Subscribe to THE KEPT GIRL, a noir novel by Kim Cooper

L.A. historian/author Kim Cooper, renowned for her Esotouric bus tours into “the secret heart of Los Angeles,” recently completed her noir novel THE KEPT GIRL – and is offering readers a terrific opportunity to subscribe to the book’s first printing (details at thekeptgirl.com).

The prestigious Kirkus Reviews recently featured THE KEPT GIRL in an article entitled “Eight Tales to Warm You Up for the New Year.” Mark your calendar for the launch party at Skylight books in Los Angeles on Thursday, 2/13/14.

The subscription offer — available through early January 2014 — features a variety of benefits, including the subscriber’s name prominently acknowledged in all copies of the book,  which will arrive enclosed in a limited-edition decorative slipcase. Book lovers, collectors, hardboiled fiction fans, don’t miss this chance to take part in a true publishing event. Considering all the benefits, this first-class publication is a tremendous bargain at just $65.

Before Raymond Chandler became LA’s crime laureate, he was an LA oil company executive. Inspired by this historic nugget, Kim Cooper, social historian and co-founder of Esotouric, spins Chandler’s early LA years, a sinister 1920s angel-worshipping cult, an LAPD cop and a heroine who is much more than a ‘kept girl’ into a deeply researched and compulsively readable crime novel.”

Denise Hamilton, author of DAMAGE CONTROL & editor of Edgar Award-winning anthology LOS ANGELES NOIR

ABOUT THIS PUBLISHING METHOD: The Subscription model of publishing flourished in England in the 17th Century. Instead of relying on a single regal (and often capricious) patron, authors and publishers cultivated a select group of literate, engaged readers and collectors whose support encouraged and enabled the publication of books that would otherwise be prohibitively expensive to produce. Through Subscription-sponsored publication, important atlases, geographies, and histories saw the light, along with great literature, including Milton’s Paradise Lost.

ABOUT THE BOOK: Kim Cooper‘s The Kept Girl is inspired by a sensational real-life Los Angeles cult murder spree which exploded into the public consciousness when fraud charges were filed against the cult’s leaders in 1929. The victim was the nephew of oil company president Joseph Dabney, Raymond Chandler‘s boss. In the novel, Chandler, still several years away from publishing his first short story, is one of three amateur detectives who uncover the ghastly truth about the Great Eleven cult over one frenetic week. Informed by the author’s extensive research into the literary, spiritual, criminal and architectural history of Southern California, The Kept Girl is a terrifying noir love story, set against the backdrop of a glittering pre-crash metropolis. To learn more about the book, visit the author’s blog. Sign up for the newsletter to receive occasional updates. Read a sample chapter here.

Kim Cooper is the perfect Virgil to 1929 Los Angeles, a city that was both a paradise and an inferno. Her knowledge of the city that was is unparalleled, her imagination unnerving. The real-life characters and crimes that would give birth to the pulp fiction of the 1930s and the film noir of the 1940s can all be found here. Aficionados of noir Los Angeles will read The Kept Girl with fascination and with growing horror as the terrible crime at its core is revealed.” 

John Buntin, author of L.A. NOIR

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Kim Cooper is the creator of 1947project, the crime-a-day time travel blog that spawned Esotouric’s popular crime bus tours, including Pasadena Confidential, the Real Black Dahlia and Weird West Adams. Her collaborative L.A. history blogs include On Bunker Hill and In SRO Land. With husband Richard Schave, Kim curates the Salons of LAVA–The Los Angeles Visionaries Association. When the third generation Angeleno isn’t combing old newspapers for forgotten scandals, she is a passionate advocate for historic preservation of signage,vernacular architecture and writer’s homes. Kim was for many years the editrix of Scram, a journal of unpopular culture. Her books include Fall in Love For Life, Bubblegum Music is the Naked Truth, Lost in the Grooves and an oral history of the cult band Neutral Milk Hotel. The Kept Girl is her first novel.

COVER ART: Paul Rogers

Reviews for Silver Birch Press NOIR Erasure Poetry Anthology

The Silver Birch Press NOIR Erasure Poetry Anthology (December 2013) — a collection of erasure poems based on the writings of a range of noir authors, including James M. Cain, Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, Patricia Highsmith, Walter Mosley, Robert B. Parker, and Cornell Woolrich — has earned some outstanding reviews at Amazon.com.

Here are some excerpts:

…a wonderful concept.”

…an interesting mix that pays homage to both the works of the noir genre and the poetic form…”

…one of the most fun and just amazing books of erasure poetry that I have ever read.”

… I am intrigued by the many different ways in which these poems were shaped from the original texts of noir writers’ novels. These marked-out passages combined with Budziak’s shadowy woodcut cover art throws the reader into the low-key and mysterious setting of the noir.”

The 122-page anthology features the work of 46 writers from around the world:  Jeffrey C. Alfier / Beth Ayer / Jenni B. Baker / David Barker / Kathy Burkett / Candace Butler / Freda Butler / Kim Cooper / Subhankar Das / Andrea Dickens / Barbara Eknoian / Chris Forhan / Laura Hartenberger / Paul Hawkins / Deborah Herman / Sandra Herman / Mathias Jansson / Jax NTP / Rosemarie Keenan / Wm. Todd King/ Joseph Lisowski / Renee Mallett / Adrian Manning/ Karen Margolis / Catfish McDaris / Marcia Meara / james w. moore / Sarah Nichols / Winston Plowes / David S. Pointer / D.A. Pratt / David Rachels / Jonne Rhodes / Van Roberts / Daniel Romo / Tere Sievers / Gerald So / Sherry Steiner / Caitlin Stern / Scott Stoller / Thomas R. Thomas / Mary Umans / Melanie Villines / Mercedes Webb-Pullman / Richard Wink / Joanie Hieger Fritz Zosike

A special note of appreciation to you the anthology’s contributing editors: Jenni B. Baker, Catfish McDaris, james w. moore, and Gerald So. Major thanks, too, to Guy Budziak for allowing Silver Birch Press to feature his woodcut of William Conrad — as seen in the 1946 film The Killers — on the cover of the collection. For more of Guy Budziak‘s work, please visit filmnoirwoodcuts.com.

For fans of mystery, crime, and hardboiled fiction, as well as film noir, the Silver Birch Press NOIR Erasure Poetry Anthology is an interesting, unique, and inexpensive holiday gift. The book is currently available for $10.58 from Amazon.com.

Hollywood Hills Noir, poem by Laurel Ann Bogen

HOLLYWOOD HILLS NOIR
by Laurel Ann Bogen

Aberration of weather studs
the sloe eyed city where change
gels in ripples after due process
I could go deeper
pry open the locked vault
below, combustible fossils bubble
in tar and petroleum beneath
Wilshire Blvd. — the jacaranda’s roots
divide the house
Los Angeles
erupts in violet blossoms
each spring the profusion
is uncontained by stucco

Nature needs tending, or course
every few years the plates shift
the photogenic councilman is arrested
and somebody takes a fall
That’s how I came here — by a calling
as surely as the devil herself
cloaked in the need to be seen
in filtered light
latticed with faultlines
and an underground whirlpool
as profligate as oil.

“Hollywood Hills Noir” appears in Laurel Ann Bogen‘s collection Washing a Language (Red Hen Press, 2004), available at Amazon.com.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Laurel Ann Bogen is the author of 10 books of poetry and short fiction, and from 1996 until 2002 was literary curator at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. She has been an instructor of poetry and performance for the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program since 1990 and received the Outstanding Instructor of the Year in Creative Writing in 2008. Selected “Best Female Poet/Performer” by the L.A. Weekly in their Best of L.A. issue, she is well-known for her lively readings and is a founding member of the acclaimed poetry performance troupe, Nearly Fatal Women. The recipient of the Curtis Zahn Poetry Prize from the Pacificus Foundtion and two awards from the Academy of American Poets, her work has appeared in over 100 literary magazines and anthologies.

Photo: “The Famed Hollywood Sign from Bronson Canyon” by Corey Miller, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Editor’s Notes: Silver Birch Press NOIR Erasure Poetry Anthology

Silver Birch Press NOIR Erasure Poetry Anthology

Released: December 7, 2013

Size: 122 pages (5.5 x 8.5″)

Available in paperback for $10.60 at Amazon.com

EDITOR’S NOTES

WHY: As a longtime fan of hardboiled detective fiction and film noir, and an aficionado of found poetry, I wondered what would happen if the two were combined. A call for submissions on the Silver Birch Press blog, as well as requests from our contributing editors to their colleagues resulted in a wide range of submissions, including those featured in the Silver Birch Press NOIR Erasure Poetry Anthology. 

WHAT: So just what is an erasure poem? Take a page from any book, cross out or whiteout some of the words and the remaining words constitute the erasure poem. The Silver Birch Press Noir Erasure Poetry Anthology pays homage to noir authors—including genre founders Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett, as well as other authors of crime fiction whose work served as source material.

WHO: My thanks to the 46 poets represented in the collection (find their names in this post), as well as the 16 noir authors whose writing served as inspiration. A special thank you to contributing editors Jenni B. Baker, Catfish McDaris, james w. moore, and Gerald So—accomplished poets and authors who encouraged their writing colleagues to participate in the collection. Thanks, too, to Guy Budziak for his stunning cover art. (View more of the artist’s work at filmnoirwoodcuts.com.)

DEDICATION: Noir and erasure poetry are a perfect match—stark, pared down, elemental, bare bones.  As the author who invented L.A. Noir and elevated prose to poetry, we dedicate the Silver Birch Press NOIR Erasure Poetry Anthology to Raymond Chandler.

WHERE: Find the Silver Birch Press NOIR Erasure Poetry Anthology — an interesting, unique (and inexpensive) holiday gift for lovers of crime fiction (and poetry!) — at Amazon.com.

Write fast, quote by Raymond Chandler

The faster I write, the better my output. If I’m going slow, I’m in trouble. It means I am pushing the words instead of being pulled by them.”

RAYMOND CHANDLER

Writing Advice from Raymond Chandler

WRITING ADVICE FROM RAYMOND CHANDLER:

• A writer who is afraid to overreach himself is as useless as a general who is afraid to be wrong.

• Technique alone is never enough. You have to have passion. Technique alone is just an embroidered potholder… The moment a man begins to talk about technique that’s proof that he is fresh out of ideas.

• The most durable thing in writing is style, and style is the single most valuable investment a writer can make with his time. It [style] is a projection of personality and you have to have a personality before you can project it. It is the product of emotion and perception.

• The challenge is to write about real things magically.

• The more you reason the less you create.

• Don’t ever write anything you don’t like yourself and if you do like it, don’t take anyone’s advice about changing it.

• I am a writer, and there comes a time when that which I write has to belong to me, has to be written alone and in silence, with no one looking over my shoulder, no one telling me a better way to write it. It doesn’t have to be great writing, it doesn’t even have to be terribly good. It just has to be mine.

Photo: Raymond Chandler’s novels

New Release: Silver Birch Press NOIR Erasure Poetry Anthology

Silver Birch Press is excited to announce the December 2013 release of the NOIR Erasure Poetry Anthology — a collection of erasure poems based on the writings of a range of noir authors, including James M. Cain, Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, Patricia Highsmith, Walter Mosley, Robert B. Parker, and Cornell Woolrich.

The 122-page anthology features the work of 46 writers from around the world:  Jeffrey C. Alfier / Beth Ayer / Jenni B. Baker / David Barker / Kathy Burkett / Candace Butler / Freda Butler / Kim Cooper / Subhankar Das / Andrea Dickens / Barbara Eknoian / Chris Forhan / Laura Hartenberger / Paul Hawkins / Deborah Herman / Sandra Herman / Mathias Jansson / Jax NTP / Rosemarie Keenan / Wm. Todd King/ Joseph Lisowski / Renee Mallett / Adrian Manning/ Karen Margolis / Catfish McDaris / Marcia Meara / james w. moore / Sarah Nichols / Winston Plowes / David S. Pointer / D.A. Pratt / David Rachels / Jonne Rhodes / Van Roberts / Daniel Romo / Tere Sievers / Gerald So / Sherry Steiner / Caitlin Stern / Scott Stoller / Thomas R. Thomas / Mary Umans / Melanie Villines / Mercedes Webb-Pullman / Richard Wink / Joanie Hieger Fritz Zosike

For fans of mystery, crime, and hardboiled fiction, as well as film noir, the Silver Birch Press NOIR Erasure Poetry Anthology is an interesting, unique, and inexpensive holiday gift. The book is currently available for $11.40 from Amazon.com.

A special note of appreciation to you the anthology’s contributing editors: Jenni B. Baker, Catfish McDaris, james w. moore, and Gerald So. Thanks to you, a wide range of established authors contributed their work to the collection. Fedoras off to you!

Major thanks, too, to Guy Budziak for allowing Silver Birch Press to feature his woodcut of William Conrad — as seen in the 1946 film The Killers — on the cover of the collection. For more of Guy Budziak‘s work, please visit filmnoirwoodcuts.com.

Silver Birch Press Noir Erasure Poetry Anthology features over 40 poets from around the world

The soon-to-be-released Silver Birch Press Noir Erasure Poetry Anthology features poems by over 40 poets around the world who based their work on the writings of about 20 different noir authors. No surprise, I’m sure, is that by far the most popular authors were Raymond Chandler (16 poems based on his work) and Dashiell Hammett (9 poems based on his work), with Ross Macdonald coming in third (three poems based on his work). Other classic authors represented in the collection include James M. Cain and Cornell Woolrich, with some current day authors (Dennis Lehane, Walter Mosely, and others) filling out the collection.

Erasure poems are created by photocopying a page from a book, then marking out, whiting out, or in other ways (see examples), eliminating some of the words. The remaining words  constitute the erasure poem.

The Silver Birch Press NOIR Erasure Poetry Anthology will be released by Dec. 1, 2013.

A special thank you to contributing editors Jenni B. Baker, Catfish McDaris, james w. moore, and Gerald So for their fabulous work in bringing fellow authors into the collection and helping spread the word.

Cover: Guy Budziak, filmnoirwoodcuts.com.

Available by Dec. 1st: Silver Birch Press NOIR Erasure Poetry Anthology

Available by December 1, 2013:  Silver Birch Press NOIR Erasure Poetry Anthology — a collection of poems from authors around the world based on the writings of hardboiled detective novelists such as Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, and Ross MacDonald. A special thank you to Guy Budziak, of filmnoirwoodcuts.com, for his beautiful cover art.

Daylight Noir, photographs by Catherine Corman

THE BIG SLEEP (Excerpt)
by Raymond Chandler

We drove away from Las Olindas through a series of little dank beach towns with shack-like houses built down on the sand close to the rumble of the surf and larger houses built back on the slopes behind. A yellow window shone here and there, but most of the houses were dark. A smell of kelp came in off the water and lay on the fog. The tires sang on the moist concrete of the boulevard. The world was a wet emptiness.

We were close to Del Rey before she spoke to me for the first time since we left the drugstore. Her voice had a muffled sound, as if something was throbbing deep under it.

“Drive down by the Del Rey beach club. I want to look at the water.”

****

The above photo and passage from Raymond Chandler‘s novel The Big Sleepappear in the superb photo collectionDaylight Noir byCatherine Corman, with a preface by Jonathan Lethem. A series of photos from the book — including the photo of the Del Ray Beach Club above — were featured in a review by Rollo Romig in The New Yorker (October 7, 2010).

Photo: Del Ray Beach Club by Catherine Corman, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Find Daylight Noir by Catherine Corman at Amazon.com.