Kim Cooper

My first novel is "The Kept Girl," a novel of 1929 Los Angeles featuring the young Raymond Chandler, his devoted secretary and the real-life cop who is a likely model for Philip Marlowe (http://www.thekeptgirl.com). You'll find me hosting true crime, history and architecture tours and webinars at (http://www.esotouric.com) and our newsletter is (https://esotouric.substack.com). Other recent publications are "The Raymond Chandler Map of Los Angeles," a collaboration with illustrator Paul Rogers, “Cults!”, Haunts and Havens of Charles Bukowski" and "How To Find Old Los Angeles." Close to my heart is Barbara "Cutie" Cooper's memoir, "Fall in Love For Life: Inspiration from a 73-year Marriage" (Chronicle), which emerged from the viral sensation that was my grandparents' video blog, The OGs (http://www.the-ogs.com). I wrote an oral history about "Neutral Milk Hotel's 'In The Aeroplane Over the Sea'" (Continuum 33 1/3), co-edited the anthologies "Lost in the Grooves" and "Bubblegum Music is the Naked Truth," and for many years published Scram, a journal of unpopular culture (back issues at http://www.scrammagazine.com). I took a break from music writing to create the time travel blogs 1947project, On Bunker Hill and In SRO Land, which offer alternate histories of early Los Angeles, and which opened up a new world of creative possibility. Now, with my husband Richard Schave I lead curious souls on Esotouric's offbeat sightseeing tours and webinars into the secret heart of Los Angeles (The Real Black Dahlia, Raymond Chandler's LA, Charles Bukowski's LA, Blood & Dumplings, East Side Babylon) and produce the podcast You Can't Eat the Sunshine, which one fan described as "Huell Howser on steroids." My campaign to save the historic 76 Balls from destruction resulted in ConocoPhillips agreeing to donate the gas station signs to museums nationwide.