ABOUT THE LONG HELLO

I'm a writer who lives in Florida and increasingly writes about Los Angeles.

Which presents an obvious problem.

I can research LA endlessly, but research isn't the same as knowing a place. The Los Angeles I want to understand lives in its neighborhoods and streets, its restaurants and bars, its history and secrets—and, most of all, in its people.

My own introduction to LA began through books and movies and grew through visits, friendships, and the writers who showed me their city. Now I'm writing two series set there: one in present-day Los Angeles and another in the Los Angeles of the 1940s.

The Long Hello grew out of my desire to know the city better.

I'm talking with writers, actors, filmmakers, journalists, cops, lawyers, musicians, artists, historians, and others about their Los Angeles—the places they love, the places they've lost, the people they've encountered, the things outsiders get wrong, and the stories that could only happen here.

I'm not looking for one definitive Los Angeles.

I'm trying to meet as many versions of it as I can.

One person. One story. One long hello.