write what you know | BEGUILING HOLLYWOOD

I met the mister on a movie set…

November 25, 2018 by Vickie Lester

That’s me in the middle with two green goblins who never made it to the screen. It’s not the movie I met my husband on, that was another movie a few months earlier. My mother was tired of me lurking around the house post-college and the next thing I knew I was learning all sorts of things about low budget non-union movie making — oh, and I met the love of my life one day when we were shooting a […]

Categories: Art, Blogging, Books, Culture, Design, Entertainment, fashion, Film, Friendship, History, Hollywood, Los Angeles, Marriage, Memoir, Movies, Photography, Romance, Story, Travel, Truth & Rumors, Uncategorized, Writing • Tags: #amwriting another novel about Hollywood, anniversary, courtship, first film job, i met the mister, indie film, low budget movie, Production Assistant, romance behind the scenes, write what you know

Aldous Huxley on writing, and the doors of perception…

June 18, 2016 by Vickie Lester

Aldous Huxley, The Art of Fiction No. 24, Paris Review Interviewed by Raymond Fraser, George Wickes It is rather odd to find Aldous Huxley in a suburb of Los Angeles called Hollywood. He lives in an unpretentious hilltop house that suggests the Tudor period of American real-estate history. On a clear day he can look out across miles of cluttered, sprawling city at a broad sweep of the Pacific. Behind him dry brown hills rise to a monstrous sign that […]

Categories: Architecture, Art, Books, Culture, Design, Entertainment, Fiction, Film, History, Hollywood, Literature, Los Angeles, Memoir, Movies, Photography, Travel, Truth & Rumors, Uncategorized, Writing • Tags: Aldous Huxley, Aldous Huxley in Hollywood, Aldous Huxley lived on Deronda Drive, Beachwood Canyon, doors of perception, the art of fiction paris review, write what you know

Book club champions!

October 24, 2014 by Vickie Lester

I went to my first book club meeting—mostly school administrators and teachers—in an area near Los Angeles most famous for a race track where Seabiscuit cleaned up and where the stars bet on horses. Because of the attendees background they were very interested in the writing and editorial process. I told them stories of having my poetic license revoked by a demanding editor, and they related that experience to teachers being at their best when they challenged and had high […]

Categories: Blogging, Books, Culture, Design, Entertainment, Fiction, Film, Friendship, History, Hollywood, Literature, Los Angeles, Movies, Photography, Travel, Truth & Rumors, Uncategorized, Writing • Tags: book club, poetic license revoked, Santa Anita Racetrack, Seabiscuit, the intersection between reality and fiction, the writing process, write what you know

Write what you know…and then grit your teeth and publish. With an older and wiser Vickie Lester and a young Joan Crawford

May 10, 2014 by Vickie Lester

Write what you know??? If that were true all you’d be hearing from me is, “Blah-blah-blah, perimenopause, blah-blah-blah, who didn’t close the refrigerator?, blah-blah-blah, that director is an ASSHOLE, blah-blah-blah, does anyone see my glasses anywhere… Furthermore poppets, I get queasy handing out advice, but the thing about writing, more than anything, is sitting down and doing it. Of course journalists should adhere to who, what, where, when, and why… But, for those of you who are starting to write […]

Categories: Advertising, Art, Blogging, Books, Culture, Design, Entertainment, fashion, Fiction, Film, Friendship, History, Hollywood, Humor, Life, Literature, Los Angeles, Marriage, Memoir, Movies, Music, Mystery, New York, News, Palm Springs, Photography, Publishing, Relationships, Romance, Story, Theater, Travel, Truth & Rumors, Uncategorized, Writing • Tags: #ampublishing, #amwriting, #ForallthoseHollywoodWiveswhoarealsoHollywoodBeards, #itsinhiskiss, #myfirstnovel, #vickielesterbook1, advice, author, available on Amazon, blogging, blogging buddies rock, buy now, characters, community of authors, compelling, CreateSpace, Donna Tartt, emotional validity, friendship, grit your teeth, Hollywood insider reaveals all, humor, If Audrey Hepburn had a potty mouth, imagination, indentify, Joan Crawford, JoanCrawford, KDP, keep at it, make stuff up, Marcus Zusak, mystery, narrative, novel, novelist, publishing, real, romance, self publishing, The Book Thief, The Goldfinch, when inspiration strikes, write what you know, writing