Welcome to johnbyrnebarry.com, my humble home on the wild web. I’m here to hawk books, of course, and also to share what I’ve learned about end-of-life issues, as well as writing and publishing.

Shortly before the pandemic, I launched my third novel, When I Killed My Father: An Assisted-Suicide Family Thriller. You can read the first three chapters here, and why I wrote it here. And you can purchase it here.

If you’re interested in creative approaches to dying, I encourage you to read “I Never Want to Go Down the Green Line, my interview with Dr. Dawn Gross, a palliative medicine specialist at UCSF and host of the KALW podcast, “Dying to Talk. Or “How to Start a Conversation About Dying, with Kate DeBartolo, director of the Conversation Project.

If you’re a writer, you might enjoy “Setting That Works, where Cristina Deptula interviews me about how the most memorable setting does more than describe the backdrop to your story, but reveals character, advances the plot, and/or echoes the theme.

If you want to find out more about me, check out the ABOUT page, where you can read my official and unofficial bio. Scroll down to the video for a guaranteed laugh. Or your money back.

Enjoy. And let me know what you think.

— John

P.S. Sign up below for my occasional letters, where you’ll learn more about my book and my interviews about life and death. And/or follow me on Facebook.

 

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‘Writing California’ + Seeking Feedback on Book Cover Redesign

On September 21, I’ll be part of a local author panel at the Mill Valley Library discussing researching and writing about California. I’ll be discussing my 2015 novel Wasted, a “green-noir” mystery set in the garbage and recycling world of Berkeley, as well as my work-in-progress, a historical mystery/comedy based on true events in Sausalito during the houseboat wars in the 1970s.

Because I’ll be talking about Wasted, I am percolating, again, on whether or not to redesign its cover, which is a problem.

Sausalypso Video on YouTube

Finally getting around to posting the video of Sausalypso Houseboat Wars Murder Mystery, the play I wrote and directed earlier this spring. Watching it on the screen can’t match the energy of being there in person, but it’s still fun. Replete with a pretend pirate, a greedy developer with a maniacal laugh, his vengeful ex-wife and his hiccuping henchman, not to mention Sausalypso’s first ever woman police chief. 

Here are some highlights — in case you don’t have time to watch the whole thing. 🙂

Scene 3 (The Greedy Developer and the Liberal Police Chief) 7:24
Scene 4 (The Vengeful Ex-Wife Confronts the Mistress) 12:28
Scene 6 (Eviction Raid) 24:20 (includes sword fight)
Scene 7 (I Hated You Before You Were Born) 33:12

Sausalypso! — ‘All is Lost’ or ‘The Show Must Go On’?

While directing my play, “Sausalypso Houseboat Wars Murder Mystery,” I read a book called Save the Cat Writes a Novel, in which author Jessica Brody lays out the various “beats” in a novel, one of which is “All is Lost.”

Three days before Opening Night, when three cast and crew members got covid, that was how I felt. All is lost. 

Oh, and all four shows were sold out. Which was great, except a full house without a full cast is not great.

But we came up with a plan to push Opening Night from forward a week, so by the time three more cast members notified me they had covid the next day, we had switched the show dates, canceled our in-person rehearsals, and were practicing on zoom. Crossing our fingers that enough of us would be healthy to mount the show on our new Opening Night.

Cover Idea for ‘Showdown in Sausalito,’ My Next Novel

As some of you know, I'm directing a murder mystery play this winter at my local community theater — Sausalypso Houseboat Wars Murder Mystery. We completed auditions and casting in November and last week, we had our first table read-through with the actors. (Which was...

Finding Your Voice: Differentiating Author Voice from Character Voice(s)

Last month, I participated in a panel discussion on “Finding Your Voice” for the California Writers Club Marin Branch. I’m writing my fourth novel, another “page-turner with a conscience,” and I know that I have an author voice that is me, the writer, and it’s...