I'm new, and didn't want to chime in without making a proper introduction.
My name is Kim Cooper, and I'm a pop music critic who is transitioning into historical mystery fiction, a switch that evolved out of my work as a true crime historian and guide with our family tour business, Esotouric bus adventures.
My first novel is forthcoming, and available for pre-order as a deluxe Subscriber's edition through Christmas, then in paper and electronic editions in February. Set in 1929 Los Angeles, The Kept Girl is the fact-based story of a murderous cult of angel worshippers who were charged with fraud. The fictional spin comes in the casting of the detectives who uncover the cult's weird activities: Raymond Chandler (then still an oil man), his devoted secretary Muriel Fischer, and Tom James, a demoted police detective who might be a real-life model for Philip Marlowe.
With my husband Richard Schave, I curate the salons of LAVA - The Los Angeles Visionaries Association. We host a free Salon on the last Sunday of every month, where LAVA Visionaries present. We also host occasional LAVA Literary Salons and quarterly forensic science seminars at Cal State LA.
We also have a weekly LA history podcast, which this week is dedicated to the criminal 1920s L.A. backdrop of my novel. Interviewed are L.A. Noir writer John Buntin and historian Rick Baudé, who has a unique, personal perspective on the cult featured in The Kept Girl.
Previously, I edited the independent magazine Scram, a journal of unpopular culture from 1992-2006, and co-edited two spin-off anthologies, Bubblegum Music is the Naked Truth: The Dark History of Pre-pubescent Pop from the Banana Splits to Britney Spears (Feral House) and Lost in the Grooves: Scram's Capricious Guide to the Music You Missed (Routledge). I wrote the best-selling entry in the 33 1/13 series of little books about great albums, Neutral Milk Hotel's 'In The Aeroplane Over the Sea' (Bloomsbury/Continuum), and ghosted my grandmother Barbara Cooper's memoir Fall in Love For Life: Inspiration from a 73-Year Marriage (Chronicle).
I'm happy to be here, have a lot of questions, and look forward to participating in future discussions.
Kim Cooper
Author of The Kept Girl, a mystery of 1929 Los Angeles
http://www.thekeptgirl.com
My name is Kim Cooper, and I'm a pop music critic who is transitioning into historical mystery fiction, a switch that evolved out of my work as a true crime historian and guide with our family tour business, Esotouric bus adventures.
My first novel is forthcoming, and available for pre-order as a deluxe Subscriber's edition through Christmas, then in paper and electronic editions in February. Set in 1929 Los Angeles, The Kept Girl is the fact-based story of a murderous cult of angel worshippers who were charged with fraud. The fictional spin comes in the casting of the detectives who uncover the cult's weird activities: Raymond Chandler (then still an oil man), his devoted secretary Muriel Fischer, and Tom James, a demoted police detective who might be a real-life model for Philip Marlowe.
With my husband Richard Schave, I curate the salons of LAVA - The Los Angeles Visionaries Association. We host a free Salon on the last Sunday of every month, where LAVA Visionaries present. We also host occasional LAVA Literary Salons and quarterly forensic science seminars at Cal State LA.
We also have a weekly LA history podcast, which this week is dedicated to the criminal 1920s L.A. backdrop of my novel. Interviewed are L.A. Noir writer John Buntin and historian Rick Baudé, who has a unique, personal perspective on the cult featured in The Kept Girl.
Previously, I edited the independent magazine Scram, a journal of unpopular culture from 1992-2006, and co-edited two spin-off anthologies, Bubblegum Music is the Naked Truth: The Dark History of Pre-pubescent Pop from the Banana Splits to Britney Spears (Feral House) and Lost in the Grooves: Scram's Capricious Guide to the Music You Missed (Routledge). I wrote the best-selling entry in the 33 1/13 series of little books about great albums, Neutral Milk Hotel's 'In The Aeroplane Over the Sea' (Bloomsbury/Continuum), and ghosted my grandmother Barbara Cooper's memoir Fall in Love For Life: Inspiration from a 73-Year Marriage (Chronicle).
I'm happy to be here, have a lot of questions, and look forward to participating in future discussions.
Kim Cooper
Author of The Kept Girl, a mystery of 1929 Los Angeles
http://www.thekeptgirl.com