FEATURED AUTHOR: GARY DICKSON

ABOUT THE BOOK 


He has always lived in mystery; will she be the one to discover his secret?

Robert Valmer moves from Rome to Beverly Hills in 2015, where against his better judgment, he falls for Alexis Roth, PhD, psychologist to the stars. But Alexis wants to know everything. Start from the beginning, she says. The beginning? Can he really tell her about how he fled France during the French Revolution in 1789 or about Italy during World War II? If he tells her even a little, will she think of him as a liar or a freak rather than a lover?

He tries to deflect her probes, pleading shyness, but she knows that reticence is often the veil behind which secrecy lurks. His practice of stonewalling only further ignites her burning curiosity.

As the pressure for honesty mounts, he does what he’s always done—flee. But Alexis is not a lover to be easily dismissed. She follows him to Europe, determined to track him down for an explanation. Where can she start when her quarry doesn’t want to be found? Each clue she uncovers leads her deeper into intrigue.
An Oddity of Some Consequence is a glamorous tale of mystery, romance, and the fountain of youth.

Book Details:


Title: An Oddity of Some Consequence


Author: Gary Dickson


Genre: time travel fiction/ time travel romances


Publisher: Pairings, Ltd. (September 14, 2020)


Print length: 239 pages

LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT WITH GARY DICKSON

A few of your favorite things: Susie, my wife, Paris, Switzerland, literature, food, music, wine, wandering around.
Things you need to throw out: books that weren’t worth reading, old Tee shirts, worn shoes and boots, documents without pertinence, ties-does anyone wear one anymore? 


Things you need in order to write: time, computer, knowledge of where the plot is going, a good walk, a remembrance of something past, at times a little wine, a cozy fire, a beautiful vista.
Things that hamper your writing: confusion about the direction of plot or characters, not having an ending in mind, hunger, too much noise.


Things you love about writing: a voyage of the mind, endless puzzles to work out, it makes me laugh, it makes me cry, when readers like my books, an endless search for ideas, makes you observant of everything.
Things you hate about writing: when the story ends, it’s bittersweet, its obsessive nature, it can’t be put aside, it’s always present.

Easiest thing about being a writer: writing after you have an idea and the ending.

Hardest thing about being a writer: self-doubt, rethinking, re-writing, seemingly thoughtless criticism, re-writing, going over the same things in your mind endlessly searching for an answer.


Things you love about where you live: Los Angeles: great climate year-round, sunshine, palm trees, ocean, mountains, great restaurants, stars both celestial and those that walk Rodeo Drive.
Things that make you want to move: I love Europe, particularly Paris and Switzerland. I love to speak the languages I know, and I love the proximity to so many interesting places when you live in Europe. And don’t forget the food . . . and the wine.


Things you never want to run out of: air, water, food, love, friends, empathy, interest, enthusiasm, money.
Things you wish you’d never bought: too many packages of M&Ms, desert boots, clear, round professor glasses, a very intimidating violin that only came out of its case for a few scratchy bars, innumerable hair restoration miracles, an inedible dinner at a highly touted restaurant in Paris, an unassembled swing set which consisted of thousands of parts, fruit by mail, I’ll stop here.

Favorite foods: filet mignon, lobster, cod, crab, lamb chops and chicken, Bibb lettuce, French green beans, French fries, ice cream, chocolate, cheese, caviar, smoked salmon.
Things that make you want to throw up: bad odors, horrific violence, rudeness, spoiled food.

Favorite music or song: “It Had to Be You.” Classical music and Rock n’ Roll.
Music that make your ears bleed: brass instruments and heavy metal.

Favorite beverage: red wine/Bordeaux.

Something that gives you a pickle face: persimmon.

Favorite smell: pheromones of Susie.

Something that makes you hold your nose: garbage.

Something you’re really good at: staying positive.

Something you’re really bad at: golf.


Something you wish you could do: live in Switzerland.
Something you wish you’d never learned to do: exaggerate.

Something you like to do: travel with my wife.

Something you wish you’d never done: drove from NYC to Atlanta stopping only for gas after 09/11.

People you consider as heroes: the people that provide personal services to us all without much recognition or compensation.

People with a big L on their foreheads: disrespect.

Last best thing you ate: a three-pound Maine lobster.
Last thing you regret eating: the seven layer chocolate ganache cake that followed it.

Things you’d walk a mile for: a great dinner.
Things that make you want to run screaming from the room: formal dinners and balls.

Things you always put in your books: my best effort.

Things you never put in your books: violence and vulgarity. 

Things to say to an author: ask questions.

Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book: I’ve got a thick skin.

Favorite places you’ve been: Paris, Lausanne, Geneva, Zurich, Gstaad, St. Moritz, Florence, Positano, Marrakech, Venice, Vienna, Berlin.

Places you never want to go to again: Haiti, St. Maarten, Puerto Rico.

Favorite things to do: travel, dine, walk, write. 

Things you’d run through a fire wearing gasoline pants to get out of doing: going to the dentist, buying a car, renewing my driver’s license.

Things that make you happy: crisp sheets.

Things that drive you crazy: clutter.

Proudest moment: having my French poetry book published by a Paris publisher.

Most embarrassing moment: missing an appointment.

Best thing you’ve ever done: become a writer.

Biggest mistake: not starting sooner.

Most daring thing you’ve ever done: skied down a black diamond in Grindelwald, Switzerland. 

Something you chickened out from doing: piloting a Cessna solo for the first time when I was eighteen.

The last thing you did for the first time: had plasma injected into my knee.

Something you’ll never do again: have plasma injected into my knee.

OTHER BOOKS BY GARY DICKSON

An Improbable Pairing

A Spy with Scruples

The Poetry of Good Eats

ABOUT THE AUTHOR  

Gary Dickson is an inveterate traveler and a Francophile sans merci. Educated in Switzerland in history, literature, and the classics, Gary lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Susie.


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