Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Bradbury Challenge – It’s On Now

“The Bradbury Challenge” is underway, (Please see 9/1/06 Blog Entry for the greater details). The long story short version is that I’m putting together a compilation of 52 + short stories for self-publication. Ray Bradbury made mention of challenging a writer to write 52 short stories in a row. He said that, “They can’t all be bad.” Well, I’m in the process of seeing if that’s so. It’s been an exciting prospect and I’ve been having a lot of fun doing it. The vast majority of the stories will be new ones but I’m also polishing some of my old stuff up and putting them out there too.

What can I say, it’s hard to let go of the past sometimes.

Who knows, once it’s done I just may send Mr. Bradbury a copy as a thank you for the unintentional suggestion to do it, the inspiration to keep writing and for his body of work. I’m not saying this as a threat towards Ray or with any other hidden agenda. He’s simply one of the greats and I’d like to say ‘thanks’, even if he never cracks the book. He’ll be 87 on August 22, 2007.

I’ll let you know, gentle reader, how this newest project progresses.

Sunday, January 14, 2007

“NO RETURNS” Submission

I’m about to mail off a submission to Asimov’s Science Fiction. As my cover letter to Ms. Sheila Williams the publication’s Editor says, “NO RETURNS” (4,179 words). It’s a story about a man with a problem, a girl with her mind made up, an antique typewriter that predicts the future and the real explanation for why the QWERTY keyboard exists as it does today. It’s light, fun, fantasy that I wrote with my daughter in mind.” …My oldest daughter (who is 14) to be specific.

It takes about 5 weeks or so to hear back from Asimov’s Science Fiction. Gentle reader, I’ll let you know if I’m published or not as soon as I know myself. Hey rejection happens – it’s part of the game and, just as in life, you will miss 100% of the shots you never take.

Here’s to hope!

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

On The Lot

Here is “WAKE” (< Just click)

Gentle readers in the past I have alluded to a short film that I had the pleasure of taking part in. Well today it went live on the On The Lot website. My friend, Mr. Ron Diprimio wrote, edited and directed the short. I showed up and had a blast stumbling over my lines. We were joined on screen by friends and family; in fact one of my co-workers, God bless her, took a vacation day to be in the bar scene. She’s a trooper and a heck of a quarters player to boot. Don’t fret, all the booze was really apple juice – after all this will be aired in prime time on Fox. It will be premiering sometime in the spring of ’07.

So just what is On the Lot? Well, as it says on their web site it’s, “the groundbreaking new show brought to you by reality show mastermind, Mark Burnett, and legendary producer and director, Steven Spielberg. Over the season, the 16 filmmakers will produce short films in every genre every week and the viewers will vote on who gets eliminated. The winning filmmaker will take home a $1 Million development deal!” – So says the OTL site.

So check out the OTL web site and if you like the film let ‘em know. I, for one, would love to see Ron as one of the 16 and it would be fun to have a guy from Jersey in the competition.