Welcome to Rhodes Less Traveled

I’ve worn many hats throughout my life: wife, mother, daughter, sister, friend, tutor, teacher, production assistant.  I bartended one night (Quit when the owner informed me that due to his ‘broken arm’ I’d be expected to assist him in buttoning and unbuttoning his fly for the next few weeks), I helped costume a movie, and I was a game show contestant (three times, winning big on Name That Tune).

In my lifetime, however, there is one hat I always wore: that of a writer. I’ve been writing as far back as I can remember; I even wrote class plays back in elementary school. I’ve written for the soaps (As the World Turns, General Hospital), for one sitcom back in the eighties, (It was called ‘You Again’ and it starred John Stamos and Jack Klugman; when asked about it I like to say that if you sneezed, it was off the air), and I’ve been published in the Op-Ed section of the L.A. Times.

I also collaborated with my late husband, Rick, a brilliant and prolific TV and Film composer who won five Emmy Awards in his lifetime (I was nominated twice but didn’t win. What they say about its being just as much of an honor to have been nominated?  Not so much, although one time I lost out to Kenny Loggins…I thought that was pretty impressive). In addition to songs, Rick and I worked together on a musical entitled UG, a Caveman Musical, written by TV writer/producer, Jim Geoghan. It debuted here in L.A. in 2007 and did fairly well; UG is performed throughout the country and hopefully it will play locally again some time soon.

When Rick succumbed to brain cancer in 2005 my world went dark and remained so for quite some time. It took me a year before I could read a book, almost two years before I could listen to music again (I still can’t listen to his), and three years before I went out on my first date (and found out how much the dating world had changed in the years I’d been married). I didn’t write at all.

Recently, though, I’ve re-discovered my ‘writing voice’. For one thing, I’m in the process of revising my two previously published mystery novels so that I can make them available as ‘e-books’. (Plan to discuss this process at some later time). I also made a decision to blog. I’ve never kept a journal (only a diary when I was fourteen years old) and I’m not too technologically savvy, but I realized that blogging was a natural fit for me.

I don’t plan on sharing each minute detail of my life (who cares what I ate for lunch?) Instead, I hope to share my views and offer a new perspective about subjects that are dear to me: classic films, especially noir (I received my M.S. degree in Film and Television from Syracuse University), writing, murders (both fictional and not), mystery novels, nostalgia, pop culture, and life’s ironies in general.

Looking forward to having many old friends and new ones join me as I journey on Rhodes Less Traveled.

Vivian