Category: Books I Love

Inside Story of Confidential, the First Celebrity Scandal Magazine

You probably need to be an octogenarian like my husband, Joe  to remember Confidential, the granddaddy of celebrity scandal magazines.

I certainly don’t remember the magazine which had its heyday in the 1950s although I do remember its progeny like Silver Screen, Modern Screen, and Screenland.

These were American fan magazines which I could buy in London way past their publication dates. They were sold in a small, newsagent’s shop in Ealing located on my route home from school (Tube ride from the Convent of the Sacred Heart High School in Hammersmith to South Ealing station, then a half-mile walk to my house.) I was 11, and journeyed to school and back on my own. I had plenty of time to linger at magazine racks. Continue reading “Inside Story of Confidential, the First Celebrity Scandal Magazine”

Book Launch Party For “An Untidy Life” Serves Up Golden Memories & Nostalgia

Years and years ago, when Les Hinton, author of An Untidy Life was on the second (maybe, third) rung of the ladder he eventually climbed to the very top of Rupert Murdoch’s global media empire, we joked about writing our memoirs. Back then, Les, as president of Murdoch Magazines, had just returned from Paris where he’d met with multi-millionaire Daniel Filipacchi, of Hachette Filipacchi, Murdoch’s French publishing partner.

Les returned with some interesting stories, one of which involved a trip to Filipacchi’s powder room where a small Picasso hung “low on the wall.”  It had amused –and worried– Les that the valuable piece of art hung “easily within splashing distance.”

“If I ever write a memoir,” he’d added, “the title will have to be Pissing With Picasso.” Continue reading “Book Launch Party For “An Untidy Life” Serves Up Golden Memories & Nostalgia”

Do You Remember Your First Library Book?

Photocredit: theparisreview.org

If you’re a reader, and over a certain age (like 35,) and if you started reading before the advent of Kindle and ebooks, chances are the first book you read, other than a school text book, was borrowed from a school library or the local lending library nearest your home. Continue reading “Do You Remember Your First Library Book?”

How Author J.D.Barker Nails The Rules For Writing Suspense

Serial-killer thriller author, J.D. Barker is the latest writer to become a James Patterson co-author. Evidently, working with the world’s #1 bestselling author is rubbing off on him. J.D. has become a writing machine this year.

The Fifth To Die, the second offering in the Fourth Monkey (4MK) trilogy was published this summer. Dracul, the prequel to the Dracula series which J.D. was commissioned to write by Bram Stoker’s family is to be released on October 2, 2018. The novel was inspired by notes kept by Bram Stoker, the author of the original, classic novel, Dracula. It is co-authored by Dacre Stoker, Bram’s great grand-nephew. Continue reading “How Author J.D.Barker Nails The Rules For Writing Suspense”

Into The Weed

This week, I’m staying with my recent blog themes of flowers, plants, backyards and gardens, but I’m taking a step beyond neatly manicured flower beds, and venturing into the weed. That’s correct:  weed, singular — as in marijuana, cannabis, ganja, pot. That’s because it seems that inch by inch, step by step, New York, the state that has been my home for decades, is moving towards legalizing recreational marijuana. Continue reading “Into The Weed”