Very excited to present the book trailer for Writing Off Script: Writers on the Influence of Cinema ahead of our December 1, 2011 release date. Morris Hill Pictures and Vernon Lott created this brilliant little video for us, and I’ll probably be sending them notes of thanks every day for an eternity. Help us spread the word by sharing this trailer with everyone you know.
Here’s a little something new at The Nervous Breakdown about the inspiration behind the direction Writing Off Script: Writers on the Influence of Cinema has taken and my trip to Joplin, Missouri seven weeks after the tornado:
Curbside at the ruined high school, my fingers hesitate at the door handle.
“It’s okay,” my grandmother, sitting beside me, says, “everyone else has been taking pictures.”
With a big inhale, camera in my hands, I’m out on the street, then in the grass, in my wedge-heeled sandals, stepping over gnarled strips of metal. I’m still holding my breath as I find the school in the camera’s lens, twisting to focus on its row of classrooms opened up like a smashed dollhouse. My shirt hem flaps in the wake of the traffic, and I want to announce, “Really, I’m here to help. It just doesn’t look like helping because I’m a writer and this is all I can do.” With my finger fumbling over the camera buttons, I snap five blind shots, hurry back to the driver’s side, and exhale behind the wheel.
Maybe I’m the worst person to do what I’m doing because I’m having trouble taking a simple picture to show you what I’m doing it for. I’m having trouble even telling you what I’m doing. I’ve started this story at least eight different times so far, and none of them began here.
A big thank you to Melanie Dolloff and Danny Craven of Joplin Schools for taking the time to tell me about the needs of the faculty, staff, and students in the aftermath of the tornado. Full story forthcoming.
Here’s another bit of news from my trip as reported on the Writers on the Influence of Cinema site:
“The Joplin Eagles Television program at Joplin High School, which instructs students in the fundamentals of film production, lost their studio and field equipment and other supplies in the May 22 tornado. Pictured above is some of the damage sustained by the high school, deemed a total loss. After a visit to Joplin School offices last Friday, we learned that we can allocate the Writers on the Influence of Cinema donation to the Joplin Schools Tornado Relief Fund specifically for the JET 14 program. More details coming soon, but in the meantime we couldn’t be more excited at the prospects of helping JET 14 Station Manager Danny Craven and Joplin Schools in their efforts to ensure that JET 14 students have what they need to develop their skills in film and broadcasting.”
The anthology will be available in ebook format this fall, and if you’d like an opportunity to have your essay on film and writing included submit it here before the contest closes on July 22.
I’ve been hesitant to update my page since the last thing I posted was in regards to the Joplin tornado of May 22. Other things seem silly and small by comparison. But then again maybe some levity is a good thing.
Here are some silly and small recent items of mine at The Nervous Breakdown you can read/watch if you want to. The first is a playlist inspired by all of that stylized slow-motion walking in movies and the second is a video guide to the 2011 summer blockbusters (in movie geek attire, of course).
Not so silly nor small is the new edition of Prick of the Spindle on which I first officially served as managing fiction editor. Some excellent works in here. Don’t miss it.
Mostly I’ve been busy on the Writing Off Script: Writers on the Influence of Cinema project, coming soon this fall as an ebook from Calavera Books with proceeds benefitting the Joplin Schools Tornado Relief Fund, and the related essay contest. Tell everyone you know about it. And then tell them again a little later in case they forget.
I’ll be in Joplin this week for the first time since before the tornado hit, checking on family and dropping by the Joplin Schools offices for a visit. After the media packs up it’s easy to forget that the devastation is still there and people are still in need. Check the previous post for ways you can still help.
So I think we’re all caught up now. Enjoy the holiday weekend!
Oh, and there’s also that novel I’m revising like a madwoman ….
My family is from Joplin, Missouri, and while my relatives are all well and accounted for my heart goes out to all of those who’ve lost loved ones and to all of those who are beginning the hard work of rebuilding and recovering in the aftermath. Please take a moment to donate to an organization dedicated to assisting in this process:
Greater Ozarks Regional Chapter of the American Red Cross
The United Way of Southwest Missouri
United Methodist Committee on Relief
A larger list of organizations collecting donations can also be found at rebuildjoplin.org and at the Joplin Tornado Relief Fundraising Efforts Facebook page here.
(*Photo taken by my cousin in my grandparents’ Joplin neighborhood.)
I recently interviewed writer/filmmaker Vernon Lott regarding his documentary film Bad Writing, out now on DVD. Find the interview here at The Nervous Breakdown and watch the trailer here:
I sat near the back with a program folded in my joined hands as composer Jerry Goldsmith took his position before the symphony to a polite flutter of applause. I wore the same dress I’d wear months later to my high school graduation. Ruffles on the cap sleeves, tiny cloth-covered buttons, narrow all the way down. An idea of adulthood I’d squeezed into too soon. Most likely I hadn’t told my friends I was here, but I would be clearing a special place amongst all the rock-concert ticket stubs in my scrapbook to add this one.
I’ve always had a thing for instrumental scores. My little sister and I used to sit in front of the television as our cassette player recorded opening themes straining through the little grate of speakers. As soon as the “stop” button clacked under my fingertip, we’d plan our accompanying dance routine. At our cousins’ house, we’d act out impromptu plays to Hatari’s “Baby Elephant Walk” or “Moon River” from Breakfast at Tiffany’s. I knew the Somewhere in Time pieces so well my fingers could tap them out on a tabletop. In my mind, I was a virtuoso on piano. In reality, I plunked through selections from The Sting like someone struggling against a current.
But it wasn’t until Goldsmith’s white hair bounced in and out of his shirt collar in sync with the rhythm of his hands in a blur as Patton played that I considered the composer of a score instead of merely its respective film. It wasn’t until then that I made a point of learning who was who. Now when the names of the likes of Rachel Portman, James Newton Howard, or Michael Giachhino are read on Oscar night I pay attention with a restrained fervor befitting a narrow, button-up dress.
And the nominees are ….
Read more, including reviews of this years’ nominations for best original score, right here.
A few newish items to announce before they become oldish. First up, at the Our Stories blog I read the short story that was a runner up in their 2009 Emerging Writers contest and currently available in the Best of Our Stories anthology. Then at The Nervous Breakdown I discuss the recent smattering of sequels to ’80s action films with Simon Smithson, followed by a piece on Tron: Legacy with fellow sci-fi girl geek Gloria Harrison (surprise! we liked it).
My interview with author, actor, and screenwriter D. R. Haney regarding his new book Subversia is now up at the San Antonio Current (read it here).
