lines in questionable places.

Is Nashville simply Music City? The capital of Tennessee? Or is it something else? A state of mind? A sea of corruption and hypocrisy? A world of happiness, ordinariness, vicious gossip, shady pasts, and political skullduggery? Where politics, religion, sex, malicious talk, and crime cross paths in such a way as to be almost indistinguishable?

Prepare to enter the psychological underbelly of Nashville.

Nashville: The Mood Part 14 Now Available in an Amazon KIndle Edition

2025-04-11T06:47:00.002-05:00

The fourteenth volume of Nashville: The Mood.

Prepare to enter the psychological underbelly of Nashville.

Nashville: The Mood Part 13 Now Available in a Draft2Digital Edition

2025-04-09T14:02:00.003-05:00

Nashville: The Mood Part 13 is now available in a Draft2Digital edition. This places it on all e-readers format other than Amazon Kindle.

The Church of Mesmenology continues its advance in the city. Lawyers come under harsh scrutiny from their clients. Ministers struggle to maintain their numbers. Restaurants come and go, flying high before crashing. Politicians effortlessly continue their grip on the city's psyches.

Prepare to experience the psychological underbelly of the city.

Nashville: The Mood Part 13 Now Available in an Amazon KIndle Edition

2025-04-08T13:53:00.004-05:00

Nashville: The Mood Part 13 is now available in an Amazon Kindle edition.

Prepare to experience the psychological underbelly of the city.

Nashville: The Mood series update

2024-01-24T14:21:00.004-06:00

Soon, I'll be providing selected sections of the Nashville: The Mood Series on the blog. These will be small samples intended to convey the flavor of the stories, which now total more than 400,000 words, quite a long fictional series.

Happy Reading!

Nashville: The Mood Part 12 Now Available in an Amazon KIndle Edition

2024-01-24T14:16:00.002-06:00

Nashville: The Mood Part 12 is now available in an Amazon Kindle edition. The ongoing study of the psychological underbelly of Nashville, a side most visitors have never seen, continues with another book of episodic tension and simmering suspense.

Nashville: The Mood Part 12 Now Available in a Smashwords e-book Edition

2024-01-24T14:14:00.001-06:00

Nashville: The Mood Part 12 is now available in a Smashwords e-book edition. The ongoing study of the psychological underbelly of Nashville, a side most visitors have never seen, continues with another book of episodic tension and simmering suspense.

Smashwords e-books can be ordered through a wide variety of e-bookstores.

Reasons for Changing Churches (Nashville: The Mood Part 11)

2023-08-20T07:24:00.000-05:00

Someone wrote me recently asking about the section of a recent Nashville: The Mood edition that dealt with why a church member had changed to a different church; the member said the difference in music was the reason, without elaborating.

It is certainly true that I have encountered many who have changed churches, sometimes denominations but often within denominations, and the most frequent reason given is a difference in music; it's somewhat of a common occurrence in Nashville, which has many small churches.

I've always been a bit skeptical. When trying to dig down into the stated reason, the explanations get rather vague, and I always get the feeling that I'm being given a cover story for the real reason(s). But reasonable people can disagree about that, and often people who change churches may not want to give the real reason(s), and don't like even being asked about it.

When Dorinda Dances by Brett Halliday (A Mike Shayne Mystery)

2023-08-02T14:48:00.002-05:00

In my early to mid-teens, I used to read a fictional detective series about Mike Shayne. He was in Miami for most of the books, which began in 1939, but for the period of 1944-45, at least one full-length book and two novelettes took place in New Orleans.

I always found the plots to be very well worked-out, and they generally kept the reader guessing up to close to the end. Usually, Mike Shayne assembled a group of people and unmasked the killer one way or another.

Is anyone familiar with this series? One of my favorites was When Dorinda Dances, which started out with an opening twist and maintained its mystery all the way through. I believe it was published in the early 1950s.

Nashville: The Mood Part 11 Now Available in a Smashwords e-book Edition

2023-05-29T06:48:00.005-05:00

Nashville: The Mood Part 11 is now available in a Smashwords e-book edition. The ongoing study of the psychological underbelly of Nashville, a side most visitors have never seen, continues with another book of episodic tension and simmering suspense.

Smashwords e-books can be ordered through a wide variety of e-bookstores.

Nashville: The Mood Part 11 Now Available in an Amazon KIndle Edition

2023-04-02T08:25:00.001-05:00

Nashville: The Mood Part 11 is now available in an Amazon Kindle edition. The ongoing study of the psychological underbelly of Nashville, a side most visitors have never seen, continues with another book of episodic tension and simmering suspense.

Smashwords E-book sale

2023-03-05T08:47:00.001-06:00

Smashwords is promoting a sale for its e-books beginning today, March 5, 2023 and continuing for a week through March 11, 2023.

All of my books at that site are now heavily discounted for this period. Happy Reading!

Updates to Nashville: The Mood series

2023-02-16T07:42:00.002-06:00

Continuing with the Nashville: The Mood series. Nashville: The Mood Part 11 is essentially completed and will be published soon.

I've just begun the writing of Nashville: The Mood Part 12.

The saga continues! How could it not?

Bob Dylan Awarded Golden Lyrics Prize by UNITE!

2022-06-02T14:04:00.003-05:00

In Nashville, Tennessee today, a federal judge ruled that the city's laws banning satire in all forms was unconstitutional. Judge Ernest Thomas Basse ruled that satire must be permitted if a person has completed a six-week training program and paid a reasonable licensing fee.

But first, the group United Nonconformists Intersecting with Transcontinental Entertainment! (UNITE!) has awarded its prestigious Golden Lyrics Award to singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. The group, which is headquartered at the southernmost edge of Argentina, announced the award in an e-mail released this afternoon.

"Bob Dylan has affected many lives," the group's president, Michael Spillane said. "He has touched many, directly and indirectly."

The award comes with some conditions.

"We learned from what the Nobel Prize Committee went through five years ago," Spillane said.

Dylan must publicly acknowledge the award and submit an essay setting forth how what he regards as his top fifteen songs came about, and how the experiences behind them impacted him. The essay must be submitted within thirty days. Dylan must also personally travel to the group's headquarters to receive the award on July 4th of this year.

"No need to drag it out any longer than necessary," explained Spillane.

If Dylan meets the conditions, and if reaction to the prize over the next two years is generally favorable, UNITE! will pay Dylan a possible total of three million dollars in annual installments over the next twenty-five years. Dylan must also perform an annual private concert for the group's officers and employees at the organization's headquarters in July of each year for the same twenty-five year period.

Dylan has yet to comment on the award.

William Gaudet and Latin American Reports and the International Trade Mart/Clay Shaw

2022-05-04T08:42:00.003-05:00

One of the many shadowy-seeming figures around Clay Shaw was William Gaudet, who published a newsletter style offering called Latin American Reports. The publication seems to have begun operation in the mid-1940s, around the time that International House was opening in New Orleans and during the 2 1/2 year buildup to the opening of the International Trade Mart in 1948. The Trade Mart contributed to the publication by taking out subscriptions for tenants and potential tenants, possibly giving rent breaks and even small contributions. The newsletter, which years later evolved into a magazine, gave summaries of happenings in virtually all of the Central and South American countries. It is known that the CIA funded at least some of the research that went into the publication, and perhaps some travel expenses, but as best I could uncover William Gaudet was never paid by the CIA, never was employed by them, even as a contractor, and never signed any security agreement with them. But years later, in the 1970s, when the CIA was being investigated by Congress, Gaudet publicly claimed that he had worked for the CIA (not unusual, since the CIA rarely denied such claims, at least not publicly).

I go into Gaudet's history with Clay Shaw and the International Trade Mart in my biography of Clay Shaw, Man of a Million Fragments: The True Story of Clay Shaw. Latin American Reports began to fall behind on its rent in the second half of the 1950s, and Clay Shaw found it necessary to issue them a warning about possible eviction, a situation later resolved with some free advertising space in the pubication for the Trade Mart.

As for the shadowy Gaudet, his self-created legend lives on, if in much reduced form compared to the mid-1970s.

Slowing Interest in the Jim Garrison Investigation?

2022-04-28T07:47:00.003-05:00

Over the years since 1967-69, when interest in what came to be known as the Jim Garrison Investigation, the high point of which was the arrest, trial, and prosecution of Clay Shaw, was at its peak, the case has vanished completely from the news and been resurrected several times. The two year period between arrest and trial was very intense, but after the acquittal of Clay Shaw, interest diminished quickly, even though during the 1969-71 period. Shaw was re-arrested on perjury charges two days after his acquittal, and that case limped along for two years before a Federal court prohibited any further prosecution. Shaw filed an a civil suit against Garrison and others, and it, too, progressed very slowly, seeming to pick up steam only shortly before Shaw's death in 1974. It was quite a tangled mess, one that I explain in much detail in the context of Shaw's life in my biography of him, Man of a Million Fragments: The True Story of Clay Shaw.

Now, 55 years after it all began, I sensed a diminished interest in Shaw, even among conspiracy theorists. Since Shaw was the only person ever tried for the assassination, it was natural that many would cling to him as a suspect or person of interest. Even if he wasn't technically guilty, many said, he must have known Oswald, must have shepherded him around New Orleans. And Shaw surely knew David Ferrie, the somewhat strange, shadowy man also allegedly present at the all-important "party" or meeting where the assassination was discussed.

I haven't seen the recent Oliver Stone documentary about the assassination, but my understanding is that there is very little mention of Shaw, perhaps more of Garrison (but not as much as in Stone's 1991 movie JFK.

What does it all mean? Does it signify that the Garrison case and any suspicions of Shaw are dying out? Or is it a temporary resting point, as has happened in the past? There are reasons for believing that this time, it might be different. But I don't think so.

Clay Shaw and Alfred J. Moran

2022-04-22T08:14:00.002-05:00

Alfred J. Moran figured somewhat prominently (but behind the scenes) in the evidence presented against Clay Shaw at Shaw's trial. As I explain in some detail in my biography of Clay Shaw, Man of a Million Fragments: The True Story of Clay Shaw, Alfred Moran dropped some information at a social gathering in the fall of 1967, after Shaw's initial trial date had been postponed. The trial was reschedule to begin in about four or five months, and it was during this period that the evidence of Shaw's supposed visit to the Eastern Airlines VIP room, where he allegedly signed the guest register using the name "Clay Bertrand," was being developed. Alfred Moran had been present in the VIP Room on the date in question, and the information he gave was consistent. However, it was garbled in a series of CIA memos (a CIA employee who knew Moran had been present at the social gathering where Moran discussed his knowledge of the event. Confusion about the nature of that information caused noticeable confusion at the CIA for a period.

Clay Shaw and Richard Townley

2022-04-20T14:02:00.002-05:00

One of the journalists who figures prominently in the first six months of the period before and after Clay Shaw's arrest was Richard Townley, an investigative reporter for WDSU-TV in New Orleans. I e-mailed with Richard, interviewed him by telephone, and then drove to his residence in Mountain Home, Arkansas during the middle part of 2007. Richard provided quite a lot of useful information, about which I reported in my biography of Clay Shaw, entitled Man of a Million Fragments: The True Story of Clay Shaw.

Richard was alerted to the Garrison investigation before news of it broke on February 17, 1967, and certain information he received from inside of Garrison's office convinced him that it was an invalid investigation from the start. He was eventually indicted by Garrison, and found it necessary to seek employment outside of New Orleans. I give a detailed account of this in my book.

I found Richard credible. He was forthright about things that went on, and he was very candid about his investigative "partner", Walter Sheridan, a former key aide to Robert Kennedy and, at the time of Garrison's investigation, an investigative reporter for NBC News.

Richard passed in early 2009, way too young, after several long-term health issues.

Nashville: The Mood

2022-04-19T13:47:00.000-05:00

I have taken a two-year break from my miniseries entitled Nashville: The Mood after completing Part 10 in Summer, 2020. In fact, I took a break from writing altogether. However, I have been giving serious though to resuming the series. There have been lots of changes in Nashville in recent years, and things are still changing rapidly--and yet--in many ways, things remain the same, only more so.

Stay tuned.

Clay Shaw and Oliver Stone

2021-12-26T08:17:00.000-06:00

In my book Man of a Million Fragments: The True Story of Clay Shaw, I discuss in great detail the case against Clay Shaw in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, as well as provide the most complete account of Clay Shaw's life ever produced.

After laying dormant for almost 23 years after Shaw's acquittal in 1969, Oliver Stone's film JFK in 1991 re-ignited intense interest in Clay Shaw and his possible involvement in JFK's assassination.

Now, three decades later, Oliver Stone has again produced a film, this time a documentary, that apparently make some of the same assertions. I haven't seen it yet, and based upon the reviews I have read, I am not rushing to see it. However, I am a fan of Oliver Stone's moviemaking abilities, and I do intend to see it eventually.

Based upon repeated viewings of JFK, and upon my own research, I have long doubted that Oliver Stone truly believes that Clay Shaw had any role in the JFK assassination. His movie JFK has, if one watches and listens closely, many scenes and statements that give away, so to speak, the great weaknesses in the case against Clay Shaw. Those included highly suggestible witnesses and prosecutorial shenanigans, as well as contradictory accounts by the major witnesses.

But Oliver may be in too deep to publicly change his position. I thought at one time there was a chance of that, but I'm no longer sure-far from it. I do urge openminded individuals to see the documentary and make up their own minds. Perhaps, over time, Oliver will come around. I couldn't think of a more talented filmmaker suitable for correcting the record.

Why Did Perry Russo Recant His Trial Testimony

2021-10-13T15:23:00.001-05:00

I recently answered an inquiry regarding Perry Russo's recantation of his trial testimony. This was in response to an explanation given by a leading conspiracy (and pro-Jim Garrison) theorist.

I cover this in quite some detail in my biography of Clay Shaw, Man of a Million Fragments: The True Story of Clay Shaw.

Of course, some would maintain that Russo's testimony at trial was weak at best, and I don't disagree. He contradicted stories he had initially given to investigators from Jim Garrison's office, as well as to several reporters who interviewed him before he emerged as a "key" witness (really, the witness) in Clay Shaw's prosecution.

Two years later, Russo refused to testify at a prominent Federal court hearing about Shaw's pending prosecution for perjury; Russo instead took the 5th Amendment. He then met secretly on four occasions from January-April 1971 with Clay Shaw's lawyers and investigators, essentially recanting the most damaging parts of his trial testimony, but not doing so while under oath in an open court hearing.

Russo had to be coaxed a bit into fully recanting, and at times he seems to give off the impression that he is simply weary of the whole thing, ready to put it behind him. I mentioned this in my book, although I believe the weight of the evidence, taking into account all the versions Russo told about Clay Shaw, indicates that he never saw Clay Shaw engaging in the makings of a conspiracy.

New Account of Clay Shaw and the Jim Garrison Investigation Released

2021-09-30T13:53:00.004-05:00

A new book, Cruising for Conspirators: How a New Orleans DA Prosecuted the Kennedy Assassination as a Sex Crime, has just been released. It is about Clay Shaw and the Jim Garrison investigation into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Written by Alecia Long, Ph.D., a faculty member at Louisiana State University and a resident (I believe) of the New Orleans area, I have posted the link below.

I met Dr. Long about a decade ago, and over the years I have always felt a confidence in the quality of her judgement, her passion for deep research into original documents, and the wide scope of her historical interests.

I have not read the book yet, and it appears to be a different focus than my own biography of Clay Shaw, Man of a Million Fragments: The True Story of Clay Shaw. That book was a detailed biography of Clay Shaw that went into great detail about all facets of his life, including large portions analyzing the Jim Garrison investigation and the related litigation involving Clay Shaw.

At any rate, I urge readers of the blog to check out the link below and give the book consideration as part of the total picture of Clay Shaw. After years of superficial books that seemed to recycle quotes from other books, it is nice to see more authors diving deep into the case. The amount of material concerning Clay Shaw that has survived is somewhat staggering, and it does take quite an effort to go through it (or anything close to most of it).

https://www.amazon.com/Cruising-Conspirators-Prosecuted-Assassination-Boundless/dp/1469662736

Clay Shaw and the Actress Kay Francis

2021-08-25T14:30:00.000-05:00

Clay Shaw knew the actress Kay Francis, who was a big film star during the first half of the 1930s. Her career plateaued during the second half of the 1930s, and declined from there forward. She struggled with alcohol and Rx drug issues and died at a relatively early age during the 1960s.

While researching Man of a Million Fragments: The True Story of Clay Shaw, I was told by at least one person that Shaw knew Francis, but I never resolved the facts of how they met, and how well they knew each other.

I recently found a website that summarizes entries from diaries that Kay Francis kept for decades. Those summaries reveal that Francis, who traveled frequently and widely in those years, had been to New Orleans in the late 1920s where she pursues a romantic (or physical) relationship with another woman. The affair didn't last long, and it is unclear whether she knew Clay Shaw that early.

However, an entry from 1953 revealed that Francis visited with Clay Shaw (and others) on a visit to New Orleans. Perhaps the actual diaries reveal more detail. They are located at Wesleyan University.

Clay Bertrand character in Early Novel

2021-08-12T16:08:00.001-05:00

A number of people who have read one of my early novels, I Lost It At The Beginning, have asked about the Clay Bertrand character in that novel. Specifically, how the character relates to the real-life Clay Shaw.

The passages were written during the spring and summer of 1994, at a time when I was toying with the idea of a full biography of Clay Shaw. My interest in that biography ultimately resulted, in 2013, in Man of a Million Fragments: The True Story of Clay Shaw, the most complete biography of Shaw ever written.

Since the novel was based in Louisiana, in an unspecified location some distance away from New Orleans, I got the idea of working the mysterious Clay Bertrand character into the fabric of the story. I never intended that the character represented the real-life Clay Shaw, but I did make him look like Shaw (in contrast to Dean Andrews's ever-shifting descriptions of Bertrand), and kept much of the elusiveness of the idea of Bertrand. I thought the ide came across well, and was very neatly integrated into the larger story.

Smashwords Sale includes steep discount on Man of a Million Fragments: The True Story of Clay Shaw

2021-06-27T08:05:00.003-05:00

For July, the online e-book provider Smashwords is steeply discounting all of my books, including Man of a Million Fragments: The True Story of Clay Shaw, my complete biography of Clay Shaw.

Lanny and the entire Nashville: The Mood series also have steep discounts.

Enjoy!