Listening to Night Music with Humphrey Bogart

NEWS FROM THE BLOODY FRONT: OH GAWD! I said to myself at the prospect of another weekend tweaking the majestic and about-to-be-popped-into-the-toaster Blood Moon release that's only a wee bit late, HUMPHREY BOGART, THE MAKING OF A LEGEND, by Darwin Porter.

Proudly, I truthfully and verily say, the book is brilliant. An historical insight, 'tis, into the phenomenon of Humphrey Bogart, a functioning alcoholic with an unfortunate physicality, a lisp, and an inconvenient sense of intellectual independence, who, amazingly, got famous when many dozens of his immediate cohorts were relegated two or three generations ago to the dustbin of entertainment-industry oblivion.

My prediction: This book will become a reference source staple, a title for library shelves as an important addition to the understanding of one of America's premier icons. Indexed, authoritative, and certainly not bland, the book is piquant, reputable, and supremely interesting, especially for Entertainment-Industry buffs.

We're shipping it off for manufacture on Wednesday of this upcoming week at the very latest. The printers (McNaughton & Gunn, and a fine outfit they are, indeed), tell us it takes from five to six weeks to manufacture, perhaps less. So, with the understanding that Blood Moon's bleary-eyed but endlessly charming backoffice editorial staff has been humping it long and very very hard, please know that HUMPY IS ON HIS WAY!

Miss Scarlett O'Hara is I.D.'d, worldwide, as a "hot mess" and a "slutty bisexual." In the aftermath, SB's of the world say "Hooray for Vivien!"

Blood Moon's upcoming release of Damn You Scarlett O'Hara provoked worldwide newspaper coverage this week as three major newspapers (The NY Post, London's Sunday Times, and The Daily Mail) previewed their observation that Vivien Leigh was more promiscuous and less emotionally stable than anyone except Porter, Moseley, and dozens of firsthand witnesses to her life had ever realized.

We're delighted with the advance publicity for this title, and we're particularly honored with the interviewing pizzazz of Mr. John Harlow, the Los Angeles correspondent for London's SUNDAY TIMES, who was the creative engine behind a well-written story that was later picked up by two of his newspaper's competitors. Bravo to John Harlow, clever cad and brilliant historian that he is.

The least restrained of the three stories was the one within the New York Post, wherein Vivien was identified as a "slutty bisexual" and a "hot mess."

A hipster friend of mine, Meghan, a smart, capable, hardworking, and very hip 28-year-old lifeguard at one of New York City's public beaches, laughed when she heard the "slutty bisexual" reference as it applied to the divine Vivien Leigh. "Half the women I know in New York might identify themselves that way," she said, "and your job, Dan, will involve glamorizing that term as a badge of honor.

To that effect, and in honor of the divine Vivien Leigh, I salute the other slutty bisexuals of this wide world. The spirit of Vivien Leigh, I've been told by the book's co-author, Roy Moseley, is laughing uproariously over this, "her green eyes filled with merriment." GO VIVIEN! SB's Unite. Who, one wonders, will be the first to manufacture the T-shirts?

Blood Moon announces its reconfigured, rebuilt website

Blood Moon's newly rebuilt website is up, functioning, and flourishing! Loaded with bells, whistles, and video clips, it's an improved vehicle for showcasing the virtues of this feisty, NYC-based publisher.

View or download from its home page the film everyone in the book distribution universe is talking about: BEA 2010--Blood Moon's View from the Floor. Defined as "the world's best 75-minute primer on how to swim with the sharks in the book trades," it was filmed on the floor of Book Expo in NYC as an infomercial and documentary about how to market and sell a literary product in the newly digitalized America of today.

Roy Moseley and Darwin Porter-a daunting literary team

Work is progressing on schedule as regards Blood Moon's newest celebrity biography, Damn You, Scarlett O'Hara, The Private Lives of Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier. Strong creative decisions and long work-focused weekends have been agreed upon its co-authors, whose experiences with the private lives of The Oliviers dovetail neatly.

According to the Oliver's godson and personal assistant, Roy Moseley, who ministered to the needs of Ms. Leigh at her deathbed, "Every previous biography of Vivien and Larry got the story wrong or left the important things out."

Blood Moon is proud to be the vehicle whereby the legacy of The Oliviers will at last be concretized, perhaps definitively. Expect a release of this hot and absorbing story in NOVEMBER.

Vivien Leigh is being rescusitated NOW

Vivien Lee Gets Busy from Beyond the Grave:

DAMN YOU SCARLETT O'HARA, The Private Lives of Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier

ISBN 978-1-936003-15-0, Available November, 2010

As regards Blood Moon's upcoming biography of Miss Scarlett O'Hara and her real-life husband, (Lord) Laurence Olivier, co-authors Darwin Porter and Roy Moseley are buzzing across the phone wires comparing public vs once-secret private information about the doomed but glam, very glam pair.



That's good news for Viv and Larry fans, many of them eager for advance news about the world's most honest and unapologetic biography of the famous actors ever written.



"Their fame," according to celebrity biographer and Hollywood authority Darwin Porter, "was second in glamor only to that of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, and their presence anywhere defined the event as the most desirable dinner ticket in the world. We're thrilled with the chance to collaborate on this book." (which its publisher, Blood Moon Productions of NYC, has announced as a November, 2010, release).

Rumors about the communications between the "ghost" of Vivien Leigh, as it communicated with Blood Moon's president, Danforth Prince are still being investigated. According to Prince, "All I got was a clear and very strong sense of a spirit associated with Miss Leigh that continued as a strong ongoing sense of the other-worldly for several uninterrupted hours. Its articulated wish was a commission to ensure that this biography would be properly shepherded, by me, through the writing, editorial, and marketing processes and brought to successful publication.

"Details about how the book will be phrased, organized, and constructed are now within the capable hands of its co-authors, Porter and Moseley.

"I am delighted that the artistic and business ends of this project are dovetailing nicely, and I've even accepted Miss Leigh's very clear communication as a sign that all switches for this project have been set on GO GO GO, with the full approval of most parties (both living and dead) concerned.

"Frankly," Prince continued, "when a damsel like Vivien Leigh, aka Miss Scarlett, living or dead, throws down a request for chivalry to a man with the American South running deep within his veins, what gentleman could possibly refuse?"

Stay tuned and keep posted on this blogsite for more about the ongoing dramas associated with the creative process of bringing Scarlett and Heathcliff back to the generalized consciousness of postmodern readership.