The Right Madness with James Crumley

Well, I know you guys must have had thought that I fell off the planet. Yes, work has been busy and family committments, baseball and track events, etc., there has not been many free days to hang with one of my favorite group of people.

That being said, I put everything on hold, braved rush hour traffic on the 405 from the Valley to Brentwood, and had to deal with the family over my choices. Why? Why?
Well, how many times does Jim Crumley come out with a new book and go on a tour? Sure, you could go to his neck of the woods and probably run into him in favorite bar, but this is Los Angeles baby!

Well, I made to Brentwood fifteen minutes late for the signing and there was no one in Dutton's. Jim apparently was stuck in the same damn traffic and ended up being 30 minutes later than me. Here is a pic of him just arriving at the signing. He said he had been in the car for 6 hours today making the rounds of the bookstores.


What's this? Water? Behind the book is an ice cold Coors in a can. This was Jim's request. The beer prompted writer and former student Robert Ward to ask Crumley do writers drinks as much as their characters? I can't type Crumley's response, except for ^#*^&$(#. Other questions involved the literary nature of ONE COUNT TO CADENCE, dealing with publishers, his life in academia and gentle poking fun with the small crowd.


Once Crumley had settled in and commented that Dutton's reminded him of being a writer, he read the opening chapter of THE RIGHT MADNESS.


After a brief question and answer session regarding the infamous TEXAS book, who were his early influences (Spillane - something about being a horney teenager, finally reading Chandler while doing his teaching), script writing for Hollywood and giving up his vices - divorce, and a few other things, we got done to signing books.
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Jim told me that he liked my tie. He asked what I did, I told him. That got a wicked smile, but no comment. I understood.

When asked what he was working on next? Nothing at the moment. What would you like Crumley to do next?