My new site is up and running, obviously.  I’m pumped up about it and hope readers are, too.  I look forward to the dialogue and appreciate any thought provoking feedback or comments.

Random thoughts:  As I share publishing and Hollyweird experiences, please don’t take them as complaints.  I understand my good fortune and also my quote on Publishizer (coming soon) “Sour grapes make bad whine”.

As a kid, I loved Bob Hope movies and read his many books (travelogue type memoirs).  That really helped keep my head from swelling when Miramax Films optioned ’57, Chicago.  I knew, through reading those books and then following the whole movie-making process, that it was still unlikely the movie for ’57, Chicago was going to be filmed.  Thus, when it fizzled (after two scripts -more on that later) I wasn’t devastated.  In fact, I’d already moved on to my next book, ’46, Chicago.

The seed for Pursuit, my latest novel (available to pre order now but coming in August) was planted prior to the Family Secrets trial in Chicago.  When I read about the mob hit man (70ish years old) eventually found in a small town in Kentucky, paying cash for rent and living with a younger woman, all I could think of was how creepy it was that the other patrons at the local diner had no idea the old guy asking them to pass the sugar was a ruthless mob assassin.  Then, I thought, “What if that guy never left Chicago?”  Hence, Pursuit.

Dog Days for a writer:  I bought a yellow Lab Puppy in Spokane, Washington in April  My sister, a true dog whisperer, rode with me.  The drive there was great -lots of laughs, stories and memories; we never turned on the radio.  The drive home sucked -thunderstorms through the mountains, 48′ tractor trailers rode like sidecars as we skidded through the rain.  Maddie puked in her crate.  I nearly yacked up my lunch on rain slick highway.  We made it back.  A wonderful site: My brother, sitting out front of his place in a cold drizzle:  “She’s so beautiful” he said.  That’s what it’s all about my friends.

Welcome to  the site.  More to come.  Go Cubs. Go Blackhawks!