VIEWS NATIONAL WRITERS ASSOCIATION LOS ANGELES MAY 2010 Psychic Blues by Mark Edward: A book for the skeptics among us
A rare, and yet well-done medium Our speaker on May 15 is Mark Edward, a professional mentalist who specializes in magic of the mind. He has spent over twentyfive years in world class venues from high-end night clubs and theaters to hundreds of private party and corporate events. As one of only five specially chosen and trained mediums in the history of Hollywood’s famed Magic Castle, he has performed fifteen years of seances that helped him perfect the role of spirit medium and psychic entertainer.
be consulted by the media for his knowledge of spiritualism, psychic fraud, and ghost lore.
During this time he wrote several books on these subjects and appeared on television as both primary consultant and on-air performer in such diverse programming as A&E’s Biog-
Fifty years later, veteran magician, psychic, mentalist, author and professional debunker, Mark Edward, as he is known professionally, is the author of twenty-three books. Many of them are on magic techniques. A few are on reading the Tarot cards and in the latest, Psychic Blues: Confessions of a Happy Medium, he blows the woo-woo factor of psychic phenomena out of the water.
Imagine if your kid came up to you and said, “I want to be a magician when I grow up.” What would your reaction be? Well, Mark Edward Wilson’s parents thought it was an outstanding idea, especially given that his grandfather was one. Mark’s parents supported him throughout his tender growing-up years in the community of Palos Verdes.
He says, “Ever wonder what the world of the ‘professional psychic’ is really like? Forget about the crystals and incense, this book is about the nitty-gritty reality of what goes on that the public seldom, if ever, gets a chance to read about.”
raphy: “Houdini, the Great Escape,” NBC’s “The Other Side” and “Psychic Secrets Revealed,” the Syfy Channel’s “Mysteries, Magic and Miracles,” the Discovery Channel’s “Forces Beyond,” and most recently on two episodes of The Learning Channel’s “Exploring the Unknown.” His featured segment as a spirit medium on the pilot episode of Showtime’s “Penn & Teller’s Bullshit!” series entitled “Speaking with the Dead” helped secure an Emmy Award nomination for that episode in 2002. He continues to
Psychic Blues, written for the mainstream audience and not necessarily curious magicians or psychic entertainers, will quickly put readers on the inside track of such grandiose scams as talking to the dead for fun and profit, the psychic radio business, spiritualist churches and their New Age offspring, and psychic infomercials. Edward has written about the Hollywood and the celebrity scene, the agents who ply the psychic’s wares, very private readings, and numerous twisted and weirdly bizarre trips he has experienced for the last twenty-five years. The 245-page tome lays bare the chicanery with an eye toward finding the humor in it all.
This is not just another exposé or debunking bore, but a dark comedic narrative taken from true experiences that rips open the cracks in the crystal ball. You can find a lifetime of nefarious tricks of the trade sandwiched in between the LOLs and stranger-than-any fiction tales of a bumpy career traveling the slick underbelly of the professional soothsayer. JOIN US At a lunch meeting of the NATIONAL WRITERS ASSOCIATION When: On May 15, 2010 2:00-4:00 p.m. Where: At Mo’s Restaurant 4301 Riverside Dr. Burbank For more information about the organization or the meeting, call 805-794-5652 or e-mail lavonne.taylor@sbcglobal.net or click on www.nwala.org For more information on Mark Edward, go to www.themarkedward.com
SATURDAY A.M., MAY 8, SEE MARK EDWARD ON CHANNEL 7 GOOD MORNING AMERICA WEEKEND SHOW SATURDAY 2 P.M., MAY 15, BRING YOUR FRIENDS! THE PUBLIC IS WELCOME
REDUX PART TWO by TOM HOWARD
Modern mystery writers according to Cook
Author/Speaker Alan Cook
The first part of Alan Cook’s savvy talk on March 15 is depicted in April, 2010 Views. The following is Part 2 of that talk - Contemporary Mystery Writers. Alan brought up a famous quote from W. Somerset Maugham, “There are three things you need to know to write a novel. Unfortunately, nobody knows what they are!” This writer revealed his ignorance of downtown Los Angeles by inquiring about the slanted cable car called Angel’s Flight, featured in a well-known book of the same name by Michael Connelly (born, 1956). LA author, Robert Crais (born, 1953) migrated to LA from Louisiana in 1976 and wrote for such TV shows as Hill St. Blues, Cagney and Lacey, and Miami Vice before writing novels,
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the first of which was called The Monkey’s Raincoat. Alan told our group, “Robert Crais worked very hard to get where he is today.” Crais’ protagonist, Elvis Cole, is a tough, wisecracking detective with a heart of gold, usually seen with his sidekick, ex-marine, Joe Pike. After letting one of his novels be made into a film, Crais said, “Nevermore!” He couldn’t stand to see the characters, settings, and plots from his novels mangled in the process.
Denise Hamilton was an LA Times reporter for ten years and the main character of her five novels, Eve Diamond, is also. Hamilton wrote The Last Embrace, a forties style piece and edited LA Noir and LA Noir Two.
Another contemporary mystery writer who began writing TV screenplays, turned to writing mysteries and refuses to let her books become movies is Sue Grafton (born 1940). Grafton wrote A is for Alibi. Then, inspired by Edward Gorey’s abecedarian (alphabetical) picture book of children who die by various means (The Gashlycrumb Tinies), she wrote her own alphabet series of mysteries. Her most recent work is U is for Undertow. With five more letters to go, at the rate of one book every two years, Sue Grafton “plans to rest” at the age of eighty.
What does a spy look like? This question was asked of diminutive Palos Verdes writer, Marthe Cohn, at a Mystery Writer’s Conference. Cohn wrote Behind Enemy Lines. When confronted in Germany during WWII for mumbling in French, she said, “Do I look like a spy?” and managed to escape. Alan discussed changes in the marketplace, such as publication of fewer hardbacks, cheaper more affordable paperbacks, and introduction of books-on-Kindle.
Alan shared some limericks he wrote about this prolific author. Here is one: The story of Grafton, sweet Sue, Is one of an alphabet stew, From A through to Z; She’s done B, G and P. She’s doing it all just for U. (Note: More of Alan Cook’s limericks are on his websites: http://www.alancook.50megs. com/ and www.authorsden.com/alancook ...)
Former policeman, Joseph Wambaugh, writes fiction as well as true crime stories and is famous for saying, “Occasionally guys in handcuffs will be asking me for autographs.”
He included J.K. Rowling on his list of mystery writers, pointing out that her seven Harry Potter books and the subsequent popular films got a younger audience reading mysteries. Writer and Speaker, Alan Cook ran out of time and didn’t get to share more about other mystery writers on his ambitious list, such as Dan Brown, Mary Higgins Clark, Ken Follett, John Grisham, John Le Carre, Robert Parker and Scott Turow, to mention a few. The best we can hope for now is that Alan will write a book about Mystery Writers and let us in on more of these marvelous stories.
Why are elephants so entitled?
I am grateful that the mystical powers that be, which include my most trusted inside source for speakers, poet Muriel Mines, have graced us yet with another unusual writer and speaker, psychic writer, Mark Edward. Please come May 15 to our lunch session from 2-4 p.m. at Mo’s Restaurant in Burbank, 4301 Riverside Drive, Burbank. to meet Mark, enjoy his slight-of-hand, see his array of books, and hear about his unique life journey. (See LaVonne’s cover story/interview with Mark.) This will be our last meeting of the season, so it would be great to see everyone attend! Inspired by Alan Cook but worried about tired eyes, I got a book on CD by Dame Agatha Christie and proceeded to stay up all night listening to Elephants Never Forget. Since there were occasional references to India and Burma, I suspected that at some point in the tale, perhaps sometime around 4 a.m., a real elephant would appear to stomp his foot or blow water at the unsuspecting villain. However, all the elephants were metaphorical or similes or something. Christie’s “elephants who never forget” were charming elderly people who were able to recall details from a mysterious double murder that had occurred over twenty years past. Memory is such a fascinating, slippery, irascible, dubious phenomena. According to modern science, it can change from day to day, hour to hour, depending on one’s sleep, diet, level of stress and number of gingko pills or omega fatty acids taken at the time. Women forget nothing and men forget everything. Is that just a saying or is it true? I have an accordion file for my past issues of Views. It’s fun to flip back and see all the past speakers, stories, poems, photos and articles displayed there, truly a marvelous memory bank for our organization. We can proudly say, “You’ve come a long way, baby!” I would again like to thank everyone for their participation, encouragement, writing, and support during the past year. Especially to be commended is LaVonne for her incredible work putting together Views so handily, on a monthly basis, along with The Taylor Trust and all the writing she does on the World Wide Web.
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MEMBER’S SPOTLIGHT
Prolific poet and novelist, Jack Clubb Clubb, had lived here at one time. In 1910, great-grandfather Clubb owned a large home on Vermont Avenue near where the Hollywood Freeway the California Highway Patrol are located today. Azariah founded the Clubb tobacco stores, which eventually became a chain of twenty-two stores that stretched across North America.
We are delighted to turn the member’s spotlight on long-time NWALA member and membership chairman Jack Clubb in this issue of Views. Jack Clubb has had short stories published in publications such as Black Creek Review, Rockford Review, Sunrise, The Taylor Trust, and Voices from The Valley. He has had poetry published in the United States, the United Kingdom, and in India. Journals containing his work are many, such as Art With Words, Black Creek Review, Candelabrum (Britain), California Quarterly of the California State Poetry Society, Harp Strings, The Hatchling, Lucidity, The Lyric, Metverse Muse (India), Midwest Poetry Review, Moments, New Writers Magazine, Parnassus Literary Journal, Pegasus, Penny Dreadful, Piedmont Literary Review, Poetry Digest, Poet’s Paper, Poetry in Motion, Riverrun, Rubies in the Darkness (Britain), Songs of Innocence, SP Quill Magazine, Theme Poetry, and Tradition. He also has received awards from Black Creek Review, The Lyric, Moments, and Perry County Writers Guild. Jack was born in Winnipeg, Canada, “sometime before Noah’s flood,” he quips. As a child, he moved around the country with his parents, but finally settled in Los Angeles when he was nine. Los Angeles felt like home to him because his great-grandfather, Azariah
Jack was educated at Los Angeles City College and UCLA. For most of his working life he has been an accountant, but for a time he was a professional musician and was a substitute organist at Hollywood Cemetery where so many movie stars are buried. He says, “One day, when I was in my middle twenties, I was reading a newspaper article about Norman Mailer, and it occurred to me that I could be a writer too – if not a rich and famous one, at least a writer who could share his thoughts and feelings with whoever might care to read or listen to them. “Consequently, the next day I started to write poems, which I read all over the neighborhood. Many of these poems were humorous and theatrical. I acted them out, perhaps even stabbing myself with an imaginary knife at the end and collapsing, if necessary. I tried hard to be entertaining and succeeded in having a small following of admirers who enjoyed what I was doing.” Later, he changed his writing style and wrote more conventional poems. “I had a small volume of these poems privately printed and circulated among my friends. To my surprise, some people wanted to buy them; and the well-known writer, Anthony Norvell, sold them at one of his lectures. Poems from this small volume were also read on the radio on a number of stations in
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the Washington DC area,” Jack says. Still later, he expanded his writing repertoire to short stories and novels “filling drawer after drawer in my study, but rarely sending anything out to publishers.” Jack says, “In 1990, I joined NWALA and the companionship of fellow writers seemed to give new impetus to my writing. Since 1994, I have had over 200 poems published in various periodicals, including the prestigious The Lyric, the oldest continuously published poetry journal in the US devoted to traditional verse, it dates back to the 1920s. In the fall 1995 issue, I was given their quarterly award for one of my poems. The judge was Alfred Dorn, one of the most famous traditional poets in the US. “Currently, I have three novels I am marketing. I am reading one of them at Jill Robinson’s writers’ workshop. Please feel free to come and hear me read if you wish. The workshop meets on Thursdays at the Durant Library at 12:30 p.m.” Another interesting writing project he has completed is writing up his family history. Jack’s sister, Nancy, was willing to secure all the necessary documentation, and the Clubb Family History now fills four volumes. One of the more interesting people he is related to is Henry Clubb, the famous Civil War-era newspaper reporter and abolitionist who served for a time in the Michigan State Senate. As he writes feverishly from his ancient hundred-year-old house at the foot of the Silver Lake Hills in Los Angeles, Jack says he is grateful every time an editor gives one of his poems an opportunity to sing or gives him the opportunity to tell a story
S H O W C A S E
Love in bloom Remember the day in the month of May when little girls and boys went walking through the garden green forgetting all their toys? They picked some smiling pansies, scented violets too, daisies and forget-me-nots if they could find a few. They laid them in a basket with tender love and care, Each and every flower in a sweet bouquet, so rare. At dawn of day on the first of May this precious gift was laid at the door of someone loved, it went, to a little lad or maid. The doorbell rang as a small heart sang and ran away pell-mell leaving its token of love behind ~ a secret from whom? None could tell. ~ Mary L. Ports
Oxford scholar from Kenya dedicates poetry book to Views editor The biggest news for yours truly is that finally Volume 4 of The Taylor Trust has been distributed. I’ve received some lovely feedback from people whose opinion I value highly. Volume 5 is in production right now and hopefully will have a shorter lead time than did Volume 4. ≈ A very nice surprise that happened recently is that a young stranger and Oxford scholar named Stephen Odiedo from Kenya contacted me via e-mail to ask if he could dedicate his 15,000 line poem titled Osiris: A poem on Osiris lord of the Nile to me. The book was recently published by BookRix. I must confess, the wonders of the World Wide Web (emphasis on world wide), continue to amaze me. More than a year ago I posted a link for BookRix on the sidebar of The Taylor Trust site and forgot about it. Somehow, a young writer half a world away stumbled upon my site and stayed there long enough to discover and click on the link for BookRix. Because the hookup was successful, he asked if he could dedicate
his book to me. Flattered, I said of course. You can find his book at http:// www.bookrix. com/_title-enodiedo-stephen-osiris. ≈ I recently got a writing assignment from a small newspaper in Milpitas, California. The job was to write about the experience of a wounds nurse working at the Washington Hospital Health System who took some time off to volunteer in one of the makeshift hospitals in Haiti. My editor gave me nurse Rawnie’s e-mail and phone number and I was off to the races. I cooked up a preliminary interview and e-mailed it to her, she had the answers to
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my questions back to my in-box within an hour. The assignment was for between 700800 words, but I ultimately submitted 934. I worked on it over a weekend and came in thirty-six hours ahead on my deadline. My editor and I worked back and forth on making some changes, while a photographer scooted over to the hospital to get a photo of Rawnie. Within a couple of days, voila! It was fait accompli! I enjoyed the work and after doing some research for the story, my respect for the people who are making a difference not only in Haiti, but worldwide has risen exponentially. The only downside to the assignment was that I didn’t get a byline. You can read the story “Washington Hospital Nurse Volunteers in Haiti” by going online to http://site.tcvmilpitas.com/ and clicking on page nine. ≈ Here’s wishing all of you a wonderful summer! Come back refreshed and ready to tackle that blank computer screen that challenges you to start writing! — LaVonne Taylor