Ellyn Oaksmith's Blog, page 4
December 7, 2015
Teaser from novel CHASING NIRVANA
Teaser from novel CHASING NIRVANA
Knowing he’s beat, Paul turns off the radio, letting us finish the song. We bounce around in our cramped seats like the hysterical, un-tethered teens we’ve become the further we get from our school, our problems and our lives. We build up to the crescendo, emptying out quietly at the end until Nirvana in 1993 (from left): Kurt Cobain, Krist Novoselic, Dave Grohl. it’s just Nikki singing about…
December 2, 2015
What did I learn from my first NanoWriMo? Great things.
What did I learn from my first NanoWriMo? Great things.
“How can you write a novel about a young gay girl in a small town in 1993?” My mom asked me in October. I said that the teen years are rough for everyone. No I wasn’t gay but I remembered teen angst, that isolation and fear. But on November 1st I had an epiphany about Chasing Nirvana. Without knowing it, I had written about my lifelong battle with depression. Rather than feeling empowered, I felt…
Go to ELLYN OAKSMITH BOOKS on Facebook and let me know which cover you prefer for my short story...
Go to ELLYN OAKSMITH BOOKS on Facebook and let me know which cover you prefer for my short story collection. It’s about my adventures growing up, screenwriting in Los Angeles, working in Alaska and finding my happily ever after while living with depression.
Shooting stars? 
A balancing act? Want to vote on my book cover? Just comment.
Go to ELLYN OAKSMITH BOOKS on Facebook and let me know which cover you prefer for my short story collection.
December 1, 2015
NanoWriMo 2015 Chapter 17: This is my Happy Ending
NanoWriMo 2015 Chapter 17: This is my Happy Ending
The offload of the Arctic Enterprise lasted all night. Under halogen lights Alaska Ferry Route – Bristol Bay Fishing Grounds every pallet of fish was tallied and loaded onto trucks until the holds were empty. The next day was spent restocking supplies and boarding additional crew-members for those whose contracts had ended. That night several of us, including Carl, the cook, my sister and I…
November 30, 2015
NanoWriMo 2015: Funny is the New Sad Chapter #16: Going Dutch (Harbor)
NanoWriMo 2015: Funny is the New Sad Chapter #16: Going Dutch (Harbor)
Anne Foster’s office was in Interlaken, Seattle, not too far from Seattle Prep, my high school. (Which is featured in Adventures with Max and Louise — and no, I did NOT choose that title. Knockers is the original title.) I’d climb two sets of open concept stone stairs, wait in a reception area and, at the appointed time, Anne would open the door. There isn’t much to say about my therapy sessions…
November 25, 2015
NanoWriMo 2015: Funny is the New Sad: Chapter #15 Candy Bear
NanoWriMo 2015: Funny is the New Sad: Chapter #15 Candy Bear
Her named was Candy Bear. Her office was somewhere above the employee exit of the Bon Marche which funneled out onto a dark rainy Seattle street. I was humiliated, terrified and sobbing, telling Candy that I was already in therapy, that my father was an alcoholic and although I didn’t blame him at all, I was deeply depressed and had been for a very long time. Candy had ginger curling hair pulled…
November 24, 2015
NanoWriMo 2015 Funny is the New Sad Chapter 14: The Graduate
NanoWriMo 2015 Funny is the New Sad Chapter 14: The Graduate
As a fledgling screenwriter in LA, I was with an agency called Creative Artists Agency. My young agent (who eventually became the president of CAA) had come to speak at AFI where I was a graduate student. Shortly after his visit I’d sent him my screenplay along with a funny letter about how the roaches played soccer with bottles of White Out in my apartment. Amazingly, he took me on as a client.…
November 19, 2015
NanoWriMo201I5:Funny is the New Sad: Chapter 12. Hollywood Shuffle.
NanoWriMo201I5:Funny is the New Sad: Chapter 12. Hollywood Shuffle.
I met him when he was much younger. Ian McKellen broke my finger. God I love that sentence. This was long before he was knighted. Before he played Gandalf in The Hobbit and Magneto in The X-Men films. There are secrets I could tell you about actors from my days working as a PR writer/assistant that would be ugly and horrible to share but this one is funny. It was a complete accident. Early one…
November 18, 2015
NanoWriMo 2015 (Funny is the New Sad): Chapter 11: Welcome to LA
NanoWriMo 2015 (Funny is the New Sad): Chapter 11: Welcome to LA
Scene One: The future screenwriter drives into LA in her grey 1982 VW Rabbit hatchback. It’s loaded to the gills with her meager possessions. Among them: the Times Literary Supplement Dictionary that she’s talked her parents into buying her. It’s a twin pack over-sized dictionary in micro-print with a small reading glass tucked into the top of the gold embossed navy blue carrying box. Somewhere…
November 16, 2015
NanoWriMo 2015: Funny is the New Sad: Chapter 10: Take Offs and Landings
NanoWriMo 2015: Funny is the New Sad: Chapter 10: Take Offs and Landings
(This from Sad is the New Funny: Road-Tripping with Depression, that I am writing for NanoWriMo 2015. See link at bottom for a free e-copy in 2016.) The novelist in me would sketch a more dramatic scenario. In a novel, we’d open the room to a cloud of smoke. The hotel room would be packed with leather-clad Rock Star trashed hotel room. Photo: The Guardian punks shooting speed-balls and smashing…
