Marijuana industry - California - Fiction; Businesspeople - California - Fiction; Park, Mungo, 1771-1806 - Fiction; Discoveries in geography - Fiction; Explorers - Fiction; Africa, West - Fiction; United States - Social life and customs - 20th...
T. Coraghessan Boyle discusses three of his books, “Greasy Lake & Other Stories,” “Water Music,” and “Budding Prospects: A Pastoral.” In “Greasy Lake & Other Stories,” Boyle asks what would it have been like if Dwight D. Eisenhower...
Motion picture authorship; Screenwriters; Motion picture industry - California - Los Angeles
John Sacret Young discusses a book he contributed to, “Doing It For Money.” He begins by talking about how the book was created by the Writer’s Guild Foundation. The Writer’s Guild asked over 100 Hollywood writers to talk about their...
Motion picture authorship; Hollywood (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Kathie Fong Yoneda discusses her book, “The Script-Selling Game.” She begins by explaining the importance of having a short concise summary of a script, so it can be pitched easily and quickly. She talks about her position as the Director of...
T.C. Boyle discusses his book, “East is East.” He describes the young protagonist, Hiro Tanaka, an outcast whose mother is Japanese and father is an American hippie. Boyle goes on to discuss the storyline of the book, set at a writer’s...
Fantasy fiction, American; Science fiction, American
Ray Bradbury discusses his collection of short stories entitled, "Bradbury Stories." He begins by explaining that he chose the one-hundred stories in the collection with the help of his editors because he has such an extensive collection of work....
Ray Bradbury discusses his book, "From the Dust Returned" He begins by explaining the plot of the book and how many of his books and plays begin as short stories. He goes on to discuss his writing process and his belief that writer's block is the...
Venice (Los Angeles, Calif.) - Fiction; Screenwriters - Fiction; Serial murders - Fiction; Private investigators - California - Los Angeles - Fiction
Ray Bradbury discusses his book, "Death Is A Lonely Business." He begins by explaining the plot of the book and how he drew on his experiences living in Venice during the early years of his career. He stresses the importance of a proper setting...
Gerber, Merrill Joan - Family;
Authors, American - 20th century - Family relationships;
Mothers and daughters - United States;
Older women - United States;
Cats - United States
Merrill Joan Gerber discusses her book, “Old Mother, Little Cat: A Writer’s Reflection on Her Kitten, Her Aged Mother… and Life.” She begins by explaining that she often writes stories about her family that are both fact and fiction. She...
Octavia Butler discusses her book, “Fledgling.” Butler describes the character, Shori, and says that Shori is a vampire child that establishes symbiont relationships with others. She says she began writing the novel after having writer’s...
Thomas B. Sawyer discusses his book, “Plots Unlimited: For the Writer of Novels, Short Stories, Plays, Screenplays, and Television Episodes: A Creative Source for Generating a Virtually Limitless Number and Variety of Story Plots and...
Ray Shannon discusses his novel, “Man Eater.” He begins by explaining how his real name is Gar Anthony Haywood, but he decided to write this book under an alias so his readers wouldn’t get confused. He says the book is about a gangster who...
Actresses - Fiction; Older women - Fiction; Motion picture actors and actresses - Fiction; Private investigators - California - Los Angeles - Fiction
Ray Bradbury discusses his book, “Let’s All Kill Constance." He explains that the plot is set in 1960s Los Angeles and follows an unnamed writer who serves as the novel’s narrator. The mystery begins with a visit from an aging Hollywood...
Macdonald, Ross, 1915-1983;
Novelists, American - 20th century - Biography;
Detective and mystery stories - Authorship
Tom Nolan discusses his book, “Ross MacDonald: A Biography.” He begins by explaining why he wrote on Ross Macdonald, the pen name of writer Ken Millar. He talks about Macdonald’s early life growing up with an abusive family. He describes...
Tuscany (Italy) - Social life and customs; Tuscany (Italy) - Description and travel; Doran, Phil - Homes and haunts - Italy - Tuscany
Phil Doran discusses his book, “The Reluctant Tuscan.” He begins by explaining how one day he was surprised by a call from his wife who informed him that she had bought a house in Italy. At the time he was working in Hollywood as a writer, for...
Motion picture authorship; Motion picture plays - Technique
Robert McKee discusses his book, “Story.” He begins by explaining how he is a screenwriter and professor, and how his students have won numerous Academy Awards, Golden Globe awards, and Emmy awards for their writings. He says that a writer...
Runyon, Damon, 1880-1946; Authors, American - 20th century - Biography; Broadway (New York, N.Y.) - Biography
Jimmy Breslin discusses his novel, “Damon Runyon.” He begins by explaining that the book is a non-fiction account of the life of writer Damon Runyon. Breslin talks about following Runyon’s paper trails all over the country and interviewing...
Women murderers - Fiction; Mothers and daughters - Fiction; Foster children - Fiction; Young women - Fiction
Janet Fitch discusses her book, “White Oleander.” She explains that the book follows the protagonist, Astrid, who is the only child of a single mother. Ingrid, Astrid’s mother is an eccentric poet who murders a man for rejecting her. The...
Adult child abuse victims - United States - Biography; Cancer - Patients - United States - Biography; Poets, American - 20th century - Biography; Dine, Carol
Carol Dine discusses her book, “Places in the Bone.” She begins the interview by explaining that the book is a memoir of her life as a child of an abusive father. She shares her thoughts on her father’s physical, verbal, and emotional abuse....
Poland - Fiction; Loss (Psychology) - Fiction; Books and reading - Fiction; Lost literature - Fiction; Immigrants - Fiction; Authors - Fiction
Nicole Krauss discusses her book, “The History of Love.” She begins by explaining the concept of the book, which is that all the characters in the book are inter-connected and forever changed by having read the same book, “The History of...
England - Fiction; Actors - Fiction; Country homes - Fiction; Social classes - Fiction; Married people - Fiction; Television programs - Fiction; Aristocracy (Social class) – Fiction; Gosford Park (Motion picture)
Julian Fellowes discusses his book, “Snobs.” He begins by explaining the plot, which follows Edith Lavery, the only child of an upper-middle class family with social aspirations, living in England during the 1990s. Luckily she is able to obtain...
