By Word of Mouth...



 

WELCOME CURRENT RELEASE BOOKSHELF SPECIAL REPORT NEWSLETTER

 

SPRING 2007

BITS AND BITES

Of course, I’m talking Hollywood.  Disney World notwithstanding, L.A. is still the place to be if you’re hoping for fame and fortune.  Despite the odds against making it big, it is the ultimate lottery for those with talent, determination, and tough skin.  In the winter edition of my newsletter I used Special Report to tell readers about my experiences on the fringe of the film industry and my opportunities to meet with producers interested in my work.  It was an amazing adventure!

 

That is why I am glad to be part of Arabesque’s 2007 Summer Reader Series with a theme set in Hollywood.  In Celluloid Memories (July) Savannah Shelton, after caring for her actor father until his death, comes to find out first hand what drew her father to L.A. to try and make it as an actor in a town known for eating its gifted.  It is a particularly brutal place for black actors, but Savannah will discover that not only was her father talented enough to survive, he had the respect and admiration of the industry insiders, and other blacks who saw him as a role model.  Despite her feelings about Hollywood, Savannah finds herself drawn to the magic when she writes a film script that gets, as the saying goes in L.A., a lot of buzz.   Celluloid Memories is also about taking risks, and learning to love as if your heart had never been broken.

 

Here is the starred review from Library Journal:
Kitt, Sandra - CELLULOID MEMORIES, Kimani; Harlequin, July 2007, 320p. ISBN 978-0-373-83015-2, paperback, $6.99. CONTEMPORARY

     [Despite] resenting her actor father for leaving his family to pursue his dreams in Los Angeles when she was young, writer Savannah Shelton heads west to spend his final days with him, and gains a new perspective as she gradually peels back the layers of the life of the man she never really knew...and wishes she had. Using journals, letters, scrapbooks, and reminiscences, Kitt provides an insightful view of what it meant...and still means...to be black in the glittering and seductive entertainment industry. Aided by good friends, including sexy attorney McCoy Sutton, Savannah learns to embrace the past and forge a new future in this gently funny and always compelling story. New York based Kitt (The Next Best Thing) is a veteran romance writer who is not afraid to tackle difficult issues. Her characters are realistic and well defined, her stories thought provoking and multilayered.

 

BITS AND BITES

 

When I was a little girl I was fascinated with the idea of living on an island. Then it suddenly hit me that I did! Manhattan island, where I grew up. So it seemed very fitting that I would now get the chance to write about another island in New York...City Island.

 

 

Located just south of Orchard Beach, where it is a part of the borough of the Bronx, City Island is barely a mile long. It is a small tight knit community once owned and occupied by Native Americans, and later developing thriving businesses in sail-making. I’ve always thought there was something exotic and mysterious about City Island, which is why I thought it would be the perfect setting for my short story, Home, Sweet Home, about a young man who’d always wanted to live on the tiny island, and may (or may not) have gotten his wish by way of death.
 

"Home, Sweet Home" will be published this fall in a collection called BRONX NOIR, with all of the SHORT story entries set in various parts of the borough.

 

Here is an early review of the collection from Publisher’s Weekly:


BRONX NOIR; Rozan, S.J. (Editor). Series Title: Akashic Noir, Akashic books; 2007-2008. Paperback, $15.95 (280p)


Akashic’s latest city-themed crime anthology successfully captures the immense diversity of the Bronx, from the mean streets of the South Bronx, to affluent Riverdale, in 19 tales by authors both well known and obscure...Rozan, herself a contributor, has put together one of the series better entries, with memorable tales of betrayal and despair that reflect the borough’s varied ethnic populations and geography.
 

BITS AND BITES

 

 

Plans are moving along for the St. Jude/Harlequin project mentioned in the spring issue of Word Of Mouth. The project will be the publication of two books of women’s fiction and romance, in which a secondary plot will incorporate the research and treatment work done by St. Jude for childhood cancer diseases. My book will be titled FOR ALL WE KNOW, and will be set in Memphis, Tennessee, the home of the St. Jude research and hospital facilities. I will begin working on the book this summer, but I will not be saying much about the actual story until after I’ve finished writing.
 

One morning recently after awaking, I turned on my TV to find that an infomercial playing that was all about St. Jude. The program talked about St. Jude’s treatments and research by showing three young patients and their families, and talking about each of the diseases the children suffered from. The stories were poignant and heartbreaking and in at least one case used in the piece, did not have a happy ending. But the one thing that most impressed me, besides the dedication and loving care the hospital staff showed to all the children and their families, was the bravery of the children themselves, and the absence of complaints about their condition. It made me want to do whatever I could to help save them all.
 

FOR ALL WE KNOW will introduce an unusual hero, and a heroine drawn to him, but will also tell the heartfelt story of a child fighting a life-threatening illness.
 

More about my project, and St. Jude, in the months to come.