OK here's my prediction about Tony Soprano

No it didn't come to me in a vision, and I claim no inside track to the mind of David Chase.

Tony won't die at the end of the series. The anonymous powers that be will decide to run him for the Senate. He wouldn't be the first crook to be washed clean at the ballot box.

And he would hate his life, even more than now. Karma? You bet.

And, man, would I love to write *that* movie!!

See you at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books

April 28 and 29 at UCLA.

I'll be in Independent Writers of Southern California Booth # 428 on Saturday from 11AM - 1PM and on Sunday from 10AM - Noon.

Drop by and get the skinny on the SoCal writers' mafia (and mutual protection society), along with scare stories from the POD Wars!

Yikes! It's A-liiiiiive!

Live on Amazon.com as of today, with respectable reviews from boychiks Peter Lefcourt, Tom Blake, Gavin Sinclair, Marv Wolf, Dan Whitman, and others.

Bonus Question: Origins of Chick Lit?

Does anyone know what's considered to be the first novel in the chick lit genre? It must have been before Sex and the City went on the air.

And don't say Pride and Prejudice, even though it meets all the core criteria of looking for "Mr. Right."

Mind Your Tips on Valentine's Day

Have a joyous day (and night), but let's all be safe. Please don't fire your weapon into the air.

Helpful Hint: Today millions of men will be subjected to the time-honored Mind Reading Test. Remember that it's strictly Pass / Fail, and you get only one guess. So take the advice I got from old Uncle Bob -- if it doesn't sparkle or smell, YOU GUESSED WRONG!

Here's hoping your Valentine is a live one!

the boychik

Gimme a new idea that stood the test of time

Boychik lit is not new. It's a new label on an old tradition. Hollywood calls it the "coming-of-age" story, and the protagonist can be male or female. These movies are usually comedies, which makes sense--there's no great tragedy for a main character who still has his whole life ahead of him to repair whatever missteps he committed in the story. In this respect, Salinger's Catcher in the Rye and Roth's Portnoy's Complaint are mainstream boychik lit.

So might be Hamlet, for that matter--if only the Prince of Denmark had been able to run away to Spain with Ophelia and start a new network marketing company...

Note to self

Compose cute apocryphal story about "how I did it" for use on talk-show gigs and press interviews. Make sure it involves: 1) sleeping in my car, 2) impersonating a celebrity, 3) food stamps and government cheese, 4) stalking, 5) head-spinning rapidity of success, and 6) smiles all around, no detractors, no jealousies, no naysayers (in short, behavior totally atypical of Hollywood). ;-]

P.S. Take another look at my picture. Overnight does not belong in the same sentence as success, when it comes to describing anything I've ever done or attempted.