Lamar Giles's Blog, page 4

What you can learn from Sam Jackson (other than cool ways to say f***)

courtesy of IMDB.com

I just read this incredible NY Times article on Samuel L. Jackson and felt the need to wax philosophical on the benefits of preparation.

It was a quote by director William Friedkind (Rules of Engagement) that stood out to me initially (a lot in the article stands out and I could base a series of posts on the phenomenal actor’s life, but for now…), “Sam is a director’s dream. Some actors hope to find their character during shooting. He knows his character before shooting. Sam’s old-school. I just got out of his way. I never did more than two takes with Sam.”

I put the emphasis on ‘before’. For a reason.

For Spring 2012, Jeremy Lin has been the international poster boy for ‘readiness’, the idea of maximizing a singular opportunity even when you’re at the low point of your career. It’s a great in-the-moment story, but it remains to be seen if we’ll be discussing Jeremy in the same breath as the greats (or even next year).

Sam Jackson’s longevity stretches back 40 years. HE DIDN’T GET HIS BIG BREAK UNTIL 1994! But he’s maintained the same level of preparation and professionalism through feast AND famine. Let’s be real…the last 2 decades have been a fantastic feast for him. He averages 4 movies and 300K in residuals per year, he’s the highest grossing actor in history, this guy could phone it in for the rest of his life and still be a BAMF (go to any crowded theater/fanboy flick and anticipate cheers if he should pop up…it happens every time).

My point: this isn’t a guy who shows up on set hungover, with an assistant making up cue cards because he doesn’t know his lines. He could. But he doesn’t. He’s still treating the work like he’s struggling, like he’s not the most memorable character from Pulp Fiction, or Mace Windu, or effing Nick Fury.

After all his massive success, he’s still ready BEFORE.

Are you?

Broken Promises/My Cave

I started the year telling you I was going to update this blog weekly. Didn’t happen. I know you don’t appreciate it, but I hope you can understand my reasoning. I’ve been in my cave. Not hibernating. Writing. A lot. Two-novels-and-a-short-story worth of writing.

Because I’m CIA-like in my distribution of information, here’s how we’ll refer to my current batch of works-in-progress (WIPs):

WIP #1 – WHISPERTOWN. You already know about this one. It’s currently in its 5th (or 6th, who’s counting?) draft and as soon as I receive editorial notes from HarperCollins, I’ll be revising again. Remember, writing is rewriting.

WIP #2 – Untitled Fantasy-Action Hybrid. Currently on Draft #2, starting Draft #3 this week.

WIP#3 – Untitled Horror-Action Hybrid. I completed Draft #1 yesterday. Letting this sit for awhile.

I tell you all that so you know I’m not sitting on my ass playing Call of Duty (well, that does happen sometimes). Still, you deserve an explanation if you’ve been a long time follower.

I will try to do better here. In the meantime, for more immediate updates and musings, I recommend liking my Facebook Fan Page or following me on Twitter. With current time constraints, I’m able to send updates through those tools more frequently.

Thanks for hanging in there. Big news soon folks.

The Darkness Kept – FREE on Kindle 1/7 and 1/8

My fantasy thriller THE DARKNESS KEPT will be available this week as a FREE Kindle download.

That’s right. FREE. NO STRINGS ATTACHED. NO TAXES. NO MEMBERSHIP FEES. Just exciting reading that you can tell your friends about.

The promotion starts Saturday at 12AM PDT and runs through 11:59PM PDT on Sunday. Please spread the word. Thanks.

Spread the word.