Monday, April 03, 2006

Good News and Start of the Quarter...

Anita Diggs, my editor at Thunders Mouth, has agreed to keep my original title for my non-fiction black porn book. So it will be called MONEY SHOT. My agent is contacting Kensington so that we can change the name of the fiction version. That's good news to me because the non-fiction had always been called Money Shot in my brain, but Thunders Mouth didn't like it. But, with a change of heart, we're good to go.

The quarter begins tomorrow, and I start pitching 434s on Tuesday. I have a couple of production classes I'm going to take, including one with producer Peter Guber (never heard of him: go to IMDB or check out Sunday Morning Shootout on AMC). That's going to be a cool class because normally Guber's classes are restricted to those in the Producer's program only.

My 434 pitch for Yardies is very solid. The next thing is to actually write the complete story. I want a gangster script, but with really unpredictable twists.

Also this week, the scripts are due for the Screenwriting showcase. I'm helping to get them together and then deliver them to industry execs. Each one of the screenwriters in the program had to call folks in the industry to see if they'd judge our scripts, but my list was a stone cold dud. Not ONE of the people on my list would agree. I felt snakebit. So at least I can get these scripts together and delivered.

I have another script that I completed for the Humanitas award. We have to write a comedy pilot and the prize is an internship on a show. I wrote a pilot about funny Jesuit priests called OUR FATHERS. As a twelve year Catholic school vet, I know funny priests. Insert your own joke.

Called Lex about Money Shot. I have class three days a week, and from now on, I'm going to spend the off days working on Money Shot. With my non-fiction books, I have to feel a bit of pressure before I get interested in writing it. I have seven months before MS is due, so now I'm feeling the proper pressure.

With two books coming out around the same time, I'm thinking about how I want to promote them. I think I'm going to eshew a book tour and go with spending money on a REALLY good publicist. I find that doing a telephone tour when the book first comes out is much better than spending cash signing books. I SWEAR that book signings are overrated when it comes to promoting books, but they are a necessity.

Lastly, I have two lectures to do. I fly out to Northern Michigan University on April 12th, and then I speak at San Jose State in late April.

Lot of stuff to do...Let's rock and roll!

2 comments:

David Anaxagoras said...

Good luck with your pitches! Also, check out Suber's Film Structure class if you can.

David said...

Holy shit, did you see 24 tonight? That was either the greatest or most unfounded twist they've had so far. We'll see.

I'm going to Suber's class on Wednesday. I've heard nothing but great things about it from second-years, and I like that he's incorporating television shows this time.

I'm pitching to Linda and Paul and no one else this quarter, which might be a little risky, but I think Suber's class prevents me from pitching to any Wednesday professors.