Pie Birds, Skin Flicks, and Deaf Doggies

Warning: If you find yourself here via a google search for such things as TV shows or films, recipes or cities, this blog has some facts. However, this blog is one author’s very twisted musing on many weird things. It is sometimes graphic in content. If you read on, don’t write to yell at me.


The Pie Bird

The pie bird was the final clue. I’d never heard of them before two weeks ago. Then, it was in my kitchen along with a tart/quiche pan with the push out bottom. This cooking thing has moved beyond routine to something of a specialized hobby. When I informed Jon of this revelation, he gave me that very patient husband look one gets when the incredibly obvious has been stated. Arriving with the pie bird was Anthony Bourdain’s Les Halles Cookbook (scroll down to the Publisher's Weekly review). I ended up ordering that when I was searching for online recipes for the fish soup he had in Arcachon, France. While searching, I discovered he’s written a book on French cooking from Les Halles, the popular New York restaurant he worked in last. I knew Mr. Bourdain would provide a different spin on cookbokos, but I never expected to be yelled at in the introduction. In fact, there was lots of yelling and cursing. There was a full page diatribe before the actual recipe for Poulet Roti. I have many cookbooks. I even have French cookbooks given to me by my two lovely friends there (Bonjour Michele et Sylvette). But I’ve never had a cookbook call me a numbnuts. Needless to say, it is a hilarious book. I’ve never laughed so hard at a cookbook. And it is inspiring, if more than a little pushy. I spent Saturday making stocks from veal and beef bones, and I made another attempt at frites. The Wiki entry is French Fried Potatoes, but that does frites no justice at all. We never had less than an extraordinary experience with a plate of potatoes anywhere we went in France. I have yet to really capture that cricpy, crisp exterior and delicately tender interior. The pie bird went into an apple pie a al Alton Brown. It was an ordeal that we do not know for sure worked. I’ll let you know next week. I am happy to have attempted home made pie crust for the first time in decades. Tonight, I make the Poulet Roti and reduce my veal stock to a glace. Yep, I’m obsessed.

Love Scenes and Skin Flicks

The main reason for doing the trailer prior to the shoot was to assure skittish distributors of two things. The first was that the concept was interesting and in keeping with other films they’ve acquired. Two, that the film could pass broadcast Standard and Practices at any basic cable outlet. Though some outlets have aired programs like Bliss which is quite racy, a film like The Gunslinger cost more to acquire and needs to generate more ad revenue to make it profitable for the broadcaster. That means it can’t have anything that makes advertisers nervous. Thus, we chose the first intimate scene in the film for the trailer. It sums up the plot quickly and cleanly, demonstrates the chemistry between the lead characters, and has a very hot clench – all tastefully done. I also chose that scene because the trailer will be used to market the concept of Hidden Passion Films at its main audience – readers of historical romances. We will advertise the trailer on romance themed websites and internet groups, and give it away at the major convention for readers and writers: The Romantic Times Booklover’s Convention in April. Thus, the trailer has to have what those readers want, a great looking, compelling hero and heroine, incendiary chemistry (no chaste kisses at the end of the story here) and a good plot (yes, they want that, too). This was what we needed to capture in one long day in a very tiny space. We were lucky to have great-looking, compelling leads who have a natural chemistry and great command of dialogue. Once the choreography of movement of plates and cups and the book were finalized, that scene went well. There were pauses for lighting issues and sound issues, but the scene itself was easy to film. The first time Travis and Jennifer actually went through the clench on the kitchen table, I forgot to turn on my camera. I was just frozen there gaping at the proceedings, toes curled. Jon asked me if that was what I was after. Witnesses claim that I made a coherent reply. To me, it sounded like babbling. I was overjoyed at how good our KD and Matt looked together. Travis has an amazing control over that deep, sexy voice (little wonder he’s in so much demand as a voice actor). He purrs and growls at different spots in the scene, depending on whether or not Matt was hearing something he liked or didn’t. (Jon confirmed this, so I’m not imagining that). The sound of that vice jolts right down the spine. At certain points, it was clear that Matt was barely restraining the urge to tear off KD’s clothes and carry her off or not carry her off. That kitchen table seemed to suit him. And KD was perfectly torn between the intense attraction and curiosity and fear of consequences.

Now, typically, I am sick to death of my own dialogue and any given scene by the time Jon has been editing for a week. How many times can you see something before it gets to be too much. Surprisingly, I haven’t had that problem. I always seem to look across the room when something really interesting is going on. Last week, I always looked over when there was this lovely expanse of chest and abs rippling with water on screen. Yesterday, I kept looking up when Shadow was hoisting KD on that kitchen table. Nope, not tired of it yet. And I'm holding those photos for a while. We have to build an audience, after all.

The Sound and the Hoby

One of the sound issues was the ranch’s old herding dog, Hoby. He is a very old fellow who is deaf and blind in one eye. He’s a great dog, mind you, but he was a problem during the love scene. We were filming in his sleeping area. As it got dark and cold, he wanted in. Well, we let him in and had to let him out. First, there was the snoring. Though that is a tradition on our sets. Poor Randy usually succumbed after a 56 hour day somewhere on our sets and fell asleep. During The Privateers, it was in President Lascar’s office. During Demon Under Glass, it was while playing a corpse in the operating theater. Upholding the tradition was great, but we didn’t have much time. When he wasn’t snoring, Hoby panted – loudly. Made the love scene sound like something from a porn shoot. Hoby had to go. He put up with being out for a little while before pounding on the door with his head. No very good for a love scene. Fortunately, we’d wrapped the fried chicken. Ralph went outside to lure the poor thing away long enough to wrap the shoot. There were lots of dogs on the shoot. We brought three. Ralph and Marguerite’s pugs rode up with us and provided much entertainment to the horses. Then there was Jack Jack, an exuberant Corgi who loved everyone. All the dogs were great for the easy-going, fun environment at the shoot, but they can cause sound problems. Fortunately, the problems were fixable and made for great stories.

Crew Guys

Before I go on and on, I must take some time to compliment Ryan and Matty, our camera man and sound man respectively. They traveled far, worked hard for many hours and always had a pleasant demeanor. They were creative on the fly even at the end of that very long day. The end result of their labors is looking good. We can’t compliment them enough. I know we all look forward to having them work on the behind the scenes video for the feature.

Captions and TV Rants
I have the captions contest winners for another week. I also have new TV rants and recs on my favorites in inspired insanity, but no more time.

A Soldier’s Fate Excerpt
There will be on later tonight or tomorrow. The novel is coming along very well despite interruptions to look at a certain glistening chest and abs.

Trailer Food, Writing Nuances and Raw Oysters

Warning: If you find yourself here via a google search for such things as TV shows or films, recipes or cities, this blog has some facts. However, this blog is one author’s very twisted musing on many weird things. It is sometimes graphic in content. If you read on, don’t write to yell at me.

I’m functioning on coffee this morning. Despite widely held opinions, I don’t actually drink wine in the morning. Unless it’s football season and the Eagles game is on here. There’s a lot to cover. It’s disparate, thus the convenient headers. Some prefer my stories about LA oddness to my rants or yearnings. Fair enough, but if one doesn’t read the whole blog, there will be no answer to that question: ‘What in blue blazes is wrong that that broad?’

The Gunslinger Trailer – Shopping lists and Growl-ly Voices

The report on the trailer shoot is running longer than I expected. The peeps who didn’t go on this one want details (a shout out to Randy and Phil). And for non-peeps, lack of details has prompted a lot of questions (a shout out to my mother-in-law). I may have to break this up into more parts.

Feb. 10th
I think the fog was thicker on the second day. The vehicles on the road seemed to be traveling more closely. The day began early, but not early by usual film standards. Our call was 9am. Typical call times are 6 or 7am. And that means, you have to be at the location ready to work. I’m glad we didn’t do that. The early calls are the one thing I’ve never gotten used to in film shoots.

The challenge of the morning was to dress a small corner of a modern saloon (there was a bull riding machine and a DJ stand at the other end of the room) like it was a frontier cabin. That meant removing a whole lot of very important photos and mementos from the walls, covering the windows against the light, dressing the windows, etc. Our amazing and lovely hostess, Cindy Jacques, had provided the oil lamps and curtains. In fact, every time I looked up on Saturday and Sunday, she was coming at me with handy items. Lamps, curtains, rifle. It was incredible.

While the set alterations were underway, there had to be a run for lamp oil, bottled water, trash bags, paper towels and sandwiches. That’s not the oddest film shopping list I’ve ever filled. There was one during Demon Under Glass that involved clothes hangers, guacamole, a half sheet cake, bananas, toothpaste, duct tape, magic markers and some feminine products. The clerk was really puzzled. And lest it be assumed that such near desperate grocery runs are a product of low budget filming, not so. I live in an area where a lot of TV and big film shoots crop up. If I see an overloaded cart in my market that includes bananas and bottled water, there is usually some tired person holding a walkie talkie pushing it. Incidentals like those are stables on any set, and most P.A.s are required to have a car, because emergency runs for stuff are regulation.

A note about the chicken dinners. I really wanted to make them myself, so I could style them according to Jon’s specs. I even did a successful and delicious test run the week before. But since we weren’t sure whether or not we’d have kitchen access at the location, I erred on the side of caution and sanity. We were going to buy the dinners already made. In an area full of farm and ranch folk, I figured that some restaurant had to have a good-looking plate of chicken. This assumption was correct. We met Cindy at a restaurant in Exeter called Carole’s The breakfast there was very good. In fact, Jon went out of his way to praise the hash browns. They had a very nice fried chicken dinner. We had to pick up one for each actor and a spare for styling the food to match being half and then mostly eaten.

Once we returned, I set up the food on the plates. I had to take a photo for continuity in case they had to be reset. Here are the photos of full plates and one of the eaten meals. We had to dress the windows each time the camera angle changed. I found Travis to be very handy in that task. He didn’t need a step stool or tip toes, and he could really get those pins into the wooden walls. After all of that, Jon and the cast began the rehearsals for blocking (figuring out how the actors would move in the scene). The script is essentially two people talking through a meal until the kissing starts. But talking heads can be dull. There has to be some movement about the room (aside from the kissing). That had to be practiced so that the movement started and ended at a certain line of dialogue every time the scene was shot, so it would cut together properly. On top of remembering where they were in the frame and how they move, the actors are each traveling a character arc through the dinner scene. For Matt/Shadow, there is balancing the opportunity for stability and safety living and working on KD’s ranch with his growing feelings for her. Throughout the meal, he is weighing his options while assessing her situation. He is also hiding Shadow from her. The lines are deceptively simple. There is a lot of weight behind how he responds to her questions and comments. We were fortunate to have an actor that can do a lot with his voice. Travis as Matt is endearing and playful. As Shadow, there is a dangerous, predatory quality. It’s all done with that voice and his eyes. I am particularly fond of the low, growl in Shadow’s voice when he responds to something he didn’t like hearing. Meanwhile, KD is wrestling with intense curiosity, wariness and a growing attraction to a man who is an absolute stranger. Jennifer has a marvelously expressive face that reflects her growing feelings beautifully. What’s most impressive is that they kept up the level of the performance and their energy through the nine hours of shooting various angles and close-ups.

Next week - Our Groovy Crew, snoring dogs, and maybe, the love scene.

A Soldier’s Fate – Getting the Nuances

I’ve said ad nauseum that I generally write in longhand on notepads then input. During inputting, I actually do a new draft. Sometimes, I finish the whole novel in longhand before I start inputting. Sometimes, I’m still writing the first draft when I begin inputting. That all depends on my access to the PC. I took the opportunity to input before the last chapters were finished, because I knew that Jon would be editing The Gunslinger trailer for the next couple of weeks. I also needed to make some changes to the beginning of the book that reflected what was going on in the back half. Somewhere along the way, I started layering in stories from Rik and Vincent’s past that are influencing them in the present. I don’t use flashbacks. I have the characters reveal something about their past while they are reacting to events in the present. For example, in the excerpt I posted last month, Vincent reveals that he had been watching Rik often while they were on the same squad. Nitro Raden had been aware of this and tried to take advantage of Vincent physically but couldn’t. These revelations come in response to Bobby’s hair brained plan to visit a brothel to get experience he can use with his older love interest, Eloise Kramer. Later, Rik reveals just how many older men had chased Vincent during his time as a soldier. He had protected him then. The discussion brings them closer emotionally. I hadn’t planned on such a device when I wrote the outline, but it became clear that my protagonists were the products of their experiences as soldiers. That has to affect everything they do and feel. I realized that the readers had to see that. Jon would not begin writing until he had planned out all this in an outline. I need my characters to develop to the point where they tell me what they need in the story. That development happens has I work through the draft. I keep my notebooks and my early drafts to show the transition of my novels and scripts. Who knows, I may teach someday. A Soldier’s Fate is moving along well. I enjoy hanging out with the guys at the end of each day. I’ll miss them when this is all over.

France, Anthony Bourdain and a Shameful Admission

Yes, I have found a way to combine the two. I happened to catch a repeat of his Food Network show, A Cook’s Tour this past week, and met with a surprise. Mr. Bourdain is French by way of New Jersey. His father grew up in Arcachon, and the family had a house there until he passed away. That explains the food obsession and the name. Bourdain traveled to Arcachon with his brother in an attempt to recapture some family memories. He called the seaside town, the Jersey shore of France. That’s a compliment from a Jersey boy, for the Jersey shore was the place of magical summers to one who lives in the region. It was our summer destination for my entire childhood. The memories are fond ones. I think Arcachon is more like the central Jersey towns like Sea Girt (just south of Asbury Park) more than Atlantic City or Wildwood. The beaches in Sea Girt have the same beautiful sand dunes. The town was lovely, and so were Bourdain’s memories. I found myself stung by guilt when he talked about the first time he had an oyster. I, the foodie and sybarite, have never had a raw oyster. I’ve had raw red meat (Carpaccio) and enjoyed it. I’ve had smoked eel in sushi and enjoyed it (very surprised at that). But I’ve not had this staple of a raw bar. It’s especially shameful as a quote about eating oysters has been a favorite of mine. He was a bold man that first ate an oyster (Jonathan Swift). My author friend Sarah Freligh first told me that while we were in a writers’ group during grad school. I believe she gave me the quote while I was lamenting not being part of the curve at school. Incidentally, she has a new book out. Sort of Gone is available now. Treat yourself to some very fine work and buy it. Anyway, It’s time I rectified this shameful lapse. At first opportunity, I’m having some raw oysters. I’ll keep you informed.

Next week – Inspired lunacy and more on the trailer shoot.

Film, Friends and Paris on My Mind

Warning: If you find yourself here via a google search for such things as TV shows or films, recipes or cities, this blog has some facts. However, this blog is one author’s very twisted musing on many weird things. It is sometimes graphic in content. If you read on, don’t write to yell at me.


I’m actually more tired than when we rolled into town late Sunday night/ Monday morning, but it was a really hairy week trying to get back into our daily routine while setting up all we need for post. I’m really wiped from that and oral surgery yesterday. Meanwhile, Jon has his usual post-shoot cold. He’s been down all day Saturday and so fuzzy headed that he couldn’t even look at the raw footage. Still, there is much to report.

Conversations with Craig

In answer to the questions posed by my readers: No, Craig still hasn’t acted on the web cam for his front yard. Despite evidence that weirdness continues to occur there when he isn’t around, I think he worries about more visiting him from viewers of the web cam. The one-legged cricket is still alive, or the food being left for it is being consumed. Since it has only one hind leg, they don’t hear any chirping. I’ve been informed by Craig that the cricket is approaching the length of time he and a college roommate had their pet Twinkie. They had to get rid of it after it had become furry in the little bowl on the window sill. It maintained its structural integrity the whole while they kept it as a pet. I was surprised that it molded. In an episode of Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations, the chef was visiting a book warehouse in Cleveland. The warehouse had once been a Twinkie factory, and its pipes still contained unused filling. Of course, Bourdain had to try the filling. It didn’t make him sick at all. Incidentally, all of the episodes for No Reservations are available on Itunes. The very first one is a big favorite of mine, Paris. The chef stays at the Hôtel d'Alsace, now known as L'Hôtel where Oscar Wilde died – even visited the actual room. And he searches for a real, barebacked experience with Absinthe. All the while, he is loving the city and it’s singular place in the food universe. I also recommend the intense Beruit episode and the one on Koltata and Bombay. In that one is a send up on Bollywood which – though extremely funny – is sickeningly similar to our dealings with Industry wheeler/dealers. Back to Craig. He is still mulling over the web cam.

CSI Miami Rant

Yes, the writers’ strike is over(yeah!). And though CSI Miami does not have new episodes yet, they still manage to do things that make me scratch my head. This new thing is called Bullet Points that will be run during an episode filling in fans on trivia about the actors and behind the scenes info. Um, how am I to concentrate on the compelling 'drama' before me while digesting the fact that David Caruso appeared in Rambo: First Blood? Someone with my brain will be rendered even sillier than when I normally watch that show. I hope they only do it during the reruns. I prefer providing my own commentary during the first run. Still, it’s good to get back to the normal routine of TV viewing – bitching and moaning.

The Outlaw Had No Boots

It’s not a direct sequel to The Vampire Had No Pants. The reasons for the lack of footware were different from the lack of pants. In Demon Under Glass, we did a costume buy for all the characters. With Simon Molinar, we had items from the GAP staked out for him. In the interim between finding the clothes and picking them up, the store was turned over. Merchandise for that part of the season disappeared as if it never existed. We found only one sweater on a sales rack, and the pants were gone. We had to improvise once we got to the first location. In the case of The Gunslinger, the big problem was a film called Bedtime Stories. They had raided most of the western clothing at the costume house, including boots and hats. Though we found items that were suitable when we did our first pass, the film was eating up more and more costumes. I actually found the clothes online because I wasn’t confident that anything suitable would be left to rent. There were very few boots when we returned to rent the gunbelt and other accessories, and there were none that would fit Travis. The costume is very important to the actor slipping into character. Boots are key to becoming a cowboy. Thus Travis, set out to look for boots that would help him become Shadow Smith. Unfortunately, our leading man is a very busy one. He’s always working or auditioning or attending a convention. That made it difficult to find time to look. And when the time was right, the best location in LA was out of business. Once again, we had to wing it on location. However, we were going to cowboy country. Finding boots weren’t going to be that difficult. Finding them in time to get in two scenes before sunset at a location we had never laid eyes on and in a town that we had never visited made for a very busy morning. It was worth it though. Travis found a pair of boots that were weathered like they had been on the frontier for some time, and they fit him beautifully. He even found a hat he liked better than the rental. Those items completed his look and made him really feel the part. That’s visible in the photos.

The Gunslinger shoot was a lot of fun. We certainly learned a lot from our prior experiences, and in some ways, this was easier than any shoot we’ve done before. But there were still a lot of hats to wear. I had some new ones this time. Aside from line producing, and actor wrangling, there was wardrobe mistress, script supervisor, and continuity (keeping track of the food on the plates from take to take -- much more on that next week). It meant my eyes and ears were always ‘on.’ I couldn’t ever really relax while they were shooting. That was draining, even for such a short shoot. Now, I’m not saying that I didn’t have some fun. Travis and Jennifer were wonderful to work with (talented, very patient and dedicated) and game for anything we threw at them. I was particularly pleased that Travis trusted me enough to adjust his pants (yes, they really needed a lot of adjusting, geez). And he let me come at him with a lariat while fully aware of my reputation. I like that in a tall, slab of good-looking actor. The results will make for great advertising photos. And there were fun moments even as time got pressed. I wish more of them had ended up on camera. Travis was flipping through the prop book (more on that below) which was actually The Picture of Dorian Gray with a new cover. He began to read it a la Shadow Smith complete with the Texas drawl. That was a right pretty picture Basil painted...well, y’all are gonna have talk to Sir Henry about that... That sort of thing. I really wished we’d recorded some of that.

About the Prop Book
Crosspost from the Hidden Passions Blog

Shadow Smith (Travis Willingham) as a fictional character within the film came about after watching a documentary on Kit Carson, real life scout and all around western action hero. He was part of a posse sent to find a lost wagon train. They did, but all members were dead. One of the female victims died clutching a dime novel about Kit Carson in her hands. He never got over it. Many of the big western stars were living their lives while being written about in novels by authors nowhere near the frontier. We thought that adding this element of pop culture would provide a source of both comedy and drama to the film. Our director, Jon Cunningham, is really into authenticity. He started researching Dime Novels to find out exactly what sort of thing was being published at the time the film is set. He had a very specific idea of what he wanted to see on the cover because it matches shadow's movements on the trail. In the feature film, the novel cover will actually morph into live Shadow on the trail. But finding a vintage cover with exactly the right pose to morph is not going to happen. Thus, Jon had to construct the exact cover he needed. The image on the Myspace home page is photo-shopped with over a dozen layers. There is the dime novel cover that came from archive sources. The horse was from an illustration contained in a novel from the archive we work for. The rider is composed of three images. One of them had a female hostage that had to be removed. One had the coat Jon wanted. The pants had to be retextured because they were originally white. Then, there was the position of the arm that had to be changed. The image was only the half of it. He had to find just the right kind of card stock to print the image on (salmon was all the rage then). And there had to be just the right kind of book to wrap it around. After that much detail, I lost track. It was a lot of work, suffice it to say. And this is for the short film. I can't imagine what the cover for the feature will be like.

More next week in The Love Scene – why we’re all here.

Paris on My Mind

As I said before, I’m tired of not being in Paris. I try to make do. I cook a whole lot more French dishes than I ever had. I use Herbs de Provence and fresh thyme every chance I get. I even try to do the French breakfast as much as possible, but you long for the real thing. Even Jon said that it was hard to consider the free continental breakfast at our hotel once one had had breakfast on the continent. My longing grows. It doesn’t help that my Food Network chefs keep going there lately. Even The Bourne Supremacy stirs yearnings. One of the scenes was at Gare du Nord, the train station we used to leave for the airport on our last trip. It was in the neighborhood where we were staying. Everything, it seems, beckons me to return soon. Be prepared for a lot of wistful meanderings on the topic.

Caption Fun – At Last

The two I liked from weeks ago were from the same reader. Though I wasn’t putting up the Leonidas painting in the contest, the caption was too funny to ignore. Is there film in that camera???!!! Even Jon thought that was a hoot. And for the return of Louis XI, Ah a bunch of tarts on the block today, regular price, 5 francs. The new illustration is from my favorite book on Archive.org, Alias, the Night Wind. The man being thrown is a police officer. Have fun!

A Soldier’s Fate Update

I’m inputting a full notepad every other day, even while wiped out. I’m on pace for the current publishing date. I’ll post another excerpt soon. Also, I’m considering doing a live action trailer for both novels. During the shoot last week, I found an actor with beautiful facial structure and amber eyes. Here’s now working on Here TV’s The Lair, so I don’t think content will be an issue for him. More on that later.

Next week – Actual discussion on writing.

Film, Fog, and Naked Torsos

Warning: If you find yourself here via a google search for such things as TV shows or films, recipes or cities, this blog has some facts. However, this blog is one author’s very twisted musing on many weird things. It is sometimes graphic in content. If you read on, don’t write to yell at me.

The Gunslinger Trailer Shoot Part One of Who Knows
Two Days in Fresno
The shoot was actually in Exeter, California, but our hotel was in Fresno and that title sounds similar to Four Days in Sylmar, The Privateers Shoot. I suppose it’s because of they have the same number of syllables. Yes, I’m punchy, and it won’t get any better. Our hotel was in Fresno, because that was closest to our first location for the shoot. By the time we secured the site in Exeter, our third, the hotel was 45 miles away. We purchased rooms via Priceline.com and couldn’t switch. But it was a great price on some nice rooms. Besides, our leading lady was from Fresno. It worked to stay near her and all travel to the shoot together. It wasn’t a horrible inconvenience, except for the fog. We were warned about that even before reaching Fresno. There were fog visibility checks along State Route 99. That didn’t make much sense until the Saturday morning when we couldn’t see the IHOP across the parking lot from the hotel. Travis thought he had awoke in a Stephen King movie. Reaching Exeter was really scary. We all had eyes peeled for the sudden appearance of trucks stopped on the road.

Our location for the trailer shoot was a ranch in Exeter, CA that often host weddings, corporate team building and other events. The owners were connected to our horse wrangler and pistol provider, Rich Kreps, a resident of the area and a client of our partner. Our hosts were lovely, salt of the earth type folks with a great 20 acre spread where we found several kinds of backdrops for scenes and photos. Because the ranch hosts all sorts of events, our location had niceties that we weren’t expecting like a dressing room for our actors and some facilities that were nicer than what we rented for Demon Under Glass. We were expecting rustic, we got comfortable. And the family couldn’t have been sweeter people. Their five year old son, an Adorable Little Fellow (Alf), was with us most of Saturday and a good bit of Sunday. He was a blonde, blue-eyed, freckle faced cutie with limitless imagination and endless patience. It was really hard to leave him, especially after he volunteered to have his father build us a house on the property. He thought that because we were in a hotel that we were homeless. I’m keeping the offer in mind.

The ranch was not the frontier, but it had enough rustic feel to work for our needs. We had two scenes for Saturday. The first was Shadow Smith alone on a trail, exhausted from life on the run and paranoid about faceless foes. The second is Shadow enjoying a safe and soothing bath from warm water in a rain barrel. Unbeknownst to him, KD Delaney is watching from nearby. They seemed to be simple scenes because they were short and had no dialogue. Ha! We scoff at simplicity and somehow thwart it. The trail scene involved a horse. That adage about not working with animals or children exists for a reason. In this case, it’s the temperament of horses. They do not like strangers or surprises. Doc, the horse Travis would work with, was not an exception to that rule. He also didn’t like crossing wet areas or mounds in the grass. Doc had definite ideas of where he would go. The problem was that in the scene, Shadow is exhausted and not really steering the horse. Thus, Travis had to steer a very stubborn animal while looking like he was about to lapse into sleep. That part of the shoot took a while and involved much that could go on a gag reel.

Somehow, that scene got done, but the sun was low when we went for the rain barrel footage. And though we had many niceties, we did not have anyway to heat water for the rain barrel as planned. Travis had to pour handfuls of cold well water over his head and down his torso. And it wasn’t a quick scene, because we had to make sure the rivulets of water were visible on his skin. Our poor Shadow was soaked and freezing in bright sunlight by the time we finished. He was a trooper though. He poured all that cold water over himself and looked like he was enjoying it. I admit I was.

Our adventure continues in The Outlaw Has No Boots, the exciting sequel to The Vampire Had No Pants. Watch for it this Sunday.

Holi-daze – February Edition
Okay, there are too many holidays in this one, short month. There is Ground Hog Day, Mardi Gras, Ash Wednesday, Chinese New Year, President’s Day and on top of all of that, Black History Month. That’s a lot of pressure for a holiday minded person like myself, especially while readying for a shoot. I did what I could.

I didn’t get to Laissez Les Bon Temps Roulez much. I did enjoy some lovely cold fried chicken and a glass of red wine while watching Peter Mansbridge in LA covering Super Tuesday for the Canadian Broadcasting. That was a real treat though I would have loved to see him in person, not streaming on the web. It was a pretty hot time. For the Chinese New Year, which is my year, the Year of the Rat, I made potstickers and low mein and sent well wishes to everyone. My wish for me and for Jon, aside from making a new film, is a return to France. It has been too long without a visit. As for the rest, I’m watching Black History being made this month. I don’t think that can be topped.

Author Stuff

I am still working on A Soldier’s Fate every day. I’ll be inputting until the wee small hours tonight. The caption contest is still on hold. Be patient.

Film Related Blog Delay

The blog will be a day or two late. We're just back from shooting The Gunslinger promo and need to fall over. It'll be a hoot though.

Gung Hay Fat Choy, Yall!

It is the Year of the Rat, my year. Shut up! May prosperity and good fortune find you and all you love!

And a belated laissez les bon temps rouler for Mardi Gras! I hope you debauched well and are now repenting.

I'll not likely blog Sunday as we will be returning from the shoot. Check anyway but late in the day.

Secret Service, Pixels and Codpieces

Warning: If you find yourself here via a google search for such things as TV shows or films, recipes or cities, this blog has some facts. However, this blog is one author’s very twisted musing on many weird things. It is sometimes graphic in content. If you read on, don’t write to yell at me.

Bush Vs Brentwood

There was a short but intense skirmish in LA’s Entitlement Zone (I cover the definition of that terms in the sybpress Blog entry Our Vida Locas). Bush was in town for some sort of Republican function in Bel Air. That’s not a large portion of the Zone, but his travel plans caused a monumental disruption to the entire area. We thought our commute would be affected, but the street we were on was cleared mid-way to UCLA. We found out the extent of Bush’s travel arrangement when we spied Marine One parked on a ball field a short distance from Sunset Blvd. Then were the Secret Service dudes and a phalanx of LAPD motorcycle cops. And they were all there to guard an empty helicopter. We couldn’t imagine how much firepower he had riding with the car. Our colleagues never saw any of this. They were caught in the mother of all LA traffic sams when the 405 was closed as was Sunset Blvd while Bush was on the move. There were no signs indicating why everything was standing still and goodness knows the Entitlement Zone doesn’t listen to AM news radio. They just do what they always do – try to plough through as if nothing was going on. There were near accidents and a lot of screaming and cursing. I don’t blame the Secret Service for closing the roads to traffic. In that neighborhood, someone driving a Hummer while on the phone, listening to an ipod and drinking coffee is likely to broadside the presidential limo and then be annoyed at being made late for a massage.

We got a kick out of seeing that big helicopter. And I have a soft spot for the Secret Service. I had more than one opportunity to interact with them while I worked at the Center City District in Philadelphia. The first time was during the wedding of Max Kennedy (son of Robert) to Victoria Strauss (heiress to the Pep Boys fortune). The Secret Service was with Ted Kennedy and I was part of Papparazzi control. They were very polite and professional for being really heavily armed.

What’s in a Name – Codpieces!

I’ve been shopping for the Hidden Passion Films (HPF) shorts since the mass visit to the costume house last week. I knew I was in for a long and strange internet journey when the costumes for the western proved to be a more difficult search than I thought. Vendors sometimes have different terms for clothing items. The search under old west gets far different listings than western. But the key word I really needed was frontier and I only got that while looking at the image results from one search. That took hours after last week’s blog, but it wasn’t the most frustrating search of that day. Finding fantasy clothing for The Gift of Surrender (GoS) has been surreal. Again, terms were a problem. Tunics mean different things to different vendors. Much of the clothing is custom made and thus either too expensive or too long to wait for delivery. The search was annoying because many of the men’s items like bracers for Everquest and Warcraft characters. I can’t have David wear pixels! There’s no protection against a horse’s saddle. I had no idea that there was a whole cottage industry behind elven-style wedding dresses. It was interesting, but not very helpful. And almost every site I found had a fine selection of codpieces. One had a zippered pocket for your renfaire bucks. Why, I asked myself. This was one answer:

What IS a Codpiece anyway and why do men prefer them?
Firstly, they are comfy. Ask any man brave enough to try one on.
They are a "Boxers~ not Briefs" expression of personal freedom. AHHHH!
They are also quite useful in attracting attention to your...ahem...best feature. Kind of like the Wonder Bra, if you will. AND... Chix dig them. 'Nuff said.

Okay, that’s their story, but it wasn’t helping me with my costume issues. I’m stilly searching off and on. However, the focus is on The Gunslinger. We’re four days from the trip north to do the short. We’ve got all of the costume issues solved and have almost all of the props. I’m going to have a practice run at food styling this afternoon. I’ll post photos of the experiment on the myspace page for HPF.

Caption Contest

I’ll post the results later today and a new one in two weeks. We’re just too busy with the shoot right now.

Holiday Posts

It's a crazy week with Mardi Gras and the Chinese New Year coming up. I'll have a rare mid-week post about those. I am of the Year of the Rat, so there must ne celebrating. As for Mardi Gras, it involves sybaritic indulgence. Of course, I'll be celebrating.

Soldier's Fate Excerpt

The regular, weekly blog is below this excerpt.

Here it is, as promised. Note: This is homoerotic fiction and may not be to everyone's taste. This is also very much un'betaed. Continue at your own riske and without yelling at me.

To remind everyone of the plot for A Soldier's Fate:

Love was the Easiest Battle
Colonel Rik Heron thought he and his lover, Major Vincent Greven, were finally free. They had survived the treachery of military commanders and retired to head a foundation dedicated to the well being of their kind. Their lives would be filled with love and satisfying work making the lives of Altered soldiers better. But fate is not that kind. The landscape of the Foundation was as treacherous as any battlefield. The demands of their new roles and intrigues of the staff nearly tear their relationship apart. And despite the purge of mad generals, someone is still trying to kill them. To make matters infinitely worse, Bobby Greven, Vincent’s brother, disappeared with his squad during his first mission out of training. Thus Rik and Vincent must put on their uniforms and become weapons once more.

This excerpt occurs about a third of the way into the book. Rik and Vincent have had a huge personal crisis from which they are recoverying when Bobby's sudden, unexpected and very surprising love life causes a peculiar situation. To dissuade his brother from making a serious misstep, Vincent reveals a secret involving Rik that he had held since they were first serving together.

Excerpt

“Um...guys...I want to go to a brothel,” Bobby said before taking a bite from his sandwich.

I couldn’t have been more surprised if he had announced that he was going to clown college. Thank God Vincent had put down his knife. He gaped at his brother while I blinked at the young man.

“Are you stoned?” Vincent exclaimed hotly.

Bobby turned red, but his jaw was set and his eyes flashed. This was serious, but Vincent was on a tear.

“We just spent two hours with your girlfriend, and you want to be with a hooker?” Vincent demanded.

“You were Ms. Kramer?”

I almost chuckled at the thought of Bobby still using that formality while they were in bed.

“Bobby,” I said while placing a calming hand on Vincent’s. “You can see while we’re confused.”

“I want to go because of Ms. Kramer,” Bobby replied. He sighed in frustration when we continued to gape at him. “She so sophisticated and...I’m not. I thought that if I got some experience...she wouldn’t get bored with me.”

My lover sank onto a chair. His expression was odd, and his cheeks were very red.

“That won’t work,” Vincent said softly. “If someone else tries to touch you, it’s repulsive. Makes your skin crawl.”

“Vincent?” I asked after a hard swallow. “What are you saying?”

“Someone made me that kind of offer,” he replied. His gaze was intent on the floor. “He figured out that I wanted you. He knew I didn’t know anything...”

“Vincent looked up at Bobby. “I really wanted to learn, but every time he reached for me, I flinched...couldn’t help it.”

I stared hard at Vincent, but his eyes pleaded with mine to wait. I looked at Bobby instead.

“Your first experience should not be a matter of commerce,” I said. “there will be no real feelings thus nothing that can translate to being intimate with someone you love.”

Bobby looked uncertain.

“None of her reactions will be heartfelt,” I explained. “You may as well rent an automatron.”

“Really?”

“Yes,” I assured him. “It wouldn’t be good for the relationship if you handled Ellie like a sex worker.”

“Ellie?”

“We’ll get to that,” Vincent said. His voice was still quiet. “That first time is really important, and it should happen between people who care about each other. It meant everything to me that my first real kiss was with Rik. I didn’t know what I was doing, and that didn’t matter.”

“But aren’t guys supposed to know more?”

“How old-fashioned of you,” I chuckled. “Ellie is unconventional, and so are you. She is willing to risk a great deal to respond to your letter. I was clear to us today that she knows what you’ve experienced. I believe she was deeply touched at you wanted her to be the first. It meant the world to me to be Vincent’s first.”

“What is Ms. Kramer missing?”

“She can’t cover us or Altereds as a reporter anymore,” I replied. “That may adversely affect her career. Then, there sill be all the muttering about her hooking up with a young stud.”

“Or boy-toy,” Vincent added derisively. “I hear that a lot when people think I can’t.”

I frowned at that.

“How much could she lose?” Bobby fretted.

“It’s hard to say,” I replied honestly. “But she is well aware of the risks and still wants to explore the possibilities.”

Bobby swallowed hard. Vincent patted his shoulder.

“You’ll be fine, Bobby,” he said confidently. “You’ve got past the hard part. She noticed you and is interested. Smooth move.”

“How did you get a tux for New Year’s Eve?” I asked as the mood lightened.

Bobby smiled. “General Braun helped me rent one with my savings. I think he was amused by it all.”

“I’m sure of that,” Vincent snorted. “But you did all right.”

“It helped that her date got hammered,” Bobby laughed. “I don’t know what I would have done if he hadn’t. That guy was really good looking.”

“I think you would have found a way, young Greven,” I replied. “You’re good at improvisation – the mark of a great soldier.”

“Thanks, Rik,” Bobby replied with a shy smile. “So, Ms. Kramer came to see you?”

“Yes, Ellie was worried that you were throwing away your affections before you had any experience,” I replied.

“What did you tell her?”

“We told her the Grevens make up their minds about whom they love quite young,” I assured him. “And they have a surprising amount of maturity and commitment.”

Bobby beamed at us. He really was as beautiful as his brother. No wonder Ellie was blushing so much.

“Are you guys really okay with this,” Bobby asked as he ate his sandwich.

Vincent smiled his small shy smile. “I could tell you that you’re taking on too much with your Induction and training.”

“And you’d be right,” I added.

“But fighting your heart can be dangerous, too,” Vincent murmured. “It wasn’t good for me or the squad. Probably sent me to the Medical Wing more than once from injuries. But you can’t let this split your focus, Bobby.”

“I won’t,” Bobby said resolutely. “Becoming an Altered is my priority. That’s why we’re just exchanging letters now.”

The rest of the evening passed quietly. All of us appreciated just how normal that night was. I needed to talk to Vincent about what he had revealed earlier, but it could wait while we enjoyed each other’s company. There were a finite number of evenings like that left. Vincent had been grateful that I let sleeping dogs lie, but he tensed as soon as I locked our bedroom door. Somehow, I knew who it was that had made him that offer. Knowing the man was dead didn’t really help.

“You couldn’t have protected me,” Vincent said softly as he flopped onto the bed. “You wouldn’t have seen.”

“How did he see?” I countered.

Vincent shrugged. “I think he saw me watching you.”

“You watched me? Where? When?”

Vincent blushed, lowered his eyes to consider the floor. I moved to where he sat, reaching out to tilt his chin up. I smiled at him.

“Please, tell me.”

“You would read under a tree near your office window,” he replied. His eyes warmed. “I could watch you from my quarters without your seeing. I loved catching you that way. You looked so serene and...”

“And what?” I asked softly.

“Kissable,” Vincent replied with a sigh. “I’d lose track of everything watching you...dreaming of touching you or having you touch me. I think Raden saw me then.”

Vincent saw the guilt and regret in my expression. He shook his head at me emphatically.

“He couldn’t force me, Rik. Even then, I was too strong for him. He never touched me. And he never stopped me from watching you. I didn’t care if he saw me,” Vincent said. His tone was quiet but intense.

I can’t stand that anyone offered you that – especially over me,” I whispered. “I shielded you from many eyes and advances.”

“Who?”

“A few dozen over the years,” I muttered ruefully. “Far too many, considering your age.”

“None of them matter. I was always yours and yours alone,” Vincent murmured. “Please, Rik...don’t let anyone – especially him come between us. We’ve been through too much.”

My lover gasped when I reached out to caress his elegantly strong jaw, moving back to grasp his ponytail.

“I wish I had known, and yet knowing would have been torture,” I whispered, tracing his lips with the index finger of my free hand.

“Why? Why torture?”
“I could have never done this?”

Lord, I loved Vincent’s kiss. He was yielding to me, allowing me to press him back onto the mattress. I covered him with my body as we kissed. I petted his hair after our lips parted.

“Tell me, love,” I asked softly. “How had you planned to have me back then?”

“Is this all about you night?” Vincent demanded mildly.

“Tell me,” I gently pleaded. “I didn’t get to be courted.”

“Jerkwad,” he chuckled.

“Please...”

“I didn’t have a plan,” he admitted. “I knew you sometimes dated men, but I never saw you with anyone like me.”

“Love, you are singular in every way.”

Vincent smiled as he rolled his eyes. “I had no clue other than if I was enough of a pain in the ass, you would stay close to meditate with me or keep an eye on me. For a long time, that was enough. It was all I thought I could get...when I came back and you held me like that on the battlefield – I couldn’t believe it.”

“As you walked away from me toward all that fire in that pit, the memory of our last year together in the squad slammed into my mind,” I murmured. “It finally dawned on me why you had made me more crazy in that time than you ever had, yet I couldn’t stand to have you out of my sight. You had become a man. You were of age, and I wanted you. But you were still under my command. It had been impossible to let myself think of you as a lover.

“Still protecting me,” he observed.

“Hard habit to break, Love.”

“Protect me now, Rik. I need you.”

My lover was vulnerable then. We had been through almost more than we could stand in recent days. We were still healing emotionally. I knew what he needed. I still knew how to protect him.

“You have me, Love...body and soul,” I whispered, rolling over so that he was on top of me.

Vincent peppered my face with kisses. His eyes were solemn – almost reverent when they met mine.”

“I love you,” he said softly. “It’s not just about wanting you.”

“You show that to me every time you look at me,” I replied. Then, I smiled. “It’s okay to want me, too.”

“Cocky bastard,” Vincent murmured before kissing me.

The kiss was hot, almost rough though his hands were gentle. I couldn’t think after that. His mouth was working me. First, there was that long, incredible kiss. Then he took me with his mouth, pushing me toward climax then pulling back over and over until I was rendered into a mindless and pleading plaything. My diabolical lover was then pushing into me. I didn’t climax while he pounded into me just how much he owned me, but the intense and constant state of bliss I had until lapsing into sleep was more than enough.

Costumes, More Dopplers and Ohio Boys

Warning: If you find yourself here via a google search for such things as TV shows or films, recipes or cities, this blog has some facts. However, this blog is one author’s very twisted musing on many weird things. It is sometimes graphic in content. If you read on, don’t write to yell at me.

Multi-Tasking

I’m even more distracted than usual doing this blog. I’m an hour late getting started, because I was processing photos from the great costume sojourn for the short films. I’m not nearly as technically savvy as the hubby, so figuring out how to remove red eye and other things took me a while. I’m also building a myspace page for Hidden Passion Films(HPF). The website is the official voice for the projects. The myspace is more for fans of the actors and romance novel fans to see the behind the scenes stuff. It’s the fun place. Again, not tecchy savvy, so everything takes longer for me. I’ve just finished uploading the first photos and blogs there. It’s a public site, so you don’t have to join myspace to visit. However, if you are a myspace member, please friend us for updates that may not make it to this blog.

Costume Fun

On Wednesday, we took the four leads of HPF to hunt for costumes at one of the larger costume houses in the area, Western Costume (not named for costuming westerns) click on the link and check out the film and galleries. For all costume photos, so to http://www.myspace.com/hiddenpassions and click on pic under the dime novel photo. As I said last week, they buy tons of leftover outfits and accessories in bulk from the studios then rent them to big and small productions for a great price. That day, we found costumes from Charlie Wilson’s War, and there is a whole aisle of costumes from Waterworld. Its a massive facility with aisles that go on and on. Each aisle has three tiers of racks stuffed with costumes. We’ve used it for the Privateers and other projects. Funny, this photo seems familiar – oh, it is. I still don’t like going up those ladders. That day, we were searching for authentic looking western era clothing for The Gunslinger, and I wanted to eliminate that costume house as a source of costumes for The Gift of Surrender (GoS). I had a feeling, I would do better finding fantasy costumes online. We had Jennifer Sparks (KD Delaney, the Gunslinger) the least amount of time, so we were all business finding her a frontier dress and a cowboy hat. A group of four guys nearly broke their necks (actually passed us then backed up in a group), to get a look at her. She’s nearly six feet tall and quite stunning. When Travis Willingham (Shadow Smith/Matt, the Gunslinger) arrived, David Matthiessen (Nikulainen, GoS) and Lisa Lee (Sarianna, GoS) were already trying on capes. Thus, we were all together when we reached the aisle of hats. Actors in an aisle full of all sorts of hats leads to only one thing – utter silliness. And the fun went on for a while. It was all we could do not to join them. Somehow, we managed to find all the costume pieces for Travis – save for the gun. I’m told that’s a prop, so we must look elsewhere. And we found amazing capes for both David and Lisa, but I wasn’t happy with the dresses, tunics and such. If I wanted cod pieces – there were plenty of those, but overall, online shopping is my best bet for GoS costumes.

As I write this, I’m searching for links to fantasy costumes and accessories and researching pet friendly motels in our shooting location. I’m also still looking for oil lamps. Ack!

More Doppler Fun

While we were doing all this running around, it’s been raining – hard. It’s been raining so much that the Doppler-crazed LA weather folks have calmed down into resignation. It’s actually been worse this week than when the storms first started, but the rain is routine for a while. Jon and are reminded of the Albert Hammond song ‘It Never Rains in Southern California.’ Seems it never rain in Southern California, Seems I've often heard that kind of talk before, It never rains in California, But girl, don't they warn ya, It pours man it pours. Before moving out here, we thought that was a metaphor. Nope, it was literal, man was it literal. I mean, the LA river actual water in it. Yes, it’s that big canal they had the drag race in Grease. Most of the year, one can walk in the LA river. Last night, not so much. Long story short, it’s been a chore getting around. I’m really tired.

Why Ohio Matters

And I don’t mean as a political belle weather. I’m talking about film. We’ve often said that we know we have a good script concept if our Ohio friends like it. They are the middle America, all American guys that big studios covet. I bring this up because of the great debate over Cloverfield. Though I wasn’t interested in the concept, Jon was jazzed as an experimental film maker. It was a refreshing, bold take on the old monster movie. There was huge buzz and huge box office the opening weekend. But in the film biz, it’s the second week that tells the tale. How much the film will or will not drop off in box office accurately predicts what a film will make over the complete theatrical run. I was speaking to my Ohio posse last week about Cloverfield. One said that he and his friends thought they could shoot the film better. The other said too Blair Witch – done that. Neither is a good sign for the next weekend. It had a drop off of 75% -- ouch. The chic flick, 27 Dresses that Cloverfield crushed last week made more money and the over 60 year old Rambo made even more. When Hollywood is hiring all of those expensive audience consultants, they would do well to spend the money on a few phone calls to some regular Ohio guys.

Caption Contest

More than a few folks were confused with the two images for a caption in the blog. Thus, I’m extending it a week. You can find the image here.

Soldiers Fate Excerpt

I’ll post a link for that later today. Stay tuned.

Sudsy Actors, Historical Nakedness and Crickets

Warning: If you find yourself here via a google search for such things as TV shows or films, recipes or cities, this blog has some facts. However, this blog is one author’s very twisted musing on many weird things. It is sometimes graphic in content. If you read on, don’t write to yell at me.

Once again, I have a lot to cover. It’s been a busy week and not everything made the blog last week. But, as always, my friends distract me.

Naked Book Reading

Not the author! Our own Len Richmond is seen here giving a reading from his superbly funny and sexy, Naked in Paradise. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcsq5VxMI8g

One Legged Cricket

Craig has a one legged cricket living on his bookshelf. We think he means the cricket has one hind leg, because it hobbles and doesn’t chirp. Craig isn’t an earthy-crunchy kind of guy who thinks insects should be allowed to live like any living creature. He is more prone to crunch the critter on his shoe and scrape it off. His lovely girlfriend is the kind soul in the household. She’s been feeding it. Thus, it hangs out on a bookshelf next to Craig’s computer watching him work. He blames his girlfriend’s kind nature on being from Ohio. I can’t verify this as my friends from Ohio are all guys. Tell me, Ohio peeps, are the women there prone to feed and shelter helpless creatures? Meanwhile, I suggested to Craig that the unfortunate cricket might be his muse. He wasn’t sure about that, but he conceded that the critter on the bookshelf is far easier to cope with than the fully grown, live sheep he found in his dorm hallway while in college. Did you know that sheep do not like to go down staircases? He still hasn’t made a decision about the webcam.

Micro-budgeted Film Making Fun

The road to our second feature has been perilous and frustrating, to put it mildly. Of late, a fun project with a cast I am longing to work with has been stalled between the funding sources and the cable network interested in the concept. Each wants proof of some sort that the concept will be a sellable one. Thus, we decided to make a five minute version that captures who the leading pair of characters are and what the film will be about and how it will look and feel. The catch in this plan is that we don’t have a lot of cash to put into a proof of concept. And I mean there is more lint in our coffers than cash. But LA is a film town. Surely, you can rustle up what you need that is professional grade and just start filming, you say. Ha! I say. In this town, film is big business. Everyone that might be involved wants major bucks or at least they want more bucks than we can afford. It requires a great deal of creativity to get what we need to make the shorts look great. For instance, there is the rain barrel.

In one scene, our hero, Shadow Smith, is rinsing the trail dust off his big, buff body with water from a wooden rain barrel. I believe that scene is pivotal to the short and spent a lot of time talking it over with our DP. Actually, I talked about little else to the DP. Getting the light foam of suds sliding down that broad back just so is vastly important to me. It may even be important to the film. Anyway, before I’m distracted beyond all hope, I’ll continue. It’s possible to rent anything imaginable for a film in this town. I’ll give you a link to a typical prop house chosen at random from the 101 prop houses listed online. There is great stuff in those warehouses. I’m sure there is a rain barrel in one of them. However, renting is not an option for us in this case. The rental price may be terrific, but almost all prop houses want an insurance rider for each of their items rented. Minimum premiums are about $1500 for a million dollars of coverage – average coverage for prop and equipment rentals. I don’t find such requirements unreasonable. We had policies for both The Privateers short and Demon Under Glass. And, oh boy, did we need them. Things get broken or lost all the time on film shoots big or small. A hideously expensive camera was damaged beyond repair shooting Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. It fell in a vat of chocolate. We demolished several glass props during the return trip to the prop house during The Privateers. During Demon Under Glass, it was the wreck of the prop machine guns. The insurance was money well spent. We just can’t do it this time.

Thus, my week was spent trying to buy a wooden rain barrel and period kitchen items for another scene at thrift store prices. There actually is a thrift store/prop house near here that I plan to check out. But I wanted to see what was online first. The big problem (and one I hadn’t counted on) was how difficult the Google search turned out to be. Finding the right combination of key words was a bear. It took a week of off and on searching along with inquiring on every film list I belong to, but I found that rain barrel and the kitchen wares locally. And though we weren’t looking for one, we found an amazing, full blown costume rental and sales place five minutes from where we live. Costumes are less of an issue than props for inexpensive rentals. There are several rental houses here that buy used costumes from the big studios in bulk for cheap so the studios can have the storage space. They rent them very cheaply in return and don’t require an insurance rider. If the costumes are lost or damaged, the renter pays the purchase price for the item in addition to the rental. I mean, Warner Bros will likely not have a need for Babylon 5 costumes anymore. So you and a whole squad of friends could look really authentic for Halloween or that Youtube masterpiece for very little money.

We lucked out on finding a Director of Photography who is talented but just starting out. He has his own equipment and a lot of creative energy. That will help us out a great deal. We also have a guy who can compose and lay down music tracks and handle the very mild FX load. Typically, we’d ask Gabriel Koerner for that assistance, but he’s hip deep in digital in Mach 5’s working the Speed Racer film. The location is not local. It’s a three hour trip in good traffic north of LA. We needed real frontier-like vistas, an actual ranch and horses to pull this off. Naturally, we are acquainted through colleagues with real ranchers who act on the side. They are being obliging in exchange for small parts in the feature. The costume hunt is on this week with our cast for The Gunslinger and for the other Proof of Concept short, The Gift of Surrender (much more on those details as we get closer). I’ll provide details and perhaps photos in next week’s blog.

Caption Fun

I had one illustration in mind for this week, and it is a lulu. However, whilst viewing it on the PC, Jon walked by and blurted out what could be the only caption for this thing: THIS IS SAPRTA!!! The actual painting by Jacques-Louis David hangs in the Louvre and is gi-normous by gi-hugic, or 13 feet by 17 feet for laymen. Here is a link to a larger version of the image. http://www.goddess-athena.org/Museum/Temples/Sparta/Leonidas_David.html Though I don’t think it was on display when we were at the Louvre. I’d remember something that huge and that naked. At any rate, I had to choose a new illustration for the caption contest. It is from another historical text depicting the arrival of King Louis XI (that’s 11, not 14 as google and yahoo insist). I’m not sure what he was arriving for, but it must have been quite a gathering. Give me your best zingers and win an Amazon gift certificate. This image may be too small to catch all the detail. A larger version can be found on this link. Good luck!

Must See TV
Thankfully, the WGA strike should soon be over. Meanwhile, do go and enjoy this inspired piece of solidarity on the actors’ parts. This is a real gem.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_igKSYspPs

Soldier’s Fate Excerpt

Alas, this will be delayed. My other duties prevented me from choosing something titillating without having too many spoilers. I shall post it next week.

Plots, Twists and Unruly Characters

Warning: If you find yourself here via a google search for such things as TV shows or films, recipes or cities, this blog has some facts. However, this blog is one author’s very twisted musing on many weird things. It is sometimes graphic in content. If you read on, don’t write to yell at me.

We have a lot of ground to cover today. I even manage to talk about writing! Really! But first a X-post.

Film From Sybpress Author's Story

And now a message from our own Brenda Petrakos, author of Stories from the Inside Edge:

Just wanted to let you know that our short film COP will be screening at the Cinema Slam event in Park City!We will have two screenings, one on January 22nd at 11am and one on the 24th at 10am. While we're not in Sundance, Slamdance, or any of the dances, it should be fun to screen on Main Street in the heart of the festival!!!!Details are below. If you are planning to go to Park City, let us know. If not, let your friends know!

For info:http://www.mandy.com/1/board2.cfm?v=25695150


Craig’s Yard
We have prevailed upon him to put a webcam on the yard. Despite being disturbed about the number of people from this blog being interested in his weirdness. He’s become fixated on what’s happening there when he isn’t home. Of course, when that will actually happen is another matter entirely. I’ll keep you posted. I should note that Craig pointed out that this yard isn’t nearly as gruesome as the yard he had while living next to the beach in San Diego. His beach was at the end of a current that brought anyone who drowned nearby to his front walk. Craig said he had to really careful running in the fog. He never knew who he might step in.

Parallelisms

No, I haven’t developed a taste for anomalies. I still hate ‘em. I’m actually going to talk about writing. Even without the distractions from the holidays and my other jobs, I was having a struggle with the plot for A Soldier’s Fate. When Jon has a block writing a story, it’s because he believes he’s taken a wrong turn somewhere and needs to start over. With me, my blocks or slow-downs is because I’m fighting the direction the material wants to go in. It’s not that I have no control over where my characters go. And I do know the destination for their journeys before I start writing.

Usually, when I’m fighting with my own prose is because I don’t see what the themes are doing with one another. I never plan for my stories to have themes. Rather, I don’t consciously think in those terms. When I was writing The Gift of Surrender, I was writing and erotic fantasy romance. I didn’t notice until the end of the first draft that there were themes like the consequences of impulsive behavior and that failure to communicate can destroy a nation as easily as it can destroy a family. These themes come from character development for me. Often, I am so focused on that development that I don’t notice the overall themes until I do something that’s contrary to them.

I thought A Soldier’s Fate would be about Rik and Vincent’s developing relationship and Bobby’s journey into the military. And it is about those themes, but it is also about the choices that Rik and Vincent were not given growing up and how they impact the decisions Bobby makes. There was also a great deal going on with Vincent while he was in the squad that Rik knew nothing about. There is far more discovery between the characters that I hadn’t planned, but that’s making it a lot of fun for me to write. All of this seems disorganized, I know. I seldom do formal outlines of novels (that usually happens only if an outside entity like a publisher requests it or I’m writing with a partner). I do skeletal outlines of the plot. However, I do a lot of character work before I start a new book. I know their histories inside and out, and I really know their personalities. In the case of A Soldier’s Choice, I had to develop a world set a century from now. Most of it didn’t end up in the book, because the book was about the two lovers. I revealed enough of their world to make their actions and attitudes make sense. More of this world’s politics will be revealed in A Soldier’s Fate, because they directly impact the major characters.

I leave some of the thematic elements to unfold through the interactions of the characters. That’s the fun part of writing for me. Wouldn’t writing something that was more finely outline be more fun? I have found that is not the case for me. Demon Under Glass was very hard to write as a novel because I was hemmed in by the script and the film. However, I did find some character nuances with Joe McKay that surprised and impressed Jon. I kept the point of view of the book largely with Joe giving it a film noir quality that Jon really liked. If we are given the opportunity to re-do the film as a pilot, he would utilize them.

I’ll post an excerpt from A Soldier’s Fate next week.

Plot Twists

It is very hard for most films or TV shows to surprise me. That’s a downside to being a writer. It’s a real downer to anyone in the room watching something with me. Our former room mate forbade me from making any sort of noise during mysteries or suspense programs, because I invariably knew what was going to happen. Fortunately, I enjoy the ride just as much as the destination. Anyway, I found myself profoundly surprised by last week’s episode of Criminal Minds. I won’t give anything away here, but the ending was absolutely jaw dropping. And the best part was that the twist was in keeping with what had gone on in the rest of the episode and completely within the canon for the show.

Warning! There be spoilers ahead!!!

Coincidentally, I found this list of best all time plot twists on line. Now, Jon and I have problems with most best whatever number lists from entertainment magazines. They seem designed merely to generate angry fan mail. We saw an EW list of 25 all time great science fiction on film or TV for the last 25 years. It had V but not any of the Star Wars films (though it had the badly animated Clone Wars). That sort of list makes no sense and is infuriating. I actually admonished Jon for reading so many of them. They all tend to make him angry. This list from Premiere.com was a good one. I wasn’t surprised by two of the movie twists. Actually, I don’t know of any woman who didn’t know that was a dude in The Crying Game. As for Angel Heart, he kept looking in the mirror for goodness sake, who else could it be? The rest of films on the list had great twists. I forget because we’ve seen Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back so often that it had a huge twist. I was in a first screening when it came out. The audience gasped. I was shocked. I love being shocked in a film out of surprise – not because it was bad. I wish it happened more.

No caption this week. Really nutty with the film shorts right now. We’ll be taking our casts to look for costumes this week. I’ll likely have many tales to tell in the next blog.

Dopplers, Tree Mutilation, Brad and Angelina

Warning: If you find yourself here via a google search for such things as TV shows or films, recipes or cities, this blog has some facts. However, this blog is one author’s very twisted musing on many weird things. It is sometimes graphic in content. If you read on, don’t write to yell at me.


Ringing in the New

It was out with the old and in with the new. I kinda like that tree photo. We may use it for next year’s Christmas Card. Jon and I spent a quiet New Year’s Eve. I was really tired from who knows what, and Jon was obsessing with Legos Star Wars. That was my fault though. I gave it to him. New Year’s day involved tree mutilation and undecorating the house. We were all set to get back to work.

The weirdness began almost immediately. Strange things were happening in Craig’s yard again. Past strangeness include the discovery of a large, red McCaw parrott who addressed Craig as Lucky and Jack Nicholson having an argument with a woman that Craig did not know. On each of these occasions, Craig was en route to a job, so he had no time to ask what was going on. The oddities would always be gone upon his return. The new oddness was from a homeless woman who was the 1956 prom queen of Palisades High. She was screaming profanity in his yard and threatening to have her prom date beat up Craig and the other tenants of the building. I suggested that Craig put up a web cam to capture the oddities. Apparently, there are things going on while he is at work that he never sees though there if often peculiar evidence left behind. If he does, I will provide a link.

Dooplers and Weather Woes

For a city that has very boring weather most of the year, Los Angeles local news stations have a lot of high powered weather equipment. Most involve the word doppler. The least doppler intensive – at least by the name they use – is Live Weather Doppler Plus at Channel 4. Channel2 has Sky View Doppler Radar with Futurecast. That sounds both impressive and sci-fi. But the winner seems to be Channel 7’s Live Mega Doppler 7000 HD with forecaster Dallas Raines. I am not making this up. The problem is that when you have all this equipment and not a lot to do most of the year, actual storms make these forecasters and their stations go absolutely insane. The rain storm of the last few days was really bad. We didn’t lose power, but I’ve never had to walk in wind that strong. And I haven’t had that cold a soaking since I lived back east. But the coverage may have well included the phrase 40 percent chance of the apocolypse. This feed was picked up by CNN and Yahoo. The first of the worried e-mails from Philly came in while we were still at work. In addition to figuring out how to get home without getting wacked by falling tree limbs and palm fronds (those things are heavy) or LA drivers who spin out in a drizzle, we had to worry about our folks worrying. Criminey! The forecasters or futurecasters remain unrepentent. I think they’re drooling of the notion that LA will have a real rainy season this year.

New Year, Old Writing Projects

We hit the ground running with the film projects. Our partner had a meeting about our whole catalogue yesterday. HE gets to sit at a table next to Brad and Angelina (he said she was incredibly beautiful without any make-up). We were at the eye doctor. OY! At any rate, the meeting went places that we didn’t expect. That’s one of the truisms we’ve learned out here: meetings never go the way they are planned. It went well, but the scripts that this agent was interested were ones that we thought were dead. And the big film project, The Privateers, is finally going to have a lead. Can’t say who yet, but I’ll be able to soon. Follow –up meetings to discuss development funding are scheduled for next week. We won’t get really excited until checks clear. We’ve been this far before. Meanwhile, we’re gearing up to shoot the shorts for Hidden Passion Films. If the weather isn’t really unstable, we should start shooting them bey the end of the month.

I should have a firm publishing date for A Soldier’s Fate in a couple of weeks. I’m back to pounding that out. It’s great to be haning out with Rik and Vincent for a while.

New Caption Contest next week!

Year's End Musings

Warning: If you find yourself here via a google search for such things as TV shows or films, recipes or cities, this blog has some facts. However, this blog is one author’s very twisted musing on many weird things. It is sometimes graphic in content. If you read on, don’t write to yell at me.


Steamy Goodness

It’s getting steamy here this New Year’s Eve. And it has nothing to do with champagne. I’m cooking up the traditional dishes of collard greens and black eyed peas. Serving these are for good luck and prosperity in the New Year. It’s both a Southern and an African American tradition. I’ve altered the family recipe over the years from flavorings based on pork and fat to smoked turkey, garlic and olive oil. Ours will be a more subdued celebration than our norm. We’re really tired. It’s been a grueling year.

Retrospective

It was a tough year for us. We moved from a place we liked and enjoyed for many years without knowing where we’d end up. Moving in stages is not the best way to go, but condo developers don’t really care. We were still juggling the production company and the press while in interim housing with an intermitted and fussy internet connection. Both business suffered while we hunted for an apartment. A friend accurately described apartment hunting in LA as a steel cage match with other applicants. It was two and a half months before we lucked into this place. That experience made even Jon give a nod to observing good luck rituals. During this ordeal, we made mistakes, ruffled a great many feathers and hurt some feelings. We also found out who our real friends are and what kind of baggage we were better off without. Ultimately, we are stronger for the experience.

Looking Ahead

We have been presented with some great opportunities in the last few weeks of the year. We start acting on them right after the holiday. In the past, we’ve learned that we gain more ground in the film arena when we are aggressive. This year, we plan to do more on our own to draw attention to our projects. We have some film shorts planned with great production values and even some special FX starring the actors who will be in the full features. And we are close to beginning our second full feature. Book wise, I will finally put out A Soldier’s Fate and there will be a third Surrender book. I will also finish my collection of short stories based on family memoirs. It’s called Adventures with Miss Patty. I hope to have the first short story published early next year. We have a lot on our plate, but we also have a lot of good plans and determination.

Many Thanks

There are a lot of you out there all over the place that visit the blog weekly. I am very pleased and flattered by this. I thank you all for your attention and your support.

May you and yours have a happy, healthy and safe 2008. Don’t forget to celebrate!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Cross Promotion: Musings on Barberella

Sypress' own Marie Lecrivain has some wonderfully witty musings on life and Barberella at Media Cake. Check it out at:http://www.mediacakemagazine.com/cake_spring_07_081.htm

Enjoy!