Kyle Michel Sullivan's Blog: https://www.myirishnovel.com/, page 223
September 1, 2015
Found it...
And I like this work-up, a lot.I flipped the image of Jordan and gave him a goatee instead of a scruffy beard. Then I shifted it into a light watercolor mode and heightened the contrast...and it's got a nice mysterious feel to it.
I might make the image of Palm Springs smaller so there's more of a black border around it. I'll have to think on that.
And the lettering's not exactly right, yet. Plus I do think I want to lessen the comment above the title...like maybe to "No" can be deadly. Or something short like that. No is the deadliest word?
Any ideas?
Slob-me
I broke down and started cleaning my apartment, today...and even though I wore a wet bandana around my face most of the day, I'm sneezing my head off from all the dust I disturbed. And I'm only about half done. I got rid of a lot of crap...gave most of it to Goodwill since they're close by. I freed up a couple of shelves and now my bookcases don't look ready to fall over from being packed so tight. I still have the kitchen and bathroom to do, along with my work table and a set of bookcases holding stuff behind my work space, but it's already looking better. Helps to vacuum.
I'm also posting some things to sell on ebay. Bring in a little cash. Nothing major, but every little bit helps. Seems as soon as I start thinking I'm at least even with the financial game, something comes along to smack me up side the head and say, "Don't be an idiot." This time it's a $190 bill from the IRS for the final interest and fees on back taxes I'd been paying. That'll finish that off, at least.
I'm now looking for a photo I had of a model named Jordan. He's seated on a bed in his briefs and wife-beater, a coat pulled up over his shoulders. I remember posting it around a year ago, or so, on my blog. I think I want to use that one on the cover of OT...if I can license it for a decent amount. Which means once I have OT done, I'm publishing it myself. It may be stupid to do, but that way I have complete control of it.
Maybe.
I'm also posting some things to sell on ebay. Bring in a little cash. Nothing major, but every little bit helps. Seems as soon as I start thinking I'm at least even with the financial game, something comes along to smack me up side the head and say, "Don't be an idiot." This time it's a $190 bill from the IRS for the final interest and fees on back taxes I'd been paying. That'll finish that off, at least.
I'm now looking for a photo I had of a model named Jordan. He's seated on a bed in his briefs and wife-beater, a coat pulled up over his shoulders. I remember posting it around a year ago, or so, on my blog. I think I want to use that one on the cover of OT...if I can license it for a decent amount. Which means once I have OT done, I'm publishing it myself. It may be stupid to do, but that way I have complete control of it.
Maybe.
August 31, 2015
Here we go...
I'm definitely in Washington DC October 4-6. That kills my sort-of planned week in LA. Seattle's book fair is a few days later. Such is life in the big city.
I'm not sure how well this standing while writing thing is going to work out. My legs and lower back don't bother me, but by the end of the day my neck and shoulders are getting sore. I may need to raise my table a couple more inches, or take more frequent breaks. Something. So far I've handled it with layers of Icy Hot, so it might also be just getting used to a new position.
I sent another script off -- Carli's Kills. It'd be cheap to make, has some serious action, some serious sex, and is written more like a horror film than a thriller. It's also geared to be shot for not very much money. Set in the desert, with most of the scenes out in the open at night or during the day, or in and around a biker cantina. There's also an isolated house, an alleyway, and an apartment, but that's really it for locations. Not many characters. And the lead is a woman in her early 30s -- Carli. You'd think there'd be a lot of actresses out to grab the role of a bad-ass female...but this ain't no Lifetime Movie.
Thing is, I'm FaceBook friends with a guy who'd be perfect for Zeke -- Alex Minsky. As I've mentioned before, he wants to get into acting, and this role would be a great entry for him. Of course, that'd be if these guys are open to suggestions for casting.
You never know...and wouldn't it be kick-ass if it worked.
I'm not sure how well this standing while writing thing is going to work out. My legs and lower back don't bother me, but by the end of the day my neck and shoulders are getting sore. I may need to raise my table a couple more inches, or take more frequent breaks. Something. So far I've handled it with layers of Icy Hot, so it might also be just getting used to a new position.
I sent another script off -- Carli's Kills. It'd be cheap to make, has some serious action, some serious sex, and is written more like a horror film than a thriller. It's also geared to be shot for not very much money. Set in the desert, with most of the scenes out in the open at night or during the day, or in and around a biker cantina. There's also an isolated house, an alleyway, and an apartment, but that's really it for locations. Not many characters. And the lead is a woman in her early 30s -- Carli. You'd think there'd be a lot of actresses out to grab the role of a bad-ass female...but this ain't no Lifetime Movie.
Thing is, I'm FaceBook friends with a guy who'd be perfect for Zeke -- Alex Minsky. As I've mentioned before, he wants to get into acting, and this role would be a great entry for him. Of course, that'd be if these guys are open to suggestions for casting.You never know...and wouldn't it be kick-ass if it worked.
August 30, 2015
Side note...
When looking for an artist's style to use for Owen's painting of Jake and Dion, I found this guy -- Zan Varin. This one's called The Painter. I love his brushwork and use of color. Very intense. I may ask him what it would cost to commission a work off the photo I used for that painting, initially.
Trying to work it differently...
I sit too much, working at a desk and then at home, writing. So I've changed my workspace. I have an artist's table that's adjustable so I raised it to waist-level and now stand when I'm working at the computer. It's proving to be more difficult than I expected, physically, but I've noticed my legs seem to like it. My lower back doesn't, nor do my shoulders, though those might be taken care of with a slightly higher position on the table. We'll see.
I just don't want to turn into a slug. These last two driving forays wound up adding ten pounds to my already too high weight, so I'm also trying to eat better. I've had salad for dinner three nights in a row, now...and it's done nothing to even hint at dropping this additional weight. Not promising.
I've taken this coming week off. No salary during this time since I'm self-employed, but I needed the space and I have enough put aside to cover a full two weeks, if need be. I need to give my apartment a serious cleaning and dig into finishing the next draft of OT. We'll see how that goes.
I sent another couple of scripts out to be considered by producers -- Blood Angel, my erotic vampire script set in post-Katrina New Orleans, and Find Ray T, my off-beat action script about a spoiled Hollywood actor forced to help the Russian mob locate a snitch who's hiding in the witness protection program. No great expectations -- I haven't even heard from the guy who's got two of my scripts under consideration -- but if you don't send them out, they don't even get considered.
Such is the life of a writer.
I just don't want to turn into a slug. These last two driving forays wound up adding ten pounds to my already too high weight, so I'm also trying to eat better. I've had salad for dinner three nights in a row, now...and it's done nothing to even hint at dropping this additional weight. Not promising.
I've taken this coming week off. No salary during this time since I'm self-employed, but I needed the space and I have enough put aside to cover a full two weeks, if need be. I need to give my apartment a serious cleaning and dig into finishing the next draft of OT. We'll see how that goes.
I sent another couple of scripts out to be considered by producers -- Blood Angel, my erotic vampire script set in post-Katrina New Orleans, and Find Ray T, my off-beat action script about a spoiled Hollywood actor forced to help the Russian mob locate a snitch who's hiding in the witness protection program. No great expectations -- I haven't even heard from the guy who's got two of my scripts under consideration -- but if you don't send them out, they don't even get considered.
Such is the life of a writer.
August 29, 2015
Again with the never make plans...
My possible trip to LA got blown up by three possible jobs -- in Washington DC, NYC, and Calgary, Alberta, Canada. I now cannot even think of making plans until we have final verification or refusal of quotes we sent out to them all. At the moment, it looks like two of them will be prior to Seattle's book fair and one immediately after, and two of them are 5-6000 books so I'll be spending a week on them, even with help. And this time none of them are truly interesting books -- all 20th Century.
I also found out a job I thought we'd lost is still possible. That one will be interesting -- lots of 16th and 17th Century volumes from a major collector of novels and travel. And another job in Chicago of 17th and 18th century travel. Something to look forward to.
Then there's Hong Kong. Again. Ticket's set. Hotel's set. And since I'm leaving out of Toronto, I'm taking the bus up and back so I won't have to deal with jet lag on the return.
I'm still having fun with OT...but last night I couldn't wind down from the job so watched Akira Kurosawa's 1949 film, Stray Dog, again. It's about a rookie cop whose pistol is stolen and used in a series of crimes. His growing guilt at having lost the pistol begins to tear at him as he tries to track down the man who has it...a man he comes to learn is so much like himself. Parts of it go on and on but there are so many moments of beauty, it doesn't matter. And Toshiro Mifune shows why he became a huge star. He was 28 when this movie was made, but he anchors it...with Kurosawa's able assistance.
God, he was a beautiful man...
I also found out a job I thought we'd lost is still possible. That one will be interesting -- lots of 16th and 17th Century volumes from a major collector of novels and travel. And another job in Chicago of 17th and 18th century travel. Something to look forward to.
Then there's Hong Kong. Again. Ticket's set. Hotel's set. And since I'm leaving out of Toronto, I'm taking the bus up and back so I won't have to deal with jet lag on the return.
I'm still having fun with OT...but last night I couldn't wind down from the job so watched Akira Kurosawa's 1949 film, Stray Dog, again. It's about a rookie cop whose pistol is stolen and used in a series of crimes. His growing guilt at having lost the pistol begins to tear at him as he tries to track down the man who has it...a man he comes to learn is so much like himself. Parts of it go on and on but there are so many moments of beauty, it doesn't matter. And Toshiro Mifune shows why he became a huge star. He was 28 when this movie was made, but he anchors it...with Kurosawa's able assistance.God, he was a beautiful man...
August 27, 2015
Vacation...maybe...
I'd initially planned to take off last week and this week along with next week. Looks like I'm only getting some of next week, not to mention if I do get another week of vacation time in October, it will be short and in LA, not here. Not that I mind...but I'd planned to do so much -- finish a decent rewrite of OT, clean my apartment, clear out some crap I didn't need or use -- and now I won't have that time.
Today my whipping travel and work craziness caught up to me and I got really down. It's hard to concentrate when that happens, so I figured I'll get solid on the writing over the weekend. Except I have a rash in the crook of my left elbow. Don't know where it came from, but it's itching like crazy. I've been slathering it with Campho-Phenique, which helps the itching. But not what I need right now.
I do like how cool it's been -- today it got up to a whole 64 degrees Fahrenheit. Dog and cat being sat for were happy. The office cats stay upstairs, away from it all, now. I think they think they're being punished.
Lots coming up in the way of travel, again. NYC, DC, LA, Seattle, Hong Kong, maybe even Calgary (big maybe but still fun to consider). Nothing Euro-centric...dammit. Not that I haven't been hinting.
Project Greenlight has reared its ugly head, again. I entered the first three and did okay in one and two, but got cut out of 3, completely. That's when it started coming out how the whole thing was more of a scam way to do a reality TV show on how hard it is to make a movie, and that's why their choices were so bizarre. Every one of the winners wound up having connections to the people running the show.
It's like when I found out the Sundance Writers' Lab every year said it would accept 12 applicants but in reality only chose 4-6 from the people who submitted applications; the rest were given to people who'd exhibited films during the festival and had a new project to workshop. Which meant your odds were even worse if you submitted, though they never were very good.
It was the same for the Nicholl Fellowships. I'd send award-winning scripts in and not even make the first cut. I read some of the ones that did get in and they were awful...but they were usually on a theme that hit the main judges right. It wasn't worth the effort or the entry fee to try and meet those requirements.
Okay, I'm being pissy, right now, so away I go.
Today my whipping travel and work craziness caught up to me and I got really down. It's hard to concentrate when that happens, so I figured I'll get solid on the writing over the weekend. Except I have a rash in the crook of my left elbow. Don't know where it came from, but it's itching like crazy. I've been slathering it with Campho-Phenique, which helps the itching. But not what I need right now.
I do like how cool it's been -- today it got up to a whole 64 degrees Fahrenheit. Dog and cat being sat for were happy. The office cats stay upstairs, away from it all, now. I think they think they're being punished.
Lots coming up in the way of travel, again. NYC, DC, LA, Seattle, Hong Kong, maybe even Calgary (big maybe but still fun to consider). Nothing Euro-centric...dammit. Not that I haven't been hinting.
Project Greenlight has reared its ugly head, again. I entered the first three and did okay in one and two, but got cut out of 3, completely. That's when it started coming out how the whole thing was more of a scam way to do a reality TV show on how hard it is to make a movie, and that's why their choices were so bizarre. Every one of the winners wound up having connections to the people running the show.
It's like when I found out the Sundance Writers' Lab every year said it would accept 12 applicants but in reality only chose 4-6 from the people who submitted applications; the rest were given to people who'd exhibited films during the festival and had a new project to workshop. Which meant your odds were even worse if you submitted, though they never were very good.
It was the same for the Nicholl Fellowships. I'd send award-winning scripts in and not even make the first cut. I read some of the ones that did get in and they were awful...but they were usually on a theme that hit the main judges right. It wasn't worth the effort or the entry fee to try and meet those requirements.
Okay, I'm being pissy, right now, so away I go.
August 26, 2015
Notes and noted notations...
I'm back in Buffalo and done with my work-work; next is sorting out the notes I made during the drive...and trying to decipher my writing. It's not easy scribbling down thoughts as you're traveling along at 70 mph.
I did stop along the way and relax by the Susquehanna River.
It's amazing how wide and beautiful it is...for miles and miles and miles...and pretty much consistently this shallow. Just north of Harrisburg, there's a statue out in the middle of it. I couldn't find a place to get a better shot (not without stopping on the 322 and maybe getting rear-ended), but it's just left of center in the photo...and I think it's a small replica of the Statue of Liberty.
It's nice not having to rush, sometimes...
I did stop along the way and relax by the Susquehanna River.
It's amazing how wide and beautiful it is...for miles and miles and miles...and pretty much consistently this shallow. Just north of Harrisburg, there's a statue out in the middle of it. I couldn't find a place to get a better shot (not without stopping on the 322 and maybe getting rear-ended), but it's just left of center in the photo...and I think it's a small replica of the Statue of Liberty.
It's nice not having to rush, sometimes...
August 25, 2015
Driving without music...
It makes your mind focus in some curious ways. I suddenly started wondering what would happen if I started OT at the point where Jake is beaten and arrested in Palm Springs and tell the lead up to that as he's in the ER being tended to. It's a more radical shift than I was intending...but I almost think it would be better, and would give me a bit more time to explain past events.
I've also had ideas for Carli's Kills. I've been trying to figure out a way to reconcile Zeke being willing to love Carli if he suspects or knows she's killed some of his friends. She lies. Flat out lies, and it's when he finds out she lies that the final confrontation begins -- his buddies know he's involved with her and want to know where she is, but he can't give her away. It'll be interesting to see if I can pull this off.
I'm currently in DC for the last part of this transport job, then it's home, tomorrow. I'm at that same Best Western in Lanham that I liked, but this time I'm in a room where the AC sounds like a jet liner planning to take off when it starts up. I'm not going to sleep till 3 while waiting for a call (I took a nap, so it's not such a bit deal), but having it shut down then start up with that slow winding whine is funny.
We takes our funnies where we can gets them.
I've also had ideas for Carli's Kills. I've been trying to figure out a way to reconcile Zeke being willing to love Carli if he suspects or knows she's killed some of his friends. She lies. Flat out lies, and it's when he finds out she lies that the final confrontation begins -- his buddies know he's involved with her and want to know where she is, but he can't give her away. It'll be interesting to see if I can pull this off.
I'm currently in DC for the last part of this transport job, then it's home, tomorrow. I'm at that same Best Western in Lanham that I liked, but this time I'm in a room where the AC sounds like a jet liner planning to take off when it starts up. I'm not going to sleep till 3 while waiting for a call (I took a nap, so it's not such a bit deal), but having it shut down then start up with that slow winding whine is funny.
We takes our funnies where we can gets them.
August 23, 2015
Ah, the daily grind
Sundays are for laundry, groceries and ironing...when I don't pt them off. Today I couldn't because I needed clothes to wear. So as I ironed, I watched a goofy old horror movie called The Human Monster. It has Bela Lugosi as a madman who uses a home for the blind to front for a scam -- he kills people for their insurance money. It was made in England in 1939 and looks it. It's 75 minutes long and kind of silly, and it took 4 writers to get it to that point.
Thing is, it was based on The Dark eyes of London, a mystery by Edgar Wallace, who helped develop King Kong before he died due to complications from diabetes. His books were huge in England after WW1, and he wrote about a dozen plays. He's thought of as the first writer to use cops as the protagonists in his mysteries as opposed to amateur sleuths or private detectives.
His first draft of King Kong was 110 pages and about 75% of it was kept in the final movie. If he'd worked on the script of THM, it probably would have been a lot better. It wasn't bad...it was just very B movie style.
It's in a box set of "classic" horror movies, half of which star Lugosi. I bought it because it has Carnival of Souls and I've never seen the whole thing...and because it was on special for $5.99 at a Dollar Store. It also has a silent film called The Last Man on Earth...and they do mean man; women are still around and all want him. It was made in 1924. The man's name is Elmer Smith.
This I have got to see when I'm not doing ironing.
Thing is, it was based on The Dark eyes of London, a mystery by Edgar Wallace, who helped develop King Kong before he died due to complications from diabetes. His books were huge in England after WW1, and he wrote about a dozen plays. He's thought of as the first writer to use cops as the protagonists in his mysteries as opposed to amateur sleuths or private detectives.
His first draft of King Kong was 110 pages and about 75% of it was kept in the final movie. If he'd worked on the script of THM, it probably would have been a lot better. It wasn't bad...it was just very B movie style.
It's in a box set of "classic" horror movies, half of which star Lugosi. I bought it because it has Carnival of Souls and I've never seen the whole thing...and because it was on special for $5.99 at a Dollar Store. It also has a silent film called The Last Man on Earth...and they do mean man; women are still around and all want him. It was made in 1924. The man's name is Elmer Smith.
This I have got to see when I'm not doing ironing.
