Well, dear readers, now that I have both blurbs for the new book, I suppose I should reveal what hasn’t been revealed heretofore or even foretohere. The first thing I can say unequivocally is novella my ASS. But here’s the story of how this came to be. Three months ago, it was the anniversary of the death of someone I knew when I was younger. I wrote about her when she passed and that was back in 2013. That got me to thinking about something I’ve been thinking about since 2010. I never thought about it to the point where I actually wanted to do something about it, but this time was different. So, I called Muse Margaret and ran the idea by her, and she thought it was a great idea and told me that if I was thinking about it that strongly then the time was right. The idea was that I’d write a short novella, maybe 150 pages and 25,000 words. As you know, I’d already written a novel this year, Preview Harvey, and I’d never written two novels in one year. The most I’d done was one novel and the book of short stories in one year, but several of those stories were already written. This was something wholly other. So, I just buckled down, Winsocki and began to write. I wrote about thirty-four pages and sent them to Muse Margaret, and she loved them. But even with thirty-four pages it was clear that this was not going to be a novella in any way, shape, or form and indeed that was correct. Before I go any further with this story, let me show you the two blurbs – of course, they give it away and that’s the way I want to give it away because the rest of the story will make more sense if you know what the HELL I’m talking about. Here are the blurbs, done by two people I felt had to blurb it for reasons you’ll shortly understand. And here we go.
“The lost years are found! This required reading in Bruce Kimmel’s memorable saga of Benjamin Kritzer—guess we’ll never break the code of those initials!—proves him once again to be the Saroyan of Showbiz. If Holden Caulfield and Sal Paradise opted to go On the Road to William Morris, they could not have created a more entertaining or endearing journal than this vibrant, empathic memoir. I laughed, I cried, I ached, I avoided the draft! Discover again what it was to be young, wide-eyed, starstruck, indefatigably resilient, and unjustifiably optimistic in the most freewheeling decade ever. We all remember the class clown … now meet the classiest clown, as Benjamin Kritzer comes of age on many stages and for the ages.”
Rupert Holmes
New York Times Bestselling Author
and fan of all things Kritzer
“Set in the mid-to-late 1960s, Kimmel’s new novel covers his literary doppelganger Benjamin Kritzer‘s college years—a period fraught with teenage romance, some sweetly innocent, others complex and frustrating, friendships, parental problems (his father runs afoul of Bad Men and has to “take it on the lam”), auto and motorbike accidents and even the chilling aspect of a Vietnam War draft. But as entrancing as these smoothly written sub-plots are, along with Kimmel’s razor-sharp memory of 60s movies, music and the environs of his cherished Hollywood, they don’t quite share center stage with Benjamin’s true love—performing in plays and musicals at Los Angeles City College. When the young actor learns of his casting as the lead in his favorite musical Stop the World—I Want to Get Off, Kimmel’s careful description of his joy makes it a believable “Once in a Lifetime” experience.”
Dick Lochte
Author of Blues in the Night
Now that you know WHAT it is, here is the book cover.
So, why? That is the question. Why, twenty years after Kritzer Time, this book? Well, I’ll tell you why. I wrote my first three books because I wanted my Darling Daughter to know what made her father her father. The three books were, of course, thinly veiled fictions of my childhood from birth to seventeen and my high school graduation. Then I wrote my two memoirs, the first of which began with my marriage in 1968 and went to 1993. My second memoir began where the previous one had left off and went to 2005. After that, my entire life is there for all to see in my daily blog. So, the Darling Daughter had a complete picture of her dad’s life. Only not quite. As I said above, back in 2013, someone I knew passed away and I wrote a blog about her, and at the end of it I said that had I written a fourth Kritzer book she would have played a major role in it. That got me thinking that there were these missing three years – from the time I graduated high school to the time I got married – and that those years really shaped who I am. There was so much that happened in those three years, and I sort of put it in my head that maybe someday I’d write about them. And that’s how Kritzer World came to be, all 462 manuscript pages of it and 355 actual book pages, which is, interestingly, almost the exact same length as Kritzer Time, covering the exact same amount of time – three years. I had a lot of fun writing it, going back to those years. Luckily, whenever I was confused about a timeline, my cousin Dee Dee, who, back then was not my cousin but a dear and very close friend, had everything written down. It was astonishing, really. Of course, the book is a work of fiction so I moved things around in certain instances if it made the storytelling cleaner and clearer. I also had a ton of LACC memorabilia from back then – programs, photos, just incredible stuff I hadn’t looked at in years.
Then two extraordinary things happened that made me know that this was the exact right time to write this book. The first had to do with a girl I knew from back then. I’d already written a short story about her, but the entire last half was complete fiction, as I never knew what happened to her after I knew her. I’ve searched for her but never have been able to find her. I knew I had the right name because a former roommate of mine from back then remembered her well – what I didn’t realize was she’d gone to my high school and was a year ahead of me. So, I’m writing this book. Tell me what the odds of this are: This guy who I did a couple of shows with at Bluth Brothers Theater posts on Facebook, and he made this silly post where he quoted “When all the world is a hopeless jumble” etc. and asked if anyone knew what that was the introductory verse for. I, of course, responded, but without naming the song and instead saying, “All I can tell you is the silver makeup almost killed me.” Yes, I’d played the Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz at Bluth Brothers. Surprisingly, no one responded with the name of the song until two weeks later. And to my complete shock and astonishment, it was the girl I’d been searching for all those years, alive and well. I private messaged her and posted on her page asking her if she remembered me. She finally responded and said she did not. We went back and forth, I providing details and she not remembering. Now, I knew it was her because she had photos from back then. She finally admitted to me that during those years she was very disconnected from herself and that made perfect sense, as she was a little nutty, as you’ll read. As I said, what are the odds?
Then a couple of weeks later, I’d just written about working at Wallichs Music City in the sheet music department back in 1967. And again, I posted in some Facebook thread by someone I knew and answered some question that was being posed. And I get this response: Are you one and the same Bruce Kimmel that worked at Wallichs Music City, during the mid to late 60’s? The Bruce I knew managed the Sheet Music department. I was the PBX/Receptionist. Again, what are the odds of this? It was like when I wrote GEE and that SUV cut in front of me and the license plate was GEE – what are the odds?
Anyway, we’ll start taking pre-orders later this week and we will definitely have them shipped in plenty of time for Christmas. In fact, I happen to think a splendidly splendid Christmas present for those who haven’t read the Kritzer books, would be all four books. But if you read the first three, I do think you’ll enjoy this one. It was grand fun to get back in that style of writing, which was very specific. So, there you have it.
Yesterday was barely okay. I only got four hours of sleep, got up, answered e-mails, but was just so out of it I just sat around here doing nothing. At various points during the day I’d doze off for thirty minutes or an hour or even longer. I made pasta with butter, cheese, and onions for food, ate it, it was okay, but I just was too in a haze to be productive.
I got the second blurb and that made me VERY happy, I had a conversation with Muse Margaret and one with Doug Haverty about our casting for 70, Girls, 70 and I wrote almost all of the flap copy for Kritzer World. I suspect the dust jacket rear and flaps will be complete by Wednesday or Thursday. I’m hoping to have the designed book back today or tomorrow – I just didn’t want to do the final proofing until the page numbers were right, so that if I needed to fix something it would be the correct pages. Then we can final proof that and then it can go to the publisher.
Today, I’ll be up by eleven, I’ll pray for a modern major miracle, I’ll do whatever needs doing, I’ll post about the new book on Facebook, I’ll eat, and then we have a preview at eight o’clock.
Tomorrow is exactly the same, then we open on Thursday and there’ll be a little after the performance. Then I have to set up a couple of rehearsals for the actor who’ll be playing the rest of the run starting next weekend. We’ll have another casting session so we can finalize the complete cast and we can get everyone their scripts and scores, and I have a couple of meetings and meals, too. I don’t intend to see the show on the weekend but will attend the Q&A on Sunday.
Let’s all put on our pointy party hats and our colored tights and pantaloons, let’s all break out the cheese slices and ham chunks, let’s all dance the Hora and the Frug, for today is the birthday of our beloved dear reader elmore. So, let’s give a big haineshisway.com birthday cheer to our beloved dear reader elmore. On the count of three: One, two, three – A BIG HAINESHISWAY.COM BIRTHDAY CHEER TO OUR BELOVED DEAR READER ELMORE!!!
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by eleven, pray for a modern major miracle, do whatever needs doing, post about the book on Facebook, eat, and attend our first preview. Today’s topic of discussion: How many here have read the three Kritzer books? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have finally revealed the new book – novella my ASS.