StanleyWheeler

Smoke is finished! I sat down this morning and wrapped it up. It's a bittersweet pill, completing this work. I put a lot into it, and enjoyed every bit of it. Of course, I still have to do the cover (for which I need someone to give me a cigarette to use; part of the cover photo will feature diaphanous tendrils coiling upward from the cancer stick), and have it proofread, and complete the formatting...but the creation, the writing, the assembly of the monster is complete; the rest is just connecting the wires and calling down the lightning. I'll be treading on the wafting ether for a few days contemplating the completion of the endeavor. The book is inspired by the likes of The Big Sleep , The Maltese Falcon , This Gun for Hire , and a slew of others, including My Favorite Brunette . Bogey would have been a great choice to play the protagonist; Alan Ladd might have been an even better choice. Some other time, I'll think about living actors who might play the roles o...

Lake was not like any of the people that I encountered at a recent hospital visit, but her name is similar to the name of a pulchritudinous character in my noir novel. Veronica was a different kind of beauty than the Monica of my novel, but she was still a beauty; although, the character named Pip from my book probably resembles Veronica Lake a little bit. Here is a picture of Veronica from This Gun for Hire , co-staring Alan Ladd. Enjoy the picture and then read about the hospital visit, given from the point of view of an unimportant character in an old crime movie. We walked into the joint through a torrential downpour. My forehead felt like it was Niagra Falls. My two associates, a man and a woman, went to confirm the appointment with one of the henchmen who keep out the riffraff, meaning those who can't pay to play. This particular henchman was a dame. She called me over from her seat behind a desk covered in a pale wood veneer. It was the desk that was covered, not the ...