Jack Fitzgerald's Blog, page 3

Fate Sent Me to Paris

(Originally posted February 21, 2013)

So let’s talk a bit about how fate entered my life and sent me to Paris right into the arms of the muse.

I was an instructor of Spanish at New York State University in Plattsburg, New York. The climate in that city near the Canadian border and city of Montreal was mostly cold and during the winter—snowy, frigid and dreary. What was a person who grew up in Mississippi doing in such weather conditions? I asked myself that question practically every day I lived in Plattsburg.

In order to get away from all that winter, I worked my way into heading a group of our students studying at the University of Guadalajara in Mexico. The weather there was beautiful, warm and inviting. When the group disbanded after their semester of study, I was slated to return to my igloo in Plattsburg. I simply couldn’t   My partner at the time was a young man who was a teacher of French and a lover of anything French. He suggested we go to Paris instead. At his urging, I asked for a semester’s sabbatical, which I got, and off we went to Paris for six weeks. (That was the maximum we could stay under the conditions of our cheap Icelandic Airlines tickets.) See, I had no planned rendezvous with my muse there. I was simply letting fate have her way with me via my partner’s influence.

The six weeks flew by because we were like tourists on an extended stay. We were loving every minute of it. My partner did not want to return to the USA, mainly because he had found a job teaching English as a second language at a private language school. I felt obliged to return and had decided I would with or without him. However, a few days before my departure, I was offered a job as an English teacher. What to do? With my friend urging me to stay and my aversion to snow and dreary weather conditions, I chose to remain in Paris.

We had jobs that would at least cover our livelihoods but little else. Even so, what future was there for me in Paris? What could I do that would match that good post-office pension my mother had in mind? I hadn’t a clue and would just have to let fate make those decisions for me.

In the next blog, you’ll see how fate lets the muse enter my life unannounced.

Are You Roger?

(Originally posted February 19, 2013)

Before you try answering that question, which is no doubt a complete riddle to you, a few hints would be in order.

The first hint is this: I am a writer who has a new book that will be coming out in March entitled Roger Should Have Said Yes.

Okay, that takes care of the “Roger” part of the question.

Hint number two is that obviously I am a writer and will be writing about things that concern writers and their attempts to gain a foothold in the profession.

My career as a writer, like many others, began in Paris, France. So many people since the 1920s have settled on this city as the residence of the muse for writing. Some names that come to mind are Ernest Hemmingway, Gertrude Stein, that other Fitzgerald, F. Scott, and countless others. Their names alone became god-like for mobs of aspiring writers to follow. Countless numbers of would-be authors have flocked to Paris up to the very present, all hoping to walk in the footsteps of the literary deities. Most all end up at Shakespeare & Company, the vintage English-language bookstore near the banks of the River Seine, to render their homage to sanctified nostalgia.

I was not one of them. My going to Paris and what followed after I got there was more of an accident than anything else. I have often thought (and expressed in my writing) that we let fate make most of our decisions for us.

Before I go any further, I should state that my mother, if she had had her way when I was in the decision-making process of where I should head in life, was totally convinced that I should get a good job with the post office because they paid well and had a good pension. I, of course, thought otherwise or else these paragraphs would never have been written.

For hint number three, we’ll jump to the present. I have written over 30 screenplays and four published books as well as a dozen produced plays. This leads me to tell you that writing is a difficult row to hoe. My mother, on the other hand, would have filed it under her saying, “There’s many a slip between the cup and the lip.”

No hint number four exists except to say that in upcoming blogs all will be revealed—especially about a guy named Roger. You will get valuable but firm information about the art of playwriting, screenwriting and novel writing. My tidbits will not attempt to make joining the ranks of the published and produced sound easy. In fact my reflections just might jolt you out of that mental rose garden you’ve been cultivating since you first heard about the writing profession. Your dreams about becoming a writer most likely arrived via your high school English teacher and her trusty literary anthology of student prose and poetry—which was a guaranteed parent pleaser.

Anyway, we are several blogs away from your being able to answer the question, “Are You A Roger?” One thing is certain though, when you finally find all about Roger, you will then have the opportunity to answer that question. See you again shortly.

Play It Again, Sam

Editor’s Note:

Jack’s readers have requested that the blogs be re-posted. In December I will begin republishing the blogs in their original order and the site will remain unchanged. If you’re on the mailing list, then you’ll be receiving notices of the re-posted blogs plus any surprise entries by Jack. And, yes, he’s doing just fine and will continue to reply to your comments and emails. If you have any questions you may email me, dan@jackfitzgerald.com.

PS:

In the 1942 film classic Casablanca, Richard “Rick” Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) never says “Play it again, Sam.” In fact, nobody does. There are two exchanges that come close. The first takes place between Ilsa Lund Laszlo (Ingrid Bergman) and Sam (Dooley Wilson) and the second takes place between Rick and Sam.

So Long…

It’s a terrible thing, I think, in life to wait until you’re ready. I have this feeling now that actually no one is ever ready to do anything. There is no such thing as ready. There is only now.” – Huge Laurie

Dear Loyal Readers,

It is with great regret that I write this blog to you. I knew it was coming but I just didn’t know when. Unfortunately, that day has arrived.

Last fall I was very ill with just about everything Mother Nature could throw at me. I was immobile, and for a time had no recollection of where I was or who I was. This lasted from October until January, when I finally came home. With the help of a village composed of friends, relatives, doctors, nurses, and therapists, I slowly regained my ability to walk, to talk and to remember my identity. I began living my life again. I made a great recovery all in all but I was not as I was before the illness. For those of you who like details and I do preach that DETAILS are essential to good writing, here are the elements of my sick time. I had a debilitating case of Sciatica which totally paralyzed me. I had dehydration, then kidney failure and finally pneumonia. Even so, once I got home and started making a bit of progress in the recuperation department, I returned to the blog and managed to turn out a new blog every week or every other week.

It was during that time I knew this letter would have to be written one day. Even though I made progress in becoming a productive person, I’m sorry to report that Mother Nature in the last few months has saddled me with a couple of whammies that finally brought down the curtain. I have developed a vision problem consisting of Glaucoma and Wet Macular Degeneration. (The last requires an injection into my eyeball monthly.) My hearing isn’t so good either.

The name of my last blog was ANATOMY OF A FILM and told about how the film “La Nuit de Varennes.” It happened to become a film. I have often said in my plays , novels, and screenplays that many times we let life make our decisions for us. The film mentioned in my last blog is a perfect example of the word happenstance. So is this blog.

Before I moved to Palm Springs, I lived fifteen years in West Hollywood, California. It was during those times that I worked on my screenplays and was a script doctor. Due to the age factor, writing jobs got scarcer and scarcer. The Writers Guild even had a committee to battle ageism. This group produced very little positive results. As a consequence, when I hit 65, I moved to Palm Springs, a retirement destination for many show business people.

One thing I learned very quickly was that the main activity for most people here was to eat and drink. I quickly decided I did not want to have these as my new professions. Instead I decided to write a book based on one of my plays. The result of this was my first published book, CONTESSA. It did quite well but I quickly found out that publishing companies pretty much expected you to do a large part of your own marketing.

One weekend I went into West Hollywood to attend a book signing at a book club. After the event, a friend of mine and I went to a popular restaurant called The Silver Spoon. I noticed a young man in his early forties at the next table would look over in our direction every so often. I smiled in an attempt to be friendly.

He asked me, “Did you used to teach Spanish in Riverside, California?”

“Yes,” I replied.”

“Is your name Jack Fitzgerald?”

“Yes,” I answered, “but that was many years ago.”

He gave me a big smile and held out his hand and said, “I’m Dan Felix. I was a student of yours.”

I was absolutely taken off guard because Dan had been an excellent student and had been blessed with an active curiosity, just like me. He was always coming up with some new piece of information to try out on me.  Palm reading, handwriting analysis, and even what your name meant.

Dan. Taken by Jack using “Little Blue.”

I was delighted to see Dan again but the boyish young man I used to know was no longer. He was mature and had a very professional look about him. He quickly told me that he had attended the Air Force Academy and had served in the Air Force for quite a few years. His specialty was now technology marketing and that he was actively in that business at the present.

I quickly filled him in on my years in Paris, my just having retired from being a screen writer and script doctor. I told him I had just started a new career—novelist. I showed him a copy of CONTESSA. He asked me about my marketing activities. And I told him I had none except hit and miss like book clubs and book store appearances.

He smiled and asked if I had a blog. I had no idea what he was talking about. He thought a minute and then said that for old times and because he appreciated me so much as a teacher, he would create a blog for me—for free!

I was delighted but can assure you I did not know beans about something called a blog. Over the following weeks we got together in person, on the phone and via email. He lived in Riverside, which was about 50 miles from Palm Springs. He would ask me for photos and info about my book. Finally in a very short period of time, he sent me via the internet a copy of my “blog.” It was beautiful, I thought, and so well done. It had my biography, my writing output over the years and just some interesting trivia. I used it immediately and sent it to everybody I knew or met.

The blog was revised a couple of times over the following years. Then Dan decided once that he would re-do the blog and that I should write an article weekly.

This is how my blog began—by sheer happenstance. The blogs that you have received over the last three or so years have been the result of Dan’s input. He has been the one who has done all of the terrific layout, editing, and especially all of the different departments of this blog. In short, he has been a treasure.

Can you imagine if I hadn’t gone to the Silver Spoon that day? What if I hadn’t taught Dan? So, here you have another instance of fate making our decisions for us.

I could not write this “so long” blog without sharing with you the tremendous job Dan Felix has done over the years. If you have enjoyed this blog, a great and integral part of your interest is due to the talent he has incorporated in it.

Thanks, Dan. Thanks for all the years of friendship. I could never have done it without you.

So, here it is, my friends. I am not saying good-bye. I’m more comfortable to say “so long.” I will put out a new blog occasionally. In the meantime, I’d appreciate it if you went to the ARCHIVES and checked out some of my past blogs. I’ve been writing this blog for nearly three years and you have over 200 blogs from which to choose. Actually if you read one blog a week from the Archive section, you could easily have a choice of two years worth of blogs. It would be as if I were still with you on a weekly basis. Then every so often, a fresh blog from me will appear. I might even go into all the trials and tribulations of getting a needle in the eye. I could even tell you about the baggage we all have in life and goodness knows what other topics.

My very best to you. I thank you for your comments over the years and your interest. You WILL hear from me so don’t think this is goo-bye. It’s like I said——

SO LONG,

Jack

Anatomy of a Film

In my last blog, I mentioned a French Film by the name of La Nuit de Varennes (1982) in a list of films having to do with Paris. I had an asterisk beside this film and asked that you read today’s blog for additional information behind this film.

This was and is a very popular film in France and abroad. I singled this film out due to the fact that I wrote the original storyline. I thought you might be interested in knowing how this film came to exist. To begin with, I’ll give you a brief rundown of the plot.

On June 20th of 1791, the king and queen of France (Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette) tried to escape from Revolutionary Paris to join a group of loyal followers outside Paris. They were arrested in the small town of Varennes. I took these actual facts and mixed them with some bizarre happenings going on around the king and queen’s situation. In that little town I had an aged Casanova (played in the film by Marcello Mastroianni) along with several other peculiar characters spending the night together in the local inn. I used the technique of classical French farce whereby people are quickly entering and leaving through the various doors of the inn. I had the night of June 20th become almost a Three Stooges event.

HOW THIS FILM CAME TO BE:

In the year of 1978 my friend Nestor Almendros won an Oscar in cinematography for the film Days of Heaven. He was likewise honored at the Cannes Film Festival. He asked a friend of ours, Mexican-Italian film producer Giuseppe Hibler, and me to go with him to Cannes and share his hotel room. This was wonderful for me as I had always dreamed of going to the Cannes Film Festival and getting in on all the parties and seeing all the new films.

Giuseppe was a real go getter and always had a nose out for film deals of any kind. I at this time was only known for having founded The Paris English Theater where 8 of my plays had been produced.

One day while having coffee on the patio of the Carlton Hotel, the meeting spot for all Cannes film wheeling and dealing, Giuseppe came running up with a stout young man smoking a cigar. He introduced the man to me and told him I was an outstanding writer. He then told me that the heavy guy owned a chain of porno theaters across the USA and was always on the look out for new storylines. He said he was willing to pay a hundred dollars for an acceptable storyline. My friend told him I could come up with something in an hour. The guy took off and said he’d meet us back here in an hour.

While complaining to Giuseppe that I had never written a porno storyline in my life, he convinced me that it would be a fast fifty bucks apiece. He escorted me to the press room and sat me at a typewriter and said he’d be back in about 45 minutes. He quickly disappeared, leaving me with a blank sheet of paper in the typewriter.

I began wondering what could I possibly write about that was based on sex. I had no idea how to begin. I noticed a large painting in the room of the French Court at Versailles at the time of Marie Antoinette. I got to thinking maybe no one had thought of porno in another time frame. I quickly dreamed up a tale of sexual swapping at the inn in Varennes where Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI were captured. I stocked the story with some rather outlandish characters. I actually finished my little tale before my 45 minutes were up.

Giuseppe shortly came running up, read my storyline, frowned and said this was worth more than a hundred dollars. He went tearing off and several hours later approached me at dinner with a big smile on his face. He had sold the “short treatment” to an Italian film director for a thousand dollars–$500 for me and $500 for him. It was like found money for both of us. We had sold total rights but that didn’t bother us as we were sure we’d never hear of my fanciful tale ever again. I was overjoyed as that was the first thing I had ever gotten “big” money for as a writer.

I thought very little about Varennes after that. However, in 1982, there my little tale was—a full-fledged movie being shown all over the world. My original title was “Le Paysan Perverti.” (The Perverted Peasant) but it was subsequently known as “La Nuit de Varennes.”

About ten years later I was flying to New York from California to catch a charter flight to Paris to visit friends. The plane had mechanical problems and touched down unexpectedly in Jacksonville, Florida, where the airline put us up for the night.

At dinner that night I was sitting at a table of eight and everyone broke out with the small talk. A very dignified man at the table began asking each of us where we were going. He asked me and I told him I was headed to Paris. I added that I used to live there and had founded The Paris English Theatre.

He was quite impressed and told me I was a kindred spirit as he was a Professor of Film at the University of North Carolina.

I admit I was a little taken aback because I had never heard of such a college program. He told me they had a very active film study department where one could earn up to a Masters Degree. I could only wonder what a person could do with that degree to keep a roof over the head. I didn’t ask him. Instead I asked him to give me an example of their program. He replied that the students had to write a thesis on a particular film or genre of film. He could tell I wanted an example. He looked at me with a broad smile and said “One of my students is writing a dissertation on a very fine French film “La Nuit de Varenes.” Do you know it?”

I told him everything I have written in this blog and he was amazed. He wasn’t any more amazed than I was. To put it bluntly, I was flabbergasted.

As I’ve said over and over, writing projects generally come from your adventures in life.

Paris is a Movie

Here I am in Paris. I tried earlier last month to make it here but a MacGuffin with my passport kept me in Palm Springs for another month. Now with a brand-new passport in hand and a re-scheduled ticket, I finally made it to Paris.

Sitting with my friend Tom at a café in Place Saint Michel, we are celebrating with a glass of wine our being in Paris at the same time. Tom works for PBS in Los Angeles and as we sip our wine we catch up on our two favorite topics: Paris and Film.

The spot where we are sitting is very close to Notre Dame and this area is, one could say, the crossroads of Paris—or where most visitors end up. So many tourists are here. In fact the place is teeming with mainly Americans but you can hear people from every part of the world talking excitedly in their native languages.

At any rate, Tom and I are trying to figure out why Paris is flooded with so many visitors. As we look around us, we can remember seeing this city in countless films—people eating in fancy restaurants, artists, dancers, painters, models, writers, cooks, sidewalk cafes, bad guys chasing good guys, good guys chasing bad guys, showgirls, spies, wartime and music. We also have seen the famous architecture that has served as a backdrop for so many films. Wine is a whole world unto itself. All of these components of Paris have been brought to us via the medium of film.

We decided that everyone we see walking around us is here due to some movie showing the glory and adventure that is Paris. We then begin naming off movies that have influenced us and most likely are the cause for our sitting at this outdoor café having an excellent glass of wine.

The art of cooking was almost invented here. Fancy pastries are works of art. A grocery store (Fauchon, and Bon Marché or even a little Mom and Pop store ) are an adventure and feast for the eyes. Food becomes beautiful. The world of fashion alone brings tons of people here. Writers and poets flood this city to kick-start their careers. From showgirls to opera singers, theater is an entire sub-culture. Sidewalk cafés in Paris are wonderful for people watching. All of these elements have spawned numerous films which have been the magnets drawing us and countless others.

Tom and I could not think of any other city that has attracted so many visitors. Of course other cities like New York, San Francisco, Buenos Aires, Berlin, Tokyo, Rio, Hong Kong and Rome are very good places to visit but Paris beats all of them for having a magnetic personality.  Each of these cities has had films made about them but Paris has had at least 25 times more English language films than the others. So many films have been made about Paris that little wonder there is a universal desire to visit this city. Nearly 1,000 films worldwide have been made that are totally set in Paris or partially set here. Nearly five hundred English language films are set in this city or contain some element of Paris culture. Nearly fifty films have Paris in their title.

That’s a lot of Paris. No wonder so many people arrive here and seem so familiar with the city. Via films they know The Champs Elysees, The Eiffel Tower, The Arch de Triumph, Notre Dame, The Latin Quarter, The Opera, Rue St. Honoré, the big name perfume houses, the three-star restaurants, (Tour d’Argent etc.), the Louvre Museum, Pigalle, The Paris Flea Market, Pere La Lachaise cemetery, the River Seine, Follies Bergere, Sacre Coeur and the Artists sector, etc. etc. If given a quiz about these areas, most people would get an A. Given a quiz about Tokyo, Berlin, and Hong Kong most people would get a D. If the quiz were held on London, New York or Rome, people would get a B minus or C plus. But Paris, ooh la la, your A is almost assured—and all due to the movie industry.

Most films about Paris do amazingly well at the box office. If you’re writing a screenplay, novel or even a song, you could choose Paris for your setting and most likely do quite well.

Here are some films which you might easily recall and a few you’ve never heard of.

ENGLISH LANGUAGE FILMS WITH PARIS IN THE TITLE:

1917 The Darling of Paris (silent)

1923 A Woman of Paris (Charlie Chaplin silent)

1926 Paris (silent with Joan Crawford

1942 Joan of Paris (English with Michelle Morgan)

1946 Scandal in Paris (with Claudette Colbert)

1951 An American in Paris

1952 April in Paris

1053 Innocents in Paris

1954 The Last Time I Saw Paris

1955 So This is Paris

1958 Paris Holiday

1961 Paris Blues

1066 Made in Paris

1991 Paris is Burning

1995 Jefferson in Paris

1997 An American Werewolf in Paris

2010 From Paris with Love

2022 Midnight in Paris (Woody Allen)

HERE ARE SOME WELL KNOWN FILMS WITH A PARIS SETTING:

1942 Casablanca (“We always have Paris.”)

1958 Gigi (Leslie Caron)

1963 Charade (Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn)

1982 *La Nuit de Varennes (That Night in Varennes) (See next blog September Sept 29, 2016.)

1998 Frantic (with Harrison Ford)

1994 Pret a Porter (Ready To Wear)

1972 Las Tango in Paris (Marlon Brando)

2001 Amelia

2001 Moulin Rouge

2007 The Red Baloon ( A rooftop view of Paris)

2007 La Vie En Rose (The life story of Edith Piaf)

2008 Taken (with Liam Neeson)

2009 Julie & Julia (The story of Julia Child in Paris)

Be sure to read the September 29th blog entitled ANATOMY OF A FILM. It discloses some interesting information about the film LA NUIT DE VARENNES. In the meantime, I lift my glass to you, my faithful readers.

Jack

MacGuffins

Since the MacGuffin was popularized by Alfred Hitchcock in the early 1930s, much has been written about the use of this term in the cinema world. All sorts of dissecting of this tool as a film-writing component has been made by just about everybody. I am sure there must be workshops where people are paying big bucks to learn all about MacGuffin and in the process talk it to death. A MacGuffin, you see, has an air of the elusive about it but all in all is not that complex.

The idea of a MacGuffin was first coined by silent star Pearl White in1914 when she invented a movie serial called “The Perils of Pauline.” Each film was about 30 minutes long and consisted of 6 to 10 life-threatening weekly episodes called chapters . In each episode Pauline searched for a rarified magic object , a villain, (The Iron Claw) or something that was lost and thought to be very valuable for one reason or another. The serial queen of silent films called these plot points “weenies.”

In time, Alfred Hitchcock studied her works and liked what he saw. He then began using these weenies himself. He didn’t particularly like the term “weenie” so he began using the term “MacGuffin.” Over time the term became a full-blown part of film lore.

To sum up what a MacGuffin is you can basically describe it as the quest part of your story. It actually is a trigger that sets you out on a quest. You might rightly call a MacGuffin the nucleus of your story. It is the central and most important part of your plot, providing movement and the basis for activity and growth.

Remember, the MacGuffin is not your plot but merely sets the stage for your plot. For your screenplay to blossom, it is not your plot but an item which motivates your plot. What makes it a bit magical in the eyes of many is that not only is it the search for a mysterious person, place or thing, it can also be nothing specific. (See North by Northwest and Pulp Fiction below.). You need to find this person, place or thing but no specific reason is given why. In the Hitchcock film North by Northwest, you know you’ve got to find the character James Mason plays because you want to find out why he is the bad guy. Other than that, nothing is really revealed. All of Cary Grant’s misadventures unfold around a quest that is not certain. All we know is that the Mason character is bad and we’ve got to find him. The adventure is in finding Mason.

You can have more than one MacGuffin in your plot but don’t overuse them as you will end up confusing your viewers or readers instead of merely entertaining them. Hitchcock in his extremely successful 1930 film The 39 Steps had two MacGuffins: The 39 Steps and a file of stolen Secret papers. Both were pursued separately until they melded into one at the end of the film.

MacGuffins are wonderful in that they do seem to make your screenplay or novel more saleable.

We use MacGuffins to produce a surprise ending, a pivot in the storyline or to produce action.

Alfred Hitchcock is generally given credit as the inventor and principal user of the MacGuffin. Others have come along and used a MacGuffin to turn an ordinary script into an extraordinary one.

Some examples of film using MacGuffins will for sure help you in the construction of your screenplay. Two examples right off are Indiana Jones and The Raiders of The Lost Ark and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Both films use a search for an unusual object type: a MacGuffin.

The Maltese Falcon. The MacGuffin here is an illusive gold statuette of a raven encrusted with jewels. Everyone wants it.
Notorious with Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman looking for a shipment of plutonium in Buenos Aires which needs to go to Nazi Germany to make an atomic bomb. The MacGuffin here of course is the plutonium and where it is hidden.
Casablanca with Humprey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman. Everyone wants those darn Letters of Transit.
Pulp Fiction with John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson. The guys are toting around a brief case, which is the MacGuffin because everybody wants that case and is willing to die to try and get it. We don’t know what is in the case and never find out but a lot of mayhem takes place for this MacGuffin.

So it’s now your turn to see if you can spot the MacGuffins in your favorite film. Then you will be able to start using MacGuffins in your screenplays and stories. Best to you.

The next blog will come to you September 15th from Paris. I got my new passport, re-did my ticket and am ready to go on September 14. You’ll hear from me in Paris.

Up Jumped the Devil

When thinking of what to write about in this week’s blog, I thought about my travels last year about this time. I went to Paris to visit my friends Ken and Christian for a little over two weeks.

I left Paris and returned to the USA in 1980 and since that time have annually returned for a visit every year for 36 years. Last year though in addition to my visit in Paris, I flew to Istanbul to meet up with my friend Rod. We were going to take a 16-day bus trip throughout Turkey. What a wonderful adventure that turned out to be.

I so well remember the night we met with the tour guide and our fellow travelers for a kick-off dinner. I am always a bit nervous being around a group of brand-new people in my life. The guide made the remark that at the moment we were strangers but after our 16 days together, we would all end up very close friends. That certainly did become the case.

Our group consisted of two Americans, my friend and I, and eighteen Australians. Over the course of the ensuing 16 days, we indeed did become fast friends. I must say right here that I have not kept up my end of the bargain because I have not written them in the year that has elapsed since we said goodbye. I can safely say they were all wonderful people and visiting Turkey together did create a close bond among us. Thinking about our good times together makes my mind wander to another time period in my past.

When I was 11 years old and growing up in Okolona, Mississippi, I was pretty much the same inquisitive and adventurous person you see before you today. Like most kids, I took the good and bad in life with about equal attention. Children generally only think of the good days like birthdays and Christmas and shrug their shoulders at the bad days. Adults are more sensitive to the ups and downs of life because they have to deal with the conditions known as stress and paying your way in life.

At 11 I was very curious about any and everything that went on around me. Some days after school, I would go visit two black women who lived near us. They had been slaves when they were children. I simply couldn’t believe that one person could own another and so I went to visit them with the intent of finding out more information on the subject.

Aunt Sally

Old black ladies of that time were called Aunt. So I visited Aunt Sally and her sister who lived next door, Aunt Liza. Also included in some of the visits was Aunt Sally’s husband, Uncle Grady. He too had been a slave. We talked about everything. I told them about what had happened at school that day and they told me about their early lives.

One day I appeared with my arm in a sling and told them I had broken my arm. Aunt Sally wanted to know all the details. I let her know that it happened due to a skating accident. When I finished, she shook her head and said, “Oh Child, up jumped the devil.” I thought it was a good expression but I asked her what it meant.

She said that things in life can go along just fine and you’re happy and think life couldn’t get any better. Then up jumps the devil. She said I had probably been having a real good time of it when all of a sudden I broke my arm. She further explained that it happens all the time. When we get to thinking we got the world by its tail, the ole devil will jump right in and lets you know you what’s what.

Uncle Grady

This saying has stuck with me over the years and I’ve repeated it at times to my friends when things took an unexpected turn. The connection with my trip to Turkey is as follows. We had a marvelous time in Turkey. We were surprised how clean it was, how friendly the people were, how much fun we were having and most of all how safe we felt there. My friend and I in Ankara, the Turkish capital, one night went to a downtown area like Paris of the thirties. We ate at an outdoor café where the food was good and the service friendly. Music was everywhere and the people were laughing and happily talking.

Our bus trip ended back in Istanbul where it had begun. We all said our good-byes and went our separate ways , telling one another we would write and keep in contact.. My friend and I went from Istanbul to Venice, Italy, for a few days. From there we returned to our homes in Southern California.

Several weeks later UP JUMPED THE DEVIL. The wonderful little café in Ankara where we had had dinner was the site of a suicide bomber, which resulted in quite a few people being killed and wounded. Then a bit later a bus like ours with 20 passengers was attacked and ten of the twenty were murdered by terrorists. Later some more bombings, then the Istanbul airport suffered a terrorist attack–and just recently a military revolution shook the nation. Things were so nice and peaceful when we were there last year and then up jumped the devil.

I remember when I left Paris to return to the States to work on a screenplay in Los Angeles, I thought I had it made. I was on my way. Things were going so well. Then UP JUMPED THE DEVIL. In one day, the bottom fell out of the screenplay project I was working on and it was abandoned. The next thing I knew, I was teaching English at a Korean language school for $7 an hour in order to keep a roof over my head. Up jumped the devil!

In the fields of writing a novel, screenplay, stage play or short story “Up Jumped The Devil” is the heart of any creative venture. Instead of calling it by Aunt Sally’s expression, it is called CONFLICT. This you must have in any creative endeavor. You will also have it in your real life but we call it EXPERIENCE.

So, when things are going along too nicely, you can bet the devil will jump up one way or another. Look on the bright side though. It gives you something to write about.

UP JUMPED THE DEVIL UPDATE: By all rights I should be writing this blog to you from Paris. I was supposed to leave this past Thursday for my annual trip to Paris. I got to the airport, handed my passport and E-ticket to the agent and waited for my boarding pass. UP JUMPED THE DEVIL! My passport had expired a week earlier. I felt very stupid that I had not attended to this way ahead of time. Anyway I couldn’t board the plane and had to return home. Have since ordered a new passport and will now go to Paris in mid-September for my two weeks. See what I am talking about?

The next blog will appear September 1, 2016.

ENCORE: Impossible Fiction

(Original publication September 3, 2015)

I well remember when I was a teen-ager and began having serious thoughts about writing as a hobby or possibly a career, my father’s first cousin, Sally Kelley—an established writer, would say about certain things that happened, ”If you wrote that bit of reality down, it would be called impossible fiction.”

I’m afraid we’re living in “impossible fiction” times these days. I know when I was recently touring Turkey on a 15-day bus tour, Rod, my traveling partner, and I had just sketchy bits of news in English on the TV. These fragments came via BBC or CNN, which for the most part were broadcast in Turkish. Those slight moments in English were the only way we could find out what was going on in the USA. One piece of information that startled us was not only had Donald Trump gotten into the race for president but he was leading the pack of Republican want-to-be candidates. We were amazed and figured that we’d just have to wait until we got home to find out what was really going on.

Upon our return, we found that Donald Trump was running the biggest reality show ever—The Donald Trump For President Show. It was full of bloated comments and was feeding a certain segment of the public all sorts of braggadocios tidbits about anything that popped into his brain and slide out on his tongue. The major surprise to me was the number of people who were eating his showmanship up with a spoon and relishing each of his over-simplifications to the country’s problems.

This past week I had a wonderful week in Portland, Oregon, with my friends Dave and Pete. At night we watched some reality shows based on real-estate. One I had never heard of and it was about “Tiny Homes.” I watched as each show crafted a doll house for eager couples. We are talking about trying to put all of one’s living into a very minuscule space. Apparently there is a vast audience for this show. I watched and wondered like most people how two adults could possibly fit into such a structure and actually carry out their daily creature habits. Some inhabitants even talked of entertaining and other such things. This for sure was some of that “impossible fiction” my cousin talked about.

Then we watched another real-estate reality show about renting an apartment in a foreign country. The searchers are always given three choices and they make a pick. This might be interesting to the viewing audience perhaps because many people could be planning on moving somewhere outside of the USA—especially if Donald Trump gets any closer to the White House than he presently is.

Then if you look around you will find reality shows about any and everything possible. You soon realize that “impossible fiction” shows have taken over TV. There are duck hunters, a family of 19 and counting, a little-people show, ghost busters and the biggest one—“Keeping Up With The Kardashian.” The latter are famous for being famous.

New reality shows seem to be hitting the TV all the time. Producers are anxiously trying to come up with some new wrinkle in the reality business daily. They see it as fast money.

I well remember many years back when the Variety show was king. The Perry Como Show and Ed Sullivan type productions were extremely admired. Then comedy in the form of The Carol Burnett Show and others were all the rage.

All of a sudden though “the talk show” format came into vogue. We had the Jack Parr Show, the Steve Allen Show, Dick Cavett and a half dozen more like them that were popular. They gave us our first taste of “reality.” We heard movie stars talking about their personal lives and we ate it up.

The soap operas have always been a mainstay for those with a yen for “scripted” reality. Mix them with the talk shows and over time the entire society became hooked on how people are getting through each of their days.

For the professional writer of books, screenplays, stage plays and short stories, this new avenue “the reality show” has not been a welcomed adversary. A good reality concept can make tons of quick money and find acceptance easier than most regular writing. The big thing is you don’t have to have a written script.

Is it no wonder then that a large stadium in Mobile, Alabama, could have over 20,000 people screaming in rhapsodic glee at the reality antics of Donald Trump?

All this “reality” we’re witnessing makes me wonder where we will go from here? Who will be our next president? Will that person continue the “reality” show type of society or will he or she try to anchor us to a more reasonable approach to daily living? The election is still 14 months away. How much more material can Donald Trump provide us in those 14 months? How many more new reality shows will appear in those months?

It all makes me think of the 1935 political novel by Sinclair Lewis, “It Can’t Happen Here.” This book deals with the rise of “Buzz” Windrip, a popular person who gets elected to the presidency after promising drastic economic and social reforms while promoting a return to patriotism and traditional values. Once elected, he takes complete control of the government and imposes a plutocratic/totalitarian rule.

So, what was fiction in 1935 is now beginning to sound like the reality show we are presently viewing in the political arena.

Keep watching to see how all of this plays out between now and election day on Tuesday, the 8th of November, 2016.

To Write or Not to Write

I have authored this blog for over three years and that is well over a hundred articles I have written. Most have been about the art of being an author and have included tips which I have discovered throughout my writing career. Other blogs have been about adventures I have had in life. Today’s blog is about the philosophy of writing.

I have mentioned several times in earlier blogs that a lot of people contact me about wanting to become a part of the writing profession. More times than not they tell me they have a great idea for a book or a screenplay. They then go on to tell me that if I will write it for them, get an agent to represent it and find a publisher or producer for it, they will give me part of the revenue. Wow, what a deal. This log is not really intended for you.

Then I have people who write me that they are interested in the nuts and bolts of the business. This blog is for you people in particular.

What have I learned in the forty years I have had making my living in this profession, at least, what can I pass along to those of you wondering what the parameters are for becoming a writer?

I have come up with seven tips that might help you decide if this is the profession for you.

Tip 1: What do you write about? This is the number one question when a writer faces a blank page or blank computer screen. When I first started trying to write, I wrote about things I knew nothing about. They sounded like it too. I only began making progress when I re-lived my life. This meant I got to have an adventure of some kind in life and I relived it by incorporating it into my writing project. I found I could write easier and I got to relive my life over for just a little while. For me, it was a wonderful feeling. So, write about what you know.

Tip 2: Ideas are cheap. You may come up with what you think is a great storyline for a play, novel or screenplay. The hard part is getting it down on paper or a screen. Don’t talk about it. Just write it.

Tip 3: Daydreams don’t sell. They will never lead you to a career as a successful (getting paid) writer. In other words, don’t spend your time envisioning how clever you think people will consider you or how fame and fortune will define the new you. You envision yourself signing books at a bookstore while people look upon you adoringly and with envy. Don’t think of how well you will be remembered after you die. All of this is sheer humbug and nonsense and will never get you an inch closer to being an established author. Can the ego and just sit down and write. Forget the fantastic.

Tip 4. From the outset you have to realize that writing is a tough job. It is always a struggle between you and a blank piece or paper or a computer screen—and, sorry to say, but most of the time, the blank pages win. This is because you are going on a hike in hostile territory without a map. You’re trying to wing your way to success. It doesn’t work like that. You have to be like an architect. You need plans to construct your project. So, remember that all creative writing has a beginning, a middle and an end. You run from a bear. You quickly climb to safety in a tree. Lightening strikes the tree. How does this end? You fall out of the tree and the bear eats you OR the lightening also hits the bear and kills it. You go home safe and sound. You must know these elements before you ever write the first word. Otherwise you will have writers’ block and abandon the project before you even get to the second half of the project.

Tip 5: Don’t talk about what you are writing—not even to your best friend. Why not? Because he or she will give you bad advice for one thing and secondly, you will dissipate your creative juices into their ears rather than onto the blank page or computer screen.

Tip 6: WRITE. Make a schedule to write. Treat it as though you were working a part-time job. Don’t skip sessions and dion’t take very many sick days off. Stick to your schedule no matter what. Get through a first draft as fast as you can. Don’t worry about spelling, sentence construction or over-writing. All of that is in the editing process. Just get your project finished. Then you can lighten up. Learn to be a slave driver. It’s the only way you will finish your project.

Tip 7: “The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on. “—Louis L’Amour.

The next blog will appear on August 4. My very best to you.