Laurie Perez's Blog, page 3
June 19, 2018
so richly entertained
The Actor’s Art and Craft: William Esper Teaches the Meisner Technique by William Esper
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
For The Actor’s Art and Craft to succeed, the writing must pull the reader directly into the class — it must be experiential, not merely intellectual. That’s exactly what the book has achieved.
Page after page the Esper and DiMarco invade your space and open you up to the challenges of the actor. You become the student, receiving the teachings directly — there is no cold, erudite curtain filtering the personal nature of what’s happening in Bill’s classes. Acting is visceral. It pushes buttons, stirs memories, demands vulnerability and confidence in equal measures. Intellect is circumspect — you have to learn volumes, then let go of thinking.
Throughout the book, descriptive writing successfully evokes emotional texture while substantive dialogue makes scene work and discovery fully palpable. I expected to learn technical facets of the actor’s experience. I expected to gain practical insight into acting’s complexity and particular challenges. What I didn’t expect was to be so richly entertained.
I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good story and finds the inner workings of the human psyche as compelling as I do. For actors, aspiring and/or seasoned, I imagine The Actor’s Art and Craft must be an essential companion. For writers, novelists, storytellers — this is a lovely complement to books on literary craft.
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June 18, 2018
kerouac: nemesis or muse?
Embarrassing to say: it’s ON THE ROAD. I’ve poured through 90% of Kerouac’s published matter – much of it more than once (more than twice) – but when a writing prof. told me my first novel reminded him how he felt reading On The Road, I knew even opening that book would shut me down as a writer.
He made the comment praisingly – he meant well and I’ve never forgotten his encouragement. The day he said it, I was only 3 chapters into finishing a novel it eventually took three years to wrap. At that time, I’d read one thing by Kerouac: his LIST OF ESSENTIALS.
Over the months and years during which I pushed through writing Torpor, I accumulated a stack of Kerouac titles – including OTR. I didn’t open a single one of them until the week I knew I had not one more line to type in that novel. Like a glorious vacation postponed and held out as a golden carrot, I opened Dharma Bums and finally began to meet Jack Kerouac in the core of my spirit.
One after another I burned through my beat library, saving On The Road for last.
Less than halfway through, I abandoned it – relieved to discover it lorded nothing over what had become of Peter and Dennis and Maria and Carlos in the book I’d made real, free from Kerouac’s shadow. Free to love him ten times more – not as an influence but as a kindred spirit and fellow writer, one to admire.
All of the following Kerouac titles, I read through and through — these and more, including interviews and correspondence with other writers. Here’s the stack I devoured:
Desolation Angels The Dharma Bums Heaven and Other Poems Big Sur Book of Dreams Visions of Gerard Visions of Cody Mexico City Blues The Scripture of the Golden Eternity Scattered Poems San Francisco Blues Pomes All Sizes Book of BluesThe novel, TORPOR, finished in 1996 and published anew in this century, is available on amazon http://mybook.to/torpor–perez It’s nothing like On The Road (let me know if you disagree…).
Torpor: a novel by Laurie Perez | 324 pages | ISBN 1453684751 | Amazon | http://mybook.to/torpor-perez
June 7, 2018
calmness of a different caliber
Eric Maisel’s quote has truth in it, but I haven’t found it to be true — yet. One giant thing merely leads to another. Expansion is perpetual.
The dream or vision or calling or driving creative intent waking you up at 4am and distracting you throughout the day — it innately has more room to grow. And so you think you’ve done the giant thing… then realize there’s something bigger, grander, stranger, wilder you want to do next.
The part I easily agree with is Maisel’s emphasis on calm as a result of saying yes to that giant thing. Not the calm of complacency or languidly going through the motions, the mental-emotional state that results is calm of a different caliber. The soothing Yin quality of acceptance contains within it the feisty essence of Yang that keeps you awake and active, challenging limits and pushing through.
Calm enthusiasm. Calm frustration. Calm urgency.
Calmly driven, start to finish to start again.
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June 2, 2018
molecule by molecule: expansion
“Fitting into the equation of humanity, we knead the poignancy of compassion and milk the headiness of creativity into ever more substantive knowing, pushing the collective, universal consciousness to expand moment by moment, molecule by molecule.”
May 8, 2018
the resulting joy
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What if we could break the paradigm of war, strife and human suffering within our lifetime? What if love and saner choices really could prevail?
What if you had the power to set that degree of sweeping change in motion?
The POWER picks up where the first book in The Amie Series left off. Like The LOOK, the sequel embraces life’s big questions with expansive scope and focused intimacy. This time the stakes are higher, threats are dire and Amie’s power is proving to be both a curse and a gift.
Thank you for sharing and helping spread the word.
Book 1: The LOOK of Amie Martine | 306 Pages | ISBN 1523664339
Book 2: The POWER of Amie Martine | 438 pages | ISBN 1986913783
April 30, 2018
light: across time or in an instant
Being awakened to wilder truths can be overwhelming. Human experience filters and distills enlightenment through centuries, yet you’re always free to take in more light than history has prepared you to receive.
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April 19, 2018
trust the audience, honey
Stephen King says the scariest time is just before you start. Baloney! No disrespect to the master — he knows a thing or two or plenty about writing that I’ve surely yet to learn — but the scariest moment isn’t at the beginning when your terror’s mitigated by hope and gumption and the innocent desire to discover what will happen if you really see this thing through. No. The scariest moment is five minutes after you finish. That’s when thinking about and preparing for the striptease becomes the moment you rip the curtain down and face the stage. And it’s your book going out there, not you.
Your task is to push it out onto the stage and say: go ahead — trust the audience, honey. Trust them to receive you while I collapse in a heap of exhaustion and pray for your success. Trust them not to throw rotten fruit at you or look away before you get to the good part. Trust them to love you better than I have — because you don’t belong to me anymore; you belong to them.
Writing is about as humbling as it gets — it’s 100% service. Service to the idea that hired you and the characters who confided in you and the audience that may or may not grant safe passage for the unveiling of a lifetime.
“A person who publishes a book willfully appears before the populace with his pants down.” ― Edna St. Vincent Millay
“Publishing a book is like stuffing a note into a bottle and hurling it into the sea… You never know who your readers might be.” ― Margaret Atwood
“Writing is a socially acceptable form of getting naked in public.” —Paulo Coelho
For years no one else but me had access to what’s between the covers. 
April 17, 2018
one who writes
A cascade — a gushing, an outpouring, a super bloom of gladness and crisp awareness. I am happy to be that.
April 14, 2018
write our history free
What if we could break the paradigm of war, strife and human suffering within our lifetime? What if love and saner choices really could prevail ?
What if you had the power to set that degree of sweeping change in motion?
Novel | ISBN 1986913783 | 438 pages | Sequel to The LOOK
He knew when it happened, it would be strange and woefully wonderful.
Share the links with friends who love to read — introduce them to Amie Martine!
Book 1: The LOOK of Amie Martine ISBN 1523664339
Book 2: The POWER of Amie Martine ISBN 1986913783
Get the books on Amazon
Learn more about the Cast of Characters
April 10, 2018
fear grips on – i’m typing anyway
Now that the sequel is finished and available to the world, I’m finally catching a breath. I remember how this felt two years ago and am so glad to have pushed through!
:
The POWER of Amie Martine
ISBN 1986913783 | 438 pages
Writing book two, it turns out, is more terrifying than writing the first in the series. It’s more terrifying as the downloads of scenes and dialogues and meaningful discoveries line up to be delivered to the page – each bigger than the last (will I be able to type that fast?). It’s more terrifying as the sense of obligation to these characters roots deeper, pushing down into the unseen well. It’s more terrifying – but also more compelling. More than the first, writing the second book is something I can’t not do.
After The LOOK, The POWER of Amie Martine is a non-negotiable promise to be kept. Each new page turn effects (on a personal scale) the next rotation of the earth – a pulse essential to my heart – respect for a binding agreement to have more fun, be more true, excavate something undeniably new.
