Kyle Michel Sullivan's Blog: https://www.myirishnovel.com/, page 204

Having a lovely time with Smashwords...

When I finished The Vanishing of Owen Taylor, I updated all my ebooks on Smashwords, and everything went great...except for Rape In Holding Cell 6. They keep bouncing that one back to me, saying the NCX links aren't working (that's the setup that does an electronic Table of Contents synchronization for certain ebook suppliers).

I can't figure out why there's a problem, because I did them exactly the same as all the other ebooks. But they're giving me grief over it...I think mainly because of Apple Book...who won't carry it anyway; they're too lazy to do an adults-only setup like Smashwords.

So I've sent off an email asking about it. Because I went back and did the tutorial on doing bookmarks and hyperlinks for NCX. I've tested it and checked it and can see nothing different about it. Makes no sense.

Anyway, OT is now available on Amazon. Haven't sold a single paperback yet, but you can buy 3 used copies. Very strange...and typical for Amazon.

An Alice '65 is going up for auction at Christie's, next month. If there is any way possible, I want to go see it. I held one, once, years ago when I started working at Heritage. It went into the hands of a private collector. I wonder if this is the same one. I'll have to check the catalogue.

I'm doing some artwork, this weekend; give me a creative break from writing.

Headed for LA

It's set...I'm heading for LA on June 7th and returning to Buffalo on the 11th. Not much time, but more than I thought I'd have. I decided to stay a couple days extra...well, a day and a half. I'll be in Claremont the first couple days then down by LAX till Saturday. Can't wait.

I've heard they're remaking The Rocky Horror Picture Show with Lavergne Cox as Dr. Frankenfurter. Talk about a complete travesty. I got no problem with Frankie being black, but he's not a transsexual...he's a sweet transvestite from Transsexual, Transylvania. And apparently there's talk of Rocky being played by a woman. SACRILEGE!!! Man, if you ever thought Hollywood was run by maniacs and fools who have no idea what they're doing, this is proof positive.

I learned a long time ago very few people in the film biz had the poetry or soul to be filmmakers -- especially producers, writers and directors. I have no idea why they even want to be in it, except to try and make a lot of money. But they do get jobs because they come up with crap that's anything but dangerous or forward-thinking, while those filmmakers who do push the envelope get interfered with and beaten up if anything goes wrong, so they struggle to keep making interesting movies.

More proof of this was the live broadcast of The Sound Of Music...from the stage play, not the movie. Some idiot somewhere thought it would work fine if they used a non-actress who can sing in the role of Maria, and cast a black woman as Mother Superior because she's got a great voice. I couldn't watch it. Nothing against Audra McDonald as Mother Superior (her singing and interpretation were great), but a black woman as the head of a nunnery in pre-war Austria? Seriously? Color-blind casting works fine, most of the time; just not when dealing with a country that was both racist and anti-Semitic, when the story is set. What idiot thought that was a good idea?

Okay, I'm done venting, and tomorrow it's back to the writing. I'm beginning to feel withdrawal from not having done much in the last several days. This is my drug...and I think I'm going to follow through with a wild idea I had for Carli's Kills -- making the sheriff female. I like the script as is, with that role being a male...however, it does seem a bit familiar and easy. But a corrupt bitch who's a match for Carli and has a crush on Zeke, too? That is SOOOOOOOO Russ-Meyer-tacky-tits-cat-fight.

And makes me grin, even though I'm not into girls.

At long last...

I finally got a good proof of The Vanishing of Owen Taylor and authorized it to be released for sale as a paperback. It will probably take a week for it to finally hit the distribution channels, and I'll do what I can to move things along, but as of now...it's over what I hope will be the final hurdle.

I watched Dancing With The Stars, tonight, as I did 2 weeks worth of ironing, mainly because I want to see how far Nyle DiMarco gets. He's in the final round, and he keeps amazing everyone. Not only can he not hear, tonight he danced part of his second dance blindfolded, so he couldn't even see. He's showing the world being deaf is not so much a handicap as just another detail in his life...and that's how it should be for anyone.

Doesn't hurt he's gorgeous.

I'd post the video but they cut out the music on YouTube due to copyright issues. And...Youtube forces ludicrous ads on you in the middle of the video. I don't like going there. But I can't find that clip on the show's website. So...that's life.

Now I just need to get out of the habit of whining so damn much and get down to doing...like he does.

Possible jobs near San Bernadino...

There's talk of 2 packing jobs in SoCal, maybe the second week of June. Still preliminary but will have to be settled soon so everything can be planned and expenses kept low as possible. Might be for the whole week. God, it would be so nice to be out there, again...I'm feeling homesick...

There's discussion about us shutting down for a month, meaning no salary for a while, but we were going to do that last year and August wound up being too busy. I'm too broke to go anywhere if we do...and yet I might just say Fuck It. I dunno. I'm sick of being in debt.

I'm also pissed off about how Bernie's being dissed by the DNC. What happened in Nevada, this weekend, was classic Fascist putsch...and perpetrated by Democrats. The Dem Chair in Nevada shut the meeting down after illegally denying delegates the right to vote and then ignored a voice vote demanding a recount, but instead declared the decision was made and walked off. I keep telling myself I will vote against the GOP in November, but this march to anoint Hillary as the candidate has so sickened me, I'm close to just writing Bernie's name on the ballot in November and the hell with the bitch.

What's pathetic is, because I gave money to Bernie and a couple of specific Democratic candidates -- a total of $45; yeah, I'm a real power-broker -- I am now getting hit with e-mails and phone calls begging for more money for the DNC and DCCC and even the people I've already given money to as well as candidates I've never even heard of. Well, forget it. I will not give one more dime to the Democratic Party, and if I don't like the candidate they run in my area, I'll vote Green.

And if it means the end of the world, let's just get it the fuck over with.

Music soothing and fine....

The video is 6 years old, but since I was in Lisbon not that long ago I thought I'd share...

Love to write...and rewrite...

I know I whine about it and bitch a lot, but reality is...once it's done...well, once I reach the point of where I'm trying to decide whether to use the or a in a sentence, I know I've done my best. And I'm finally at a point where I know my writing's good -- even in the face of criticism or dismissal of it. The last couple of days have helped me build up my certainty and shown me I finally have a nice, thick hide.

I've been sending out my scripts to various people who post on InkTip and ISA and Mandy and the like, and when I do get a response it's the usual Not quite what we're looking for. Which is fine because 99 times out of a hundred, they don't even know what they're looking for...or they have far more specific requirements than they let on.

But I'm also finding that there's a surprising number of people who read scripts who have no imagination. Have no idea how a movie is made. For example, The Alice '65 has 6 scenes set in London. All interiors. The rest is in LA. I've had two groups who were looking for a romantic comedy tell me they aren't looking for anything they have to shoot outside of the US. It's too expensive. And when I pointed out these were interiors so they could be shot in Los Angeles, their response was, "But they're set in England. We'd need English actors and stuff."

Adam, the lead of A65, is English. And I, personally, when I lived in LA, met half a dozen actors who were English...in just my limited scope in the business. I honestly went blank in response.

What's even funnier? One of them said they couldn't figure out if Adam was English or German...because he speaks German at the beginning. Once. He also speaks Latin and Greek, but those do come after the Deutsch. What's more, it says, flat out, that he's English in the script. Which I mentioned. And got a, "Really?"

However, I think the best actual response I've gotten from one of these submissions is for Carli's Kills. The lead is kick-ass female. Her name is in the title. It's all about her. And I had a producer say, "If you'd make her male, we might take another look." He also added that he didn't want a gimp as the love interest; he'd prefer a hot woman who had issues and is thawed out by the hero before she dies saving him. I think he was looking for something that would give him a woodie. I just replied, "Sorry it didn't work for you."

What was he looking for? An action/thriller with a female lead.

But the latest is the one that finally proved to me I got my hide. Received it yesterday. I had someone at a production company (which shall remain nameless because I snuck the script in to them via a less-than-proper-route) send me a message that basically said, You have no idea how to write a real screenplay. To which I replied, No, you have no idea how to read one. Learn. Totally burned that bridge, but happily. I just hope nobody loses their job over this one.

Still...this made me go back through Carli's Kills, The Alice '65, Marked For Death, and Find Ray T. And for the first time since I began writing screenplays, I changed nothing (except a couple of typos; those are my nemesis). I liked them just as they were. Finally. So...my feeling about my scripts now is, "If you don't like or want my work, you're an idiot."

My writer's ego is back and firmly rooted...and I feel good.

Feelin' good...

Had a nice long nap in my own bed after a lovely hot shower. Slept longer than I intended so I may not be able to sleep much, tonight, but I feel good, actually. I didn't get to see much of Berkeley, and what I did see wasn't really very interesting, but no big deal. The Bay Area's okay, but not my favorite place; I prefer Seattle.

Since I cannot sleep on a plane -- I can doze, but not well -- I did some work on Underground Guy, cleaning out a lot of detail from the first section and reworking it so there's nothing to distract from Dev's animalistic actions. Just a straight line of this is what he's doing; no explanations, yet, just a hint of description of how he looks. I don't even mention his name until he gets busted by the cops.

I have to admit, I do tend to over-explain my characters in the first drafts...like I'm trying to find them. Then I go back and slice out more and more detail. And sometimes, when I think I've done as much as is needed, I find out I can still do a hell of a lot more. Case in point -- the first three chapters of OT got cut down to about one and a bit of background explanation at the beginning of what is now section two...after my second round of feedback.

Ingram asked for more information on the crappy fourth proof, so I sent it to them. I'm beginning to think it might be a good idea to wipe out the paperback submission I've done, so far, and just start over rather than continuing to try and correct what I'm beginning to see as a corrupted file. Might be simpler, faster and cheaper.

Depends on what happens with the next proof I get.

Heading home...

Job's done and packed and on its way. I'm now at San Francisco Airport waiting for my redeye back to New York City so I can hop a flight to Buffalo. I'm slated to arrive home about noon, Wednesday. What fun this will be.

SFO's International terminal is really a sad excuse for an major city's airport. Lots of glitzy shops and restaurants selling overpriced merchandise and food, but when you get to your gate, just try and find a plug for your laptop. Or comfortable chair. And even though you may have TSA Pre-check, you still wind up in the same line as people who don't...so why bother?

Compared to Hong Kong's airport, San Francisco is pathetic. At least you get free wiFi that works. I tried three times to post on my blog at the La Quinta and got kicked off every time. Didn't help that there were a couple busloads of Chinese tourists and their obnoxious kids using it at the same time. But a lot is also the crap internet service in the US.

Anyway, I finished The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu on the trip over, and love the story. The writer, Joshua Hammer, wasn't very good; he had this suspense-killing habit of letting you know everything turned out okay before telling you about a situation that could have gone bad, very bad. Plus he repeats himself a lot and backs around on himself as he dispenses information. Very 19th Century in style.

But the story overcomes those limitations, and that all but about 15,000 manuscripts were saved is phenomenal. Normally I would love to see this turned into a movie -- and someone may actually be working on that, now -- but I can see them casting Tom Hanks as Abdel Kader Haidara, the man who planned it all. Hollywood's too filled with cowards and accountants to think of anything like actually casting a Muslim man to play a Muslim hero.

Yeah, and Brad Pitt would be Joshua Hammer talking about how he told the story...

"The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu" by Joshua Hammer!!!

I'm taking this with me to read, on the plane...and hopefully will not lose it, since it's a library book. But it's a fascinating story...one I had already heard about; I didn't know there was a book coming out about it. I'm the first person to check it out..and, hopefully, not the last. I wonder, is it illegal  to take a library book across state lines?
Anyway -- here's what it's all about:

To save precious centuries-old Arabic texts from Al Qaeda, a band of librarians in Timbuktu pulls off a brazen heist worthy of Ocean’s Eleven.
In the 1980s, a young adventurer and collector for a government library, Abdel Kader Haidara, journeyed across the Sahara Desert and along the Niger River, tracking down and salvaging tens of thousands of ancient Islamic and secular manuscripts that had fallen into obscurity. The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu tells the incredible story of how Haidara, a mild-mannered archivist and historian from the legendary city of Timbuktu, later became one of the world’s greatest and most brazen smugglers.

In 2012, thousands of Al Qaeda militants from northwest Africa seized control of most of Mali, including Timbuktu. They imposed Sharia law, chopped off the hands of accused thieves, stoned to death unmarried couples, and threatened to destroy the great manuscripts. As the militants tightened their control over Timbuktu, Haidara organized a dangerous operation to sneak all 350,000 volumes out of the city to the safety of southern Mali.

Over the past twenty years, journalist Joshua Hammer visited Timbuktu numerous times and is uniquely qualified to tell the story of Haidara’s heroic and ultimately successful effort to outwit Al Qaeda and preserve Mali’s—and the world’s—literary patrimony. Hammer explores the city’s manuscript heritage and offers never-before-reported details about the militants’ march into northwest Africa. But above all, The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu is an inspiring account of the victory of art and literature over extremism.
Indiana Jones, eat your heart out.

Slight detour...

Today was car repair day...well, making sure car doesn't need repairs. There was an odd ka-chunk when I started him up so took the day off work and took him in to be serviced and checked. Fortunately, it's pretty quiet, and I'm leaving for Berkeley Sunday morning so I get some time coming.

No problem with the car; just a clamp that shifted and bumped the floorboard, but a couple things needed work so I was there for a few hours. Jumped one of my cards back to near its limit. However, I was able to use their free wifi to update Bowker's ISBN listings for OT and my other books. Some of that detail work I hate so much. Now the car runs good, is all state inspected, my headlights shine in the right direction, and the mechanic thinks I take really good care of him.

But then I get home and have the latest proof for OT waiting...and it sucks. As you can see. This looks nothing like the PDF proof I was sent, and what's worse? The book is not square. The top edge is 1/16 inches wider than the bottom, the spine is 1/16 shorter than the outer edge, and that strip of white on the lower left edge is how off-center the cover was printed. There's 1/4 inch of bleed space all the way around the original cover file, and they still screwed it up.

I called Ingram and they are having their tech people look at this and send me a new proof, for free. But it's delayed things even more; I can't let it get printed till I know they have it set up right.

What's truly frustrating about this is, the very first proof looked beautiful; I just wanted to correct some typos I'd found. Didn't even upload a new file for the cover, just for the text. And it's been crap ever since.

Next time I do a book, I'm tempted to go to their offices in Nashville (I think) and watch it get done.