Ladies of the Canyon

by Douglas Wood

Overview

Sometimes it's deadly at the top...

Devon O'Keefe, star of the popular streaming TV series Beverly Hills Banshee, is losing her grip on life and her sudden fame. When substance abuse and erratic behavior cause production of her show to come to a halt-and after burning through all of her money on drugs and legal fees-the young Midwestern transplant finds herself alone and homeless in L.A.

Enter Nikki Barnes, notorious aging child star and Hollywood survivor with her own tabloid exploits, who waylays Devon after a twelve-step program meeting. Nikki sees a younger version of herself in Devon, having battled addiction, eating disorders, and the effects of personal tragedy for decades. She offers to share her decaying Laurel Canyon mansion with the troubled young actress, determined to help her avoid making the same mistakes she's made. But soon a series of mysterious and disturbing incidents occur and the two women find themselves locked in a complex and twisted relationship that spirals downward into violence.

Ladies of the Canyon explores the universal need for family and acceptance, and how a toxic environment can affect the choices we make.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781635160000
Publisher:	Prospective Press LLC
Publication date:	09/01/2020
Pages:	204
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.63(d)

About the Author

Douglas Wood writes, creates and produces children's television for Disney, Warner Bros., Universal, NBC, Amazon, BBC, Netflix, and Apple. The PBS series, Molly of Denali, for which Wood was Story Editor received a Peabody award. Wood has also been a film executive for Steven Spielberg at Amblin Entertainment as well as several major Hollywood studios. He began his career in entertainment as an actor in Chicago where he appeared at Steppenwolf and the Goodman Theatre. He was a member of the Second City National Touring Company and the Fine Line comedy duo, which appeared at the Comedy Store, The Improv, and The Motown Revue with Smokey Robinson, an NBC series for which Wood was also a writer. He lives in Topanga Canyon in the Santa Monica mountains outside of L.A. with his wife and two cats.Ladies of the Canyon is his first novel.

Editorial Reviews

"Rarely and not at all in recent memory have I encountered a debut novel as polished and powerful and sure-footed as Douglas Wood's Ladies of the Canyon. Filled with compelling and wild-at-heart characters, clear-eyed observations about life's precarious road and set against a world at once alluring and dangerous, this is a winner in every conceivable way."

-Rick Kogan, Chicago Tribune

"Not since Carrie Fisher's Postcards from the Edge has there been a sharper gaze into the toxic nature of child stardom and fame in Hollywood. Ladies of the Canyon is a riveting story of addiction among child stars idled by the dark side of Hollywood and human emotion. A whodunit with a nasty twist!"

-Robert W. Walker, Dead on Instinct

"A scathing and scary Hollywood tale packed with more twists, turns and switchbacks than a rainy night on Laurel Canyon Boulevard. If you really want to know whatever happened to Baby Jane, read this book."

-Vince Waldron, co-author with Ronnie Spector of Be My Baby: How I survived Mascara, Miniskirts and Madness or My Life as a Fabulous Ronette

"Suspenseful and chilling. Wood explores the dark side of Hollywood with equal parts horror and wit."

-Anthony Lawrence, writer, The Twilight Zone

"It didn't take long for the characters in Douglas Wood's Ladies of the Canyon to spring from his imagination into my reality. When I glance at TMZ or Access Hollywood, I catch myself hoping for a segment on Devon O'Keefe or Nikki Barnes, before remembering their lives of celebrity, second chances, and disturbingly fierce determination, are fictional. (One hopes!)"

-Joel Paley, Author & Lyricist of Ruthless! The Musical

From the Publisher