Donald Bain

This fall, Renee and I will be headed back to Purdue University, where last year, as a "writer in residence," we conducted seminars with my alma mater's creative writing students, taking part in a series of readings on campus and off, and soaking up the atmosphere of this outstanding university where I spent four happy years. The head of the creative writing program, Porter Shreve, is a wonderful novelist, whose most recent two books, Drives Like a Dream and The Obituary Writer define elegant writing. His wife, Bich Minh Nguyen (her first name is pronounced "Bit") is also a professor of English at Purdue. Her lovely memoir of when she and her family escaped Vietnam just before its collapse, "Stealing Buddha's Dinner," is both inspiring and entertaining. Purdue is a remarkable university, with close to 40,000 students on the main campus in W. Lafayette, Indiana. Its growth, and the myriad new buildings going up, is a joy to see. Imagine this: 22 astronauts have been Purdue graduates, including Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon. Neil, whom I knew when I was a student (he was two years ahead of me), was on campus the previous week to celebrate the opening of a new building named for him. The university has always had an outstanding school of aeronautical engineering, and this new facility is a fitting tribute to Neil and to all the brave men and women who now routinely explore space. The students I met with are bright and ambitious. All in all, it was a marvelous experience for me and Renee and we thank everyone who so graciously welcomed us and made sure that our visit was a success.

Last July, I received the "Grand Master Award" in San Diego from the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers (IAMTW). It's a wonderful organization whose members write TV and movie tie-in books, like my "Murder, She Wrote" series, and Lee Goldberg's "Diagnosis Murder" and "Monk" novels. IAMTW's "Scribe Awards" were also presented for outstanding novels of this type. Winners were Jeff Mariotte (twice) for LAS VEGAS: HIGH STAKES and THIRTY DAYS OF NIGHT: RUMORS OF THE UNDEAD (with Stephen Niles); Marv Wolfman for his SUPERMAN RETURNS novel; Alice Henderson (replete with stunning purple hair) for BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER: PORTAL THROUGH TIME; and Christa Faust for SNAKES ON A PLANE. We also participated in a panel discussion about tie-in writing. I was, of course, and will be forever, flattered at having been honored by this wonderful group of professional writers.

I'm still busy promoting my autobiography, Murder HE Wrote: A Successful Writer's Life, which Purdue University Press has published in trade paperback format. It's available in bookstores and online. (Was formerly titled, "Every Midget Has an Uncle Sam Costume: Writing for a Living.")

My revision of the screenplay, "Charlie-Birger," based upon my book of many years ago --"Charlie and the Shawneetown Dame" --my particular favorite of the almost 100 books I've written-- is still being discussed in Hollywood. They're good out there at discussing things.

My short piece for Amazon Shorts, Ronnie and Me, is still up on that site within amazon.com, and is available for downloading for the princely sum of 49-cents. It recounts my experiences with the former movie star, Veronica Lake. Hopefully, this will spur interest in a reissue of "Veronica," her autobiography on which I collaborated.

More later.