GUEST BLOG: Patricia Burroughs On Paul And Me

Book View Cafe welcomes Patricia Burroughs! Here's a delightful tale of her first novel, now available for your delectation as an ebook.



This is about the first novel I had published, La Desperada. It's
about the script adaptation I wrote that was based on that novel. It's
about Paul Newman. It's about a lot of things.





But mainly, it's about how (if I want to do the Hollywood stretch) I almost wrote a script for Paul.


Or if you want to do the reality check, it's about how I maybe almost talked to him on the phone.




Mainly, it's about my writing, my western, my attempts to get it made as a movie, and my new efforts to bring out the ebook.




And it's about a book by Gwendon Swarthout called The Homesman.




Some years ago on the film UNFORGIVEN
read my western script, liked it a lot, and said to me, "You know, as I
was reading this, I thought, this is the writer who needs to adapt THE
HOMESMAN for Paul Newman."




That is a moment. A Moment. Somebody actually tied me as a
screenwriter to a project for Paul Newman. Not that he was in position
to do anything about it, mind you. But still. It put an idea in my head.
(Dangerous place for ideas, my head.)




I read THE HOMESMAN and loved a lot of it–except for (no spoiler
here, I'm restraining myself) how the female protagonist dealt with her
loss near the end. And I knew, yes, I could write the hell out of this
script, but not if Paul (he was Paul in my mind by this point) wanted
THAT to happen!




Brace yourself.





I wrote Mr Newman (well, it was official correspondence so it didn't
seem right to call him Paul) and told him what I'd been told, and that
I'd love to offer myself up for the task of adapting The Homesman for
him.




Yes.




I really did that.




And–it gets worse.




I did that knowing–KNOWING–that the script he'd been shopping around
trying to get made was supposedly causing all sorts of problems because
everybody "knew" that despite whatever name was on the script, Paul had
written it himself. And nobody wanted to say, "Paul, this script is bad."




So it didn't get made, it kept getting passed around, and…




I wrote and offered my services as a screenwriter.




*takes a bow*




Yes, that is chutzpah.




Of course nothing came of it.




Until many months later, I came home from somewhere to find a message
on my answering machine. A voice said, "Call for Patricia from Mr
Newman." And when I didn't answer, there were murmurs and then a voice
continued, "Mr Newman wanted to thank you for your interest in The
Homesman, but he isn't looking for a writer at this time. If his plans
change, he will let you know."




I almost fell flat on the floor. ON the FLOOR, people.




First of all, it sounded distinctly as if–had I been home–I might
have actually spoken to MR NEWMAN my own sassy self! (That murmuring in
the background? I am sure it was Paul-murmurs. Seriously. I could tell.)
(Okay, maybe in retrospect I decided I could tell.) (Okay, I have no
idea, but it had to be, didn't it? Oh hush.)




At any event, his asst had called to pass verbally, and so nicely and–




Well, I eventually started breathing again.




And that was the end of it.




My brush with almost maybe writing a script for Paul Newman, okay, maybe almost talking to him on the phone.




Moving forward… I'd had a few people tell me that my book reminded
them of Unforgiven in several ways (though my book was published first),
and then this mention of my potential skill with the material in the
The Homesman, and then…






One day I was looking for book comparisons for my new ebook, La
Desperada, so I could say, if you like THIS you might like mine, it has
been compared to Unforgiven* only with a love story and sex," and
somebody said, "This might be helpful. Unforgiven was written by a guy
who was influenced by a novelist, did you know that? He was influenced
by Gwendon Swarthout, who wrote The Shootist and The Homesman."




As comparisons go, it probably doesn't help me a lot, as these are
books which I suggest very few of my target audience will have ever
read.




And yet it felt very odd, like a voice from the distant past bring
back a producer from Unforgiven and a near-brush with Paul Newman and
The Homesman and…




I like to think that if Gwendon Swarthout had ever written a western
with love and sex, somebody just might have said to him, "You know what,
this reminds me a lot of that book by Patricia Burroughs…."




* I could tell you about the time my script got couriered to Carmel
because Clint wanted to read it, but that would just be name-dropping.




The novel La Desperada and the Nicholl Award-winning script Redemption are now available in the same download on Book View Cafe.