Keep This Quiet

On beliefnet.com – How Hunter S. Thompson, Milton Klonsky and Jan Mensaert taught me the power of fearlessness

On Beliefnet.com - Writer Margaret Harrell on how “outlaw authors” Hunter S. Thompson, Milton Klonsky and Jan Mensaert taught her the power of fearlessness Click to read the marvelous interview conducted by John Kennedy. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. He sets the interview up this way: Never for a moment quail before your antagonists. Your fearlessness will be to them a sure token of impending destruction, but to you it will be a sure token of your salvation—a token coming from God. – Philipp...
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The Balancing Act of Me

Elizabeth Hein's novel How to Climb the Eiffel Tower kept me up to 3 a.m. the other night. In it a first-hand narrator wittily and with vulnerability describes her successful battle with cancer as a young career woman. I wouldn't have expected to be swept up in the topic, but she has a deft style and kept me reading and turning pages. Elizabeth has honored me by inviting me to contribute a Guest Blog, which you can read here. I took the occasion to write about relationships in the context of the...
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Hunting for Thompson – HST BOOKS

Many thanks to Marty Flynn, owner of HST Books, who has added this post. I have reproduced the beginning below. But I am sure you will want to click "Keep Reading" at the end. First Marty introduces my text: Margaret Harrell first met Hunter when she was working on copy editing his first published book Hell’s Angels. They maintained a friendship for years after. She is an accomplished author herself, In-particularly of the Keep This Quiet series where Hunter gets a significant mention. For any ...
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On “Hell’s Angels”

This is a review of Hell's Angels I came across by Christopher Allen, on the website Notes from Underground. He just read it for the first time. Wonderfully written review: The book is amazing. It's objective, biased, horrifying and profound. At times you feel like you're reading a nature book on some brutish animal and at other times you feel like you're peeking into the soul of all mankind. There is never a dull moment and at times you feel scared for the author. At other times you feel jealo...
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Meeting Nick Storm

September 29, 2011 I have just sent away two copies of Keep This Quiet to a film maker who is going to the Gonzo Fest in Louisville, KY, on the 15th. As coincidence would have it, that's the official pub date of this book. I can imagine him reading from a letter that Hunter wrote this very month eons ago, when he was trying to get Hell's Angels to press. He wrote back then, practically the first letter - from San Francisco: Dear Margaret Ann— It is now four hours and twenty min...
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Rain Taxi Review – a 5-gun salute from me

I am uncorking champagne in astonishment. Rain Taxi Review of Books asked me  months and months ago for a copy of Keep This Quiet! and then silence. Months passed, issues came out. And suddenly today they e-mailed me that a review had come out. With some trepidation I clicked the link, though I know they only review books they like. And there it was!! My jaw dropped. After summing up to perfection what the book is about, it concluded: "Three men, embodiments of three different dimensions of t...
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Beat Scene interview: Keep This Quiet!

Here is an update about my interview for Beat Scene. It's now finished and will come out in March. The technique of the publisher, Kevin Ring, was to e-mail one question, let me answer back (at length), and then send another question (or two) two weeks later. They were very provocative - in the sense of being probing. Nothing superficial or redundant. And now the piece will come out. I received the news today: "There will  be a two page spread on your book with image of the cover and press detai...
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February 20

I was reminded by a dream last night that today is February 20th. The dream was a narrative about hidden connections in Hunter's work. I found it very exciting, though in waking I didn't quite understand the connections. But I did realize that it was the anniversary of that sad day in 2005. And in sleep I'd been busy with a dream about him. The dream gave me lots of energy. And I sat down to work on the snags in volume 2 of KTQ. Kirkus Indie just posted a review for KTQ 1. An online description...
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Quail Ridge Books

Quail Ridge Books and Music is the Indie bookstore in Raleigh, NC. New to their shelves is Keep This Quiet! If you happen to be wandering around that shopping mall - for instance, at Whole Foods - go in and take a look. They have a large selection of books and a stream of author events. They are also very likely to be supporting local authors. Do not believe the website info that they have to order the book. I can guarantee you they have it in stock - as of right now - just waiting for customers...
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Mark Strand

Mark Strand is the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, author of Blizzard of One and other books. Wikipedia says: "He was appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1990. Since 2005, he has been a professor of English at Columbia University." He has just let me know he likes Keep This Quiet! What a fantastic bit of news. Mark Strand is also a world traveler. I met him once, in a Leuven, Belgium / Sibiu, Romania poetry festival in 1994. No contact since. Yet I found his ...
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