NIGHT PEOPLE Annotation 1 – The Four Of Us

This post is part of a series of annotations from the pages of Night People, Book 1 of Things We Lost in the Night, A Memoir of Love and Music.

From: Ch1, ORPHAN, P5

“Dave’s familiar grin forced me to smile as he unfolded his lanky frame out from behind the wheel.
Mac peered out at me from the passenger seat. Les, male-model handsome, wound down the rear window. A moon-faced guy he introduced as Mickey Smith, a guitar player friend, sat next to him. I didn’t know Mickey, but Dave, Mac, and Les were the rest of my disintegrating vocal group, the Reflections.”

ANNOTATION:

This excerpt from the second paragraph of the beginning chapter introduces (from left to right in the photo) me, Dave, Les, and Mac, the three members of my vocal group. I struggled with finding the right place to begin this memoir since this wasn’t the beginning of the story for me. For me, it all began in September of 1957 while I was a junior in high school. So, in one sense, I’ve started in the middle of the story, though interesting bits of what came before this will gradually be uncovered in the pages of Night People and Enchanted. The reason I chose this moment to begin the memoir was because the four of us, who I sometimes refer to as the Four Musketeers, will also appear together at the end of the story. And though it isn’t the beginning, it is where our journey begins. As for Micky Smith, that will be in a later annotation.

 

THIRD STREET WRITERS LAUNCH “BEACH READS”

On Thursday, May 11, the Third Street Writers of Laguna Beach are set to celebrate the release of their anthology “Beach Reads: Here Comes the Sun,” at 5:30 p.m. , at Laguna Beach Books, 1200 S. Coast Highway. Join us for snacks and light refreshments and excellent writer’s reading their work from the new book. Would love to see fans and friends there!

The anthology of 30 short stories, poetry, and personal essays explores the sun as an agent of transformation, and includes my short story “Island Girl.” an excerpt from my concluding, soon to be released, Enchanted, Book 2 from THINGS WE LOST IN THE NIGHT, A Memoir of Love and Music in the 60s with Stark Naked and the Car Thieves.

Enchanted covers the final three years of my experiences with love and music in during the late 1960s set primarily in Hawai’i, Indianapolis, Las Vegas, and Southern California. It is a rich and complex adventure balancing the emotional power of music and the search for success and happiness in a turbulent era. As the decade of change is eroding into the early 1970s so are changes that effect the band and people at the center of this journey are challenged in ways they’d never imagined.

Night People, Book 1 of THINGS WE LOST IN THE NIGHT, was published in June of 2015 and is an Amazon Best Seller in Biographies and Memoirs > Arts and Literature > Composers & Musicians > Pop.

 

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Crowfall – Gordon Walton’s fantastic new MMO!

As some of my friends know, I’ve always been a game geek and the love of all kinds of games pulled me into a couple of game ventures. The first was The Games Network, a cable television venture involving interactive computer gaming in the early 1980s, perhaps a bit before its time. Later, in the early 2000s I took on the task of developing an online multi-player strategy/role-playing game that had been burning a hole in my brain since the earlier experience. The company was Intelligent Life Games, and Imperial Wars was the game.

During the years of trying to pull together enough resources to develop this project I met some absolutely wonderful people. None stand higher in my esteem than Gordon Walton, who was the Executive Producer of Ultima Online (my first MMO and one I playtested), The Sims Online (when I first met him), Star Wars Galaxies, and Star Wars: the Old Republic. Now he’s got his own game company, ArtCraft Entertainment, and they’re readying their first game for release, Crowfall. As usual, it looks like Gordon is working on another winner, and there’s lots to like about it.

I love the game structure which uses some of the unique principles we were trying to implement in Imperial Wars – zero-sum games (worlds) so that there are actual winners, and so actions will have consequences; game worlds (universes in our case) that can have different game conditions; persistent, modifiable avatars that exist outside of the play worlds; and other great looking game balancing designs. On his team are Raph Koster, one of the big brains behind Everquest, and an excellent developer/engineer, Mike McShaffrey, two guys I have admired for years.

So, if you’re a game geek, like me, and you’re looking for a great looking new MMO, give Crowfall a try. Though their kickstarter funding has been completed, there’s always benefits for ‘stretch’ funding so you may want to check that out, too. I wish all the folks at ArcCraft the best of luck!

Night People Hits 4 AMAZON BESTSELLER LISTS!

(From Pronoun Book Tracking)

Congratulations!

Mac, Les, Larry, and Dave

Mac, Les, Larry, and Dave

NIGHT PEOPLE, just landed on an Amazon bestseller list.
Your book is now on four Top 100 lists
(and counting!)

*New!*

#60 … > Kindle eBooks > Humor & Entertainment > Pop Culture

Your other bestseller lists:

#3 in … > Arts & Literature > Composers & Musicians > Pop
 
#36 in … > Music > Musical Genres > Popular
 
#37 in … > Humor & Entertainment > Pop Culture > Music

NIGHT PEOPLE – On Sale For One More Day at $3.99 – Get Your Copy Now.

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Night People chosen for Claremont Authors Collection

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 25, 2016
Contact Person: Rose Ash 909-626-4166

CLAREMONT AUTHORS BOOK FAIRE

photo of Claremont Pub LibraryThe Friends of the Claremont Library, in partnership with the Claremont Public Library, is pleased to announce their inaugural Claremont Authors Book Faire, to be held on Saturday, September 24, 2016, from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM at the Claremont Public Library.

Contributing authors to the Book Faire include such notable Claremont authors as Jill Benton (biography), Chris Rubel (fiction), Allen Callaci (memoir), Diana Linden (art history), Joel Harper (children’s literature), Joe Woodward (biography/local history), David Allen (local history), Monique Saigal-Escudero (memoir), Paul Steinberg (environmental policy), Larry Dunlap (memoir), Yi Shun Lai (fiction), and Wendy Lower. An exhibit, featuring authors from the Collection and the Book Faire will be on display in the lobby of the Claremont Public Library through the month of September.

All of the Authors participating in the Book Faire are included in the Claremont Authors Collection, a special project of the Friends of the Claremont Library. Originally conceived by former Claremont mayor and local historian Judy Wright, the Collection brings together the works of notable writers who have resided in Claremont or have a significant association with the city. The Collection is permanently housed in the Claremont Public Library. Claremont authors are strongly encouraged to consider donating their work to the Collection. Donation guidelines can be viewed by going to www.claremontlibrary.org

Writing About Miracles

maxresdefaultThe recent deaths of two important people in my life as covered in, Things We Lost in The Night, have caused me to continue examining how I conceive the Universe. The Introduction of Night People is a single paragraph about the uncertainty of the thin veil between life, and not-life titled Change. I included it because a specific theme of Night People is change. The Introduction in book 2, Enchanted, is a bit more of how I see the nature of our existence as I write about it. It’s here to remind me of the hypocrisy of being human in general, specifically as an author, in how I refer to miraculous or supernatural events in my writings. This is a second draft version of it — I can’t guarantee it won’t get altered a little before publishing.

Are FREE WILL and PREDESTINATION
mutually exclusive?

“If you can accept that we exist in a universe, or more accurately, a multiverse gigantic beyond comprehension, exclusively containing sparsely scattered objects made of matter or energy, that are subject to unyielding laws and rules embedded in its fabric, then it should be easy to allow that Predestination is the natural way of reality.
 
Our bodies, constructed of matter and energy also include our brains, likewise subject to these rules. The wonder of this incredible organ, this brain of ours, is that it is somehow able to host a mind, an entity that it is NOT composed of matter or energy. This remarkable awareness is able to receive physical signals relayed through our brain from our five senses to fabricate a model of the multiverse we can comprehend. For the most part, all of this is already accepted physics and the science of the brain though no one can explain the method of how the brain’s mind-hosting takes place.
 
The mind is the control mechanism of our surroundings, through it, we can direct our bodies to Change, within certain limits, the natural Predestination of the multiverse. Though these actions cannot contradict natural regulation, the results can be profound. The fundamental order of the multiverse may decree that a rock will fall from a cliff by force of gravity over time, but a human mind can move it’s host body to avoid being crushed if it happens to be beneath it. This is evidence that sentience can exercise Free Will (and proof of its existence), subject to the unalterable physical rules of the multiverse.
 
This demonstrates to me why there really aren’t any miracles, only events we cannot understand. However, I’m willing to use this label in a literary sense for incidents I can’t explain, so when I refer to miraculous or supernatural events in my writing, you’ll understand why.”

 

Night People Book Signing

TOMORROW, JUNE 11, LARRY J. DUNLAP AND MANY OTHER POMONA VALLEY WRITERS including Steve McCarthy and Rick Stepp-Bolling, will be signing books at the Glendora Library’s “Meet Your Local Authors” event from11 am to 1 pm. 140 S. Glendora Avenue in Glendora, CA 91741. I’ll be autographing print editions of “NIGHT PEOPLE, Book 1 of Things We Lost in the Night, A Memoir of Love and Music in the 60s with Stark Naked and the Car Thieves.” The book will be on sale for $14.99 and discounted, same edition but older cover, books for $12.99.  Both print editions purchases will include a free eBook.

FREE ALBUMS AND MORE
If you are local to this area, please stop by and pick up a free album of the Songs From: “Things We Lost in the Night,” including all the recorded songs from NIGHT PEOPLE, and the upcoming, ENCHANTED. I’d love to meet and sign an autographed bookmark for you. More info at Glendora Public Library Events.

Night People, Book Signing - Book 1 - Things We Lost in the Night, a memoir of love and music in the 60s with Stark Naked and the Car Thieves

REVIEW: NIGHT FILM by Marisha Pessl

Night FilmNight Film by Marisha Pessl
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is not quite a perfect 5 star book but too close not to give it. This author was passionate enough about her story to ‘worldbuild’ an entire career of a movie producer, with movie scripts, newspaper and magazine articles and to mix in various stars of screen and stage with her own characters. At times it was hard to believe Cordova didn’t really exist. The fatal flaw for me that stuck with me throughout the book, that she overcame by her sheer use of language, was that early on I lost my suspension of belief that her main character was a man. A couple of the description were from a woman’s eye. There were a couple of other nit-picking details but time after time, I’d have to stop and relish the wonderful similes and metaphors, and parts of speech she used. And the book didn’t tail off as so many literary novels do. Not a perfect ending, but right up to the end she kept up the suspense. I was very happy I read this cool book.

View all my reviews

Summer of Love

The History of San Francisco Music in the ’60s and its Influence Today

A look back at the festivals of the ’60s whose influence can still be felt in the music and festivals of today. Source: Summer of Love: The History of San Francisco Music in the ’60s and its Influence Today

 

A look back at the festivals of the ’60s whose influence can still be felt in the music and festivals of today.

The year was 1967 and the place was San Francisco. It was the Summer of Love; a season of creative expression, free society, cultural revolution and arguably the beginning of what we now enjoy as modern music festivals.

I hit the road for Outside Lands this week and I can’t help but reflect (or slightly obsess) over the rich musical history that once graced the Bay Area. It was a time like no other — it was pure, quick-moving, and psychedelic — the Summer of Love irreversibly changed our culture forever. I grew up in Northern California, an hour outside of San Francisco, with my dad’s vinyl collection on continual rotation. The likes of David Crosby, the Doors, and the Who were constant companions of mine and I was captivated by an early age. I was in. But, alas, two decades too late… so this year I wanted to make a point to research this beautiful history and experience “today’s” San Francisco music festival with this knowledge in my back pocket. To feel the energy of the past, to respect the history and the people who pushed an artistic and creative generation forward.

Aug 04, 2015

 Posted by

Lest we forget. I remember too, Joanna. The first third of NIGHT PEOPLE takes place in 1965 and 66 in the music and nightlife of San Francisco. A fantastic time, though not all just good-time music festivals. And there were powerful musical stories taking place outside of Golden Gate Park, as well.

 Posted by Larry J.

Night People review – Readers’ Favorite

This is a review of NIGHT PEOPLE, Book 1 – Things We Lost in the Night, A Memoir of Love and Music in the 60s with Stark Naked and the Car Thieves from Readers’ Review. Thank you, Mamta!

Reviewed By Mamta Madhavan for Readers’ Favorite

Things We Lost in the Night: A Memoir of Love and Music in the 60s with Stark Naked and the Car Thieves by Larry J. Dunlap is an honest memoir in which the author has carefully depicted his years as a young and struggling musician, along with his friends as they strive for fame and fortune. The book also captures the essence of the 1960s when there was a cultural and musical shift. Their transformation from a small band to that of a famous one and their successes change Larry’s perspective on a lot of things in life. In a nutshell, the memoir exposes the 1960s, the music industry, vocal groups, R&B cover bands, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Hollywood recording studios, the nightlife, and the sexual revolution that happened during that period.

The memoir connects with readers intimately as the author shares every small detail of his life. Readers are taken into the author’s world of music, the problems they face as a band, and their struggle for survival initially. The rise of the band opens the way for many other things, and the author also speaks about the sacrifices they make on their way to the top. Many moments in the author’s life are poignantly mingled with misery, happiness, music and sex. I found the book interesting as it speaks about music, the band, recordings and many other things related with music. The challenges the author faces in his life and his love life and other casualties make this memoir a very exciting read.