Why hollyWEIRD?

This blog will be about the stories I have written on what I thought would be a one book deal. I now have enough interconnecting stories for over 2 books and my ever scribbling fingers are now inching on towards what could be 3 books... and that is merely the beginning.
The idea for hollyWEIRD came from the realization that, while there were many mystery series ( Raymond Chandler is probably the best known example of the genre ) based in Hollywood,  there were no fantasy series based in the fantasy factory known as Tinsel Town. I was living in Hollywood when this light bulb moment beamed brightly in my extremely fertile brain.
And why hollyWEIRD? Hollyweird is a nickname of Hollywood and has been so for decades. It is right up there with Smog Angeles and Berserkley. A bit irrelevant for those who call it thus, but often spoken with affection. So holly in small case while WEIRD in capital letters seemed appropriate, all things considered. I usually define Hollywood as a place where one could wear a 50s ballgown to a local fast food restaurant and rather than people looking at you as if to say "Who's the whack job?" people will come up to you and ask you where you got your ballgown because they want to get one like it.
I moved out of Hollywood in 2007 and now, with 2014 almost over, I have not yet returned. It is ironic. Even though I have been gone from where I once hung my Bohemian beret, I almost feel as if I still live there. It remains vivid in my mind. I see myself walking its tourist infested boulevards, meandering anonymously through them. I lived in Hollywood for almost 18 years. I remained poor and obscure. But I became rich with the many friendships of other disabled, elderly or the working grunts that make up Hollywood's backbone. I miss it. So I can revisit it in my memories and in my mind and also in the stories I write that take place in a Hollywood that sort of exists in irony and the shadows of obscurity and opportunity.
December 11, 2014