Authors Electric

I've been asked if Frank Ritz - the Hollywood private detective in my recently released novel, The Phantom Eye and its forthcoming sequel, Do or Die - is me. I do identify with him in several ways, and we do share some characteristics and attitudes, but my answer is a qualified no. I didn't intend Frank Ritz Mysteries as a memoir, even though lots of its major characters and events are drawn from real life. Among things we share: We're both devout, and soft-hearted cynics whose views blow leftward. We're both feckless, introspective and drawn to outcasts and eccentrics. Frank and I grew up in the Hollywood District of Los Angeles during the noir film era. Both our moms were stage and screen performers. Frank's mother, however, is also a little person, modelled on a departed actress friend. And we've both suffered from depression. Circumstances divide us dramatically, however, starting with age: Frank is of my father's generation having served in World War ...

Lately, I've been reading – or I should say, tripping on –  The Beginning of Infinity  [New York, Penguin Group, 2011] by  Oxford theoretical physicist  David Deutsch , also best-selling author of  The Fabric of Reality . Professor Deutsch  speculates that much of what happens in fiction is close to a reality somewhere in the  multiverse . As a writer, I find that comforting, especially when I postulate that Deutsch's projection could just as well apply to the abandoned narratives that litter my garden of forking drafts.       Maybe the happenings in my uncompleted drafts actually occurred in dimensions where momentary universes collapse due to off-kilter physical laws. Not being a mathematician, I can't work out the equations, but this projection might serve me well in offsetting blame for failed drafts. It wasn't me. It was those darn skewed dimensions. Indeed, a draft can seem copacetic one day, and melt off the page w...

Lately, I've been reading – or I should say, tripping on – The Beginning of Infinity [New York, Penguin Group, 2011] by Oxford theoretical physicist David Deutsch , also best-selling author of The Fabric of Reality . Professor Deutsch speculates that much of what happens in fiction is close to a reality somewhere in the multiverse . As a writer, I find that comforting, especially when I postulate that Deutsch's projection could just as well apply to the abandoned narratives that litter my garden of forking drafts.      Maybe the happenings in my uncompleted drafts actually occurred in dimensions where momentary universes collapse due to off-kilter physical laws. Not being a mathematician, I can't work out the equations, but this projection might serve me well in offsetting blame for failed drafts. It wasn't me. It was those darn skewed dimensions. Indeed, as I wrote them, everything seemed to be going along just fine until, one day I open the file and, nightmare...