Stoney Winston Hollywood Mysteries Series

(Newly proofed and reformatted) Ah, the romantic 1980s! No Internet, Facebook, or Twitter. Telephones tied to the wall. Music on vinyl or flimsy cassettes -- and don’t even start on the fashions! Hollywood wandered in the desert between the lush studio days that were gone and our flush modern times full of cable and Netflix. Work for film people was scarce in those days and Stoney Winston just barely scraped by. If the 1980s were romantic, Stoney was far too busy surviving to notice.... Desperate for cash, Stoney takes a job tracking a missing daughter whose porno screen test is being used to blackmail the owner of a tiny, failing studio. When he finds the girl murdered, the bad guys responsible start hunting him down, with a similar plan for Stoney. Pursuing his quest (and saving his hide) Stoney tangles with a randy TV evangelist, hired thugs, two lethal fires, and a cold midnight swim off a boat taking him out to sea on a one-way trip with a heavy anchor. All the while, three women offer him aid and comfort, though only one is his live-in lady. In the end, Stoney delivers a rough and ready justice, but all he gets in return is a totaled car. He keeps his lady, though, and that’s more important to him.

(Newly proofed and reformatted text) Against his better judgment, Hollywood foot soldier Stoney Winston arrives at a flea-bitten desert Hamlet to help Diane LaMotta direct her first feature, a no-budget indie action potboiler titled Cycles from Hell. The director’s hostile, the cameraman’s drunk, the crew’s rebellious, and the real bikers playing most of the parts perform as bad as they smell. Diane and a biker momma start fighting over Stoney, while the production’s being slowly killed by systematic sabotage that turns into stabbing, near-drowning, and violent death. Stoney’s only weapons are his courage, his movie smarts, and his friend, Scuzzy. Courtly Nathaniel Hawthorne (“Scuzzy”)Fenster supports his Talmudic scholarship by playing heavies in biker films. Since he stands six-six, weighs 300 pounds, and sprouts hair in all directions, the very sight of him would make Attila wet his pants. He works a lot.

(Newly proofed and reformatted) Stoney Winston is teaching a film workshop at low-rent Angeles Commercial Design College when the college president is literally blown away. To pry loose the insurance transfusion needed to keep the dying college alive, Stoney has to prove it wasn't suicide. Stoney follows the murderer’s trail into a labyrinth of embezzlements, real estate hustles, and suspicious moves by a mysterious multinational company. Before he emerges, he has to fight fires, foil attempts on his life and fly like a bird. Through all this, he has to help his class finish their pretentious student film, which involves a woman and a goldfish, both of them symbolic, naked, and pregnant. Meanwhile, his prettiest student wants him in bed, his friend Tina, the new college president, leans on him for help and maybe more, and a surprise from his past adds romantic complications. In the end, Stoney's glad to retreat to the routine madness of Hollywood and resume his eternal struggle to rise above the bottom level of the Industry food chain.

(Newly proofed and reformatted text) Big bucks incite big greed, and the quiz show Oh-Pun Sesame! Offers a $1 million prize that people will kill for. Vulnerable celebrities like show star Kelli Dengham hide career-destroying secrets. And a low-caste program staffer named Stoney Winston has to stop the murders and protect the beautiful airhead star. A perennial Hollywood foot soldier, Stoney’s equipped to navigate the backwater swamps of late ‘80s Hollywood, where he uncovers a psychotic fan writing eerie mash notes telling Kelli the fun sadistic things he’ll do to her, plus two murders linked to the show and slides stolen from Kelli’s nude photo session that could kill far more than just her career. Once again, Stoney has to rely on his movie smarts, inherent decency, and wry sense of humor to get him through all this with his sanity – and maybe his very life – intact.