GOOD MORNING, BOOKLOVERS!
It’s hot, hot, hot in the Midwest! So we need to catch those early morning breezes before it gets too warm to enjoy the deck. Joining us today is mystery author Penny Pence Smith and her featured mystery book, Sunset West—Guns, Grit and Gossip!
Welcome, Penny! What may I get you to drink?
PPS: My morning beverage is Bengal Spice herbal tea (makes great iced tea, too) because I learned, as a very young woman, morning caffeine energized me TOO much, and burned me out early in the day. A frosty iced decaf Americano hits the spot mid-day on any afternoon.
Ally: Since we’re meeting early to beat the heat, Bengal Spice herbal tea it is. While I pour our drinks, please tell readers something about yourself.
It’s hot, hot, hot in the Midwest! So we need to catch those early morning breezes before it gets too warm to enjoy the deck. Joining us today is mystery author Penny Pence Smith and her featured mystery book, Sunset West—Guns, Grit and Gossip!
Welcome, Penny! What may I get you to drink?
PPS: My morning beverage is Bengal Spice herbal tea (makes great iced tea, too) because I learned, as a very young woman, morning caffeine energized me TOO much, and burned me out early in the day. A frosty iced decaf Americano hits the spot mid-day on any afternoon.
Ally: Since we’re meeting early to beat the heat, Bengal Spice herbal tea it is. While I pour our drinks, please tell readers something about yourself.
Bio:
Penny Pence Smith began writing professionally during high school for the Indio Daily News, in Southern California. She went on to receive a Communication and journalism B.A. at the University of Washington, an MA from the Annenberg School at the University of Southern California, and Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.
From the beginning, she was engaged in the entertainment industry: Warner Communication movie magazine editor, “legwoman” to an internationally known Hollywood columnist, correspondent/LA Bureau Manager for New York Times Special Features Syndicate covering entertainment, Hawaii Correspondent for The Hollywood Reporter, and later, author of best-selling tourism books, Under a Maui Sun and Reflections of Kauai (Island Heritage). Along the way, she managed advertising, public relations agencies and marketing consulting firms then became a professor at UNC Chapel Hill and Hawaii Pacific University before retirement. Her current work appears in various regional magazines.
Penny lives near Honolulu, Hawaii with her husband, Dixon, and cat, Bob.
Something personal/unique that isn’t in your regular bio: “I’m a life-long dancer, from age 3, never missing a year in motion. At some point I taught everything from tap to ballet to jazz to hip hop (my favorite). Today, at 78, I have taught and still dance Zumba, but my heart and feet move to the rhythms of hula.”
Contact me:
Website: https://pennystories.wixsite.com/penny-smith-books
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Penny-Pence-Smith/e/B085FQLB2F
BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/penny-pence-smith
Penny Pence Smith began writing professionally during high school for the Indio Daily News, in Southern California. She went on to receive a Communication and journalism B.A. at the University of Washington, an MA from the Annenberg School at the University of Southern California, and Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.
From the beginning, she was engaged in the entertainment industry: Warner Communication movie magazine editor, “legwoman” to an internationally known Hollywood columnist, correspondent/LA Bureau Manager for New York Times Special Features Syndicate covering entertainment, Hawaii Correspondent for The Hollywood Reporter, and later, author of best-selling tourism books, Under a Maui Sun and Reflections of Kauai (Island Heritage). Along the way, she managed advertising, public relations agencies and marketing consulting firms then became a professor at UNC Chapel Hill and Hawaii Pacific University before retirement. Her current work appears in various regional magazines.
Penny lives near Honolulu, Hawaii with her husband, Dixon, and cat, Bob.
Something personal/unique that isn’t in your regular bio: “I’m a life-long dancer, from age 3, never missing a year in motion. At some point I taught everything from tap to ballet to jazz to hip hop (my favorite). Today, at 78, I have taught and still dance Zumba, but my heart and feet move to the rhythms of hula.”
Contact me:
Website: https://pennystories.wixsite.com/penny-smith-books
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Penny-Pence-Smith/e/B085FQLB2F
BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/penny-pence-smith
INTERVIEW:
Ally: Who or what inspired your featured book?
PPS: As a very young woman I was fortunate to become the “legwoman” or assistant to the most widely distributed Hollywood columnist of the time. For a dozen years I interviewed celebrities and movie, TV and music moguls, had my own bylined features, traveled the world covering glamorous stories. My writing “boss”/associate commanded a huge presence in the entertainment industry and we all shone and thrived in her wake. I often wondered what would happen to a dedicated legwoman if the columnist died or somehow disappeared.
Many years later, the question resurfaced and I decided to project that story, inspired by so many of my own amazing experiences, in The Last Legwoman—A Novel of Hollywood, Murder…and Gossip! My protagonist, the Gossip Columnist’s successor, former legwoman Meredith Ogden’s character was born, then took on a life of her own. The sequel, Sunset West—Guns, Grit and Gossip, continues the saga of the enduring “legwoman” now columnist as she grows up in the dynamic waters of show business.
Ally: Are you self-published or traditionally published? How did you make the decision?
PPS: I am self-published as a matter of expedience. While I’ve been a “writer” in many different aspects of a communication career, journalism and creative writing are my passion. Retiring in my 70’s, I felt it too late to knock on doors and wait for responses. Simply writing, telling stories and having readers enjoy them was the only objective.
Ally: Why did you choose writing as a career?
PPS: I think writing chose me. I’m told I wrote tiny booklets about friends when I was barely old enough to scrawl sentences. My first professional writing job was at 14 and although I’ve meandered through various avenues of the communications discipline (journalism, PR, advertising, marketing, teaching), every job had a writing component. Upon retirement I returned to article writing for regional magazines, and then embarked upon my first dedicated fiction/mystery novel. I now think of it as my day job.
Ally. What’s the best writing/marketing advice you’ve been given?
PPS: “You’d better write. It’s in your blood”— managing editor of my local newspaper when I was 14.
“A well written ‘done’ paper is preferable to a possibly ‘better’ paper still sitting on the hard drive – my doctoral dissertation committee chair.
“Write about what you love”—my father.
Ally: What’s the best thing a reader has said about your book?
PPS: “…really good story…writing was beautiful….”
“The most striking feature of this book is the beauty of the language… a joy to read…”
Ally: What is your next writing project? Anticipated release date?
PPS: As soon as the launch and follow-on marketing of Sunset West—Guns, Grit and Gossip is complete, the next Meredith Ogden adventure in Hollywood journalism will take shape, possibly for release about May of 2022.
Ally: Which of the trivia questions did you choose?
PPS:
Ally: Who or what inspired your featured book?
PPS: As a very young woman I was fortunate to become the “legwoman” or assistant to the most widely distributed Hollywood columnist of the time. For a dozen years I interviewed celebrities and movie, TV and music moguls, had my own bylined features, traveled the world covering glamorous stories. My writing “boss”/associate commanded a huge presence in the entertainment industry and we all shone and thrived in her wake. I often wondered what would happen to a dedicated legwoman if the columnist died or somehow disappeared.
Many years later, the question resurfaced and I decided to project that story, inspired by so many of my own amazing experiences, in The Last Legwoman—A Novel of Hollywood, Murder…and Gossip! My protagonist, the Gossip Columnist’s successor, former legwoman Meredith Ogden’s character was born, then took on a life of her own. The sequel, Sunset West—Guns, Grit and Gossip, continues the saga of the enduring “legwoman” now columnist as she grows up in the dynamic waters of show business.
Ally: Are you self-published or traditionally published? How did you make the decision?
PPS: I am self-published as a matter of expedience. While I’ve been a “writer” in many different aspects of a communication career, journalism and creative writing are my passion. Retiring in my 70’s, I felt it too late to knock on doors and wait for responses. Simply writing, telling stories and having readers enjoy them was the only objective.
Ally: Why did you choose writing as a career?
PPS: I think writing chose me. I’m told I wrote tiny booklets about friends when I was barely old enough to scrawl sentences. My first professional writing job was at 14 and although I’ve meandered through various avenues of the communications discipline (journalism, PR, advertising, marketing, teaching), every job had a writing component. Upon retirement I returned to article writing for regional magazines, and then embarked upon my first dedicated fiction/mystery novel. I now think of it as my day job.
Ally. What’s the best writing/marketing advice you’ve been given?
PPS: “You’d better write. It’s in your blood”— managing editor of my local newspaper when I was 14.
“A well written ‘done’ paper is preferable to a possibly ‘better’ paper still sitting on the hard drive – my doctoral dissertation committee chair.
“Write about what you love”—my father.
Ally: What’s the best thing a reader has said about your book?
PPS: “…really good story…writing was beautiful….”
“The most striking feature of this book is the beauty of the language… a joy to read…”
Ally: What is your next writing project? Anticipated release date?
PPS: As soon as the launch and follow-on marketing of Sunset West—Guns, Grit and Gossip is complete, the next Meredith Ogden adventure in Hollywood journalism will take shape, possibly for release about May of 2022.
Ally: Which of the trivia questions did you choose?
PPS:
- a memorable book you’ve read: Where the Crawdads Sing – Delia Owens
- an author (living or dead) you’d love to take to lunch: The late Margaret Maron, one of the most gently grounded but unique mystery authors I’ve read. (Ally note: and a wonderful person)
- a movie you’ll always remember: Two stand out: Moonstruck (with Cher, Nicholas Cage, Olympia Dukakis) and The Accountant (a many faceted crime/mystery with Ben Affleck, Anna Kendrick and J.K. Simmons)
- Your pets: Bob is our cat – so named because as a rescue, the temporary name he came with didn’t fit him and we couldn’t remember it, so we simply started calling out, “Here, Bob!” He responded – mostly to tuna, but before long he WAS Bob.He came to us via a cat whisperer, part of a cat rescue group who had saved him from a group of mean kids who were beating on him with sticks. He was so needy he’d go back for more. With a broken jaw, a BB in his side and lots of paranoia issues, he came to us. Once healthy, we quickly became his humans, but he still runs and hides from all other two-legged visitors.
- Do you re-read books? Any book in particular? Yes, often. Top of the Hill by Irwin Shaw (1979), The Painted House by John Grisham (2000), and Long Upon the Land (2015), Margaret Maron.
Ally: Thank you for sharing your morning with us, Penny. Before we finish for today, please show us your featured mystery book.
Sunset West—Guns, Grit and Gossip!
(Book 2 of the Legwoman mysteries)
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Rating: PG-13
Hollywood columnist Meredith Ogden finds herself reluctantly aboard a private plane en route to a New Mexico movie location where the son of the film’s star has died of an overdose. The film’s director, Meredith’s old friend and former lover, has convinced her to travel to the location, write a “fair and truthful” story ahead of rumor and innuendo.
Her unfolding journey of drugs, danger and drama makes for juicy news stories but threatens day-to-day life of everyone around her including “high profile” detective T.K. Raymond with whom she lives. Pulled into the gossip columnist’s web of international drugs and deceit, he deals with his own shadowed journey in the world of crime. Meanwhile, traditional Hollywood gossip sparkles along—and evolves as Meredith and her colleagues strive to stay alive and find their role in a “new” Hollywood.
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Penny+Pence+Smith&ref=nb_sb_noss_2)
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Penny-Pence-Smith/e/B085FQLB2F
(Book 2 of the Legwoman mysteries)
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Rating: PG-13
Hollywood columnist Meredith Ogden finds herself reluctantly aboard a private plane en route to a New Mexico movie location where the son of the film’s star has died of an overdose. The film’s director, Meredith’s old friend and former lover, has convinced her to travel to the location, write a “fair and truthful” story ahead of rumor and innuendo.
Her unfolding journey of drugs, danger and drama makes for juicy news stories but threatens day-to-day life of everyone around her including “high profile” detective T.K. Raymond with whom she lives. Pulled into the gossip columnist’s web of international drugs and deceit, he deals with his own shadowed journey in the world of crime. Meanwhile, traditional Hollywood gossip sparkles along—and evolves as Meredith and her colleagues strive to stay alive and find their role in a “new” Hollywood.
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Penny+Pence+Smith&ref=nb_sb_noss_2)
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Penny-Pence-Smith/e/B085FQLB2F