Announcing the Historical Hollywood Giveaway!

Like me, you're probably astonished that it's now September!  

Hollywood tales rank high among my fave fiction genres, as reader and writer, and within that subgenre I prefer biographical novels. I'm delighted to participate in this bestselling, award-winning multi-author giveaway of real-like stories about movie personalities of the past. Karen Essex, Heather Webb, and I are giving away these FOUR novels of Hollywood's Golden Age--the silver screen icons, scandals, and stardom--in one big prize pack.

I invite you to ENTER HERE.

These are the books included in the giveaway:

Run, Darling by Karen Essex. Three Sisters. One War. A Harrowing Escape. For decades, the gorgeous trio of Zsa Zsa, Eva, and Magda, with their Auntie Mame mother, dominated gossip columns, TV and movie screens, talk shows, and tabloids with their talent, clever quips, branded beauty products—and utter disregard for society’s rules. Run, Darling is that untold story.

Strangers in the Night by Heather Webb. In the golden age of Hollywood, two of the brightest stars would define—and defy—an era… As Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner ride the rollercoaster of success and failure, passion and anger, they both wonder if the next turn will be the end of their careers, and most devastating of all—the end of all they’ve shared.

Beautiful Invention: A Novel of Hedy Lamarr by Margaret Porter. Hollywood Beauty. Brilliant inventor. The incredible story of a remarkable and misunderstood woman. In Hollywood, Louis B. Mayer transforms an Austrian refugee into Hedy Lamarr, an icon of exotic glamour. Professional success clashes with Hedy’s personal life as marriage and motherhood compete with the demands of studio and stardom.

The Limits of Limelight by Margaret Porter. Hollywood turned Ginger Rogers into a star. What will it do for her cousin? A pretty teenager leaves Oklahoma for California at the invitation of her relatives, to try her luck in motion pictures. As Phyllis Fraser, she lands a contract with RKO and swiftly discovers that Depression-era Hollywood’s surface glamor and glitter obscure the ceaseless struggle of the hopeful starlet.

Best of luck to all who enter! 

Peg Entwistle and The Limits of Limelight

 

At The Limits of Limelight book launch

Two nights ago, at my book launch for The Limits of Limelight, during the question and answer time, a friend asked, “What was the hardest part of writing this novel?”

Without hesitation, I replied, “Peg Entwistle.”

Peg

Immersed in her life, thanks to the exceptionally detailed and brilliantly researched biography by the late James Zeruk, Jr., there was a great heaviness on my heart and spirits. As a renowned stage performer, and a promising film actress, she deserved a much happier fate than the one she chose for herself.

Peg was born in Port Talbot, Wales, to an English theatrical family that worked on both sides of the Atlantic. Her parents divorced, her father died, and she and her two stepbrothers were raised by her aunt and uncle, who had settled in Los Angeles. But Peg's sights were set on the stage, so as soon as she was old enough, she headed East. Unlike many stage-struck teens, she enjoyed rapid and meteoric success. 

I’ve known a little bit about Peg for a long time. Enough to believe that she must have needed a close and supportive friend in those final months, weeks, and days. So I gave her Phyllis. My novel’s main character. They were definitely acquainted with each another, put under contract by RKO at the same, time along with the other young beauties dubbed “The Baby Stars.”

Phyllis & Peg in makeup class at RK)

RKO's "Baby Stars"

Both were cast in David Selznick’s pet project, Thirteen Women, with Myrna Loy and Irene Dunne, and many more. Peg had a significant role, which was drastically reduced in the final edit—for reasons my novel reveals. Phyllis had a minor role, and was cut out of the movie entirely.

Lobby card for Thirteen Women

On the night of September 16, Peg walked from the Beechwood Drive home of her aunt and uncle, scaled the steep and rocky path leading to the Hollywoodland sign—in her younger years, she’d observed its construction, the laborers and trucks had passed by her house. She’d even climbed onto it, with her brothers, for fun.

The Hollywoodland sign from Peg's street

Motivated by despair and disappointment, all too conscious of her own mistakes, depressed about her dire financial situation and a run of bad luck, she made her final ascent.

Her body, lying in a ravine, was spotted by a female hiker, who reported the discovery to the police. It wasn’t recovered until after dark. Her relatives didn’t learn what had happened until they read the newspaper—two days after Peg’s disappearance.

A report of her death

The legends about Peg, whose gardenia-scented ghost reportedly haunts the neighbourhood where she lived and died, and assumptions made about her, are endless. And often erroneous. Like her biographer, I feel too little attention is given to her talent, her spiritedness, her persistence, her love of family and theirs for her, and her optimism—which eventually, tragically, ran out.

The impossibility of giving Peg a happy ending is another reason writing about her was painful. I hope in the afterlife, she and James are chatting up a storm. He dedicated years of his life to presenting the real Peg. He died before I could send him a copy of The Limits of Limelight, so I’ll never know his response to my portrayal of her. But I'm forever grateful to him for his lasting legacy--her biography.