Pulp Happenings Around the Web

Piers Beckley has set up a screenwriter forum for those in the UK here.  I may hop over there in my bloody boots and have a pint or twenty leaving scarlet footprints over the carpet.

Occasional Superheroine Valerie D'Orazio has put the 1st book in her trilogy  THE END OF THE VAMPIRE CRAZE IN NYC online here.  (Val - I want to know the results of this free experiment!)

Francesco Francavilla and the boys over at Comic Twart are drawing Abuli and Bernet's TORPEDO.  I may have an idea or two to throw their way - not that they need me at all. They bring the awesome quite well on their own.

Max Allan Collins liked my review of THE LAST LULLABY. 

Go visit them and leave a comment telling them the MPB sent ya!

I'll be here writing & publishing.

Get Emotional

Shawna posted something via Google Reader the other day regarding that 100 pages is the new '120 pages when it comes to screenwriting.

I'm glad to see that Hollywood is finally catching on. Those of us toiling in the bargain bin arena have held that 95-100 is the new black for a long time now. That particular page count usually yields a 90 minute movie before title crawls and opening graphic design animated title porn.

But what this new 100 pages isn't telling you is that you're required to do double-duty with the emotional content of your script. That is, characters' words must mean something when they speak, but they should also point to other possible meanings through the story. It adds another level of tension to an otherwise exciting story.

This is layering, and it's especially important in pulp stories where the plotline is straight as an arrow (until that point where it isn't) and you need that emotional, character-driven pepper to come through via the dialogue and actions.

I'm going through right now and marking up my own notes in FLY BY NIGHT as production starts designing the look above and beyond what I've outlined in the script. I've tagged a lot of areas in the PDF where I'm going to go back and rethink aspects of a line here and there , the true undercurrents to a scene...

Staying within that 100 pages, but sharpening the dialogue and the characters so we can make a 'narrative pipeline' look and feel as exciting as Monica Bellucci nude.

This sort of thing is going to be especially important as more and more movies are going to debut as webisodes first. Giving the scenes the emotional content that makes the audience go "damn"or "hmmm, what could that mean?" can keep them coming back to your show and even go back to the beginning of the series. Giving your story a once over for its emotional content also allows you to play with your characters in different ways - picking up the rock and looking at all of the creepy crawly things underneath.

Like I did here with Fascinax.

This story wouldn't have happened if it hadn't been for me looking at the wonderful absurdity of a Victorian-styled superbeing and digging underneath to find out what's really going on there.

Dig into your character's emotions, and when you scratch something that hurts then you know you're on the right track and can add that next level of meaning to your work that makes it memorable - even when your writing craft isn't (yet) it's best.

This Will Be Me One Day...Soon

H/T to Boing Boing & Kid Schlocko:

On my way to my neighborhood auto parts store one morning, I saw a diminutive, shabby, bearded man standing by the side of the road with an armload of papers. As I approached, I saw a sign: "$1 Stories." Excited, I fished a dollar out from my pants somewhere and handed it to him out the window; I think he fanned out his stack of stories to let me pick, but he may have just handed me one at random. I can't really remember, and it doesn't matter, since so far everything I've read of his has been great in its own odd way.

Astonishing Isn't It?

The latest issue of ASTONISHING ADVENTURES (#6) is available now.

Go Here.

Read "Passover" by me. Illustrated by Susan Burghart.

Also take a look at yet another "Auslander" tale by Sullivan (Prolific little shit)

Monday Catch Up...

Just to give you a rundown of what you have to look forward to(and stuff you should get):

-- Just finished skimming Wayne Skiver's GUNS OF THE BLACK BAT (Age of Adventure). It's on my buy list.

-- Pulp Legionnaires already know that something big is coming from me in May. Look for the press release in a couple weeks.

-- Finishing my revised treatment for this company.

-- I am writing a review of EVIL AT PEMBERLEY HOUSE by Philip J. Farmer and Win Eckert.

-- I am red-inking my 2nd draft of the movie I'm making with this joker.

-- I am finishing some work for a client this week. Beware.

-- I am waaay behind on releasing something with this guy here. I need to speed up or get a couple of interns. Probably both.

Big question of the week:

Who reading this wants to read new pulp** on their Kindle or iPhone with
a print edition available later?

Speak up. This is stuff I need to know.

** New Pulp is defined as new fiction written in the pulp tradition, but with new characters, settings and motivations.

Astonishing Adventures Hits 5th Issuu!

And features a story by yours truly in collaboration with artist Rolf Lejdegard. Congratulations go out to John D. Carlucci and Katherine Tomlinson and my fellow pulpsters in this issuu.

Get your own - Open publication

Speaking of...

Old pulp never dying...I am working on something. Something big (for me, anyway) and I'm sure all of you will agree when you hear the news, and want to participate somehow.

(Agreements aren't signed yet so I can only tease you. Yes, I am a bastard. You're just figuring that out?)

The Pulp Writer's Warm-up...

I am a pulp writer...

My laptop is my chisel, my desk my workbench. I use them to chip away at the block of stone (or wood or clay) that we call Story.

I write even when I don't want to because I know that when I write I am at my best and most creative. The doing leads to the inspiration.

I write a lot and I write everything I can: short stories, comics, screenplays, plays, articles, etc...because it makes me a better writer.


(Beautiful art by Sean Phillips of Criminal fame)
I bring everything that I am to my work - my thoughts, fears, strengths, weaknesses and my experience. My writing is a reflection of who I am and how seriously I take my craft even when the deadline is Tuesday.

My first job is to entertain. Everything after that is frosting.

Now that my fingers are warmed up... time to hit it.

I've Been Thinking ...

Very hard about what I am calling "Open Source Pulp" (1st Google reference!) and the whole "NewPulp" movement, especially as it relates to new media and production...

Apparently I am not alone in these thoughts. (referral courtesy of Warren Ellis's Whitechapel)

This is open for discussion.

Mercury Rising...

Warren Ellis discusses his new print project from Avatar Comics, ANNA MERCURY:

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"So, yeah, Anna has elements of the Shadow in her, among other things, but that's not important. What's important is the connection it gives her to pulp roots, because I'm writing what I privately think of as "NewPulp" here -- it has a big engine, it has scale, it moves fast, something major happens every four pages, it drives hard, and then it kicks up a gear, we zoom back, and suddenly we perceive it all in a new and larger scale..."


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Here endeth the lesson for today.

For Your Pulp Bookshelf

What Does it Mean if Your Words are Like Moonshine?

"My works are like water. The works of the great masters are like wine. But everybody drinks water."
– Mark Twain

(stolen from the is week's Creative Screenwriting Newsletter)

Holiday Chores...

Whenever I go to my parents house for the holidays, I wind up helping around the house with some "chores" that need doin' here and there. Things like cleaning out the gutters, moving a piece of furniture downstairs or up, or cleaning out the garage. Simple things that help a household run smoother. I am happy to do these things for my folks even though my brother and I kid each other about it.

Anyway, I have a few chores to handle around my own "house" that will see some changes for readers of the old blog. Think of it as a new coat of paint, replacing a few worn floorboards, cleaning the windows and airing out the attic. As you check in over the next week or so, things may be a little "wonky" as some links will disappear and new ones re-appear, colors will shift as will type fonts.

This is all by design.

As I posted earlier I am redesigning the focus of this blog to better reflect my work and interests. I have also started another private, invitation-only blog that will house some short, raw fiction and media that I'm going to later bring to print and elsewhere. More details on that as it develops.

Have a Happy New Year. I will be here with The Knightmare living the dream...

Post Tryptophan Hangover...

So, still feeling stuffed after the big bird blowout yesterday. Now as the serotonin levels in my brain begin to lower I am left with a desire to get to work on some projects that I've been juggling lately, and yet here I am blogging...and here you are reading.


(You enablers! Damn you all)


The holidays are now officially in full swing and we will be addressing this in an upcoming Geekerati podcast with our "What I want for Christmas this year" episode. I am taking suggestions now.


John Rogers (who is experiencing the cold up north for the first time in a long time I wager) has a discussion about short online fiction and the death of the anthology following a post by Warren Ellis on the same subject. I'm also wondering what happened to our series paperback characters that seemed to dominate the drug store spinner racks when I was a kid. Does anyone here besides me remember the Richard Blade series of books?


Warren Ellis reminded me the other day about Createspace - a division of Amazon - where you can publish on demand and videopost on demand and monetize the whole thing - including selling DVDs on demand. This is an excellent step toward self-sufficiency for filmmakers. It's possible that there could be a shift toward "regionalism" with something like this set up. Imagine a group of mediamakers who aren't in LA, New York or Chicago who have their own local programs and "stars" and are able to create content for a local market that pays the bills. Possibly similar to where Quebec is in the Canadian market - separate and distinct, but accesible to those who look for that programming. Then, as an afterthought the rights to the programming is sold elsewhere as added revenue not necessary for financial solvency.


(Yes, these are the things that run through my head as the serotonin dips)


Congrats to Denis McGrath whose THE BORDER premiered in Canada last night. I will be searching the webs for it.

I've been searching the web looking for a new blog template that reflects my pulp, movie-making and new media sensibilities. If anyone has a suggestion that seems to fit the bill, please send me a link. The template must be compatible with Blogger, easily adaptable and rockin'. I'm going to be breaking things up into better categories for navigation's sake as well as providing links to my other digital shadows - message boards, networks, business related matters.

I set aside my short story for Astonishing for a week so I can go back to it over the holidays and polish it up. I wrote down a lot of notes and put the file away so I can read it with fresh eyes right before I polish it. The twist doesn't work yet as I haven't set it up properly in the story. It has to be obvious when it happens, but not so obvious that the reader gets it before I give it to him in the story. A delicate touch to be sure and I'm a freakin' sledgehammer...

Later...

Check This Out!

Francesco where have you been all my pulp writing life?

And to top it off he also creates title cards for The Shadow radio shows airing every sunday!

(Drat! Blogger is having a problem uploading art - will have to blow your eyeballs through the back of your heads later...stand by for retinal reaming!)

Edit: There! All fixed and Happy Happy!

Shadowmania

I love it when another edition of TALES OF THE SHADOWMEN comes around. Black Coat Press sets the bar so high with great contributors to the series, that sometimes I look around and go "How did I get so lucky to be here?" It makes it difficult to come up with a story that you feel is worthy of inclusion, and really makes you sweat to get it "just right."

.

But a really cool thing is when Jean-Marc and Randy send out the cover art and title:

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LA - Frikkin - DRONN , bitches!

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I also have learned what a sneaky editor J-M is, because he pointed me in a direction that works perfectly with this title...

and sets the stage for the next book.

(and yes, my story is a Fascinax tale)