Chasing Jimi

Chasing Jimi is a rock 'n' roll period piece. It spans one year – the summer of 1966 to the summer of 1967. From New York's Greenwich Village to Swinging London to the stage of the Monterey Pop Festival. It follows the ascension of one Jimmy James, a struggling back-up guitar player, to the exalted throne of Rock-God super stardom.

On the road through merry-old England with the re-named Jimi Hendrix we meet the madcap royalty of the British pop scene. Jimi forms an endearing friendship with Rolling Stones founding member Brian Jones, whose battles with numerous personal demons and plunge from the top mirror Jimi's rise and fascination with the drug culture.

As the Jimi Hendrix Experience gains recognition, Jimi's past associations throw their own stumbling blocks in his path. Contracts signed by him as a hungry studio session musician surface. Jimi's management team are able to put out most of these fires, but one particularly sleazy New York record 'producer' refuses to be bought out, and even goes so far as to send a couple of Brooklyn 'wiseguys' to London to bring back his artist.

Chasing Jimi is The Sopranos meets The Beatles.

“Did you miss the 1960s? This funny yet loving and respectful adventure mystery will take you back.”

Jerry Hopkins author of The Doors: No One Here Gets Out Alive.

“Newport has gone from the vault of the dead to the electrifying life of Jimi Hendrix. If you can remember Woodstock, you will enjoy this book.”

Lang Reid Pattaya Mail.

Tinsel Town

Another Rotten Day In Paradise

Joey Morton was born in New York, but always felt he 'grew up' in Laurel Canyon. When Joey arrived in 1968, he had long hair and a joint in his pocket. The sounds of the Beatles, Doors, and Hendrix wafted through the canyon and sucked him in. Soon he was reclining in a cedar-framed water bed with the most beautiful girls he'd ever seen.

Joey went to art school. He thought he'd work in an ad agency. Within a year he was an art director on low-budget exploitation films featuring nubile starlets with big breasts. Joey's new best friend in the film game – writer Adam Mayersohn, had been schooled at NYU by Marty Scorcese. Together they rode a wave from Coney Island to Malibu that dropped them on Roger Corman's doorstep.

Sound stages. Back lots. Blondes and blow jobs. Smoking the finest weed, tripping on Owsley's acid. Life was a non-stop party. Joey Morton was in heaven.

By 1978 he'd moved down the canyon from Lookout Mountain to Kirkwood Drive. Less than half a mile – but worlds apart. The party now started most nights at the Rainbow on the Sunset Strip. It was the lair of the Hollywood Vampires - Alice Cooper, Keith Moon, John Lennon and Ringo Starr. Dozens of girls grouped together in packs trying to 'score' a musician. There were way more groupies than musicians, so the odds of guys like Joey getting laid because he worked in the film biz (next best thing to being a musician,) had a house in the hills and a pocket full of dope – were pretty good. As long as that dope included one little ingredient that became de rigueur on the party circuit in the mid-70's. Cocaine. You had to have cocaine. Chicks were mad about coke.

Coke was great. Joey could stay up for days. He could screw for hours – especially when he mixed it with 'poppers' (amyl nitrate.) That was sex. Pure nasty, dirty sex. There was nothing like it.

In the beginning.

But soon Joey wasn't snorting to get high. He was snorting to get normal. Normal meant not sleeping. Normal meant having beautiful but wasted women hanging around him at all hours – just for a little 'taste.' Normal meant not having sex because normal now meant a limp dick – no matter how many naked girls were in his bed. Normal meant being paranoid.

Normal meant getting in touch with your dark side.

“It moves like a runaway asteroid.”

Tim Hallinan, bestselling author of the Poke Rafferty series (set in Bangkok)

“I couldn’t put Tinsel Town down. Best introduction to Hollywood novel I’ve ever read.”

David Giler, producer/writer of the the films Alien, Undisputed, Myra Breckinridge, and more.

“Newport was there! We know…. He cashed our check!”

Tommy Chong of the comedy duo Cheech and Chong.

“I went to one of Newport’s Halloween parties. It was outrageous. Jimmy Woods, Ed Bradley, Eric Burdon, Danny Sugarman, Starsky and Hutch… All up to no good. Wonderful!”

James Ellroy, author of The Black Dahlia, L.A. Confidential and many more.

Yankee Dragon

Set in 1990 when Hollywood was reeling from the effects of a long-term strike by the Writer’s Guild that virtually shut down the industry. Sam Grannit (a Special Effects man) turns to robbing the hand that feeds him and becomes a “gentleman bandit” taking advantage of the loose cash and lax security of the motion picture industry.

Just as Sam settles into his life of crime, he gets a call to go to Japan to supervise a huge special effects gig. Back to work, Sam leaves Los Angeles at just the right time, as a police detective, Wayne Morris, is hot on his trail.

In Japan, Sam and the other Hollywood filmmakers experience a culture shock they were never prepared for, as they try and deal with the mysterious ways of their Japanese counterparts. Soon, Sam is tempted by the multi-million dollar cash payroll that will be sitting in an unguarded safe during the first day of shooting. The enticement to return to his recent life of crime weighs heavily as he becomes more and more enamored of his host country and its culture.

“This book should be required reading for all film schools. It is an accurate depiction of what filmmaking is all about and a really fun-to-read crime novel.”

Allen H. Jones, Production Designer – The Favorite, Beastmaster 2, etc.

“Newport, a veteran Hollywood Production Designer who has worked all over the world, can spin a yarn with the best and also knows first-hand the kind of insanities which invariably visit themselves on overseas movie sets. A quick read … a taste of the on-the-ground realities of motion picture production in a fashion not taught in film school.”

Andrew Pfeffer, Producer – No Escape, Bangkok Dangerous, etc.

“Loved the humor and the clash of characters from polar-opposite cultures. Reads like a great non-fiction novel. Newport creates an atmosphere that allows you to identify with a lead character who is reckless, irreverent, desperate, but a hell of a lot of fun to journey with through this maze of misunderstanding.”

Buzzcut.