Eric Stone

Los Angeles, CA

United States

Profile Information:

Hometown:: Los Angeles
About Me:: I'm a writer of fiction and non-fiction. I was a journalist for many years, 11 of them living and working in Asia. I'm currently writing the Ray Sharp series of detective thrillers. The books are based on stories that I covered while working in Asia.

The newest book is SHANGHAIED. It's book four in the series. The first three books in the Ray Sharp series (in order) are:THE LIVING ROOM OF THE DEAD, GRAVE IMPORTS and FLIGHT OF THE HORNBILL.

I also wrote a true crime / sports biography of the greatest prison baseball player of all time: WRONG SIDE OF THE WALL.

As for the personal stuff: I like traveling to strange places and trying to talk with people whose language I don't speak. I love urban exploration - especially by car - which I know isn't PC but I grew up in Los Angeles and have gasoline in my blood. (I also love long road trips, which is why I usually drive on my book tours.) I love cooking and am a pretty good cook if I say so myself. I love blues, 1940s and early '50s bebop - especially honking sax, and a lot of strange foreign pop music. I've worked as a photographer and now just do it for fun. I read more non-fiction than fiction, especially history and biography. I love baseball and have recently particularly enjoyed minor league games. I live with Eva (girlfriend, SO, partner?) in Silverlake, one of my favorite neighborhoods in the world and can see the Griffith Park Observatory and part of the Hollywood sign out my home-office window. You want any more than that, you're just going to have to ask.
I Am A:: Writer
Website:: http://www.ericstone.com
Books And Authors I Like:: Chester Himes, Dan Fesperman, Megan Abbott, Laura Lippman, Loren Estleman, Jonathan Valin (where'd he go anyhow?), Martin Limon, Colin Cotterill, Qiu Xiaolong, Graham Greene, William T. Vollmann, Eduardo Galleano, Mark Twain, Christa Faust, Sophie Littlefield, Flannery O'Connor. A bunch of others. My favorite book of all time is Moby Dick. I reread it once every 10 years or so.
Movies And TV Shows I Like:: Movies: Battle of Algiers, King Kong (the original), Sullivan's Travels, The Killer, Christine, Barton Fink, Badlands, Ali Fear Eats the Soul, Chinatown, Painted Faces, The Conformist, Once Upon a Time in America, Infernal Affairs, The Big Heat and others that escape me at the moment.

Comment Wall:

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Susan

Hi Eric! You've done so many things and have so many interests. Me, too. I'm also a musician, a trumpeter, love jazz (tho I don't play it). Also love old photographs. I've got a few on my website (woman musician page/images); one from WWI, women in the Navy.

Must confess I'm a Yankee fan (gulp!) which gets me in trouble when I visit friends in Bawston, but I remain true to the Celtics, even tho the N.O. Hornets are doing very well.

I've gotta get one of your books!

Susan

Apr 7, 2008
Lia

Hi Eric

Thanks for the invite . I look forward to reading your work :)

Apr 9, 2008
Lia

Hi Eric

Thanks for the welcome . I'm looking forward to spending many an hour reading all these writers I am discovering !

Gutted to hear ER is ending , it may have lost its way a bit but it will be an end of an era !

Lia

Apr 9, 2008
Janet Ortegon

Hello Eric. Thanks for welcoming to your friends list! I'm looking forward to getting to know you and the other writers on the list!
Janet O.

Apr 16, 2008
Jessica

Hi eric thanks for your welcome!

Apr 26, 2008
Lee Weeks

Hi eric
thanks for inviting me x

May 9, 2008
Jean Henry Mead

Thanks for the invitation, Eric. I'm a native of Hollywood, now in exile in Wyoming. :-) I've been to Griffin Park and the observatory many times and it's also my favorite part of the world.

Jun 3, 2008
Ovidia

Hi Eric, thanks for being friends. Having read the descriptions I'm looking forward to hunting down reading your books--especially (personal bias) as they are set in Asia! Ovidia

Jun 3, 2008
Ange

Thanks for the invite Eric. You are my first one as I only discovered this site a few nites ago. Your website is amazing - especially the photos. They are so crisp, very cool. I look forward to reading you. Will give more comment then.

Jun 6, 2008
Paul Greenberg

Is that Eddie the Iron Maiden mascot in the photo behind you?

Jun 8, 2008
Ovidia

Hi Eric, couldn't find your books in Borders today (supposedly our biggest bookshop) but did a 'request' so they'll see there's a demand for them here! Will go on looking at other bookstores. I'd rather buy a copy here than order off Amazon. Let you know when I track them down!

Jun 15, 2008
Lander Marks

Thanks for the add. Excited for your next release.
SLM

Jun 21, 2008
Brian McGilloway

Hi Eric
Good to meet you - thanks for the add.
Best wishes
Brian

Jun 21, 2008
Daniel Hatadi

Hey Eric,

I deleted those photos for you. In the future, all you have to do is go to the photo's page and hit the Delete link.

Cheers,
Daniel

Jun 21, 2008
Donna Carrick

Gasoline in the blood??? I like that analogy -- may have to borrow that one! Being an Air Force Brat, my family was always on the move, and my father always preferred to do it by car. My best memories are of the white dotted line stretching out in front of us, and oh, the possibilities -- they seemed endless, just like that line....
Terrific site, Eric, and good to see you here!
Donna Carrick www.donnacarrick.com

Jun 26, 2008
Barb Radmore

Hi
I just finished Flight of the Hornbill. Very different feeling than Grave Imports. Trying to put it into words now.

Jul 1, 2008
P.J.

Are you the Eric Stone who writes about Thailand, and Ray Sharp? If so, you might want to check out my reviews on www.reviewingtheevidence.com (if you haven't already read them). If not . . . you should read the books and bask in the reflected glory!

Jul 2, 2008
P.J.

Yup, that would be me. Not too many P.J.'s out there, at least not that I know of. I did get a copy of your latest and it is hovering near the top of Mount TBR. Someone on DorothyL was talking about having books that they did not like to read if they were just going to get a few minutes here and there, some books needed lots of time to sit and read. I consider your books to be "free afternoon" books . .. . don't take them to work to read on break because I'll never get back to work on time.

Jul 2, 2008
Jack Green

Eric,

I'm heading out to grab "The Living Room Of The Dead". Sounds like something I'll tear through. Have you read Daniel Woodrell? Brilliant stuff.

Jul 3, 2008
Katherine

I remember Bre-X well. So many people around here lost money. I would love to read your book -- can't wait! So much intrigue -- did he kill himself, or was he murdered? I'll look for you at Bouchercon!

Jul 5, 2008
K.R. Lewis

I think he actually consumed more alcohol than anything else, but it serves to illustrate the class of "suicide gestures" we have around here. Tylenol is all he could get.

Jul 6, 2008
K.R. Lewis

Eric: I'm a third of the way through "Grave Imports." Man, I am eating this novel up! I got called out of a sound sleep this morning on some idiot drunk who supposedly tried to O.D. on Tylenol behind a bar downtown, but as soon as I got back home, at 3 freaking a.m., I knocked off two more chapters before going back to sleep. Damn, I wish I'd started with the first Ray Sharp book, but I received "Grave" directly from Bleak House last fall in a book give away and just now got around to starting it. Not to worry though, I will be paying good cash money for "The Living Room Of The Dead"! As soon as I'm finished reading "GRave Imports," we'll do the NETDRAG podcast interview.

Jul 6, 2008
Girl Arsonist

Hi Eric,
Thanks for the compliment. The Girl Effect video IS awesome, I agree, wish I could take credit for that!

Much luck with your continued writing!

Jul 10, 2008
Linda Brown

No bigger compliment than to call me Fiona. Someday I'll show you the target I shot the first time out with a Beretta!

Sep 22, 2008
BlaqueSaber

Hi
Thanks for adding me to your friends. I'm just getting my feet wet here...

Sep 22, 2008
K.R. Lewis

Hi Eric: Congratualtions on your 500th NETDRAG podcast episode play! You were at 508 when I checked the website just a couple of minutes ago.
http://www.wildvoice.com/NETDRAG/Posts/NETDRAG-EPISODE-4-AUTHOR-ERI...

Oct 3, 2008
Nick

Anybody who can read an entire Vollman novel is outta my league in the literature department, but I'm right with you on minor league baseball and blues. Especially blues. My musical focus tends to shift around a fair amount but it always comes back to that exqusite music that was made by musicians like Willie McTell, The Mississippi Sheiks, Lonnie Johnson, Charlie Jordan, Frank Stokes, Rabbit Brown and all the rest of those great artists back in the '20's and '30's. That's the music that always works for me. Thanks for adding me to your 'friends.' Judging by the profile you wrote, you're living a dandy life. Don't slow down.

Oct 21, 2008
Nick

I'll sure try to make down to Seattle Mystery Books when you're in town. I know JB and Bill and the rest of the crew there and, just in case you haven't visited them before, I guarantee that you'll be in good hands. They're first-rate humans. I work for a public radio station at the other end of the city so I might be able to stop by if I'm not hamstrung with projects.

One evening last week I was between books and couldn't find anything in the to-be-read stack that looked right so I dug out some O'Conner and started re-reading 'The Violent Bear It Away.' It was way weirder than I remembered so I fell back upon PG Wodehouse. I wanted to get to sleep, not wrestle demons all night...but Flannery drills right to the heart when you're in the proper mood. I think the person that has most successfully picked up that ball and run with it might be Daniel Woodrell. A similar sort of almost embarrassingly exact pinpointing of thrilling bleakness. Whew. Enough of that. I've also been reading...and in some cases re-reading Charles Williams' early stuff, which is mighty fine. Come to think of it, I seem to be in a re-reading mode. Last night, I picked up MacDonald's first Travis McGee novel and fell right in. I think the trick with that series is to consume them judiciously. When I found those books, I read a bunch in a row and got pretty tired of Travis' estimation of himself. After some time away, I see that it's not so egregious in small doses. Since you seem to enjoy music, I'll leave you with the chorus of a song by Fred Eaglesmith, one of my contemporary favoites. I think it's one of the best C&W white-trash choruses ever written:

"Well it's restless nights and endless fights,
A hundred miles an hour with no headlights,
Fiddles and accordians and tear-stained steel guitars.
It's a tar-paper shack, whiskey and smack,
Two guns left in a five-rifle rack.
Somebody 'round here's gonna get killed, that's for sure."

Sorta like a Daniel Woodrell novel in 6 lines....

Oct 22, 2008
Miss Mae

Thank you for adding me as a friend!

MM

Oct 29, 2008
J. E. Seymour

Thanks for adding me as a friend.

I just heard Ben Leroy speak at the Crime Bake conference.

Dec 3, 2008
Pate Grantwell

Thanks for making me a friend, Eric. How you find time to write with all that living you are doing, I have no idea. Sure looks like you are having a ball.

Dec 4, 2008
ms.pamila

Hello Eric. Nice to meet you.

Dec 23, 2008
JordanKrall

thanks for the request!!

Jan 4, 2009
Jack Green

Eric,

I finished 'The Living Room For The Dead" and enjoyed it immensely. I love the asian backround and all that it brings to the story. Thanks for the great read. My old college roommate was the NY Times bureau chief out of Shanghai, Howard W. French. Are you familiar with him. He has put together a wonderful exhibit of his photographs on the backstreets and alleyways of Shanghai. Amazing stuff. Look forward to your next book.

Jan 7, 2009
Toni D. Weymouth

Mine is about a sexologist radio host in San Francisco who is targeted by a Russian mobster, abducted and taken to Serbia. It's based on information from The Natasha's and three documentaries on television. Being a sexologist I've talked to women who have barely made it out from this type of slavery. I've read nonfiction but no fiction. Who published your book. It sounds good.

Jan 11, 2009
Bennett Kremen

Hello Eric,
Thank you for welcoming me on as a friend. I don't normally write crime fiction but my novel, Savage Days Haunted Nights, available now on amazon.com, certainly deals with crime -- hijacking, arsen, extortion, loan sharking, assault, murder, the mob, etc. I learned about these things growing up on the old West Side of Chicago, Capone territory, where I faced a few arrests as a teenager, reformed, went to college and became a writer. My novel is stark, real and deals not only with crime but also with it's opposite, morality, which is dealt with dramatically and in a unique way. I look forward to reading some of your books.
Bennett Kremen

Jan 17, 2009
John Desjarlais

Hey, Eric, good to meet you. I pitched my mystery "Bleeder" to Ben LeRoy at a crime writers' conference in Chicago last February and he requested the manuscript. But it has found a home elsewhere.

Feb 5, 2009
John Desjarlais

It's Sophia Institute Press, launching a new category fiction imprint called Fiction Forge. Sophia is better known for re-issuing theological and literary classics but they decided to branch out into original contemporary fiction. I'm glad it was accepted in time to announce it at the February "Love is Murder" conference in Chicago this weekend.

Feb 5, 2009
Shannon

Nice to meet you, Eric. Your Ray Sharp series sounds exciting! Always enjoy meeting intriguing writers and characters both. I'll be sure to look for you on my next book store run. Best of luck with your current wip!

Feb 7, 2009
Rodney Wiethop

Eric, Thanks for the invite & I look forward to finding & reading "Wrong Side of The Wall". I'm a baseball coach & it sounds really good. Were you at LIM last year? Best Rod

Feb 8, 2009
Reece Hirsch

Hi Eric -- Thanks for the invite. Your Ray Sharp series sounds really intriguing. I'm also a former journalist, but it sounds like your experience was a lot more exciting than mine .... Reece

Feb 12, 2009
Reece Hirsch

Eric -- I got a journalism degree at Northwestern, served as an assistant editor on the now-defunct Business Atlanta magazine, then edited and published a free arts and entertainment magazine in Atlanta. No fodder for crime fiction there. How about you? What assignment sent you to Asia? Reece

Feb 12, 2009
Reece Hirsch

True, and as a partner in a big law firm, I have certainly had my opportunities to observe some scurrilous conduct.

Feb 12, 2009
Mary Montague Sikes

I love baseball, too. Next week, we head to Jupiter, FL for five St. Louis Cardinals spring training games!

Feb 20, 2009
Mary Montague Sikes

Nice! I live in Virginia and it's been several years since I attended a game in St. Louis. Good luck with your tour.

Feb 20, 2009
Patricia Ruocco

Hi Eric,

Thanks for the friend message. I'm new and I really appreciate the welcome!
Patti

Mar 4, 2009
John Desjarlais

"Bleeder" will be published by Sophia Institute Press, a small house in Manchester, NH. This will be one of the first titles for their new fiction imprint.

Mar 11, 2009
Benjamin Sobieck

I read your interview on The Big Thrill. "A painful dumpling accident." Now there's something you don't see every day! I've got to see what that's all about.

P.S. Your agent has a terrific blog.

Jul 2, 2009
Robert Crisman

Eric,
Glad to meet you. Chester Himes, huh? Me too. I don't know where the hell Jonathan Valin got to. I'll check your stuff out. You can check mine if you want on the A Twist Of Noir blogsite. I've got a bunch posted there.

Oct 26, 2009
Ginny Lieberman

You Killed Ray Sharp? Oh no! Thanks Eric for adding me as a friend.

Oct 26, 2009