My Kind of Town
You know me -- shy, quiet, hate to talk about myself. Newsprint fiction
But the editors of the new, independent Star-Bulletin have asked me to tell you a little bit about the serialized novel that begins in this space beginning Monday. So, blush blush, here we go.
Yes, a serialized novel. And yes, I am remaining as the editor of MidWeek.
While fiction in a newspaper may seem like a totally new idea, in fact it dates to the early days of publishing. So "My Kind of Town" is really a case of back to the future.
Charles Dickens, for example, wrote "David Copperfield" and "A Christmas Carol" and nearly everything else he produced in serialized form for British newspapers and magazines.
Dickens' fiction was so popular in the United States in the 1980s that people would crowd around the pier waiting for the next installment of a Dickens' story to arrive on a ship from England," says Carol Chang, a member of the MidWeek staff and a big Dickens fan.
The good news for readers of the new Star-Bulletin is that they won't have to wait around for the next Matson steamer to come in. They can have the paper delivered to their homes, as well as pick it up in stores or from street vendors.
"My Kind of Town" will run Mondays through Saturdays, with a synopsis of the past week in the Sunday Star-Bulletin, once that edition launches in April.
The first "book" is titled The Honolulu Soap Co.
It will be a good read, but also a quick read. I'm a slow reader and can finish one installment in about 90 seconds.
I was first attracted to the genre during my years at the San Jose Mercury News in the late 1970s, when Armistead Maupin's "Tales of The City" was highly popular in the San Francisco Chronicle and resulted in several books.
I think of the genre as a sort of "Newsprint Fiction." The plot will involve both real people and fictional characters in real Hawaii settings. And some of the stories and local lore I've heard over the years will probably find their way into the plot.
Back in January, I proposed the novel/column to David Black, who has purchased both the Star-Bulletin and MidWeek, and sent him four weeks of sample column.
Amazingly, Mr. Black says he "loved" the idea. I give him a ton of credit for being creative and courageous enough to buy my crazy idea.
I told you I hate to talk about myself. That's why "My Kind of Town" will be written in third-person.
>>Tomorrow: Soap gets in your eyes.
Send E-mail to dchapman@starbulletin.com.