Hillary DePiano's Blog, page 46

In which I have not one, but two new books releasing this fall

Sometimes I make poor life decisions.

Sometimes I do dumb things like stay up all night reading when I know perfectly well the baby will be up before dawn. Or I go to the bank withoutto bringing the check I needed to cash.Or I completely forget that my wedding anniversary is a thing and was last week, apparently.

Sometimes I have two completely different books coming out within weeks of each other.

You already know about my new play, The Love of Three Oranges (one-act version),but what I haven’t...

The Love of Three Oranges (one-act version) cover reveal

Look what I just got in the mail!

It’s… not orange! I feel like that’s kind of a plot twist…

Anyway, now that you’ve seen the cover, go ahead and read all but the last few scenes of the play for free here.

My 2013 NaNoWriMo novel: M5

I swear, it’s nothing like Mister Ed (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As I prepare for NaNoWriMo 2014, I realized I never got to tell you guys anything about the project I did for NaNoWriMo2013.

I’d like to introduce you to a new work in progress: M5. It’s short for a very long alliterative title.

If you went to middle school with me, you actually may know what this is but, for the rest of you, let me give you a little background. In 6th grade, I wrote a children’s story for a class assignment. It was...

The Green Bird and the specter of Julie Taymor’s Broadway production

Julie Taymor’s The Green Bird (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I started an adaptation of Carlo Gozzi’sTheGreen Bird* back in 2002 but abandoned it… only to pick the project back up again this year. There are three big reasons why I walked away and ultimately came back to this play and I’m going to devote a full blog post to each in the coming weeks as I work on this show.

The first big reason was that I took issue with some of the themes of the original play but I figured out how to overcome that obs...

The Love of Three Oranges (one-act version) is now available through Playscripts, Inc

Not to get all clickbait on you but you won’t believe what just happened…

You know how I told you last Friday that I sent my final edits on the one-act version of The Love of Three Oranges to Playscripts on 8/20? Check this out…

Well, golly! That was fast! When Playscripts says that they are fast tracking something, they don’t mess around…

The Love Three Oranges (one-act version) is officially published and available now! You can purchase acting edition scripts or binder books, register your per...

There’s nothing more disgusting than warm chocolate chip cookies right out of the oven, right?

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“The most disgusting thing is chocolate chip cookies right out of the oven. Like when the chips are all warm and gooey.” And as my cousin said this, she shuddered like the mere thought of it made her sick to her stomach.

The rest of us were like… are you joking? But, no, apparently she actually finds warm fresh-baked chocolate cookies to be one of the most disgusting things she’s ever put in her mouth. She doesn’t really like homemade cookies at all, we later learned,...

The Love of Three Oranges (one-act version) is available for perusal by request

A couple of quick updates on The Love of Three Oranges (one-act version):

I received the final proof from Playscripts and gave my approval on August 20th. They are trying to fast track this play to be out as soon as possible so, while I don’t have a firm release date to give you, it should be available very soon now.
There’s a field on the play’s page where you can sign up to be notified via email the moment the play is available for sale. I highly recommend doing that if you’re eager for it be...

Faithful to the original: Adapting something that goes against your beliefs

Adaptation is a very weird movie. But in a good way. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

When I was writing The Love of Three Oranges, I kept coming to moments in the writing process when I would hit a cross-roads between staying closerto the original text and playwright’s intent or to the play I was writing. Was I writing a faithful scholarly adaptation or a comedy for modern audiences based on something old? It was something I really struggled with and, most times, I opted to stay true to Gozzi even w...

The four hardest things about rewriting something you thought was finished

Throwing out digital words is so much less cathartic than the old paper wad (Photo credit: Kat Cole)

“After that there is rewriting. This is worse than merely writing, because not only does he have to think up new things just the same, but at the same time try not to remember the old ones.” -Edward Gorey

Back in March (has it really been FOUR MONTHS since then???), I mentioned that I needed to completely rewrite the project nicknamed Mistress Novel from scratch. To give you the TL; DR recap: My...

Santa Claus is a Vampire and other shocking holiday truths found in Polar Twilight!

Christmas in July… er, August! Planning your holiday show? Consider Polar Twilight, a Christmas show with a bite. #ifyouknowwhatImean

Here’s the thing. Playscripts did this big Christmas in July promotional push and was tweeting links out to all their holiday plays and I thought, “Nifty! “What I nice boost for Polar Twilight.” Except, when I took a moment to follow their links, I noticed that the show wasn’t actually showing up at all. After some investigation, I made a discovery.

Up until rece...