Eric Stone Los Angeles, CA United States: Share

Eric Stone's Friends

View All

Music

Eric Stone's Discussions

ERIC STONE'S Page

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. SHANGHAIED, will be out at the end of June 2009.

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.

BOOKS, UPCOMING EVENTS & OTHER STUFF

NEWS
THE 2008 ERIC STONE DRIVE BY BOOK TOUR is done and gone.

A NEW PODCAST INTERVIEW WITH ME, CLICK HERE

FLIGHT OF THE HORNBILL BOOK TRAILER
- well, a temporary one, I'm working on an actual action-packed video book trailer that will show up sometime this summer. But in the meantime, you can get a peak at some of the locales where the action takes place in my upcoming Ray Sharp novel, and hear a slice of a way cool song by a Jakarta all-girl band called Geger. (You can hear the whole song over in the music section of this page, on the left.) You can do that here:
http://ericstone.com/flash/hornbill.html

A video interview with me, conducted by my publisher, Ben Leroy of Bleak House Books.

BOOKS
The Ray Sharp series of detective thrillers, set in Asia, based on stories I covered as a journalist in the region:

FLIGHT OF THE HORNBILL The third Ray Sharp novel, coming this fall from Bleak House Books. Based on the true story of a massive gold mine fraud in Indonesia.

GRAVE IMPORTS -Based on the facts of the trade in looted Cambodian antiquities.
View the full length book trailer here.
Or the short attention span version here.

THE LIVING ROOM OF THE DEAD Bleak House Books. Based on a true story of the trafficking of Russian women to Asia.

And, non-fiction:

WRONG SIDE OF THE WALL - Lyons Press (Globe Pequot) hardcover. The true crime / sports biography of Blackie Schwamb - the greatest prison baseball player of all time.

Eric Stone's Photos

Eric Stone's Videos

Thai Morlam-Rock Red Hat Band

Added by Eric Stone

Eric Stone's Blog

IF YOU WANT TO SEE MY BLOG, GO TO MY WEBSITE

CLICK HERE

Posted on July 13, 2008 at 10:00am — 1 Comment

Comment Wall (228 comments)

You need to be a member of CrimeSpace to add comments!

Join this social network

At 12:43pm on July 2, 2009, Benjamin Sobieck said…: 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.

At 1:44pm on June 23, 2009, George Cronin said…: Whoops--it was Dorchester, not Kingsbridge.

George

At 7:39am on June 20, 2009, Chris Casey said…: Hello, Eric!

Many thanks for the friend request. I absolutely have to track down and snag some of the Ray Sharp books--they sound right up my alley.
I am currently monkeying around with creating a hard-boiled detective yarn set in Shanghai during the late 1920's.

Thanks again!

All the best,
Chris

At 6:48am on June 20, 2009, George Cronin said…: Hi Eric
Thanks for asking for me to be your friend. You sound like a cool guy. I'm a bit of a crusty old-timer. Soon after finishing college, I had two PI novels published by Condor, featuring Virgil Fletcher. Another paperback house agreed to pick up the series (Zebra maybe?) but my agent didn't like the contract. She couldn't sell it elsewhere, but another agent (I've had four) secured a gig for me to compete to be one of four writers for one of three spinoffs Pendleton's Matt Bolan. I had about three weeks to provide a synopsis and opening chapters. I chose to write for a series featuring Henri Daguerre (the Dagger) graduate of St. Cyr, who travels the globe terrifying terrorists. I was one of four chosen to write the series and mine was to be the second book published. Unfortunately (or perhaps, fortunately) The series was killed after the publication of the first book. The other two spinoffs were (and maybe still are) quite a success. No, I think the category of men';s action adventure is dead these days. I made three thousand for that gig and got $1500 advances for the two Condors. Family obligations persuaded me to abandon my attempt to earn a living writing and I became a social worker, retiring as the Deputy Commisioner of Social Services in a county in the Finger Lakes region of New York State. When I retired, I started writng again. I finished a novel about a NYC retired cop who takes a job as police chief in a Finger Lakes city. I've shopped it around, but no one has been interested. I've had no success in getting an agent. I've had four in the past (icluding Pat Conroy's) I'm trying to get attention now by writing short stories, have three out and am almost finished with a fourth.
I'm a great fan of early American noir movies and of the later French ones. (Think Jean Pierre Melville and Jacques Becker) I love Hammett and Chandler, Poe, Dostoevsky and Kafka, Dinesen Flannery O'Connor Among the more modern, I like Pellicanos, Lehane, Connolly, Rendell's stand alones, Bruen, Houston, Philip Kerr, Leonard, Chang--it goes on and on. I think Cormac McCarthy is one of the greatest stylist to have ever written in English and has penned at least one masterpiece, BLOOD MERIDIAN. Music? There's not much I don't like. Well, I'm not crazy about heavy metal, despite the fact that my son plays bass in a heavy metal band (He's having about as much luck in his artistic endeavors as I've had in mine his artistic endeavors--it's his fourth band and none has scored big.) Itell him to move to Germany or Scandinavia where it seems that kind of music is more popular.
My home town is Joisey City, I lived in Manhattan for many years and later the Finger Lakes. Since November I've lived in Peoria, IL (don't ask) the home of Caterpillar and the locale of the world famous annual bow contest for asian carp (You have to hit them as they fly from the water.)

At 3:57am on June 11, 2009, Mary Ellen Carmody said…: Last year you asked what kind of photography I do - well, I didn't get back to this site until lately, but I do just about everything. Am working on portraits, they are devils to do.

At 1:16pm on March 16, 2009, Keith Humphrey said…: Hi Eric - Thanks for adding me. I too have lived in Asia which has had a huge effect on what I write. I lived in Manila for 4 years and spent a few years in Hong Kong off and on. Also traveled all over Asia through the years.
Keith

At 10:01am on March 11, 2009, John Desjarlais said…: "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.

At 2:55am on March 4, 2009, Patricia Ruocco said…: Hi Eric,

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

At 2:01am on February 20, 2009, Mary Montague Sikes said…: Nice! I live in Virginia and it's been several years since I attended a game in St. Louis. Good luck with your tour.

At 1:51am on February 20, 2009, Mary Montague Sikes said…: I love baseball, too. Next week, we head to Jupiter, FL for five St. Louis Cardinals spring training games!