Louise Brooks and the mystery of missing time

In researching the life and career of Louise Brooks, there are two brief intervals which remain something of a mystery. The first was Brooks' first visit to Paris in 1924. The second were the months following Brooks' marriage to Deering Davis when the couple was traveling and living in the American Southwest. I have wondered where she was exactly, and/or what might she have been doing? 

In compiling a chronology of her day-by-day activities, which can be found at Louise Brooks: Day by Day 1906-1939 and Louise Brooks: Day by Day 1940-1985, I have been frustrated in my attempts to locate any online records (i.e. newspapers articles, etc....) which might shed even a little light on Brooks' activities during these time periods. Until now....

1924 passport photo

On September 18, 1924, Brooks applied for and was given an emergency passport. On September 20, she left the United States aboard the RMS Homeric bound for Europe. The trip took a week. Brooks was traveling with friend Barbara Bennett (of the famous Bennett family), and we know they went to Paris. But we know little else, except that the boat landed in Cherbourg, France on the 27th. 

the RMS Homeric

Here is the clipping from the International Herald Tribune (the European edition of The Chicago Tribune and the New York Daily News), an English-language newspaper located in Paris, which mentions Brooks' arrival. This is the earliest mention of Brooks in an European publication.

Just recently, I came across a brief mention of the trip in the Wichita Eagle. On October 12, 1924, the newspaper reported Brooks is in Paris, France, noting, "Her departure was sudden and her parents have not received a letter from her since her arrival in Paris. She went abroad as a member of a company expecting to appear in the French capital." 

A comment and an observation. First, how did the Wichita Eagle know Brooks was traveling to Europe? My guess is that one of her parents likely told the paper - this being a time when locals traveling abroad or even just visiting the next town over made the news. And if her parents did alert the paper, they likely did so because they were worried about Brooks and had not heard from her; this might have been their way to find out something, anything, via the newspapers of the day. Secondly, Brooks did not travel to Europe with a company of performers, as the Wichita Eagle says. She went on a "vacation" with a wealthy friend. The Wichita paper was likely misinformed, or told something that wasn't exactly true. Perhaps Louise herself told or suggested to her parents that she was traveling to Europe to work, when in fact that wasn't her intention. I wonder what Brooks did in Paris for the couple three week she was there. I have searched the Parisian newspaper of the time, but have never found any mention of the budding performer.

By October 19, 1924, Brooks was in London, England living at 49A Pall Mall. And on October 20, she began dancing at the famous Cafe de Paris nightclub in the heart of the English capital.

= = =  = 

Here is another mystery. Why did Louise Brooks marry Deering Davis, a decidedly unglamorous looking Chicago playboy?

The other brief period of time that is something of a mystery is interval following her more-or-less sudden marriage Davis in October 1933. As Barry Paris writes in his thoroughly researched biography, "The Associated Press reported that, for a honeymoon, the Davies would go by car to a ranch in Tucson, via Colorado Springs. Davis liked the Southwest and wanted to settle there, but it was too close to Kansas for Louise's comfort. Nothing is known of their three months traveling, except that Davis and Louise - with the aid of a Victrola and the odd nightclub here and there - had plenty of time of time to work up their dance act." The underline is mine for emphasis.

What we know is this: on October 10, 1933, Brooks (age 26) married wealthy Chicago playboy Deering Davis (age 36) at City Hall in Chicago, Illinois. The ceremony was read by Judge Francis J. Wilson, and witnessed by Davis' brother and sister-in-law, Dr. and Mrs. Nathan S. Davis III. After a few days, the couple left for a three month honeymoon in Tucson, Arizona, where they were expected to "live on a ranch." The marriage made news across the country. On October 11, the two newspapers in Tucson carry stories reporting Brooks would soon come to reside on a ranch near the Arizona town. I recently came across those two Tuscon clippings. Here is one of them - they are both very similar.

News of the Deering Davis - Louise Brooks wedding ran in newspapers across the country for the next few days. All of these stories, which were mostly captioned photos on the picture page, said pretty much the same thing.

And then that's it until February of 1934, when the couple reemerges in Chicago and perform as dancers on a few occasions. I know they were on their honeymoon, but I have wondered why they otherwise dropped off the radar. Too me, it doesn't make sense. Certainly, a celebrity couple driving around the Southwest would have made the news in local papers in Colorado or Arizona. Did they pass through Kansas? Did they in fact live on a ranch in Tucson, Arizona? I wonder if something else was going on.

If they did live on a ranch, which ranch was it? What kind of ranch was it? Was it a "dude ranch"? Or was the ranch the kind individuals with a drinking problem spent time at in order to dry out or pull themselves together? I think we know Brooks was unhappy at this time in her life. In 1932, she declared bankruptcy, and couldn't get work in films. And the United States was in the grips of the Depression. This stretch of three to four months was about the longest I have found (for the 1920s and 1930s) for Brooks not to have had her name in the papers. There was always something, a mention in a gossip column, an appearance at a restaurant or nightclub or theater. But for three or four months, they was nothing. Who knows? Perhaps Brooks and Davis were just practicing their dance routine.

An account of Louise Brooks 1940s Wichita interlude

This post is the third in a series highlighting newly available material uncovered as more issues of the various Wichita newspapers have come online. As mentioned, I have been systematically plowing through them, gleaming bits of new information, some of which I have been adding to my extensive three part chronology on the Louise Brooks Society website beginning at Louise Brooks: Day by Day 1906-1939. This material focuses on the early 1940s, when Louise Brooks returned to Wichita after giving up o Hollywood. For more on this period in Brooks' life, see Louise Brooks: Day by Day 1940-1985.

In early 1940, Louise Brooks was a resident of Los Angeles. She was living in a modest apartment, and trying to eek out a living. She and her business partner Barrett O'Shea ran a dance studio, which at best was only moderately successful. She and O'Shea also did occasional exhibition dancing, as when on April 20 they danced at the Arrowhead Spring Hotel in nearby San Bernadino. Things came crashing down when in June Los Angeles newspapers reported that Brooks and other "Hollywood folk" had been the victim of a con-man / swindler. Brooks lost $2,000, then a considerable amount of money.

With little seemingly to keep her (Brooks' acting career had come to a halt), the one time silent film actress left Hollywood and returned home to Wichita in August. By September, the Wichita papers were carrying stories about the Brooks new career, as a dancer and dance instructor. 

To Brooks, who had toured the United States as a Denishawn dancer and had been celebrated as an actress and screen beauty around the world, Wichita must have seemed a comedown. But still, she carried on. She also had to earn a living. 

The Wichita newspapers reported that Brooks and a new partner, Hal McCoy, had opened a dance studio. They also reported on their various engagements. On September 23, 1940, Brooks and Hal McCoy dance at the Crestview Country Club in Wichita, Kansas during a program sponsored by the College Hill Business association. On October 21, Brooks and Hal McCoy dance at the Young Republican meeting at the state's Central Republican headquarters. Hundreds turned out according to local press reports. The event celebrated National Young Voters for Wilkie Day, which was being observed throughout the nation. A broadcast speech by Wendell Wilkie was heard. On October 27, the Wichita Eagle reports that Brooks was enlisted by the Wichita Country Club to instruct locals on new dances including the Conga and Rumba, with the first such instruction taking place October 29.

On November 7, local newspapers report that Brooks is among the local talent participating in a benefit musical for crippled children for Wesley Hospital. On November 14 (her 34th birthday), Brooks speaks about and demonstrates new dances (the tango, rhumba, conga, etc...) at the Wichita Little Theater as part of its workshop program. And on November 24, a classified advertisement for Brooks' self-published booklet, The Fundamental of Good Ballroom Dancing, begins running in the Wichita Eagle. The ad runs nearly every day for a month.

All this activity likely didn't add up to much. We can't be sure how many dance engagements the Brooks - McCoy team had, but it wasn't likely very many. In January of 1941, Brooks ran an advertisement for what today may be called a life coach. The advertisement in the Wichita Eagle promotes private Tuesday morning classes in which Brooks offers "a rare opportunity to reap the benefits of her career among the most fascinating women of the theatre, screen, and society. Learn the way to grace and dominant sureness...." The depression was still on, and Brooks, likely in need of money, was trading on her onetime fame.

Brooks continued on continuing on. The second world war had begun in Europe. On March 28, Brooks participates in a benefit for Greek war relief at the Miller theater in Wichita. Brooks originated a comedy jitterbug number performed by locals Jim Kefner and Jack Walker. Advertisements for the event credit the Louise Brooks Dancing School. And on April 29, Brooks demonstrated ballroom and South American dances at Jubilesta, a fundraiser for the local P.T.A. and student council of the Wichita high school East. According to press reports, Brooks directed a student conga chain. Funds raised by the event went toward the purchase of a movie screen for the school.

For Brooks, the sky fell in again on May 21, 1941. According to Wichita press reports, Brooks was involved in an automobile accident when the car she is traveling in overturned after encountering an oil slick on South Hillside, just outside Wichita city limits. The car was badly damaged, and Brooks was treated at St. Francis Hospital. "Hospital attendants said that she suffered a three -inch laceration on the scalp and numerous bruises. Miss Brooks said attending physicians shaved a portion of her head to stitch the wound. 'I hate to lose my hair worse than to suffer the hurts,' Miss Brooks said." 

Reporting by then old news in her nationally syndicated gossip column, Dorothy Kilgallen wrote in June: "Louise Brooks, the silent screen star, suffered severe burns recently. Had all her hair singed off." In November, Kilgallen again gave a shout-out to Brooks, writing the actress was "stranded in Wichita, Kan. and s-o-s-ing friends for any kind of job."

Evidently, Brooks attempt to establish a career as a dancer & dance instructor in Wichita had fizzled. In August of 1942, Brooks was hired as a sales girl at Garfields, a department store in Wichita. Brooks works the accessories counter. By the middle of September, Brooks employment at Garfields had come to an end. That Fall, there was also a press report that Brooks helped students at Wichita University stage a skit for their forthcoming Spring Celebration. Brooks was once again at loose ends. 

In January of 1943, wealthy New York investment banker Albert Archer calls Brooks in Wichita, and she asks him to wire her the money to get to New York. Some four days later, Brooks departs Wichita by train, with a stop in Chicago. On January 15, she arrived in New York City. Her Wichita interlude had come to an end.

Buffalo Film Seminars to screen Pandoras Box online

The Buffalo Film Seminars, the popular film series connected with the University of Buffalo, have decided to continue their screening of classic and contemporary films online, for the time being (due to the pandemic). This year's opening film is Pandora's Box, starring Louise Brooks, which will screen August 31. From the UBNow website:

Aug. 31: “Pandora’s Box,” 1929, directed by Georg Wilhelm Pabst, C (Kanopy). The semester usually begins with a classic film from the pre-sound era, and the series opener this semester is no exception. This silent film chronicles the rise and inevitable fall of an amoral but naive young woman, played by Louise Brooks, “whose insouciant eroticism inspires lust and violence in those around her,” according to IMDb.

Other films in this year's series include The Grand Illusion (1937), Chinatown (1974), Barry Lyndon (1975), and The Princess Bride (1987), among others. More information about the series, including access, can be found HERE (UBNow article) and/or HERE (Buffalo Film Seminars).

Though online, these screenings are generally only open  to University of Buffalo student and faculty.

This year's screening of Pandora's Box (1929) is not the first time Buffalo Film Seminars has screened the film. Earlier, in person screenings took place in the Fall of 2001, Spring of 2007 (with Philip Carli on electronic piano), Spring of 2013, and Spring of 2016. Apparently, someone in Buffalo likes Louise Brooks as Lulu! What's more, the film series prepares extensive film notes for the films it screens. While similar, the BFS notes for each screening in the past do differ a little. Here are links to a pdf of the previous film note screenings, which were prepared by Diane Christian and Bruce Jackson.

Fall of 2001

Spring of 2007 

Spring of 2013

Spring of 2016

The series has, as well, screened another Louise Brooks film, Diary of a Lost Girl (1929). It was shown in the Fall of 2015. Its film notes can be found HERE. Please note: the pdf notes for Diary include an image of a naked women who is not Louise Brooks.

Another newly uncovered interview you will want to read

Speaking of newly uncovered interviews . . . . The last post featured a newly uncovered 1931 interview with Louise Brooks which which appeared in the Wichita Eagle in May of that year. The article pictured Brooks and her sister June, and also spoke briefly about June's aspirations regarding an acting career and Hollywood. An acting career didn't seem to be in the cards, so June started college at the University of Wichita (now Wichita State University).

During that same research binge, I also uncovered another little known interview. This piece was with June Brooks, and it appeared in an October 1931 issue of The Sunflower, a school publication. And as with the earlier piece, new information about the Brooks' sisters comes to light. The article states that June was a house guest for ten days at William Randolph Hurst's (sic) ranch (presumably the Hearst Castle) over the 1930 Christmas holidays. I presume that Louise was there as well. While a guest, June encountered not only Marion Davies but also Adolphe Menjou, Lawrence Grey, "Skeets" Gallagher and Jean Arthur - all of the latter either past or future film co-stars.  

The most amusing paragraph was this: "'Are movie people interesting? Not particularly.' answers June. 'They talk shop too much. Good looking? Well, they're better looking on the screen'."

One other intriguing bit were the paragraphs at the end where June says she almost appeared in a motion picture, once in a supporting role in a film with Gloria Swanson! Who knew?

Stay tuned or subscribe to this blog for more remarkable clippings in the coming weeks.

Little known 1931 interview with Louise Brooks uncovered

It's rare these days when a truly "new" (meaning little seen) image or magazine clipping about Louise Brooks comes to light. Many of the images which circulate online are "recycled" from past posts on eBay or Facebook or Pinterest or a blog or website, including this. But still, new material occasionally comes to light.

Just recently, additional years of the two main Wichita newspapers have come online. I have been systematically plowing through them, gleaming bits of new information, some of which I have been adding to my extensive three part chronology on the Louise Brooks Society website beginning at Louise Brooks: Day by Day 1906-1939 part 1. 

I was a bit gobsmacked when I came across a new-to-me May 1931 interview with Louise Brooks which appeared in the Wichita Eagle and which contains a new-to-me portrait of the star. The occasion for the piece, "Pajamas the Latest Thing in Hollywood, Wichita Star Says," was Brooks return to Wichita for a brief, three day visit. A reporter caught wind or her arrival, and spoke with the star at her parent's home.

 

 

Aside from a factual error, i.e., the fact that Brooks was a Paramount actress and not a First National star, what I find remarkable about this piece is Brooks' candor. The anonymous reporter asked about Hollywood trends and hairstyles, and after asking about pajamas, Brooks referenced Marlene Dietrich, her supposed rival for the role of Lulu. I wish she had said more.

Brooks seemingly refused to comment ("was non-committal") when asked to dish further Hollywood gossip, but she did let slip on hot Hollywood couple of the moment Estelle Taylor and Jack Dempsey, who she apparently said where having difficulty over money matters. And regarding Clara Bow, for whom Brooks had a genuine affection, she said the "titian-haired star" had suffered a nervous breakdown and was recovering in a sanatorium and "hiding away from blackmailers." To be sure, the marriage difficulties experienced by Taylor and Dempsey were reported on in the press, as was Bow's emotional distress and trouble with those who sought to exploit her. But that fact that Brooks mentioned them specifically suggests to me a personal awareness of those star's public difficulties.

At the time Brooks gave this interview, she was only 25 years old, yet she speaks like an old-timer pointing out the behavior of the young whipper snappers nipping at her heals. "Really life among the stars who are really big in their profession is as matter-of-fact as that of any prosperous and highly respected business man," Brooks declared. "Take a party in Hollywood, for instance," Brooks continued. "The kids and newcomers to the screen. who don't really amount to much, throw wild parties and get their names over the front pages, but the really worthwhile people there have dinner, play bridge and go home early so that they can be fit for the next day's work in the studios." Either Brooks or the reporter who transcribed this interview really liked the word "really."

The newspaper reporter was likely tasked with asking Brooks about something more than just Hollywood gossip. That newsworthy something was a concern shared by everyone everywhere in the country. In 1931, the one thing on everyone's mind was the depression then ransacking the nation. Brooks seems to have had a real awareness of the hurt everyday people were suffering, including those in the bubble known as Hollywood. The article notes, "The depression which has slowed down business over the United States the past year is just now being felt in the film colonies, Miss Brooks said. Several hundred workmen have been laid off in the various studios and the production of pictures has slowed down considerably in the last few weeks." The pieces continues, and Brooks exaggerates a bit to make a point. "Actors and actresses are also taking the depression more seriously than many suspect. Instead of rushing out and buying a couple of Rolls Royces out of one pay check, they save their money and invest it in something that will pay good dividends, she declared." Unfortunately, Brooks didn't act as cautiously as she said others did. She was something of a live-for-today spendthrift. In 1932, she declared bankruptcy.

By the time Brooks gave this interview, she had completed work on three films, each of which were released in 1931. It is interesting that Brooks said at the end of the piece that she would be out of pictures for a year, as she hoped to act on the stage. Her stage work, in a NYC production of Norma Krasna’s comedy, Louder, Please, came to naught. Brooks did not return to pictures for five years, when she appeared in the Buck Jones western, Empty Saddles.

By the way, Louise's pretty younger sister, June, who is pictured in the clipping above, never had the Hollywood career she had once hoped for and is mention at the end of the article. She ended up going to college at Wichita State University before eventually relocating to the San Francisco Bay Area in California.

Memoirs of a silent film loving bookseller, as told through "baseball" cards, part 2

This post continues a kind of sidebar to a long and heavily illustrated piece I wrote called "One booksellers memoirs, told through 'baseball' cards." That piece is awaiting publication, when and if it is published, I will edit in a link. See my previous post for the first part of this saga.

As a kid, who didn't collect baseball or football cards, or cards depicting their favorite characters from Star Wars or Star Trek or Buffy the Vampire Slayer ? But did you ever collect cards depicting film historians, biographers, or critics ?

For more than 20 years I worked at The Booksmith, an independent bookstore located in San Francisco. For about half that time, I ran the events program. I worked with publishers in selecting authors and creating a monthly schedule. I also hosted the various events. In order to make the series stand out, Booksmith began issuing a series of promotional cards for most every author event the store put on. These author cards (which number more than 1000) were similar to baseball cards or other like collectibles, except that these cards featured contemporary poets, novelists, essayists, biographers, historians and critics – as well as more than a few pop culture celebrities. Because of my interest in the silent film star Louise Brooks as well as early film and film history, there were also a handful of cards depicting authors who wrote on those subjects. I tried to secure events with as many as I could, provided they had a new book and/or were touring: among those who I managed to host an event with and who appear as author trading cards are prominent names like Jeanine Basinger #962 and Steven Bach #923 as well as notable behind the scenes individuals like John Baxter #832 and Famous Monsters of Filmland publisher Forrest J Ackerman #224, #329. Despite it being a niche interest, I made sure we always sold books!

Along with screenwriter Frederica Sagor Maas #302 (mentioned in the previous post), the store also hosted other individuals associated with early Hollywood, among them 1930s film star Gloria Stuart #318. Known for her roles in Pre-Code films as well as horror movies like The Old Dark House (1932) and The Invisible Man (1933), this Academy Award nominee went on to achieve later day fame as the older Rose in James Cameron's epic romance, Titanic (1997). Little did I know when I booked the event that Stuart had a connection to the space where it was held.

Gloria Stuart

If the store expected an especially big crowd, we might hold the event off-site at the nearby Park Branch library, which had a meeting room in the basement. That was the case for the event with Gloria Stuart, who was especially pleased to appear at this modest branch library, the oldest in the city; just after she arrived, Stuart told us she had visited it in her younger days while living in the Bay Area and attending college at UC Berkeley! Although the branch had  closed for the day, Stuart asked the librarian on duty if she could have a nostalgic tour, which she got. What a pleasure it was to meet Stuart and her daughter Sylvia, who accompanied her.

Another individual I hosted at the store and who appears on a card is Diana Serra Carey (aka Baby Peggy) #523, who before her death at age 101 in 2018, was considered the last living silent film star. Prior to her talk, we screened a Baby Peggy short, The Kid Reporter (1923), which everyone enjoyed and which received a brisk round of applause. During her talk, the crowd hung of Carey's every word, and despite the fact she hadn't appeared in a film in nearly half a century, those who showed up treated the aged actress as a contemporary "movie star." An event was also held for Suzanne Lloyd #722, the granddaughter of silent film superstar Harold Lloyd. Her famous grandfather helped raise Suzanne, and she has done much to help bring renewed attention to Harold's career, helping compile DVDs and write books, including Harold Lloyd's Hollywood Nudes in 3D!, the subject of her talk. Adults only please !

One event that stands out in memory was with Arthur Lennig #375 for his then just published, revised version of Stroheim. What a masterful biography; it was the book that got me fascinated with this legendary director! I recall after the event my wife and I took Lennig out to dinner, and he regaled us with stories about Stroheim as well as with stories about the subject of Lennig's other well known biography, The Immortal Count: The Life and Films of Bela Lugosi. As a teenage film buff, Lennig had written fan letters to Lugosi, who was touring the country acting in small theater companies. One day, Lennig told us over our entree, there was a knock at the door. His mother answered, and Bela Lugosi asked if a young fan of his named Arthur was at home!

The Lennig event came about because of the store's success in selling the Frederica Sagor Maas memoir, which was published by the University Press of Kentucky. That press also published two other books for which I put on events, Cecil B. DeMille's Hollywood by the late-great Robert Birchard #690, and The Barrymores: Hollywood's First Family, a pictorial by Carol Stein Hoffman #479. The latter book includes material on Drew Barrymore, who is pictured on the cover, and for about thirty seconds their was talk and the hope that the actress would make a special appearance at the store to help promote a book about her famous family. Too bad it never came to be.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s university presses and small presses emerged as the de facto leading publishers of books on film history, especially regarding the silent and early sound era. The Booksmith did events with Matthew Kennedy for his delightful Joan Blondell: A Life Between Takes (University Press of Mississippi), with Caryl Flinn #992 for Brass Diva: The Life and Legends of Ethel Merman (University of California Press), and with David Stenn for the reissues of his Clara Bow: Runnin' Wild (Cooper Square Press) and Bombshell: The Life and Death of Jean Harlow (Lightning Bug Press). The store also did an event with Jeff Kraft and Aaron Leventhal #560 for their fascinating pictorial, Footsteps in the Fog: Alfred Hitchcock's San Francisco (Santa Monica Press). A few weeks after the event, Patricia Hitchcock came by the store to sign books. She was the director's daughter, an actress, and had written the forward to the Footsteps in the Fog. 

The store also did a couple of events with San Francisco writer Emily Leider #198, #593 for her stellar biographies of films stars Mae West and Rudolph Valentino. Each are highly recommended. There were also two events with San Francisco Chronicle film critic Mick LaSalle #403, #566 for his fascinating studies of pre-code film, Complicated Women: Sex and Power in Pre-Code Hollywood and Dangerous Men: Pre-Code Hollywood and the Birth of the Modern Man. On a not unrelated note, Hollywood photographer and film historian Mark A. Vieira #324 made an appearance for his landmark pictorial Sin in Soft Focus: Pre-Code Hollywood. No film book library is complete without the latter book.

There were other notable events as well, like those with Mark Cotta Vaz #775 for Living Dangerously: The Adventures of Merian C. Cooper, Creator of King Kong, and John Wranovics #770 for Chaplin and Agee: The Untold Story of the Tramp, the Writer, and the Lost Screenplay. It was an honor to host an event with one-time producer and United Artists studio head Steven Bach #923 for his study, Leni: The Life and Work of Leni Riefenstahl. Likewise, I was proud to do an event with writer Donald Richie #468 for his 2001 book, The Donald Richie Reader: 50 Years of Writing on Japan. Although he looms large as a writer on the culture of Japan, Richie considered himself primarily a film historian. (He also directed a number of experimental films.) His 1965 book on the films of Akira Kurosawa, his 1977 book on Yasujirō Ozu, and his others books on Japanese cinema are cornerstone works.

Because of my early involvement with the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, I was able to bring some of the authors I had done events with at the Booksmith to the SFSFF to do a booksigning, where the store had a table with all manner of films books for sale. On a few occasions, authors like Frederica Sagor Maas, Arthur Lennig, and Baby Peggy followed their Booksmith appearance by signing the next day at the festival. That was also the case with Patti Smith guitarist Lenny Kaye #807, who had authored a biography of 1920s crooner Russ Colombo, and screenwriter Jerry Stahl #691, who wrote a novel, I, Fatty, loosely based on the life of Roscoe Arbuckle. Unfortunately, not everyone understood the difference between biography and fiction. But we still sold some books.

I have likely gone on too long with this "memoir" of my time spent as a bookseller. It was an exercise in nostalgia; I don't make any claim as to its value, except in the telling of stories about authors and individuals of interest to readers and film buffs. An annotated checklist of all the cards can be found at www.thomasgladysz.com/booksmith-author-cards-a-checklist/