Lately I’ve been writing quite a lot, along with my co-writer. In the last three weeks we finished a full draft of a screenplay, which is faster than I’ve ever written a first draft–but it wasn’t pretty, and honestly neither is the draft. Which is not to disparage it–you don’t disparage a big lump of … Read more
These words were yesterday’s Facebook status update of a friend from both college and LA. He is funny, talented, goodhearted. He has cancer. Several months ago, he went into hospice, but has continued, on social media, to be the source of upbeat quotes, photos, and memes. Most of our mutual friends have moved away, and … Read more
SATURDAY: My mother-in-law, in town for the weekend, holds my arm as we stand at the L-shaped buffet at her friend’s new Thai noodle shop. She wears jeans, a floppy tee-shirt and tinted glasses with white rims studded with Swarovski crystals. Her friend, on the other side of the sneeze-guarded trays of food, has on … Read more
But maybe not in that order. Sometimes I like to read Scott Meyer’s Go Into the Story blog, that is all about screenwriting, and also contains a million (yes, hyperbole) links to other blogs and resources about screenwriting. He adds content more frequently than I can keep up with, so I miss a lot, but … Read more
A couple of weeks ago, I finished a short course in book reviewing. We discussed things like the changing culture of reviewing with the advent of social media and decline in traditional publishing, and the recent debate regarding the pros and cons of printing a negative reviews. We also made a couple of stabs at … Read more
I just watched a really lovely documentary called Lost in Living. The director, Mary Trunk, followed the lives of four women, who were both mothers and artists, for seven years. This film is by turns, intimate, philosophical and poignant. Although I don’t have children, the idea of motherhood is something that I lived with pretty … Read more
Each December I am caught up by the kind of energy that prevails as academic semesters end: the euphoric sense that final exams will soon be taken then suddenly I will be floating on an expanse of free time called “winter break.” My plans for this winter break included finishing a script, installing and learning … Read more
Know where I am not this weekend? At Sundance. Whenever I open WordPress to write a post like this one, I am immediately confronted by a conveyer belt of newsfeeds, many of which are from “trades,” like Variety and The Hollywood reporter. I’m drawn to the reviews and descriptions of the movies that are opening … Read more
Yesterday I received a nice rejection for the picture/audio combo version of Turtle Ted. The journal wrote, “Your piece was a source of constant debate for us, and there was something about it that we found very charming. Unfortunately, we couldn’t make it fit within the overall aesthetic of the journal.” For non-writers, “nice rejection” … Read more
Holiday Box Office: The Battle for the Over-35s. This is the headline of an article I just came across from the Hollywood Reporter talking about how “adult” (and by adult, they mean age, and not porn) dramas are getting some play–at least in the two months before the Oscars. That it seems to happen almost … Read more