Crime Lines Up...By the Book

All we were missing was the height chart behind us....





The original plan was to video tape the entire panel discussion, but when we found our tables set up against a beautiful and dramatic backdrop, we loved the setting but knew the video tape would be impossible. Shooting against the sun turned us all into black silhouettes, which really only works if you're doing the opening credits to James Bond.

So we briefly lined up against a nearby black wall and, as befitting our profession, a private eye made this little video.

Don Lasseter is a veteran of the True Crime genre with 20 books to his credit. He told the story of one murderer he had to interview who later called him on the phone: "Don, I'm at the corner of X & Y! Come pick me up!"  Don's terror was relieved only when the inmate admitted he was joking. Some prank!

Annette and Gayle (on the right) are co-authors of their first True Crime book about a French underworld assassination that took place in 1937. Professional historians, Annette and Gayle were able to delve into musty French archives and rattle some very old Parisian families.

Caitlin Rother has several True Crime books and TV shows to her credit. She told of a murder victim from one of her books who came to her in her dreams. Catilin told the crowd she can't escape the influence of her own books in many parts of her life, as she views each new acquaintance through the prism of potential for danger.

 I told how Dale Hausner, the Phoenix Serial Shooter, would drop his pen during trial, leveraging an opportunity to bend down and face me in the gallery, trying to initiate eye contact and engage in non-verbal communication. Marjorie Orbin, convicted of dismembering her husband, expected me to be the jail rabbi when she was first led into the visiting booth. Nevertheless, she talked to me for hours while I visited her in jail and also wrote me voluminous letters.

Standing in front of my books (at lower right)

At the Mystery Ink book stall I spotted this T shirt which couldn't be more fitting, could it? I loved it! This avid reader was happy to pose for this snapshot (and if she contacts me with her name I will be happy to put it up here!).  Where else would you find a shirt like this than loitering about a clutch of crime writers?!

Thanks to private detective Paul Huebl, an old friend from our television days, for creating this fun snippet!

Camille Kimball's books:

What She Always Wanted

A Sudden Shot

The Mammoth Book of Tough Guys
Coming soon: Masters of True Crime-Chilling Stories of Murder and the Macabre

She Wears Books

ADD: You won't believe what happened to her just a couple weeks after I posted these pics! Click here. Grrrrr!!

Snapshots from my time as a panelist at the West Hollywood Book Fair. I was on the True Crime Can You Handle the Truth? panel, but I enjoyed many others who were also booked at the Fair. Meredith Myers performed at the end of a long and creative day....

Author Camille Kimball with standup librarian Meredith Myers

What do you get when you mix a standup comedian with a Library Sciences Masters Degree?  You get a red-headed chick in a book-print skirt who's so passionate about the library she can straddle a book cart (see this post).  Meredith Myers, pictured above with me doing the Vanna White for her book-skirt, trained as a professional standup comedian. After years of performing, she swung the pendulum, going from raucous comedy clubs to the shh-shh library.  Only the library isn't so shh-shh any more. Not with personalities like this behind the desk!

And on the walls. The new West Hollywood Library is a dazzling showcase of beauty. You walk in to the foyer and your feet land on marble. Immediately your eye turns to a field of glowing sunshine filling a staircase to your right, the light bathing a beautiful white tree growing from the first floor to above the second. This gorgeous masterpiece is actually a sculpture hugging the wall, created by a young artist named David Wiseman. I thought there'd be photos available of this but I can only find ones in private collections. Google it and you will find these photos. 

At the library you can find humor & the Dewey Decimal w/Meredith. Or murder, mayhem & heroes with Camille.

If you haven't been to a library lately, you don't know what you're missing. Libraries are reinventing themselves as vibrant community centers, multi-media and dynamic, without ever losing their focus as civilization's storage house for ideas.

Closeup of the book-skirt!

 Try one soon. The library is a fun place to be--just ask the chick in the book-skirt. You can find her in the aisles, straddling the book cart.

Camille Kimball's books:

What She Always Wanted

A Sudden Shot

The Mammoth Book of Tough Guys
Coming soon: Masters of True Crime-Chilling Stories of Murder and the Macabre

Catwoman and her Vampire Friends

L-R  Catwoman (Julie Newmar), Angelique, and Josette from Dark Shadows!

 Had a blast being a panelist at the West Hollywood Book Fair Oct 2. When those pics come in, I'll post them. I also had a blast attending other panels.

How super groovy and kitty-creepy is this one?

Julie Newmar, the definitive Catwoman from Batman, with Angelique (Lara Parker) and Josette (Kathryn Leigh Scott), original cast members from Dark Shadows (soon to be a Johnny Depp/Tim Burton film).

Parker and Scott told of visiting the set of the new film and being honored by the new cast. They also said they had to sign confidentiality agreements for the projected blockbuster, which they certainly honored, but they appreciated especially a moment in which original Barnabas Collins Jonathan Frid was paid homage on the new set.

Both of these vampire actresses are highly accomplished gals who now write books. They have many projects going but both do write Dark Shadows inspired books.  Angelique was even hired by the publisher Tor to write Dark Shadows franchise books.

Julie Newmar delighted everyone by showing up with her cat ears! At 76, she is still very feline. So feline I began to wonder if she absorbed the character or if the character was written as a vehicle for her feline mannerisms!  She is also very elegant and wins "Best Dressed for an Outdoor Fair." She is very tall and slender and melted so gracefully into the arms of the security crew man who lifted her on to the stage bride-over-the-threshold style.

Miss Newmar, as you can well imagine, has been told by many men that she is the "first crush I ever had." She became intrigued by this and began asking the gentlemen at what age they experienced this?  Her eyes popped wide as she revealed the answers were usually "4 or 5 years old."  This intrigued her further. She learned this early imprint of an "ideal" female often foretold the physical type that will become the man's wife or love. 

She has transformed this byproduct of her job as Iconic Catwoman into a writing project. She has compiled stories of "who was my first crush" and is still looking for more. She would like to hear from you! Both men and women are welcome to write to her at jnewmar (at) verizon.net   For more about Catwoman's "crush" project, visit her website www.julienewmarwrites.com   Tell her the crime writer sent you!

I was a panelist at the West Hollywood Book Fair (Can You Handle the Truth?). But I also visited and thoroughly enjoyed other panels! I will post more photos and tidbits from really cool people soon!

Camille Kimball's books:

What She Always Wanted

A Sudden Shot

The Mammoth Book of Tough Guys
Coming soon: Masters of True Crime-Chilling Stories of Murder and the Macabre

Stand up....librarian?? You gotta see this!

Add: Hey! I found the standup librarian at the Book Fair. Click here for pics!

Too many good reasons to go to the West Hollywood Book Fair on Sunday, I couldn't post them all. But here's one of the most unusual and looks like one of the most fun!  I support libraries a million percent and if you haven't been to one lately, look what you've been missing out on!

LOS ANGELES (September 29, 2011) – “So a comedian walks into a library and decides to work there…”  Stand-Up Librarian Meredith Myers will be the closing performer at the 10^th Annual West Hollywood Book Fair on Sunday, October 2^nd at 5:25pm on the Theater Stage in the West Hollywood Library Community Room at the new West Hollywood Public Library, 647 North Vicente Boulevard.  The event and parking are free to the public.

Myers will perform an all-ages literary comedy show…at the library! No cover charge or 2-drink minimum required.  A cross between Pippi Longstocking and Sandra Bernhard, Myers entertains while educates about the importance of libraries as she addresses everything from the Dewey Decimal System to Harry Potter, and her adventures in librarianship!

Myers has a Masters degree in Library and Information Sciences and has been performing stand-up comedy since 2002 after checking out a comedy book from her local library. Binding her experiences in comedy and libraries, Myers created www.StandUpLibrarian.com in an effort to showcase how varied, fun, and vital libraries are to our current society and intends to bring an awareness to the often stereotyped library field revealing that librarians are as diverse as the libraries themselves.  Through interviews with experts and authors, tours of unique libraries across the country, library and literary-specific stand-up performances and sketches, not to mention plenty of book recommendations, Myers’ unique perspective and humor is perhaps just what libraries need in a tough economic time where city budgets seem quick to eliminate them or reduce staffing.

See you Sunday! I'll be on the Can You Handle the Truth? panel in the Mystery Pavilion in the morning. I certainly hope to meet you and talk murder!

Camille Kimball's books:

What She Always Wanted

A Sudden Shot

The Mammoth Book of Tough Guys
Coming soon: Masters of True Crime-Chilling Stories of Murder and the Macabre

"I saved these..."

Great video. 15 seconds.



Yeah!  I'll see you there!  Look for me in the Mystery Pavilion Sunday morning on the Can You Handle the Truth? panel.  I'm so excited to join fellow true crimers to talk about murder,  justice, and the written word!

Camille Kimball's books: What She Always Wanted A Sudden Shot The Mammoth Book of Tough Guys Coming soon: Masters of True Crime-Chilling Stories of Murder and the Macabre

Can You Handle the Truth?

CAN YOU HANDLE THE TRUTH?: 

TRUE CRIME AUTHORS DISCUSS THEIR MOST CHILLING CASES

"How do you....?"

How often have I heard those words, so often spoken by a person clutching a dog-eared copy of one of my books?

So many people want to know how a True Crime author makes it happen...and how they live with it. Here's a chance to ask your questions to the top names in the business. West Hollywood Book Fair Oct 2 hosts the likes of Caitlin Rother, Don Lasseter and even little ole moi on Sunday morning at 10:30 in the Mystery & Suspense Paviiion.

Click here to go directly to the True Crime panel at the West Hollywood Book Fair's site. (from there, you can navigate to find all the other details about parking, etc.)

I'm happily honored to share a stage with such big names. Every true crime book is different and I plan to learn more than anybody there!

See you Sunday!

Camille Kimball's books:

What She Always Wanted

A Sudden Shot

The Mammoth Book of Tough Guys