News Views Schmooze

You might have noticed two blogs on my blogroll with the same title…News, Views and Schmooze.  One belongs to mystery novelist Rochelle Krich, the other to writer/producer Bryce Zabel. Both are well worth a visit each day. Today, Rochelle talks about the common practice of auctioning off character names in books.

I’ve participated in four charity auctions and have named several
characters after real people. The challenge, as a writer, is forgetting
that the characters are, in fact, based on real people.

At Left Coast Crime in Pasadena, a fan bid successfully to make his wife a character in Grave Endings.
When the book came out, he threw a surprise party for his wife, who
joined me in signing copies of the book that her husband gave each
guest.

Today, Bryce talks about his experience seeing a one-night-only staging of CAMELOT at the Hollywood Bowl.

The entire time I sat in those incredible seats, however, my mind
kept wandering away from the music (which was above average), away from
the story (which was below average), away from the staging (which was
less than the usual school play) to thoughts of how unique this night
was.  All these talented people, all this effort, all for one night.

Or, as Arthur would describe Camelot, and Jackie would describe her husband’s administration — "one brief, shining moment."

2 thoughts on “News Views Schmooze”

  1. Lee — Well, thanks for that! And who knew — two blogs! Rochelle and I seem to have split on the spelling of the “S-word.” I’m going for “Schmooze” and she’s going for “Shmooze.” Let your readers weigh in on that. Hope the blog world’s big enough for both of us. Hi, Rochelle! Bryce

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