The GROVE POINT PRESS

January 28, 2011

             Why am I Writing again?

            After nearly three decades of surviving in the television business as a writer
and a producer, I exited stage right in search of a serene life style as I made
my way toward eternity. Serene turned out to be an inappropriate description.
Doldrums is far more accurate so three years ago I dusted off my manual
typewriter (literally) and with some trepidation, tried to put my years of experience
into writing a novel. I had no interest in reviving a television career.TV is a
young person's game. The studio executives and the network poobahs are all
sub-30's and we speak different languages. Besides, writing for television and the
wealth and success it can bestow on you also demands that you give up a
certain measure of intellectual freedom. Again, no interest. Not at my age.
           I had a great deal of success in television , most notably with "Murder,
She Wrote" which I co-created. I also ran the show for the first seven years. One of
the things that bothered me most was the fact that the show and its main character
never progressed. Aside from graduating from English teacher to world famous
author in the first season, Jessica Fletcher was the same in the first year as she
was in the seventh. This is a key reason why a television show becomes and remains a hit: Predictability which translates to audience comfort and huge ratings.
Fiddle with the tried and true at your own peril. I cite Moonlighting and Remington
Steele.
           I have two great loves. Murder mystery and historic Hollywood, the so-called
good old days when stars were bigger than life or at least seemed to be. So when
I sat down and rested my fingers on the keyboard I was determined to do something that would meld my two passions into one entity. Out of this was born "The Hollywood Murder Mysteries".
           My protagonist is untypical. Joe Bernardi is a publicity man who works for a
studio, churning up excitement for the studio's product or, in some cases, trying
to put the lid on some of the less savory activities of  the studio's stars. "Love
Has Nothing to Do With It" is the third book in a series of five (so far) and possibly
as many as a dozen .
          In Book One Joe is 28,  a correspondent for "Stars and Srtripes", and has just returned from Europe at the end of WWII, to find work and reunite with his wife Lydia whom he married in a fit of passion in '44 just before he was shipped overseas. Realizing they are different people now,  Lydia divorces him unwilling to try to save the marriage. Joe carries a torch like a lovesick teenager but at book's end realizes that his dead marriage will never come back to life.
          In Book Three, "Love Has Nothing to Do With It", Lydia finds herself accused
of murdering the philandering theatrical agent she was involved with in Book One.
Meanwhile Joe is living as man and wife with perky, adorable Bunny Lesher and this is as close to true love as he has ever gotten. But when he tries to help clear
Lydia, it has a devastating effect on Bunny who comes close to total breakdown.
Lydia is exonerated and Bunny is saved from self-destruction but her relationship with Joe will never be the same as demonstrated in Books Four and Five.
         In short, I am arcing story lines from one book to the next as Joe matures and
the circumstances of his life change from year to year. His half-finished novel is
cited in Book One. In Book Four it's finished and in the hands of a publisher but
suddenly he discovers that a screenplay that is a clone of his book is floating around town.  He goes after the plagiarist who ends up dead.
         To add to the fun, all of the books (except Book One set in 1947) will have Joe simultaneously working to publicize a Warner Brothers movie. In 1948 it's
"Treasure of the Sierra Madre"". In 1949 it's "White Heat".  In 1950 "The Glass
Menagerie". In all these books I have invented scenes which include the actors,directors and writers associated with each picture. Joe sharing a beer
with Bogart. Joe helping Cagney umpire a kids baseball game for charity.
Joe juggling three talented actresses each of whom thinks she should win this
year's Oscar. Joe getting writing advice from Tennessee Williams.
         This is the kind of thing I could never do with "Murder,She Wrote" but am having the time of my life doing with "Love Has Nothing to Do With It" and the rest of the books in the series.
           So much for the retirement doldrums.