The Dream Merchants

Hollywood is very busy now promoting the movies they think will be Oscar winners with screenings. We’re anxiously awaiting the DVD’s to be sent out for Academy members to view. It’s like politics, the campaigning begins long before the actual event. This is a great world wide party with people guessing who might win, tagging their favorite actors…Will Matt Damon win?

Check out this video from Indie Publishing

Money, money, money, mo-o-o-o-o-ony

“The Carpetbaggers was the first big money I made. Money gave me a lot of freedom, but no matter how much you make there’s always somebody chasing your ass for more.” – Harold Robbins

Harold worked hard for his money and he always had a great time spending it. He felt it was the payoff for all the hard work. He saw money as something that should not be hoarded…that should not be selfishly clung to as though it was life itself…He lived “out loud”, so people were comfortable asking him for more money…more donations and more than he probably should have given…and here’s something else he did that was surprising. He never felt paying a 90% federal tax during an era when he was making huge sums of money was wrong. He lavished money on those he loved; his wives, ex-wives, children. He lavished moneyon anyone that came into his world of generosity. As I have said before, he would have given you the shirt off his back. So, for me, I’d rather live like Harold Robbins, giving from the heart with abandon. Do you think he would be surprised that in today’s world the fight is still about money and power and greed???

PROLOGUE (After the Tropic of Cancer…by Harold Robbins)

It’s Tuesday, January 2, 1996.  This year I will be 80 years old.  I sit here at my IBM typewriter and try to figure out how I can tell the story of my life.  Not easy.  I don’t really know if it’s real life or just another story.  Maybe it’s all the same to a writer.  My life, it seems to me, is a story much like any other.  After all, I wrote and became Harold Robbins.  With each new character, a new man, but in reality very much another man.  I became many men.  Francis Kane, Johnny Edge, Danny Fisher, Jonas Cord, Nevada Smith, Jed Stevens, Angelo Perino and many more.  But, it doesn’t matter.  I am those men and they are me.”

Harold Robbins wrote this as a prologue to his autobiography, After the Tropic of Cancer, which was never completed. I used this prologue in my novel, “Harold & Me” because I felt what he said was true for so many writers. The lines in their story become as much them as the fictional character. And don’t we all expand our horizons a little bit each day with the experiences we live 

Harold grew with every book from Francis Kane to Danny Fisher to Jonas Cord to Dax Xenos and his female characters, Jerrilee, Marja, Nelly, Janette, Tanya were the women he loved. He was all these people and they were him; and throughout each of his characters were good and bad people; weak and strong. But each, had the common thread of passion . This is what made them real, and this is what a reader falls in love with. That’s why the world of Harold Robbins is so seductive and intriguing.

A Cool Night with Harold Robbins

How cool is it to sit in a room of knowledgeable, astute ladies that read 4 or 5 books a month, maintain their families and households, and work on community projects and careers? It is very cool and I was impressed! A few nights ago I was invited to a book club event in Valencia, CA., great for me because my purpose was to listen and talk about the book they had chosen to read, A Stone For Danny Fisher by Harold Robbins. What a wonderful evening with….Karen Schnurr, Anne Artusio, Mary Bontempi, Barbara DeSantis, Kerri Emmer, Sue Horwitz, Jessica Miller, Ann Piscitello, and Lisa Walsh.  

Some had read Harold Robbins before and some had not. They admitted that they might not have chosen this book if it had not been for the book club. However, to their sheer delight each one loved the story and made very insightful and stirring comments about the story with his famous opening line…”There are many ways to get to Mount Zion Cemetery“.  They were immediately drawn into the story and became completely immersed in the main character, Danny Fisher to the point of passion! It was an eye-opener for some who in comparing our world now and the era in which the book took place, there were striking similarities. It answered the question about Harold Robbins relevance in our world today. His novels are compelling and relevant to every age. Now, that’s a great writer and storyteller!

“A Stone for Danny Fisher” is published by Simon & Schuster, A Touchstone Book in both Digital and Trade Paperback.