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Christamar Varicella: Writing in the Shadow of Harper Lee
http://www.christamar.com/2015/07/writing-in-shadow-of-harper-lee.html
Writer of Stories, Novels, and Humor. Monday, July 13, 2015. Writing in the Shadow of Harper Lee. In March of 2015, Casey N. Cep published a. In The New Yorker called "Harper Lee's Abandoned True Crime Novel." The following post details some of my experiences researching the same story. Back in the 1960s and '70s in Alexander City, Alabama, Reverend Willie Maxwell, a black Southern. It turns out I wasn’t the first person that hoped to turn the Maxwell story into the next In Cold Blood. 8220;The problem,&...
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Christamar Varicella: Think Vampires are Sexy? Try Rat Boy!
http://www.christamar.com/2012/06/think-vampires-are-sexy-try-rat-boy.html
Writer of Stories, Novels, and Humor. Thursday, June 21, 2012. Think Vampires are Sexy? I keep wondering why everyone in the world isn't sick of vampire stories yet. We’ve gone from Bram Stoker’s Dracula to the Anne Rice books of the '80s and '90s to Charlaine Harris’s Southern Vampire Series to the tween sensation, Twilight. To about a zillion other crappy books and movies, and yet for some reason the genre refuses to die. Isn't that just like a vampire? 1) Vampires are lazy. They sleep all day! A lack ...
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Christamar Varicella: Channeling Harper Lee
http://www.christamar.com/2015/08/channeling-harper-lee.html
Writer of Stories, Novels, and Humor. Sunday, August 16, 2015. Last week, I wrote about the found manuscript pages of a crime novel that some are attributing to Harper Lee. An Alabama attorney was quoted in the piece. 8220;I knew it,” he thought. “I never should have brought my camera.”. Jim had been assigned to cover the event for the Journal. But the idea of taking photographs had been a topic of disagreement with his editor, Arnold. 8220;But what if something happens? 8221; Arnold asked. 8220;Well,...
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Christamar Varicella: 50 Shades of Sex, A Parody
http://www.christamar.com/2012/07/50-shades-of-sex-parody.html
Writer of Stories, Novels, and Humor. Monday, July 16, 2012. 50 Shades of Sex, A Parody. My roommate, Kacie, stood in the center of the room, decked out in pajamas, her nose bright red with tissue papers protruding from each nostril. 8220;What’s wrong with you? 8221; I asked. 8220;I’b thick.”. 8220;Maybe a little around the ankles, but that doesn’t explain the rest of your appearance.”. 8220;No, I’b thick. I think I hab a cold.”. She hacked up a loogey and let it drip into a wastepaper basket. I just hop...
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Christamar Varicella: Where the Reverend is Buried
http://www.christamar.com/2015/07/where-reverend-is-buried.html
Writer of Stories, Novels, and Humor. Thursday, July 30, 2015. Where the Reverend is Buried. Not far from Alexander City, Alabama, just off the highway, is a little cemetery across the road from a church. Walking down a minor slope, it doesn’t take long to find a flat stone engraved with the name Willie Maxwell. Born on May 31, 1925, he was shot to death fifty two years later on June 18, 1977 in the House of. In the same section is found the Reverend’s nephew, James Edwards Hicks, who lived from 3/...
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Christamar Varicella: The Compelling Story Harper Lee Never Published
http://www.christamar.com/2015/07/the-compelling-story-harper-lee-never.html
Writer of Stories, Novels, and Humor. Saturday, July 25, 2015. The Compelling Story Harper Lee Never Published. With the publication of Go Set a Watchman, there has been an increase in speculation about Harper Lee’s other unpublished novels, including an abandoned true crime project called The Reverend. Here now is a brief “just the facts” summary of the actual story. The Reverend’s nephew, who worked for him, was found dead in his car. As in previous cases, the lack of physical evidence made i...For yea...
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Christamar Varicella: It Began with a Phone Call in the Middle of the Night
http://www.christamar.com/2015/08/it-began-with-phone-call-in-middle-of.html
Writer of Stories, Novels, and Humor. Thursday, August 13, 2015. It Began with a Phone Call in the Middle of the Night. In last Thursday’s Post, I wrote about the “found” manuscript pages. Some are attributing to Harper Lee and how I believe those pages were actually written by Tom Radney, the Alabama attorney who enticed Harper Lee to Alexander City in the 1980s to research a crime novel centered around one of his clients. According to news sources. 8211; Christamar Varicella. June 29, 1969. 8220;Yeah,&...
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Christamar Varicella: MFA Highlights:The Hot Dog Story
http://www.christamar.com/2015/08/the-hot-dog-story.html
Writer of Stories, Novels, and Humor. Tuesday, August 11, 2015. MFA Highlights:The Hot Dog Story. Every night of my first ten-day residency at Spalding University’s MFA in Creative Writing program included an impromptu party on the second floor of the Seelbach Hotel. There, students and faculty, poets and fiction writers, best-sellers and wannabes alike would sit and talk and drink bourbon and listen to one of the poets play rowdy songs on an acoustic guitar. I set my backpack down at an empty table and ...
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Christamar Varicella: Harper Lee Manuscript Pages Found?
http://www.christamar.com/2015/08/harper-lees-reverend.html
Writer of Stories, Novels, and Humor. Sunday, August 9, 2015. Harper Lee Manuscript Pages Found? By releasing Go Set a Watchman. After fifty years of publishing silence, Harper Lee has sparked interest and speculation from major news outlets and bloggers alike about the possibility of more “rediscovered” manuscripts. And the Wall Street Journal. According to the Wall Street Journal. Could these pages then have been written after the 1980s? During my 2008 interview with Radney, he told me he had remained ...
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Christamar Varicella: Harper Lee's Next Book
http://www.christamar.com/2015/08/harper-lees-next-book.html
Writer of Stories, Novels, and Humor. Thursday, August 6, 2015. Harper Lee's Next Book. You may have noticed that Harper Lee’s name pops up a lot in my recent posts. By now it feels almost impossible to separate her from the story I wish to tell, the story of Reverend Maxwell. The so-called voodoo preacher, who was suspected of killing off members of his family for insurance money and who was then shot to death at the funeral of one of his victims. So why hasn’t she released the book already? With her le...
