A Christmas Interview With Phil Naessens

The choir at York Minster.

You know what? Christmas gets earlier each year doesn't it. 

My Christmas guest on this Christmassy Christmas Yuletide Edition of the Wizard's Cauldron is Phil Naessens. Tennis Pro, Vegas resident...

Another famous Vegas resident: 

"Dominic and the Desperados"

...ex-professional handicapper, baseball freak and sport radio DJ, Phil Naessens. 

Now an ex pat living in pendulous, crystalline, opulent Corfu, Phil interviews writers and discusses sports on his radio show. The gamekeeper turns poacher as he joins me round the Cauldron to discuss his new project, The Writer's Showcase. Phil has interviewed the Wizard recently twice and I was more than pleased to return the favour. 

Merry Christmas, Phil.

And a happy Christmas to you, Wiz.

Thanks! Tell us a bit about yourself?

Well, I'm 47 years old American and currently the resident tennis professional at the Corfu Holiday Palace in Corfu Greece. 

The resort is also home of The Phil Naessens Tennis Academy.

The Phil Naessens Show is becoming increasingly popular. Tell us about it and where can Wizard Watchers hear it?

The show is daily Monday through to Friday and focuses on the world of sports, entertainment and popular culture. 

You can catch the show at various places around the interwebs but the best place to listen to it would be at 

www.philnaessens.com.

British DJ's - much less professional than Phil

You have a strong sporting history. Tell us about that...

"I don't know how strong it is but when I was a kid we had one thing.......it was called outside and we played ball all day long. "

I played the major American sports like baseball, basketball, football and hockey and the country club sports tennis and golf. I seemed to be better at tennis; stuck with it and the rest shall we say is history.

Do you play the ponies?

I use to......religiously. Still remember being at the Showboat Hotel Sports Book, sitting in their bar when I noticed this racing form, spotted a horse named "No Commitment" walked up to the window and bet 20 bucks on it to win. The broker gave me a funny look and lo and behold that nag won and I won 2,000 bucks.....I was hooked and quit about 5 years later as it had become a 24 hour a day obsession.

"THIS.IS. UNBELIEVABLE..."

Zenyatta - 2009 Breeders Cup Classic.

Wiz Notes: Honestly, if you don't like horse racing, it's very unlikely you 

and I have much to talk about...look at the wonderful Zenyatta here...it makes me cry...if you're 

not crying now, then you have zero soul...

Love the ponies, Phil.

I know you do.

I'm glad that Betfair saved Hollywood Park. They were going to sell that to developers. I mean, Hollywood Park. Bukowski. The Marx Brothers. Bing Crosby. Walther Matthau. George Segal. Shutting Hollywood is like burning the Declaration of Independence. That's a running theme through my book Hollywood Shakedown.

I'm glad they saved it too, Wiz. I noticed that too when I read it.

So switching coasts: You're originally from New York. What the hell has happened to the Jets this year? Is Ryan toast? Is Sanchez a dead man walking?

The Jets decided to become the next Ringling Brothers & Barnum and Bailey Circus to cover up the fact they didn't replace star running back Ladanian Tomlinson, fix the holes in the offensive line as well as sign receivers that could actually catch the ball. Instead they traded for Tim Tebow.

Ryan? He's probably built up enough good will with the fan base to maybe last 1 more season but you never know with the Jets.

Mark Sanchez is done as the starting QB of the New York Jets. He had a terrible season this year. Walking dead man fits Dude.

 A nicer memory of New York.

My favourite bridge   - from the Woody Allen

classic movie..."Manhattan"

Three of your tennis protégés, Mary, Mungo and Midge, go on a year-long losing streak. They blame you for it. In a spirit of vengeance, they kidnap you and imprison you in in vast cave, like the one off Greek island Bond adventure, "For Your Eyes Only". Mungo, nicer than the other two, and who only loses by the odd game or so, offers you three CD's, two books and one DVD. What would you choose?

Funny you mentioned For Your Eyes Only. Part of that movie was filmed at the resort where I live and my good friend owns the villa where the pool scene was filmed.

1981 For Your Eyes Only - sung by one of the original 

reality show victors - and therefore, forerunner of The Apprentice and Masterchef - 

Sheena Easton. 

Wiz Notes: 1981. Recession hit Britain. Mass unemployment. The new Jarrow march. H Blocks. Bobby Sands. Monster Thatcher and her satanic brood of evil Tories. Race Riots in Toxteth and St Pauls. Monetarism. The slow destruction of the Labour Party. The threat of nuclear devastation. Near universal working class poverty and starvation. Gravediggers striking in Liverpool. the last episode of The Sweeney. A freezing winter unparalleled since 1962-63.  New Romantic music. A shortage of baked potatoes. 

Luckily Roger Moore, the ultimate Bond, came to rescue the British population from nihilistic mass suicide with this Greek island based spy drama, complete with magnificent theme song and summer holiday locations that hardly anyone could afford.

Let’s see. One DVD? I guess the complete series of Sanford and Son. 

US equivalent of British rag and bone man sitcom
"Steptoe and Son

Three CD's? 

Bon Jovi Greatest Hits.

Scotland's favourite band, Bon Jovi - on the run

from the Polis...

Journey's Greatest Hits.

Journey:  Break up music for  sensitive men with perms. Please. If you never look at the vids on this

channel - just for once, check the barnets on these mofos...sublime hair and

long teacher's coats too. It can only be the eighties...

Chicago's Greatest Hits. 

Gentlemen. 

Dumped by the missus this weekend? 

Have a dekko at this.

Number Six in the Wiz Green Top One Hundred Wrist Slashers of All Time. 

Chicago - If You Leave Me Now. 

I'm not sure I can continue with the interview, Phil...I'm..I'm...

The most current Sports Almanac and On The Road by Jack Kerouac.

Tell us about your latest project. The Writers Showcase with Phil Naessens. How can writers get involved?

I've conducted quite a few interviews with authors this past year and one thing they all shared with me was how difficult it is to market their books and how thrilled they were that someone was actually willing to do that by bringing them on my show. 

Knowing how powerful podcasting can be I started looking around to see what if anything anyone was doing to promote authors and what I discovered was that if you weren't already well known you had a better chance being a snowball in hell than getting on a writers only program. So, I decided to do something about it and after talking with someone who knows the business I decided to launch this project.

Getting involved is easy. All a writer needs to do is contact me. 

The Writers Showcase 

http://www.writersshowcasepodcast.webs.com

I'll put together a professional sounding 30-45 minute podcast, write a review of the book and publish the program on my website, on iTunes and various other podcatchers on the interwebs. Authors of books that I think my listeners of the Phil Naessens Show would be interested in will also be invited to appear on that program as well.

"Opening show: Avid anglophile and noted historical fictionalist MARY ANN "she's just like Philllipa Gregory" BERNAL natters to an enraptured Phil about her upcoming, highly anticipated, Vikings and Virgins epic, Concordia....coming soon..."

How do you cope with lukewarm Greek food? Do you carry round a portable microwave?

Haha! That defiantly takes some getting used to and no I don't but I do have a microwave in my bungalow!

I can't be doing with Greek food. I lost nearly a stone when I visited Halkidiki. Nothing but warm squid.

Really?

Yes! And I found out The Fowlers off East Enders were there the week before us!  Bloody common...

...anyroad, if you hadn't chosen a life as a tennis coach and radio DJ, what else could you have done? Do you have regrets?

No regrets just lessons learned and I really don't know what I would've or could've done. Everything I have is due to tennis and I never thought of doing anything else.

What does 2013 hold for Phil Naessens?

Hopefully a full time radio gig and a return to the states otherwise I'll keep chugging along doing what I'm doing!

Phil, its been a pleasure as always and I wish you well with your new venture!! 

Thanks Wiz...I appreciate this! You're welcome on the show anytime...

Contact:

Websites

Tennis http://www.corfutennis.wordpress.com

The Writers Showcase http://www.writersshowcasepodcast.webs.com

Listen to The Phil Naessens Show on:

www.philnaessens.com

__________________________________________________________

 Merry Christmas from The Green 

Wizard, everyone. xxxx

Do YOU know it's Christmas...

An Interview with Brenda Perlin

Brenda Perlin

In an Indie environment completely dominated - nay, saturated - by fantasy, sci-fi, YA, and horror, it was a pleasure to bump into Homewrecker, a no holds barred account of the simple failure of a marriage; a story firmly entrenched in bitter reality.

Intrigued, I investigated further and discovered that it was written by Brenda Perlin, in the tradition of Elizabeth Wurzel and other writers of similar raw boned ilk: Writers prepared to give of themselves and their stories in order to improve the understanding of our our social reality rather than escape from it by creating alternative worlds. 

This book is no holds barred stuff, written in bleak, dispassionate, matter-of-fact, almost documentary style and I approached Brenda in similar fashion. 

I was reminded of the magnificent Woody Allen film "Manhattan", particularly the scene where Allen confronts his ex-wife, played by Meryl Streep about a book she plans to write about the failure of their marriage. In Homewrecker, Brenda shows the same clinical restraint, the same chilling rapacity, and the same ruthless, inarguable power, leaving no need for anger, rage or recrimination: The power of the written word being much mightier than the sword.

Manhattan

Her blog is essential reading each week as she goes into great detail and discusses the stories behind the story. Eager for a natter, I picked up the Wizphone and caught up with Brenda in downtown Orange County, California. Here's what she had to say while she sat amidst the orange groves,  with the smell of eucalyptus in the air and surrounded by, what I perceived to be, the chirping of a milion Cicadas.

Tell us a little about yourself, Brenda.

Thank you so much for even wanting to hang out with me for a while. How cool are you! This is all new to me. Before this I was just your average “hausfrau” living in Orange County. How quickly things change. I can get used to all of the flattery. No bad reviews please, I have thin skin!

Those Real Housewives of Orange County -
Top Rated British Afternoon TV

I am big into fitness and an avid reader...I know that is not too thrilling but I never said I was a party girl! Writing is not just a passion but a necessity. I would probably be a basket case without this outlet of spilling my guts all over the world wide web.

Tell us about Home Wrecker? What made you write it? Where are its influences? In what tradition does it fall?

Lots of information about Homewrecker is readily available on my blog and website.

I'm an avid reader, Brenda. At least once a week.

Are you, Wiz? I'm so pleased.

I don't miss it. I have it on all sorts of alerts. I love this kind of stuff.

Thank you! :-) Here's the website for you readers. I hope they can join us.

http://www.homewreckerthebook.com/

and here's the book cover.

Is that you on the cover, Brenda? Apparently there's a big debate and you aren't saying?

Hahahahah...that's true, Wiz. I'm not saying.

I got the title Home Wrecker from one of my ex-mother in law’s best friends. She used to call me Home Wrecker because she didn’t like all the attention I was getting from the elderly gentlemen at Leisure World!!

At that time, the thought of me being anything but a good girl seemed absurd. I really was a goodie two shoes!

This is a true life story, but names and a few circumstances have changed to protect...mostly myself but also the innocent and not so innocent.

I first started writing this story when I was just approaching thirty and newly engaged. I thought I would write about what a rip off the wedding business was. I wanted to highlight how you can get suckered into spending, unnecessarily.

A very expensive wedding.

After the wedding I buried my story in a drawer. Then 16 years or so later when things got ugly with my husband...I mean really ugly... I decided to pick this story back up. There were many circumstances that led me to let it all out in the open. 

I won’t give the whole story away but I think my husband got what was justified.

How faithful to the real story have you been? Have you given in to the temptation to dramatize? To exaggerate? Or have you played it straight.

Funny you should use the word “faithful” considering my book title. Was that just a slip of the tongue? I wish I could call my book “Faithful.” I could walk around with my head held high but unfortunately Home Wrecker was the most appropriate title I could come up with.

I haven’t really needed to dramatize this story AT ALL because the drama was never ending. In fact it is still going on.

What sort of reactions have you had? Have you had any flakes?

Actually, I didn’t expect to be as well received as I have been. I find that people tend to make excuses for what I have done. I never thought you could leave your husband for another man and get praises but I have. Go figure!

As far as flakes (I can’t pass that one up) I have had a couple of friends that have been pretty disappointing, an editor that seemed to miss as many typos as I did and a publishing company that are scam artists. Yes, I have come across a few flakes!

Was writing Home Wrecker cathartic? What does your ex-husband think of it?

Writing Home Wrecker was better than therapy or an expensive bottle of booze!!! Writing your life story after people have dirtied up your good name is as cathartic as it can get. 

This way I am able to seek revenge and also have the last word....

Oops..I almost forget to answer your question about what my ex-husband thinks. I am sure he is not at all happy. After you read it, you will understand. No, I am sure he is not happy at all. I am just flattered that he bought the book

You're a popular and consistent blogger. What advice have you for young writers who are linking their work and their blog as you do? How do you get people reading your blog

Now that you mention it, I am starting to have a little bit of writers block. How can you blog when you are out of words? There lies the problem. Actually I could use a little advice around now. I am always open to suggestions!!!

A grumpy good ol' boy reader kidnaps you in the street, throws you in the back of a van and locks you in his cellar. However, his wife, who likes your book and is planning to off her husband, sneaks into the cellar and offers you three books, two cd's and a DVD. What would they be?

Now that is funny! This question was just getting exciting until the bit about the books. I thought it was an invitation to something...hahahaha....Okay, let me think...books

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy

Barbara Streisand Ballad from Prince of Tides Film

Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

JD Salinger

As far as CD’s, I think one of the two most brilliant albums of all time is 

Pearl Jam’s Ten 

Pearl Jam

U2’s October

On DVD I will always be in love with Cinema Paradiso. I love a good story with heart!

Cinema Paradiso trailer

Where next for Brenda Perlin and her fans? (Including yours truly!)

I am glad you asked, if not I would have had to thrown it in somewhere. Thank you for that! I am actually working on a sequel to Home Wrecker which I am calling - 

Home Wrecker Redemption

Hopefully by the time I finish, this girl will have received her fair share of absolution.

Brenda, it has been an honour and a privilege to speak to you and I hope that you sell a bunch of books in the coming year.

Without a doubt I want to thank you Wiz for a clever Q & A and your interest in my book. I am so elated that you have followed my blog posts!

Don't be a stranger, Brenda!

I won't, Wiz.

Wizard Watchers can find out more about Brenda Perlin here!

Links:

Amazon.com

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=brenda+perlin

BarnesandNoble.com:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/home-wrecker-brenda-perlin/1111340083?ean=9781462653898

Website:

http://www.homewreckerthebook.com

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Home-Wrecker/166853390108387

Goodreads:

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15825106-home-wrecker

Twitter:
https://twitter.com/HomeWreckerbook

Dont forget to pick up the Indielit Scrapbook - 110 Indielit Paperbacks for gifts this Christmas! Top Right at the top!