Kenneth Atchity's Blog, page 142

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Dragonlords of Dumnonia Book 2

There is a scrap of a boy who dreams of riding a dragon, but he feels his dreams are far away, especially in the land of Drumnonia where there are dragons, riders, AND demons, gods, and elves. In the end, he becomes a dragon rider, and not just an ordinary rider either: he is the Dragonheart! Book 2 follows Shashtah's journey to becoming the most destructive weapon Centuria has ever known: The Dragon Sun.    BUY NOW




FREE March 20 - 24!!

As the transition period between the Middle Ages and modern times, the Renaissance is perhaps the most distinguished age since that of Classical Greece. Part of Harper Reference's successful Reader series, Kenneth Atchity's Renaissance Reader is a unique volume that provides a vast and varied collection of primary source documents and artwork of this fascinating period of history.     

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An Ed Noon Mystery!

Ed Noon's career takes a sharp turn when he is hired by the President a nuclear scientist, who has mysteriously disappeared, and with him, the designs for America's most powerful nuclear super-weapon.

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An Ed Noon​ Mystery!

A voodoo cult masterminded by the fantastic Count Calypso is trying to take over the world and Ed Noon is the only private eye between Manhattan and Port-au-Prince who can stop him.

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Guest Post: Where Fake News Began by Jerry Amernic

H. G. Wells and his epic novel 1984 are making a comeback. His character Winston Smith existed in a world where freedom and privacy have disappeared. Some think this is happening today.

But Wells also wrote War of the Worlds and because of that we can thank him for introducing us to ‘fake news,’ courtesy of a young radio broadcaster named Orson who had almost the same last name. In this case, Welles. In 1938, on the day before Halloween, Orson Welles convinced America that earth was under attack by Martians.

Sound crazy? Well, millions of listeners believed it. The next day The New York Times reported that in one community 20 families rushed out of their houses with wet towels on their faces to protect them from Martian gas. People hid in cellars, hit the road and packed their guns.

We can laugh at this today, but go back to October 30, 1938 and the world was on edge with the rise of Nazi Germany; World War II would begin less than a year later when Germany invaded Poland.

Orson Welles began his radio broadcast by saying it was based on the H. G. Wells novel War of the Worlds, but hey, humans are a strange breed in that we believe what we want to believe.

Which explains why the Protocols of the Elders of Zion – a fictional blueprint for Jewish domination of the world – still carries weight. It was published in Russia in 1903, translated into other languages and eventually went ‘viral.’ American industrialist Henry Ford, a noted anti-Semite, printed half a million copies in the U.S. alone. The Nazi propaganda machine wasted no time stirring up the masses and the Protocols found their way into German schools.

Now it’s 2017. No one trusts the media. What’s more, we don’t even know what constitutes the media and anyone can be the media. This means they can ‘broadcast’ whatever they want – whether it’s based on fact or not.

What with Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, the line between fact and fiction is no longer the blur that it once was. Today the blur doesn’t exist because everything is fact and fiction.

There’s an old joke in journalism that you should never let the facts get in the way of a good story. This notion is running rampant now and it’s not a good thing. It is a dangerous thing. Why?

Because we humans are a strange breed.






Jerry Amernic is a Canadian writer of fiction and non-fiction books. He is the author of the  Holocaust-related novel 'The Last Witness'.

Story Merchant Books March Amazon eBook Deals!

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Against a horror stands a single man, Darius Inglorion, a holy warrior known as a Paladin, who is summoned to rally the states of the Southlands frozen by fear and treachery.

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Story Merchant Books: Sell Your Story to Hollywood FREE Until March 16th!!

Dealing with Hollywood High Concept and more! "#1 Writer's Pocket Guide to The Business of Show Business"!





Through the expanding influence of the Internet and the corporatization of both publishing and entertainment, the process of getting your book to the big screen has gotten more complicated, more eccentric, and more exciting.

This little book aims to help you figure out how to get your story told on big screens or small. It’s not going to give you rules and regulations, because they simply don’t exist today. Any rule that could be promulgated has and will be broken. What this book offers instead is nearly thirty years of observation of how things happen in show business, the business of entertainment (better known around the world as Hollywood). Dr. Ken Atchity’s Hollywood experience ranges from writing to managing writers to producing their movies for television and theaters. He’s seen the Hollywood story market from nearly every angle, including legal and business affairs.

Dolphin Boy Fundraiser Screening March 16th to Benefit Lashon Academy

Please Join a Special Screening of  Yonaton Nir and Dani Menkin​'s  Dolphin Boy for Larger Than Life, supporting Israeli kids with cancer and Lashon Academy, The first Hebrew Charter School in the valley.

RSVP Here

Introducing Ken Atchity's Master Class in Storytelling!

For Every Author Who Wants To Master Storytelling



"Our innate ability to tell stories not only makes the world evolve, but is the foundation of great, unforgettable books.


Introducing: Master Class In Storytelling

What you will learn:

    Master the art of storytelling
    What is a story
    What is a storyteller
    How to harness your innate storytelling vocation
    What is the value of stories
    What stories do for us
    What are the storyteller's responsibilities
    What you need to do to create great stories

Who is Ken Atchity?


Ken Atchity is a best-selling author, writing coach and L.A. based movie producer whose accomplishments include

Teaching:

        Former professor of comparative literature and teacher of creative writing at Occidental College and UCLA
        Fulbright Professor at the University of Bologna

Work History:

        Produced nearly 30 films in the past 25 years for major studios, television broadcasters, and independent distribution.

        His documentary special for Discovery Channel, based on the New York Times bestseller “The Kennedy Detail” by Jerry Blaine & Lisa McCubbin, was nominated for an Emmy.

        Has worked in nearly every part of the entertainment and publishing industries.

        Nearly two dozen of his clients have been NYT Bestsellers.

He is also:

        An author who has been on the inside of the publishing industry and knows how it works

        An author of over 20 nonfiction books and novels

        An experienced writing coach who has helped literally hundreds of writers to find a market for their work by bringing their craft to the level of their ambition and vision

And:

        He was a book columnist for The Los Angeles Times Book Review

        He is the founder and co-editor of DreamWorks: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Dreams and the Arts


This Master Class In Storytelling shares a lifetime of secrets learned by, and from, the most successful writers and creative industry professionals globally.


Ken Atchity is uniquely qualified, as a best-selling author and writing coach, to help you understand everything you need to know and do to master the power of storytelling.


    Ken Atchity is the author of these six best-selling guides for writers:


Here's Exactly What You're Going To Get With The Master Class In Storytelling:

    Video Training that will change your attitude
    A Discussion Forum Online
    Fast track material so you are not overloaded with material you DON'T need
    No padding, just what AUTHORS NEED to learn, FAST
    A guide to removing the roadblocks to your success as a storyteller
    A program that will set you up for long-term success
    Access to Full Course Online, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
    You can take this course when you want
    No deadlines for completion
    Additional Support, If You Take That Option
    Please see the list of modules further down the page for even more detail!

Total Retail Value: $78 - for the basic course - BUT YOU WON'T PAY THAT


AND IT'S 100% Risk-FREE!

If MasterClass In Sorytelling doesn't deliver on its promise you WILL receive a full refund, This Is A No Quibble Refund Policy!
Special Pricing When You Order Now

The total value of what you're getting today is $78, for the course. But the good news is you are NOT going to pay that price.

Because I know what it's like to struggle, when you're an outsider in the industry, and because I want to do everything I can to help you succeed, TODAY we're giving you everything listed at a special price of just $39! That's right, that a 50% discount for a LIMITED TIME ONLY.

Order Now!

Claim your copy of this exciting and informative NEW Master Class from Ken Atchity!


Total Value: $78 - for the basic course, but you won't pay that price. Your price is $39.


P.S. Never before have you had such a unique opportunity to have this PROVEN expert take you by the hand and help you get in the right mindset to write great stories.

7 classic books you need to read in 2017

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Winter is finally on its way out, and it's time to start thinking about spring vacations — and the books to read while traveling to the nearest body of water that isn't frozen over.

The phrase "beach read" might evoke images of Harlequin romances or frothy chick-lit paperbacks rather than the Great American Novel, but it's time to rethink what's on your reading list. Some of literature's greatest stories are entertaining and can be read outside of a classroom.

1984

Sales of George Orwell's book, published in 1949, have risen dramatically since Donald Trump's election, with the book hitting the top of the Amazon best-seller list and a theater adaptation slated to open on Broadway in June. Clearly the dystopian novel about Big Brother and the Thought Police is resonating strongly with the American public.


The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

The first book in Douglas Adams' comedy science-fiction series follows Arthur Dent, the last surviving man on Earth after the planet is demolished, to make a hyperspace bypass. He embarks on a series of adventures and misadventures with a crew of hilarious sidekicks, including the depressed robot Marvin the Paranoid Android.


The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Mark Twain's story of the adventurous orphan first published in 1884 offers a scathing satire on societal standards, especially racism. The book has long been the subject of discussion and debate about the language and racial slurs that fill the pages as it narrates the story of Huck and his friend Jim, a runaway slave, who travel down the Mississippi River on a raft.


The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

The 1961 story of "The Teacher Who Changed My Life" may seem tired to some, but Miss Jean Brodie, an educator who declares herself to be "in her prime," definitely changes the lives of a few of her students — although not in the ways one might expect. The "Brodie set" receive a real-life education about love, sex and politics.


The House of Mirth

Few books expose the hypocrisy and social pressures that women had to endure throughout history more movingly than Edith Wharton's 1905 story of Lily Bart. Lily is a well-born but poor woman who struggles to move up New York's social ladder, racing against time as she approaches the apparently unmarriageable age of 30. Her heartbreakingly tragic conclusion causes this book to be a guaranteed tear-jerker.


Tess of the D'Urbervilles
Thomas Hardy's 1891 novel was censored and scandalous when it was first published, due in part to its sexual content. The story of a young woman whose life is shaped by how men treat her, Tess includes addresses rape, religion and the danger of keeping secrets because of societal shame.


Little Women

For those in the mood for something a bit lighter, Louisa May Alcott's story of four sisters growing up during the Civil War is a heartwarming story of family and friendship with a powerful thread of feminism and emphasis on independence published in 1868.

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Pitch A Producer With Ken Atchity At The Dublin Writers' Conference June 23 - 25, 2017

Los Angeles based movie producer with 30 major movie and TV productions created, member of the Academy of Motion Pictures (the Oscars), author of Sell Your Story to Hollywood, The Writers Pocket Guide to The Business of Show Business, and Writing Treatments that Sell, book publisher, previously professor of comparative literature, vice President of PEN, LA Times book reviewer.

Ken will listen and critique a 1 to 2 minute public verbal pitch by you about any story, for print, TV, film. His feedback could change your life. Only ten places are available. Apply early – email: admin@booksgosocial.com after booking your conference place.

SIGN UP NOW – EARLY BIRD PRICING AVAILABLE  

Guest Post: Writers, weird writers and nudity by Jerry Amernic

Writers are a weird group, each one with his or her own particular quirks. Make no mistake, writing is torture, especially fiction, but it’s pleasant torture in which you proceed bit by bit to the end even if the process takes years. Michelangelo was asked how he, at the tender of 24, was able to carve his masterpiece The David. He said it was simple. All he did was take this big slab of limestone and remove everything that wasn’t David.

Easy for him to say, but we can apply that principle to a novel. It’s about the ability to focus. A literary agent once told me the key is to write in ten words or less what your novel is about, and then put those words over your keyboard so every page, every paragraph and every sentence you write is about that.

If it isn’t, cut it.

The manuscript for my first novel Gift of the Bambino was 454 pages when an editor got hold of it. He taught me about “excisions” and with his help we whittled it down to 227 pages. Exactly half! Then it was published.

A lot of this has to do with the writer’s ego. You have to get rid of that when you write, and write for the reader. But every writer is different.

I have to write in silence – for fiction, non-fiction, or assignments from clients. No TV, radio or headset. It’s the same when running; many joggers are plugged into earphones but not me. I like to hear my breathing, the birds, the wind, and if I’m running by the lake the water crashing against the shore.

But writers also have to evolve and that includes technology. I remember making the transition from an IBM Selectric typewriter, which was big in its day, to a word processor and then a computer. Indeed, learning to write on a screen, as opposed to a page, didn’t happen overnight but when it was mastered the writing improved.

On the other hand, I once met Nelson De Mille at a writers’ conference and he told me he writes all his manuscripts on paper in longhand! He doesn’t use a computer. But even in the days before computers writers had quirks.

John Steinbeck did his drafts in pencil and kept a dozen sharp pencils on his desk. His editing was so intense that he always had callouses on his hands.

Truman Capote was superstitious. He never began or ended anything on a Friday, he would change his hotel room if the phone number had ‘13’ in it, and he never left more than three cigarette butts in his ashtray.

Some writers like to write in bed and they include Mark Twain, George Orwell, Woody Allen and Marcel Proust. Ernest Hemingway wrote on his typewriter standing up while Dan Brown of Da Vinci Code fame resorts to inversion therapy in order to relax before he starts writing.

But Victor Hugo was the weirdest of all. He liked to write in the nude! When he was facing his publisher’s looming deadline for The Hunchback of Notre Dame, he had his valet take all his clothes so he couldn’t leave the house.

This is a different type of discipline which I might consider doing myself. But I live in Canada. And it’s winter.



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EQUALITY. NOW MORE THAN EVER! Writers Essays

In the tradition of Dr. Martin Luther King's Stride Toward Freedom and Malala Yousafzai's, I Am Malala, Equality: What Do You Think About When You Think of Equality? presents thought-provoking and compelling personal essays that probe a concept professed to be the very foundation of our democracy--a concept that may even be more vital today than in the past.

From international bestselling author, Anne Perry who asserts we must look within ourselves to our emotions, experiences, and beliefs before we attempt an honest and truthful answer, to Dennis Palumbo, psychotherapist and author, who claims diagnostic labels used in treating mental illness often stigmatize and dehumanize the patient causing clinicians to view their patients in terms of their diagnosis rather than people, and Barbara Abercrombie, writer and distinguished university professor, who explores ageism as yet another form of stereotyping and discrimination in the language we use to describe older adults.

These award-winning and best-selling writers, and twenty-two more, tackle equality across multiple spectrums--racial, social, political, religious, marital, gender--and run with it in surprising directions.