I want to welcome Rick Lenz to Books R Us. Rick is the author of a Mit Out Sound. The author has provided my readers with an interview. You could win an autographed copy of the book. ENTER below. Thanks for stopping by
Book Details:
Book Title: MIT OUT SOUND by Rick Lenz
Category: Adult Fiction (18 +), 378 pages
Genre: Hollywood Tie-in Literary Fiction
Publisher: Chromodroid Press
Release date: February 2025
Content Rating: PG-13 +M. My book is rated PG-13 + M for swear words, one non-explicit sex scene, adultery and references to abuse and one on page murder.
"It's time to make a mess," said Emily.Would-be movie producer Emily Bennett didn't believe the legend of a lost movie, starring James Dean and John Wayne. But when she meets two uncannily talented celebrity impersonators-Jimmy Riley and Tom "Duke" Manfredo, and stumbles upon the elusive film editor who stole the master negative of Showdown, it dispels her doubts, fills her with a courage she didn't know she had, and she sets out to complete the movie.
But as Emily and her stars prepare for day one of shooting, they find themselves entangled in a complex love triangle with Oedipal undertones, mirroring their own past lives and off-screen dynamics. As doubts about their ruthless director, Solange Borugian, surface, Jimmy's and Duke's friendship is turned upside down, while Emily and her brother Ben, struggle with their own unresolved issues and are forced to confront their dying father.
On location in Arizona, amidst Apache holy grounds and the magic of day-for-night shooting, the lines between past and present blur and the flawed characters' backstories intertwine into a tumultuous finale that exposes their hidden animosities, demons, and loves.
How long have you been writing?
Close to sixty years. Soon after I graduated from college (Theatre Arts, University of Michigan), I got a job directing the Jackson (Michigan) Civic Theatre. Although I could never talk the board into producing one of the plays, I found myself writing during that time, I began to pile up pages and scenes and a couple of complete (very messy) plays. In the next forty (plus) years, I had my plays performed off-Broadway, in regional theatres, and one was produced on PBS. I also wrote several episodes of a short-lived TV series called Aloha Paradise. Television writing pays well, but I didn’t have much fun doing it. I started writing novels about twenty years ago.
Do you have another profession besides writing?
Yes. I was an actor. I dearly loved it until they started asking me to play older white male functionaries. Maybe there are, as Stanislavski said, no small parts, only small actors, but there are dull parts. I decided to spend full-time writing and said goodbye to my acting agent. Once in a while, I miss performing, but mostly not. Mostly, I’m glad to have my current writing project to go back to every day.
Did you actually know John Wayne personally? How did that play into writing this story?
Yes, I did. I acted with him in his last film, The Shootist. Through a series of coincidences, Emily, the protagonist in Mit Out Sound, finds herself working as an assistant for Richard Boone (Have Gun, Will Travel), another actor in The Shootist. This then precipitates a conversation between Emily and Wayne, in which she gathers all her nerve and questions him about a legendary lost movie called Showdown.
You’ve got several strong female characters in this book, set in a time period when women weren’t typically in charge on film sets. Was this intentional?
It was very intentional. I know, as a man at this moment in cultural history, I’m generally expected to have a “man’s” point of view. I didn’t spend a lot of time with my father growing up, and aside from my pals (mixed gender), I spent most of my time with my mother and sister. I have always felt very strongly that I am qualified to write women characters. I love them. I find it easy to identify with them.
If there is one thing you want readers to remember about you, what would it be?
It sounds banal to me, even as I write it, but I think one of those things that’s worth repeating is that there is no time limit to honing a craft. It can be just as exciting and fulfilling at eighty as it was when you were young and first discovering that any art or craft you have a feel for and work at, you can get better at. This may include ignoring all the rules, like, “Never end a sentence with a preposition.”
When Rick Lenz retired as a stage and film actor (playing opposite Ingrid Bergman, John
Wayne, Lauren Bacall, Walter Matthau, Peter Sellers, etc.), his passion for drama refused to retire with him. Although he was an actor most of his life, he is also a seasoned writer.
His plays have been produced Off-Broadway, on PBS television, and in regional theatres across the country. Rick’s memoir North of Hollywood was called “masterful” by Writer’s
Digest. His first novel, The Alexandrite was named “one of the best books of the year” by Kirkus Reviews. Bret Easton Ellis called it “almost impossible to put down.” Booklife calls A Town Called Why, “An absorbing tale of mystery and revenge… nuanced … powerful.” Rick’s books have won several awards, including, Readers Views (first place), the Chanticleer Somerset Grand Prize for Literary, Contemporary and Mainstream Fiction, an IPPY Award, and a Foreword Book of the Year. Most recently, his time-travel love story Hello, Rest of My Life was a 2022 Silver Nautilus Book Award winner (fiction), and Eric Hoffer Award finalist (fiction).
He lives in Los Angeles with his wife Linda and an ever-shifting array of animals.
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