William Thompson Ong's Blog
RSS
May.11.2013
Another in a series of coming-of-age stories.
I remember Mother as the only female in a house of men—my father and his three sons. Even our dogs and cats were all male.
I remember Mother and the clubs she belonged to. The Book Club. The Flower Club. Her Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority club....
Continue Reading »
May.09.2013
Following the move to Brentwood, we were almost through unpacking the stuff hidden away in our garage storage area when Rita discovered a box that had forced us into holding our breath during its 10 years of concealment.
Inside was a treasure trove for both of us. Family photos behind glass in...
Continue Reading »
4 comments
May.08.2013
When our friends heard Rita and I were moving to the Brentwood district of Los Angeles the jokes began. We didn’t have to be reminded Brentwood was the home of O.J. Simpson and the controversial murder trial that took place nearly 20 years ago. It had figured into the manuscript of my novel THE...
Continue Reading »
5 comments
May.02.2013
(The first in a series of coming-of-age stories.)
Getting settled in our new digs in the Brentwood section of Los Angeles has meant a lot of soul-searching for Rita and me. For example: where to hang that framed lithograph of the French painting made famous in a celebrated 1916 Chicago court...
Continue Reading »
Apr.05.2013
“Do you want to save your painting?” Rita asked last Saturday, after we’d ransacked the basement storage areas in preparation for the move from Santa Monica to Brentwood.
“What painting?” I asked, wondering what the joke was.
“The ‘masterpiece’ you saved in Philadelphia. You threw the others out.”...
Continue Reading »
2 comments
Apr.02.2013
Sometimes it takes a jolt to make you realize how important it is to have that root in the ground that provides security about life—especially if your career is filled with the kind of insecurity that comes with being a writer.
A jolt like being evicted by your landlord.
“I’m completely...
Continue Reading »
4 comments
Feb.23.2013
Having authored a trilogy of thrillers based on Kate Conway as an intrepid investigative reporter, I’m pointing out some of the classics that inspired me—and based on their explosive story value may inspire you.
Citizen Kane (1941)
The brilliant expose and bio-pic of newspaper tycoon William...
Continue Reading »
Feb.14.2013
NOTE: This list has been culled from lists (and comments in some places) created by Nate Blakeslee and Jason Leopold, along with some doctoring to include my own preferences. Read and enjoy. Read and criticize. But read and pray that in today’s hard-scrabble and lightning-quick world of big money...
Continue Reading »
1 comment
Feb.07.2013
The following is an early chapter from the first Kate Conway thriller, THE MOUNTING STORM.
+ + +
KATE SAT ALONE AT THE BAR, annoyed that Winston had not arrived first. She was passionate in her hatred of having to wait for anyone, anywhere, even if it was...
Continue Reading »
Jan.31.2013
Just saw MIDNIGHT IN PARIS for the third time and couldn’t help marveling at the ingenuity of Woody Allen in keeping things simple while bringing us face-to-face with that whole magilla of authors and artist expatriates from the 1920s.
It’s midnight in the Paris of today. An aspiring author played...
Continue Reading »
3 comments
Jan.27.2013
My favorite female protagonist is back in action. Flame-haired investigative reporter Kate Conway returns in THE DEADLY BUDDHA. And my readers have fallen for her, head over Kindles.
“Talk about new age heroines,” wrote one reviewer. “Kate is a natural blend of intellect, power,...
Continue Reading »
Dec.10.2012
When my first novel started to drag I decided to call a meeting. Things were bogged down and I wasn’t sure why. So I sat the major characters down at an imaginary table and asked them what I should do to kick start The Lion and the Eagle, my novel about the Revolutionary War.
The...
Continue Reading »
2 comments
Dec.03.2012
I was working on my sixth novel and had just finished a single chapter detailing the major character’s being sent to Korea while serving in the U.S. Army. I did this with the full realization of what a friend had told me some years earlier.
He had written a whole novel about the war and had...
Continue Reading »
3 comments
Nov.29.2012
A friend asked me recently to name my favorite book and for the hundredth time I felt a shiver of apology as I reluctantly muttered the words, The Great Gatsby.
Why the apology? I don’t really know.
All I do know is that I’ve never been able to find a book the equal of Gatsby when it came to that...
Continue Reading »
3 comments
Nov.05.2012
This is my first day as a Red Room regular with my photo and my real name up above so I’m taking a moment to tell you how happy I am to be here.
THE MOUNTING STORM, the first thriller in my Kate Conway trilogy, has just been self-published by Amazon, and so I’m on an author’s high right now...
Continue Reading »
1 comment
"Kate Conway Has It All. I'd Hate Her Except I Wanna Be Her." ”
—Quote from Amazon reader Susan Scarafia
About William
Before becoming a novelist, William Thompson (Tom) Ong worked for advertising agencies in New York and his own agency in Philadelphia. He is a graduate of DePauw University and holds a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University. Tom lives...
Connections
Causes William Ong Supports
ACLU
Planned Parenthood
Southern Poverty Law Center
William ’s Favorite Books
A Farewell to Arms, Saturday, Couples, The Razor's Edge, World According to Garp, Mrs. Dalloway, Get Shorty, The Great Gatsby, The English Patient, Mr. Palomar...
William is a fan of
