How Bram Stoker Handled A Soul-Sucking Boss

Bela Lugosi as Dracula

What do Dracula and The Devil Wears Prada have in common?

Recently I attended the opening of a gourmet chocolate kitchen.  As I sampled the delicious goods, someone asked, “Are you in The Industry too?”

The amazing chocolatier, you see, has a day job.  He’s a sound engineer.  He’s done films you’ve heard of.

In Los Angeles, you can’t go to a gathering without being asked, “Are you in The Industry?”  Meaning, of course, the entertainment industry, which permeates the city like a layer of smog.

Or fog, if you lived in 19th century London like Bram Stoker (1847-1912).

Stoker knew The Industry well. For over twenty years, he was the personal assistant (PA) to Henry Irving, a leading actor of his time and the first to be knighted. {Continue reading}

{ 0 comments }

Later Bloomers who like a cold wet wakeup call

Cold Water Faucet

What do a conservationist, a kayaker and a cop have in common?

I recently noticed that most of the Later Bloomers I’ve been writing about are, well, writers. Which coincides with what I want to do with my own later blooming.  Hmmm . . .

So I wanted to profile someone unrelated to my own yearnings.

I consulted my list and decided on John Muir (1838-1914), a naturalist often regarded as the father of environmental activism. I thought he’d provide a straightforward assignment I could bang out in a few days.

I was wrong. {Continue reading}

{ 4 comments }

Movies, Misfortune And The Making Of Roget’s Thesaurus

Peter Mark Roget

At  14, he went to university and by age 19 he’d earned his medical degree. (You might call him a Georgian-era Doogie Howser.) He went on to teach physiology at the University of London, helped found Manchester Medical School, invented a new type of slide rule, designed a pocket chess board, and arguably invented the first movie [...]

{Continue reading}

Liz Smith: All This and Johnny Depp Too

Thumbnail image for Liz Smith: All This and Johnny Depp Too

I’ve never considered a facelift because I earn my living by looking old. ~Liz Smith There’s a Liz Smith who calls herself “the 2000-year-old gossip columnist.” She’s often a skilled and entertaining writer. We won’t be talking about her. We will, however, be talking about Hollywood. I’ve written elsewhere about the foibles of living in Hollywood. On the [...]

{Continue reading}

P.D. James: From Bureaucrat to Writing Royalty

Thumbnail image for P.D. James: From Bureaucrat to Writing Royalty

Nothing that ever happens to a novelist is ever wasted. ~P.D. James  I have a love-hate affair with crime novels. As a girl, I couldn’t get enough of the Nancy Drew stories. By the age of 13, I’d read my way through the adult mystery shelves at my local library.  But as I grew older, [...]

{Continue reading}

Why Are Some People Later Bloomers? Part 2

Thumbnail image for Why Are Some People Later Bloomers? Part 2

In Part 1, I explored how “a good garden may have some weeds” — life’s difficulties and Later Blooming. In this installment, I look at two intriguing traits that many Later Bloomers share: Having too many passions and Learning by experimentation Too Many Passions During the Renaissance, humanism arose in revolt against the limits of Medieval education, [...]

{Continue reading}

Why Are Some People Later Bloomers? Part 1

Thumbnail image for Why Are Some People Later Bloomers? Part 1

A good garden may have some weeds. ~Thomas Fuller Does an article about yet another twenty-something internet millionaire make you wonder where you went wrong? Does a story about a grandma who ran her first marathon at 86 make your day? Don’t worry. If you’re a late-blooming adult, you’re not alone. You’ve got some remarkable company. According [...]

{Continue reading}

A Creative Hiatus

Thumbnail image for A Creative Hiatus

I was driving down Sunset Boulevard the other day when a billboard for Steven Spielberg’s The Pacific blindsided me. Two decades ago, my father bequeathed his collection of  World War II images to me, and I’ve been letting them fade and crumble.  He was an Army Signal Corps photographer stationed mostly in the Philippines. That night, [...]

{Continue reading}

← Previous Entries