Lit Salon in Berkeley 4/17: Ona Russell, Craig Faustus Buck, Tom Rosenstiel

Upcoming Literary Salon in Berkeley, CA

When: Wednesday, April 17, 7:00 p.m.

Who: Ona Russell, Craig Faustus Buck, 

Tom Rosenstiel 

Where: RSVP for venue address (Berkeley, CA)
This is a free event, but YOU MUST RSVP to attend.
Space is Limited. Address of venue sent with acceptance.Please make a comment below with your email address

Ona Russell

Ona Russell is the author of three 1920s historical mysteries, including The Natural Selection, a 2009 CA Commonwealth Club book award finalist. She also has been published in literary and law magazines, and her essay “The (O)ther Kahn,” about her grandfather and brother of architect Louis Kahn, was included in The Best of Philadelphia Stories anthology. She holds a PhD in literature from UCSD, where she also taught for many years. She just finished her fourth novel and is working on a fifth.

CRAIG FAUSTUS BUCK

Craig Faustus Buck has earned numerous awards and nominations for his neo-noir romp of a novel, Go Down Hard and for his short stories, many of which are available free at CraigFaustusBuck.com. He is also a screenwriter, having written and/or produced network series, pilots, movies, and miniseries for more years than he cares to admit. Some highlights include the seminal miniseries V: The Final Battle, the Oscar-nominated short film, Overnight Sensation (starring Louise Fletcher and Robert Loggia), and the famous episode where The Incredible Hulk dropped acid. He began his writing career as a journalist and his work has appeared in hundreds of publications from The New York Times to Sports Illustrated to Le Monde.  He has co-authored six non-fiction books, including two New York Times number one bestsellers. 

He is a former president

 of the Mystery Writers of America's Southern California chapter and he makes a killer chocolate-rosemary brisket.

TOM ROSENSTIEL

Tom Rosenstiel, the author of the political thrillers The Good Lie (2019 Ecco) and Shining City (2017 Ecco), is a journalist, media critic and non-fiction author who has recently become a novelist. He is executive director of the American Press Institute in Washington, a think tank on media, and a senior non-resident fellow at the Brookings Institution. Previously, he was a co-founder of the Pew Research Center and for 16 years directed its media research. He was press critic at the Los Angeles Times for a decade, chief congressional correspondent at Newsweek and a press critic for MSNBC. He is the author of seven books of nonfiction, including the Elements of Journalism, which has been translated into more than 25 languages and was winner of the Goldsmith Book Award from Harvard University.

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RSVP, please

Lisa Lutz and Ona Russell Mystery Readers At Home

Last night several dedicated mystery readers weathered the storm (o.k., it was rain and hail, not snow, but this was California), to meet with two terrific mystery authors Ona Russell and Lisa Lutz. Ona regaled us with her personal history, as well as her interest in historical research. Edgar award nominated Lisa Lutz talked about humor, booksignings, and more personal reactions to fame and glory. The set up at Mystery Readers International At Homes consists of short intros by the authors followed by questions and dialogue. Ona Russell and Lisa Lutz had not met before, but they were soon engaged in dialogue over the book publishing business, why they write, reactions to their work, book signings and independent mystery stores.

Russell sets her history mysteries against different historical 'dilemmas' in 1920s America. The first in the series, O'Brien's desk, is set in Toledo, OH, and deals with corruption, sexual promiscuity and bigotry vs. the high ideals of Progressive reformers. The germ for this story was when Russell found a scrapbook of news stories and letters that her husband's mother had kept on her father. Judge O'Brien O'Donnell was caught between these two forces. The second in the series, The Natural Selection, involves the Scopes "monkey" trial. One point that Russell stressed at the At Home is how fiction can bring history alive. She certainly does that in her books. Her next book will be set in Los Angeles and deal with the stock market, and we all know how that ended up. The historical dilemmas she chose seem to mirror the contemporary period.

Lisa Lutz' books are not written in the traditional mystery genre mold--no dead body on the first page. They are more concerned with the people who try to solve mysteries. The Spellmans are a dysfunctional family of private investigators. The Spellman Files, The Curse of the Spellmans, and the new one coming next month, Revenge of the Spellmans, are filled with humor, as this family interacts with each other, as well as clients and crooks. At 28, Isabel Spellman, the protagonist, has not quite grown up, and her life has been filled with "romantic mistakes, excessive drinking, and creative vandalism." Lutz reiterated that the books are not autobiographical despite the fact that her mother asks that question at every booksigning she attends. Lutz's books are filled with laugh out loud lines and situations. Humor is such a difficult thing to write. It can't be forced. It has to come from the characters and their circumstances. Lutz succeeds in transferring her humor to the printed page, no mean feat. A tip of the hat to the Edgar committee for including a humorous mystery among their nominees. After a long stint at screenwriting (read Lutz's Confessions of a Hollywood sellout on Salon) and several other odd jobs (we all know screenwriting is odd but so were some of the others), she's found her true calling, for now, as a novelist. The fact that they're mysteries is a bonus for readers. The Curse of the Spellmans, originally written as a screenplay, has been optioned, and luckily, for her, she isn't working on the script. She's delighted with the people who are, and more power to them. Lutz told us there will be four Spellman books. After that? Well, we'll see. A new series? A totally different type of book? Whatever she decides, I'm sure it will be unique! Lutz's booktour.

Lisa Lutz, Ona Russell, Gillian Roberts (Judy Greber)

Just a reminder that there will be Three At Homes, intimate literary salons, in Berkeley, CA this month.

February 11: 7 p.m. Lisa Lutz, Gillian Roberts (Judy Greber), and Ona Russell.

February 18: 7 p.m. Leighton Gage

February 26: 3 p.m. Peter Robinson

Where? My house in Berkeley. RSVP for Directions.