Category Archives: Fiction

Jung can kiss my archetypal ass.

September 14, 2019 by Vickie Lester

Hello, The gentleman pictured here is the director William Wyler. He is working on Mrs. Miniver, released in 1942. I love this photo. I love its intensity. Which leads me to today’s excerpt of Hollywood & Mine. I’ve jumped way ahead in the book, Billie, babysitter to the stars, has aged considerably, become a studio head and is coping, the best she can, with a troubled production… HOLLYWOOD & MINE By Susannah Corwin “People in the East pretend to be […]

Categories: Blogging, Books, Culture, Design, Entertainment, fashion, Fiction, Film, History, Hollywood, Los Angeles, Memoir, Movies, Photography, Story, Theater, Truth & Rumors, Uncategorized, Writing • Tags: #hollywood&mine, a novel in which real people or events appear with invented names, Alfred Hitchcock, archetype, babysitter to the stars, behind the camera, behind the scenes, Bilbo Baggins, chitinous, exoskeleton, gender bias, Hollywood director, Hollywood novel, on set, roman à clef, Script Supervisor, William Wyler

Weaving spiders, come not here. Hence, you long legged spinners, hence!

September 13, 2019 by Vickie Lester

Unlike Titania I have no fairies to sing me to sleep or to enact vermin control by incantation. If you’re wondering what daft line of thought I’m following I will let Mr. Shakespeare explain: A Midsummer Night’s Dream SCENE II. Another part of the wood. Enter Titania, Queen of Fairies, with her train. TITANIA Come, now a roundel and a fairy song; Then, for the third part of a minute, hence— Some to kill cankers in the muskrose buds, Some […]

Categories: Art, Blogging, Books, Culture, Design, Entertainment, fashion, Fiction, Film, Hollywood, Humor, Life, Literature, London, Los Angeles, Memoir, Movies, Photography, Story, Theater, Truth & Rumors, Uncategorized, Writing • Tags: #HollywoodNoir, A Midsummer Night's Dream, a novel in which real people or events appear with invented names, Cecil B. DeMille musical, growing old gracefully, Madam Satan 1930, queen of fairies, Shakespeare, Titania

“Billie? Your name’s Billie?” He seemed surprised I was a girl…

September 8, 2019 by Vickie Lester

HOLLYWOOD & MINE By Susannah Corwin “People in the East pretend to be interested in how pictures are made, but if you actually tell them anything, you find they are only interested in Colbert’s clothes or Gable’s private life. They never see the ventriloquist for the doll.” Scott Fitzgerald 3. I was working in a seafood bar. It was called Toninno’s and was owned by my mother’s second cousin’s husband, Silvio. He was what Brits of the upper-middle class might […]

Categories: Art, Blogging, Books, Culture, Design, Entertainment, fashion, Fiction, Film, History, Hollywood, Literature, Los Angeles, Memoir, Photography, Story, Truth & Rumors, Uncategorized, Writing • Tags: #hollywood&mine, a novel in which real people or events appear with invented names, behind the scenes, book preview, Hollywood, Katharine Hepburn, Movie Star, novel excerpt, read

I found myself doing something that if I hadn’t been so high would have confirmed the nagging feeling that I wasn’t exactly making the best use of my time at college

September 7, 2019 by Vickie Lester

HOLLYWOOD & MINE By Susannah Corwin “People in the East pretend to be interested in how pictures are made, but if you actually tell them anything, you find they are only interested in Colbert’s clothes or Gable’s private life. They never see the ventriloquist for the doll.” Scott Fitzgerald 2. The truth was I hailed from Cape Anne, Massachusetts. I was the daughter of what my mother rather archaically referred to as nautical stock. Cape Anne was a place whose […]

Categories: Art, Blogging, Books, Culture, Design, Entertainment, fashion, Fiction, Film, History, Hollywood, Literature, Los Angeles, Memoir, Photography, Story, Travel, Truth & Rumors, Uncategorized, Writing • Tags: #hollywood&mine, a novel in which real people or events appear with invented names, book preview, Gene Tierney, Hollywood, novel, novel excerpt, read, scrimshaw

Feeling as sensuous and sophisticated as the woman who romped with Louis XV…

September 2, 2019 by Vickie Lester

HOLLYWOOD & MINE By Susannah Corwin “People in the East pretend to be interested in how pictures are made, but if you actually tell them anything, you find they are only interested in Colbert’s clothes or Gable’s private life. They never see the ventriloquist for the doll.” Scott Fitzgerald 1. There’s a hardware store on Santa Monica Boulevard, just over the border from Beverly Hills in West Hollywood, which sells thick orange rubber gloves named after a famous French courtesan, […]

Categories: Advertising, Art, Blogging, Books, Culture, Design, Entertainment, fashion, Fiction, Film, History, Hollywood, Literature, Los Angeles, Memoir, Movies, Photography, Story, Truth & Rumors, Uncategorized, Writing • Tags: #hollywood&mine, a novel in which real people or events appear with invented names, book preview, Hollywood, Madame du Barry, novel, read, roman à clef

long time no see…

August 31, 2019 by Vickie Lester

You know how I am about word derivations, I find them fascinating. Long time no see may be something coined from a clumsy 1930s Hollywood attempt to mimic the English of Native Americans, or it could be a direct translation from a Mandarin Chinese phrase 好久不见: (Pinyin) hǎojiǔ bù jiàn. It doesn’t take the abilities of Sherlock Holmes to detect I’ve been absent from social media. Instead of carrying on a conversation here I have been writing a novel, and […]

Categories: Advertising, Art, Audio, Blogging, Books, Culture, Design, Entertainment, fashion, Fiction, Film, Friendship, History, Hollywood, Literature, Los Angeles, Memoir, Movies, Photography, Story, Truth & Rumors, Uncategorized, Writing • Tags: #hollywood&mine, a novel in which real people or events appear with invented names, book preview, Ginger Rogers, Hollywood, novel, roman à clef, Sherlock Holmes, social media, story pitch

I’m a hopeless romantic…

July 2, 2019 by Vickie Lester

And it’s not only people that make my heart flutter…so can a beautiful building, or the angle of light on a linen pillow case… That said, I have been taking a long break from blogging, working on the new novel and refining my 1924 Spanish Revival home. Household maintenance is like painting the Golden Gate Bridge, you finish and start over again — throw in much needed restoration projects — and months and money disappear. Unlike the marvelous Marilyn […]

Categories: Architecture, Art, Blogging, Books, Culture, Design, Entertainment, fashion, Fiction, Film, History, Hollywood, Life, Literature, Los Angeles, Marriage, Memoir, Movies, Palm Springs, Photography, Romance, Story, Theater, Travel, Truth & Rumors, Uncategorized, Writing • Tags: #amwriting, #evearnold, #hopelessromantic, #itsinhiskissbyvickielester, #lovestory, #spanishrevival, Hollywood, MarilynMonroe, novel, Vickie Lester is writing a new novel

“Fruitcake is my kryptonite,” an admission from a friend…

November 18, 2018 by Vickie Lester

“He left Hollywood and renounced the pursuit of fame, joining a brotherhood of Franciscans who supported their monastery by refilling ink cartridges and baking fruitcake, available at Amazon.com.” That’s a line from my first novel, summing up the future for an actor in dire need of redemption. Obviously fruitcake means something to me too, and I wouldn’t be stretching it to say it has to do with the transformative act of baking. Every November I stir this batter together and […]

Categories: Art, Blogging, Books, Christmas, Cooking, Culture, Design, Entertainment, Fiction, Film, Friendship, Gastronomy, History, Hollywood, Los Angeles, Memoir, Recipes, Thanksgiving, Uncategorized, Writing • Tags: #amwriting another novel about Hollywood, a Hollywood whodunnit, baking raises my spirits, british wedding cake, climate crisis, comfort baking, fruitcake, fruitcake recipe, recipe

Strangers on the internet — Exchanging glances

September 8, 2018 by Vickie Lester

Wondering on the internet What were the chances… Hello, Mercury! Sorry, got distracted there for a minute. Shall we get reacquainted? I used to post here all the damn time about things that struck my fancy, like Hollywood history, cool architecture, and fabulous books. Then I self-published a novel, and poppets, I did go on and on. Then a couple of things happened, I was in the midst of writing another book when the political scene went cockeyed, and I […]

Categories: Advertising, Art, Blogging, Books, Culture, Design, Entertainment, Fiction, Film, Friendship, History, Hollywood, Life, Literature, Los Angeles, Memoir, Movies, Publishing, Story, Truth & Rumors, Uncategorized, Writing • Tags: #amwriting, Aldous Huxley, Anita Loos, Hollywood novel, narrative, rewrite, voice

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