Jim Nelson's Blog

Twice in the past twelve months I’ve found myself taken aback by the death of a Hollywood actor.

First was the death of Gene Hackman, and then earlier this month, the passing of Robert Duvall. Both were generation-defining actors who played some of the most memorable Hollywood roles in the last fifty years.

They were also the kind of resilient actors who brought a hushed, understated presence to their roles. While masculinity is under at...

The day has arrived—my new novel Chandler & West: A Story of Los Angeles is now available.

As I’ve written previously, this is a passion project, a novel about two writers I’ve read and admired and studied for years now. My book centers on a fictional meeting of hard-boiled writer Raymond Chandler, banging out the manuscript to his debut The Big Sleep, and Nathanael West, himself working on his opus The Day of the Locust.

Chandler & West is also a love letter to Los Angeles, especiall...

I was raised in a house brimming with books. Children’s books especially, but plenty of books for teens as well. I inhaled these books, reading some three or four times, just so I could reenter their worlds and experience them one more time. My brother and I were never in want of books, although my parents were not especially well-to-do back then.

The reason for this surplus is that my mother worked for Scholastic Books—yes, the Scholastic Books that hosted book fairs at your school when...

It’s here—the Kindle and paperback editions of my latest novel, Chandler & West: A Story of Los Angeles, may now be reserved on Amazon.

The Kindle edition is available at a special limited-time price of $2.99, which will go up after the book has been released. If you order now, it will appear on your Kindle reader the day of its release (February 9th, 2026).

This is my latest passion project, a novel about two writers I’ve read and studied for many years now. It centers on a fiction...

I’m not saying anything new when I say Chinatown is one of the greatest movies of all time. Producer Robert Evans captured lightning in a bottle when he put the 1974 film together, gathering a once-a-decade cast and an auteur director around a script familiar in Hollywood’s tones and tropes, and yet unlike anything preceding it.

There’s a tragic timelessness to Robert Towne’s script, a movie nostalgic for a bygone Los Angeles and the won...

Some exciting news—here’s the proof copy of the paperback for Chandler & West, my upcoming novel.

If you haven’t been following along, Chandler & West is a new novel about two of Los Angeles’ greatest writers—Raymond Chandler and Nathanael West—and set in 1939 Hollywood.

More details here, and a sample chapter to read.

Keep checking back, I’ll be announcing the final release date shortly.

As announced in my last post, my next novel Chandler & West: A Story of Los Angeles is due to arrive in the first quarter of next year.

It’s a new crime novel about two of Los Angeles’ greatest writers under unusual conditions, while they toil to finish their novels (Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep, and Nathanael West’s The Day of the Locust).

I’ve now posted a sample chapter from the novel, available to read online. It gives a good taste of what the book’s about, especially as a sn...

I’m proud to announce my next upcoming book, Chandler & West: A Story of Los Angeles. It’s a new crime novel about two of Los Angeles’ greatest writers, set in the Golden Age of Hollywood.

This book has been a true labor of love, in terms of research and preparation, but also in the writing. Getting this book over the goal line has meant dealing with numerous hurdles, but the moment has finally arrived.

I anticipate to release Kindle and paperback editions in the first quarter of 202...

One: The carpet bomber

Non-stop tweets and retweets promoting their books, as well as books by their friends. “What you call ‘social media,’ we call ‘free ad space.'” Apparently, there’s no such thing as too many hash tags in a tweet.

Two: The hustler

They pepper your timeline with tweets documenting their perpetual-motion writer’s life: Workshops, retreats, conferences, book signings, phone calls with editors, self...

I’m exaggerating, of course.

I only learned of this review today: My interactive fiction According to Cain placed #1 on Winter is Coming‘s “The 10 scariest free interactive fiction games to enjoy this winter” (which, alas, was last winter).

The review in full:

A brilliant oddity, According to Cain puts you in the shoes of a detective who has to go back and solve humanity’s first murder. It prizes observation and forces you to turn your brain on, which is true of all the best intera...