Archive for November, 2007
Posted on November 5, 2007 - by admin
Cullotta
Lauren Smith: How did you end up writing this story?
{mosimage}Denny Griffin: In my book The Battle for Las Vegas – The Law vs. the Mob (Huntington Press, July 2006), I told the story of Chicago Outfit enforcer Tony Spilotro’s Las Vegas reign. This is the era dramatized in the hit 1995 movie Casino, in which actor Joe Pesci plays a character based on Spilotro. That book was told primarily from the side of law enforcement. So when I had the opportunity to meet Frank Cullotta — the last living and available member of Spilotro’s crew — I was enthused about the possibility of getting a look at that same time period from the perspective of the bad guys. Frank had already been thinking about doing a book, making the timing perfect.
During my initial meeting with Frank, he committed to discussing his life of crime starting with his days as a juvenile thief and tough guy in Chicago, through his time as Tony Spilotro’s lieutenant in Vegas, and his stint in the federal Witness Protection Program. He also agreed to talk about his role as an adviser to Casino, in which he appeared in several scenes as a hit man. Frank promised to talk candidly about the myriad crimes he’d been involved in for which he’d received immunity or the statue of limitations had long since run. They included murder.
Shortly after the meeting I approached Huntington Press with a proposal outlining what Frank’s story would contain and the amount of detail he would provide. As an illustration, the proposal included Frank’s description of the facts behind the so-called M&M murders. They were the basis for one of the most memorable scenes in Casino, the one in which Pesci’s character places a man’s head in a vise and squeezes until the guy’s eyeball pops out. Huntington saw the book’s potential and signed on to the project.
Posted on November 5, 2007 - by admin
Cullotta
Lauren Smith: How did you end up writing this story?
{mosimage}Denny Griffin: In my book The Battle for Las Vegas – The Law vs. the Mob (Huntington Press, July 2006), I told the story of Chicago Outfit enforcer Tony Spilotro’s Las Vegas reign. This is the era dramatized in the hit 1995 movie Casino, in which actor Joe Pesci plays a character based on Spilotro. That book was told primarily from the side of law enforcement. So when I had the opportunity to meet Frank Cullotta — the last living and available member of Spilotro’s crew — I was enthused about the possibility of getting a look at that same time period from the perspective of the bad guys. Frank had already been thinking about doing a book, making the timing perfect.
During my initial meeting with Frank, he committed to discussing his life of crime starting with his days as a juvenile thief and tough guy in Chicago, through his time as Tony Spilotro’s lieutenant in Vegas, and his stint in the federal Witness Protection Program. He also agreed to talk about his role as an adviser to Casino, in which he appeared in several scenes as a hit man. Frank promised to talk candidly about the myriad crimes he’d been involved in for which he’d received immunity or the statue of limitations had long since run. They included murder.
Shortly after the meeting I approached Huntington Press with a proposal outlining what Frank’s story would contain and the amount of detail he would provide. As an illustration, the proposal included Frank’s description of the facts behind the so-called M&M murders. They were the basis for one of the most memorable scenes in Casino, the one in which Pesci’s character places a man’s head in a vise and squeezes until the guy’s eyeball pops out. Huntington saw the book’s potential and signed on to the project.
Posted on November 5, 2007 - by admin
This is the Place
Lauren Smith: What is your book about?
{mosimage}Carolyn Howard-Johnson: This Is the Place is a fictionalized account of my life. I was born to a Mormon father and a Protestant mother in a state that was almost exclusively Mormon and is a culture colored by the dominant religion (Every state legislator, as an example, are Mormon even in this year of 2007.) As a young journalist I considered marrying a Mormon man, much as five generations of Nonmormon women before me had done–my mother, grandmother, great grandmother and great-great grandmother. Each handled her situation in a different way depending on her personality and the time she lived in. The result is a saga of the West, based on authentic pioneer history; a love story, based on my own; and the story of a woman reaching for a career in journalism against all odds.
Lauren Smith: Why did you write this book?
Carolyn Howard-Johnson: I thought about this book as a young journalist in the early sixties. It didn't get written until four decades later when I got cancer and realized that, if not now, possibly never.
Posted on November 5, 2007 - by admin
The Mouse Knight
Lauren Smith: What is your book about?
{mosimage}Cutter Hays: The trilogy is about mice getting a chance for equality with humans, all started by a single mouse who is born knowing how to read.
Lauren Smith: Why did you write it?
Cutter Hays: To help out mice and the RMCA (Rat and Mouse Club ofAmerica, who first hosted it). And mostly because I was inspired to do so.
Lauren Smith: What do you hope your reader will learn from your book?
Posted on November 2, 2007 - by admin
Alex Webster and the Gods
Interview with David Dent, author of Alex Webster and the Gods
About the book: After several millennia spent in retirement, taking it easy, Jupiter, the superstar Roman God, decides the timing is right for his comeback as a business leader with an MBA from Harvard. His intention is to acquire a global corporation and to set up a new worldly empire. But Jupiter has been out of circulation for a while and he and his friends are a little rusty at the game of corporate takeovers. The high jinks and intrigue that ensure are all part of David Dent’s new science fiction novel, Alex Webster and the Gods.
This interview is exclusive to the Virtual Book Review Network
VBRN: What inspired you to create a work of science fiction?
{mosimage}David Dent: Science fiction and fantasy have always been obsessed with the nature of godhood. The idea came to me in 2002 after reading an article in the Atlantic Monthly on the explosion of new religious movements. The article noted that there were about 10,000 religions competing for our souls and that some sociologists use the idea of a religious economy or spiritual marketplace to explain what helps a religion succeed in gaining followers. One could say that Darwinism had its start in the heavens. Because the capitalist marketplace is the dominant metaphor, if not mythology, of our age, I thought it would be interesting to examine a world where gods are the producers of religious services, competing to meet the demands of humans.
VBRN: How did you arrive at the idea of Yahweh as the first capitalist?
David Dent: About the same time that I was considering ideas for my book, I was also taking a course in world religions. During one class the professor asked about the nature of god as presented in the Old Testament. Rather than responding from a theological perspective, I considered it from a modern reading of the Bible, asking, What kind of business leader was Yahweh? This was not by chance because my career at that point dealt with issues of corporate governance and management. Interestingly, I found that one can argue Yahweh’s management style evolves from an entrepreneurial, hands-on deity to a maturing manager who, overtime, introduces more sophisticated management and control methods to achieve his goals. The cause for these changes is that Yahweh, like any good manager, learns from experience. His evolution is similar to that of many entrepreneurs who create new ventures and navigate them to successful organizations. In Yahweh’s case, his brand dominates the religion market, with Christianity taking about a 32 percent share worldwide. In other words, Yahweh’s story is not unlike that of Bill Gates or Henry Ford, evolving from a temperamental, even eccentric, entrepreneur to the avuncular, but distant, Chairman of the Board. And the idea tied in beautifully with the notion of a religious market. Arguably, Yahweh is the world’s first and oldest capitalist and, to this point, most successful.
VBRN: How did you decide on Jupiter as the old god looking for a comeback?
