Alexander Stuart

Horse Head by Michael Drummond. Condolences to Rafalca Romney on being passed over as Mittens Romney's vice-presidential pick. After all the promises...and the Olympic elimination! A sugar cube is no substitute. And, of all the contenders, Rafalca really knew how to run!

Tien Chuk Temple Courtyard. It's strange how, with writing, certain totems come to capture a spirit you wish to bring to a novel or screenplay. With Chinatown Nights , one of the images that has been with me since the 1990s is this old photograph of Tien Chuk Temple Courtyard, which a friend, Tommy Chen, sent me years ago (he also gave me a wonderful miniature Chinese Buddhist prayer scroll, which I still have). There is something about the photograph, perhaps the formality of the pose combined with the shadows and the giant paper lantern, that is extraordinarily intriguing to me. The photo captures the shadowy darkness the novel has always had, and even though there is no hint of technology about it, for me it is as if electrical sparks are about to explode across the image - perhaps because that is the energy I have always wanted for the book: the eruption and disruption of the technological revolution of the early 20th Century - and of now. ( This p

Gore Vidal, left, with Federico "Fred" Fellini. Photo courtesy Guardian/AP. I cannot let Gore Vidal's  passing go without a brief mention of the huge influence he had on me as a writer, both in terms of encouraging me to love the written word and subversive wit, but also to believe that the writer has a role to play in society as a public provocateur and commentator, both of which Vidal did with vast intelligence, grace, and acerbic, often unforgiving humor. I had the immense good fortune to meet Mr Vidal a couple of years ago at a Hollywood Hills party, thrown by our wonderful British friend, Stephen Fry , and there was not the slightest disappointment - quite the reverse: I was somewhat terrified of what to say, to avoid appearing foolish. Gore was in a wheelchair and rather frail, yet still he held court with a kind of imperial glee, very much the man once quoted as saying, "There is not one single human problem that could not be solved if people would s

A quick update on my Kickstarter campaign to raise funding to complete my noir love story and thriller, Chinatown Nights - the longest and most complex novel I have written in my career. Please watch the brief (two minute) video above and consider contributing, if you can. At the end of the first week, contributions to Kickstarter have already raised $1,470. Thank you to everyone who has been kind enough to pledge! [Please note that, as of August 23 2012, I have now started a new Kickstarter campaign for Chinatown Nights , and the links above now connect to the new campaign.]

I know I've posted this before ( John Boswell's Astonishing Symphony of Science Music Videos ), but this particular autotuned song,  We Are Star Dust , has been lodged in my mind, because it is so extraordinarily inspiring and beautiful. I can listen to it over and over again - and watch the video repeatedly - because it speaks not only to my heart, but to some cosmic core within me.