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A week or so ago (time flies when you’re in Austin and then down with the modern cold), I did a radio interview with Susan Benjamin for her show Greater Voices. We talked about a few favorite books, and since the show is airing — access through this link — I thought I’d offer a [...]

Though it goes against my very nature, I have resisted commenting on the recently reached DGA/AMPTP accord — the settlement of contractual issues between the Director’s Guild of America and the Association of Motion Picture and Television Producers — to let the deal points sink in. Not surprisingly, this period of reflection hasn’t changed my [...]

So naturally, I am reading all the news about this entity and that entity cutting deals with the WGA directly. I am also imagining all the major producers gnashing their teeth in frustration. Oh, man, this has got to rankle. And not necessarily for the reason you think.
Residuals — the basis for this two-month old [...]

Normally, I do only one “Most Wonderful Post of the Year”, because, well, if there are two, which post is truly the most wonderful? But since it’s the giving season — and I do love giving — I’ve decided to break precedent (because you’ve got to live every day to the fullest) and offer up [...]

Though I have been assured that I was born talking (first words, if legend holds true, were “I’m off to buy new shoes”), I believe my next major action was reading. I cannot recall a time when I was not surrounded by printed words. Most of my siblings survived childhood due to the fact that [...]

A few months back, HarperCollins launched its “Author Assistant” project (example here. In a nutshell (meaning, yes, I’m going to get into more detail in a few paragraphs), the service allows HC authors to easily build dynamic web presences with a smattering of Web 2.0 features that allow for community building.
Authors must be active participants [...]

As you’ve noticed, I am greatly preoccupied by the Writers Guild of America strike. Not only is the gleaming BS headquarters based in Southern California, but I know people on the picket line. I’ve grown accustomed to seeing some of them hard at work while I’m pretending to do the same.
I also know people on [...]

As the world settles into a potentially long winter of reruns and very bad reality television, the role of the writer in Hollywood is gaining new attention. We all know that someone writes those words that Angelina Jolie speaks on the big screen. We are newly aware that David Letterman’s “Top Ten List” isn’t created [...]

Today, as those of you feverishly attacking your keyboards know all too well, marks the beginning of National Novel Writing Month. Every year, during the month of November, thousands of people band together for a common cause: to write a novel over the course of what is surely the second-hardest month of the year. That [...]

As you know, the potential for a writers’ strike in Hollywood has been occupying more than a fair share of my brain power these past few months. Since I’m just an interested but casual observer, I can well imagine the tensions it’s creating for the real players. Especially since it appears the two sides are [...]