“Fear is the mind-killer.” —Frank Herbert, Dune The line struck me, and stuck with me. I had a long way to go to conquer Fear, however. What I didn’t fear was plunging into reading a dense, complex novel like Dune, but had to admit that I didn’t enjoy that level of narrative world building (see […]
UPDATE: My talk yesterday went so well—everyone seemed to really respond to my description of the process of conceptualizing and writing Fellow Traveler! I’m among wonderful folks I admire and love (and with whom I have a lot of fun), so coming to this annual meeting of likeminded scholars has already been a fulfilling and […]
Dir-Scr: Craig Zobel After causing a minor stir at Sundance but then not really getting distributed to any significant degree, Craig Zobel’s Compliance examines a true story from 2006 about a fast food manager Sandra (Ann Dowd) who receives a call from alleged police officer claiming that an attractive, young female employee Becky (Dreama Walker) […]
After a decade of mo-cap kid movies, big ticket director Robert Zemeckis returns from the uncanny valley to live action filmmaking with Flight, a Denzel Washington Oscar-bait vehicle that starts out as spectacular as much of Zemeckis’ prior catalog would lead viewers to expect, with a plane crash sequence even more harrowing than the one […]
In the immortal words of David Byrne, how did I get here? The path I’ve taken in becoming an author of novels, short stories, and screenplays (along with industrial scripts, narrative nonfiction articles, academic papers, advertising copy, and various business documents I’ve been tasked with composing) is certainly ongoing, but began the day as child […]
Here’s a useful set of writing rules courtesy French author Marc Levy. After an initial stroke of luck in 1999 with his first book (Dreamworks nabbed the film rights, allowing Levy to quit his day job and write full time), he’s since had quite a bit more success—thirteen novels in print to the worldwide tune of 27 million total […]
Muddy Ford Press‘s Tribute to Columbia’s Arts Community, The Limelight: A Compendium of Contemporary Columbia Artists is almost here! Among many wonderful essays, I’m honored to contribute a piece about one of my principal writing mentors and enablers, Robert Lamb, a fine author, teacher, publisher, and an all-around Southern gentleman. Other subjects include musicologist and author […]
UPDATED: Well, just got word that that’s a big negatory from Bantam/RH, and so, back to the editor’s list. DOGS will yet find a home—as of this writing it’s still out to Penguin, so we also still have that chance at being picked up. No worries—rejections are but stepping stones to an eventual yes! —- […]
So the supposedly retiring Steven Soderbergh’s penultimate movie is a micro-budget male stripper soap opera? Yep. A solid, respectable, and profitable base hit (a triple to right center, let’s say, but just barely a triple), Magic Mike makes for an undemanding, not-terribly-stylized two-hour character study with a fair degree of heart. From the Saul Bass 70s Warner Brothers logo […]
Quick news break: Tonight I’m pleased to announce a change in representation—no, not with a new agent, but rather the same Michelle L. Johnson who has shepherded DOGS OF PARSONS HOLLOW thus far on its path to eventual publication. Michelle’s just moved under a new shingle, Inklings Literary, which is where she’ll now be repping […]
