Sweet Home, Alabama
There are many reasons why certain novels transcend style and substance to ransack our hearts. They provide a seminal experience, borderline seductive even, delivering frissons as they lead us down paths as beguiling as they are unexpected. For me, To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee’s sublime 1960 coming-of-age classic, is a first-class ticket for just such a journey. I first read it when I was 16, over a half century ago, and still remember distinct frissons–exhilarating, amusing, at times deeply disturbing–as I followed the adventures of eight-year-old Scout, her older brother Jem and their father Atticus Finch in Depression-era Alabama. No doubt there was special resonance because I was also growing up in the segregated South, well aware of...
Read MoreTypecasting, Then and Now
Flea markets and swap meets are, for me anyway, as much fun for tripping down memory lane as hunting for bargains. At a recent antiques fair in my hometown of Petaluma, California, I stumbled across a toy that literally altered my destiny. Although it’s always disconcerting to realize that my life is someone else’s nostalgia, it was still comforting to spot a Junior Dial Typewriter like the one I got for Christmas in 1951 when I was a kid in Tennessee. For those too young to remember, these gizmos required turning a big dial to the desired letter or number and pressing a lever to make it strike the ink ribbon and paper. It was a tedious exercise that nevertheless held me in thrall for hours at a time, and I started banging out (very) short stories. By...
Read MoreThe Movie Star You Never Knew
When destiny directed me to Pasadena in 2003, I never imagined I’d own a house loaded with old Hollywood history. I was drawn to the 1926 Spanish bungalow for its abundance of character and amazing gardens, not, as the realtor eagerly disclosed, because it was built by silent film legend and cowboy star, Tom Mix. I was further surprised to learn it was moved from Brentwood to Pasadena in 1991. Like all dutiful historical fiction writers, I did some homework and discovered that in 1926 Mix was living in a Beverly Hills mansion with his wife Victoria. Hmmm. More digging revealed my “new” house was a gift to his mistress Dorothy Sebastian whom I soon learned was much more interesting than ole Tom. A Southern beauty who sought to parlay her looks...
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