Steven Womack's Blog, page 4
June 1, 2015
The New Publishing Paradigm
It seems authors everywhere are feeling the squeeze. Even the Authors Guild has gotten in on the fracas, as evidenced by their “Fair Contract Initiative,” which they’ve just launched at BEA.
Here’s a link to their first manifesto. It’s fascinating reading:
https://www.authorsguild.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Fair-Contract-Initiative_mission_Final_6.pdf
May 28, 2015
Notes From The Zipper Club…
I’m always apologizing for being so lousy with social media. It’s not so much that I’m an old guy and don’t get it—although there’s certainly a case to be made there. It’s more that I’m just so blasted busy on a day-to-day basis. Teaching full time, writing and developing book projects, trying to be a decent father, husband…
Trying to keep it all on the rails. It’s a handful. Same as it is for most people.
So it’s been a little over five months since I updated this blog. Guilty as charged…I am officially a social media slacker.
This time, though, I have an excuse. A little over three months ago, I joined the Zipper Club.
The Zipper Club? What the hell is the Zipper Club?
It was a Wednesday night in the middle of last February. My Advanced Screenwriting Class was doing a scene-by-scene deconstruction of Die Hard, which is a fabulous script for young screenwriters to study. We finished early, about half-past-eight, so I went back to my office, started critiquing a stack of scripts from my Intro Screenwriting class, and had a heart attack.
Like a lot of people who have heart attacks, I didn’t know I was having a heart attack. I knew I felt like a deuce-and-a-half had parked itself on my chest. Everything was tight, heavy; it was hard to breathe. I should have recognized it. I don’t know whether I was in denial or what, but it didn’t occur to me I was having a heart attack.
Then my left arm and shoulder went numb and the palm of my left hand started to tingle.
A few years ago, I coined the acronym OSM for my students. Every script, I teach, needs an OSM—an Oh s#@! moment.
That was my own personal OSM.
Maybe the blood flow to my brain was cut off, but even then, the words heart attack didn’t come to mind. I just knew I needed to get home and lie down for awhile.
So I finished critiquing the last few scripts, loaded up my stuff, and, stupidly, drove myself home.
I don’t remember much about the drive home. I do know I was hurting like hell by then. I looked down at the speedometer somewhere down I-40 West. I was doing about forty-five and cars were streaking by me.
I made it home, threw my backpack and my laptop on the couch, then went and collapsed on the bed. A few moments later, my wife, Shalynn walked in.
“What’s the matter?” she asked.
“Not feeling well,” I muttered. “Need to lay down for a minute.”
She flicked on the overhead, took one look at me. “No, you’re not.”
“What’re you talking about?” I complained. “Just lemme lay here.”
She walked over to the side of the bed. “Get up and get your ass in the car.”
I argued another ten or fifteen minutes, then did like I was told and got my ass in the car. Shalynn drove us to the E.R. at St. Thomas West Hospital here in Nashville, where I spent the next eleven days. I came home with a quintuple bypass and about a 16-inch scar down the middle of my chest.
One of my closest friends, actor/director/teacher/producer Sam Dalton, underwent a triple bypass a few years ago.
“Welcome to the Zipper Club,” he said.
The Zipper Club. The only membership requirement is a red, garish scar that’s probably going to scare the kids at the pool this summer…
Know what? I’m grateful as hell for it and proud to be a member.
I’ll write more about this little misadventure and my life in The Zipper Club later.
But for now, I’m just glad to be on the right side of the dirt.
October 13, 2014
MWA Panel At The Southern Festival Of Books A Great Success
Here I am completely outnumbered at the Mystery Writers of America panel at the Southern Festival of Books this past weekend. It was a lively, fun panel with Sallie Bisell , J.T. Ellison, Stacy Allen, and me, along with a great capacity crowd!
I think the crowds may have been a little down this year due to the incredible downpour (two days later and it’s still raining like crazy here), but it was still a wonderful weekend. If you’ve never made it to the SFB in October, you really should. Mark it down in your calendar for October, 2015.
Photo By Shalynn Ford Womack
October 10, 2014
Bringing Down The Devil at the Southern Festival of Books
Despite the downpour, we had a great panel today at the 2014 Southern Festival of Books. Nashville native/L.A. transplant Don Winston, Texan Ron Davis, and I did a panel called “Bringing Down The Devil: Three Thrillers. We had a near capacity crowd, a lively dialogue that made the ninety minutes go by like five, and lots of good Q&A.
All in all, it was a great day! More tomorrow!
October 8, 2014
Southern Festival of Books 2014 Is Here!
For book lovers everywhere, one of the most exciting weekends of the year is upon us! The 2014 Southern Festival of Book starts this Friday, October 10th. For a complete schedule of programs, panels, and authors, here’s the link:
http://www.humanitiestennessee.org/programs/southern-festival-books/sessions
And for you fans of Resurrection Bay, I’ll be doing two panels. Here they are:
Bringing Down The Devil: Three Thrillers
with Ron Davis and Don Winston
Friday, October 10th, 1:30-3 pm in Room 3, Legislative Plaza
Mystery Writers of America Presents: Changing The World, One Mystery At A Time
with Stacy Allen, Sallie Bissell and J.T. Ellison
Saturday, October 11th, 3-4:30 in Room 31 Legislative Plaza
This is always one of the most fun weekends of the year. See you there!
September 10, 2014
On Publishing & The Music Biz
I’ve been observing and studying the publishing industry for a long time and I’ve watched first-hand some of the changes that have occurred in this business since I got into it. I’ve also thought for the longest time that the publishing industry is just a few years behind the music industry in the evolution and difficulties it’s encountered.
There’s a fascinating article on the Digital Music News website called The Music Industry Has 99 Problems. And They Are…
If you want to see where publishing is headed, check this article out at:
September 9, 2014
The Crazy World of Publishing Defined…
For all you aspiring writers out there, here’s a handy guide to literary and publishing terms by author Greg Levin. It’s not only hilarious, it’s largely dead-on in this day and age:
http://www.greglevin.com/scrawl-space-blog/the-authors-glossary
September 6, 2014
Robert Hansen In The News Again…
This whole bizarre story about the death of Robert Hansen, the Alaskan serial killer, just keeps getting stranger and stranger. My collaborator on RESURRECTION BAY and the guy who came up with the story to begin with, Wayne McDaniel, sent me this the other day:
Robert Hansen’s in the news more now that he’s dead than when he was alive. Does this make him the Elvis of serial killers?
September 4, 2014
WSMV-TV Interview On The Death of Robert Hansen
Dennis Ferrier, one of the lead reporters of our local NBC affiliate, WSMV-TV, came to my home office and interviewed me on September 1st about the death of Alaskan serial killer Robert Hansen. This whole creepy coincidence–where Robert Hansen died in a hospital prison ward the same day Wayne McDaniel and I met for the first time–is continuing to resonate with readers all over.
Yesterday, I was interviewed by a Kim Vangkilde, a reporter from the Danish newspaper Ekstra Badet. It seems Hansen is of Danish descent, and readers there are fascinated by this whole weird story…
If you’d like to see the interview with Dennis, you can find it at:
http://www.wsmv.com/story/26420906/nashville-mystery-writer-completes-book-on-serial-killer
August 24, 2014
On The Death Of A Serial Killer…
Or, I’ve got your minimum daily adult requirement of weirdness right here…
Three years ago, as I’ve written in this blog before, Wayne McDaniel and I formed a partnership to write the novel Resurrection Bay. We’ve been completely upfront about the fact that the novel is based on and inspired by the life and crimes of Robert Hansen, Alaska’s most famous serial killer. Hansen confessed to killing 17 women and raping at least 30 over a 12-year-period.
During the three years that Wayne and I worked on Resurrection Bay, we worked entirely by email and phone. We never met each other, never Skyped.
Didn’t even know what each other looked like…
Finally, last Thursday, August 22nd, Wayne and I finally got to meet face-to-face when he came to Nashville for the KillerNashvillle mystery conference.
That afternoon, Robert Hansen died…
With Wayne McDaniel and RESURRECTION BAY
