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To The
"Donald Bain" Page
Author of the "Murder, She Wrote" books!
| "Donald Bain" |
"Murder, She Wrote" Books by:
Jessica Fletcher / Donald Bain
Manhattans & Murders - 1994
Rum & Razors - 1995
Brandy & Bullets - 1995
Martinis & Mayhem - 1995
A Deadly Judgement - 1996
A Palette for Murder - 1996
The Highland Fling Murders - 1997
Murder on the QE2 - 1997
Murder in Moscow - 1998
A Little Yuletide Murder - 1998
Murder at the Powderhorn Ranch - 1999
Knock 'Em Dead - 1999
Gin & Daggers - 2000
Blood on the Vine - 2001
Murder in a Minor Key - 2001
Provence--To Die For - 2002
You Bet Your Life - 2002
Destination--Murder - 2003
About The Author...
Donald Bain is the author of more than 80 books in a variety of genres, including westerns, murder mysteries, comedies, food and wine, biographies and investigative journalism. One of the most prolific and successful writers/ghostwriters in publishing he has written 12 original 'Murder, She Wrote' mystery novels and is currently working on more, has ghostwritten major best-selling books for celebrities, including an ongoing murder mystery series for 17 years. He has also held executive positions in industry, has worked in radio and television and has written myriad magazine articles on aviation, jazz and fishing. He has written a screenplay based upon one of his books, and is in the process of developing a TV series in the spirit of the popular 'Murder, She Wrote' television series.
His career has exposed this author and raconteur to a remarkable variety of situations and people, and audiences have been delighted with his recounting of his experiences. He can talk about jazz because he still performs as a jazz musician, and can give solid, useful and inspirational advice to young writers because he's a consummate professional himself.
'Murder, HE Wrote' - the experience of writing the 'Murder, She Wrote' series, and a look at mystery writing in general
'The Ghost is Real' - a lighthearted anecdotal recounting of his life as a professional ghostwriter, including many celebrity tales and 'insider' publishing revelations.
Hundreds of appearances on the Long John Nebel radio show in New York City. Many appearances as speaker on the Queen Elizabeth 2. Dozens of radio and television appearances because of his books [in 1999 appearing in E! Entertainment]. He also undertakes lectures and symposiums on writing in general, and murder mystery writing in particular.
Sunday, February 2, 1997
For ghost author Bain, writing is a craft
NEW YORK (AP) -- Mystery lovers peruse the paperbacks in their local bookstores. Ah, here's a new one: Murder, She Wrote, by Jessica Fletcher and Donald Bain.
Wait. Jessica Fletcher doesn't exist, right? She's a character on a TV show. True, but Donald Bain does exist, and although most people have never heard of him, they may have read one of the approximately 75 books he's written.
Bain, 61, specializes in ghost writing. He writes books -- fiction and non-fiction -- often published under other people's names or a pseudonym. For Bain, writing is a profession and craft. He doesn't have dreams of emerging as the next Hemingway or Heller.
"It is absolutely a business and a living for me and I approach it that way ... I think I always did," he said.
Bain has written some books that do carry his byline. He also writes articles, speeches and columns for corporate executives.
He got into ghost writing in the early 1960s through Jack Pearl, a cousin who had more work than he could handle and who gave some assignments to Bain. His first articles were for men's adventure magazines. "Most of it was garbage, absolutely made up," he recalled. But it paid, and he kept at it.
Bain's first ghost-written book was a history of stock car racing written for NASCAR, the National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing.
Early in his career he did write The Case Against Private Aviation, by Donald Bain. He calls it "my Ralph Nader shot" -- and was asked to appear on a radio show hosted by Long John Nebel, a controversial New York broadcaster in the 1960s. Bain ended up making 200 guest shots with Nebel, and those appearances brought him contacts and plenty of work.
Bain has written best-sellers as a ghost writer and when he's used a pseudonym -- but of course you'd never know it from the names on the dust jackets. A big hit was his second book, Coffee, Tea or Me? published in the late '60s. It purported to chronicle the adventures of two flight attendants -- or stewardesses as they were then called. The book and three sequels ostensibly were written by Trudy Baker and Rachel Jones. The women didn't exist.
The stories largely came out of Bain's imagination (as did several other similar books detailing the escapades of nurses, teachers and women who work on Wall Street). The books were the product of a very different, more sexist era, when stewardesses had an aura of glamor and availability. The series sold 17 million copies.
"Coffee, Tea or Me? is the biggest success that I can take credit for," Bain said. He has agreed not to reveal which books he has ghost-written for other people.
One reason why he likes writing the Murder, She Wrote series (six books have been published so far, with at least two more to come) is "it's something I can talk about."
Other books he can claim as his own include adult westerns and crime novels. His topics are wide-ranging -- he's co-authored a book on caviar.
Publishers have called him in to rescue manuscripts. One such case resulted in a detective story, Raven, by Mike Lundy, another Bain pseudonym.
Tall, white-haired and bearded, Bain looks more like an English professor than a chronicler of stewardess sex lives.
He doesn't work at his home north of New York City, preferring to leave the house in the morning and go to an office.
Bain and his wife, Renee Paley-Bain, also a writer, have a corporation they call Hyphenates Ltd., through which they work. The company is successful enough that Bain has little of the constant worry that plagues freelance writers -- where will the next project come from.
Anyone who might turn up his or her nose at the concept of a writer turning out books and stories for profit instead of art might want to consider that some -- if not many -- of the great novelists were in it for the money. Charles Dickens, after all, cranked out his books in installments for magazines.
Bain is fond of quoting from a letter Dickens wrote to his publisher: "When you have quite done counting the sovereigns received for Pickwick, I should be much obliged to you to send me up a few."
He does have ideas for novels he'd like to write under his name, but "I've always been busy" with other projects and hasn't had time to start them.
But even when he writes under a pseudonym, he sometimes finds a way to get his name in print: He dedicates the book to himself.
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