Well, dear readers, we finished out our second weekend of shows with an excellent performance, perhaps our best yet, despite a couple of wonky sound things. Performances were sharp and focused, there was plenty of joy and energy and we had a really nice crowd, about the same size at last night. Hoping we grow from here as good word of mouth is spreading. But compared to the last two shows we’re doing VERY well. After the show, about fifteen audience members stayed for the talkback and there were some fun questions. One lady asked why I avoided like the plague the darker aspects of LA – the riots, homelessness, and all that stuff. My simple answer was I wanted a positive show that ultimately made people feel good, even though there are a few touching things in the show involving loss. Anyway, we all had fun. And now, I am sitting here like so much fish, listening to the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra do a lot of Vivaldi, which is a little repetitious but fun. Prior to that, I watched a rather weird little thriller from 2013 entitled The Call, starring Halle Berry and Abigail Breslin. It starts off okay but quickly devolves into nothingness as it continues, finally going straight down the toilet in its final third. According to the Wikipedia page, the writer was very grateful to the actors for their excellent suggestions. Well, apparently, they weren’t so excellent, and the proof is in the watching and also the pudding. The upside is that it was short. Now, before we go any further, I now have all three blurbs for the new book, so I thought I’d share them with you now. These will, of course, adorn the back cover of the book. I suspect we’ll start taking pre-orders this week. Very exciting. I was most anxious for the blurb from Bruce Vilanch because he moved to LA in the year this book takes place, and he was very much a part of the scene that figures heavily in the plot of this new Harry Stearns mystery. Anyway, for your mental delectation, three blurbilicious blurbs.
“When retired literary agent-turned private eye Harry Stearns returns for another reluctant investigation, the seventy-year-old curmudgeon, his snarky secretary Bernice and his beloved Los Angeles are about to celebrate Christmas 1975. Readers will be celebrating, too, as he searches for the blackmailer of overbearing producer Gary Quinn. The case morphs into bloody murder, with the surprisingly astute sleuth confronting a gallery of intriguing suspects, but it’s the sharp, quip-filled interplay between Harry and Bernice, along with the wistful memories of a simpler, happier LA that make these mysteries so uniquely enjoyable.”
Dick Lochte, prize-winning author of Blues in the Night
“Bruce Kimmel’s latest page-turner is set in the year I came to Hollywood and is dense with the places I went to, dishes I ordered, thinly-disguised fat people I worked with and—wait a minute, I think I’m in it! Read it before I sue. You’ll have a rollicking good time and if you’re as old as I am, a nostalgic ache to go with all your other aches.”
Bruce Vilanch, writer, actor, raconteur, bon vivant, ex-Hollywood Square
“Kimmel’s latest is a briskly-paced private eye tale propelled by snappy repartee and slightly-off-center characters. Set in mid-70s Hollywood, Tis the Season put me in mind of Hammett’s The Thin Man, but only if Nick drank Dr Pepper instead of martinis.”
Bill Fitzhugh, author of Pest Control and A Perfect Harvest
Aren’t those blurbs simply blurbilicious? I like them very much and I don’t care who knows it or even who nose it.
Yesterday was another day in which I had a lot of trouble falling asleep and I think I only got four hours, much the same as the evening before. I answered e-mails, shaved and showered, and then moseyed on over to the theater for our matinee and talkback. After, I ended up coming home, so I ordered a pulled pork sandwich from Barbie-Q with a tiny side of mac-and-cheese. It arrived about forty minutes later and was great. It’s probably been a year since I last ordered from there and it was as tasty as ever. After that, for dessert, I had a chocolate Entenmann’s donut with some Swiss Vanilla ice cream and that hit the spot after which the spot hit it. Then I watched The Call, printed out my receipt for tomorrow’s flight, and then Vivaldi made an appearance.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll do whatever needs doing, I’ll write, I’ll eat something light but fun or, conversely, something fun but light, and then I’ll watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow, I’ll be up early and to the airport by eleven at the latest for my flight to the Vegas of Las. I’ll arrive there at noon-thirty and Uber to Bally’s for the event at which I’ll be speaking. I know I’m fourth on the program. After that’s over, I’ll hang out and meet people, then I’ll Uber back to the airport and fly back home. Robert Yacko is meeting me at nine and we’ll go have a meal somewhere and he’ll take me home. The rest of the week is meetings and meals and writing, not necessarily in that order. Then we have our third weekend of shows. I’m not sure I’ll be attending any of them – we’ll see how I’m feeling.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up when I’m up, do whatever needs doing, write, eat something light but fun, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: Have you been to Las Vegas and, if so, was it to your liking? Also, has it just been this thing they now call Las Vegas, or were you there in the Golden Age before it became like Disneyland? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have gotten three count them three blurbilicious blurbs for the new book.