Looking For Garbo: My Debut Novel Finally Has Its Release Day!

I’m happy to share that my debut novel, LOOKING FOR GARBO is being released today by Amphorae Publishing Group. It’s been a long time in coming and I have to thank my agent, Jill Marr at Sandra Dijkstra Literary for sticking by me the last 8+ years.

The idea for a story based on Garbo’s famous quote first came to me back in 1995. I saw something in her earnest desire to save the world by sacrificing her own life – something that could have been a typical Garbo vehicle that MGM Studios might have put out at the height of her power and fame, circa 1939:

“If the war didn’t start when it did,” Garbo said, “I would have gone and I would have taken a gun out of my purse and shot him, because I would not have been searched.”

Garbo was talking about her biggest fan at the time – Adolf Hitler. Hitler was obsessed with Garbo, and watched his own private print of her CAMILLE every night. Hitler sent Garbo numerous fan letters, inviting her to come to Nazi Germany. The novel takes Garbo’s quote at face value, and follows her on her journey via ocean liner to assassinate Hitler, and preempt WWII. Of course, war erupts while she is en route – and like any thriller the real action begins with her stuck on the open seas surrounded by Nazis.

My agent Jill found several buyers over the years for the novel. One went out of business, another was a bad fit to say the least: I actually bought the rights back to my work in 2014 and had to wait another 5 years for my novel to see bookshelves. But all said and done it was totally worth the wait. I just hope everyone enjoys the final product as much as I did writing it.

Looking For Garbo is available May 7th at all major bookstores, and online at Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Bokus and IndieBound,

Sandra Bullock Soars in Gravity

Wow. When an actor’s face is the greatest special effect in an effects-laden extravaganza the scale of “Gravity” you know they’re going to get tremendous momentum in their career. And when you’re already an Oscar-winning actress – the skies the limit. Look up! That’s Sandra Bullock in the apex of her incredible career soaring overhead. I was blown-away by her performance as will anyone who watches the hot new space-genre film.

I’ve always enjoyed Sandy in her comedic vehicle and her breakthrough role in “The Blind Side” but they were all well-within her girl next door comfort zone. Gravity, on the other hand, is well-without the actresses normal, terrestrial canon of work. This time, she took on the role of her life – one that required her to convey and carry the weightlessness of space at the same time the incredible pressure of a woman living moment to moment in the face of almost certain death. The fact that she pulls it off is utterly incredible. Not because she isn’t an incredible actress – it has more to do with mastering her craft in literally every frame of film she is in – which she does and then some.

However, that’s not the best part, The best part of watching Ms. Bullock is the sheer rapture of seeing a woman in her absolute prime. Sandy is gorgeous in this film because she is not only beautiful, but willing to show all of herself; her vulnerability, weakness, indecision in depicting a character that is broken emotionally – only to come back from the brink again and again…then again. She is beautiful and in command the way Greta Garbo was beautiful and in command. You fall in love with Sandy over the course of the film and begin to wonder how you never realized what an amazing talent she is. And such a beautiful, seductress of cinema. I was so struck by her performance – I actually began to think of how wonderful it would be to “know” Sandra Bullock; a little daydream in the middle of the movie that only invested me more in what was happening to her character on film. How magical is that?

So, here’s to Ms. Bullock’s 2nd Oscar nomination and win! Nothing is absolute – but I will bet anyone she will be nominated for yet another breakthrough performance and possibly the most understated, compelling and engaging role of her career. The movie is really that good. And Sandy Bullock transcends the material into more than the sum of it’s blockbuster parts – she really does defy gravity in Gravity! Wow.