Several weeks ago I promised you some exclusive news. Well here I am, and at last I can finally tell you that I have just signed a contract with Chicago Review Press, to write my long-awaited book about Thelma Todd. This is a huge deal for me because I have wanted to write the book for almost four years now. It took a long time to get together a proposal that both myself and my agent were happy with, but finally last year we found the perfect words, and two months ago, Chicago Review Press made an offer to publish. CRP are also the authors of the new book on Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle, entitled 'Room 1219,' which has had fabulous reviews. For this and many other reasons, I know that CRP are the perfect publisher for my Thelma book.
Provisionally titled '271 Steps: The Mysterious Life and Death of Thelma Todd', the book will chart Thelma's life from birth to death, and will include a special investigation into what I believe happened to her on that last, fateful evening.
I am hard at work on the research and writing of the book, and am currently looking for anyone who can help with rare documents, letters, photographs etc, and would love to hear from anyone in that regard. Perhaps you know someone who owns something rare, or was related to Thelma in some way; or maybe you have a photo that you would like to share. If that is you, I'd love to hear from you. Just leave a message and your email address in the comments section, and I will get straight back to you. (please note that all comments are private until I approve them, so you can leave your email address in confidence that it won't be published here).
So that is my news, and I hope you are as excited about it as I am. You will see the finished product in December 2015, to coincide with the 80th anniversary of Thelma's passing. It seems far away, but when you have 80,000 words to write before September 2014, it is actually quite close! So I must get back to it, but look out for news and updates along the way towards publication.
Thanks for all your support!
