Bloody, Grim and Raw

Ask Joyce Spizer how she met her husband and she’ll launch into a wild narration about coming to California from Oregon to work on a serial killer case after someone tried to kidnap her and blow up her car.

It’s vintage Spizer featuring her nonstop adventures as a private eye and mystery writer.

And you’ll get the chance to hear for yourself this week when Spizer speaks to the Ventura County Writers Club in Thousand Oaks about her career, her latest book, “I’m Okay, You’re Dead,” (Intercontinental Publishing, $17.95) and other facets of writing, including electronic books.

Spizer describes herself as a little Southern girl from Houston who learned to become a private investigator to support her baby as a single parent at a time when women’s career options were limited to nurse, teacher, secretary or homemaker.

She beat those odds with a career that catapulted her into the lives of death row inmates and assorted other rapists, con artists and murderers. In fact, she and her husband, Harold, whom she met while working a case, have been considered the “Hart to Hart” of Southern California investigators.

Along the way, she has appeared on “Hard Copy” and “Dateline NBC” talking about her work in high-profile investigations of the Fen-Phen phenomena and the more recent slaying of gangsta rapper Biggie Smalls. She shifted into writing and charity work for relief, she said.

“In 1991, I had been writing reports for the district attorney and the cases were so grim and bloody, I found myself writing pretty cleverly,” she said. “Reactions from the D.A. were that the reports were the funniest they’d read. I didn’t mean to be funny, but life is so grim on this end that I had to make it more lively.”

She soon became a crime beat reporter for a Huntington Beach newspaper. She also began to attend writers conferences, met other writers and told her husband she was going to retire some day and write about four or five of her best cases.

“He bought me my first computer in Christmas of ’91 and told me to write my book,” she said. So far, she has completed two Harbour Pointe Mysteries, which were fictionalized accounts of cases she worked as an investigator.

“The Cop was White as Snow” was based on the death of a real-life police officer she knew. Her other mystery, “It’s Just Spleen and a High School Ring,” is about a missing child.

Cases such as that of convicted serial killer Glen Edward Rogers are more involving. Rogers was tried last spring in Los Angeles for killing a Van Nuys woman, and Spizer attended every day of the trial. Now they correspond regularly--in fact, he sent her a Mother’s Day card, she said. She’s working on a book about him, to be called “Glen Edward Rogers: The Cross-Country Killer.”

“His stuff is so sad and raw that I can’t work on it all day long,” Spizer said. “So I’m doing an undercover thing that will probably be heavy, too, but for now I’m just [going through] documents.”

Spizer does have another life beside the dark world of footsteps in the night and car bombs. Recently honored as a Woman of Achievement by the National League of American Penwomen, she is working on a doctorate in marketing from UC Riverside, has written “Power Marketing Your Novel” and does charity work around her La Quinta home with Soroptimists International and the Rape Crisis Center.

“I think I’m still a work in progress,” Spizer said.

Check out her Web site at https://members.aol.com/jspizer.

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On another note, fans of the rock group The Doors will get a chance to hear Ray Manzarek, the group’s keyboardist, at 7:30 p.m. Friday when he appears at Borders in Thousand Oaks. He will read from his book, “Light My Fire: My Life with The Doors,” (Putnam Publishing, $21.95).

Manzarek will demonstrate how the art of the spoken word creates a lyric format as Grammy and Pulitzer Prize nominee Michael C. Ford reads from his collection, “Emergency Exits: The Selected Poems, 1970-1995” (Aramanth Editions, $18.95).

Book signings will follow the performance. Borders, 497-8159.

HAPPENINGS

* Sunday: 1 p.m. Humorous self-help author Billy Balata will discuss and sign “Being the Ball.” Borders, 125 W. Thousand Oaks Blvd., Thousand Oaks, 497-8159.

* Sunday: 6 p.m. Poetry Night, with a group discussion followed by a featured poet at 7 and open mike at 8. Borders, 497-8159.

* Monday: 11 a.m. Make your own masterpiece featuring the style of Salvador Dali. Borders, 497-8159.

* Monday: 12:30 p.m. The Monday Afternoon Book Club will focus on “My Year of Meats” by Ruth L. Ozeki. Thousand Oaks Barnes & Noble, 160 S. Westlake Blvd., 446-2820.

* Tuesday: 7 p.m. The Contemporary Book Group will discuss “White Oleander” by Janet Fitch. Borders, 497-8159.

* Tuesday: 7:30 p.m. The Ventura County Writers Club will feature guest speaker Joyce Spizer, a private investigator and mystery writer. Open to nonmembers. Contact president Joanne Sehnem at 579-9414 for more information. Borders, 497-8159.

* Wednesday: 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Lou Cannon, author of “President Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime,” will speak and sign books at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. Free to the public, but reservations recommended. 40 Presidential Drive, near Simi Valley. For more information, call 522-2977.

* Wednesday: 7 p.m. The Wednesday Night Reading Group will focus on “Anatomy of Love” by Helen Fisher. Ventura Barnes & Noble, 4360 E. Main St., 339-9170.

* Wednesday: 7 p.m. The Shakespearean Group will focus on “Macbeth” by Shakespeare. Borders, 497-8159.

* Wednesday: 7:30 p.m., Marc Zegar will read from and sign his book, “One Last Shot.” Thousand Oaks Barnes & Noble, 446-2820.

* Saturday: 10:30 a.m. Peter Rabbit stories by Beatrix Potter. Thousand Oaks Barnes & Noble, 446-2820.

* Saturday: 2 p.m. Susan Levin and Gloria Tracey will demonstrate and show pieces featured in their craft book, “Crochet Your Way.” Ventura Barnes & Noble, 339-9170.

* Saturday: 3 p.m. Lisa Marie Nelson will discuss and sign “Getting There! 9 Ways to Help Your Kids Learn What Matters Most in Life,” Thousand Oaks Barnes & Noble, 446-2820.

* Saturday: 7 p.m. Listen to Maurice Sendak’s “Where the Wild Things Are” and meet the wild thing himself. Borders, 497-8159.

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Information about book signings, writers groups and publishing events can be e-mailed to anns40(at)aol.com or faxed to (805)647-5649.