The Last We Fake
An LA novel-in-stories each season, along with selected short fiction from exceptional authors, both new and established, whose works take place at the shifting borders of the American Dream. Each season, the podcast debuts an original novel in serialized episodes. Separately, the episodes stand alone, but together they comprise a novel-length journey, with a cast of recurring characters.
Episodes
So maybe Wallichs’ "Battle of the Surf Bands" wasn’t the best time and place for Wanda to demand a display model record player for her hospitalized pal and makeup man, Sparks, her beloved mutual crybaby over “Where the Boys Are.” But she could take in the teen-bikini scene from the ledge she’s climbed up on, kick her heels to the pulsating Watusi beat, and try to make sense of her own exploited girlhood.
Why...
In author Noelle Calabretta’s dream-infused and bittersweet new short story, "Sleepless Sheep," an insomniac rice farmer and failed poet who left his long-ago love beneath Mt. Fiji makes a return journey to the woods where she’s remained.
The story was developed in an upper-division fiction workshop at California State University, Long Beach.
A second-year Fine Arts Ceramicist at California State University ...
From begging Jock Penny’s autograph at Coffee Dan’s, to blundering into a surf music contest at Wallich's, to brushing past a wisp of her former self outside a flower shop, Wanda is waylaid by memories of better times—the onion rings at Frankie’s (“the world’s only delicious vegetable”); the awards ceremony where, slid between two beaus at an effortless 103 lbs, she’d been honored for her heartfelt report on the ...
Using acting-school chops to conquer her deeply ingrained instinct to run away, Wanda finally phones for the directions to St. Jude's Hospital. But the flickering world at Sunset and Vine floods her with memories--from golden visits to the Hollywood Ranch Market, to the high-rise vistas behind casting couches where she used to fight her way free, to The Brown Derby. . . The Smoke House . . . the warm safety of Co...
Achieving a moment's peace between mind and body in the bathroom of June's trailer after the aborted three-way, Wanda staggers off toward a darker reality ...fully reassembled, although, yes, forgetting her horse ... But in the shelter of her own Daytalk dressing room, teen memory is rounding the corner from summer's sewing with the relatives to riding with boys.
In what one listener desc...
This week's episode: "The Playwright,” a remarkable new short story by first-year talent Natalie Goss, about the subdued heart of a young Los Angeles theater reviewer-turned-dramatist who's losing the script.
Goss is a Child Development and Family Studies major now contemplating a minor or possible double major in English. She dreams of publishing a collection of both fiction and nonfiction,...
It's production as usual in Hotchkiss's office, despite the fact Sparks has landed in Good Samaritan, Wally Cleaver is sneaking cigarettes in fear of his dad, and Wanda's fixations lurch from suicide by graham crackers to the long-ago memory of a then-dark-haired actor at Sardi's (so she HAD slept with Chase McSteve!) to the sweaty three-way inside June's wardrobe trailer that Wanda badly does...
Somehow surviving an equestrian gauntlet of obstacles capped by an AWOL 14-year-old Wally Cleaver (“Will you go out with me when I get my license?”), Wanda has finally managed to dial out and hear the terrifying news about her grandmother. But her stage presence is nearly shot when the rotund, legendary fright maestro who directed The Crows and 57 Stairs finds her sitting in his office chair.
In what one list...
This was nothing like being a lamp ray glued to the back of Chase McSteve. Still, the weird-looking horse seems safe, until an explosion on the set of Abilene sends both Wanda and panicked beast off course--close enough to the home of television's Cleaver family that she could practically raid the fridge, while no closer to a word from grandmother than when she threw a jealous tantrum at Howard that same morning....
"In a couple days, either this would all prove to be a huge comedy of errors, or nothing would ever be the same...."
It's existential overload for Wanda, as sex life, pet care, family catastrophe and unanswered phones collide with an all-powerful tub of vanilla ice cream.
In what one listener describes as "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" if it were written by a woman, Catherin...
[UPDATE TO LISTENERS: Recordings for Catherine Hein's The Celebrity are on pause for a few weeks while she gets through some health procedures and related tsuris. Wanda will be back! Correspondence and well wishes may be sent via info@alanrifkin.com. Thanks for your understanding.]
This week: Some people are the type to jump on a message marked "Urgent." For Wanda, it's complicated.
<...
Half-buzzed from a night of more sex than rest with Howard the Ex, and done dirty by Dexatrim, Wanda is about to get even higher when the après le bain interview with Chase McSteve leads to deep kissing and a motorcycle date in the works.
In what one listener describes as "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" if it were written by a woman, Catherine Hein's historical novel traces the journey of Wand...
Wanda's moonlit drive on Mulholland turns into a hillside sleep-it-off, causing her to miss a big production meeting; then Howard somehow gets a foot in her door on the eve of her location swim with Chase McSteve.
In what one listener describes as "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" if it were written by a woman, Catherine Hein's historical novel of early '60s Hollywood traces the journe...
Wanda survives her first appearance on the new show, but careful what song you perform afterward with a broken heart.
In what one listener describes as "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" if it were written by a woman, Catherine Hein's historical novel of early '60s Hollywood traces the journey of Wanda Fleming, the tenacious, calamity-prone co-host fatale of TV's Daytalk in the spring of...
There goes Wanda's diet after encountering ex-boyfriend Howard on the eve of her Daytalk debut.
Catherine Hein's historical novel of early '60s Hollywood traces the journey of Wanda Fleming, the tenacious, calamity-prone co-host fatale of TV's Daytalk in the spring of 1962. Called to her grandmother's funeral in Orange County, the heroine must face life without her closest ally, sett...
Season 3's novel, THE CELEBRITY, by Catherine Hein, traces the Hollywood journey of Wanda Fleming, the tenacious, calamity-prone co-host fatale of TV's Daytalk in the spring of 1962. Called to her grandmother's funeral in Orange County, the heroine must face life without her closest ally, settle on one lover, conquer her eating disorder, and ace a round of Password in order to secure a coveted game-show...
Season 3's original novel, THE CELEBRITY, by Catherine Hein, traces the Hollywood journey of Wanda Fleming, the tenacious, calamity-prone co-host fatale of TV's "Daytalk" in the spring of 1962. Called to her grandmother's funeral, the heroine must face life without her closest ally, settle on one lover, conquer her eating disorder, and ace a round of Password in order to secure a coveted game-...
For this Season 2 finale, Lisa Cupolo reads her story "Whisper Screaming," about a Long Beach mother and actor whose inner question won't let her go, then talks with Alan Rifkin about the ghostly buffalo of Catalina Island. Cupolo's debut volume, HAVE MERCY ON US, recently won the W.S. Porter Prize for short-story collections. Her work has appeared in The Virginia Quarterly Review, Ploughshares, Na...
Richard Bausch (“A master of the novel as well as the story ” —Sven Birkerts, The New York Times) previews a chapter of his 13th novel, PLAYHOUSE, scheduled for release by Alfred A. Knopf on February 14, then talks with Alan Rifkin about the book and his craft. Bausch’s works have appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, Esquire, Harper’s, The New Yorker, Narrative, Gentleman’s Quarterly. Playboy, The Southern Review, New S...
Retired Episcopal priest Gary Commins shares a new short story, "Priest and Victim," in which a pastoral meeting with a childhood rape victim turns over secrets both buried and not. Commins is the author of Spiritual People, Radical Lives as well as Becoming Bridges: The Spirit and Practice of Diversity and If Only We Could See: Mystical Vision and Social Transformation. His newest book, Evil and the Proble...
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