‘The Big Sleep 2.0’ - ‘Fox Undercover’s’ First Blurb

Writer Greg Olear weighs in on my latest book

Today started out like any other. Yesterday rolled into today, and I still didn’t watch the DVD double feature on my bed - Hitchcock’s Topaz and Resnais’ Stavisky. They would have to wait as I pieced together a folo up investigation for Byline Supplement. I knew it was almost dawn because the wild parrots outside my window started their cheeky banter.

I don’t like putting off art too long, because all work and no art makes Heidi a dull gal. My typing fingers are fueled by books, music, film, art, history, and all those indictments I read round midnight. But having just come off a weekend of live music, I have a heart full of art atm and threw myself into work - with the Spy v. Spy series as evidence.

This morning as I pressed send on my latest investigation, I saw a note in my inbox from my friend Greg Olear, who was the first to buy my book, Fox Undercover. He had refused the coupon and paid full price to support a fellow writer (what a mensch), and he said he was grateful for the diversion from politics.

He read the ebook on a plane and sent me hilarious text messages in between. He told me he’d write a blurb for me, and for a gal like I, that was a promise of pure gold.

In my inbox this morning was this email:

“If Raymond Chandler was a punk rock chick moonlighting as a TV news producer who maintained four passionate love affairs to supplement a stressful work life—and wrote a steamier-than-a-hot-shower roman à clef about the experience—you’d get FOX UNDERCOVER, the delightful new novel by Heidi Siegmund Cuda. I’d say it’s The Big Sleep 2.0, except that, despite the many bedroom scenes, there’s not much sleep happening. Part erotic memoir, part workplace drama, part commentary on media and culture, part coming-of-middle-age story, FOX UNDERCOVER is full-on fun.”

Greg Olear, author of Empress, Fathermucker, and Totally Killer

He told me to run with it. Once I wiped the watery stuff from eyes, I ran with it. It was such a kind and generous thing to do, and he would have no idea that the genesis of the book began when I was living three apartments down from where Raymond Chandler lived when he wrote The Big Sleep - my favorite author and my favorite book.

Some days start out like any other, and then end up the stuff of dreams.🤍

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Bette Dangerous is a reader-funded magazine and Substack bestseller. Thank you to all monthly, annual, and founding members. Thank you, as well, to those who support my work with coffee tips and who buy my ebooks. My reflection, Confessions of a ‘Fox Blonde’ was just published in Byline Supplement. In a review of my latest ebook, the erotic novella Fox Undercover, I’ve been called “The punk rock Anaïs Nin” and a “powerful woman - the book is smart and sexy AF.”

Save the date: the next Bette Dangerous ‘Speakeasy’ Zoom for paid members is Sunday, 2/12 at 4 pm PT 🤍. Who will be our very, very special guest? 🤔.

More info about Bette Dangerous - This magazine is written by Heidi Siegmund Cuda, an Emmy-award winning investigative reporter, author, and music and nightlife columnist. She is the cohost of RADICALIZED Truth Survives, an investigative show about disinformation and is part of the Byline Media team. Writing for a growing global audience brings her great satisfaction.