It took me a few days to think over what I saw Sunday night on the Oscar show—all three and a half hours of it.  Now I guess I’m ready to discuss it. First: ALL the women looked beautiful and were dressed tastefully and classy, except possibly Kristen Stewart, who can’t seem to do ANYTHING but look like a sullen teenager.  She can’t even comb her hair! Charlize Theron is a goddess. PERIOD! Host Seth MacFarlane was very funny MOST of the time.  His early song, “I’ve Seen Your Boobs,” was about as abysmally distasteful as one could get on a TV show that probably had lots of kids watching it.  And all the films he mentioned in that song (except one) in which the female stars were partially nude were GREAT films, and a few of the women won Oscars for them.  I don’t think Theron, Kate Winslet or Halle Berry won Academy Awards for showing their breasts.  His FINAL song with Kristen Chenowith, all about “losers,” was mean-spirited.  And his joke about Abraham Lincoln being shot in the head was probably not the best idea to spring on a country filled with real rage on both sides over… Continue reading →

CHANGES are what we live with every day of our lives.  Sometimes the changes are good and sometimes not.  We manage to survive. I’ve had a couple of changes recently.  First—I finished my next Milan Jacovich novel.  From the beginning I planned on titling it “Dead Money,” a racing term that goes with the plot and setting.  But someone else has written a murder mystery set at a racetrack, too, it will be published (I think only as an Ebook) before mine, and HE is calling his book “Dead Money.”  We don’t know each other personally, and I doubt he’s copied my work, as from what I’ve read our plots are dissimilar.  HOWEVER, I’ve learned a lesson from this, and from now on, although I’ll talk openly about my work in progress, I won’t tell anyone the title of the book until shortly before it’s published.  So everyone, please watch for what USED to be MY “Dead Money” this spring. I went through another change, too, a much bigger one.  It’s completely awakened me, so that I’m now living my truth.  Last summer we watched the most extraordinary documentary film.  It’s called “Peaceable Kingdom: The Journey Home.”  Produced by James… Continue reading →

Ten minutes ago—at eight minutes after midnight on January 21, 2013, the day on which Barack Obama will be inaugurated for the second time as President of the United States—I typed the words THE END on my Milan Jacovic manuscript, “Dead Money.” It’s a moment of relief, of course.  I began writing this book some time in March of 2012.  I thought I’d finish it more quickly than I have, but many things got in the way, mostly positive.  Life-changing, exhilarating, exciting, and of course time-consuming events and decisions shouldered their way into my world and slowed down my writing a bit.  Now, though, I am DONE.  Feels wonderful. Not really done, to tell the truth.  Much editing and changing a word or phrase awaits me, whether I like it or not.  There is ONE character in the book whose name must be changed—and a contest is being run to decide what the name change will be.  And by the way, the “character” is a DOG.  In “Dead Money” I stuck him with a TERRIBLE dog’s name, and at the end of the book I’ll change it to something much nicer—and Milan will be keeping it!  In the meantime I’m submitting the manuscript… Continue reading →

The holidays are over.  The hangovers, hopefully, have been cured (I didn’t drink alcohol at all on Dec. 31st).  The Christmas gifts have already been worn, eaten, put away, or exchanged.  The wishes for “Happy” and “Merry” have faded away for another 11 months.  And though nothing bad should happen to retailers, I hope there will be no more “Black Fridays” or “Sneaky Thursdays” or any other bait-and-switch holidays which will lure us out of our routines and into stores or poring over ridiculouskly discounted sales on the Internet.  We managed somehow not to go over “the fiscal cliff” (who in hell coined that dumb expression, anyway?).  We celebrated New Years Day yesterday, and already the stores are overflowing with Valentine’s Day decorations and gift hints.  Can Easter be far behind?  (Sigh) My personal and professional excitement has finally slowed down, too.  The Bouchercon 2012 convention that so beautifully honored me is no more, Eric Coble’s hit play based on my book, “A Carol for Cleveland,” has closed at the Cleveland Play House, and the only party I’m planning to attend in January is the milestone birthday celebration of a good friend. All of which means that except for the imminent surprise addition of (cat)… Continue reading →

Sunday, December 23,  features the last two performances this year of “A Carol for Cleveland” at the Cleveland Play House.  I’ve been thrilled with the new appearance of all 27 books I’ve written, but I’ve never been quite so jazzed as seeing one of them adapted so brilliantly by playwright Eric Coble and having its world premiere at the oldest professional repertory theater company in the United States.  I’ve seen it many times. now (not counting rehearsals)—from a private box with my 4 year old grandson Parker (who didn’t make a sound), from the second row center, from the back row of the orchestra, from over on the right side—and it overwhelms me anew each time.  That’s how good I think it is—and I take very little credit for its BEING that good. And each time I cry at the end.  Yeah, I know–I’m supposed to be a hardboiled type who only cries when the Browns lose.  But what the gifted Eric Coble added to my 32-page story to make it an entire evening’s entertainment, and the twist at the last moment that STILL takes me by surprise every time, really grabs me by the heart.  The Play House has advertised… Continue reading →

I was just asked to post a blog somewhere else, answering the following questions.  Since I went to all the trouble, I repost them here in case anyone is interested. 1. What is the working title of your next book? My next Milan Jacovich novel will be “Dead Money.”  A major setting is the harness racing industry, and the expression dead money refers to a horse in the race that doesn’t have the slimmest of chances to win, or to run in the money (win, place or show). 2. Where did the idea come from for the book? Dan S. Kennedy is a marketing guru who also owns and drives trotters and pacers at harness racing tracks.  He came to me with the idea and the setting, has given me a foot-high stack of research on both the sport and the people involved in it, and every hundred pages or so I sent the manuscript off to him so he can correct whatever mistakes I’ve made about the sport and the setting.  He’s doing so much work that he will receve co-author credit when the book is published, i.e. “By Les Roberts with Dan S. Kennedy.” 3. What genre does… Continue reading →

It will surprise no one that on Friday, November 30, I attended the first preview of the Cleveland Play House holiday show, “A Carol for Cleveland,” at the Allen Theater in downtown Cleveland.  Eric Coble wrote the play based on my own novella of the same title, which I wrote back in the early nineties. I’ve been seeing shows produced by the Play House for more than twenty years, but I’ve never seen such a wonderful stage setting, lighting, sound, and music as I enjoyed Friday night.  The acting is terrific, the direction of Laura Kepley is superb, and what playwright Eric Coble added to what was my original 32-page story is absolutely brilliant.  It’s all brand-new, even to ME, and everyone in the audience laughed, applauded, and were greatly moved by Eric’s surprise twist at the end.  My hat is tossed in the air for all those concerned, but especially for Eric and Laura, who took words I’d written on paper, massaged them and gave them vitality, bringing them to vivid, spectacular life. I’m attending the show on December 5 and again on December 7th, and will probably catch a few more performances as well.  I hope I”ll see many of… Continue reading →

Frank Sinatra sang about that—one of my alltime favorite songs, looking back over a fascinating life.  But for me, 2012 WAS a very good year—and it’s not over yet. First off, July 18 was a milestone birthday for me.  I’ve outlived the age both my parents were when I lost them, and now every morning I wake up smiling—because I’m LUCKY enough to wake up. The publication of my most recent novel (#16 in the Milan Jacovich series and #27 altogether) brought an extra dollop of success for me, and good folks are STILL reading it. In October I was thrilled to death and very humble to have been named one of the Guests of Honor at Bouchercon 2012, the largest Mystery Author and Reader convention in the world—and that it was held in MY town, Cleveland, Ohio.  Sharing that honor with great writers like Robin Cook, Elizabeth George and my old and dear friend Mary Higgins Clark was something I’ll never forget. Yesterday was VERY special for me, too, as it was the very first actor’s reading of “A Carol For Cleveland,” to be produced at the Cleveland Play House beginning November 30.  I wrote the novella of the same… Continue reading →

This isn’t about writing. I often write books about things that enrageand infuriate me, but I fear if I write one on THIS subject, it will befinished and published far too late to save lives. Ever heard of Green Mountain College in Vermont?  Neither have I—until yesterday.  And when I did, my blood BOILED! Green Mountain College has for years had two living mascots who lived on campus.  They were trotted out for sports events and festivals and parties, yoked together like they were three and four centuries ago, and forced to drag around very heavy wagons and displays behind them.  Mascots they are, and most of the students there adore them.  PETS. Never had an ox for a pet?   Meet Lou and Bill—oxen. Here’s the problem, though—one that pushed a MAJOR button of mine.  They’ve been around too long, Lou and Bill, and have grown old and tired—too old to do the work they’ve been doing.  So the President of Green Mountain College, one august and opinionated Paul J. Fonteyn, decided that they would be sent to a slaughterhouse and butchered! For those of you who might not know, I recently became a vegan—and if you don’t know what THAT is, it means I refuse… Continue reading →

What an amazing week last one was for me.  Bouchercon has for 42 years been the major convention putting together mystery authors and mystery readers from all oer the world.  I’ve attended a bumch of them—-Baltimore, Philadelphia, San Diego, St. Paul, Austin, Pasadena, Omaha—and I’m sure I’m forgetting a few more.  This year’s was in downtown Cleveland, approximately 40 minutes from my front door—and it flattered the socks right off me that I was named one of the Guests of Honor.Let me confess right here that I was the ONLY Guest of Honor at Bouchercon in 2012 that I never heard of!  The others were Elizabeth George, whom I first met 25 years ago when both of us had just published our first mystery novels; Robin Cook, the best writer of medical mysteries ever: John Connolly, who was Master of Ceremonies and one of the funniest people I’ve ever met; and the duenna of mystery novels and probably the best-read genre author since Agatha Christie, the wonderful, generous and delightfully charming Mary Higgins Clark,  I gloried even being in their company.There were approximately 1700 attendees, which made the lobby and the bar of the venerable Renaissance Hotel very crowded indeed—so much… Continue reading →