• Contemporaneous: A Living Novel

    Contemporaneous: Chapter 18

    18. Wednesday, I go into work for the morning, but come lunchtime (Autumn ducking her head out of her office to wish me luck) I’m out of there and catching a train into the city (I hate driving into the city) to meet my publisher, Regina, for lunch – well, actually, she was appointed fiction publisher after I was signed and had my two books published, and I’ve only dealt with her briefly, and unsatisfying, over email. She’s only thirty or so, which worries me because I’m ageist – I’ve dealt with younger people in the publishing industry, and they think they know everything. I know that because when I…

  • A Look Back,  Inside Entertainment,  Media Rants

    A Look Back: James Bond

    Ian Fleming’s James Bond was a burned out, hard drinking, womanizing secret agent who was a spy for MI6, had a license to kill, and fought the independent organization known as SPECTRE (SPecial Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge, and Extortion). He lived in this cool (from a creative standpoint) Cold War era when the threat of nuclear between the US and Russia seemed imminent, and everybody was paranoid about spying. Being British, Bond was also the gentleman’s spy – knowledgeable, seductive, and always charming. He always felt more cultured than those he was investigating. The first Bond movie, Dr. No, screened in 1962 and starred Sean Connery as Bond. Connery…